Outside the Portal Dome situated in Soran was a single black car with a woman standing in front of it wearing formal clothing.
It was Emmy, who was waiting for Asher to arrive at the Portal Dome soon enough.
Currently, she was working for Asher, and because he was the heir of the family, she no longer reported his activities to his parents. That was one of the rules in the Greville family that made them a bit different from other elite families.
The heir of the family was allowed to move on their own, but Arthur and Sylvie could still get information about Asher’s movements if they wanted to. However, they would not ask Emmy about him because he was in World Academy.
Asher stepped out of the portal dome and saw Emmy waiting outside his car, with his driver still inside. Alyssa was following Asher in her wheelchair, but she was wearing a hoodie that concealed her pink hair.
It was not apparent, but social media had gone crazy when they saw a person related to the Garcia family attending World Academy. But the news died as the clash between two SSS Rank hunters took over.
Emmy looked at Alyssa but didn’t react at all. Her job was to assist Asher, not advise him, so she just glanced over Alyssa’s existence without reacting unless Asher did it first.
“Emmy, take us to the Villa,” Asher said as he directed Alyssa to sit in the car with him.
This was not one of the Villas that Asher had bought in the Dungeon, but a different one he had purchased anonymously using his connections.
“As you wish, Young Master,” Emmy opened the door for Asher and Alyssa to get in, and the car moved towards the Villa.
“Is Tom already there?” Asher asked Emmy as he brought out a laptop from his spatial ring.
“Yes, Young Master,” Emmy replied from the front seat.
It was an hour’s drive to reach the Villa, but not much conversation happened in the car.
“The room you requested is the right one from that hallway,” Emmy pointed as she stood at the entrance of the Villa.
They went to the hallway when Alyssa heard a strange voice that sounded like a person, but she ignored it as it only appeared once. She didn’t notice Emmy manipulating the wind to cut off the noises, so she thought she had misheard something.
“Let’s move in,” Asher said as Alyssa entered a large room comparable to the boss room she had seen in the Dungeon.
It was an underground facility built specially to store monsters, and usually, only Guild halls or buildings made to harvest monsters had such rooms.
“You can place the boss monster there,” Asher said as he pointed to the middle of the room.
“Yeah, this is the artifact I got from the dungeon,” Alyssa said as she brought out the ring-shaped artifact.
Asher looked at the ring, and the system started analyzing it.
[Analyzing the Artifact…]
| Zixtor’s Ring |
| Description: A ring adorned with intricate runes that enhance the wearer’s affinity with the spatial element. Having been exposed to the ebbs and flows of spatial law, the runes have captured a minuscule essence of this enigmatic law within the ring. |
| Rank B: Increases Spatial Mastery |
| Limitations: Doesn’t work for spells above Rank B |
‘Spatial mastery?’ Asher looked at the strange ring in his palm.
Apart from the unknown runes carved on it, it was similar to other artifacts, but there was no such artifact that increased your mastery of the spatial element. Despite not giving any intelligence stat, this ring was helpful for both Asher and Alyssa.
But Asher had a way of increasing his intelligence, and his sword art also depended on it. However, for Alyssa, this artifact was something that would help her a lot in reducing the mental drain she was experiencing.
But what was more surprising for Asher was that a Rank B artifact had come out of a Rank C dungeon. Usually, rune masters would test the artifact to assess its rank if they could not decipher it from the runes alone, but the system could do it for Asher easily.
‘Was it because of the curse?’ A thought came to his mind, but he could not confirm it.
“You can take this ring,” Asher told Alyssa, but she was slightly surprised.
“I don’t need it, and it was you that killed the boss anyway,” Alyssa replied, thinking that it was something that Asher had earned himself.
“It will help your gravity magic, and I don’t need it anyway,” Asher tossed the ring to Alyssa, who caught it by slowing it down using her gravity magic.
These days, Alyssa was practicing utilizing her gravity magic more accurately to merge both elements to create a stronger attack. Due to her getting the Rank SSS Elixir, she had no problem using her mana, but the mental strain was a slight problem for her.
