The Mage of Primordial Chaos

Xiang Peng's past was a dark one. I didn't know the specifics of it, and honestly, I wasn't particularly eager to find out. There was no point in reopening the just-barely healed wounds of her past, after all. Besides, even if I didn't know the details, I already knew it had something to do with her 'friends'. Perhaps they betrayed her or something...but none of that mattered. She was fine now, since she had us - the other girls and I. Her lonely self was gone, replaced by her current one, surrounded by friends. I was genuinely happy for her. Not everyone was lucky enough to come across an opportunity to leave their past behind, after all.

In any case, after my little speech, she seemed to have fully left behind her old self. Unfortunately, she got a little bit too excited and pulled me into a hug, right as Mei GUi came back out...and now I was being misunderstood by my Chaos Elemental. I tried to explain, of course, but Xiang Peng shot down all of my attempts to do so. I could only hope Mei Gui didn't spill the beans to the other girls - that would be asking for trouble. Then again, Mei Gui wasn't really the type to snitch like that, thankfully.

Anyway, since all three of us had passed the third floor successfully, we decided to check it out. Pushing open the door, we entered one at a time, since the door could only allow one person through at a given time. We had to scan our library cards to verify our identity once again - this system was obviously flawed and a bit of a hassle, but it wasn't meant to be made for groups of people in the first place. Most people came here alone for individual study - after all, in the end, this place was still a library.

The first thing we noted as we entered the room was that there were considerably more people on this floor than the previous two. There was also a variety of races among them - I spotted Humans, Demihumans, Elves, Dwarves, and even a Vampire. Most vampires chose to hide their fangs, but this one didn't seem to care, and had his fangs out in the open as he sat at a table and read, engrossed in some book. He wore glasses, making him seem like the nerdy-type...though the two fangs jutting out of his mouth kind of ruined that image. Still, he seemed to be genuinely enjoying the book.

Other than this, I did notice that all the different races sat quite a distance apart from each other. It was kind of like an unspoken agreement between all the people on this floor at the moment - I didn't sense any hostility between the races, but there was still that racial borderline there. They didn't interact with one another, and instead mingled amongst members of their own race. Deciding to follow this commonly yet silently acknowledged rule, the three of us headed for a table where other humans were seated at, in an attempt to gather some more information on this floor. Since so far, the past two floors have both had a distinct topic of their own all the books there fell in, I assumed it was the same for this floor.

Hm...I said that we would be heading to the table where the Humans are sitting at, but technically speaking, Mei Gui is an Elemental. Most races of this world had their own charactersitics that identified them as that race, but Elementals didn't. They could come in all shapes and sizes...Mei Gui just happened to be a humanoid one that looked like...well, a human. Eh, whatever. These guys probably won't be able to sense anything off with Mei Gui anyway...save for the fact that she was perhaps a bit too introverted and quiet. We'll be fine. Probably.

Having made my decision, we continued heading for the table, and even when we got close, no one looked up at us. There were four of them at this table in total, but there were more Humans on this floor, of course. Just sitting in a different area. These four, two boys, two girls, seemed to be quite young, around the same age as me.

"Excuse me," I began. "I have a quick question. Do you guys mind answering?"

A guy with freckles and auburn hair raised an eyebrow, and looked up...but not at me. Instead, his gaze was directed at Xiang Peng. Her large breasts, in particular. Xiang Peng backed away slightly, hiding behind me.

Really? Xiang Peng, aren't you always making dirty jokes? What, don't tell me you can't even handle the lecherous gaze of a boy the same age as me.

"Sure," the freckled boy said with a grin, attempting to look handsome in front of Xiang Peng. "What's up?"

"Uh...we were just wondering what this floor's books are mainly focused on," I asked.

"Level One spells," a different boy answered. "And useless ones, at that."

He had black hair and wore glasses, and didn't even look up from his book as he answered us. "All of us beat the Gatekeeper for this floor yesterday. It was far too easy, so I didn't hold high hopes for this floor in the first place. Still, practically useless Level One spells are better than the books on Floor One and Two. We're just killing time here so we can rest up in preparation for the next Gatekeeper."

