System's POV
chapter-446

"It has been a while since our house was this lively," Gerald said as he raised his cup of soda. "But I'm glad that you guys are here. Eat up, and enjoy your stay."

"Cheers!"

"""Cheers!"""

Viola, Sharon, and Louise assisted Thirteen's mother, Alessia, in the kitchen, allowing them to prepare many dishes without much problems.

Just like what her husband had said, it had been a while since they had these many guests inside their house.

Fortunately, their house was quite spacious, thanks to renovation. They even had six guest rooms available just in case people visited them.

Since a room could fit three people, there was more than enough if everyone shared the rooms.

Thirteen had already talked to his mother about it and told her that he didn't mind if Shana and Rianna used his room instead.

He could just build a tent in their backyard, which was something he usually did.

Remi and Rhia enjoyed camping with him, and since they were inside their property, they were relatively safe from outside influences.

Everyone ate, and even Roland seemed to have calmed down after his spar with Thirteen.

When lunch ended, Thirteen took out his camping gear and started setting up a tent in their backyard with Remi's help.

"You plan to camp out here?" Viola asked with amusement.

"Yes," Thirteen replied. "It has been a few months since I last camped with my sisters, and they really liked doing it."

"Then, can we join too?" Sharon asked. "Do you have more tents available?"

Thirteen nodded. "We do."

"It's been a while since I went camping as well," Derek commented. "Sounds like fun. I'll join too."

Soon, four people accompanied Thirteen to get three more tents in the storage house near his Father's smithy.

"Bruno, can you help us carry these things?" Thirteen, who saw the Ogre taking a nap outside of the Smithy, decided to ask for his help in carrying the tents and other camping gear to the backyard.

Bruno had now become Gerald's Familiar and had learned the ways to become an intermediate Monster Smith.

The Ogre nodded and helped take out the tents inside the storage, which Thirteen's family used whenever they went camping.

Mikhail and Shasha had tents of their own, while Gerald and Alessia shared a tent.

A flurry of activity started in the backyard as Thirteen and the Valkyries set up their tents, lining them up side by side.

Derek, who was planning to use Mikhail's tent as his own, was also setting it up by himself.

As one of the members of the Hero Party, there were also times when they had to camp, and he was usually the one assigned to make it.

In the span of half an hour, four tents were lined up together near the fire pit which they planned to light up.

"You guys are making us look bad," Rianna commented with her arms crossed over her chest. "We are going to sleep in the guest rooms, while all of you are going to have an impromptu camping event. I say, this is unfair treatment."

Shana, who was standing beside her sister, wasn't someone who liked to sleep in a tent. But for some reason, she found this setup quite appealing at the moment.

"You want to set up a tent as well?" Thirteen asked with a frown.

"You bet I do," Rianna replied. "Camping is one of the things that all Wanderers must get used to."

"Well, you're not wrong. But why would you want to camp with us when you can just rest in the guest room?" Thirteen blinked.

"What else?" Rianna replied. "To create beautiful memories, of course."

"There's nothing beautiful about camping and looking up at the sky, seeing shooting stars fall," Thirteen replied, which made Rianna lightly bump his head with her fist.

"Don't say such ominous things," Rianna said in annoyance. "You're ruining the mood."

Thirteen lightly massaged the place that Rianna had hit before heaving a sigh.

Back on Earth, stargazing was a popular hobby. But in Pangea, no one thought of it as beautiful.

The skies above their heads were different. Shooting stars were common, but they only showed up whenever a Wanderer died.

Something that was once considered beautiful was now an omen of death, and not many people would like to see such a thing.

In fact, during the night of the Solstice, on the longest night of the year, many people didn't want to look up in the night sky because they would see countless shooting stars falling from the heavens.

"You're right," Thirteen replied. "I was being insensitive."

The teenage boy then tapped the communicator on his wrist.

"Yes, Young Master. Is there something I can help you with?" Hans said as soon as he accepted Thirteens' call.

"We have some guests here in our residence, and they decided to go camping with us," Thirteen answered. "Do you have spare tents? I will need one… no, make it four tents. Also, can you steal some of Gramps' high-quality meat? A few kilos will be nice."

"Understood, Young Master," Hans stated. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you, Hans," Thirteen said. "See you later."

After ending the call, the teenage boy shifted his attention to Rianna, who seemed to be satisfied with his arrangement.

Now, all they needed to do was wait for the tent to arrive.

Of course, their activity was not missed by the Hero Party, who had also arrived at the campsite with genuine interest.

Roland and Joshua seemed to have gone to the Smithy to talk to Gerald and check out the armaments he had on display.

Since the Hero and the Sage were away, Derek was more lively than usual.

"Master, are you really going to train me tomorrow?" Derek asked.

"Yes," Thirteen replied. "Since I don't know your level of proficiency, we will be doing some standard tests. Have you used a GANDAM before?"

After hearing the word GANDAM, the smile on Derek's face widened before patting his chest with confidence.

"Of course, I have, Master," Derek answered. "In fact, I am one of the Top Rankers in the Heaven Rankings."

"What rank are you?" Thirteen arched an eyebrow.

"Well, I am Ranked Eighth in the Heaven Rankings below the age of twenty," Derek replied. "My GANDAM name is Sword Meister 41."

"Ah, so you are indeed one of the Top Rankers." Thirteen nodded. "Not bad."

GANDAM, or better known as General Augmented Nexus for Defense and Assault Mobility, was developed by a company that went by the name Noiz.

It was an upstart company that was only established three years ago.

And yet, it had become one of the leading manufacturers of the GANDAM Neuro-Link, which served as a Virtual Reality fighting game.

It had become very popular, and the technology used for it was groundbreaking.

"Tomorrow, we will set your parameters to the lowest level and disable your skills and other abilities as a Wanderer," Thirteen stated. "In short, you will be fighting with only your raw strength. I want to see if your foundation is solid or not."

Diana, who was listening quietly to the side, nodded her head in understanding.

Ever since the GANDAM was introduced in Pangea, it had become a popular tool for teaching the younger generation how to fight.

Since the pain that one would feel in the battles was real, it was a good way to test one's limits without worrying about having their real body suffer serious injuries.

In fact, the performance of GANDAM had become more smooth in the past few months due to a recent upgrade by the company.

However, one big mystery remained.

No one knew who the CEO of Noiz was because he always wore a mask during online interviews.

"Master, why wait for tomorrow when we can do it now?" Derek, who was suddenly pumped up by the idea of showing off his skills to his Master, smirked. "Let's strike while the iron is hot and start our training right now."

Thirteen pondered for a bit before nodding his head.

"Very well. But since we just finished eating, let's wait for Hans to arrive," Thirteen commented. "Once we set up the remaining tents, we can start our training right away."

"Alright!" Derek made a guts pose showing how happy he was.

Thirteen chuckled internally at his "new" disciple because he knew that after the day was over, his happiness would soon disappear, completely replaced by despair.