Rufus soon got the confirmation and relayed it to Draven with a nod. “Jayce said that he saw them, but he left earliest and speedily since he wanted to go to another area, so he doesn’t know what happened.”
“What if that bastard is lying?” Draven frowned.
“According to Mark, he isn’t lying. He used Focus Field to check his pulse and behavior when he answered. I can go and check again if you want to do that.”
Draven shook his head and gulped an entire wine glass. “No need.”
“Just kill him.”
Rufus’s eyes squinted, “That…”
Draven looked at Rufus, his eyes already turning red. “My son is dead. It’s confirmed by now. With the items he had, he shouldn’t have died at the monsters’ hand! Someone fucking killed him for sure. Fuck, I should’ve sent a knight instead of listening to Jacob.”
“Calm down, Draven. Jacob was a fine warrior. He knew how to fight and survive. You trained him. I also feel there’s a high chance that he was killed, but killing Jayce will only bring you troubles,” Rufus frowned. “Wait for Mr. Han’s reply.”
Draven threw the glass on the ground and roared before slumping back, his head down.
“I failed you, Marilyn. I failed to protect our son…”
Rufus sighed. Draven’s wife got herself killed to save Draven in the Labyrinth nine years ago, on the 2nd floor. Jacob was nine years old at that time, and it was tough.
It was also that time Draven became more ruthless. He spoiled Jacob to get over his mother’s death and also trained him, and taught him to be strong in this world.
But now that Jacob died, Draven had no one to call his own.
‘He will snap,’ Rufus thought as he looked at Draven. ‘This is only a matter of time. If he snaps and kills students, it’ll be over for Wildhunt Guild.’
Read latest stories on mvl
“Rufus, go to the GAA branch and ask for their help. Ask Lily and Natalia about him. I want to know everything!” Draven said before he started chugging the bottle of wine.
“Got it. And Draven, we’ll find the culprit. I’ll make sure of it,” Rufus said in a firm tone before leaving Draven alone in his room to grieve.
…
Rufus visited the GAA branch in the city and soon met with the branch president, Sabrina Darkwood.
After telling her about the ongoing situation, Rufus somberly said, “Draven is going to snap sooner rather than later. He will try to hold on until the reply from Mr. Han, but if nothing comes up, I don’t know what he will do.”
“We need your help.”
Sabrina sighed and nodded. “I understand. Let me see what I can do.”
“Thank you.”
After Rufus left, Sabrina leaned back on the chair, her expression thoughtful.
“Making him snap is not good,” Sabrina muttered. “Considering Draven, Rufus’ worries are true.”
After thinking for several minutes, Sabrina formed a plan.
“This can work if Grand Admiral cooperates with us…but he will only do that after testing Almond, and he can only test Almond once he comes out.”
“How long will he take? Four days, five days, six days? Will Draven wait that long?” Sabrina narrowed her eyes. “He will if he gets the guarantee.”
Sabrina called Dagon and told him about Rufus’ visit and her plan.
[Dagon: We might have a chance with this. Senior Rudra is very impressed with Almond, that’s for sure. Once Almond passes his test, he will cooperate with us. I’ll send him a message to call me when he’s free and tell him about the plan.]
…
On the other hand, Lily and Natalia had woken up at seven in the morning. They showered and ate to fill before triggering the Skill Insight from their 3rd specialized class quest in the training hall of the mansion.
Both were sitting cross-legged in absolute focus, experiencing a mindscape of wonder related to their class, where they were acquiring information and using it to design their second-class skill.
Time passed by as seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours.
Sun went down, and night descended, but those two were still in the same position.
Meanwhile, Almond finally decided to sleep. He hadn’t slept at all since Lily and Natalia left.
All he did was kill monsters. During these 30 hours, he cleared:
-Fallen Monastery Town (Inner area).
-Valley of Shadowsong (Major Area).
-Doomed Citadel (Inner area).
-Wonder Tree-Topia (Major Area).
-Plagued Necropolis (Inner area).
Five hours in total were spent just to travel around and slow-moving to recover.
After cleaning up Fallen Monastery Town, he went to the second big area—Valley of Shadowsong, like the Fairy Mountain.
He reached the valley right as the 4th day of the labyrinth started.
Elite monsters spawned in the second cycle, which was beneficial to Almond, considering they would be considered different species, so more stat points for him from each group of different monsters.
He didn’t bother killing monsters at silver level 5 or below, directly skipping them and going straight for silver level 6 and above.
It took him five hours to speed-run the Valley of Shadowsong, and by the time he was finished, his 3rd Spirit Wraith was also finished.
Its component consisted of five Boss-type monster spirits—Blade Mantis, Maddening Beaver, White King Manticore, Wandering Fairy, and Frostfeather Harpy.
Among the other fifteen Spirits, Almond had added one Human spirit, one of four nameless trashes the party had killed in the Frostbite cliffs area.
He hoped one human spirit was enough, considering that Wandering Fairy and Frostfeather Harpy were a bit on the humanoid side as well.
Naturally, the human spirit was eaten and devoured, but the memories and knowledge contained in the spirit were passed down and would influence the final creation according to what Almond thought.
But the final result wasn’t like Alfred as he had assumed.
It was more like Frankenstein. The new spirit wraith had a human-like physique, 7 feet tall and bulky muscled, wearing ripped pants, a white t-shirt, and a jacket on top.
But unlike Alfred, this guy could transform in crazy ways.