18 Change in Scenery

Arbor brought Leo, Sald, and Orion to a different booth than he had went into before.

"Greetings Elder, I am paying for my friends items toady." Arbor spoke when they entered the booth. He casually placed his identification badge on the table.

"Yes, that is not a problem. I just need the item numbers from each of you."

"3958."

"3495."

"3676."

The elder on the other side of the table took arbors badge and placed it in the small circle formation. Moments later the three requested items appeared on the table. A small disc, a fan, and a pair of gloves were taken by Orion, Sald, and Leo respectively.

"Tagas, how are you able to afford all of this? Even if you did win all the competitions, there is no way you would have enough points. Tell us your secret."

"Are you actually an Elder disguised as a new student?"

After buying the items for his classmates, Arbor got bombarded by questions about his identity. In the past four months Arbor had not spoken out in class or to students for that matter. He has given his best effort to keep a low profile.

Arbor became friends with Orion, when he was approached after class one day. Arbor made sure that their friendship started off slow. He wanted to make sure that Orion could be someone that he could trust.

"You guys don't need to worry about all of that. Just remember that you owe me a favor." Arbor replied with a smile.

The group made their way out the building and back towards their residents. Along the way they conversed about everything from what they learned at their earlier class lesson to what they plan to achieve in the future. When the group got to the gate to the entrance of their school, they went the separate ways.

"Now that they ask about it, where did I get this space ring and everything inside? How about my staff and robe? What about those two items in my soul? I wonder if has anything to with my background? OH well, this is not something I should be worrying at this moment. All will be revealed in due time." Arbor thought to himself as he made his way towards Ashliels place.

Time had gone ahead slowly. Arbor had continued going training with Ashliel, going to class, and taking part in the class trainings. Arbor had gone back to the rewards hall to get a glance at all the items on the ninth floor. Regrettably, nothing else had caught his eye. He had not bought his friends anything again either.

He does not want to depend on anything foreign to increase his strength. From the novels and manga that he read in his past life, he knows that relying on an external force for an increase in strength is not the smart approach. If that strength boost gets taken away, he will be at a disadvantage.

Before Arbor had realized it, six months had past. Both Arbor and Eos were at the peak of the Kuwa realm. There are no more meridians for Arbor to clear out. During the past year Ashliel sent Eos to train with the school's head beast master. Eos's progress has kept up progress with Arbor.

"Eos lets go, its time to go train with everyone else at the Ashliel tower."

The duo made their way towards Orion's residence where Leo, Sald, and Orion were waiting on them. Arbor and Eos arrived to see runes carved into the ground in a circular pattern in the courtyard. Orion is in the middle of the circle looking at it with a complicated look on his face.

"Who are you?" Leo called out while making a defensive stance when Arbor and Eos had walked into yard.

"I remember you from somewhere." Sald murmured.

Arbor is sporting his original green robe and face on currently.

"Do you guys not recognize me? I'm Tagas."

"Hey aren't you that kid from the examinations that had…" Orion started

"Yes, Yes, that's me. I do not want to much unwanted attention from everyone so I took on an alias. This is Eos. He is my companion." Arbor interrupted him. "What are you working on?" He added to change the subject.

"No wonder you were able to afford our stuff. The school master must have given you enough points." Leo chimed in.

"I am working on an formation to add to the disc that you had bought my half a year ago. Although I am not sure that its correct. I can't find out what is wrong with it."

Arbor walked over to have a look at the circle. "Why don't we just activate it and see what happens? It will be easier to find out what is wrong."

Orion agreed and started to activate the formation. Eoss' animal instinct kicked in at this moment. He rushed towards Arbor to force him out from the formation. Leo and Sald took notice of Eos actions and went to do the same thing. They still had not learned from the dodgeball competition six months ago. The formation was too big for Arbor and Orion to escape from the middle of the formation. All of this happened in two seconds.

After the two seconds a bright white light erupted in the courtyard. When it vanished, there was no person or animal was in sight. Leo, Sald, Eos, Orion, and Arbor all had disappeared.

In an extremely distant place from Orion's courtyard a bright circular light appeared for a split second. After it disappeared four humans and a griffin appeared. Each of them had been momentarily blinded by the light. When they regained their vision, they all noticed a dessert that expanded farther than any of their eyes could see.

"Where the fuck are we," Leo wondered, "Orion, where the fuck did you send us?"

"Do you think I know? It's not like your dumb ass tried to help?"

"You're the dumb ass that sent us to bum fuck nowhere!"

The two continued bickering back and forth for a couple minutes. A gust of wind blew up a cloud of sand in their faces.

"SHUT UP! Take a second and look at the essence level here." Sald interrupted

Minutes later the two said in unison, "Its not as dense as it use to be. Are we…"

"I believe that we are in a different realm. I think that we are in a lower realm." Arbor cutoff the two.