The female clerk sighed, leaning on the chair. “I see, so that’s what happened.”
A mimic of the round table was created in Julius’s room with his chair directly towards the bed and a few more encircled to create a full perfect circle. There were six stationed with Solomon, Celeste, Sally, the two clerks, and Mother Elaine.
Mother Elaine was still healing from the wound and Celeste’s assistance helped her recover a lot quicker, regaining her strength. She has been quiet since arriving at the hotel, barely making any noise or words.
Everyone who was taken by Solomon and Sally back here at the hotel was knocked out and hadn’t woken up from the knockout moves by the two. Many planks scattered around the room and the floor as he didn’t allow anyone on the bed except Alyssa or Zarlise.
“We’re sorry,” the male clerk said. Both clerks bowed their heads.
Julius shook both of his palms out. “No, no, no. Don’t be. I’m not blaming any of you for this. The ones that made the advertisement are at fault and already dead. And please lift your head, that’s making me uncomfortable.”
Solomon sighed, looking at the rest on the floor. “You think they would be the same as before?”
Julius felt tense. “The only way to find out is when they wake up. Thora’s dead and logically the effect should cease.”
All of a sudden, he heard a groaning noise coming from behind and turned to the bed. Alyssa, slowly opening her eyes, appeared to be in discomfort. She reduced to moaning as her hand held on against her forehead, lifting up from the bed.
Julius’s mask reformed as she turned to him. He saw a shade of the reddish bruise behind her fairly wide palms. Sally must have made a mark. Everyone who got caught under Licht’s foggy trap received a sole blow either around the head, neck, or torso.
“Who are you guys? Mother Elaine…”
“Finally, you’re up,” Mother Elaine mumbled.
“Where am I?”
Julius’s mask opened. “My room of course.”
“Temper man?!” Her voice raised as if his face brought her strength back. “Why are you looking like a maniac?”
Julius’s eyes widened, not understanding the maniacal part of his appearance. He turned to Alyssa, and she pointed to the edges of the mask opening at his facial cheeks.
“Oh, that was the food I ate earlier. Darn, it got stuck within my cheeks near my mouth.” He tried poking his pinky fingernail to scrape it off. Subsequently took a napkin and slowly shoved the napkin beneath the thin hollow space. “There we go.”
The sauce from the Char Siu and roasted pork belly stained the napkin. Subsequently, it disintegrated into bits of white particles and vanished from his hands.
“What happened?” Alyssa asked, not showing memory of the past two hours.
“Long story--”
“Tell me the short version,” Alyssa insisted.
“Y’all left me in the hotel. I got mad, and I went to an underground tournament and got stuck in a time dilation of a year within half an hour here,” Julius said, turning to the three beside Mother Elaine. “This is Celeste, Sally, and Solomon. My companions.”
All raised hands in greetings. Sally was reluctant but budged.
“Temper man. That's an odd nickname, but it can't topple Julius,” Celeste said, almost chuckling.
“Julius? His name is Daniel.”
“I used to be him; It's Julius now. The former died after a heavy lunch with a determination that I have to lead and capable of committing that he can’t,” Julius said, gazing over the others as he heard them simultaneously waking up from slumber as if all were inflicted by an effect at once and just ceases. “Once we are all done talking, the new chapter awaits.”
--
New Mission (2) Added:
Confront David
Leave Kriegshan and enter the world of Raal.
--
It’s time, isn’t it? Julius felt the time ticking virtually in his mind. Xavier, Liam, Zarlise, Zhengyu, Rebecca, and Helda braced their own bruises and turned right at Julius, along with new strangers that left them with perplexed expressions.
Julius grimaced. “Well, I’m not repeating it again, so if any of y’all want to fill in the matter; go ahead.”
He stood from the bed, heading to the kitchen to wash any remnants on his face. Furthermore, Skoltor’s visual framework had changed following a reboot. The frame design was gone. No more vibrant or sense of color. It felt like a downgrade on the cosmetics but in return, it was more cooperative and more transparent. Julius doesn’t quite understand why it came to such a decision from a reboot. Afterward, Skoltor added extra features including more numerical statistics rather than just percentages. As well as a series of lines organized like an update page found on a video game developer news site. He slid over to the side after finishing cleaning his face, reviewing the entire thing.
--
Underground Main Street Arena Post-Departure Update:
--
Who created this thing? Julius wondered. He hadn’t thought about it as much at times before but now started to trigger from the back of his mind. It can’t be a human created this. Has to be a phenomenon or something supernatural.
--
Update Outline:
System Improvements
* The removed designs on the Skoltor’s HUD overlay were facilitated for the purpose of improving battle and character mobility in various circumstances. (Applied)
* Faster Response time (Applied)
New Contents (Applied once have left Underground Kriegshan)
* Skoltor’s Monetary System
* Kampfrang System
* Revamped Stats Menu
* Expeditions
* Virtual Inventory
* Data
--
Woah, tons of stuff to review. Yeah, no way. Julius grew more persuaded that it was probably a supernatural creation to achieve such a system. As he was about to leave, Celeste came up right at him, nudging himself back into the kitchen. “Don’t taunt me like that,” he said with a startle underneath his vocals.
