Rakna pushed himself forward with another Artzpul while pondering, ‘This method of flying is costly but at least, I don’t have to show my wings for it.’

As he was thinking that, his HL ringed again and connected a call like last time. “Finished?” Rakna asked immediately.

“Yeah,” Allan responded with a grunt. “It was annoying as heck, to be honest. Basically, when we entered the ruins, a horde of level ten monsters spawned and attacked us. At first, it was relatively easy but it went downhill pretty fast. They would always come back and with an even higher level.”

“Indeed. Additionally, it was impossible for us to leave the area,” Nyx added.

“There wasn’t any prompt for you to decide if you wanted to continue or not?” Rakna inquired.

“No,” Flavia answered. “But I think you’ll understand why if I tell you that, at some point, every monster was level 17 and we couldn’t go for any longer. When that happened, and Allan was about to get mortally wounded, they all suddenly disappeared without leaving a trace.”

“I see…” Rakna squinted. “In other words, this challenge you went through is a sheer survival game and it stops whenever you fail to be able to go on.”

“Yes, that’s what we thought as well and that’s what our AIs told us. But they also said that there were different types of ruins.”

“Did you get anything after the challenge ended?”

“Yep,” Allan chirped merrily. “We each got 5 000 Talys, several Items, and a few skill cards. I’m not going to lie, while it was annoying, it was profitable.”

“What level have you reached?”

“Oh, well, cuz we partied again, we leveled up quite efficiently and now I’m level 15 while Nyx and teach are level 16.”

“So, you’re lagging behind, huh?”

“Hey! Not my fault! I’ll remind you that my void magic isn’t really being useful right now while these two cheats kill on sight; literally. I did my job as a vanguard or else we would have been done in way earlier.”

“What about you, Rakna?” Flavia followed up. “How did it go on your side?”

“I cleared the Dungeon three times. Each time in a different difficulty that was proposed to me. I got a lot of Items from it, so I’ll give some to you. As for my level… I’m close to hitting 20 and Pronos is about to hit 17.”

“Ha! See, I told you!” Allan exclaimed and the girls stayed silent.

“Told what?” Rakna asked back.

“We made a bet on how far ahead of us you’d be. I said 20, teach said 18, and Nyx said you’d be the same as us. Now, girls, I want my one hundred Talys.”

“I admit I severely underestimated how much experience a Dungeon could give,” Nyx sighed.

“And I shouldn’t have believed for even a second that Rakna would do less,” Flavia said with an equally defeated tone.

“Hahaha!” And Allan merely laughed like a kid who had gotten enough money to buy candies.

Rakna listened on with a complicated expression. Should he praise Allan for having that much faith in his abilities or rebuff them for betting on his person?

“…Nyx is right though,” he then said, catching their attention. “It wasn’t the Dungeon that gave me the lead. I was level 16 when I entered it.”

“Huh? Wait, wait, wait, that doesn’t make sense,” Allan uttered. “When we called you, you said you had just found the Dungeon and that was not even half an hour after we separated from the Battle Trial. What did you do to increase your level like that?”

“Remember the two dinosaurs we saw fighting?”

“I do? Why…? No! Don’t tell you did what I think you di-”

“I killed them both.”

“…”

“…”

“…you know what, girls. Keep your Talys. This bet was flawed since the very beginning.”

“I agree.”

“Same.”

Rakna resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “In any case, I’m on my way to the station. Are you guys coming as well, or not?”

“You’re going back to Black Steel already?”

“Yes. I want to go to the Pavilion and see if I can sort the Items I got. Then, I’ll take a look at the second half of the Pavilion and meet up with Gray.”

“I don’t mind going back,” Flavia said. “I’ve had to use my telekinesis a lot more than my magic. I would like to rest, to be honest.”

“I also am tired from trying to manipulate Aeter,” Nyx supplemented.

“Well, let’s switch situations then. You guys can leave first. I want to reach level 16 before going back,” Allan declared.

“Understood. Nyx, Flavia, if you want to come back with me, I’ll be at the station in a few minutes.”

“We’ll be there,” Nyx said and the call ended.

Rakna tapped twice on his temple to make the clock of his HL appear. He then looked at the map and at the small icon representing the train. Apparently, Black Steel’s Spear would stop by every half an hour, and the next one was in ten minutes.

Five minutes later, he reached the station and saw Nyx and Flavia leaning against the wall of the station. They also seemed to notice him as he cut off his cloak’s gliding ability. He free-fell and with one last Artzpul, a counter-force blew the dust on the ground and allowed him to land softly.

❮◈❯ Artzpul has leveled up! x2 ❮◈❯

“I see you arrived before me,” he commented as he walked up to the two women.

