Fresh start

Rushing over to the cafeteria to meet up with Nari and Beom, Yasuo managed to lessen the damage and only arrived a few minutes late.

Having arrived at the cafeteria, he quickly spotted Nari in her usual spot, accompanied by Beom. Having gone over to the table they were sitting at, Yasuo greeted Nari and Beom, and then noticed that an extra set of lunch was placed on the table in front of one of two empty chairs.

Seeing this made Yasuo think that someone else would be joining them, so he deliberately sat on the chair besides it.

Immediately upon sitting down, he could hear the laughter of both Beom and Nari.

Yasuo looked confused as to why they were laughing, which Nari soon cleared up. "Yasuo, that lunch is for you, we ordered it in advance so you can just sit on that chair." Nari said with a warm smile on her face.

Yasuo slightly turned red from embarrassment, which soon faded away when he took a bite of the delicious lunch and started some small talk with Beom and Nari.

All three were in a good mood and chatting comfortably with each other. Suddenly Nari remembered something Yasuo said six days ago. "Oh right, Yasuo. Did you become stronger in these six whole days?" Nari said jokingly.

After swallowing a piece of toast that was in his mouth, Yasuo looked Nari in the eyes and said "Yes, even more so than I thought." with a serious expression on his face.

Seeing Yasuo's reaction made Nari chuckle thinking that Yasuo was also jokingly playing along. 'How can someone become stronger in only six days?' Nari thought.

But Yasuo wasn't joking in the slightest, he really did become stronger, even more so than he had initially thought, which he was excited to test out in the augmented reality.

After that, they enjoyed some more small talk and finished their lunch, after which they returned to their bungalows and finally got ready to go into augmented reality as a team of three for the first time.

Yasuo was the first one to arrive in the white room of the augmented reality, soon followed by Nari. To Nari and Yasuo's surprise they noticed that they had to start from level one again, because they had formed a new team consisting of three people this time.

After they had found this out, Beom had also arrived at the white room and looked confused as it was his first time in this augmented reality.

Once all three of them had arrived, Yasuo's hart began beating faster from excitement, not being able to suppress his eagerness to start clearing levels.

"Let's quickly do the F-stage of the augmented reality." Yasuo said with a big smile on his face.

Beom looked hesitant. "Shouldn't we come up with a strategy first." He said, looking at Nari.

"Let's start." Nari casually said, which dumbfounded Beom, but put a smile on Yasuo's face.

Nari was usually very strict when it came to planning and strategies, but having experienced first-hand how easy it was last time together with Yasuo, who had a title which made goblins fear him, Nari didn't really see the need to strategize.

With Beom still being dumbfounded, Yasuo being really excited and Nari being cool-headed, they entered the F-stage of the augmented reality.

~Level one, starting in 60 seconds~

As Nari said, there was no need to strategize as three of them couldn't be considered to be fighting the goblins, they were straight up massacring them.

Seeing Yasuo and Nari's teamwork while efficiently defeating the goblins, a certain flame was lit inside of Beom, who soon got accustomed to their combined attacks, and quickly became an integral part of their group dynamic.

With clearing levels taking under thirty seconds each time now, even without the use of any skills or mana whatsoever, it was still taking a long time to clear all thirty levels.

'Even though we are clearing the levels so fast, it will take a relatively long time with a sixty second wait in between each level.' Was the thought the three of them shared.

Suddenly Yasuo made a remark: "Should I just disable the waiting time between levels?"

Both Beom and Nari immediately looked at Yasuo with a peculiar expression. "Did you know this all this time?" Nari asked.

Yasuo didn't know why he was getting those looks.

"Uhm, I found out a few days ago…" Yasuo said hesitantly for some reason.

Nari couldn't help but smile. "Good job Yasuo, then just turn that annoying thing off."

Seeing Nari smile again made the smile return on Yasuo's face.

"System, wait-timer off."

