Alchemist In The Apocalypse: Rise Of A Legend!

Elves and Dwarves

[Ace POV],

It was already dark when we left the true world, but it was bright in the alternate dimension.

The time difference between the alternate dimension and the true world was unknown to me till now, but I was pretty sure it was measured in hours.

This means that an hour in the true world occurs only after a certain number of hours have passed in the alternate dimension.

It remained to be seen whether this was true or not.

As I repositioned the sleeping Mia in my hands, I got closer to the area where I noticed the magic arrow was being shot at, and it was exactly as I expected, Emma and Chris were back.

And looking at them in the distance, it was clear that the one who shot the magic arrow with no direction was Chris because it appears from the scene I'm seeing that Emma was teaching Chris how to cast a neutral spell given the large book I can vaguely see in her hands from my vantage point.

It should be the neutral magic grimoire.

As I thought about these things, I moved closer to the two ahead of me, and when Anna and I got a certain distance away from them, Chris and Emma stopped what they were doing and noticed us.

Emma was the first to turn around, and I was the first person she saw among the two of us on our way there.

When she first saw me, she raised her hand awkwardly to wave at me for some reason, and I responded in kind by waving back at her.

Following this, she turned to wave at Anna beside me, to which Anna also waved back.

Chris turned around slightly after this exchange ended and, unlike Emma, raised his hand to wave at me energetically to greet me, and I responded in kind by raising my free hand to wave at him calmly.

He greeted Anna by waving as well.

This method of greeting was used due to the relatively long distance between all of us, and perhaps it was initiated because no one wanted to bother shouting.

Even so, it only took a few seconds for us to get closer to Emma and Chris.

"You guys sure took your time," Emma remarked as soon as we got closer to each other.

I wanted to refute her claim because I could still remember sleeping the entire night waiting for you two and Anna.

But, after considering the added stress of saying this, I decided to remain silent and continue to listen to what Emma had to say next.

But the next words she said reminded me to stop worrying about the fact that most of the things that come out of the girls' mouths around me will always be important and make sense.

These girls, especially the one next to me, are strange.

"When did you start feeling comfortable with Mia being so close to you?" With a smile, she inquired.

While I was intrigued that she had noticed, I was perplexed as to why she would bother with such trivial matters.

And Chris's ability to cast a magic arrow that was exactly the same neutral spell I  attempted to cast before must imply that he has already made progress in spell casting.

Is this because Chris is more talented in magic than I am, or because I am stupid enough to not fully understand, and possibly misunderstand, Emma's teaching about casting spells?

While I was planning to ignore Emma's words, Anna spoke up, and the words she said piqued my interest slightly.

"Oh, Emma!"

"What a lovely necklace!" Anna exclaimed as she examined an object on Emma's neck.

After hearing what Anna said, Emma subconsciously reached out to touch the necklace around her neck before opening her mouth to speak.

"Eh" "I actually have something to tell you guys," Emma said in a tone that piqued Anna and my interest enough that we moved closer to her while I handed Chris the sleeping Mia in my arms.

As these things occurred, Emma slowly removed the necklace from her neck under Anna and my confused gaze, but when she brought the necklace closer to us, the slight confusion on our faces vanished as we became interested instead when a panel appeared in front of me, and the same might have been true for Anna as well because her eyes appeared a little lost.

I ignored this and read about the necklace with the blue gem pendant, which turned out to be a treasure.

...…

[Rank 1 High Rare Grade Protection Amulet],

Reduces 70% of the damage caused by unavoidable attacks in the rank 1 range and 10% - 30% of the damage caused by unavoidable attacks in the rank 2 range.

The amulet function is only usable three times per day.

Number Of Chances Remaining: 3.

........

"Wow"

"A Rank 1 item"

I turned to face Emma, ignoring the murmur of Anna beside me.

I didn't have a questioning expression on my face, but I was confident that Emma would have gotten the message regardless of my expression, and I was correct.

Emma was under no obligation to tell us anything about her adventures or treasures.

The same was true for the rest of the team.

It's similar to how they don't know about my encounters with humans and earth rats, or the runes I'm beginning to create.

It's not because I wanted to keep this a secret or because I chose not to tell them.

It was simply because I didn't have the time, and aside from the runic bone dagger, I didn't see the point in telling them about the others.

Perhaps they all had their own that they didn't share, but for Emma to show us that the necklace on her neck wasn't ordinary and even had a higher value than its fine appearance, she wanted us to know so that means we could also learn about its origin.

At least know a little about it.

As these thoughts raced through my mind, I concentrated on what Emma was saying.

"You might not believe me, but this was given to me by someone," Emma said with an awkward expression on her face, which was understandable because when Anna and I first heard what she said, we thought it was unbelievable.

For one who was wealthy enough to gift a rank 1 item?

Was it a ruler?

But are kings powerful enough to bestow Rank 1 items as gifts, or did Emma do something to merit it?

It's still unbelievable that Anna and I had to turn to look at Chris to see if they were both making a joke, but when we saw Chris even nod to what Emma said, our thoughts only went so far.

As I considered the reasons why Emma would be given a rank 1 item, Emma opened her mouth again to speak, and I immediately turned to listen to what she had to say.

Same with Anna.

"You may find this unbelievable, but this item was also not given to me by a human," Emma said, awkwardly smiling as she spoke.

But what exactly is this now?

You stated that you received a rank 1 item as a gift, and now you claim that the item was not given to you by a human?

What drugs do you use, and who is your dealer?

A monster should not give a gift, so who will-

'Wait!'

When I got to this point in my thoughts, I had a sudden suspicion of what Emma meant it wasn't a human who gave her the rank 1 item gift, given what Anna had messaged me earlier, and Emma's next words confirmed this.

"The dwarves gave me this necklace," Emma said slowly, as it took me a moment to process what she said.

'Dwarves?'

Hmmm.

'I wonder if it's what I am thinking and it's the same as Anna's', I thought as Anna beside me spoke.

"Dwarves? Not Elves?" Anna expressed surprise in her voice.

Seeing this made me believe that she was also thinking about who gave Emma a rank 1 item when she said it wasn't a human who gave it to her.

Her words, on the other hand, drew the attention of Emma and Chris, who both turned to look at her as soon as she finished speaking.

"Elves?" Chris muttered as Emma turned to speak.

"Did you see them?" Emma asked, and when she saw Anna nod, she asked for their appearance description, and after Anna told them about the elves she met, she asked Emma and Chris to describe the dwarves they met.

We all turned to look at each other after Emma asked Anna for help putting her necklace back on.

After hearing everything my teammates had just said, there was only one thought that came to mind.

"What in the world is going on?" I thought as I began to wonder what the future had installed but one thing was for sure though.

It wasn't going to be quiet.