323: New Year

New Year

"Two weeks passed too quickly." Miles sighed as he looked at his family. Rayen was in his embrace with her eyes teary, while others were seeing him off at the door.0

On New Year's Eve, his family, as always, dined together. The food was as good as he remembered. Adam also visited and they talked about many things.

After dinner, they exchanged gifts. Miles had already prepared gifts for all of them.

For Mercer, he purchased rare monkey wine that can rarely be found in Portal World. It cost him quite a lot of merit points. For Malcolm, he composed the technique he learned from Seven Finger Death Punch. Although it was only to Form-Rank, as of now, it was still a strong battle art.

For his mother, he purchased a pre-invasion painting with a woman barely smiling on it. Miles was quite dense when it came to the art, but the seller said it was a masterpiece back in the time.

For Merlin and Marcela, he forged rings with barrier elements. Although their tiers were low, because of his level, they were still protective items. Both of them had better barrier elemental items on them all the time, but it wouldn't hurt to carry a small protective ring as well.

For Adam, he successfully planted the tree he brought from the alien world. It was still a sapling, but it was growing anyway. It was one of a kind, so Adam liked it very much.

For Rayen, he forged a beautiful red armor with the speed element. It was the best armor one could see in Grunt-Rank.

Lastly, for Kenway, he passed him a sword technique he found in the academy. He asked Milosh if he could take it away, but Milosh wasn't petty with what he had. His goal was to make humanity stronger, so he wasn't against the idea of sharing.

Miles wasn't good with gifts, so he just put a lot of sentiment behind the gifts. Not much he could do, after all, he wasn't thriving financially and he was locked in the academy. Luckily, everyone liked their gifts a lot.

Miles also received their gifts. Mercer gave him a journal with his experience written on it. These were his life experiences through his military life including his advancement from Grace-Rank to Devote-Rank.

Although it was just a copy, and Merlin and Marcela got the same gift, Miles was still surprised that Mercer was thoughtful enough to get him a gift. Malcolm bought him a dagger made of sharpness element. It was forged by Cross Alloys and melted by Kenway himself. It was sharper than any weapon Miles had, but its tier was the pinnacle, so Miles could hardly use it.

Evelyn gave him a flash drive with her latest research. Mainly about mechs and elemental resonance. Although Miles learned how to merge orbs before her, he wasn't even close to her level when it came to scientific subjects. He was just lucky to find a method to merge orbs that were using elemental minerals.

Merlin bought him the sixth strengthening serum. It was way too expensive for him, and Merlin bought it to thank him. Miles allowed his brother to get a pretty decent passive ability after all. From the race with Quintus, he didn't earn anything else. Merlin got a passive ability and Miles got nothing.

Marcela, this time, got him a gift. It was a simple bracelet with electrical discharge that could recover a wristwatch's battery. It was a pretty thoughtful gift and surprised Miles. Although he didn't need it. Coin was now built with an electrical core, gold electricity on top of that. There was no way for him to run out of electricity, except in situations such as Dead Zones. Those were rare though.

Rayen didn't have any money and was still too shy to accept it from Evelyn. Her gift was an amulet she made herself. Miles accepted gladly and patted her head.

Adam's was research on botany. Miles was interested in plants lately, and his interests only increased after he saw the trees in the alien world. His uncle's gifts were also his notes about some of the plants that could be located in Portal World. He was grateful for that.

Kenway also gave him the techniques he perfected. His family and friends knew orbs and weapons were useless without personal strength, so instead of covering him with protective bubbles, they all chose to make him stronger. He wouldn't like it any other way.

After the new year, he still had a week. He met with Carl and Mae again for a quick meal. They exchanged some of the things they learned and chatted for a while and promised to meet again if Miles could come again.

Later, he met with Cale and other soldiers he met last time. They once again spent the day chatting and hanging out. Cale still invited him after that, and they met with Quinn and Lucy. Lucy was also Form-Rank now, and she was in the same stronghold with Quinn once again. Although Quinn wanted to create the hunting team once again, she wasn't the post commander anymore, and she couldn't.

The new stronghold they were in was Merlin's. Since he was there for such a long time, he had a team of his own. Quinn wanted to lead a hunting party of her own but she also wanted to hunt with Merlin. Thus she could only give up on creating her own and join Merlin's.

Miles also heard that Porseila wanted to join their team, but was kindly refused by Merlin. Quinn didn't like Porseila, nor did Merlin. Although Quinn said it only agitated her more, she couldn't care less.

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