"Pff, I bet you only wanted to brag.""Irena, how can you say that? Besides, aren"t you and Ivan together?"
"The two of you are together?", Pia asked with interest.
Both Ivan and Irena shook their head at the same time, surprising Greg, "How come? Doesn"t your training skill necessitate it?"
They had talked about their training skill before, so he knew about the requirements and had thought that they got together so they could fulfill them.
"Only in the later stages. For now, there isn"t any need to get together.", Irena explained. "After all we barely know each other."
Pia nodded when she heard that, "It is good not to be too hurried when getting into a relationship. Most of the time it will only lead to problems.", when she said that there was some sadness in her voice.
"Then could you tell us, how you and Greg have gotten together?", Irena asked in an attempt to divert the topic.
"Sure, but there isn"t really anything to it. We are have been neighbors ever since birth and our families are good friends too, so with time we just got together."
"Greg sure is lucky.", Serge mumbled.
"What do you mean?? And how come you are talking so much today?", Greg pretended to get angry at his friend"s comment but inside he knew that he was lucky to have such a girl as his girlfriend.
"Must have been some shock he got during his time in the dungeon.", Ivan speculated.
"Anyway, now that everyone is here, let"s talk about forming a group to go into the training dungeon.", Irena brought back the conversation to the main topic.
"What"s there to talk about? Let"s just meet tomorrow after school and try it out."
"Could you be more serious, Greg?", Irena reprimanded him. "At least we have to distribute our roles as well as decide the mode because after all, we could do Nightmare Mode if we want."
"Really? We can do Nightmare Mode?", Pia asked excitedly.
"You do know about it?"
"Of course. My teacher told me that, if I ever have the opportunity to do the Training Dungeon in Nightmare Mode, I definitely shouldn"t miss it. From what she explained, the available rewards are huge and there are some things that are only available in that mode."
"I too would like to try it.", Serge supported the suggestion to do the Training Dungeon in Nightmare Mode.
"Then is anyone against trying it?", Irena asked the other two at the table, who both shook their head, to signal that they didn"t have a problem with it.
"Alright, then that"s decided. We will do it in Nightmare Mode. Now to the distribution of the roles. Anyone has any recommendations?"
"Well, Pia has to be the healer. And I think you should be the group leader and as such be responsible for battlefield control. From what I have seen Greg isn"t the fastest but neither is he proficient in tanking, so he should be a ranged attacker. I got some experience in tanking, so I can take that role, while Serge can act as a melee attacker.", Ivan proposed. He knew how Irena, Serge, and Greg liked to fight from their usual training so he didn"t find it hard to find appropriate roles for them.
When they heard his suggestion, everyone nodded their heads. That was everyone except Pia.
"I don"t want to be the healer. This is either so boring or way to stressful.", she protested.
"But we don"t have anyone else who can use healing skills.", Irena remarked.
Pia nodded grudgingly, "Alright, but only as long as I got an attacker position too."
"Sure, but only ranged attack. Everything else is too risky."
"Alright, anything is better than nothing.", Pia still wasn"t happy, but she understood the thoughts behind the decision, so she accepted it.
After that, they continued chatting until it was time to go home. Before they broke up their meeting, Ivan asked Irena, "Do you have time tonight?"
"Huh? Why do you ask?", Irena didn"t expect the question and was a little bit fl.u.s.tered when she answered.
"My wife wants to meet you.", when these words left Ivan"s mouth, everyone who was already getting ready to leave, stopped whatever they were doing and stared at him.
"What?", Irena asked in astonishment. He hadn"t talked about what had happened during the break, so n.o.body knew about him having a wife. Quite the opposite, because they knew that he had gone through a hard reset, everyone thought that he didn"t have any family. Especially for Irena, getting to know that he had a wife came as a big shock. For she had to be together with him because of their training skill, so it directly had an impact on herself.
"Yeah, explain.", Greg too demanded an explanation. He was sure that when they had last talked before the break, there was no wife in sight.
Under their questioning, Ivan had no choice, but to tell them about how he had met Lara and Jane. When everyone heard that he even had a daughter, who wasn"t that much younger than him, they once again were shocked but this time they nearly broke out in laughter. After all, that image was just too funny.
"Wow, I would never have expected something like this. You sure are lucky.", Greg said in admiration.
Irena, on the other hand, felt relieved, when she heard about the way Lara and Ivan had met. After all their relationship was mainly because of something that had happened a while ago and which Ivan didn"t even remember. If he had just married, even after deciding to training that Training Skill together with her, while not even telling her about it, she would have been very disappointed.
"Alright, then let"s get going.", she readily agreed to meet her, since she too wanted to know how she was.
They said goodby to the others before leaving. Because Ivan still hadn"t gotten his driver license, he hadn"t taken a car to school but the subway. There was a station close to the school, from which a line drove towards the central hub, where they could take another towards the area the villa was at. Since it was such an upscale area, it had its own station, which was mainly for the employees, since the owners would have their cars.
All in all the drive required just above half an hour and while talking a bit more about what had happened during the break, they soon reached the villa.
"Wow, this villa is quite impressive.", Irena exclaimed in admiration when she saw the villa.
Ivan nodded. The first time he had come here he hadn"t really had the mind to admire it and after that, it had quickly become normality. But now her exclamation had once again made him admire the beauty of this villa.
He did lead Irena to the door and opened it. He had long since been added to the system, so he could enter the villa freely.
As soon as he opened the door, someone poked her head out of one of the doors on the second floor.
"Daddy!", she then screamed and came running down the stairs.
"Careful", Ivan indulgingly warned her, even though he knew that nothing would happen.
Jane wanted to throw herself onto him for a hug, but then remembered that she was still carrying a black cat on her arms.
Ivan smiled lovingly at her and then asked, "Aren"t you going to introduce us?"
"Right. Daddy this is Tess. Tess this is my daddy.", she then looked at Irena and then repeated his question in a curious voice, "Aren"t you going to introduce us?"
When Irena saw her cute behavior she had to smile and got down, so she was on the same height as Jane. "h.e.l.lo, I am Irena and you must be Ivan"s daughter, Jane, right."
"h.e.l.lo.", Jane politely greeted her back.
They had just finished their introduction when once again a door opened on the second floor and Lara entered the room.
"Ivan, you are here.", she greeted Ivan first, before looking at Irena. Then without saying anything she slowly came down the stairs and stood before her. "h.e.l.lo, you must be Irena. It"s nice to meet you."
Her voice and expression was calm, leaving one no way of discerning her feelings. Irena, on the other hand, seemed to be a bit nervous. Seeing that Lara laughed lightly and rea.s.sured her, "No need to worry. I"m sure Ivan told you how our situation came to be."
"Yes, he did."
"That"s good.", she paused and then turned towards Ivan, "How about you and Jane go play a bit. I"m sure she would love to really introduce you to Tess."
Seeing that she wanted to have a talk alone with Irena, he readily agreed and was soon pulled into one of the rooms by Jane.