Emily had made her decision. And since it was Severin himself who had put this burden onto her, it was now up to him to honor this decision. Whether he on a personal level was apprehensive about the guy and his intentions, or not. Whatever would come out of this decision, he had no right to complain.

But at least for the moment, the young man seemed honest enough. His gratitude and relief seemed real.

It probably also helped that Emily had thought of issuing an official warning along with her pardon.

‘Smart girl,’ he praised inwardly. If the guy was just faking his remorse, then he wouldn’t get away with it for too long.

‘But I hope his father straightens him out before it comes to that.’

Even though he didn’t like Senheim’s previous use of the word misunderstanding when referring to the trouble his son had caused, Severin had a relatively good impression of the man; as for Edward, though the man stayed mostly in the background this time around, Severin had not forgotten his attitude back when they first met, and that it had been a lot better than that of his young master.

All things considered, Severin didn’t think he would need to pay the group any special attention going forward; at least not for security reasons.

The three visitors seemed pleased. And for now, so was Severin.

Another quest was successfully completed. And if his working theory, the one that the quality of System rewards directly correlated with how well he had accomplished the specific task at hand, had even just a hint of truth to it, then this time around he would be in for the most significant reward yet.

Just the thought of that made him giddy with excitement, his reservations all but forgotten.

And so it came as no surprise, and was in fact a very welcome sight, when a notification popped up in front of him.

Initially. Until not even a heartbeat later.

Severin didn’t have the opportunity to scan the message even on a cursory level, when suddenly his enthusiasm was turned into dread.

From one moment to the next, the minimap in the upper right corner of his vision, the one he had become so accustomed to, simply disappeared.

And he wasn’t the only one.

Gasp

“What is-?”

“S-Sev?” While Mylana, as his latest [Employee] and therefore the one least familiar and dependent on the System in general and this feature specifically, was certainly surprised by this situation, Emily fared far worse. The quiver in the girl’s voice made it obvious how downright scared she was; Severin’s own feelings aligned much closer with the girl’s than with the old woman’s.

But he also knew that in a situation like this it was up to him to maintain his cool and reassure her. No matter his own feelings.

<<>> He tried to reach out to both of them, hoping to avoid drawing attention from the other three people, who, for the time being, were still preoccupied amongst themselves.

<<>>

But nothing.

<<>>

No matter how often he tried, he couldn’t establish a telepathic connection.

Exchanging meaningful looks between each other, he realized he wasn’t the only one with this issue.

His panic intensified.

Luckily, at least Mylana, despite her own discomfort now also starting to grow, was still clearheaded enough to remember their latest product,

{{What’s going on? Has this happened before? Have you done something?}}

{{Never!}}

{{No. And I didn’t!}} Severin agreed. {{I don’t know what’s going on.}}

Only then, in search of an urgently needed explanation, he finally turned his attention to the window in front of him.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

{{The notification! Tha-}}

{{What notification?!}} he was immediately interrupted. {{I don’t see anything.}}

{{Me neither.}}

Severin ignored the others and read.

And then let out a deep sigh of relief.

Things finally started to make sense; maybe the situation was not actually as bleak as he initially thought.

He took a deep breath and steadied his voice before he read the short message to the others.

{{[Assimilation of the provided dungeon core initiated. Entering hibernation mode. Non-critical functionalities temporarily disabled.]}}

A short moment of silence.

{{I guess that means the map is considered non-critical.}}

{{As is your notification-feed,}} Severin concluded.

With those observations made, visible relief washed over them. But it was shortlived.

{{What dungeon core?}} Emily still wasn’t aware of the consequences of her decision, that it earned them a most pristine specimen of a dungeon core, that with it they had completed a quest, and that it was this quest completion which had triggered this situation.

But before someone could fill her in, the girl was already asking her next, and maybe the most pertinent question of them all, {{And what else is considered non-critical?}}

Mylana and Severin exchanged a dismayed look. They didn’t know. And depending on the answer to this question, they were in deep trouble. They grew nervous again.

“-ock?”

And of course it had to be just at this moment that someone demanded the currently preoccupied Severin’s attention. Or rather, it was only now, after having already been called out repeatedly, that he finally became aware of this fact.

“What is it?” he managed to pull himself together just enough not to sound rude.

“Uhm. Are you guys okay? You seem… troubled. It is just that, well…,” instead of explaining with words, Simon decided to just show them.

He raised his hand and reached out. And once again, the purplish barrier materialized itself in front of him and denied his passage.

{{At least that’s still working,}} Mylana read his thoughts.

But that wasn’t yet reason enough to relax. Severin frantically opened the System menu.

Which features were still available to him?

His first impression was not particularly promising. Several menu points were greyed out.

But on a closer look, things weren’t quite as grim as he first feared.

Yes, the navigation module, which should have come back online the moment he completed the quest, was still unavailable. As was the integrated store, the quest log, as well as access to his personal information, which, amongst other things, included his name, level, stats, and classes.

The most important one, however, was still available; had he been more clearheaded Severin might have realized from the get go that there was actually little-to-no possibility of that not being the case, given that at least in terms of personal safety, there was no feature more critical than the blacklist to begin with.

With a flick of his wrist, he fulfilled his part of the agreement.

The barrier simply dissipated.

“Now, if you will excuse me.”

And then he started running.

Simon, his father, and his personal aide were left dumbfounded by the sudden departure of not just Severin, but also his two unlikely employees.

“What’s going on? They can’t be serious. Right after-?” The young man was indignant. The disrespect of disrespect was unfathomable. Yet he was swiftly cut off by his father, who seemed to have a better read on the situation.

“I’ve rarely seen her this tense. I’m sure something important had come up.”

“But-”

“No buts. Listen. Even if this was just one of her whims, you would be well served to keep your loose mouth shut for once and try not to get on her bad side. You are too young to understand this. You don’t know her. But let me tell you, this woman is the last person you want to make an enemy of.

At least that was until the Emporium popped up. You understand?”

Gulp

For even his father to go this far…

“I understand,” Simon answered, though still somewhat skeptically, as he observed from a distance how a chubby man, a little girl, and an old hag with a cane were racing towards a distressed-looking dwarf in an apron, stumbling over his short legs.