"And the time flow in my world is different from yours. Not much time has passed for me, but five years have gone by for you."
Seeing that Wolverine was about to say something else, Kevin interrupted him, revealing the truth about the different time flows between their worlds.
Wolverine swallowed all his words. He scrutinized Kevin for a few moments:
"No wonder you don't seem to have changed much. I thought… you also had the ability to not age."
Kevin shrugged, not telling Wolverine that he did indeed have the ability to not age, but continued:
"So, if you don't want to be away from Laura for too long, it's best not to let her follow me. Besides, what I'm about to do isn't suitable for bringing a child."
"...I just feel like you simply don't want to take care of a child."
Wolverine, who was quite familiar with Kevin, immediately saw through the essence of Kevin's refusal.
Kevin smiled and said nothing.
Wolverine sighed, but didn't press Kevin further. He lit another cigarette and asked:
"Are you really not planning to stay a bit longer?"
"I don't plan to stay here for now. We'll see later. Oh, right, you here… there's nothing you need my help with, is there?"
"No, everything's fine here. It's just… if you have time in the future, please come back again."
"?"
"Honestly, I'm really not suited to be the head of the Mutant Academy. When Richtor grows up, I'll hand the position over to him. I think you wouldn't mind having an extra companion on your journey then."
Wolverine said with a smile.
It seemed he wanted to find a way out for himself in the future.
Faced with Wolverine's request, Kevin did not refuse.
When his skill points are more than he can use in the future, he might indeed choose to bring one or two friends from other worlds to explore other worlds.
"Don't worry, if I can bring people by then, I'll definitely take you out to see the world."
Kevin agreed with a smile. As he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered to ask:
"Oh, right, where's Caliban? How come I didn't see him when I came back this time?"
Caliban, who used to be Wolverine and Charles's nanny, should have received a good position at the Mutant Academy after everything returned to peace.
And if he just wanted to live a good life doing nothing, Wolverine would surely satisfy him.
However, Kevin hadn't seen Caliban at the school, so Caliban must have settled down somewhere else, perhaps on the rising sun?
Kevin wondered why he hadn't seen Caliban, but Wolverine fell silent at his question, not speaking for a long time.
Wolverine's silence gave Kevin a bad premonition. His smile faded, and he met Wolverine's gaze.
After a long while, Wolverine finally spoke:
"You're right. It's not easy to come back, so I should at least see an old friend. Let's go, I'll take you to see Caliban."
So, the two of them went to the cemetery.
… …
Caliban had died.
He didn't die in a mutant conflict, nor was it related to the Alkali-Transigen.
He died of cancer, two years ago, in his hospital bed.
Although Kevin was saddened, he wasn't surprised, as Caliban was already very old.
"Although he doesn't look very old, he's about the same age as Charles… Living this long is probably enough."
Wolverine said from the side.
Kevin placed a bouquet of flowers in front of Caliban's tombstone and silently stood up.
Every life, in fact, will have this day.
Either a sudden accident, or an incurable disease, or dying of old age…
Caliban was indeed quite old. Don't be fooled by his energetic appearance, taking care of Charles and Wolverine, as if he could live a long time.
But in reality, Caliban's life had already reached its end; it just hadn't shown itself.
His death was understandable, but Kevin found it difficult to accept at the moment.
After all, in his eyes, he had only been separated from Caliban for a few months.
"He shouldn't have suffered when he died, right?"
Kevin asked Wolverine.
Wolverine opened his mouth, pulled out a cigarette pack from his body, and just as he was about to put a cigarette to his lips, he glanced at Caliban's tombstone and put it back.
He said to Kevin:
"Getting cancer, how could there be no pain? But in the end of his life, we respected his wishes and didn't force him to cling to life. We gave him euthanasia."
"That's good too."
Kevin didn't know what to say, and he spoke a little dryly.
Being able to choose one's own death is better than a sudden death where one knows nothing and can't even leave a last word.
Caliban's death diluted the joy of friends reuniting.
Kevin and Wolverine stood in front of Caliban's grave for a long time, and only left when the sun set.
"Aren't you going to see Laura and the others? They admire you very much. Many mutants in this world also admire you."
As Kevin was about to leave, Wolverine tried to persuade him to stay.
He wanted Kevin to stay here for another day.
But Kevin shook his head. He looked at the setting sun and said:
"No need, there's no point."
"Alright, then I wish you a safe journey."
Seeing that he couldn't persuade Kevin, Wolverine no longer insisted. Anyway, Kevin could come back later, although by the next time Kevin arrived, several years would likely have passed again.
But for 'long-lived species' like Wolverine and Laura, a few years were nothing.
Kevin's arrival and departure did not alarm anyone.
Besides Wolverine, and Richtor, the young black man on whom Wolverine placed high hopes, only Paul, whom Kevin had supported, knew that Kevin had returned.
This 'hero,' who originally came from the Alkali-Transigen and was later trained by Kevin to be a vanguard against the Alkali-Transigen, now lived an extremely good life.
