[You have defeated Lesser Demon Yusax (Level 50, Lord)]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[Vitality: +3]

[Strength: +2]

[Agility: +2]

Yusax proved himself to be a tough opponent to the very end as despite the state he was in, he managed to last a full three seconds under the scorching inferno that was Felix’s magic. Had he lasted another two seconds, he would have lived through the attack.

But he didn’t.

And with that, the fight was finally over. Using his spear as support, Felix sent a look at Drakon, who was leaning against one of the cavern’s walls.

The two’s eyes met, and they started laughing together.

The intense stress of the fight was released through laughter as they both laughed for a full minute, before calming down.

"What a wonderful fight!"

This was said by neither of the fighters as they both turned to look at the entrance of the cave, where an elegant looking man in long blue robes leaned against the entrance of the cavern.

[Earl Eric, ?, Lord]

Tightening his grip against his spear, Felix groaned in annoyance, "You better not tell me you are the mastermind behind this here to cut off any loose threads, because if you do, I’m going to form a grudge."

Eric stopped for an instant, before bursting into laughter. Next to Felix, Drakon informed Felix, "This is Earl Eric from Fìrma. He is the one who gave me my Quest to stop Izrath’s order."

Realizing his blunder, Felix uttered, "Oh. No offense then."

Fortunately, Eric did not look angry in the slightest as he even assured, "I wouldn’t want to make an enemy out of a Runefather because of a misunderstanding. Besides, ignoring that, considering the spectacle you showed me, I could hardly be mad at you."

Drakon questioned, "When did you arrive?"

"About thirty seconds after you crushed your token. I’m a Tier 2 Level 150 Lord, so I took more time excusing myself from my meeting than getting here."

Felix and Drakon remained silent for a moment, until Felix spoke up, "Thank you for not interfering, then. It would have been a shame missing this fight."

Eric nodded with an easy going smile, before turning to the Dark Gate. Felix and Drakon both looked over, and were surprised to see the Gate once again start opening as fingers passed through the small opening.

But the air around Eric shone with a purple hue as lightning appeared around him. The lightning took the form of a long snake before firing at the Dark Gate.

The Dark Gate itself did not seem to take any damage, but the hand that started passing through the opening was obliterated, and the Dark Gate was forcefully closed with a loud bang.

Looking at the two players, Eric explained, "The Dark Gate is an especially evil ritual that summons an opening between space and dimensions. It is tedious to set up, needing quite some time, but it is even harder to take care of. It usually requires the work of several accomplished Runesmiths to neutralize them."

As he said that, he looked at Felix with intensity, making the young man sigh, "While this looks very interesting, I’m out of Mana, most of the bones in my chest are broken and I’m missing an ear, so I’m not really in the condition to do anything."

But Eric continued smiling as three potions appeared in front of him. One blue, one red, and one green.

The three floated over to Felix, allowing him to read their description.

[PHP#100, Great, Level 100]

[Upon consumption, recover 1650 HP.]

[PMP#100, Great, Level 100]

[Upon consumption, recover 1600 MP.]

[PRP#100, Great, Level 100]

[Upon consumption, relieve fatigue by 20%.]

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Felix raised an eyebrow at the gift, which Eric seemed to interpret as something different than surprise as he quickly said, "Don’t mind the names, these are the results of some experimentation I made, so I didn’t put too much thought into naming them."

Felix nodded, but did not immediately drink the potions. Instead, he asked, "Why gift me something this precious?"

Eric looked stunned for a moment, before he once again started laughing.

"Precious? They aren’t worth a Gold Coin. These aren’t gifts either, I do expect you to help me get rid of this Dark Gate, for which you will receive another reward, of course."

Felix nodded slightly, accepting his explanation as he drunk the potions one after another.

For the Mana Potion, there actually wasn’t much wasted Mana as Felix’s total MP was 1100, meaning only 500 MP wasn’t used to recover his MP. This excess energy did not disappear though, and instead was absorbed by his mind, helping it recover.

As for the Health Potion, as Felix only had 340, there was a much larger excess of energy, which went to his head, to help his ear recover.

In Epoch, losing parts of one’s body wasn’t definitive, and not only for players. Except in special cases, when one was injured, their HP would first recover to full, before their body would slowly regrow whatever had been lost.

This was a slow and tedious process, when achieved naturally, but potions helped with that as Felix’s ear completely regrew thanks to the 1000+ HP worth of energy left. His ribs also healed with this energy.

Seeing this, Drakon took his own potions, and although they looked lesser in quality, his injuries weren’t as bad as Felix.

Clapping his hands to get their attention, Eric chirped, "A guest Runesmith I invited to destroy this guest should soon arrive. I’m sorry in advance for making you work with… that kind of people, but I promise the pay will be great. Meanwhile, Drakon and I have places to be."

Felix was curious about the clear disgust Eric had shown when speaking of the Runesmith supposed to come, but he had a more pressing question on his mind though, so before they could go he asked, "What were they trying to do?"

Eric pointed at the Dark Gate and explained, "This is a Dark Gate. They planned on using it to bring an army from Izrath’s realm. Had they not been stopped, they probably would have been able to take over the city, transforming it into a shadow realm fit only for Izrath’s followers. So good job stopping them in time."