“Just wondering what holds you so long in here,” Celeste said, gazing at the kitchen sink.
“Skoltor’s update has finished and it’s listing the information. Many updates have to be read, and I’m about to do that now.”
Celeste went to the sink, washing her hands. “Do they know about Skoltor?”
Julius shook his head while departing the kitchen. “No, they don’t. But this update gives me the feeling that Skoltor must be some god’s creation. With how much potential it could possibly reach.”
“Sounds intriguing…shall we review them?”
“Probably not all in a gathering. I'm not in the mood for explanations,” Julius said, unsure to trust them despite being manipulated and controlled by Thora. “Once we're done with David, we're out of here. I want out.”
Celeste nodded. “The underground city is just baffling. Anything underground sounds eerie.”
“If we can get out within the next couple of hours, I’ll do it today,” Julius muttered and left, heading back to his seat.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
--
Descriptive Information in the next window.
--
He raised two fingers to Solomon and Sally. Celeste came last, returning to her seat.
“Two hours?” Sally whispered.
“Yeah, I want to finish everything down here and leave quickly.”
Solomon’s eyes viewed others in the back. “What are we going to do with them?”
He leaned up to them, keeping his voice away from others behind. “The Official Tournament still stands tomorrow. They were already enrolled into the roster, so they have to stay behind while we have already departed to the real world.”
Solomon mentioned to the clerks that Julius did not process earlier. However, he decided it was up to their own judgment. The hotel has plenty of clerical staff to accommodate their roles. To finish up, they all stood from their seats with Julius announcing for the ones on the floor to depart back to their rooms.
Before they do, Julius goes up to Helda, demanding the truck’s key fob back. She forced her hand into her pockets, thrusting out the key fob onto his hand. He then moved out of the way for them to leave. He, the clerks, Solomon, Celeste, and Sally see them off. While Xavier and Alyssa stopped in an attempt to seek more of his sudden expression changes.
Were they not listening to the premise? Julius winced. “Ask Mother Elaine, she’ll tell you…now off you go.”
For a moment, they are like immature teenagers which was what irritated Julius. The sentence saved him trouble as their eyes were very attentive.
He breathed when the doors closed. “Good gracious, I’ve had enough with them.” Julius paused for a moment, laying back on the bed flat. “Have you two decided?” He turned to the two clerks who were exchanging.
“How long have we worked here or at least the first day we knew each other with everyone else?” The male clerk asked.
“I think two years. Before that, it was one year at the old place that doesn’t exist anymore. So, three…damn that long, and we never had a holiday break other than the weekends.”
Even I’m a little lucky; at least I have holidays despite multiple overtimes in the past. Julius rolled out of the bed, tumbling down to the floor where his couple pieces of luggage were at. He opened the main one, revealing his clothes. Do I really need these anymore? He turned to Solomon. “Hey, you want some extra clothing? There’s a decent amount I forgot that was brought with me.”
Solomon sprinted to the spot. “Let’s see what you got.”
He pushed the luggage to him. “You guys can have it too if you are into any form of coats.”
Continuing with the backpack, he unzipped it open, finding an entire stash of weapons. A couple of handguns and an assault rifle inside with loads of ammo cartridges contained in closed boxes. Standing up, he placed the backpack on the bed, pouring all the weapons out.
“What is that?” The Male clerk asked.
Julius withdrew his handgun from his belt holster. “It’s a weapon. Capable of shooting tiny projectiles at speeds where if somebody was directly in front of it, they would deal heavier damage than an arrow.”
“Can you demonstrate?”
“In here?!” Julius blurted, shaking his head. “You’ll be deaf from the release.”
The two clerks raised their hands over their ears. “Yes, in here.”
Julius smirked. “You guys are crazy,” he muttered, lifting up his right arm with the pistol in his grip.
Boom!
The muzzle flashed a burst of bright yellow light, exerting a tiny bullet that sped through the wall that bordered the kitchen. Besides, the bullet didn’t stop there as Julius could hear a glass shattering. Not this mess again.
Momentarily, the loud bang rang his eardrums but quickly went away as he went up to the kitchen, gesturing to the clerks it was finished. He viewed the wall as presenting a small hollow hole at head level with visible cracks branching out from the center.
He turned to the door, following the path trajectory the bullet took. Opening it out, he saw the front glass cracked. Not willing to present himself in the hallway again, Julius swiftly reentered inside, locking the door. “What an eventual circus for the last day here. I hope that doesn’t affect the business here in the long term.”
The female clerk lowered her hands first, visibly shaken by the loud burst. The male clerk held her arm to stop her from trembling. Which was when she queried about the weapons on the bed. “What are you going to do with those on the bed?”
“Before I say, you two want to leave the underground right?”
The two nodded, prompting him to continue. “I was going to give each of you these handguns,” he said, pointing to the two Beretta 92s. He saw the female clerk visibly uncomfortable. “And no worries, these two are unloaded. I kept them empty until there was a need to use it.”
