Talia shouted “Mamá, no puedo creer que usted está realmente aquí!” as she swiftly embraced her mother in a tight hug. They had been separated for sixty years, so it wasn’t strange for them to be overcome by emotions.

However, Maria immediately pushed her daughter away and asked “Mija, how have you become so fat? You are not even one century old and you look like you have done nothing but stuff your face since last we met! Hmph~, rather than watching your child, perhaps I should be teaching you some discipline! Ah, I see now, it was merely the effect of an interesting Passive… What is this?! You, I cannot believe that you have not even reached the Intermediate stage of your swordsmanship! Advanced Archery?! What foolishness is this?! You have not even become an Elite and your level is still so low… Talia, come with me!”

The furious woman removed a five-foot long, jade-green straight-sword from the silver bracelet on her left wrist. After that, she grabbed the confused Huntress’ arm, dragged her over to the front door and quickly pulled her outside.

Michael muttered “Umm-kay then~, guess I’ll just give Rachael a bath or something? Ugh, being around other people’s overly-judgemental parents is always awkward… If I call her a bitch and punch her in the face, Talia would definitely get mad, but if I don’t do anything, she’d still get pissed at me. Better to just stay the fuck away from that disaster…”

 

Standing upon the mountain top were two High-Elves of almost identical height, though one of them was slightly overweight, while the other seemed incredibly lithe. Both of them took up fencing stances at the same moment.

Talia was wearing all of her gear, except for her bow; she held the transparent short-sword with only her right hand and her mother was in a similar position, a dozen meters away. “Mamá, we have not seen each other in half a century, yet the first thing you do is force me to have a duel with you?! If you were still alive all of these years, then why have you waited so long to find me?!”

Maria frowned, shouting “Hmph~, you believe that I did not wish to meet with you?! If you wish for someone to blame for our separation, then find that whore Sarina! There were many occasions when I attempted to escape from her clutches, but she would always know exactly where I was! Her power is unfathomable… I could never successfully uncover her level, rank or age!”

Then she shook her head and let out a long sigh, lowering her weapon and smiling wryly at her irritated daughter. She softly said “Besides that, by the time I was resurrected, ten years had passed and you were already an Adult. You seemed so happy with that strange Miguel boy, so I decided not to see you right away. Even your brother, Darius, had grown up without my guidance… However, his sister was still an Adolescent and I instructed her in the ways of swordsmanship. Then Sarina had a few more children; each of them was from a radically different Race, and she would always ask me to raise them in different parts of the world. It wasn’t until today that she visited me and my foster son ‘Roberto’, in the southern Arctic Continent. Without warning or explanation, she teleported the two of us to Luxiana and vanished.”

As her mother was speaking, the Huntress received a notification that her Passive had become more efficient. “Mana Retention Level 2: Able to store excessive amounts of mana within fat-cells, for later use. 2 pounds of fat will be ‘refined’ into 2 experience points, every hour.”

A smirk appeared on Talia’s pink lips, as she maintained her sword-stance. Then a formidable aura of Wind began circulating around the incredibly light High-Elf, nearly lifting her off of the ground. Even without the extra stats from her bow, she still had an extraordinary amount of power, which allowed her to contend with enemies that were much higher level than herself.

Unfortunately, her mother was in possession of a decent amount of Epic Quality items as well. Her jeans and blouse transformed into dark-brown, tight-fitting, leathery armor. Not only that, but once she revealed her ‘true form’, it was clear that there was a dramatic disparity in physical and magical capabilities.

“Maria the Babysitter, Level-52 Jungle Fairy Bladedancer, Rank-C, Boss,” had the appearance of a two-meter tall, thin young woman, with small breasts, green eyes, blonde hair, and long elven ears. The only thing that changed, were the glowing emerald, runic tattoos which appeared all over her face, arms, cleavage, and every other part of her pale skin.

Taking up a one-handed fencing stance, she grumbled “Sarina may be a cold-hearted, cruel, vicious, insane, puta and a truly terrible mother, but if it were not for her assistance, I would have died many times… Every time she ‘paid’ me, it was never in gold; she would deliver to me Rare or Epic Skill-Books, equipment and on a few occasions, she ‘trained’ me. I realize I was a little harsh with you earlier… Most elves would live contently for centuries, never surpassing level-twenty. For you to improve so rapidly, it is indeed quite impressive; however, it is not nearly enough. Gaze up there… It is a perfectly clear sky, yet there is something very important missing, correct?”

Two enormous yellow and red, butterfly-like wings erupted from Maria’s back and she began levitating a few meters off of the ground. Talia followed her lead and gently lifted upwards, while examining the ‘heavens’.

