Otherworldly Trials [LITRPG Adventure]

"Hahahahaha!"

Laughter echoed around as Lyle just couldn't handle it. He even bent over and wheezed when he couldn't keep laughing, only to laugh again while pointing at Zeke with an overzealous accusatory finger.

Meanwhile, Zeke just frowned at him while recovering his mana, sipping from the health potion he forced out of Lyle while he kept laughing at him. He couldn't use Restoration due to his mana being the one responsible for his damage, so he just took a simple health potion while using his mana to recover his arm to its proper state. It was now perfectly attached with no issues, but that still didn't fix Lyle's ungodly laughter straight to his face.

"Zeke, did you seriously get distracted because of Clara crushing on Tigger?" Mikella asked, frowning at him with crossed arms. She actually looked upset at him, the one that got injured during a horrific accident.

Granted, it was caused by himself, but it was still kinda gut-punching to say the least.

"You know it was gonna happen at some point," Mikella rolled her eyes. "So why are you this upset?"

"Can't I have that right?" Zeke said bitterly, though his enthusiasm wasn't there. It still hurt if he was honest. "And I couldn't help it. She just… she's just so young to get into that."

"Dude, she's 12," Mikella flat out said. "And get into what? Interested in boys? I'd be very worried if she wasn't."

"What about girls?" Janet asked offhandedly.

"Same thing," Mikella shrugged. "What should matter is that she gets a semblance of a normal life. She didn't exactly have a normal childhood after getting stuck here."

Janet and Lyle already knew that Clara was stuck along with Zeke and Mikella, then forced to live in a medieval town for two years while they trained to become journeymen. With no TV, no actual school, and basically everything else a modern kid would have completely gone, Clara had really nothing else but having friends around.

The two nodded in agreement, and Zeke of course agreed.

But this was just one thing he wasn't.

"But she's so young!" Zeke drolled, getting Mikella to groan while cupping her face with her hand.

"Why are guys so stupid?" Mikella muttered. "I swear you're like a dad."

"He might as well be," Lyle eventually stopped laughing, but he still had that stupid grin on his face. "But I honestly don't see an issue. Tigger's a good lad. He's kind, offers to help whenever he can, he's polite and thoughtful. For a middle school boy, he sure got his head on straight even after all of this crap hitting the fan."

"He makes a good point, Zeke," Janet offered, nodding to Lyle despite his rude gesture just seconds ago. "Are you really that upset at Tigger for it? Just because he got Clara's attention?"

"I'm not mad at Tigger," Zeke corrected, raising his now restored hand. "I really have nothing against him. It's just… Clara's still so young."

Now everyone groaned at him, with Lyle adding some chuckles on top of that. No matter what happened, Zeke still believed she was too young.

Maybe it was just his biased opinion, having no girlfriend or anything like that around her age. Or perhaps he was still too close-minded, believing that people should only date when they're old enough to drive a car at the very least. Still, he knew deep inside that Clara had every right to enjoy love, no matter how young she was.

The fact it happened at all in this crazy time was a miracle, like Mikella said. Still, he grumbled when even Tir, who continued doing the simulator project, added in his two cents.

"Zeke, we can always keep an eye on Tigger in case he tries anything funny. But I think it's fair to leave Clara alone on this matter."

"Not you too, Tir…"

Letting out a heavy breath, he stood up from the small chair he pulled aside to face the disappointed group.

"Look, I'm still not into it, and I don't think I will be for a long while, but I promise that I won't get in the way," Zeke said, putting out the thing they were probably worried about. "I don't wanna get in the way of her life, but I can't help getting worried, okay?"

"Bruv, it's fine," Lyle put on a gentle smile as he patted Zeke's shoulder. "Guys like us would always worry no matter what. I see Clara like a little sister too, y'know. You think I'm gonna let Tigger do whatever he wants to her? I got plenty of goodies for him should he make her cry."

"I mean, I wasn't gonna go that far… but if you do have anything kid-friendly…" Zeke muttered.

