The trio walks in through the door toward the lair of the Maverick and they’re just astounded at the sight in front of them.

The place was its self-sufficient ecosystem.

For one thing, there was a bright sun shining miles below the surface. Of course, it was possible to tell that it was artificial, but the sight was shocking enough.

It was honestly like a huge lamp, with a large ball of glowing light hanging from the ceiling. It seemed like the sun because it didn’t have the artificial feeling that’s given off by the electronically generated lights. The light from this source felt much more natural.

“I wonder if it changes with the day-night cycle…” Mai thought out loud. 

“We’ll probably find that out at night,” Masashi says as they continue looking.

The room itself was massive, spanning an area of around 100 by 100 meters, almost the size of a soccer field. The ceiling was high enough that it could warrant its sun. At least a hundred meters in height at the minimum.

The wall at the opposite end was completely covered by a large waterfall. The water poured into a small river that flowed further into a cavern. The presence of flowing water created a pleasant atmosphere in the place. There were even fishes living in the water, possibly having followed the river’s current, getting here from the surface.

There was even a small farm at the side of the river, presumably with a fully functioning irrigation system. There wasn’t growing there at the moment which makes sense. If there were still plants growing in that place after hundreds of years this entire place would be filled with plants.

There was a barn at the side of the farm to store whatever crops were grown. Although it was so seemingly empty, one could tell that this place had everything that one would need to live here for a long time.

There was a bedroom made of fully white color, literally. The bed frame was white, with four posters, and furnished with white sheets and presumably a white mattress. The rest of the room was empty.

Masashi decided to check the bed to see how it compared to their current bed.

“Hah. I don’t ever want to get off this bed.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.” Masashi can be seen melting into a puddle in the middle of the bed.

A few seconds later.

“Mai, Yue. Come on, let’s take a nap before we continue exploring.” Masashi is already half asleep but still opens his arms to welcome Mai.

“Huh.” Mai sighs with a smile, and walks to the bed, getting comfortable in Masashi’s arms.

“Indeed. This bed is comfortable.”

Looking at the two lovebirds cuddling Yue doesn’t leave or anything but just cannonballs into the bed, at Masashi’s other side since the fucker had the gall to take the center of the bed for himself.

Masashi gets a bit startled at Yue’s sudden actions but doesn’t get bothered as he hugs Mai with one arm while Mai leans her head into his chest.

Yue just sleeps on the other side while Masashi caresses her silky gold hair a little, making Yue purr in the comfortable bed. The three go to sleep in the super comfortable bed for a few hours.

…

Masashi opens his eyes after a comfortable 4-hour-long nap.

“Nyaa~” Yue’s curled up like a kitten into Masashi’s side as his hand is resting on her head.

Mai on the other hand is drooling a little on Masashi’s chest as his hand is wrapped around her back.

Masashi just looks at Mai with a gentle smile as he shakes her a little, “Hey, Mai! Wake up.” He whispers lightly into Mai’s ear, not wanting to wake up Yue.

Mai blinks a few times as she opens her eyes. “Yawnn~ Morning.”

“Morning baby, although it’s night as I see outside.”

“Really?!” Mai turns her head to look outside the room to see that it was indeed dark out.

“Yeah. This place seems to have its day-night cycle.”

“That’s so cool.”

At this point, Yue also wakes up and says, “Morning.” While stretching a little as she takes Masashi’s arm in her hand and bites into it, sucking his blood.

Masashi just smiles wryly as the first thing Yue did was drink his blood.

As Yue’s sucking Masashi’s blood he says, “Let’s explore this place a little more. We should also look for the ancient magic in this place.”

Mai agrees and Yue also nods without letting go of Masashi’s arm.

That’s then followed by a solid minute of silence as the only sounds in the room are the ones made by Yue slurping Masashi’s blood.

“Yue… Are you planning to let go of my arm anytime soon?”

“Mhm.” She nods but shows no signs of letting go.

“All right, she’s not letting go for a while.” Masashi just creates a platform using the mana in the place, exercising his control of the atmospheric mana

That platform forms below Yue as it starts to float a little, following Masashi.

This way, Yue keeps on sucking Masashi’s blood as he floats her near his arm using a mana construct powered by his will.

“That’s certainly a way to practice,” Mai observes as she sees Masashi’s actions.

“What can I say… I’m an innovator.” Masashi gets off the bed with a smug smile that makes you want to punch his face.

“Right…” Mai also gets off the bed and they both walk out of the room.

