The Return

The two boys kept to their word and went overboard. It was the 5th day since their break from the game. Their mental health was much better than it was after the labyrinth, though scars would forever remain.

Kiro even considered never going back to the game again, but when he reminded himself about the money he would be able to make, he stilled his heart.

For these 5 days, they'd been training nonstop. As competitive sports hadn't opened yet, Hiro went swimming everyday, while Kiro went kickboxing.

Every morning, they'd go their separate ways and do 5 hour sets each. Then come back for lunch, then do some running and lifting weights.

This was their routine for the last 5 days. They had gained some weight and turned it into well defined muscles. They were no longer scrawny slum rats, they weren't too muscular either. Just lean muscles.

Kiro's precious goal was to workout to the point of gaining an 8-pack abdomen. That dream was quickly drowned when his kickboxing instructor told him he only had potential for 4. He was completely dejected.

On an extremely hot day, Kiro and Hiro decided to play some basketball outside for muscle training, just the two of them.

Kiro quite liked the sun soaking in his skin and his shirt was drenched in sweat, so he wasn't wearing one. Hiro was however wearing one.

The two of them were pretty good at sports, because that was pretty much the only cheap thing parents could afford for toys in the slums.

Just buy your kid a ball and be done with it. But since they were malnourished, they could never really gain muscles.

They were playing a 1 on 1, when Isla and Saanvi joined them. As realistic as the game was, it didn't do any justice to their beauty in person. This made Hiro stare at Saanvi like she was something he desired.

"You guys seriously haven't logged in Asgard at all, since that day?" Saanvi asked breaking Hiro's awkward stares.

"Well, no, our mental health is more important, don't you think?" Hiro replied before Kiro could.

"But we'll dive in tonight, so don't miss us too much," Kiro said smugly.

"You should put a shirt on," Isla said, choking on her own words.

She was immensely surprised that they had gained so much muscles in such a short time.

"Charmed?" Kiro said, trying to sound cooler than he actually was in all that sweat.

"Don't be ridiculous," Her face turned red, though nobody could be sure whether the cause was the sun.

"Let us play too, teach us," she said trying to change the subject.

Rich folks didn't pay much attention to sports, they rather teach their kids businesses, so that when the parents die, the kid can carry on the family fortune or possibly branch out and start their own company.

Saanvi teamed up with Kiro, Isla with Hiro. The boys knew the girls couldn't play, so they took it easy. Hiro's mark was Saanvi, Kiro's mark was Isla. The universe was cruel, as the boys realised that they each had soft spots for their marks.

They hadn't really thought it through, they thought by playing like this, not having someone you like on your team would make you perform better. But alas, it was worse.

It was then that Isla tried to tackle, yes, aggressively tackle, Kiro. He simply side stepped and shot for a 3 pointer, which went in.

But she fell pretty hard on the ground. Being the gentleman that he was, Kiro quickly turned back to help her up.

He offered his hand, she took it, he must've tugged way too hard because she staggered awkwardly forwards and they almost hugged.

Before that could happen however, Kiro quickly held out his arms and stopped her in her tracks.

"Are you okay?" He asked, both his hands on her shoulders.

'I never noticed before, but his eyes look like they have electricity in them. I've never seen such eyes before.' She thought to herself. She didn't hear anything else, Isla was in her own world.

Kiro's other arm was now flailing in front of Isla's face. It took a while but she eventually noticed and looked at him again.

"Princess, are you okay? Do you need to go the medicentre?"

"Yes, No. I don't need a check up."

When he confirmed she was okay he started with his snarky, playful comments.

"Geez Princess. This is basketball not rugby. I think you signed up for the wrong sport. They need you in the football team."

Good thing she wasn't a snob, because she laughed. "Instinct! It was pure instincts!"

She liked her school life, she made a mental note to thank her father for being so persistent. If she hadn't gone here, she would've have never met him.

They continued to play, they somehow tied. Isla and Saanvi were kind of useless, so the boys were the only ones doing anything decent. But they had fun, so it wasn't completely a waste of time.

After showering and dinner, they decided to go back to playing. Kiro especially wanted them to go mining.

Before going online, he called his parents for the first time since he arrived here. They weren't very happy with him. He apologised and promised to call more often, and made them promise to take it easy at work.

After that call he dove right in.

Ding!

[Your Manor-Castle has finished building. You can choose to be transported there every time you log in.]

Ding!

[You have a friend request from the human assassin, Nikolai. Accept? Y/N]

Ding!

[Congratulations you've awakened your true blood. You're descended from dragons and the monkey King. Your new race is High Dreki.]

[You have unlocked a subclass, beast tamer, and because you're High ranked most tamable beasts cower before you.]

[You've unlocked two new skills, Meditation and Lightning manipulation.]

[As a result of your awakening, you've unlocked a new stat called Constitution. Common swords can do nothing to your bare skin now.]

[Due to being a descendent of the monkey King, the mythic staff, Ryu has awakened. But because you're still weak. You can only wield 10% of its power]

[All stats are raised by 10]

'WHOA! Am I Overpowered now? Hahaha.' Kiro quickly accepted Nikolai's friend request.

Before checking his character sheet. He noticed that Constitution was at 30, so he added 30 attribute points to it, so it can also be at 60.