As Estrella went to look for Keiko, Shiro started to sketch out the magic circle that she was planning to carve. In addition to this, she would add a few notes on how to redirect most of the mana towards her so that she could speed up her recovery.
Referencing quite a few of Kuromi’s notes and information from her own studies, Shiro managed to draw up a few prototypes that still needed to be tested.
However, she wasn’t going to test them just yet since she was still waiting on Estrella to come back safely with Keiko.
Looking out of the window, she could only hope that nothing has gone wrong.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll come back safely.” Nan Tian said after seeing her worried look.
“Mn, you can go back and rest now. I’ll stay up for a little longer. If anything happens, I’ll call for you ok?” Shiro smiled.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian tidied up the room a little before leaving after saying goodnight.
After Nan Tian left, Shiro made sure to keep an eye on what was happening outside. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 then 20. There was not a single sign of Estrella or Keiko which caused Shiro to worry.
But just as it reached the 25 minute mark, a portal snapped open in her room as both Keiko and Estrella crashed into the room. Both of them were heavily wounded as burn marks could be seen all over their body.
Widening her eyes, Shiro wanted to get off her bed quickly but a wave of fatigue hit her before she could even stand up.
Gritting her teeth, she forced herself onto her wheelchair.
“What happened? Why are you this injured?” Shiro asked while trying to help them up.
“People… There are people inside the dungeon.” Estrella managed to squeeze out before more blood started to pour out of her body.
*BANG!
Pushing the door open, Nan Tian rushed into the room and saw the injuries on both Keiko and Estrella. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a few pills that were meant to help in Shiro’s recovery but were ineffective due to her special circ.u.mstance.
After a short while, the wounds started to close as their breathing returned back to normal.
“Alright, can you tell me what exactly happened?” Shiro frowned.
“You first Keiko.”
“Right…” Keiko nodded as she proceeded to explain in detail what had happened.
###
Making her way north, Keiko’s teleport was forcefully cut off as she quickly balanced herself on the tree branch. Furrowing her brows, she started to look around the area for anything that could have done this.
However, there was nothing of that sort. She had even tried to use her senses to scan the area for mana but that yielded the same result.
‘Something’s wrong.’ She thought to herself.
Jumping off the tree, Keiko started to scan the area. Unfortunately for her, a fissure opened up next to her. Feeling a suction force that she couldn’t fight against, her body was flung through to the other side as snow crashed against her body.
Feeling the coldness of the surroundings, Keiko felt her danger bells ringing.
Quickly turning around, she wanted to teleport back out but it was blocked by a barrier.
“Damn, this isn’t good.” She muttered.
Looking around her, she started to scan her surroundings. Despite the blizzard that was happening right now, she could still make out a few silhouettes in the distance. Tall mountains and what seemed to be several skyscr.a.p.er like buildings could be observed from her location.
Behind her, was the fissure that was slowly closing. Despite her efforts in trying to go through it to escape, she was only rebounded by the effects. Even her teleport markers were cut off, leaving her stranded in this strange zone.
Knowing that she was the intruder, Keiko understood that she must conceal her presence for now. The first thing she needed to be doing was finding a way out of this realm. The second was figuring out what the hell was happening in here.
Choosing the closest skyscr.a.p.er that she could see, she started to make her way over there. Activating her stealth skills, she trod through the snow while making sure that she was constantly scanning her surroundings for anyone that could be dangerous. As she was in unfamiliar territory, she couldn’t take any chances.
Not long after she left the area, she sensed a person flying towards where she had come from. Giving them a brief glance, Keiko noticed that they seemed to have a surveillance system attached to their outfit.
‘It’s probably a good idea for me to just avoid all combat. From what I know, there’s a good chance that this is what Shiro was looking for so combat would only reveal our presence. For all they know, I could just be a villager that had accidentally slipped through.’
Suppressing her presence as much as possible, she made her way to the skyscr.a.p.er.
Once she arrived, she noticed a few guards by the main gate. They held spears that looked like they were of pretty high quality. One that she would normally give to some of her higher ranked subordinates.
Furrowing her brows, she readied a dagger and snuck around the side of the skyscr.a.p.er to see if there were any more guards.
Noticing that were two more that were hidden around the area, she thought about her choices and cast an enchantment on her dagger. Testing it out for a moment, she nodded her head in satisfaction and threw it towards the skyscr.a.p.er. Allowing the dagger to travel as far as it could, she flickered from her spot and teleported to where the dagger was.
Latching herself onto the side of the building, she sighed in relief after seeing that her invisibility was still up.
Climbing higher up the tower, she looked around to see a window of sorts so that she could figure out what was happening.
Unfortunately, there were none. Deciding to go to the top, Keiko climbed up the side of the skyscr.a.p.er while making sure that her presence was concealed. After a few moments, she finally reached the top and gritted her teeth at the sight in front of her.
Armed guards were dragging battered and bruised villagers to a magic circle where their body would suddenly be drained completely, rendering them into an empty husk which was thrown to the side.
Seeing the giant corpse hill that was being burnt to ash, Keiko knew that there were more victims than what she could see.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she tailed behind the guards while making sure that her presence was concealed.
“Tch, what a pain. These villagers can’t reach high levels since their potential is limited. The more that come in here, the more labour we need to do.” The first guard complained as the second nodded his head.
“Well what can we do? The ones with good potential are held somewhere else so that they can reach their maximum level quickly. Those with lower potential are given to us. If we want to change things up, we’ll need to get some achievements and rank up. That way, we can have some of the easier jobs.” The second guard sighed.
“Mn, but even so. Isn’t the master rushing things a little? If he expands the dungeon this quickly, it’ll gain the attention of the people around the world. Hell, I think the Martial Hero is going to come to investigate soon.”
“I think that’s part of the master’s plan. It’s not like we need to know since we’re just grunts in the end.”
“True but I still want to know if I’m going to die soon or not so I can prepare myself for a fight to the death. Since I can’t run, I might as well get ready you know? Plus, even if I try to run, the master would turn me to EXP before I can even get far enough.”
“Mn.”
Listening to their conversation to this point, Keiko got a general gist of what was happening.
This place was akin to an animal farm for the ‘master’. Except instead of animals, humans are the ones being farmed.
‘Seems like these towers have special properties. How else are the villagers levelling up without actually killing any monsters?’ Keiko thought with a frown.
Shaking her head, she prepared to leave.
Leaving the way she came, she wanted to explore some more when she felt a burst of mana in the distance.
Realising that it was Estrella’s mana signature, Keiko understood that this might be her ticket to return so that she could give Shiro the intel.
Rushing over, she saw Estrella being bombarded with light.
###
“I never did find out who it was that’s attacking Estrella but we’ve managed to buy just enough time for her to link up a portal to the orb that you hold for us to escape. Though I don’t think we can escape using the same method.” Keiko shook her head as she could still feel her heart pound from nervousness.
“Hmm… This is the worst possible scenario. I think I might know who’s inside this dungeon.” Shiro took a deep breath as this was the last person she wanted to meet at this moment.