The platform that Masashi made was just floating at the height of his arm such that Yue was lying down while sucking his blood from his arm.

‘Hmm… I could do this with Mai, she can suck-’

“You’re thinking something nefarious,” Mai says in a nonchalant voice.

“No, I’m not.”

“You think that you can lie to me?”

“…No.”

“I thought so.”

“Damn this soul connection,” Masashi says under his breath as Mai just smirks.

They walk out of the room and walk into the room right next to the bedroom.

The whole place was like a central clearing with all the rooms and places being made within the walls as if they were caves made into the rocks. But the interiors were anything but cave-like.

Most of the rock walls looked like they were made of limestone or at least the counterpart of that in this world.

“These guys had some strong time magic to be able to get this place to look the same even after a literal Millennium of existing.”

“Yeah.”

“Mhm.” Yue tries to act involved but just doesn’t care enough about this place to let go of Masashi’s arm.

Yue’s been alone in the dark for centuries, she’s latched on to the lifelines that are Masashi and Mai. Her greatest joy is being beside the two of them. Everything else is secondary.

They walked into that place which was a whole ass mansion. They walked into the main hallway, an entirely open area with a staircase leading to the floor above. There was a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling at the entrance. It was glowing brightly with white light.

The main area was the living room with a comfy fireplace, furnished with couches and an armchair at the side of the fireplace. There was even a bar counter with all kinds of aged drinks. The whole area was covered with a red carpet which seemed to shine as if it had just been dry-cleaned.

The whole place which should’ve seemed old and decrepit seemed like a well-maintained mansion and the owners had gone away for the weekend.

Masashi has a glint in his eyes knowing what a big deal it is to have this entire mansion stay like this even after a millennium.

Mai is attracted by the furnishings as she thinks about how they could put some of this stuff in the inner world.

They went deeper into this floor as they walk out of what seemed the backdoor of the mansion.

They see another open area that seemed like the backyard of this mansion. There wasn’t much here other than a pool-like area of sorts. There was a large statue of a lion roaring, there was a little magic circle on the lion.

Masashi directed some mana into the lion statue and it started spewing water into the pool.

“Well we got a hot spring, guys, I’ve missed this. I’ll put this in our inner world later.”

“That’s vandalism.”

“Not if the owner is dead, it isn’t.”

“That makes it sound like you murdered the owner.”

“Hehe… Maybe I did.”

Mai and Masashi banter a little as Yue’s just lost in her world, drinking Masashi’s blood.

They go back into the place to continue exploring the place as they took the stairs to the next floor of the mansion.

All the doors on this floor were locked, they didn’t try to open them hard enough since they were sure that the keys would be around the place.

Going up to the next floor, they saw a single door opposite the stairs. There was nothing else on this floor.

Pushing open the door, Masashi saw a large magic circle 8 meters in diameter. It had some of the most complex and intricate inscriptions that Masashi and Mai had seen yet.

At this point, Yue was finally done with her meal as she finally let go of Masashi’s arm and stood on the floor.

“That was a good meal,” Yue says, licking her lips.

“I’m just a walking blood bank for you, aren’t I? That’s all you care about, my blood.” Masashi makes a heartbroken expression that tricks Yue.

“N-No, it’s not that. If you don’t like me drinking your blood, I’ll stop. P-Please don’t-“ Yue got teary-eyed as she was honestly panicking so Masashi just hugged her and picked her up in his arms.

“Shhh… It’s okay. I’m sorry. I was just teasing you. I didn’t mean any of that.” Masashi feels guilty for teasing Yue like that.

“Really… I can get nutrients from normal food too, it’s just not that efficient. I can stop drinking your blood if you don’t like it.”

“Nonsense, I have no problem with you drinking my blood. Look at Mai, she’s already mad at me for bullying you like this.” Masashi looks at Mai and sees her give him a look that terrified him.

Yue looks at her and sees the normal Mai who’s smiling at her with a gentle expression.

‘Her ability to change her expressions instantly is terrifying.’ Masashi thinks as he notices it.

“Are you sure? You don’t have any problem with me drinking your blood?”

“I promise, you can suck my blood as much as you want and it won’t be any problem for me. I just have that good of a regeneration.”

“I’m glad.” Yue gives a heartfelt smile to Masashi before she notices the magic circle in the room.

“Woah! this is such a complex magic circle. What’s it for? Any ideas?”

“I don’t know but I guess that this is the place where we’ll get the ancient magic that’s the reward for clearing this labyrinth.”