The Frostlands is a cold and desolate place to live. Snow fell upon the city 8 months of the year and even in summer, it would still be considered cold.
Luckily for the residents of such an awful place they had recently found salvation. The general population has only heard rumors spread by those that returned from the princess’s request to Eden.
Apparently, it was an ideal beautiful city that offered free food and housing to residents. Due to these great claims, some crazy people packed up their belongings and made the move to this promised land.
The reason everyone that didn’t move condemned the leavers as lunatics was because Eden was rumored to be run by a terrifying creature and the city was full of undead.
“It’s clearly a death trap!” residents cried to their friends who wanted to move.
Despite its questionable reputation nobody could dispute that the food provided for mana stones was of top quality. Once the food left the dungeon it lost its exp giving properties but still tasted a lot better than normally grown products.
The capital city of the Frostlands was built into a mountainside, it used some grasslands at the foot of the mountain for farming but it wasn’t very fertile land and due to the snow, it was hard work keeping the crops alive.
Most cities in this world are built around a dungeon, most use them to draw in adventurers but they could also be used as an infinite source of resources.
The Frostlands also had a dungeon. It was a three-floor dungeon that spawned golems that dropped ingots of minerals when killed. The layout of the dungeon was a dark cave with tunnels. Some tunnels lead straight into the dungeon wall creating dead ends.
The dungeon unfortunately had no useable land for farming and also had no monsters that provided any edible parts.
This dungeon that was deemed as useless by the residents of the Frostlands changed its worth overnight when an adventurer team reported that they could see vast grasslands from one of the tunnels.
It only took hours for the whole city to be in an uproar as everyone grabbed farming tools and ran into the dungeon.
[Welcome to the Underworld]
Compared to the freezing cold winds and cloudy skies that the residents were all used to, instead, the residents were greeted with a beautiful blue sky, a gentle summer breeze, and flat grasslands softly swaying in the wind, the grasslands seemed to extend in all directions.
Some started crying with joy while others quickly got to work. Compared to the empire that immediately started setting up a military base on the first floor the priority of the Frostland residents was cultivating crops as soon as possible.
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Leon Reed had requested an audience with the Emperor right after leaving the dungeon. He had never personally met with the Emperor but his father described him as a greedy and egotistical man.
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Leon was scared about the loot he had obtained from the golem. Initially, it seemed like a simple key but while waiting for an audience with the Emperor he was notified by the worlds systems voice
[New skills have been added to item ‘Eden Green Card’, It has been upgraded into an artifact]
In a state of confusion, he brought the card out of his pocket and couldn’t hide his surprise while reading the skills. An artifact usually only had a single skill and most would break upon the skill activation, like the barrier artifact Ben used.
They were expensive and single-use, but this card had many skills and from the description, they seemed to have no limit on usage! This was an extremely rare artifact!
While he was staring in amazement at his new prized possession a chief advisor of the Emperor saw him and beckoned him to enter
“That’s an interesting looking item young man,” the advisor said and it sent a shudder down Leon’s spine. He could see the greed in the man’s eyes.
Shit. That is all Leon could think, while caught up in reading the cards skills he had accidentally revealed such a priceless item and before someone with enough authority to take it away from him!
“Haha, it’s nothing much, just a cheap card I found,” Leon said while quickly putting the card back inside his trouser pocket.
The advisor, known to be an intelligent man could tell that it was no simple item “Very well, follow me inside, we can see if the Emperor finds that little item interesting or not!” he said with a knowing smile.
Leon almost activated the [Home Teleport] spell to escape but he couldn’t leave his family, especially his sister behind. Even if he could escape on his own his family would be held hostage.
The artifact was certainly almost valuable enough for Leon to abandon his entire family but he had a strong bond that couldn’t be so easily broken.
Accepting this defeat he followed the advisor in. He made his report to the Emperor about the dungeon and made sure not to bring up his find. Despite his efforts though the advisor stepped forward
“Emperor this young noble is hiding an interesting looking artifact, I think we should take a look”
The Emperors piercing gaze landed on the poor young noble. “Ah yes I nearly forgot! I found this artifact when we defeated the golem!” Leon tried to sound surprised and apologetic that he had forgotten about it.
“Very well show me” the elderly man called the Emperor said.
Once Leon pulled the card out, the Emperor almost stood up in shock. He had used [Appraisel] on the card once it left the nobles trousers and he was stunned!
Greed flashed in his eyes as he read down the list of skills.
Although the Emperor was a greedy man he was also extremely intelligent and despite his advanced age, he is still willing to play the long game for greater gains.
He already possessed artifacts that could accomplish most of the features of this card. The only thing that caught his eye was this city called Eden that he had never heard about.
He knew he could demand the card to be handed over but then what? He doesn’t know where Eden is located. Why not use this disposable pawn instead to check the place out first?
“Well done Leon Reed, As you earned this artifact fair and square I won’t demand it from you.”
A wave of relief was visible on Leon’s face.
“But in return for my generosity, I want you to activate its [Home Teleport] skill and investigate Eden for me.”
Leon stiffened a little at the request. He was basically being treated as a tool that could be thrown away. To teleport into a possible enemy’s capital city could be suicide!
Unfortunately, Leon couldn’t refute the Emperor’s request, especially after he had shown such supposed generosity.
“Yes, I will complete the mission right away”
[Home Teleport]
The world warped around Leon as he left the throne room and reappeared in a large square. Marble houses could be seen surrounding the square. Some people were walking around happily and chatting.
Leon just looked around confused. He had expected a fiery demon castle when he heard this place was the capital city of a dungeon called the Underworld.
But instead, it was a beautiful, clean, and peaceful-looking city. Directly in front of him, he could see an inn called the ‘Wisdom Inn’.
Deciding he needed a base of operations and to acquire some knowledge a place called Wisdom Inn seemed perfect. Walking over and pushing open the wooden doors he was greeted with a very high-class-looking interior.
“Welcome Visitor,” A scary and all-knowing-looking man said. He had white hair which was combed back and he was wearing an expensive-looking black suit.
He was cleaning a mug with skillful actions without breaking eye contact with Leon. The noble thought this man seemed, even more, intimidating than the Emperor he had been talking to movement ago!
“Come sit down, let’s have a nice chat,” he said in a calm voice. Leon felt that refusing this offer would be his last decision in this world so proceeded cautiously towards the bar.
“I just arrived here today, could you tell me more about this place?” I ask honestly.
“Hoho, has Eden finally opened its gates to outsiders? Things will start getting interesting around here. Come sit down young man, let us exchange information!”