"Stop," Mikella slapped both Lyle and Zeke behind their heads, making them wince and cry out. "You're forgetting one crucial thing."

"What's that?" Janet asked.

"That's only if Clara's got enough game to even get Tigger's attention."

Zeke and Lyle looked at her, their heads hung back in sheer disbelief. The utter audacity of those words made them stunned.

"Oh come off it," Mikella shook her head after seeing their expressions. "Did you see that coward running off? I swear, I'm more worried about Tigger not being interested in Clara rather than worrying about what might come from the two of them."

"Ooh, that's a good point," Janet agreed. "She didn't exactly give off a good impression…"

"It's only a matter of time before Tigger gets interested," Zeke said with no hesitation. "Who wouldn't? Clara's adorable."

"Of course I know Clara's adorable, but the rest of the world doesn't see that," Mikella agreed, but she shook her head at him. "That's why I'm gonna go after her before she embarrasses herself any further. At least Tigger didn't figure out that she totally fumbled and got embarrassed."

"I'd be surprised if he did," Lyle mentioned. "He's a good kid, but, uhh… he's not exactly a mage type, if you catch my drift."

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"I think he's pretty smart for a kid," Zeke mentioned. "He did survive in the tower for way longer all on his own."

"Zeke, there's a difference between surviving a deadly tower, and entering into the world of girls. There's just too wide a gap, mate."

"...Good point."

"Wow, you two are stupid," Janet narrowed her eyes at them, then in the other direction. "By the way, we should probably get back at the group. They're probably still freaking out about Zeke losing his arm."

"Shit, for real?" Zeke asked. "It's already back on and everything!"

"Explain that to them," Janet gestured with her head at the group.

Zeke went ahead to do just that, ensuring everyone that despite his dumb mistake, thanks to his training, he was able to handle it. He hoped that with this, it would motivate everyone to train and, more importantly, realize that mistakes like these can happen often if you slack off.

The pale looks on their faces proved that his plan worked. Taking a glance around, Mikella was nowhere to be found, and his heart clenched at the idea of Clara receiving advice on… boys.

He shook it off. He had enough of this conversation. If Clara wants to grow up, she has every right to do so. And Zeke had his own problems to worry about. Such as Tir coming up from the corner of his vision with a goofy smile on his face.

"Zeke! I'm done! It should be ready now!"

"Finally," Zeke said, getting into the swing of things. "Thanks Tir, I appreciate you taking over."

"It would be problematic for me if you kept messing up the rune process with your volatile emotions. It was actually way better for me this way."

Zeke had nothing to say to that. Tir had every right to complain, especially after that explosion caused by his own rampaging thoughts which should have been a clear calming river. Walking over to the project, Zeke marveled at the sight.

There was a large mythril barrier-created building standing in front of him. It looked like the size of a simple one room apartment from the outside, where one can't even see into thanks to the silver-white coloring of the barrier. But that's only if they weren't blinded by the intense mana radiating off of the many, many drawn rune arrays over it. Each rune had so much meaning drawn into lines creating more runes, using every single Class Skill Zeke had available.

Getting Tir's word that it was safe, Zeke approached a single rectangular-drawn door at the front of the barrier compartment. He actually pushed it aside, more like a sliding door rather than a swinging door, and entered inside.

He felt his own mana surge around him, actually giving him the shivers as he looked inside and just gaped at the sight.

He knew this would happen, he thought it all in his head; but to see it was different than imagining it. He can't imagine how many months and years it would take to re-create this kind of thing all on his own without Tir.

The inside of the small compartment was vastly different, as the interior was actually way bigger than what the outside showed. The space inside was expanded several times through the use of spatial runes that Zeke had a hard time using due to their hard processing capabilities. There was so much meaning within just one singular rune regarding the concept of space that it stumped Zeke even in his current state. Even Cloud, an experienced runecrafter with years on his hands, couldn't even touch on the rune without the Runist Class to support him.

Yet, the inside was as huge as a large warehouse, where several heavy machinery could take up more than half of the place, yet there was enough room to have a parade of people within.

