“… I can’t believe you are still alive.” Lilia had an expression of incredulity when she saw Aleen.

Aleen smiled wryly. For some reason, he got the feeling that Lilia was looking at him as he was some kind of monster.

“Glad to see you too, Lilia.” Aleen said.

Lilia stared at him with a curious expression. She moved her gaze through Aleen’s body as if trying to find proof that he was not real.

“… How did you survive THAT?” Lilia exclaimed, pointing to the cloud of dust that had not disappeared yet.

Aleen just shrugged his shoulders and did not explain.

At that moment, a male voice sounded from behind Aleen.

“Damn, I did not see you in a few days and you already got a chick. Buddy, can you tell me your secret?”

Lilia wrinkled her brows to the newcomer. “Hey! What are you insinuating?! I’m a married woman! Although, I don’t mind having a tryst with you.” Lilia winked to Aleen.

“Huh?” Clane put on a startled expression. He then looked at Aleen and gave him a thumbs up. “Buddy, you are a man of culture.”

Aleen’s expression cramped. He already thought about this before, but neither Lilia not Clane seemed very reliable people.

On the other hand, he was a bit surprised that Lilia was already married.

Aleen heaved a sigh and pointed to Clane. “Lilia, he is Clane. Clane, she is Lilia.”

Clane nodded at Lilia with a smile, but when Lilia heard Clane’s name, her expression froze.

“… It can’t be, are you Clane Greia? The Irregular?”

Clane smiled radiantly and nodded. Lilia was completely stunned and looked towards Aleen with a perplexed look.

“I met him when fighting Malconi.” Aleen replied off-handedly.

Lilia was speechless. For a brief while, she did not know how to react.

But quickly, she became excited.

“Mr. Clane, will you be part of our team?”

“I plan to. Why?”

“Does it mean our team has two irregulars now? Then, we are kinda invincible, right?”

“Now that you say it, I think you are right.” Clane nodded.

“Hey, I’m not an Irregular.” Aleen said, but both Clane and Lilia ignored him.

Strangely, Lilia and Clane quickly became close. Aleen wondered if Clane did not know Lilia was a succubus, but it seemed as he knew but he did not care.

After they made their introductions, the group departed. Lilia was a bit disappointed when she learned that Malconi escaped, but she quickly forgot about it. It was not so easy to kill an Irregular after all.

The group walked until it was night. Now they were a group of three, even fewer beasts dared to attack them. Aleen was a bit disappointed about it, but to be honest, most of the beasts were too weak to be useful.

When it was night, Clane proposed to rest. Aleen and Lilia nodded and took their tents out of their space rings. Clane had his own tent, so nobody had to share one.

Once the tents were ready, Clane lit up a fire in the middle of the camp. Aleen had not dared to lit up a fire when he was alone, so the change was welcome.

The group then prepared a bit of food and began to talk about different topics.

After a while, Aleen asked something to Clane.

“Clane, can you explain to me about cultivation? I’m a bit curious.”

Clane looked at Aleen strangely before agreeing with a smile.

“Of course, what do you want to know?”

“To be honest, I just know the basics.”

Lilia also put on a curious expression. Both she and Aleen were enlightened, so they did not know much about cultivation or magic.

Clane thought for a moment and nodded.

“… Cultivation is an entirely new path compared to Enlightenment and Magic. Actually, Enlightenment and Magic have a few similarities between them, but Cultivation is almost completely different.” Clane said while looking at Aleen and Lilia.

“Enlightened have skills, and mages have spells. But cultivators don’t have anything like that. Instead, we only have our mana.

“We, cultivators, train our mana to the limits. We form a mana core in our dantian and use it to power our techniques. Every time our mana core surpasses a limit, we must break it and compress the mana inside a smaller core. That process is called 'breakthrough', and each breakthrough allows us to ascend one level.

“Unfortunately, the enormous amount of mana in our bodies impedes us from forming skills or spells. If you become a cultivator, you can’t be an enlightened or a mage. Of course, there are exceptions, but anyone that pulls off something so crazy as walking in two paths at the same time is definitively a very powerful irregular, a monster.”

Aleen fell silent hearing that. He was very interested in cultivation and magic. Cultivation and magic are both very famous on Earth, so he could not help but have high expectations of them.

But hearing Clane, most of his hopes about becoming a cultivator or a mage were dashed.

Clane noticed Aleen’s expression and smiled. “Take this.” He touched his bracelet and passed something to Aleen’s bracelet. “It’s a cultivation method, the most basic one. You can study it if you want. Who knows, perhaps you can find a way to cultivate it.”

Aleen smiled wryly but accepted the gift. To be honest, he was a bit excited. Of course, he knew that the possibility of becoming a cultivator was almost nil, but hey, dreams are free.

The group continued chatting until late at night. Afterward, they went to sleep. Clane said that it was better if the three of them took turns to keep guard. After all, although the tents had alarm magic, such magic was not completely flawless.

They agreed to the plan and Lilia took the first guard. Aleen and Clane then went to sleep.

But in the middle of the night, Aleen was startled awake.

Inside his pocket, the transmitter he received from Leona was beeping.

“… Aya.” Aleen instantly stood up.