Immediately after Yasuo said this, the wait timer disappeared and a new bunch of goblins spawned in. And after quickly defeating them, another bunch spawned in instantly.

Like this, they were clearing levels at a tremendous pace, so fast that they could hardly keep track of which level they were on. Before they knew it, the Goblin Champion had spawned in right in front of them, signalling that it was the last level of the F-stage.

Yasuo cheekily looked at Beom before quickly dashing forwards and defeated the Goblin Champion in an instant. "Another point for me." Yasuo said.

At some point Yasuo and Beom had started a sort of competition to see who could defeat more goblins. But it became apparent that Beom was no match for Yasuo, who had defeated countless more goblins than him.

This was because Yasuo had the 'traditional' class advantage over him. That advantage being manoeuvrability and attack speed, which allowed Yasuo to defeat more monsters in this specific situation.

~Level thirty clear: congratulations on clearing stage one: F-rank portal~

As soon as they got that message, they found themselves in the white room again.

Upon entering, Yasuo looked at Beom, who didn't look upset about losing to Yasuo in their little competition. Instead, he was just content after having seen by both Yasuo's speed, strength and fighting style, this being the first time he had seen Yasuo fight.

Then, Yasuo's eyes met Nari's who had a curious expression. Nari, who had seen Yasuo fight just six days ago, could see that Yasuo had become faster, stronger and more proficient with his dagger.

"Uhm Yasuo… you weren't kidding when you said you had become stronger in these six days?" Asked Nari in a dubious tone.

"No, I wasn't kidding. I really did become much stronger. There were a lot of achievements that I was able to obtain and I learned a lot in the lectures and at the library." Said Yasuo with a big smile on his face, being proud of himself.

Nari looked genuinely puzzled, but impressed at the same time seeing the improvements that Yasuo had achieved in only six days.

"Oh, and don't be surprised yet. I have yet to show you my new skills." Yasuo added with a grin on his face.

Nari in return chuckled. Thinking back to when she first met Yasuo, she remembered him saying that he only awakened three months ago.

Seeing that Yasuo could get so strong in just three months, she had no doubt anymore that Yasuo really did gain new skills.

Her feelings of confusion turned into feelings of exult, just being glad that she could be in a group with Yasuo, and Beom, as this was the first time she truly felt part of a group, and a group which could potentially reach great heights.

Still being in the momentum of clearing levels, Yasuo excitedly suggested that they start with the E-rank stage right away.

But this time, Nari was stern about them needing to properly strategize for the coming rounds as it wouldn't be as easy as they had it in the F-stage.

Hearing Nari's serious tone, Yasuo soon realized that he went ahead of himself. Now being focused again, Yasuo wholeheartedly agreed with Nari about needing to strategize.

Not only did they need to strategize because it were stronger monsters, but with Beom having entered their group, they needed to come up with a dynamic that would best suit the three of them.

To do this, they started from the very beginning again. They each introduced themselves again, mentioning information about their class, skills, fighting styles and everything related to combat.

As they were very serious about this, it didn't take too long for them to have finished this, and they could quickly begin with the fun part, coming up with a strategy.

With Yasuo not having sat still for even a single second in the last six days, he had already come up with a bunch of different strategies and dynamics they could use in different scenarios, some better some worse.

With Yasuo having the most ideas, he had become the centre point of the conversation, telling Nari and Beom about the strategies he came up with, which they stated their opinion on, and gave their insight on, to improve those strategies.

With the ideas flowing, there wasn't a second wasted and, much quicker than before, they felt like they were ready to start the E-stage of the augmented reality.

"Okay Yasuo, now we are ready!" Said Nari in an enthusiastic way, having become excited herself thinking about how far they would be able to get this time.

With the same energy Yasuo replied: "Yes, let's go!" and looked at Beom, who also replied with fire in his eyes "Let's show them who's boss!"

Entering full of confidence, the environment began to change and the first monsters immediately spawned in.

~Level one, starting~

"AH, Yasuo! Put the wait timer on again!"