The inside was nothing but white as there was nothing but the barrier surrounding the place, from the walls to the ceiling above. It was extremely barren, and if he was honest, it really reminded him of the show he watched last night with the others. That alone got him to giggle like a madman as he stepped inside.

"Tir, you've done it again. I don't know what I would've done without you."

"That's great, Zeke…"

Zeke immediately stopped, turning to the corner of his vision to find Tir not as energetic as before.

"Tir, what's wrong?" Zeke asked, concern rising in his voice.

"I'm fine, just… really tired. This took a lot more out of me than I thought. The more I try to run the magic process in your head, the more tired I get. I don't think I can stay awake right now…"

Zeke should've realized this sooner. How often was he putting Tir through such intense rune crafting all on his own? Even worse when Zeke messed up and Tir had to take over all on his own.

"I'm sorry, Tir. I should've realized this sooner. Can you take a break? Just… rest in my head so you can recover?"

He didn't know how Mind Constructs work in the first place. Even so, Tir was also a familiar, so it was possible there was a limit to his own power and just didn't know how far he could go.

Thankfully Tir didn't seem completely drained. He looked sleepy, his ears were drooping and it was very obvious that he was running on fumes.

"Yeah, I can do that," Tir nodded. "But if I do, I probably won't wake up for… I don't know. My mind's fuzzy."

"That's alright," Zeke said, pouring as much gentleness in his mind as possible. "Go sleep. Take as long as you want. Just let me know when you make a full recovery, alright?"

"Alright… just… don't get into trouble… without me…"

Tir said slowly, his voice becoming softer as he eventually slumped down to four legs, his head resting at the corner of his vision. The image of Tir disappeared from his vision, getting Zeke to realize that Tir disappeared into the confines of his mind.

He checked the status, seeing that there was a debuff on Tir. It was exactly as he predicted. He had 'Mental Exhaustion', something that mages often had when they kept casting multiple spells at once without breaks, only doing so when regaining enough mana to cast spells again.

The fact that Tir had it instead of Zeke made him realize that while Tir was using his mana like water out of a faucet, it didn't mean he wasn't affected by the side effects of constant casting.

He looked back within himself, not realizing just how much strain Tir was under since he didn't feel affected at all. He definitely felt his mana was reduced, being left at around a quarter of its usual pool.

He stepped back outside, seeing the dozens of otherworlders looking at the compartment in wonder. Janet and Lyle also looked with interest, so Zeke let them inside.

He wished Tir could've seen this, because their expressions were to die for. Their eyes were so wide they looked ready to pop out of their skulls. Some even felt dizzy from the amount of mana contained within the compartment, something that Zeke warned beforehand which got them to step out for a moment to relieve themselves of the mana dosage.

"Holy crap," Lyle said with a loud whistle, which actually traveled across the entire warehouse-like structure like an echo. "This is amazing, Zeke."

"It's stuff like this that really makes me wanna keep practicing runecrafting," Janet said, desire in her eyes as she really was dedicated in her runecraft skill training these past two weeks.

Zeke did as he promised, teaching Janet whatever he could, and he even included several hopefuls from the otherworlder groups. Unfortunately, it was too advanced for the otherworlders, leaving only Janet to take a good interest in it.

"This is all Tir's work, not mine," Zeke said, shame in his voice. "I couldn't do this even if I had years on my side."

"Still, Tir's a part of you, so you gotta take some credit," Lyle said with a shrug. "Plus, all of this mana's gotta come from somewhere, doesn't it?"

"True… just remember to thank Tir when he wakes up."

After asking about his condition, they worried about Tir's health as well. No matter how amazing Tir was, even he had a limit, something that Zeke needed to learn.

As the otherworlders gawked at the sight, Zeke went outside to try and see what else he could do before starting the training process for the folks inside.

There, he was shocked to find someone that he never expected to see.

"Hello there, Zeke," The man said, his arms crossed with an easy smile plastered on his young-looking face. "Nice to see how hard you're working these past few weeks."

"Cronus…" Zeke uttered, somehow dread filling his chest at the sight of the damn master in front of him.