“What’s going on? Vice, what happened?” Anne implored as she came sprinting into the room. Her face was filled with worry as she looked Vice up and down.

“Nothing, I’m fine,” he replied and simply shrugged his shoulders. Vice still wore a pained expression on his face as he tried to move his newly improved body around, yet it only moved stiffly. ‘Okay this is starting to feel better now,’he thought as he did some jumping jacks.

“What are you doing?” Anne asked.

“Making sure I can move properly, as you can see. How are you? Did you get injured a-” He was stopped by the full weight of Anne being thrust onto him. She hugged him tightly, much to his surprise. Vice was taken aback and didn’t know where to put his hands. “Hey, everything is fine,” Vice said softly. He could feel the tears that were running down from Anne’s eyes onto him because his shirt was extremely thin.

“Paul said that he needs our help as soon as possible,” Anne said as she pulled herself away from Vice. She wiped the tears from her eyes before continuing, “I told him we’ll get there to help out once you’re healthy.”

“I’m sorry by the way… I put us in so much danger because of my own inexperience. I hope you can forgive me Anne,” Vice begged as tears began to well up in his eyes.

“H- Huh? Don’t apologize, Vice, we have more important things to take care of right now. Follow me,” Anne replied. She strutted out of the room with Vice following in tow.

‘Why’s it so busy here? The hospitals usually don’t have this many people in them,’ Vice thought with a frown as he followed Anne. The hospital was filled with injured men, women, and children, and the metallic smell of blood was present wherever Vice walked. “Anne, what’s going on? Why are there so many injured people here right now?” Vice asked.

“The Gwabu area… Whilst we were lucky to have Paul get there for us in the nick of time, others weren’t so lucky,” she said as the pair walked past a bloodied man missing both his arms and legs. The man was in a daze, and a nurse was constantly pushing what seemed to be illusion arcana particles into him to keep him away from reality and masking his pain. “The Jorogumo have taken over Gwabu, that’s where we are headed right now.”

‘Favian, got any tips I can use or something?’ Vice thought.

‘Nope. Go figure it out yourself, dumbass, I’m not your slave,’ Favian replied.

Vice clenched his teeth hard but continued walking as if nothing happened. The sun was up high in the sky, and there were barely any people to be seen once Vice and Anne had made their way closer to the Gwabu area. Vice was sweating like crazy under the harsh sun rays and had to take out a napkin from his spatial pouch to wipe away the sweat.

[DING! The system has made an interesting discovery. Similarly to this system’s previous owner, the host seems to be more suited to the night. The host’s stats are decreased during the daytime, and all stats have been reduced by 0.5 whilst all spells require a greater amount of mana to cast. Damage received by the host is also increased.] Virtue buzzed.

Vice stopped in his tracks as he heard this notification. ‘That… is not good. I think I understand and have always felt that but I didn’t realize it’s this drastic,’he thought. ‘System, is there a way to circumvent this issue?’

[DING! At the host’s current level no. In the future, the system may or may not be able to help the host depending on how much experience he may have gained by then.]

‘Vague, I love it. You’re just like that ass of a teacher I have here,’ Vice thought.

‘Love you too, my brainless student,’ Favian replied.

“What’s up? We need to get there quickly, Vice,” Anne said as she looked back to the frozen Vice.

After a short while, the pair reached their destination. A huge blue barrier in the shape of a dome had been erected around the Gwabu area, and many officers were stationed around it. Through the barrier, Vice could only see a red fog similar to what he’d seen when he had been transported to the different realm with Anne. The thickness and concentration of arcana that being released from within barrier didn’t surprise Vice anymore.

The pair walked up to the barrier, where they were stopped by one of the officers, who looked to be in his mid-twenties. He wore a blue uniform that was immaculately ironed. “Ah, cultivators Anne and Vice. Sergeant Paul told us to bring you to him the moment you arrived here. Follow me,” he said after bowing to the two.

‘Huh, what an interesting amulet he has there,’ Vice thought to himself as he caught a glance of what looked like an arachnid hung beneath the officer’s collar.

Vice was quickly brought to a large black tent. When he entered the tent, he saw Paul was seated around a small table with three other people. Vice knew who all three of these people were, and it would be difficult to not know them with his status as a cultivator. Vice bowed low and cupped his hands as a greeting to them.

“He’s come, our Treasure Hunters’ Guild’s young ace. Vice, come and take a seat,” a middle-aged lady said. Her voice was sweet and smooth. Her face, however, was covered by a rather frightening mask that looked like a red demon. She exuded a dangerous amount of arcana that exuded a fierce amount of pressure against anyone in her vicinity. This was fine though as everyone else in the tent was also a cultivator, so they were protected from any harm. Instead, there was just a constant uncomfortable prickling sensation against Vice’s skin.

“Master Cally, what brings you here?” Vice said, his eyes opened wide in shock. He’d seen this only a handful of times. She had helped him join the Treasure Hunters’ Guild when he first applied as nobody had believed a scrawny and young boy like him would have any worth.

“This issue we have right now could completely change the landscape of this city. Of course, I would be here. Not at all because that pocket dimension where you mysteriously disappeared into might have treasures,” Cally replied. Vice was certain she was smirking and he was able to see her wink at him because her eyes weren’t covered by the mask.

“Okay enough small talk, the issue is still large at hand,” a young man said. His face looked to be only slightly older than Vice, however, his hair was already grayed, and dark bags could be seen hanging under his eyes. “Anne, good that you’re here. Come, I’ll need your memories for just a second to determine exactly what we’re up against.”

“Of course, Master Ablerus,” Anne replied. She walked up to him slowly before disabling her arcane core and purging all the mana from within her system. Vice raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw this, as he himself knew that a cultivator was at their most vulnerable when they disabled their own arcane core because they couldn’t produce any mana.

“Interesting, so it truly is a pocket dimension. I sense there are a lot of tormented souls within that realm, this must be the doing of a high-level demon,” Ablerus said in a low tone.

‘So that’s what the Mages Guild leader looks like. I’m gonna be honest, I’m not impressed. At his age, I was already running rampant through the universe. To think he calls himself a mage, how disrespectful,’Favian said.

“A high-level demon? Interesting, if we combine all of our forces, then we should be able to vanquish this evil, right? My adventurers would gladly take up this task for the right payment… How much is the police force willing to spend for us?” Delron said. His hair was shaved to a buzz cut, and his cheekbones were hung high. The muscles on his chest moved as he spoke, and Vice sensed that every fiber of that man’s body was augmented with mana to a ridiculous extent.

“The chief told me that he’s willing to spend this amount for the Adventurers’ Guild. The Treasure Hunters’ Guild is allowed to take any valuables from the dimension whilst the Mages’ Guild is allowed to take any magical artifacts that can be verified to further our knowledge of magic,” Paul said as he handed the bulky man, Delron, a piece of paper.

“Bring everyone here, tell them they’ll be rewarded handsomely for their time and efforts,” Delron said as he spoke into a platinum card.

“We’ve got that out of the way, finally. Now we need to talk strategy. I’m only here to represent the police force, however, I know that each of you three has more experience than me in just your pinky fingers,” Paul said. He ruffled through his blond hair as he spoke with a seriousness in his voice.

“Actually, I’d like to hear from that young man over there. An interesting fellow to say the least. Cally, I wonder how that prodigy of yours would solve this issue,” Ablerus said as he glared at Vice. He tapped his fingers against the small table as if wishing for Vice to give a wrong answer. Vice could already sense that the man disliked him.