Felix nodded slightly, a bit shocked he had unknowingly ruined such a big plan. Sharing a last respectful nod with Drakon, Felix waited for a while after being left alone, before contacting Thousand Streams through the Communication Token.

Not even a second passed before he answered.

"What happened?! Did we all die?"

Felix snorted and replied, "No, only you did. At the very first attack, even. But we killed the guy."

Thousand Streams sounded distressed as he said, "You did? I’ll be coming over, we should be able to salvage the situation and still piss Blue Light enough for the plan."

Felix quickly refuted, "Don’t come over, you will only be a bother. As for pissing off Blue Light, while I didn’t personally kill Isaiah, I accidentally ruined a big plan of theirs. They probably hate me more than if I had only killed their Guild Leader."

"Oh, good. I’ll tell the boss then. Good job."

Felix rolled his eyes hearing his words and cut off the connection, before moving over the Dark Gate. Before working on it though, he took care of the two corpses, barely managing to drag Yusax’s body into his Bag of Holding, while burning the other one to a crisp.

Felix wasn’t sure whether a Lesser Demon’s corpse had any value, but he had enough space in his Bag of Holding to not take any risk anyway.

With that done, he approached the Dark Gate.

Even now, it was giving him bad vibes. However, as he took a closer look, he couldn’t help but feel awe and interest.

Numerous Runes were carved all over the Gates, and as placed his palm against the metallic door, Felix felt a Mana stronger than anything he ever felt before.

But as he was marveling at the artifact, he heard footsteps, and looking over his shoulder, Felix saw a woman enter the cave.

[Vaena Fenìn, ?, Overlord]

The two froze as they looked at each other. The silence lasted for several seconds, before she stammered, "Rune- Runefather? What? H-How? And a Human?"

As for Felix, he wasn’t stunned because she was an Overlord. Eric, as a Level 150 Lord, was already so far beyond him that it didn’t really matter to him what her rank was.

No, what stunned him, was her appearance.

She was a tall lady, nearly as tall as him, and she was dressed in long, green robes that embraced her curves graciously, and only served to put into light her glossy skin and vermilion hair. Her straight, thin eyebrows were locked into a confused frown, but did nothing to hide her deep, green eyes.

She was biting on her lower lip, her gaze moving from Felix’s face to his ID above his head.

But Felix’s eyes fixed on a single of her traits. Her pointy ears.

SHE WAS A FUCKING ELF!

Realizing he had been staring for a little too long, Felix felt thankful she was apparently too stunned by his title as he lightly coughed into his hand and asked, "Are you the Runesmith sent by Earl Eric?"

The Elven Lady also seemed to realize her reaction had not been appropriate as she looked away and replied, "I was invited, yes… but I should leave."

Stunned by the sudden decision, Felix almost got to his feet before he stopped himself and quickly asked, "Wait, why? Your help would be more than welcome!"

Vaena’s face was once again marred with confusion as she looked at Felix straight into his eyes. Their gazes locked together for a few seconds, before touching her ears. Realizing they were visible, Vaena finally asked, "You don’t mind working with an Elf?"

Felix couldn’t stop himself from slightly gasping as he asked back, "Why wouldn’t I? I would be mad."

Vaena froze, before letting out a short chuckle.

"You aren’t from around here, are you?"

This time, it was Felix who showed confusion as he pointed at his ID and said, "Well, I’m from another world."

Vaena showed a cheeky smile as she shook her head, "Yes, I know that. That’s not what I meant. Don’t you know where you are?"

Although Felix was confused by the question, he felt his heartbeat accelerate as Vaena stepped inside the cavern, approaching him.

"Well, Mountain Pass, between the Margarita Kingdom and the Brightsky Kingdom?"

Vaena stopped next to the Dark Gate, her fair hand lightly touching its surface as she replied in an almost ethereal voice, "The Margarita Kingdom… I suppose you don’t know much about the country, nor did you visit."

"I can’t say I have. Since my arrival to this world, today was my first time leaving Red Dawn, the town I appeared in."

Vaena showed a gentle smile as she nodded, "That explains things. If you had gone to Fìrma, you would probably have noticed that there are only humans there. It was also probably the case in your town."

Felix nodded, so she continued, "The reason for that is because other intelligent races are not welcomed here."

"This is quite the sad outlook on life, but I guess that explains the Earl’s attitude." Felix’s impression of Earl Eric drastically lowered now that he learned he was probably xenophobic. Did the fact that Vaena was gorgeous play into it?

It shall remain a mystery of the ages.

Vaena did, however, add, "Most of the brats in this Kingdom are insufferable, urgh… for a good enough reason, I guess. But their Queen is cool."

Felix did feel a little confused about how an Elf could find the leader of a seemingly xenophobic kingdom ‘cool’, but he only had snippets of the actual situation, so he abstained from making any hasty judgment for now. Except for Earl Eric, of course, but that wasn’t really much of a moral problem to begin with…

Vaena’s pearly teeth appeared as she showed a kind smile, saying, "Well, in any case, I’m happy to meet you, Runefather. It is an honor. Also, I am a Rune Expert, not a Runesmith, but it doesn’t surprise me that waste of space couldn’t remember something this simple."

Felix extended his hand, returning her smile as she shook his head, "It is my pleasure working with you. And please, call me Odin."