But it was not big enough to hinder her progress, so she ignored it the best she could.
“Then I will take it. I will put the boss there,” Alyssa said as she stepped forward, and a huge dead body appeared before her.
The majestic figure of the dead Fiarmince still exuded pressure that made it clear that it was a powerful boss.
“I will practice here for now. I have arranged some things for you. Ask Emmy, and she will provide them,” Asher turned and told Alyssa.
“Okay,…” Alyssa wanted to say something else but decided not to after thinking about it.
Alyssa left the room shortly after saying that, making Asher turn and walk toward the dead boss monster.
Asher raised the palm of his hands to touch the boss monster, and some words came out of his mouth,
“Absorb,” He muttered as a thick, red-like aura started covering the beast, and at this moment, a strange tattoo on his back appeared.
[ Host is absorbing a C+ Rank Monster ]
[ Host has gained +20 Strength stats ]
[ Only partial absorption was possible due to a significant difference in stats ]
‘Partial,’ This was something Asher had already noticed in his Dungeon runs when he had asked Emmy to bring a higher rank monster in front of him and let him kill it. At that time, Asher could not absorb a single stat, but now he had gained a lot of strength, which he could feel right now.
If Asher didn’t have the high intelligence stat he did, he would have had many issues recalibrating his body to feel natural when gaining power through such manners.
The black tattoo was still present, but it disappeared as the red aura also vanished from the monster’s body.
Asher looked at the monster’s corpse in front of him as he decided to pierce the heart of this monster. He had a slight hunch about something as he coated his sword with his aura.
His increased strength made it easier for him to pierce the skin of the boss monster as he made a considerable cut around the heart region.
‘Should be here,’ Asher’s eyes looked for a certain mana gem as he brought out an orange-colored mana gem, which was probably at C Rank from the amount of mana Asher could sense from it.
It was apparent that the Dungeon was unique, but the rewards make up for the increase in difficulty in Asher’s mind. Although the system told him that even fate could not meddle in such a direct way to harm Asher, the price it paid was in the form of a cooldown that meant such an event would not happen anytime soon.
Asher stood up because this was not the only thing he needed to do today. Although absorbing the boss monster was one of the reasons, there were other reasons Asher had come out of the World Academy.
Asher exited the room and saw Emmy standing at the end of the hallway.
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“Stay here and make sure nothing happens until I return,” Asher said, but Emmy’s expression changed.
“But your security?” She spoke out because leaving Asher alone was dangerous for him.
“It’s not needed; we will meet in the Abyss Corporation’s building, so there will be no issues,” Asher said, but it was not where he was going.
“I will not repeat my order,” His indifference made it hard for Emmy to refuse, but she could only nod her head.
Asher moved out as he saw Tom, who was sitting in the living room while sipping on some coffee, as he was pretty tired from working all the time.
“Good Morning, Boss,” Tom stood up to greet Asher.
“Did you find the locations?” Asher asked, and Tom nodded as he tapped something on his phone.
“I have found 2 of the guys you were looking for,” Tom said, but looking at his haggard eyes, one could imagine how difficult it was for him.
“Only 2, huh,” Asher looked at the profiles of the people Tom had sent him just now.
‘Time to form ZEPHYR again,’ Asher thought in his mind.
If Aztech was the company he opened to operate in the light that was visible for the whole world to see, then ZEPHYR was something that only Asher and its members would know about.
A lot of his plans were not something even his family would appreciate if they learned it through Emmy, so he needed his own subordinates different from the people in the Greville family.
It was not difficult for him to do so as well. He just needed to gather the guys that joined him in his previous life.
“They were the only ones I could find in Somaria,” Tom said.
Although he could go meet them now, Asher had other stuff to handle right now.
“Did you schedule the meeting with those people?” Asher asked.
“Yeah, but they don’t know your identity for now,” Tom replied.
“Doesn’t matter. They don’t have a choice either way,” Asher said as both of them moved toward the car that was waiting for Asher.
