I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100

"I don't think he's–"

Lance cut himself off when he felt something from afar. "He's at the guild!"

Frederick grit his teeth and fired multiple asteroid-like attacks on the earth dragons. The others got out of the field when the sky cleared and the attacks fell.

"That darn rat," Frederick hissed and blasted himself to the roof of the guild house.

His teammates followed him, speeding up like they were running for their lives.

"We can't let them talk," Lance said.

"Do you think we don't know that?" Luck retorted. "Him talking would cause a big tilt and we can't let that happen."

'It already did.' A voice whispered inside their heads that made them fly even faster.

They got to the tower and saw the worried faces of Elliot's friends and Elliot looking back at them. Lance walked over to him.

"Elliot–"

"Why… didn't you tell me," Elliot said with a hushed voice.

"Elliot, whatever the man told you–"

"No," Elliot cut Midnight off.

Frederick sighed, "Kid, don't–"

"You're Pentos, right?" Elliot asked. He turned around at beamed at them. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Err," Lance scrunched his face. "What?"

"Well, he didn't directly said it but there's five of you, and Pentos has five members. And isn't it suspicious that you're all so strong and you hide under the nose of the Royal Family? It all makes sense!" Elliot grinned.

Luck burst in laughter. "Pathetic. Why would you think that?"

Elliot scoffed, "You don't have to lie."

"What about the man who gave Hope to Lance?" Frederick asked. "Surely he told you that the man was a member of–"

"Midnight!" Elliot cheered. "That was you!"

"Most definitely not," Midnight said. "Do you even know how old the Pentos members should be right now? Besides, that man used Light affinity, it could not be me."

They swore they saw the hope died from Elliot's eyes after the realization hit him.

Lance chuckled, "Pentos was disbanded almost two decades ago. If they were to be at least 18 years old at that time, they should still be almost fourty right now."

"And excuse me, I'm still 28," Midnight scoffed. "Sun is also just 23 and Lance is just a year younger. How could we become members of Pentos?"

"Oh," Elliot sighed. "Argh! I had hope!"

"Did the man not tell you anything else?" Frederick asked rather nervously.

Elliot shrugged, "Beats me. I was lost in thought after he said that you guys were Pentos."

A sigh of relief escaped from the guild master's lips. Elliot then run up to him.

"You're not lying about your ages, aren't you?" Elliot narrowed his eyes.

"I would be almost 40 and Luck is almost there," Frederick chuckled nervously. "That's our real age, swear."

"Okay," Elliot said. "I'm just disappointed. I wanted to ask them for advice and inspiration. Argh! That man fooled me."

Luck and Frederick both got out of Elliot's rants and walked down the stairs of the tower.

"Your spell worked," Frederick said. "Now we don't have to worry."

Luck sighed, "You better treat me for dinner. Long distance cast takes a toll on my old bones."

"I'm sorry for telling your age," Frederick said. "But that's not important."

"He will be back for sure," Luck sighed. "Annoying. And he's Level 104 now? That's not fair."

"He already became voracious," Frederick said. "Let's just hope he doesn't go for Elliot again. He must not know. Not yet."

"Yeah, yeah," Luck said. "Time is the only enemy we have for now."

Frederick held a pendant he kept close to his heart. He gripped the pendant like he was holding on for his life. "It is."

–

"Come to me, APRIL."

"Let's go destroy Pentos together."

"They're incoming."

"Pentos is coming."

Elliot's head was filled with nothing but the words of the man. He talked in between pauses, like he was waiting for a reply. Or like he was talking to someone.

It also showed that his race was an Angel.

"Is that like a reverse of an Infernal?" Elliot asked himself and rolled on his bed.

He didn't tell anyone about what he knew. The five pioneer members of Azure Scorch knew something and they weren't planning on telling Elliot anything. He thought it was only fair that he didn't tell them about what he knows.

The thing that lingered in his head the most was how the man looked at him. It was as if he was looking right through Elliot's soul. The way he called Elliot's adventuring name sent shivers down his spine.

"Who was that man?" Elliot mumbled. "And how does he know about the Manual?"

It had been two days since that encounter and oddly enough, everything seemed normal.

Elliot had closed the thought of the pioneers of Azure Scorch were part of Pentos. His theory was flawed. Besides the age, Sun is still below Breakthrough. It was clear as day that each member of Pentos had maximized their levels and skills.

They were basically invincible.

With a disappointed sigh, Elliot walked out of his room and into the guild house.

"This… Comet is…" Connor grunted, tugging a quest from Ethan. "Ours!"

"You always have the Comet quests, leave some for us, won't you?" Ethan barked and pulled the paper.

Glitch walked out of his booth and smacked the back of the heads of the other two. "What the hell are you two doing? You'll tear this quest in two!"

"It's his fault!" Ethan pouted. "It's been a long time since I went to a Comet quest because they keep on stealing it."

Connor snickered, "Well, if you weren't so slow, you wouldn't have missed every quest that were posted here!"

Ethan scoffed, "Whatever. Glitch, who should have this quest?"

Glitch's eyes widened, he let out an awkward chuckle before he ran to his station with the quest.

"Hey!" Connor called.

"Let it go, Connor," Lance sighed. "Let's go on a Meteor for now. I know it's not much, but at least we would still take on–"

"Let's go to the City of Hotsprings!" Elliot cheered, suddenly remembering a famous tourist spot he always wanted to go to when he was still a baker.

"What's so special with that place?" Connor pouted. "I could put you all in a big cauldron and boil the water just enough if you wanted a hot bath."

"I heard Aquaria is a very beautiful place filled with hotsprings, and–"

"Women!" Ed cut Elliot off.

"I was going to say 'delicious food', but I guess they do have pretty girls there," Elliot said.

"Then let's go!" Lance clapped his hands. "After everything that's going on, we need some relaxation."

"We need more than relaxation," Ed uttered. "We're men. We have a lot of pent up feelings, especially me. I haven't gotten a taste of a woman in weeks now."

"I don't want to reach thirty," Connor whispered to Elliot that made Elliot choke on air.

"Same," he responded.

The morning came and they set out to their journey to Aquaria, the City of Hotsprings and Relaxation. The journey will take them at least four days on foot. Since Lance felt generous, he rented a wagon, cutting their trip to one and a half days.

"Let's camp right here," Lance said, stopping at the plains. "We will get to Aquaria tomorrow by noon or afternoon if we get delayed."

They hopped out of the wagon and started camping. Hope and Ed gathered the rocks while Connor lit the campfire and Elliot prepared their meal. Lance was working on something and the others just let him.

"Okay, I called a friend there," Lance informed. "I already booked our inn there. We'll stay for three days or more. Depends on how everything goes."

"I hope it would go fine," Hope sighed that made Connor cover his mouth.

"Don't jinx it," Connor said. "Let's all not keep our hopes up. You never know when an emergency might happen."

Just when he said that, an explosion burst from afar. A series of yells followed.

"A village?" Elliot asked.

Connor covered his face with his hands. "This is what I've been talking about."

"Sorry," Hope gave Connor an awkward grin.

"Now, you've learned your lesson," Connor raised his index finger. "Don't say 'everything's going to be okay because it won't'."

"Yes!" Hope said.

"Let's check it out," Lance said and wore his equipment. "It maybe something that's not so big–"

Connor covered his mouth, looking at him dead in the eye. "Don't. Jinx. It."

A roar echoed from the village. A sound of large flapping wings followed it. This made Connor cry.

"Why does it have to be a dragon?"