It only took her a moment to gasp and ask “Where have all of the stars disappeared to?! Not only that… the Moon seems quite stra-ah~! That, what is that?!” Behind the bright-blue Moon, was an outrageously large and terrifying object. If her perception wasn’t so astoundingly high, she wouldn’t have even noticed the mass of violet tentacles that wriggling around in the distance.

Then there was a dark-crimson gas-giant, which radiated a horrifying amount of fiery aura. There was a pitch-black ‘star’ not too far in the distance, next to a white-dwarf; as she looked around, she was even able to witness angelic and demonic beings, that were several miles tall, chaotically battling against each other.

She had watched similar scenes in Michael’s ‘Arcane Theatre’ room, but that was much different than seeing it with her own eyes. The wars had been raging for eons, yet they had never been so desperate and frantic in their conflicts. When they died, their corpses would either be devoured by their enemies or self-destruct. In the case where they accidentally came in contact with the outermost atmosphere of Arcana, they would be ‘consumed’ by the magical barrier and turned into pure-mana, for the planet to feast upon.

Maria smiled wryly, explaining “Those are other worlds and celestial beings… Sarina told me that they are competing. Their goal is to become new Gods and Goddesses; even with all of that power, they have yet to even reach the Demigod stage! Fortunately, most of those creatures are unable to descend upon Arcana… Yet, even when they send down ‘Avatars’, such as Helel and many others, they immediately have the power to decimate entire countries. Those monsters care not for the lives of ‘mortals’, and will not hesitate to trample upon the weaklings, in order to settle petty disputes among themselves.”

Talia shook her head, refuting “Even if they wanted to incite chaos and cause wanton destruction, there are far too many beings who are easily capable of stopping them. Otherwise, why would they just stay up there all this time? They are not allowed to act in such a way… However, I do agree with you that we must all strive to become more powerful! Rather than worrying about those creatures descending upon our world, you should be more concerned about the impending ‘Age of Noobdom’ that is rapidly approaching… Enough, I should not have neglected my swordsmanship for so long; let us begin!”

The Huntress soared forwards, thrusting her flexible blade towards her mother’s throat. With a casual flap of those enormous butterfly wings, the Bladedancer dove down, before ascending behind her daughter’s back.

That jade-colored sword swept out, slashing open the back of Talia’s leather jacket and leaving a thin gash across her upper-waist. The damage was practically nonexistent, though the pain was certainly unpleasant.

“Your reactions are so slow Mija~!” Maria taunted as she vanished into thin air; it was a spell called ‘Aerial Leap’, which could teleport her a great distance if she wished. Yet, in an instant, the Bladedancer reappeared above her daughter and a vortex of ferocious Wind aura coiled around her weapon.

Talia’s transparent sword whipped upward, smacking against the incoming attack and sending her body soaring downwards. However, a flurry of ‘Wind-Blades’ were produced from her mother’s sword; each of them followed the retreating Huntress for a dozen or so meters, before they lost their consistency.

Maria chuckled, diving down after her daughter and stabbing twenty-three times in quick succession. Each attack was parried, but the force from the blows was causing the chubby High-Elf to plummet towards the mountainous jungle.

She crashed into the branch of a huge blue tree, and an unprepared ‘Giant Praying Mantis’ was crushed to death all over the back of her jacket. After that, an enormous sword, made out of bright-green vines, nearly impaled Talia through the abdomen.

If it wasn’t for her newly acquired belly-fat, the damage would have been far more severe. The bruised and bloodied Huntress swiftly got up off of the ground and rolled forwards, avoiding a vicious, ‘Illusory Sky-Sword’, which created a crater in the dirt behind her.

At that point, Talia shouted “Enough! If you are going to use ranged spells, then what is even the point of this ‘training’?! Prepare yourself, because now I shall reveal my archery skills that you distain so much!”

The transparent sword suddenly transformed into a thin, jade, crystalline bracelet on her right wrist. Then a fairly mundane dark-green recurve bow materialized in her left hand; she immediately removed three arrows from her flowery-quiver, and fired them all directly upwards.

Every projectile was easily deflected by the smirking Bladedancer, who then teleported behind her daughter and attempted to slash open Talia’s spine. However, a leather-boot heel, swiftly landed on her relatively unprotected groin.

Maria groaned, as her face contorted in agony, but she didn’t completely lose her focus. A golden machete abruptly appeared in her left hand, and the woman flapped her butterfly-wings, to retreat backwards.

A slew of arrows swiftly began bombarding her, though she easily used her two weapons to either slice them apart or knock them to the side. Her blades were abruptly engulfed in copious amounts of Nature aura, and when she slashed out with both of them at the same time, a torrent of small beetles emerged from between the two.

Before they had the chance to reach her, Talia quickly created an ‘Arrow of Wind’ and annihilated them all. There was a massive explosion, as both mother and daughter took to the sky; engaging in a surprisingly deadly sparring match.