Sofiya Ivanova was about to use Stardust Guild's workout facility meant for rankers.
She was an Awakened ranker who had recently joined the guild. The guild was growing and it always had room for talented rankers like her.
This gray-haired beauty had just relocated. She stood about 5.10 ft tall and had a very attractive face. Her rosy skin and her icy cold aura would never cease to grab the attention of her audience.
With her toned body and prominent feminine curves, she would often garner men's attention around her. But that was not the only striking thing about her. Sofiya was a hard-working girl who knew that personal power reigned supreme at this age. She would often push herself to the extreme to progress further on her ranking journey.
It was her diligent work and her drive to achieve more that allowed her to step into the solid stage of the Awakened rank at a very young age. And she was only going to increase her pace of progress with time.
Today was no different.
It had been a while since she had joined the guild and. And it was her routine to sweat it out in the guild's gym facility before she dived into Gilaahan using the gear.
Sofiya accessed the array meant to be used as an entrance to the gravity-altering section of the gym. She didn't pay attention to the spectral notification that had popped in front of her– thinking that it was business as usual.
However, when she stepped into the gym, she found out that the chamber's gravity had been altered to extremes. She was almost brought down to her knees and her mana circuits were agitated because of the sudden change in the surroundings.
This was because gravity had been increased to 20 times the normal range. This was nearly the maximum amount of pressure an Awakened-ranked physique could handle.
Warning bells sounded in Sofiya's head as she looked for the reason for such a drastic change. Her eyes rested on a white-haired man who was lifting one of the heaviest runic weights he could find in the chamber.
"Who the fuck is this dick…."
Sofiya blurted out as she tried to get her blood flow in check. Her face had turned into a red tomato and one could say that her bladder had also been affected, making matters more difficult for her.
Sofiya could only see the white-haired man's exposed back. His shorts did not conceal what gym-rats called chicken legs.
One could say that Sofiya wasn't impressed. The man didn't have the required muscle definition on him for him to pull off such a stunt on her and look good doing it.
This white-haired man was also an Awakened ranker like her. Yet he was still in the gaseous stage of his rank. And from the looks of his mana signatures, it looked like he had just gotten out of a sickness.
The white-haired man stopped doing his reps and turned around. He looked at Sofiya with puzzled expressions before speaking in the same language she had used to call him a dick.
"This dick's name is Eren. Who might you be, Miss?"
Eren put down his weights and collapsed on the bench. It was as if he had only realized at this point that his leg muscles couldn't obey his orders anymore.
Eren looked like he had lost a lot of his body weight. His mana signatures were weak for someone of his ranking status. His cheeks had sunk and his cheekbones were showing. Even his ribcage didn't have any muscle or fat around it, making him look like he had been starving for weeks if not months.
Eren started sweating a lot after he sat down. He tried to channel his mana throughout his body. But extreme gravity made it difficult for him to recover quickly.
It was clear that he had pushed himself beyond his limits. And now that he had stopped to rest, he was facing the repercussions of his inhuman workout.
Sofiya was taken aback by Eren's words. Since she had used her native language, she thought that her uncalled-for insult would be ignored. But the man replied in fluent, street-smart Russian.
"Sofiya… Sofiya Ivanova. I don't want to toot my own horn... but I'm famous in the Stardust guild. How… how could you not have heard about me?
Where… where are you from? And why haven't I seen you until today?"
Sofiya sent her mana circuits into hyperdrive and forcefully shrugged off the negative effects of enhanced gravity. Her pride didn't allow her to be seen as the one who was struggling in front of a skinny-looking man.
Eren was catching his breath when he heard Sofiya's reply. He really didn't know who this girl was. So he took his sweet time to reply.
"Well… I have been MIA for quite a while now. This is my first visit to the guild in almost two years. So you'd have to forgive me for not knowing about the new blood."
Eren then smirked at Sofiya before adding.
"I don't want to toot my own horn either, Sofiya. But I'm sure you have heard about me as well.
Name's Eren Elijah Idril.
Nice to meet you."
Sofiya's eyes widened when she heard Eren's full name. She had an inkling that the name Eren sounded familiar to her. But hearing his full name and the fact that he had remained inactive for two years straight made her remember the news she had read about him.
"You… you are what they call the Last Spider."
Eren laughed when he heard his epithet from Sofiya's mouth. He knew perfectly well why most of the Stardust guild members thought that he was the last double-agent-like figure from the House of Spiders that didn't get eliminated in the guild wars two years back.
Eren smirked at Sofiya but didn't explain anything to her. Instead, he just looked at his barbell with runic weights attached to it. He pressed his lips together and stood up. With his shaky steps, he walked up to the equipment and bent down to pick it up.
"Lightweight baby!"
Eren said to himself before lifting the weights. Streaks of red lightning surrounded him when he did that. His aura intensified, causing Sofiya to get goosebumps on her skin.
"Madness."
Sofiya blurted out as she saw Eren increasing the gravitational force some more through the spectral array control. It was clear that the guy was as insane as she was, if not more so.
***
Eren took two years on Earth to wake up from his slumber. That was almost 14 years in Gilaahan.
His body had sunk into a vegetative state because of the stunt he had pulled before exiting Gilahan two years back. His body had made him a quasi-Rank-2 entity even before he woke up due to his breakthrough in Gilhaan. After waking up in his current state, he completed his breakthrough.
Eren could be said to be the weakest Awakened-ranked entity in existence because of his condition. Reese had looked after him while he was in a vegetative state. Otherwise, things would have been much worse for him.
When he woke up from his slumber, Reece couldn't stop crying. She felt like the guy had been given a new lease on life because she had almost given up hope.
Eren was visited by a lot of other Stardust guild members after that. The guild wasn't too happy with what it knew he did but couldn't prove it. As a result, it didn't show any favor to Eren, making Reece and others foot the bill for his sustenance and recovery.
After he awoke, the Stardust guild would have come after him hard. But the blast at the House of Spiders' base had sealed all its hope for pursuing the matter. It could only charge Eren a crazy amount for destroying his synth body.
Eren agreed to pay the amount silently without raising any objections. He knew that voicing his objections about why it was charging him more than ten times the normal amount was only liable to make matters worse. He would rather pay his dues and settle the matter forever.
After all, Eren knew he had the money to buy his freedom. He just needed to get his hands on it.
Eren wanted to leave the Stardust guild for good. He wanted to go ahead with establishing his mercenary squad.
He didn't even know what Lagartha and Ariadne were up to– his two squad members he had set free in Gilaahan. He could only hope that they didn't run away with the money that he had sacrificed so much for.
Eren needed to enter Gilaahan with his real body as soon as he could. And for that, he needed to get his body in top condition.
Eren's atrophied muscles couldn't be treated right away. And he didn't want to burden Reece any further by asking for specialized treatments. So he took a few days of rest to regain basic bodily functions before deciding he was fit enough to carry out his regime.
And carry out-- he did.
===
AN: Volume 04 Guild Wars concludes with this chapter.
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