EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 47- Running
🕑 Added 2023-01-02 00:47:11 +0000 UTC~Selena Williams~
Selena was a little worried as to how her boss would react when she told him she’d lost her car. She didn't think he’d be angry, he was one of the most wealthy individuals on the planet after all, but no one could predict Toshiro's strange moods, least of all a secretary that barely knew him.
He might just laugh it off, or fire her on the spot. She hoped it was the former.
Brr, Brr, Brr.
The sound of ringing in her ears served to further increase her trepidation. ‘Why's he taking so long to pick up.’ Finally, on the seventeenth ring, she heard a click as her call was answered and she braced herself to receive an earful of shit. Toshiro began to speak.
“It took you long enough to call. I’ve been waiting two days now to receive some good news from you.”
His voice was deep, commanding and as always, a little scary to listen to.
“You know I don't like waiting, right.”
Selena gulped audibly when she heard, more as a show of fear than actual worry. She knew the man loved to lord power over others, and playing into that ego would serve her wonders. She quickly began to explain why she had been so late in completing her job, trying to emphasise how much effort she had put into trying to locate Arthur.
Perhaps she exaggerated her struggles a little- she hadn't actually stayed awake for fifty hours straight- but she’d do anything to gain Toshiro’s sympathy if it helped her keep her job.
It came with a LOT of benefits after all.
When Selena finally finished speaking, she wasn't sure how successful her pity story had been in appealing to her boss's emotions.
‘Goddamn sociopath that he is, he doesn't even care about his own son, never mind me.’
The long silence on the other side of the line was doing nothing to help her already frayed nerves. When the man finally made a noise, he surprised Serena as he had done so many times before. He was bloody laughing. Like a maniac. So much so that it seemed like he’d just been told the funniest joke of his entire life.
‘What the hell is he laughing for? I didn't say anything remotely fucking funny. How deranged is the psycho.’ Well, at least he was happy, which was something to be thankful for. After thirty seconds of unsettling laughter had passed, Toshiro finally said something.
“Aha, Miss Williams. A man that caught even my attention would not have a lot of time on his hands. I’m certain that he was fulfilling someone else's request in the past two days.”
He started to chuckle again when he finished talking. Your certain he was helping someone else? Why? How the fuck would you even know that? Does he think it’s cool being all vague and mysterious?
Selena simply didn't understand why Toshiro had come to such a specific conclusion, and frankly, she didn't believe him. Instead of voicing her opinions, however, she instead tried to agree with her boss.
“Uh- yeah. Sure. He was helping someone. Yeah. definitely that. I don't know why I didn't realize it sooner, Sir.”
She wasn't the greatest liar and it showed in her voice. Toshiro could of course tell that she wasn't speaking her mind, a child would probably, no, definitely be able to do the same.
“You don't believe me I see.”
His voice sounded amused.
“Oh well, I cannot expect others to think like me. One of the bitter joys of being so different I suppose.” His strange boast fell on deaf ears; Selena was perfectly happy with being born her normal self instead of being cursed with such a freaky brain as Toshiro’s. She actually felt a little sorry for the egocentric man.
He doesn't even realize he’s a weirdo, she thought sadly.
Selena would never voice her thoughts, however, or she’d probably end up dead in a ditch somewhere, and she valued her life too much for that.
“So, when will the boy be arriving? How far away are you currently?”
Her boss's question interrupted her meandering thoughts and Selena quickly began to explain the main reason behind her phone call; her lack of a car, this time elaborating to say that it had been lost at the hands of a powerful monster she had come across during her searches at night.
She would never tell him that she'd just given it away. That was a secret that would follow her to the grave. When she finished speaking, Toshiro surprised her once again, the little bastard that he was.
“So. I don't see what the problem is. Just... run.”
The man said the words so calmly that Selena was sure she’d misheard them. When she realized her ears were working perfectly fine, she had to take a deep steadying breath. Hey, calm down Selena, calm down. He’s just joking. He can't expect me to actually run 220 miles, can he?
“Ha, ha, ha!” She laughed.
