It was the first time that Arthur reached the bridge dividing the city’s districts. It was a stone bridge crossing a deep trench filled with stony spikes. He stared over the moss-covered railings toward the abyssal pit, which could kill anyone who fell into it.
The wind howled below, and Arthur could see there were running rivers at the bottom. He followed the river course and saw that it divided the two districts like two different cities. Then, his eyes looked upward toward the Silver District, which was a few meters higher than the Copper District.
“This empire truly has no classism,” said Arthur, sarcasm bleeding through his words. “It seems the upper districts have an array that resonates with the medals, alerting any intruder that doesn’t have a corresponding medal.”
Arthur could tell all this because these arrays were made of runes, and he spoke their language. Moreover, he could see the runes floating around the district like birds in the sky, and this array was so advanced that a grandmaster must have created it.
“These detection runes should be V or above,” pondered Arthur as he watched the rune. The spatial detection, resonance with medals, lifeforce detection, alerting, and the link to another array made it quite advanced.
Arthur would need to counter the runes, but the sequence made it impossible. So instead, this array activated the medals, and the medals themselves were inscribed with a rune that made them resonate with the owner. Thus, if someone entered the array without a medal or one used with someone else, the knights would be alerted.
Arthur needed to counter the detection of his life force and the space he occupied while ensuring no one saw him. The issue was with crossing the gates. He would be busted if Arthur passed it without using an invisibility rune or countering the array.
“Teleporting inside could also work, but creating two portals, spatial coordinates, and runic protection lines would exhaust my limits. The array would detect me at that second.”
Arthur sat on the bridge, hidden by the rune he cast, and took out a runic card. If he couldn’t use more than two runes, he just needed to pass the gates with a runic teleportation card, and then he would use his Reality Manipulation to avoid the arrays.
At that moment, Arthur paused. He was acting on a whim to attack the Mansell Gang so that he would need his runes too. After consideration, Arthur decided to stand up and return to the inn. He would need to be patient before he strikes.
After he returned to the inn, Arthur found Rain waiting for him inside the room. She seemed bored as she threw her legs around while staring at the ceiling. She jumped as soon as the door closed.
“Darling!” she spread her arms to hug him, but Arthur dodged her and took off his cloak.
“Not your darling,” said Arthur as he threw his cloak over the chair and glanced at her. “I thought you would be outside investigating the gang, just like I did.”
“I finished that task long ago,” shrugged Rain before throwing herself over the bed. “I was waiting for hours here!”
“You found Little Yin?”
“I found the Bloodflower headquarters,” said Rain with a grin as she rested her head over her palm. “We just need to strike when the job arrives and then use Little Yin as a bargaining chip to rescue Gray.”
“I realized today that medals are essential, and Gray is truly capable of being able to forge them.”
“He can forge them because his father was the one to create the system,” said Rain, which surprised Arthur. “He is said to be the greatest runemaster of Ilios and the brother of the king’s advisor, Kain.”
“So, he is undoing his father’s work?”
“He kinda is,” affirmed Rain. “His father created the system to decrease the number of outlaws, but the empire used it to create the medals system. Although it has been misused, the system was a great improvement to the safety of this empire.”
“The irony of the son being the one to undo his father’s work,” said Arthur as he sat on the table and placed one leg over the other. “I kinda like that.”
“He did it out of spite, mostly because his father was a strict control freak. Gray didn’t give criminals the medals, only those who needed better living conditions.”
“That seems to have changed in the last period,” muttered Arthur as he ran his fingers through his hair. “This is getting out of control. My initial plan was to rescue a friend from being executed.”
“That won’t be easy, given that the Prison of Light is hidden from the eyes of everyone,” said Rain with a shrug. “If we want to prevent the execution, we must gather information first to devise a plan.”
Arthur was quiet as countless thoughts filled his head. He was not the only one trying to save Ivy, as Mistletoe should be planning to make a move too. But, if Mistletoe were here, so would Ori, and this was his chance to save his friend.
The thought of Ori being harmed made Arthur worried because he was the closest friend he got. Their friendship transcended space and time, and Ori knew everything there was to know about Arthur.
‘Was it a good choice to leave Ori with Sier?’
This question always bothered Arthur, but he had to trust his friend. Ori asked Arthur to trust him and leave, so he did, but it didn’t stop him from being both worried and hesitant. What was Ori planning to do?
“I want to be alone for a bit,” said Arthur, and Rain stared at him before nodding. Then, she gathered her things and left the room. Arthur took out his communication device and contacted Julia.
“Greetings, Guild Master,” greeted Julia, and her teasing made Arthur smile. However, he liked the sound of that. “I was about to send you a report of our progress and some of the events happening here.”
“Go ahead,” confirmed Arthur.
“We cleared five more dungeons since you left, but we had a falling out with another guild during the last mission. Yuran and Li were there and demolished them. As luck would have it, that guild was backed by Dragonir. They made a public announcement that Ascent is now their enemy.”
“Li and Yuran are both level-headed, so it seems the other party was the one to attack. This sounds planned rather than a coincidence. Change our dungeon selection pattern since it seems they expected it.”
“I already investigated the matter using the shadows. It seems that Dragonir is monitoring several of the C and D-rank dungeons, waiting for a sign of our guild. The next attack might be heavy.”
“They are trying to stop our growth,” confirmed Arthur. “Pause all dungeon clearing until I get back. In the meantime, filter through candidates that are applying. I will accept some of them once I’m back.”
“Always a pleasure,” said Julia. “Although we changed our location since the wolf kid arrived, we’ve been receiving more reports that Thiria is onto us. It might be better to change the region altogether.”
“I’ll look into it after I’m done,” said Arthur as he had an idea. “Don’t worry about the dungeons since I will clear some of them here.”
“In Ilios?” asked Julia with shock. “Wouldn’t that give away your location since every dungeon there is registered in Glory List?”
“I’m considering revealing that information for the sake of Oriole since he must be here as well,” said Arthur before remembering the reason he called. “Can you put Maryam over the phone?”
“Ah, sure,” said Julia before she called for Maryam.
“I wanted to ask about Ori,” said Arthur after Maryam took the communication device. “He told me what happened before we met, but I never go to understand what he wanted to do with Mistletoe.”
“After he got injured by the Ghost Ruler, Ori seemed to change a bit,” replied Maryam over the phone. “I asked him what was wrong at that time, but he just said that he was regretting being so far behind.”
“Far behind?”
“Ori seemed to recognize the Ghost Ruler, and that’s all I know,” said Maryam. “Are you going to save him? If so, let me come to Ilios too.”
“I have no idea what’s going to happen, but Ori seems to have to have a plan of his own,” said Arthur before he decided to end the call. “I have to leave now. Take care of the goblins.”
“Sure, that’s what you care about the most.”
Arthur ended the call, his mind linking the dots. It seems that Ori realized Jasmine was here, making him believe that Seref planned this. Although Arthur won against him with Amelio, Seref didn’t seem fazed.
“Can it be that Amelio, the strongest calamity, was nothing but a distraction from what was happening in Runera?”
