Chapter Nineteen

"Pull over." Officer Trusky's voice came over the speakerphone when Jason answered the call. "There's a rest stop ahead, take the turn and let's stretch."

Jason saw the blue sign for the rest stop. They had been going for the better part of fifteen hours, only stopping to fill up on gas since leaving his home. He turned on his turn signal and took the exit. When he pulled into a parking spot, a red four door sedan pulled up next to him.

The familiar face of Officer Trusky appeared as he got out of his vehicle. Though they had been driving through the night, the man didn't look any worse for wear.

"Don't you ever get tired?"

"The benefits of being old." Trusky smiled.

"You look like you're only thirty or so." Jason peered at him. "How can you be a thousand years old?"

"I thought that girl would have told you at least that."

"She said as I level up, my life force would increase until I no longer have to worry about death. But what level would that make you?"

"I should have at least a little mystery don't you think?"

"The great Officer Trusky's vault of secrets." Jason rolled his eyes. Though he'd known the man for years, even worked alongside him, there were apparently many things about the man he didn't know.

"Call me Steve."

"Steve the immortal?" Jason snorted out a laugh. "That's almost as ridiculous as a thousand year old Trusky."

"If I were to use my true name, anyone would know how out of time I am." Steve said as he walked back to his car. "Eventually even you will have to choose a different name. If Jason Reese doesn't grow older, people will start asking questions." He went to the back seat and grabbed a two handed sword that was almost the length of the vehicle and hefted it onto his shoulder as if it were a light stick. "Are you ready?"

"Your car is a spatial tool?"

"Yours isn't?" He cocked an eyebrow before walking to the wood line.

Jason looked in the passenger seat to find Selena passed out cold. The light of the mid day sun bouncing playfully against her still figure. He smiled as he thought just how innocent she looked, but knew just how wrong that thought was. In that seat was most likely the most dangerous person he'd ever met, and she was fated to always be by his side.

"Let's go, Reese." Steve called out from the trees. "Light a fire already."

He smirked at the normalcy of that statement. He had heard it a million times as Steve trained him when he was a kid. Now that he thought about it, the man did look exactly as he did back then. Was he already nearing the time that he was supposed to leave anyway?

Jason jogged over to the dense growth of trees and walked into their shade.

"Most people stay within the confines of the rest stop, either stopping to sleep or use the restroom. Not many walk into the trees, which makes this the perfect training area." Steve stopped after a few minutes of walking, placing the blade of his sword face down in the ground and rested his hands on the guard. "Why don't you show me what you can do."

Growling came from around them and Jason focused on a wolf which shouldn't exist within a rest stop. He activated his mana saber ability, the green glow lit the ground, even in the mid day light. He ran towards the hound without a second thought, his saber cleaving the animal in two before it could attack.

Jason felt a light breeze against the nape of his neck and jumped forward, narrowly missing a set of teeth which would have separated his head from his body. He turned and launched himself back at the next wolf. His saber burning through the beast as if it weren't even there.

"You're not bad." Steve called out from a few feet away. "These animals are tailored to your level, which means you must be manually raising your stats without leveling."

Jason was going to apply, instead he flicked his saber to an oncoming wolf, slicing its jaw off and cleaving it in two a moment later. It had only been a minute since the fight started, yet he had already killed three of the wolves. His thoughts went to the rabbits he had to kill for his first quest. He winced as he remembered his deaths, then the other ones within the dungeon. Another wolf helped him regain his concentration as it almost reached his leg. He moved out of the way just in time and thrust his saber where he had moved from, his saber slicing through the creature in an instant.

"You already have an instanced home with accelerated time it looks like." Steve mused as he watched. Several other wolves appeared, creating a semi-circle around Jason, who leapt into the air as they closed in for the kill, it was almost comical how their heads smashed together, until Jason flipped, pushing off a branch twenty feet up and used it to propel himself down to the awaiting predators. Before he touched the ground, Jason slashed off the six wolves heads, then used his hand to bounce himself back upright.

Jason turned to look at Steve, who only stood and watched him. "It was the only way to get away from Rukil and his group."

"You have always been great at adapting to new situations." Steve praised, which was rare for Jason to hear. "If I were to be honest, I knew you would eventually get that book."

"Why'd you try to take it at first then?"

"This life isn't for everyone, Jason. Even if I knew you'd eventually get it, doesn't mean I'd want to subject you to it."

"To immortality?" It was Jason's turn to cock an eyebrow.

"To the price of immortality." He smiled bitterly. "You will outlive all of your family. If you have children, they'll need to follow the same path you do. You won't be able to stop moving, never truly putting down roots to call your own."

"Everyone I love is either gone now, or going soon." Jason's eyes cast downward. "My parents died when I was young, and I never really made friends with anyone because of that. What if they left too?" He looked at his saber, then allowed it to fizzle out. "It's better to be alone than to get used to having someone, just to have them ripped from you too, you know?"

Steve cleared his throat. "Now that I know a little of what you can do, even if you're keeping your skills from me, I at least know that you can handle yourself." He said, turning the topic back to their current predicament. "Since I know that you have your own instanced house, I suggest that we take a rest from the drive. Inside your world, time must be at least three times faster than the outside world, am I correct?"

"They do that?" He looked at his house feature on his phone, but he couldn't locate that particular perk.

"If it does or doesn't shouldn't matter. Let's just meet up in a few days. Don't forget to store your jeep before leaving." Steve was already turning to leave.

"Do you have an actual day we should meet up?" Jason called out before Steve could exit the trees. He knew the house was within another dimension. He was able to bring Selena there because of their connection, but he had no idea how to contact anyone outside while within the house.

Steve sighed before he grabbed his phone. A moment later, Jason's made a 'ping'. He looked at it and noticed that he got a friend request within Mage's Academy. [Steven Trusky would like to be your friend. Accept? {Yes} {No}. He selected yes.

"You'll be able to receive messages from me, even in your home now." Steve half turned to Jason. "Be careful who you accept as friends in the future, too. When you accept, there is no deleting, and anyone who is your friend will know exactly where you are at any time."

"Thanks for the warning."

"Just get some rest." And with that, he was gone.