Chapter 19 - Arriving at the Avalon Empire

"You gained 10 points because of that monster?" asked Ashe, who had just arrived right beside him.

Darius who had been caught didn't know what to say anymore, she had heard him. He couldn't lie his way out of that one, so he simply said the truth this time.

"Yeah, I did, why?" asked Darius.

He knew that this was a great achievement this time as he could feel the same energy that he had felt when reaching his 10th point in both Agility and Strength come over his body.

He could already feel himself being a lot endurant.

"Just what the hell is your system, some take months to reach 10 points in one aspect and you did it in a couple of days. Having a Supreme System really isn't fair at all," lamented Ashe, as she couldn't even remember how much time it had taken her to have all those points.

Well, she knew for sure that it had taken a lot longer than him, but she wasn't going to tell him that as she didn't want him to mock her.

Even if she had implied that his growth rate was crazy, she hadn't once talked about hers, so Darius couldn't compare it with hers.

Darius who heard her complaints, only raised both of his shoulders as he didn't know what to say.

She didn't know that this wasn't the only thing that he could do.

"Oh, and here, your dagger," said Darius as he threw it in the air in her direction.

Ashe, obviously, caught it without any problem.

"You know, you can keep, I have way better weapons than that one."

She wasn't lying, the weapon that Darius had just thrown at her was one of the worst ones that she had in her inventory. In fact, she didn't even know why such a trash weapon was inside her inventory.

"So, now that you killed your Minotaur, do you want to go to the Avalon Empire?" asked Ashe with a big smile on her face.

She was excited that Darius would finally be able to see what it looked like. However, she wasn't happy that he would be spending all of his time there as there are a lot of bad people over there, especially on the awakened side.

"Yeah, let's go," said Darius.

He would finally see what a city or empire in this case looked like in this world. He was really excited, to say the least.

"But, let's wait until it's sunny outside," uttered as it seemed that she wanted to sleep before going over there.

Darius didn't complain as he knew that they would have two days to reach the Empire, so he accepted.

It wasn't like gaining a few hours of travel would change something. It was better to be in their best form to travel there tomorrow.

So, the two of them headed back to the little shack as Darius glanced at the faint view of the Avalon Empire.

'See you, tomorrow,' he said to himself, already anticipating his arrival.

***

The next day, both Darius and Ashe woke up early as they needed to reach the Avalon Empire.

Darius didn't know how much time it would take, but lucky him, there was someone who knew.

"How much will it take to reach it?" asked Darius, wondering if his stamina was going to be enough.

Ashe had a faint smile on her face when saying her answer.

"Well, if I was alone, then it would take me minutes. But, since. I'm with you, hmm... maybe a couple of hours if we both run."

Darius hearing this now understood her little smile as she hadn't the opportunity to tell him that she was better than him.

"Then, I guess we shouldn't waste our time, here," said Darius as he headed out of the small shack, glancing behind him to see if Ashe was following him.

And she was, as she disappeared from his vision, reappearing in front of him.

"What are you doing? Keep going, we don't need you slowing us down even more," teased Ashe.

Their relationship which hadn't gone well after Darius's [Life Steal] was now becoming better and better as Darius was starting to feel a little more comfortable around her.

***

The two of them were now both running in the middle of the forest as some light seemed to come from in front of them.

Were they close to arriving?

That was the thought that was on Darius's mind for the last fifteen minutes as he could his stamina started to get depleted little by little as they hadn't stopped running for a single moment since leaving the wooden shack.

'Lucky that I killed the Minotaur or else it would have taken us a day to reach this fucking Empire,' thought Darius, a little frustrated about this whole matter.

Then, he looked in front of him as he saw Ashe keeping a steady pace. However, not once had Darius been able to go in front of her, it was as if she wanted him to know that she was superior.

Um, hello, he wasn't dumb. Darius wasn't a B-Rank Awakened and he knew it, so did she go out of her way to show her dominance.

Well, to be honest, Darius had no idea.

Insecurity was probably the safest bet.

"Ashe how much further until we reach it?" muttered Darius with some of the reserves of energy that he had in his body.

"We're almost there, could you stop complaining for a minute?"

"You always say that," said Darius as he had heard that response many times already.

"No this time it's for real we really are almost there," said Ashe as the light which he had been seeing blinded his eyes even more and when he opened them again.

He say a beautiful city right in front of him.

It seemed like they really had arrived at the Avalon Empire.

'I guess, this is where my new life truly starts,' thought Darius, excited about the prospect.