Aside from worrying about the Alkali's remaining forces assassinating him, he lived a much more carefree life than before.
Kevin was more worried that he would lose himself and do something detrimental to Wolverine, so he went to warn him.
But thankfully, this guy was smart enough to know what Kevin cared about and had never done anything detrimental to mutants.
After confirming that everything was well in the Wolverine 3 world, Kevin found a secluded place to do the second thing.
That was to undergo a job change in the instance world.
The first two conditions for Ocean Lord, 'Master Second Profession,' and 'Complete a certain skill path of Deep Sea Fighter,' Kevin had already met.
However, he hadn't immediately proceeded with the second job change because he had been too busy, and he hadn't fully grasped his first two professions, not even maxing out a single skill.
Now that he had time, Kevin naturally wanted to undergo the second job change as soon as possible to determine his future path.
However, Kevin had always undergone job changes in the The Boys world and had never tried doing so in an instance world. He was curious about what would happen if he really underwent a job change in an instance world.
Would the skill tree pause along with the instance world's time?
Or would Kevin need to transit through one instance world before going to another in the future?
Kevin wanted to clarify these points, which was why he decided to conduct this experiment.
"Generally speaking, if it's an absolutely forbidden matter, the skill tree should give me a warning."
Kevin opened the skill tree, clicked on the icon for the second job change, and pondered to himself.
He had already decided that if the skill tree forbade him from doing so, he wouldn't risk it and would wait until he returned to the The Boys world to change to Ocean Lord.
But the skill tree didn't pop up a risk warning even when Kevin confirmed the job change.
This proved that the action itself was not forbidden by the skill tree.
So this led back to another question: what was the source of the skill tree's operation…?
Kevin confirmed the second job change while pondering in his mind.
Then, a familiar white light enveloped him.
… …
White light enveloped Kevin's eyes. Because he always traversed in the same way, Kevin was already used to it.
But this time was a little different.
Perhaps because Kevin had raised Deep Sea Senses to Level 4, his sharpened perception 'saw' something in the white light.
They were complex, special characters, like patterns.
Kevin recognized what they were.
They were 'magic patterns.'
In every beam of light, there seemed to be a massive number of magic patterns, packed together like insects, emitting dazzling light.
The light from the teleportation was emanating from them!
Kevin, who vaguely understood the principle of teleportation, was about to continue his research, but the white light had already dissipated. With the disappearance of the last bundle of magic patterns, Kevin felt himself immersed in seawater.
"Is the teleportation location deep sea this time?"
As soon as he touched the seawater and felt the pressure on every inch of his skin, Kevin was first astonished.
Then he let out a scream:
"Ah! My stuff!!"
He immediately took off the backpack behind him, trying to check the integrity of the contents.
Food and water, these consumables, were not to mention.
The hacker device, which he had made another copy of after finding Rocket, had now turned into a pile of scrap metal under the pressure of the seawater.
This thing was inherently fragile; anyone could smash it with tools on land, so how could it withstand such immense pressure all at once?
Not only these, but Kevin's portable lighter, portable tent, and some miscellaneous survival tools were all ruined.
"No, even if you teleported me into space, this thing shouldn't break. But you teleported me into the deep sea… I really am…"
Looking at the pile of shattered garbage in his hand, Kevin wanted to cry but had no tears.
He had thought about encountering extreme situations.
But because of the previous two teleportation experiences, the extreme situations Kevin imagined were at most appearing on another planet again, or more extremely, appearing in cosmic space.
For this, Kevin had even prepared a cosmic distress signal.
He believed that if the skill tree really teleported him into space, it at least meant that there were highly technologically advanced intelligent beings in that universe.
With the distress signal, even if he appeared in space, Kevin should be rescued.
But appearing directly in the deep sea, Kevin really hadn't expected.
Mainly because the first job change didn't teleport him into the sea, and the second job change even teleported him to the wilderness, Kevin hadn't thought in that direction.
But he forgot that both Deep Sea Fighter and Ocean Lord were related to the sea.
"…Can't be saved. Forget it. Let's check the mission objective first… Obtain the legendary trident? Huh??"
Too late to mourn his lost 'treasures,' Kevin checked his skill tree mission after arriving in this world.
But upon seeing the mission issued by the skill tree, his head was full of question marks.
Legendary trident?
It sounded a bit familiar… What was it again?
Kevin tilted his head, pondering where he had heard that name before, when Deep Sea Senses suddenly activated, sensing someone swimming towards him in the distant ocean currents.
"?"
At such a deep place, at least fifty atmospheres of pressure, someone could still swim freely here?
Kevin was startled at first, then looked towards where the ocean currents were surging.
And when he saw the appearance of the approaching person, Kevin finally understood where this place was, and also knew what the legendary trident was.
"Oh, DC."
Looking at the red-haired woman leading the few people in front of him, Kevin suddenly realized.