"MOVE MOVE MOVE!!! GET OUT ON OUR WAY!!"

The Rescue team carrying the Injured Grand Ecstasy to the Adventurer's guild hospital. Everyone nearby is murmuring as its been a while since they see group of injured carried to the guild since the day they clean the Reverse Tower. Ranging from stranded adventurers to adventurers injured fighting the Apex monsters.

Then the adventurers are in shocked when they realized the people the medics are carrying.

"Wait a minute! It's the Grand Ecstasy!"

"What?! I thought they're already dead!"

Graham and Monica instantly stand up on and walks to the crowd when they hear the party's name. Only to see them heavily injured and unconcious.

"HEY! DON'T TELL ME THAT IS VANDRIL!"

"That's Gilmore! But how?!"

The adventurers switch their focus to Gilmore who is missing an arm. For them, to see a Platinum ranked adventurer in such state sends them a grim implications on whatever happened to him inside the tower. They stay silent, full of dread.

They all just watch us each of the injured is carried to the emergency room.

Behind the rescue team is Sophia. Walking slowly with no emotion or whatsoever. Graham and Monica sees the familiar face and quickly walks to Sophia.

"Sophia... What happened?" Moni a softly asked.

Sophia didn't answer but instead walks slowly to Monica and hugs her. She started weeping. Graham just watched and didn't probe any further.

Guild Master Hilgurd hears that the Grand Ecstasy has returned and watch the whole commotion. When he sees Sophia, he also walks to her to ask questions. But when he reach them, Monica just slowly shake her head to Hilgurd who just sighed.

Hours passed by until night. The guild is now empty except for Sophia, Monica, Graham and Hilgurd waiting for the healing process to finish while also drinking tea. Seeing that Sophia is now calm, Hilgurd starts to break the silence.

"What really happened there Sophia?"

Sophia looks to Hilgurd with a pained expression then looks down again.

"We reached an unexplored area in the Reverse Tower."

Graham, Monica and Hilgurd's eyes widen after hearing Sophia's words. Hilgurd thinks for a while.

"Stop for now. Let's wait for your friends to recover so all of you can report to me more precisely." Hilgurd stated. Sophia agree as she also have no energy to talk for long.

The four is suddenly disturbed when the Guild's door opened with force. Revealing Erika with her maid and bodyguards obviously concerned to their master's safety.

"Where is my husband?!" Erika asked panicly while walking in hurry towards the four.

"Madam please calm down for a moment! It might affect your child!" Her maid said as she tries to reasoned to Erika while panicking. Her bodyguards meanwhile are on high alert as they're afraid that Erika might trip thus putting her and her baby at risk.

"Calm down Mrs. Vandril. They're currently treated inside the emergency room so we must wait. But they're alive so don't worry. Hilgurd explained.

Erika after hearing Hilgurd calms down a little bit.

"Thank you Goddess..." Erika softly said. Her maid brings the nearby chair so Erika can sit.

"Do you want some tea Mrs. Vandril?" Hilgurd offered. Erika nods so Vandril gets a new cup and put tea in it.

Everyone just wait in silence until the clerics finally leaves the emergency room, all are exhausted.

"Is everything fine?" Hilgurd asked.

"Yes sir. We managed to heal their injuries easily thanks to the usage of Planesclime dust. It manage to prolong their survival further." One of the cleric said.

"Planesclime dust you say?" Hilgurd is intrigued.

"B-but that is suuuper expensive right? How they managed to get that thing?" Monica is in awe as he imagines the price of 1 vial.

"It was used by Gilmore on everyone." Sophia said.

"I guess that's a given. He's a Vandril afterall." Graham said, he's much more relaxed when he heared that his friends are fine.

"But their injury still take a toll to their body so they might fall asleep for 1 week at best or 2 weeks at worst." The cleric further explained.

Erika gives a deep sigh of relief.

"You're one of the survivors right? It seems that there's more on Gilmore's injuries like his skin appears to deep red patches?" The cleric asked while looking at Sophia. She thinks for a moment trying to remember something and then...

"I remember. He drinks two types of liquid during the duration of his fight. One is a blue liquid and another is a deep purple liquid."

After hearing the last liquid from Sophia. Hilgurd and the clerics are in shock. Some of the clerics quickly scattered as like they already know the procedure.

"Those who are already depleted go back to the quarters and get some rest! Those who still have mana and stamina left stay with me!" The cleric said. He seems to be the leader of the group.

"THERE'S SUPPOSED TO BE A RING LIKE RASHES!" Hilgurd shouts.

"The ring like purple rashes is the starting symptoms as the blood spreads on the body and disappears withing few minutes! The rescue clerics must didn't see them because it's already gone!." The cleric explained. Hilgurd looked at Sophia.

