[Bonus chapter]Chapter 29: Trust and distrust

Sandra flashed a slight smile as she looked at Xander from head to toe and then squinted her eyes.

"Something's changed about you."

Xander looked at her with a brow raised and then looked at himself before answering. "You're tripping."

"How we keep finding each other is kind of weird, don't you think?"

Xander smiled upon hearing her words. Indeed he always cross paths with her. If it was the previous him he wouldn't believe in anything like fate but now... it's possible with super powers.

"Hello. Somebody mind explaining to me what's going on?" Harry said with an annoyed tone.

Xander raised his brows as he completely forgot that Harry was here too. Even Sandra smiled lightly, seems like she too ignored Harry.

"We've met a lot of times." Xander said and Harry furrowed his brows.

"You've met a lot of... how? When? Where?"

Xander and Sandra then proceeded to explain how they first met in the gaming store, excluding the part about her running away flustered.

Then they talked about the flame world's boss and finally, in the caves of serebus which are more like catacombes in Xander's point of view.

"Wow. I was just as equally as surprised when she told me she loves games." Harry said with a somewhat sad smile.

'And I was hoping to shoot my shot with her but it looks like Xander has dibs.' He thought as he glanced at his friend.

"What?" Xander asked, noticing his friend's gaze.

"Nothing. We just have to focus on getting out of here." Harry said as he stood up and brought out a large paper with some sketches on it.

"Are these...?" Xander looked at what was drawn on the paper.

Straight and curved lines all connected together in a way. Some lines were named and some were just marked X.

"Yes. It's a map of the sides we've explored. We use it to track our movements." Harry said as he spread the map on the floor.

Seeing a part on the map empty Xander took the black coal in Harry's hand and he received confused looks from the people around him.

"This is where you found me right, the 'Beautiful horrors'." Xander said the name with a smile and then began drawing till he reached the place he came from.

Harry looked at Sandra and mouthed to her, "Ask him."

Sandra sighed, understanding what Harry wants to know and she wouldn't lie that she didn't want to know as well.

"Hey Xander. We have a theory about what happened at the Beautiful horrors but we're not sure. What happened there?"

Hearing the caring but curious voice of Sandra Xander sighed and stopped looking at the new map that had a few more lines here and there.

Xander closed his eyes and remembered being slashed, fighting back against the bug men and fainting.

He looked at Sandra and Harry before sighing in surrender.

"I killed them all." Xander said, this time, a slight anger showed in his tone.

Those nasty bugs tried to kill him. Do they know what he has to live for? Do they know the type of life he lived?

Games were his life, what he wanted to live for. He found the virtual worlds more amazing that he preferred it to the real world.

And where did that get him? In another world where his life is at stake in every breathing moment.

"You... how? Wait. I know. You got some kind of treasure that will make you OP." Harry said while looking at Xander with anticipation.

Sadly, that's not it.

Sandra too looked at Xander with curiosity filled eyes as she too wondered how Xander did it, killing hundreds of level 1 - 5 creatures.

"I just fought and killed them, that's all. If that doesn't satisfy you then I had a weapon which broke before I passed out."

Harry didn't press further as he thought that his friend didn't want to share too much seeing that Xander's tone became slightly annoyed.

"Calm down bro. Curiosity is all it is. This game is fucked up so it will do us good if we have strong people in our group." Harry sighed before sitting beside Xander.

"I'm currently at level 10. I was at level 6 before the game resetted but after I was thrown into this place I had to fight a lot and level up. It wasn't easy."

Xander looked at his friend with furrowed brows as he got confused with some things.

"Your class didn't reset too?"

"No, I chose the shadow blade class which gave me a lot of advantages." Harry wasn't lying.

The class that allows him to blend in with the shadows so he could hunt better in a dark place like this. In fact, when he gets to a higher level, Harry could even be the new owner of the cave.

Like a private leveling ground.

"Seeing that you asked me that question your class got resetted. Which one were you given? That blue fire didn't belong to the weapon user classes." Harry asked.

Xander wanted to answer but then he looked at Sandra who was listening to their conversation and furrowed his brows.

"I can't tell you now." He said, moving his eyes back and forth to Harry and Sandra.

Harry quickly understood what Xander was trying to say and just stood up and pulled Xander towards another corner.

Sandra was kind of surprised that Xander didn't trust her to say something in front of her. She didn't care though, as she picked a sharp bone and began carving something into the ground, her eyes filled with regret.

...

"What is it?" Harry whispered as he got far enough from the fire with Xander. Sandra wouldn't be able to hear them from where they are.

"Sigh... you know that superpower stuff I told you about..."

Xander began explaining his theory about the enemy group called ghoulshippers having something to do with this but he wasn't sure.

He was sure that his dad wouldn't use a game to sacrifice people and also, his dad told him that these ghoulshippers wanted to resurrect some God so he related the sacrificing people in the game with them.

Xander also explained to Harry how he got his class 'Primordial necromancer', and how it was related to his arcana that he awakened.

Harry was shocked at this sudden realization but he was the kind of person to give people chances so he wasn't too freaked out.

"Wow. A necromancer is a type of demon, I think. They can control the dead and make them do their bidding. Since you're a necromancer now, let me see." Harry said, his brown eyes seem to shine with excitement.

Xander was confused as he didn't have anything to show and he furrowed his brows.

"Show you what?"

"Sigh... do I have to say it?" Harry facepalmed to which Xander nodded.

"Your undead legion, summon them and let's go for a test run right now." Harry said with an excitement filled tone.

Xander snorted.

"I wish I could."

"What are you talking about?" Harry said, raising a brow.

Xander sighed.

"Check this out. I saw it a while after I levelled up the skill." Xander said as a screen appeared in front of him and Harry, displaying the information about his skill 'Revive and enslave'.

Harry's brows furrowed as he saw something that he has never seen in all the necromancer movies he watched.

"Is this system nuts?"