Chapter 93: One-Hour Leave, Shocking Changes
Erix soon arrived at the Adventurer's Guild and saw the trio standing nearby.
But Kenshin and Sameira were absent.
"Where are they?"
"They are eating."
"Go ahead and submit your mission items first. We are waiting."
Erix nodded and went inside before submitting his mission items and getting 1430 gold coins.
After meeting up with the trio, he followed them to a luxurious, twenty stories tall inn.
Kenshin and Sameira were eating in the inn's VIP restaurant area with a middle-aged man.
Erix's Aura Gear was on so he could see how powerful that man's aura was, far more powerful than his and Rin's parents.
'Is he at Noble-order?'
'And how come Kenshin and Sameira are together? Didn't they separate like everyone?'
When Erix and others neared their table in the small private open pavilion, Kenshin turned his head towards them and let out a light laugh.
"I knew those three were talking about you when I heard your name."
"It seems that you two were lucky enough to meet each other again soon," Erix wryly smiled.
He nodded at them and the stranger middle-aged man, a greeting.
"It's not about luck, but love," Sameira said with a serious expression. "I am surprised you are not with Rin."
Kenshin narrowed his eyes at Erix and nodded. "Do you truly love Rin? If you do, then why are you not together?"
Erix was stumped. 'Wtf?'
"I…" Erix didn't know what to say to their serious expressions.
"Haha, we are just pulling your leg, "Kenshin burst out laughing and gestured to Erix at the empty chair, "Come, sit."
Erix didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he sat down.
"Erix, nice to meet you," the stranger middle-aged man said with a smile. "I am Duke Khroll."
'Duke Khroll?!! So, Darius's father?' Erix was startled, but he quickly returned the greeting with his introduction.
'How come Kenshin and Sameira made such a connection already? They seem to be on good terms.'
But Erix soon knew about it as Kenshin told Erix how everything happened.
Apparently, Darius's sister abruptly departed in a fit of anger from her husband's duchy with her one-year-old child in a carriage. She only had two guards with her since she didn't inform others about her departure.
So, on her way to the Yorik Kingdom's capital, she fell prey to a bandit camp's attack, but the timely intervention of Sameira and Kenshin saved her, thus earning Duke Khroll's favor and gratitude.
After they talked about a few things regarding Abyss, which Erix, Kenshin, and Sameira felt was not enough and mostly useless, Duke took out his comm card and talked with someone for several seconds before he smiled at Kenshin.
"We've prepared a courtyard with three houses. I'm sure you will like it here. Please consider it a token of my gratitude," Duke Khroll said with a sincere expression and handed over a blue diamond-like crystal to Kenshin.
"This is the key to the barrier that surrounds the courtyard. I have other matters to attend to, but my son Darius will show you the way. Thank you again for your help, and we will meet again soon."
…
After arriving at the courtyard, their first task was also completed after giving them a 1-hour leave card.
Afterward, the trio sat at a table outside under the blue sky to discuss.
"Erix, share with us your next course of action if you've thought of one," Sameira asked.
"I was planning to get a house to live from those trio somehow to complete my first task, and then go on for hunts in surrounding areas by taking missions from Adventurer's guild to get stronger and level up."
"We planned to do something similar, so we'll do just that. Our top priority is to cross level 100 as soon as possible," Kenshin said, his muscular arms crossed as he nodded.
"But before that, let's return to our world," Sameira said with a smile. "We'll return and communicate with others by leaving messages in our guild. Inform them of our location here and our next course of action."
"Yes, I was thinking about doing that," Erix nodded. "After reading our messages, they would also do the same, so we can know about our members' situations."
"Since we have one hour to spend, we should clear some Consumable-type dungeons to get consumable items," Kenshin grinned. "Why should we buy if we can get them for free?"
"We don't know if we can bring items intact here or not," Sameira said. "They might convert into Labyrinth points too, but it wouldn't hurt to try," she added.
"Yeah."
As such, Erix, Kenshin, and Sameira used their 1-hour leave card and disappeared from the courtyard's garden.
They arrived inside the first floor, which had opened again with a giant portal in the middle of the floor.
The Mystic Shop was open again, with people occasionally entering and leaving.
Firstly, Erix, Kenshin, and Sameira returned to their guild bases.
Since not everyone entered the first floor, many people were still outside, but Erix found a shocking thing on the way as he talked to some people who knew him.
It turned out that all open dungeons in the wilderness and the city disappeared except for the dungeon gates in Guild bases. Moreover, none of the monsters or zombies were dropping any items!
People could still level up gradually if they killed monsters higher level than them, but no more drops!
This change caused many people who didn't enter the First Floor to enter the portal to join the one-month quest with others.
Erix felt the world would drastically change after a month with many new things.
'So it's all silent with only monsters and zombies everywhere? But when will Zombies grow past level 50? I need them to be,' Erix sighed.
Erix returned to his guild base and saw Aaron and three other kids around his age playing with Sangle and one ten-year-old.
They were kids of some members of his guild, and they immediately rushed toward him after he entered.
After telling them their parents would return soon, Erix entered the castle and created a plain Bronze metal board before carving black metallic words.
Since his Metal Conduct reached the 2nd Tier, he could do much more with metals, like changing their density level and foundational structure design with mana.
Previously, he could only condense iron with Metal Conduct to create steel, but with 2nd Tier Metal Conduct, he could create many more types of metal similar to Steel, Bronze, Titanium, and Silver.
But these metals were not the same as regular metals because Erix could strengthen their foundational structure, making them significantly stronger than regular metals depending on his control, mana, and magic.
'If dungeons have vanished, the plan to get consumable items is gone.'
Erix called Kenshin with a comm card since they had also received them from Duke Khroll, and they added each other after going to the courtyard.
[ Erix: This one-hour leaves seems more like a rest stop. We have nothing to do here.]
[ Kenshin: Indeed. We will return with a bunch of other new people who decided to enter the floor. If you want to return, you can go ahead. ]
[ Erix: I'll return after spending one hour here since I have something to do. ]
[ Kenshin: Alright. We'll have finished picking up missions by the time you come, so we'll depart to complete them immediately after you return.]
[ Erix: Got it. ]
…
Erix took out fifteen items consisting of various weapons and body armor pieces beside the metal board containing his message and location before he sat down on the floor and closed his eyes.
'I'll finish that skill today,' Erix thought with determination as he entered Limitless Plane.