"OI OI OI!! WHAT THE HELL YOU GUYS FIGHT IN ORDER FOR HIM TO DRIN- WAIT, I ALREADY KNOW..." Hilgurd's voice as he clench his fist tight on the table. His face is in complete disbelief.

"What's wrong?" Graham asked, having no idea what just happened.

"Now that a Yuriha blood is added to the equation. This is going to be a very troublesome recovery process." The cleric said while scratching his head. He then politely leave everyone.

Everyone is concerned, especially Erika who starting to go back to her panic state.

"W-w-what does he mean?! What in the Goddess name is the Y-y-yuriha blood?!" Erika panicly asked as the the thing sounds dangerous for her.

"Yuriha? That god forsaken sea monster?" Graham followed. Both him and Monica is also concerned.

Hilgurd having no choice explains the Yuriha blood to everyone. Its effects and side effects. And as he explains the brutality the Yuriha blood. Everyone is in grimace.

"No way..." Erika feels weak.

"Everyone else except for Gilmore can take their deep rest. While Gilmore needs intensive care right now in order to survive." Hilgurd added.

Sophia feels guilty that not only Gilmore uses Planesclime dust for her friends but also drinks a very dangerous substance just to have a higher chance to save them. She might not able to look at his face again.

"Let me bring him to the Royal Infirmary!" Erika suddenly said.

"Pardon?"

"I said let me bring him to the Royal Infirmary!"

"Mrs. Vandril. It's not like I want Mr. Gilmore to die but... It might affect the reputation of your family somehow." Hilgurd said with respect.

"I don't care! As long as my Husband stays alive, I would do anything!" Erika said. Hilgurd clearly see Erika's conviction. He just sigh.

"Ok then. Let me talk to the clerics about the transfer and let us handle everything else. Just ensure your presence in the Royal Infirmary to make things easier."

"I will." Erika agrees.

"As for you Sophia. You must be really tired so use the guess room to rest." Hilgurd said.

"T-thank you Guildmaster." Sophia said with appreciation.

"Let's wait for them to wake up ok?" Monica cheers Sophia while holding her hands.

Sophia smiles.

"Yeah."

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The estimated 7 days of rest for the team becomes 10 days of sleep but Sophia stays on her friends side until the day that one of them wakes up.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Ughhh... What?"

The sleepy Sophia instantly wakes up when she heared the familiar voice. Sophia walks to now awake yet confused Beltrand, he slowly tries to sit but he find it difficult due to his lack of strenght.

"Ohhh... Sophia where are we?" Beltrand asked. Sophia instead carefully hugs Beltran.

"It seems a lot of thing happened?"

"Yes. A lot of things."

"But... We're supposed to be dying in the caverns?"

Sophia finally stops hugging Beltrand and wipes her tears. After that, she explained everything to Beltrand who in awe.

"Geez. To think that of all people, Vandril is the one the saved us." Beltrand scratches his head.

"I know right. To think that a descendant of a hero saves us from brink of death. We owe him a lot now especially when he sacrificed his arm."

Beltrad looks on the beds in his side to see Mateo, Shirna and Claustrine still sleeping.

"How long do I sleep again?" Beltrand asked.

"10 days. As for them, I don't know when they would wake up." Sophia answered with a saddened face.

Beltrand puts her hand on Sophia's shoulder.

"Don't worry. This time, you're not alone on waiting." Beltrand comforts Sophia who give a faint smile.

*groooowllll*

Their wholesome moment is ruined by the sound of Beltrand's stomach. Surprised, Sophia chuckle and Beltrand laughs weakly. Laughing at the absurdity before Sophia brings Beltrand a bowl of soup.

Wanderer visits Grand Ecstasy and gives their support and encouragement to Beltrand and Sophia. It's also a farewell as the party is embarking on another long journey but they want to ensure that their friends are ok.

Another 2 days later. Every member of Grand Ecstasy are finally awake and energized. But before they leave the healing room. The five decides to discuss something.

"12 days... Hmmm.... This is a problem." Mateo said as he thinks.

"That equals to all of our hard earned money. Damn." Beltrand said.

"You know. This is also our fault for peacefully sleeping for 12 days." Claustrine suggested.

"Hey! I only sleep for 10 days!" Beltrand protest.

"As if that would make any difference." Claustrine said followed by a Sneer.

"What should we do? Do we even get any valuables in that... Cursed cave?" Beltrand asked.

"Maybe Claustrine can help us. She surely loots a lot of things on the room." Shirna suggested while looking at Claustrine who also looking at him with a dissapointed expression.

"Can we sell those?" Beltrand asked.

"Good luck selling academic books. If the Academia finds out that we're selling research books especially ones made by JULZHIHAR." Claustrine shivers as she thinks of the consequences.

The Academia. Despite being an independent institution, they still have collaborations with the nobility so death sentence is not really a farfetched reality for doing such blasphemy.