“By barely a minute,” Nyx clarified. “How were you flying just now? Allan told us you had taken off with a pair of wings. What happened to those?”

“They’re still here,” Rakna retorted. “They’re just retracted. Thanks to them, I unlocked a skill that generates a propelling force with mana through them as a medium. I used that instead along with an Item that allows me to glide. Though, it’s incredibly inefficient. It’s slow if I don’t use more mana to accelerate and the minimal cost is already 2 MP per ‘jump’.”

“And I suppose you are not going to tell us why you have wings in the first place?” Flavia asked with a smile.

Rakna shrugged. “Habits die hard. But if you want, I can tell you it has something to do with what I did to Aquila while you were away.”

“Hmm, interesting. Ability steal?” Nyx tilted her head to the side.

“Not exactly but I can’t say that you’re wrong,” Rakna said and mused. “And yes; you have another mystery to uncover now though.”

“Another mystery?”

“I got a second Nirvana Skill.”

“…I wish this train was faster,” Flavia uttered and Rakna snorted.

* * *

Sometime later, the trio was descending from the train, back in the underground station of Black Steel. Rakna could already hear the city noise from there.

“So, where are you going?” Nyx asked him the moment they disembarked with several other Hosts and Locals next to them.

“While in the train, Alexa told me there was a shop called Trafford that does business in rebuying and processing monsters and beasts. I intend to go there first to sell the Dreorins’ bodies as well as a Hidden Boss I killed.”

“Dreorin?”

“The dinosaurs.”

“Oh,” Flavia exclaimed in understanding. “Then we’ll go with you. We also have a body we want to sell. Our AI told us it was very valuable.”

“A body? Where?”

Nyx was the one to provide the answer as she showed a ring around her finger. “I got this spatial ring as one of the rewards for clearing the ruins. It’s a T.10 but it’s more than enough to store a few items and the corpse of a squirrel.”

“…a squirrel?” Rakna almost tripped as they climbed the stairs of the station.

“A Gold Eater Squirrel, to be exact. It’s a super rare animal that can eat and digest gold. All I know is that this supposedly makes its entire body even more valuable than precious stones. We found one hiding in the ruins.”

“That sounds weird,” Rakna commented dully as the three of them reached the surface. They all nonverbally agreed to fly off toward their destination; with Rakna in the lead. “But, as long as it is valuable, I say why not.”

“I could have not said it better,” Nyx smiled.

After a few minutes of flying, they reached a pretty large and populated street with one particular building catching their attention. It was quite big but not anything comparable to the Pavilion. It had an eastern design and seemed to be made of only wood.

They landed on a side of the street that seemed to be purposefully open for people who could fly and followed the flow of the crowd until they stepped through the front doors of the large building.

Once again, the second they entered, at least three-quarters of the people disappeared as if they had never been there. “A Filter Dimension,” Rakna commented as he looked around the warm interior of Trafford.

The trio then looked around until they spotted different signs above certain doors or arches. There seemed to be different sections for different kinds of clientele. In their case, they quickly found the sign that said ‘Corpse Vending’.

“What a… pioneering terminology,” Nyx commented with some amount of satire in her voice.

“I don’t know. I kind of like it,” Flavia said offhandedly as they approached the entrance.

Once again, when they reached the other side, people around them vanished. But this time, there was not anyone else but them and two tall men wearing black suits.

One of them walked to them and asked in a detached voice, “ID.”

Rakna pulled out something from his ring and showed it to the man. “Will this do?”

When the guard saw the emerald colored-badge, he nearly lost it and promptly made a ninety-degree bow. “Absolutely, sir! I will immediately bring you the VIP area,” he said with a cordial tone and beckoned his colleague who nodded and stepped away to make a call. “Please follow me, someone will be there to welcome you.”

Rakna hummed in response and started following the guard with an astonished Nyx and Flavia behind him. They had simply no idea of what he possibly could have done in a few hours outside of the city that could have given him access to VIP treatment.

After following the guard for a short distance, they were led to a small private room where a handsome man wearing a business suit welcomed them with a smile.

“Welcome to Trafford, Sir. My name is Baires, I’m one of the board’s executives. Please take a seat,” he said and waved at the couch to his right while he went to sit behind a desk. Rakna quietly complied with Nyx and Flavia accompanying him.

“I never expected that I would receive an Emerald Grade customer today; someone who is a freshly new Host to top it off. Are you perhaps a Descendant?”

“A Descendant?” Rakna raised an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Baires nodded. “A Descendant is the common way of referring to Hosts that are born within the System. But, going by your reaction, I was incorrect in my assumption. You must have had a good encounter then.”

“You could say that.”

Baires chuckled and crossed his fingers. “Now, what can I do for you, Sir?”