[1.FIN] That One Guy: I'll Take You On For A Lap. How About That?

As I was about to touch Iris, she immediately went back to my necklace, "What just happened?"

Iris replied, "Ah... You only have a certain amount of time for summoning someone. My guess because your soul is still unstable, you can't summon me for too long."

That felt somewhat hurt. Was my soul unstable? Like, how should I know that?

"Sir", Jazxy called me out, "We have prepared a list for you to do in real life. We will begin our next training shortly."

My face had the biggest frown after hearing that. I looked at my alarm and said, "Jazxy, I'm just woken up. It's still seven am."

 I knew Jazxy wouldn't listen. Instead, "I know, sir, isn't this exciting?"

I turned to ask him to drag him out of practice. I asked, "Are you okay after talking with Kio yesternight?"

"Just a minor talk, sir. We are okay now."

Without any warning, Kio shouted, "NO! We are still in a fight!"

Jazxy continued his statement while ignoring Kio, "Anyway, I thought we were going to do it earlier, before lots of people came outside."

"You know what, Jazxy. I will do it."

"Wonderful, sir, we'll..."

I cut jazxy and said, "But I'm just going to do Harvey's training."

I could feel Harvey's blush, "Huh? Me?"

"Yesterday, you didn't really talk to me that much and only asked me to run, right? I thought I would like to do that this morning."

I didn't get a response from her. I wonder why, even from others.

"Okay, then. I'll do my morning routine first before going running."

The clock reached eight-thirty. I finally readied to do a run.

I had to say, when I was doing my routine, no one talked to me. It made it super awkward. It was like I knew people were watching me, but I couldn't say a thing.

"Hey, master", Harvey decided to talk, "Before you run, you should stretch first. We don't want you to hurt yourself in the process of running."

I quickly respond, "Yeah, I will."

I did what Harvey asked me to do at the park near my apartment. Sure enough, no one at the park this morning. I did some stretching, and then I ran around the park. In just an hour, some of my neighbours saw me and greeted me. I saw some people that I know, too, and greeted them as well.

"Hmm, I didn't know you this socialable, master." That was unnecessary, Iris.

"I've always been this socialable. How do you think I got three thousand readers? Most of them are people... I mean, a couple of them are my acquaintances. I asked them to spread my work to make it popular."

Iris replied, "Huh, that's very rare. Our previous masters were not all that socialable. They tend to stick within their intended group."

"Really now? But are they a hero?"

"Only Oscar was the legendary hero", Iris stopped for a moment and continued, "Actually, Hildehord was also a hero. Unfortunate hero."

"Right", I awkwardly smiled. I tried not to think about those tragedies, but I couldn't help but get reminded.

"YO, Oscar", I looked in the direction from which the voice came.

"Ah, boss! You doing laps too?"

"Of course, son. I always do it every day before opening the restaurant at noon."

"Ehh... I didn't know that", I looked at his feet and said, "You do look like you have some of those thighs."

"You jealous, son?"

"Not particularly."

"I could give you some tips if you want to know, you know?"

I thought about it, but then, "TAKE IT, MASTER!"

My head just exploded from Harvey's scream.

"You okay, son?"

"Yeah, sorry to make you worried."

"Nah, it's okay." With that, he ran faster than I was, and I stopped to talk to Harvey.

"What was that, Harv?"

"Sorry, sir, I just looked at his thighs and thought he knew what he was doing. You could ask him for more advice."

"But how about yours?"

I was pretty sure that made her blush.

"He is a human male, like you, master. I'm a woman, an elf in this regard. My workout is not the same as yours, that's why I don't really know what I should have asked you to do yesterday."

I was so confused, so I asked, "So your conclusion after seeing his thigh is for me to take a lesson from him?"

"YES!"

My jaw dropped when I heard her enthusiasm.

Then I just had to ask her, "Harvey... are you into thighs?"

I could feel the awkwardness in everybody and the embarrassment from Harvey.

"You don't need to say it out loud, sir. It's embarrassing."

I responded nonchalantly, "Ahh... sorry."

After I talked for a while, my boss had another lap, "You finished, Oscar?"

Then I said, "Nah, I just have to stop a little bit", and continued my run with him.

"Why did you stop?"

"I was thinking about your offer, and I might take it."

"That's great, Oscar."

"How did you get muscular thighs anyway?"

"I go to the gym, son. Three times a week."

"You're just doing a sale out, now."

We talked while running, and somehow, I felt great. Usually, I dislike talking to my boss; he was always trying so hard to be this righteous man in front of his employees. I don't know why. I felt uneasy whenever he talked like that.

"Hey, Oscar! This is going to be my last lap. Wanna do a race?"

I could hear Harvey shout, "Take it, master. Take it", and it was so annoying.

"Yeah, why not? I'll take you on for a lap."

"Great, son! Try to keep up, okay!"

Without warning or countdown, he ran ahead.

"HEY! That's not fair."

"There isn't anything fair in this world, son. You have to earn it."

I was pissed when he said that, so I replied, "Oh, you're soooo on!"

We ended up doing three laps. At the end, my boss took the win and went on his merry way.

"I feel it through my spine, Harvey. You fall in love with my boss, huh?"

Harvey's embarrassing feelings were really on my spine now. Jesus, the girl was down bad.

"NO. I'm not!"

"I could feel your emotion, by the way. You couldn't lie to me, guys."

After my statement, I could feel everyone shocked, "Huh? Why are you guys shocked?"

Jazxy took the initiative to talk about it, "No wonder you can Mana Surge a night after a sleep. You already connected with us. Somehow."

"Wait, that was abnormal?"

Iris took over the convo, "Yes, master. You should never be able to feel our feelings. That was entirely your mana trying to build up inside of you."

Well, that was shocking. I never knew that this weird sensation was not intended. But that sparked a question, so I asked.

"Could the previous summoner do this?"

Iris answered, "No. Though I have to say they have their own way of Mana Surge. Hero Summoner Oscar was able to see through our eyes when he gained the Mana Surge."

"That's... creepy."

"Then there is Verdinan. He was able to imagine us in front of him like a ghost."

"That's even creepier."

"You get the point. This is indeed unusual, master."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

After that, I went home to do my work, and the day ended with getting back to the dream world to continue my lesson. At that point, I felt like my life was about to turn into a magical adventure between the eight summoned.

~Chapter one ENDED~
~Chapter two: "Going Into Action" begins~