I returned to my room. “This was so tiring…” Having such a difficult training schedule is taking its toll on me.

“Where were you, Riko? You took forever to get here.” My roommate arrived before me, and she already had her knife in hand.

“I would want to know how you always get here so fast.”

She is sitting on her bed, carving out something from a piece of wood. She does that all the time, even though I don't quite understand why. We have been staying in the same room for a while, we might even be considered as friends. But I don't really know that much about her. Maybe I just need to ask…

“Why do you keep making these?”

“Can’t I have a hobby?”

“Is that a reason?”

“…” Without a response, she just stared at me.

But in that moment of silence, I noticed something. “Did you hear that?” Quiet cracking noises reverberated from multiple directions. We both looked around trying to figure out the cause of the sound.

The walls started to crack, and the ceiling seemed to be bulging towards the floor. “What is happening?” Walls started to slowly cracks and dust started to fall from the ceiling.

“Don’t just stand there! Take cover!” Already crouched under the table, my roommate shouted at me. However, before I could take a single step, a part of the ceiling gave out and crashed towards the floor. I watched as a big slab of stone was barreling towards me. But before I even had a chance to respond, I felt as someone pushed me away.

Dust covered everything and the artificial lights gave out. We were plunged into the darkness.

Disoriented, I tried to get my bearings. Where is she? I can’t see anything. Reaching towards the direction where I last saw her, I tried to search for her with my hands. Wait, I can feel her hand. “Are you alright?” Cough! Cough! I entered a coughing fit as I inhaled the dust.

“I am… trapped… I… I don’t… feel my legs.” She spoke weakly.

She seems to be trapped under the rubble. I tried to feel around it with my hands. There appears to be a large solid piece directly above her. “I don’t think that I can get you out.”

“…”

“I…” I wanted to say something, but I ate my words. What is happening, what should I do, what…

“It hurts… It really, really hurts…”

“Calm down. Don’t worry, I will call for help, and we will get you out of here. Just stay calm, I will be right back.” Unable to see anything, I tried to find the exit with my hands as I crawled around the floor. After reaching the doors, I tried to open them, but they were stuck.

Standing up, I rammed into them with my side to get them open. After multiple tries, I crashed through them, smashing them to pieces and breaching the door, but before leaving I turned back for the last time. “I will be right back.”

It took seemingly forever, but after wandering around through dark hallways, I saw a light. The lights in this area seem to be working. This will make it easier.

I went down a familiar path, which I knew was the quickest way to get outside. But currently it is not in the best state, I have to constantly avoid or climb over obstacles.

What is that? “That smell…” I looked towards the direction it was coming out from. From under collapsed debris, a constant stream of blood was leaking out. Above it, a single arm was sticking out from the rubble. Instinctively, I took a step back. “I have to find another way.”

I went into an unfamiliar hallway, trying to find another way. Occasionally, I could hear distant voices, but I didn’t come across anyone alive. I don’t know where to go, I am not familiar with this area. I am slowly ascending upwards, but how far away am I?

Wait. I can see a faint light, this isn’t from the artificial lights. I ran towards it until I saw it. The ceiling above me has a giant crack, and through it, I can see a starry sky. “So close.” I jumped off of some debris and lifted myself up towards it.

After moving through the crack, I was there. “Finally, outside…” I relaxed for a bit as I finally got out. “She is still stuck down there, I need to call for help quick, but…”

It was chaos. People were crawling out from the cracks in the ground, some carrying out corpses of their comrades. Many people were injured and medics were running around, overwhelmed by the number of patients.

But as I looked around, I realized something. I was quite far away from everyone else and nobody was paying any attention to me. “This might actually be my only real chance to escape from here.”

---

 

My search for the cat girl resulted in me unearthing a secret underground military base, like literally! The Secret Order military guys started appearing out of the ground and there were so many, they just kept coming out. They were like ants, crawling around up and down, to the right, south left and diagonally forty degrees.

So, after that whole incident I didn’t quite know how to respond, something like that would catch anyone off guard. So just like any other sensible person would, I left while pretending that it had nothing to do with me. Well, and because I had nothing better to do, I decided to spend the rest of the night in the dungeon instead.

Currently, I am standing in front of a pile of runes. Into my inventory it goes. Every once in a while, I have been visiting my golem friends to do the tax collecting. Even if I take all the runes, they will just continue bringing more and more, placing them at the exactly the same spot.

So, my optimal strategy has been to teleport between all of the money gathering places as fast as I can to collect it and if I had spare time, I went to look for more. This method is quite profitable, I already have a few million runes saved up. And I am ready to spend it all.

Once again, I teleported to the skill selling altar thing, ready to spend my hard-earned tax money. “So what do we have here?”

 

 

Do I just upgrade the perception skill? It is just level one, so it doesn’t seem that impressive, but once it reaches higher levels it could be quite powerful. Yeah, I think that I should hold off for now on investing in new skills for now.

