Steve slowly opened his eyes, seeing that everybody was asleep. He felt weird, like if his clothes were strangling him, but he thought that it didn't matter. He no longer felt that sweet taste.

He looked closely at everyone, seeing that the Kobu brothers were taller than before, and they now had normal clothes instead of those blue leather ones.

Then he saw how Celta had her eyes opened, ready for any sudden attacks. Her hair was much whiter than before, and she had new clothes.

Steve rapidly stood up, but he felt weak, a lot weaker than before, so he lost balance falling to the ground, hitting his head.

Celta saw that and fastly stood up, rushing to where Steve was and strongly hugged him.

"What is she doing?", thought Steve.

The old woman, almost crying said "I'm glad you are okay".

Steve was dumbfounded. He didn't understand why she was so worried of him, so he asked "What do you mean?".

Celta didn't answer, she just hugged him.

"What do you mean?", asked Steve a bit louder.

"You have been acting weird for almost three years. Like if you were sleepwalking", she replied. She stopped hugging him and stood up. "You didn't talk, you didn't train. You didn't do a thing. You almost didn't even eat!"

...

"You are kidding, right?", asked Steve rubbing the part of his head that he hit. He wasn't able to because of Celta's hug.

"Why would I?", she replied.

Then everything started to make sense to Steve. It made sense why his clothes didn't fit, why he was so weak, the reason why the two teens were much taller than before, and why Celta's hair was so white.

"REALLY? THREE YEARS!?", asked Steve. He couldn't accept it. He had lost so much time. He wanted to return with his new family as fast as possible, but he had lost another three years.

"Yeah, crazy how time passes", she answered, not knowing what Steve was going through. "And don't shout, you will wake them up".

"Don't worry, we already woke up", they both said.

"Ugh, now I will have to make breakfast early", she said annoyed. Then she made her book float and created a table out of stone from the walls, then following the same process to make food that she always did, humming the song she always hummed.

While she was cooking, Steve asked: "Why do you make your book float each time you use it?".

This made Celta stop cooking the goblin meat. "Do you really wanna know?", she asked turning her head to see Steve straight to his eyes.

"Yeah".

"Well, a lot of years ago I would have said 'Dramatic effects'", she said making Steve think that she and her son were definitely related. "But since I got trapped here, I put a spell on this book that each day a stripe appears on the book, so each time I use magic, I remind myself of the time I have spent here and why I want to get out".

After saying that, she returned to cooking the goblin meat, using the pot she had created many years ago to make and heat soup, using water to fill it, almost to the brim.

...

"Damn, that's very... I don't know what to say", answered Steve. He saw how Yoro and Tako were also impressed, so he assumed that they hadn't heard that.

Then Steve remembered something he wanted to tell her, so he asked: "Remember that Kappanelle you mentioned?", to what Celta replied that she did.

"I'm her tird child".

The second those words left Steve's mouth, Celta stopped moving. She stopped humming that song. After what seemed like five seconds the pot fell to the ground, with the food inside spilling all over.

"Really?", she asked. Steve thought that she would scream something like a "WHAT!?", so he was a little surprised that she didn't.

Steve nodded, and Celta said that she always saw a resemblance of her on Steve, watching his silver hair, same as hers, so it wasn't such a surprise.

Steve looked at her eyes, but what he expected to be a look of pure joy for knowing that a friend was doing well, was instead one of guilt. He couldn't explain it, but he just felt it, also starting to feel the sweet taste in his mouth.

***

Days returned to the pace they had before, with the difference that golems had started appearing. They got up, killed goblins and golems, trained, ate, killed more goblins and golems, ate and slept.

Steve came to know that the five passages were connected at the end of each one, and there had been a stronger goblin at the end of the first one and a troll, which is an evolved version of a goblin, in the end of the second one.

Also, at the end of the second one, there was a small goblin village, where they got the new clothes after, obviously, obliterating the village.

They also gave Steve some new clothes after he woke up.

He realized that now goblins were avoiding them, maybe because they were scared, but that was good since they could shout now.

Steve resumed his training, which consisted on creating things with aura, each time further away from him;  fiscal training with Yorokobu and trying to attack and move as quietly as possible.

When he started that training, he became more aware of the sound of everyone's walking, noticing that Celta's was really quiet, almost unnoticeable.

The Kobu brothers asked why he did this, but he answered that he only wanted to do it. The truth was that he was preparing himself for the battle against the giant ear. The only thing he knew about it was that it was an ear, so it must hear very well.

Just like that, a month passed. Steve was now seven years old and he had regained his physique. Also, he became able to create things more than a meter away from him.

He had been closer than ever to the two teens, even if they doubled his age. They played catch, tic tac toe, rock paper scissors, or any game that came to mind. Both of them also enjoyed the time with him. Steve told them stories of his previous world making them seem as his imagination, and they were really impressed by his "imagination".

They were now walking to the end of the tunnel. With each step, the tunnel seemed to get narrower and narrower.

While they walked, Steve created things with aura. Since he woke up he was trying to create a camera. He had seen how to make each of the pieces and how to assemble it, but it was much more difficult if he had to create the materials.

They walked for hours, which made Steve happy because they were making some progress.

After hours of walking, they saw how three goblins ran to their direction, so Steve grabbed his sword, which was always attached to his waist, unsheathed it and elegantly cut their heads.

He then created two pairs of tablets numbered from one to ten, which went floating to where the Kobu brothers were.

Takobu raised a ten and Yorokobu raised a nine.

They had learned that from Steve.

"I don't understand that game", said Celta a bit annoyed.

After some more time, they decided to rest for the day, so Steve created pillows and some blankets for each one.

"I missed this", said Takobu cuddling under his blankets.

They all went to sleep except Celta, who had created a chair of stone and used the pillow to sit more comfortably.

"Why don't you rest?", Steve asked her.

"I've been thinking about something".

"Can't you say it at once?", thought Steve annoyed. "What have you been thinking about?"

"Those goblins didn't attack us", she said. "It seemed that they weren't chasing us, but running away from something".

"That's a classic", said Steve.

"Ha?"

"Nevermind".

Celta went to sleep after that, but even if Steve saw something funny on it, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

On the next day, they were attacked by some small golems, which Takobu took out with a wind spell.

Again, Steve created the tablets and gave ten to Yoro. They both raised a seven.

"Why a seven?", asked Tako disappointed.

"You need to put more grace on it", both replied making weird poses, which made Tako laugh.

Hours passed and they were now in front of a door, barely big enough for them to get through.

"Is this new?", asked Steve to what he received a negative answer.

"You were... like that... when we saw the other two", said Takobu.

"Oh". "Where there some strong enemies?"

"Not that much", replied Yoro.

"Well, let's go", said Steve, but Celta grabbed his shoulder.

"We are resting for today".

"Why?", Steve asked.

"You shouldn't go tired to a battle", she replied.

"Ok...", he reluctantly said as he created everything to sleep.

He was pretty calm for the battle that awaited him.