“That's very funny sir, but you see, Arthur is only at level 60 and he’s a healer to boot. He won't have the agility or stamina to keep up with me.”
Using Arthur’s lack of speed as her scapegoat was perfect. Once again, Toshiro Tatsumi surprised her with his next words, though this time it wasn't a pleasant one.
“Well, I’m sure you'll find a way. Besides, if he can't keep up with you, then I'll know he was never meant for the job in the first place.”
His last words were said with a tone of finality.
“Good luck.”
With a click, the phone line went dead as he hung up, leaving Selena standing in awkward silence.
“Well, that went well,” she spoke into the air, not caring that the people walking past gave her odd looks. She cursed loudly.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do now.”
Sighing, she realized that her only options were to either take a taxi for three-plus hours, which she really didn't want to do, or she could do as her boss had suggested, the crazy fucker, and run all the way. She sighed again, making her decision.
She hoped Arthur was a fan of long-distance running.
~Arthur Ward~
Arthur sat in his living room, relaxing on his sofa, after having spent half an hour taking a long, hot shower. It had been 20 minutes since then and Selena still hadn’t arrived. She was late. Surprising, but not an impossible occurrence.
Just as Arthur was beginning to think that she’d forgotten about him, he heard the doorbell ring. Finally, what took her so long? He quickly made his way to the front door. Opening it, he let Selena into his house after a second of hesitation. Observing her briefly, he realized something was wrong; why was she staring at him like that?
“Is there something on my face, or something?”
She looked startled for a moment at the question, shaking her head as if trying to wake herself up before murmuring something under her breath.
”No, no, it's nothing.”
Her voice was oddly quiet, nothing like the authoritative tone she usually adopted when speaking to him. Something was definitely going on with her, but he decided to just let it slide instead of interrogating the woman. Besides, he didn't really care much if he was being honest. Instead, he asked a question.
“So when are we going to set off and where exactly is it we’re going?”
His voice seemed to finally pull Selena out of her weird silence, and the familiar smile returned to her face, a little more strained than usual, before she replied.
“Well Arthur, to answer your second question first, we'll be going to Toshoro Tatsumi's private villa.”
She paused for a moment as if deciding how best to essay her next words.
“The only problem is that it's 220 miles away, and we don't have a vehicle. We’ll have to run. Toshiro's first test to see if you're capable enough for the job.”
When Arthur didn't react in any way at all, she repeated her words.
“Hey, did you hear any of that? We’ll have to run 220 miles!”
Arthur frowned a little at how worked up the woman was getting, deciding to just speak his mind.
“And I don't see why you're getting so worked up?”
His tone was nonchalant, and he really seemed like he didn't care at all.
He didn’t.
“So you think you're a tough guy, huh,” Selena said, before muttering something under her breath, too quiet for Arthur to hear.
“You know my agility is at 185 right? You’ll have a hard time keeping up.”
Arthur whistled appreciatively when he heard how high her agility was, higher than his in fact even after consuming a shadow Panther core that increased the stat by almost a hundred points. She must have specced heavily into a speed-based build.
Still, he didn't think he’d have much trouble keeping up. Whilst she was faster than him, it was only by a little, and Arthur was positive that he had at least three times as much endurance as her. 220 miles was no short distance, and she would no doubt have to stop for a few breaks on the way.
“Don't worry,” Arthur repeated.
“I don't think I’ll have much of a problem keeping up with you.”
Selena looked amused at the words, which quickly changed to surprise when she realized that Arthur wasn't joking and finally to frustration.
“Did you put all your states into agility or something? I swear you're a healer. That’s completely stupid, you need bigger ether reserves, not speed. How have you survived this long, making such moronic decisions.”
Arthur was taken aback by the vehemence of her response before realizing that it made sense from her perspective. After all, no one knew that Arthur’s main source of power was from monster cores, not levels, and yet Arthur would never disclose that piece of information, especially for something as minor as defending his intelligence when it was getting insulted. Instead, he responded gruffly.
“Hey, my stat distribution is my problem to worry about, not yours.”