"How about we sell it to the black market? It's ok as long as no one knows about it right?" Shirna suggested.

"Please shut up. Selling the books is out of option if all of you wants to stay alive."

"As if working our arses to death to pay our medical fees is a viable option." Beltrand complained.

"Ah! I have an idea! How about we escape to Mateo's home?" Sophia proudly said, referring to Mateo's world. After hearing such wild suggestion. Shirna, Claustrine, and Beltran goes into think mode.

"No. Never. Not gonna happen." Mateo said while shaking his head.

"But-"

"No buts. We're going to pay that fees. I'm going to talk with the Guildmaster if he can lower the cost for us." Mateo's ultimatum.

"Hey. What if the Academia pays us some sort of rewards for giving such important record to them?" Shirna's well thought idea the everyone looked at him with interest.

"Hmmmm... I wish that's really the case." -Claustrine.

"It's a very important discovery is I expect that the payout is big. That way we can pay the medical expenses." Mateo's wishful thinking.

"You don't need to pay for that."

The fives looks on the direction of the voice only to see Guildmaster Hilgurd on the door.

"Guildmaster?"

"You don't need to pay for your medical expenses, the guild would handle that."

"REALLY?!" The five is surprised yet there's smile on their faces.

"Yeah. But there's only one thing you need to do. That is to tell us everything you discovered on the unexplored areas."

"What do you mean sir?" Mateo asked.

"The royal circle is calling for your prescence in the court. So move your asses out and prepare for our departure." Hilgurd said.

Grand Ecstasy gulps after hearing thay they're going to be involved in kingdom's politics.

But Sophia have another question in her mind.

"Guildmaster."

"What is it?"

"Is Sir Gilmore... Ok?" Sophia asked with worry. Hilgurd faintly smiles.

"He's fine now. He's already recovered thanks to Royal Infirmary's help.

"Thank you Goddess..." Sophia smiles.

Then with Hilgurd's command. The four prepares themselves, wearing their formal attires.

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Grand Ecstasy reach the castle and the guards allowed them entry as Hilgurd is with them. They're now in front of the giant door that leads to the Royal court.

"Oh. So you finally came."

Grand Ecstasy sees Gilmore walking towards them. Instead of happiness, they feel a sense of guilt and sadness after seeing the state of Gilmore.

Gilmore, now missing a left arm is still struggling to walk properly while his skin is still visibly injured due to the effects of Yuriha's blood. He was assisted by his maids. On his side is his wife Erika patiently walks slowly alongside Gilmore.

Grand Ecstasy bows to Gilmore to show their gratitude and respect.

"Sir. Thank y-"

"Stop right there." Gilmore said.

Thus, Mateo stops talking.

"Look. We still have things that needs to do. After we deal with all of these stress, come to my house and there you can say whatever you want." Gilmore said while pointing her thumb to the big door.

"Ok sir. We promise to pay you on everything."

"Pay? Thats... Nevermind. Just continue that talk in my house. Right now, we should enter or we going to make those old timers angry." Gilmore said with ethusiasm. Grand Ecstasy agrees and the guards opened the door, waiting for them to enter.

Grand Ecstasy and Gilmore enters and they're greeted by a very large circular room. In the middle is a table and chairs which is surrounded by more complex chairs elevated to makes whoever in the center feels weak.

Higher above the elevated seats is a more elaborated space where the king seats which is present at that moment.

As the enter towards the center table, the group can hear lots of silent talks.

"Who do you think did that to Gilmore?"

"A Vandril swordsmaster is supposed to be strong. Pathetic."

"Vandril family now truly loses their power."

"What is an Elf doing here? Call the guards."

"What a bunch of nobodies."

"That mage looks familiar isn't it?"

Claustrine flinched a little then looks around the watchers. Looking for someone, she sigh after finding out that there's nothing to worry about.

Grand Ecstasy and Gilmore just ignore all of the harsh talks the watchers thrown to them as they feel intimidated by the most important person in the room.

The King.

Sitting in his personalzed throne. The king watches them with observing eyes. Waiting for them to relay any possible news they can provide.

The King is young for his age at the age of 36. Just recently replaced the recent King who is now old and weak. He quickly shows to everyone that he's not someone that can manipulated easily and have the capabilities of a great leader.

The King's ancestry dates back 800 years in the past. He was a direct descendant of one of the heroes that saved the world, considered as the most powerful member and leader of the heroes party named Drake.

The King calls for silence which everyone follows instantly.

"Gilmore and Grand Ecstasy. You must already know why you called here so we don't need to waste time. Just answer our inquiry with truth and only truth."

Gilmore and Grand Ecstasy bows with respect.

"Yes your majesty." The six answered simultaneously.

"Anyone want to ask something for our guest?"

