Chapter 243: The Party Reunites
At Alisa’s suggestion, the group had reached a very practical agreement regarding the armor. They determined that the valuable magical cores the young artisan required were not a major problem.
In reality, there was no need to go out and look for them outside the villa, taking unnecessary risks. Alisa could extract them directly from Mirian and Helen’s current clothing without ruining the magical processes.
So, after everyone retreated to their respective rooms to rest, the house fell into complete silence. Ryan spent the entire night focused on his own growth, steadily accumulating debt points.
He repeatedly used his system skill on the now completely exhausted Helen and Mirian. Dawn had finally arrived at the peaceful villa, brightly illuminating the sky.
In total, after his arduous nighttime effort, he managed to accumulate one thousand nine hundred and fifty debt points.
Ryan looked at the system’s invisible screen and decided to apply all that value directly to his strength stat.
Now exactly three days remained until the great arranged meeting with Ophelia.
Three short days to head to the cold northern lands and attack the demon king Rigal head-on. In those remaining three days, Ryan would make the most of them to accumulate enough points.
He still did not know the true power of a demon king in combat. But he was very aware that with his current power, he wouldn’t manage to make any real difference in a battle of that level.
Even if he planned to let Ophelia handle the demon king personally, he wasn’t going to sit idly by. Ryan wanted to be as best prepared as he could to face any setback that arose on the battlefield.
Ryan left the house after washing his body with fresh water and changing clothes in his room. He was wearing casual clothes, something very different and highly uncommon compared to his usual, heavy dark combat attire.
It was light and very comfortable fabric clothing that, at some point while he was away from the villa, Alicia had prepared especially for him. When Ryan stepped out of the house and walked toward the large courtyard, he could observe the blue sky.
The soft sunlight was barely appearing on the horizon, illuminating the treetops.
And suddenly, a very familiar sound projected from high up in the clear sky.
It was Vel, flying with great freedom alongside his two new wyvern friends.
When Vel noticed Ryan’s presence walking on the ground, he reacted immediately. The large winged creature flew over to him quickly, descending very gracefully into the courtyard.
Vel lowered his head and rubbed his scaly snout against Ryan, wanting him to pet him. Ryan raised his hand and petted his large pet gently for a brief moment.
Then, Vel separated from him and flapped his strong wings to leave him and go back to playing with his winged friends high above. After greeting his loyal wyvern, he walked with a calm pace toward the center of the villa.
There he was greeted and received with great respect by the armed soldiers and the various demi-human inhabitants of the villa. Ryan responded to the greetings with slight, calm nods as he made his way down the path.
Ryan walked to the exact spot where the entrance to the dark basement was located.
It was the secure location where the holy knights’ prisoner had been held since yesterday. Two elven guards guarded the wooden door with great firmness.
He entered the underground area solely to ensure that the woman was still alive after the interrogation. Upon reaching the bottom of the damp stairs, he found her still heavily chained against the cold wall.
But to his surprise, she was deeply asleep with a long trail of drool running down her chin.
’Is this what a prisoner trapped in enemy territory is supposed to look like?’ Ryan thought to himself.
He looked at the skittish girl with a mix of clear disappointment and slight annoyance. Seeing that she posed no threat and wasn’t worth waking up, he quietly left the place.
So Ryan headed with firm steps toward the villa’s glowing magical portal.
He stepped through the teleportation light and went straight to the safe refuge on the one hundredth floor of the dungeon.
That was the place where Ivis would be spending her time after rejecting a comfortable room in the main house.
Upon arriving at the immense one hundredth floor, he found that Ivis was completely awake and very active. The imposing dragon woman was fighting directly with the large boss monster of the one hundredth floor to kill her enormous boredom.
Upon noticing Ryan’s arrival in the room, she casually stated that she could go whole days without sleeping. Ivis assured him that the lack of rest wouldn’t bother her at all or affect her capabilities.
After Ivis finished her warm-up fight, both continued with a trivial conversation.
A short time later, Helen and Mirian crossed the portal and joined them.
Both heroines looked somewhat tired from the intense night they had spent, but they remained standing beside him.