Selena just shook her head sadly at the response, muttering under her breath, this time loud enough for him to hear.
“Not another idiot gamer.”
Arthur just let the insult slide. From her perspective, that was exactly what he was, after all. A fool who was unable to take criticism when he was called out for his stupidity. Arthur just sighed before going outside his house. She’d shut up soon enough when their journey started.
The sun was bright, and the temperature was hot. It would be a difficult day for running.
“So, are we going to set off or what?” He said to Selena who was slowly making her way out of the house, as if reluctant to start the journey.
“Don't worry, this isn’t a race. We’ve got time. Now let's see if you can back up that confidence of yours,”
She began to run.
~Selena Williams~
It had been fifteen minutes since they had started their journey, and Arthur still hadn't asked for a break. She respected the man's determination at least, but it was misplaced. Selena had purposely set a faster pace than was appropriate at the start of the long journey to teach him some humility and even she would need to rest soon. Her endurance wouldn't be able to keep up with this pace forever.
Stamina: 304/550
Slowing down for a moment, she called out “Do you want to rest yet?”
Arthur's reply came fast, and he didn't seem to be winded in the slightest.
“No. I’m good. I can go for a while yet.”
Selena was surprised by his statement. Did he put loads of stat points into endurance too? There’s no way he can be that stupid right? Or maybe he was putting up a strong front whilst dying inside. She sincerely hoped it was the second scenario, as Arthur would be almost useless for their plans if he had no ether reserves to speak of.
Oh well, we’ll see how long you can keep the brave front up.
Sadly, she was going to find out in the very near future, that it was far longer than she could.
~A meeting between the world's governments ~
“I Don't trust them,” the French president retorted angrily, his translator relaying the words in a much more even tone.
“We shouldn't let them come to our planet.”
It was probably the twentieth time he had said those words during the meeting; having yet to give an adequate explanation for his strong opinions, and people were starting to see that the rumours of the man's paranoia actually held some truth. As well as his racism.
The woman sitting next to him sighed warily. At the tender age of 23 years, she was the youngest individual present in the room by a large margin.
She was also one of the most powerful.
Having awakened with three magical affinities, she had quickly risen in power and rank before being appointed by the people of Norway as their de facto leader when she had single-handedly defeated a dimensional incursion, much like the ever-elusive Kazi Alukai.
Known to have displayed an affinity for ice magic in her battles, the Monika 'Ice Heart' quickly stuck and became the title by which she was known. It was an apt name, given her stunning Nordish beauty that gave her an air of elegant serenity. She began to speak in her heavily accented English, her voice considerably low given that she was a woman.
“With all due respect sir, you’ve said the same thing so many times and have yet to give us a reason for your prejudice against aliens. The mercantile organisation that wants to come to Earth is one of such renown, that we were even told of them during the tutorial.”
Mostly everyone present nodded their heads in assent, only a few individuals grimacing in distaste with the French president. That was when a man named Barent decided to speak. All present knew that wasn’t the man's real name, but little else was known about him.
Only that his incredibly high level allowed him to be present at this meeting. His voice was so low and quiet, it was difficult to catch what he was saying at first.
“We all know that if they wanted it, they could destroy this entire planet in a single day. The only reason they even contacted us before coming to trade was out of courtesy, not a necessity. They don't need our permission to come here and we all know that it’ll only be us that loses out if we don't let them onto the planet.''
Towards the end, his voice had taken on a cynical tone, and everyone could tell that the endless bickering was getting on his nerves. Everyone had uneasy looks on their faces when they heard his casual statement about their own inferiority. They all knew that with the evolution of planet Earth and having finally been put on the galactic map, they were little more than a small ant in a colony of titans that even a single strong individual could crush underfoot.
And yet it was completely different hearing that truth stated as fact. The discussions continued for a long while yet, but everyone knew in their hearts that the decision had already been made. They would be inviting the alien mercantile organisation onto Earth.
Despite how much the world had changed, there was one tenant of reality that still held true.
Everyone wanted to make some money.