Seconds of silence before someone raised his hand and asked a question.

"According to your own reports. You discovered a new unexplored area in the Reverse Tower. Can you provide a more detailed description?" One of the female watchers asked as she looks on the few papers.

"Wait. Before that. How all of you reached the new area?" One of the male watchers with glasses asked.

Claustrine answers the question.

"We got transported via some sort of magic circles that suddenly appears beneath us. And according to our cleric, a Magic circle is also the one that brings us back at Layer 8." Gilmore answered.

The crowd starts to talk for moment until the King asked for silence.

"Are you implying that you got transported by a new magic not known by everyone?" The King asked.

"Your majesty, I believe this magic is not really new. This must be already developed in the past but for some reason, the creator of Reverse Tower decides to not share it to everyone." Claustrine added.

The King thinks for a moment.

"Julzhihar..."

The crowd reacts.

"It make sense if that's the case. Julzhihar is a genius in magic development so such magic must be possible to him." One of the academics reasoned.

"That must be a joke! Julzhihar teaches us everything about magic,! He's literally one of the founding founders of Academia with sole purpose of improving humanity so why he hide such magic!?" One of the academics said.

"Unless the magic is so powerful that it might change the world forever." Claustrine answered one of the watchers.

The watchers stay silent for a while as they imagined all the possibilities with such magic.

"Well. Magic cirlces is not really new as we use the same spell in the Bag of Storage. But a magic that can teleport a group of people to a specified location, that's going to be revolutionary." One of the watchers from Academia said. The others beside her nods in agreement.

"You seems to be a knowledgable about this young miss. Do you have some theories on why the teleport circles suddenly appears?" One of the elders from Academia asked.

"Sorry sir but I don't really have a solid theory on how it happened. But in my opinion, the anomaly in Reverse Tower must be related to it." Claustrine answers.

"Perhaps you can add more details that you can remember." The same elder politely asked.

Claustribe tries to recall the events before the teleportation.

"From what I remember. The magic circle appears when we encountered two Apex Beasts. When we almost get killed by an attack." Claustrine answered.

"Gilmore. Can you verify her words?" The Elder asked.

"Yes. I also transported in a same circumstances."

"I see. It seems that it's truly the Reverse Tower anomaly that caused the teleportation. I have no more questions."

"Hold on sir. If that's the requirments. Why there's not a single recorded teleportation incident during the extermination campaign? We also get a fair share of fighting two Apex at once." One of the Knight captain asked.

"Perhaps there's more specifics or the teleportation is completely randomized. But to get more reliable answers, we need to study more of this. So we should continue to the next topic." The Elder answered while looking to Hilgurd.

"Ahem! Now that the methods is answered. Can you tell us on what the unexplored layer looks like?" Hilgurd asked.

Shirna prepares to talk as it was his specialty.

"The unexplored area is a-"

"Silence!"

Shirna stops talking when one of the nobles suddenly screams.

"You don't have any rights to talk to this court! You're an Elf Outsider!" The noble said with spite but he managed to say his hate without spouting deregatory remarks that might anger the King.

Shirna almost give a murderous glare to the said noble but Mateo manages to interfere. Mateo sadly looked at Shirna then slowly shake his head. Shirna understands and walks out.

"Look at that!? The disrespect to the council. Such lowl-"

"SILENCE!"

The nobile quickly shuts his mouth when the King screams. The council and the Guest are tensed and shooked.

"Your insolence will never leave umpunished." The king looked at the racist noble with muderous eyes.

"I-I'm s-sorry!!!" The aid noble bows at his best just to ease the anger of the King. The king just click his tongue the returns his gaze to Grand Ecstasy.

As for our guest, you can continue now." The King politely said.

Mateo decides that he's the one that answers the question.

"The unexplored area consist of two areas. The first one probably biggest among all the Reverse tower is a very large and complex cave system."

"Cave system you say? Not another Layer?" One of the higher ranking Adventurer's Guild official asked.

"Yes."

"Any interesting discovery?"

"There's nothing of interest in the cave system. No monsters nor useful minerals and plants in that pitch black cave." Mateo answered.

"Gee. I thought the new layer is interesting." The official seems dissapointed.

"Do you find other missing adventurers while exploring the cave?"

After hearing Hilgurd's next question. Grand Ecstasy and Gilmore becomes melancholic. Hilgurd understands their reaction.

"It seems that there's nothing we can do. May the peace be with them." Hilgurd also saddened on the revalation.

There's no even a moment of peace as another watcher asked a question.

"You said that there's two areas. What is the other one?" One of the Academics asked.

Mateo paused for a moment, thinking for a proper words to call it. After thinking, Mateo answers.

"Julzhihar's Secret Laboratory."

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And with a simple answer, the council turns into a loud mess, each one shouts in surprise. Eager to learn more.