After revealing the assault of the Greens, I vanished into the background, leaving the task of protecting the dungeon to the ducal guards.

They were nowhere near as competent to satisfy me. They had the direct combat capability, but not the necessary discipline. Too confident in their new status.

Still, they were competent enough to be trusted with the task once they were alerted to the possibility of an imminent attack.

Naturally, my trust had limits. Even from a distance, I observed the situation, except for a fleeting moment when I visited the casino to make sure everything was in order — which was, with Mahruss calm and collected enough to handle the mess as the gang warfare around the place started to pick up — I stayed near the dungeon, ready to intervene in case of a more subtle sabotage.

Only once a stone in my pocket heated, delivering me a signal from Zolast, I headed back to the guild headquarters.

The first thing I noticed was Karak, exhausted, yet his eyes shining with unshed tears, showing just how deeply he had been affected by what had just happened. I didn't need to ask what was happening.

But Terma still informed me. "Karak just got his promotion!" Terma laughed as he jumped repeatedly, too excited to slow down despite his apparent exhaustion. Jertann and Silas shared his happiness, though not his hyperactivity, as they were leaning against each other, collapsed on the floor. I noticed their fingers, intertwined, but said nothing.

I was not one to discourage young love.

I just nodded at Karak, who appreciated my silence about his happiness. I turned my attention to Zolast. "I'm guessing everything went as planned," I said.

"The secret gate is stable, and the dungeon is strong enough. We'll probably reduce the strength we could leverage once the general access is allowed, but otherwise, we're in operation."

"We're finally a proper guild!" Terma interjected. "I can't believe just how easy leveling in a dungeon is. I gained five levels. It was amazing."

"Only because Zolast was there to protect and heal us," Jertann interjected, giving him a dose of reality. "Without him, we wouldn't have lasted fifteen minutes down there. Don't get arrogant."

"Why does it matter? He'll be with us always, right?" he asked.

"We shall see," Zolast answered noncommittally, aware that it wouldn't be that simple to accompany them every single time. His disappearance was not a simple affair, and unless we wanted to get caught, he couldn't repeat it too many times.

Jertann nodded solemnly, his mind already busy, clearly understanding that leading them to the dungeon would soon be his responsibility. His expression told that he was already planning...

Terma just smiled, missing the implications. He was still excited. "I still can't believe how cool our new weapons are. They are amazing," he chuckled as he played with his magic weapon. "Too bad we can't use them outside."

With that, they left, leaving me with Zolast. "So, how was it?" I asked.

"Not bad. The dungeon is stable enough, and they are good kids. Since nobody else was using the dungeon, we had a nice haul," he said as he flipped open the first box, revealing stat and skill stones. "Five stat stones, though only Vitality for now. Also a bunch of skills. Sadly, none of them are Advanced."

"Well, not that surprising, is it?" I asked, not really aware of the possibilities.

"Not really. It would have been a nice surprise to receive them, but we're barely scratching the surface of the breach, and that's as well as we could have hoped for," he said. "We need to get deeper into the breach for stronger rewards, and that's not feasible for a secret entrance."

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"No matter," I said with a shrug. "Not to say stats wouldn't have been useful, but considering the time required to properly absorb them, they aren't of much use anyway. At least, not with our timetable. We can always search for a better solution if they are needed." Zolast nodded. "Now, how about mana stones?"

"Better luck there," he said as he flipped open another box, and a blue glow far more intense than any other mana source I had seen covered the room, which was enough to confirm the value of the stones.

Not that I needed to measure the color and brightness to know that, as three lines of notifications confirmed readily.

[Energy Source Detected - Promotion Available

Trigger Promotion

Accept / Decline]

"Excellent," I said as I examined the mana stones. "They are just enough for me. You don't need any of them, right?" I said, ignoring the desire to grab them and disappear.

"Nothing that couldn't wait until the second dungeon rush," Zolast said. "Especially if you can get rid of these somewhere else." As he said that, he pointed at another box, though he didn't open it. I was confident that they held a bunch of red crystals. "If you can't, I need to keep most of the mana stones to create a proper cache."

"Don't worry about them, I'll handle it," I said, not willing to delay it further. The prospect of promotion was too important as the danger around us continued to intensify. I'd rather handle it before I need to deal with an emergency. This place was getting harder to predict, and I had little doubt that it was just the beginning.

Even without the mysteriously lost hero to find — and wasn't that a fun idea for me — with all the dungeons, the place was essentially going through a gold rush … and as soon as the infrastructure was in place to show the profits, the real ruling powers would make a showing.

I had to get ready for their appearance.

"Good," Zolast said. "We'll go down for another dungeon run six hours later, and that should be enough to establish a cache to store the red crystals properly. Thought you would still need to dispose of them."

I frowned. "What happened?" he asked, noticing the change in my expression.

"Don't go for another dungeon run before I return," I said. He gave me a puzzled look, so I gave him a detailed explanation regarding what was going on in town during his absence, including the ploys of the Greens, though I had severely underrated my contributions to fuel the gang warfare.

Not that I had worries about revealing my role, but it would require revealing my abilities for that purpose, and at the moment, I preferred not to do that.

"A complicated outlook," Zolast said. "When will you return?"

"Ideally, half a day, but not entirely sure," I answered, not willing to commit to a number. I grabbed the two silver-studded boxes that held the mana stones, their size making it slightly difficult to carry, but not too difficult. "But in case I delay, make sure to avoid the dungeon until the young duke returns. I'll be more confident about the risk of sabotage with the old knight here to watch the dungeon."

Zolast nodded.

That was all we talked about before the town behind. However, I made sure to stop by the casino to leave Mahruss with some instructions, including an order to call Zolast in case of a true emergency rather than trying to handle it alone.

"Now, where to go," I murmured as I found myself in the wilderness once more.

I had three good options considering all the variables. I could go to the seaside and use the open waters, I could go back to the wall, or I could go parallel to the town and find a deserted area.

The first option was tempting. The sea would allow me to go around and disappear, and my speed should allow me a great movement range in case of a military operation. Unfortunately, that also meant that I would reveal myself to some unknown threats.

The sea was filled with strong monsters according to the intel I had collected, and while the truly dangerous beasts were supposed to stick to the depths rather than drift to the surface according to that same intel, I had no idea if their habits would work the same while I went through a promotion.

In comparison, picking a parallel direction to get away before the Promotion was certainly safer. There wouldn't be any way to track me back, and I would be able to retreat safely, especially if I put some more points to Speed and enhance my ability to retreat.

Yet, there was one thing that kept me back: my lack of knowledge about their ability to track my promotion. I had no idea whether it created some kind of energy or not, and if it did, how accurate it was… But, in case it did, the closer I was to the wall, the easier it would be to convince people — and gods — that I was still on the other side of the wall like they assumed.

A difficult tradeoff, but after deliberate consideration, I started to move toward the wall. Not directly, rather preferring to pick an angle and a complicated path that would make the others very difficult to track me, once again using the river to conceal most of my tracks as well.

I stopped only when I was two miles away from the wall, and searched for a convenient cave. As much as I wanted to get even closer, this was the optimal time.

Then, I started waiting, watching the intensity of the siege and the constant attacks toward the wall, waiting for a particularly intense moment to go back to the cave and open both boxes.

[Energy Source Detected - Promotion Available

Trigger Promotion

Accept / Decline]

"Accept," I said, the moment important enough to vocalize the order.

My surroundings dissolved, and once again, I found myself floating in darkness.