It was after a long while of casual chatting when Alicia arrived, crossing through the same magical portal. The loyal wolf assistant brought with her a silver tray with hot tea for everyone present.
"Where is Irina?" Ryan asked, noticing the elven princess’s clear absence from their group this morning.
"Your Majesty, she must be with Kenia," Alicia stated immediately, serving the steaming cups with great delicacy.
"Huh, she’s been spending a lot of time with her lately," Ryan commented, receiving his teacup.
"What exactly is the reason for that?" he asked, looking at his assistant with genuine curiosity.
Alicia did not immediately respond to her king’s simple question.
The wolf girl hesitated for a long moment, holding the empty tray with both hands close to her body.
"Princess Irina... well... is preparing something," Alicia began to explain in a somewhat nervous and reserved tone.
"But she doesn’t want me to tell you anything about it, my lord."
"Why would she hide something like that?"
"Because she doesn’t have much confidence in her own abilities to achieve it." Alicia lowered her gaze and looked at the hard stone floor.
"She asked me not to say anything so as not to disappoint you if she fails in her attempt."
Alicia raised her gaze again and observed him with great loyalty and respect.
"But if you order me directly, then I will tell you without hesitation."
Ryan blew a little on the steam of his drink and took a small sip of his hot tea.
"Don’t worry, if it’s something that will benefit us in the future, then let her tell me about it when she is completely ready."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Alicia said with a huge and very relieved smile on her beautiful face.
"I just hope she isn’t plotting to marry Ryan in secret while we aren’t looking," Mirian murmured from her spot.
The slender archer crossed her arms, letting her usual childish jealousy out into the open.
Helen instantly went on high alert after hearing that distant possibility.
"I don’t think she would dare go that far behind our backs. Or could that little elf really be so bold?" Helen wondered with some doubt and a lot of annoyance.
"No, it’s nothing like that, I assure you," Alicia stated, trying to calm the two warriors’ growing hostility.
"We have visitors," Ivis intervened suddenly, cutting off the girls’ argument.
The imposing dragon woman stared intently toward the refuge’s entrance.
"Two people just entered the dungeon," Ivis added with total certainty in her sharp senses of perception.
"It must be Karol and Beatrice. Once they arrive, I’ll go over Ophelia’s plan," Ryan added with a slight, calm smile on his lips.
He remembered the clear orders to return to base that he had given them through the relic yesterday.
"I certainly feel the presence of a demon, which matches up very well with Beatrice," Ivis analyzed, narrowing her eyes.
"But the other person is very strange. Their mana is completely nonexistent in the environment."
Ivis tilted her head in evident confusion. "I think it’s a simple, talentless human."
"Ha, ha, no mana? Yes, that’s definitely Karol," Mirian added, laughing out loud at the dragon woman’s immense confusion.
After giving the visitors enough time to climb the floors, Karol and Beatrice finally appeared in the safe refuge of the dungeon’s one hundredth floor.
Karol was transformed into her harmless and very small infant form.
The mysterious blue-haired girl was traveling while sitting comfortably on the shoulders of the beautiful spy Beatrice. When both entered the spacious room and saw the gathered group, Karol did not waste time getting down calmly.
Karol leaped nimbly from Beatrice’s shoulders straight toward Ryan’s position.
The tiny mage landed with great precision, placing herself on the leader’s broad back and clinging tightly to his neck.
"Hey, don’t act like a little girl," Ryan complained immediately, feeling the sudden weight upon him.
"I just want a little mana," Karol said with a massive, cheeky smile on her face.
Without asking anyone’s permission, she opened her mouth and immediately bit Ryan’s ear. And with that firm physical contact, she began to rapidly absorb his immense amount of magical mana.
"Let go of him right now, you perverted mage," Helen intervened, taking an aggressive step forward with immense fury burning in her eyes.
"But you don’t need to do it exactly like that," Ryan said with a long, heavy sigh of annoyance, surrendering to the girl’s attitude.
"Karol is a total opportunist..." Mirian grumbled, frowning upon seeing such an overly familiar scene.
"Huh?"
Ivis blinked a couple of times, staring intently at the little girl hanging from her ally’s back.
"That strange brat is part of the party?" Ivis asked, unable to believe what she was seeing in front of her.