"Oi, Four-Eyes! The hell, just butting in to our conversation like that?!" the freckled boy from earlier stood up and roared in quite a loud tone unfit for a library.

"Calm down, Shi Yan," the glasses kid replied in exasperation. "You're disrupting everyone else on this floor, trying to get some reading done. And regarding your accusation, I don't recall these three newcomers here ever mentioning you even once. It wasn't your conversation in the first place. They were asking us - collectively, all of us. Therefore, I have every right to answer."

Hm. Calm personality and strong analytical skills. Not bad. This Shi Yan, on the other hand...seems to be a guy who thinks with his fists instead of his brain, or lack thereof.

"T-Tch...whatever!" Shi Yan sat back down, having no counter-argument to 'Four-Eyes', as he called it.

Now, all four of them were made well-aware of our presence, so the other four joined in the conversation as well.

One of the two girls of the group sighed. "You two...honestly, can't you stop bickering for two minutes?"

She had brown hair, a slightly darker tone than Shi Yan's auburn.

"We weren't bickering!" Shi Yan flew up once more, but met with the unimpressed stare of the girl, awkwardly sat back down.

The girl sighed once more, then turned to us. "Sorry about them. They're like fire and water. As you can tell, they really don't get along with each other."

"If that's the case, then why are you guys still sticking together?" Xiang Peng asked, confused. Shi Yan, hearing her voice, quickly spun around to look at her. She noticed this, and quickly dragged me in front of her as some kind of meat shield against Shi Yan's gaze. I sent her a look full of hatred, but she whispered in my ear 'I'll pay you back later', and that was that.

"Oh no, don't get us wrong," said a second girl with black hair and glasses. "The four of us are all friends. We all came to Shanghai from Huizhou, to try our luck and maybe get into Fragment."

"Huizhou, huh..." I murmured.

"Don't tell me, you're from there too?" the girl with brown hair asked.

I shook my head. "No, no. But we did pass by there on our way here. We're from Shenzhen."

"Wait, Shenzhen...isn't that the place that got destroyed by a bunch of monsters?" Shi Yan asked around.

"You dolt!" the other girl with black hair quickly interrupted. "That's their home, dummy!"

"O-Oh, sorry...that was insensitive," Shi Yan murmured, having been reprimanded.

Well, technically, that isn't Xiang Peng's home, but...whatever. No need to tell them that.

"It's alright," I replied nonchalantly. "I'm sure he didn't mean any harm."

"He didn't," Four-Eyes said. "He may be a dimwit sometimes, but Shi Yan isn't a bad person."

Shi Yan, hearing this, got fired up. "Y-You-!"

But before he could lash out, Four-Eyes continued.

"My name is Qian Zi You. You can call me Four-Eyes."

With that, the other group members began introducing themselves as well.

"I'm Yi Ling," the girl with brown hair said with a friendly smile and wave. "I go by Ling Ling most of the time though."

"Hong Qu Yuan," the girl with black hair said with a firm nod.

"You can call her Cherry," Ling Ling said with a wink.

"W-Wha-" Hong Qu Yuan, or rather, Cherry, seemed caught off guard at this.

"Oh, come on, where's the harm?" Ling Ling giggled.

Yuan Yuan sighed. "Yeah, you're right...sure, call me Cherry. I don't mind. Don't ask about where the nickname came from though. I'll kill you if you do."

"R-Right," I muttered.

Don't ask her about the name or she'll kill us. Duly noted.

And lastly, the final member of their quartet:

"I'm sure you know already, but...the name's Shi Yan," he said, then raised his hand out towards Xiang Peng hesitantly. "N-Nice to meet you."

Geez...I'm standing right here and he decides to try and handshake the person behind me? Nice one, chief.

Since his extended hand clearly wasn't meant to me, I didn't take it. Xiang Peng seemed to have no intention of taking it either, despite knowing full well it was meant for her. Shi Yan, realizing that he had been silently rejected, awkwardly retracted his hand. The remaining three members of their little group, seeing this, collectively sighed, perhaps embarrassed for their friend.

"Well, since everyone's done introductions...I suppose it'll be a bit rude if I didn't do the same," I said calmly. Straightening my cloak, I continued.

"My name is Xuan Kai. Pleasure."

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