Chaos Warlord: Reincarnated in Eldrich with the Devil System!

Chapter 269 266: A unique dimension!

Sometime later, beams of morning light penetrated the cave, not only casting a warm glow over Val's features but also disturbing him from his sleep. His eyelashes fluttered for a moment before his eyelids fully opened, revealing his inky, black eyes that were slightly dazed.

"I must've really passed out after that challenging ordeal with the Withering Devils."

Val thought as he yawned and stretched, feeling the tension in his muscles release and a sense of renewed energy course through his body. It was like his system was rebooting, shaking off the lingering exhaustion and mental fog from the grueling experiences he had just gone through just last night.

After he was completely awake, his gaze turned toward the wide-open entrance of the cave.

He peered out of the cave and saw a golden sun positioned high in the sky, illuminating the forest below.

"Okay, it's definitely morning. But the morning of what day? For how long have I slept?"

Val felt disoriented as he didn't have a clock or any real way to track time in this lesser dimension, and he also didn't know how the cycle of night and day worked here.

But he decided to no longer remain ignorant about it. 

'From now on, I will start counting the passage of time to determine how long the days and nights are here.'

His thoughts then drifted to Oliver.

"I wonder where he is right now. Is he safe?"

Val glanced down at the black ring adorning his middle finger and touched it. By using it, he could not only track him down but also know his current status. If Oliver was dead, the ring would simply not respond. It would also show if Oliver was injured and in need of help.

With a thought, a wisp of his soul power escaped his finger and channeled into the Tracker. As a result, it materialized a holographic screen before his eyes.

The holographic screen displayed a map of the forest with a bright white dot representing Oliver. The brightness of the dot indicated Oliver was in good health. He hadn't met Clea and his party.

From this piece of information, Val estimated he hadn't slept for long and that the cycle of day and night of the lesser dimension was actually very small.

'I wonder how far Oliver is from my position.'

As this thought crossed his mind, the tracker also manifested a red arrow indicating his own position on the screen it projected. Val rubbed it twice for doing a good job.

'Good, Oliver isn't too far away from my current location. And he seems to be stationary. Maybe he's found a safe place to rest. If I start moving now, there won't be any additional distance to cover; I can get to him fairly quickly."

Val picked up the talisman at the entrance of the cave and hung it around his neck. Then he exited the cave and embarked on his journey to find Oliver.

He was past the zone of the forest which was infested with hypnotic mushrooms, so he didn't have to squint or close his eyes to avoid their effects.

He sprinted energetically through the dense forest with his eyes wide open the entire time. His senses were on high alert, allowing him to dodge pitfalls and avoid encounters with monsters with relative ease.

He covered the ground quickly, fueled by the urgency to find Oliver. After some time, he arrived at Oliver's location, as indicated by the white dot on his cursed artifact's map. It was another cave, somewhat similar to the one he had just left. He peered inside it. The inside of the cave was dark, but because of his Noctune Vision Trait, he could see everything clearly. 

"Huh?"

His eyebrow raised as he was surprised to see that Oliver wasn't there even though the tracker was saying something entirely else.

"What's going on?" Val wondered to himself, feeling a mix of concern and confusion. "Could this device actually be malfunctioning at this crucial moment?"

He quickly dismissed that notion. The cursed artifact was a creation of Lord Lucius, a person of immense power, skill, wealth, and authority in the kingdom. Something designed by such a formidable figure wouldn't likely have such a fundamental flaw. It just couldn't be that simple or that lousy. Val refused to believe it.

There might be some other reason behind it. But what could it be?

Val's mind began to churn, sorting through the myriad of possibilities that could account for Oliver not being here despite the Tracker saying otherwise. His eyes narrowed as the most plausible idea occurred to him after a moment of intense thought. 

This dimension they were in, this lesser dimension, might have another layer to it—some kind of Other Side that's separate but connected, like two sides of a coin.

It honestly made sense. After all, both Eldrich and the dungeons found in it had an Other Side. So why couldn't the dimension have one too?

Only Val could come up with such a reasonable explanation in so little time because he had been exposed to it many times. Others wouldn't have been able to do it no matter how hard they racked their brain.

"That must be it. It's the most reasonable explanation. The ring isn't broken; Oliver might just be on the Other Side of this dimension."

Val concluded in his mind.

Then he thought,

"Can I use the power of the Mystical Shovel to get to the other side of this dimension? 

"It's definitely worth a try."

"I can't leave any stone unturned when it comes to Oliver's safety."

Val was certain he would lose what could be a great friend, even better than a brother if Oliver died. He was also certain Lucious would be greatly disappointed in him if Oliver died, and might even kick him out of the wizard community because of this, eliminating his chance of ever reaching high-rank wizard.

To avoid a misfortunate future, he had to be by his side before the assassins found him!