“No wonder Torrin died,” Celeste muttered. “I blinked when it fired, and it was gone.”
Julius returned his P210 back into his holster before grabbing the two Beretta 92s. He handed one to each of the clerks. “Just a reminder, don’t point this at anybody,” he said, moving away. “Go ahead and get a feel for it.”
Solomon, Sally, and Celeste resumed their business reviewing Julius’s main luggage.
Julius sat down on the floor, leaning up against the wall with his other backpack, observing any other items inside. He reviewed the assault rifle that he had forgotten and was surprised to fit in it, considering this specific backpack was much smaller than what he got from the forge’s armory in Underground Main Street.
He realized he needed to go over the descriptive update Skoltor put out.
--
Listing descriptive information of the update: ↓
* Skoltor’s Monetary System – With the world of Raal having an ambiguous economy of exchange, all nations known share the TPNBS, or The Thaler’s Paper Note Banking System. The denomination of banknotes is followed by 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100, 500, & 1000. Can be earned by expeditions, quests, and hunts.
* Coins are acceptable but rarely used in public spaces.
* Kampfrang System – Every Seelekünstler is ranked by the Kampfrang System from Rank 1 to 200 according to their Soul power.
--
Ah, so we are having an economy maker. Julius thought about the gold bars, wondering if it could translate into the TPNBS. He would rather have some use with it than leave it stacked up to be stolen.
He recalled the conversation with Mother Elaine in her secret room, mentioning Level One being him and her while everything else is Level Zero. What if what Mother Elaine provided in her journal was more accurate compared to Xavier’s teachings. Nevertheless, the exact can’t be proven just now and Raal being a much bigger world than Earth, it would take effort of exploration to find out the reality of such power. In turn, he felt grateful for her the more he thought about it.
Taking a break from reading the update, Julius saw Solomon and Sally already checking out the fits.
“I thought you were more simplistic?”
“Oh, shut up. This time it’s excluded,” Sally replied.
Julius chucked, “Always something new every day.”
Solomon was adjusting his newly claimed blazer jacket. With the constant rub of his smoke engulfed hands around the arms, the blazer jacket fitted his body in the right proportion. Blacksmith and a tailor. Such luck.
“I saw you sitting there staring into space; Anything with Skoltor?”
“Have you ever been to multiple countries in your life before?”
Solomon took a moment and shook his head. Others did the same, denying leaving Kriegshan ever in their lives.
“No, why?” Solomon asked.
“Just curious. I’ll explain it later, but it’s related,” Julius answered, returning to the updated descriptions.
--
* Revamped Stats Menu – Beyond the usual qualitative stats and class levels, a quantitative set of data will be implemented along with the existing basic statistics in the menu.
* Expeditions – Dungeons, jobs, social events, and miscellaneous quests that improve the user’s class, stats, and interactions around the world of Raal.
* Virtual Inventory – Following a leveling system, the inventory begins at level 0 where the user is granted access to a hundred slots of storage.
* Data – Skoltor’s new update introduces a data library network where all the knowledge and information will be stored upon. Skoltor’s constant activity will keep the brain from being impacted by the immense amount of information, serving as an extension.
--
I’m satisfied. Julius felt fulfilled, and he stood from his spot. And he checked its functionality. M4 Carbine at best. Nice. The carbine as from the backpack came with a close combat optic with a foregrip and a belt strap.
One trip to the bathroom and back out all geared up, Julius has the M4 Carbine hanging around his side underneath the overcoat, appearing invisible from the outside. The backpack he got from the armory was renamed from ‘Strapazierfähiger Rucksack’ to S.F. bag to make things easier to remember. He had all the contents organized within the virtual inventory along with the S.F bag. His other backpack was handed to the clerks which the lady took.
Before leaving the room, Julius fixed the rumpled bed, and the two clerks organized the blankets. He glanced at the two of them, not seeing their name tags. “What are your names? We three encountered enough times and I’ve never got yours.”
The female clerk playfully waved. “Call me Lu Yi.”
Thereafter, she pointed to the male clerk, who nodded lazily. “My name is Ritter. No surname.”
“I look forward to our time together Lu Yi and Ritter.”
“Me too,” Lu Yi said. “I think we are all done here. Let’s leave, shall we?”
Julius, being the nearest to the door, pulled the door handle and found the hallway to be shockingly quiet. Afterward, with one glare into the room with everyone ready, he swiftly sprinted out of the room and headed down the stairs leading the trail.
Other clerks have taken over Lu Yi and Ritter’s positions and were focused on the other customers. Julius boosted much faster out and went right up to his Ford pickup. He hopped into the driver’s seat. Solomon went and stood right to the driver’s side after Julius closed the door.
Lu Yi and Ritter took the rear two seats with Sally, and Celeste, on the passenger seat, buckled her seatbelt.
Julius with a thumbs up to Solomon. “Ready to go!”
Skoltor mission’s menu popped up, reminding the current missions as if it knew that Julius was about to initiate.
--
Ongoing Missions:
Confront David
Leave Kriegshan and enter the world of Raal.
--