New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1117: Can’t Wait To Be Home Alone

The group made it down to the tourism part of the mountain in record time, shortcuts being taken, risks flirted aplenty, and even some close shaves for falls into the chasms that dotted the mountainside.

But, all in all, they made it without anything much bigger than scratches and bruises.

Alexander fell back onto the wooden planks of the pavilion, transforming back into his human form only moments before reaching the upper pavilion on the mountain path, and panted heavily.

"Holy fuck… I didn't *gasp* remember the mountain *gasp* being so tall," he said, taking in lungfuls of air between his words.

Crashing next to him was Jonathan, who, regardless of his small stature compared to many in their group, had been the only one able to keep up with Alex's frantic pace through the wilderness.

"You *gasp* cheated! *gasp* You used *wheeze* your wolf form *gasp* to boost your strength!" he complained, sweating profusely.

Alex laughed out, even though he had very little air to spare for the action.

"Hey, I don't wanna hear that from you, you flying little shit," he grinned. "You almost had me until I turned. Even though I can use wind magic to propel myself, I don't understand how you can reach that speed with it," he added.

Jonathan grinned back, but didn't reply to his silent question.

"I guess I'm just that much better at it than you," he instead mocked.

Alex grimaced before going back to a big smile.

He started hearing the running footsteps of the others arriving, Kary landing on the pavilion planks first, her hair still flickering in flames. Alex could see the sweat evaporating off her skin, and her chest rhythmically rising from her quiet panting.

"You two are unbelievable. What if someone had seen the two of you blasting through the forest like that? A flying boy and a wolf man speeding down a mountain at breakneck speed. How would you have explained that, huh?" she admonished them, her breathing almost under control.

Using her flaming form was a lot less taxing on her body, so she wasn't as drained, but still, the scant amount of mana in the air preventing her expenditure from being compensated.

As the others slowly trickled into the pavilion, all of them clearly exhausted, except for David, Alex got back on his feet, brushing the dust and tiny tree branches from his clothes.

"Why are you maniacs so fast?" Cory asked, gasping like he was about to collapse and die.

A few grunts and groans followed, agreeing with his question.

"Hey, most of you don't have access to magic to boost your speed. That you even managed to follow so close behind is a feat in itself," Alex tried boosting their morale.

But it was a futile attempt. They were too tired to care about his attempted praise.

He looked over at David, who was watching them with an uncaring expression.

"What about you? I know you could have followed me and Jonathan. Why did you stick behind?"

David shrugged.

"Couldn't be made to care about your race. It felt childish and pointless. So I just followed behind the slowest. By the way, Rì-Chū, you need to work on that stamina. Demons aren't gonna care if you are tired when they run you down. Get in shape, buddy."

Rì-Chū looked at him with a mix of despair and anger.

"You act like I was slow on purpose!" he exclaimed, trying to defend himself.

But David was already walking away, not caring about the young man's reasons.

"As for you, you used a form that was inefficient for speed. Running? Really? You could have flown down with wings and saved yourself some energy," David tried admonishing Alex.

Unfortunately for him, the accused cared little about his rant.

"Eh. I could have teleported, too. But where is the fun in that?" Alex replied with a smirk and a wink.

David scoffed, walking past him toward the staircase that led to the base of the mountain.

"We've wasted enough time here. Let's head to the hotel so we can get away from here. I long for some peace and quiet," he commented, making it clear that social gatherings were truly not his cup of tea.

"You could at least try to hide your disdain for human interaction, you dick," Alex grumbled, clicking his tongue disapprovingly.

"I heard that, and no thank you. I would rather drink cold coffee and eat soggy cereal," David replied with a slightly mocking tone.

A few of them shuddered at the thought of soggy cereal, the pasty texture emulating itself in their mouths through imagination alone.

"Alright, alright. No need to get so graphic, Jesus…" Alex said, shuddering as the thought crossed him.

David walked down the stairs, a smirk on his lips, knowing his words had left an image in their minds. If he was forced to be uncomfortable around them, then it was only just deserts, right? 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The group slowly made its way down the rest of the mountain, acting like regular tourists in front of the locals.

And even though they were convincing to most, a few older couples looked at them with weird eyes. Most of them had spent the day on the different pavilions and hadn't seen these youngsters come up the stairs.

As for the group, they had yet to realize that it wasn't the same day anymore.

From the top of the mountain, Tian Kuo had a flash, suddenly remembering that he hadn't told his guests about the time dilation inside his pagoda.

Although it usually stretched the days longer for those inside, he had it set for the opposite lately, in hopes of being left alone for as long as possible.

"Oh well. I imagine they will find out before long. It's not like a few days will matter, right?"

It took them the entire descent before one of them thought to check their phone and saw the new date at the top of the screen.

"What the fuck?!"