“Upgrade once! And upgrade twice!” My finances vanished in a flash and my perception skill is now a level three.

“That should do. That should do, for now at least…”

I closed my eyes and focused my senses. When I focused, I could get a vague feeling of how far everything around me is. With this, I could walk around the house during the night without crashing into a wall. I mean, I could just carry a flashlight in my inventory instead, but this is way cooler. And ultimately, that’s what matters.

I wonder how it will feel at higher levels.

 

I decided to return to the island during the day to scout it out from the above. Hopefully, it will be more fruitful than my nighttime attempt. Although I don’t have a whole day because I have to get back before anybody notices that I am missing.

After an hour of flying over the island multiple times, one thing became clear. “There’s nothing here!” Not only did I fly over this island but also all of the nearby islands as well. And unlike the map claimed, there was nothing here, there or anywhere.

I returned to my room to consult with my map once more. “You lied to me!” I pointed my finger at it as I spoke with an accusatory tone. “You make no sense, and I even placed my trust with you. Is this how you repay me! One more time and I will get a new one to replace you.”

After giving up on trying to find anything from the skies, I decided to visit the one place where I knew that something was. Hopefully things calmed down over there, so I can get a good look on whatever that was all about. Maybe my cat girl will be there too, that is the only place I can think of. But wouldn’t that mean that she belongs to the Secret Order?

I have been away for far too long, I have to go back before someone notices that I am missing. So, I will go back and play with Emily and the next night I will check out that underground base more closely.

 

And check it out I did, however… “I am lost… so much for exploration, this place is a maze.”

I am inside the alleged military base, there are so many rooms and paths, this place is ginormous. Also, for some reason, many of the paths are caved in. Like, how am I supposed to move around when so many places are blocked off. It’s just a mess, like they really should clean it up.

“But I wonder where he went.” Earlier today, just when I arrived here, things already didn’t go as planned. A big group of the Secret Order guys were leaving towards the edge of the island. Curious, I followed behind them.

When we reached the shore, everyone looked into the horizon. So, I followed and there I noticed something. It was difficult to see because of the darkness, but... “Wait, isn't that a ship? And a large one at that.”

“…”

“It sure is quick, I doubt that ships are supposed to go so fast, no matter the world.” As the ship got closer, I could get a better look. It had a thick metallic hull and instead of sails it had three smokestacks that spewed black smoke.

“What the heck is that? Isn’t this a bit too advanced for a fantasy world? What’s up with those random one-off nonsensical things? Is there some more technologically advanced place I don’t know about?”

The ship stopped quite a bit away from the shore. Looks like they can’t get any closer. I watched as three people disembarked the ship, but instead of using some normal means like a boat, they levitated off of it. Two men on the sides wore long blue robes and both had a blue hair. But the man in the middle stood out the most, he was quite overweight and seeing him floating through the air was certainly comedic.

But he definitely looks familiar… I just can’t figure out… Wait, isn’t he… The candy-stealer guy! What is he doing here?!

 

So that’s what happened, after that, I secretly followed him inside to here. However, I got distracted, and now I am lost. That was like two hours ago, and now I am still trying to figure out where he went. “I wonder why he is here anyway. Well, he is a noble, so he probably has some military connections. Also, giant sinkholes in state sensitive areas aren’t exactly common. Right, who am I kidding, I know exactly why he is here. Not that I had anything to do with it, of course.”

“…”

“Another dead end!” I truly want to just blast it open, but I can’t risk exposing myself. That would be dangerous, if they figure out that I caused all of this, they might ask me to pay for damages. “I will have to go around…”

“…”

“This is so annoying!” Right as I was about to give up, I heard a voice in the distance.

“…last few days I gained three more.” There he is, I can hear his voice. Finding him took forever.

“I see how many we have secured in total?” But who is he speaking to?

“At this rate, I will be lacking a few votes. Convincing any more nobles will be challenging… I worry that we will fall short of our predictions.”

“That certainly is concerning, if we fail, it will most likely be our last chance to do this peacefully. We have to ensure our success.”

I peeked out from the behind of the corner. The other voice tuned out to be an older man with a gray hair, but don’t let that to fool you, he is huge, and he has muscles big as the best of bodybuilders.

“I will try to figure something out…”

“I see… That should be everything, I will take my leave. There’s a plenty of work that needs to be done.”

What, he is leaving already? But I just got here. What was the point of following him if I missed the whole thing.

“…”

He left… Now what? It’s just me and the old dude… I guess he has to be someone important. Well, whatever, I might as well look around. This is some sort of meeting room and in contrast to everything else, there aren’t any signs of damage. I will look around if there's anything interesting, so I can hopefully salvage this situation.

I wonder if I could… Suddenly, the world around me slowed, and I noticed something flying towards me at extreme speeds. Reflexively, I raised my arms, but before I knew what was happening, I was sent flying through the air. The next moment, I crashed into a wall. That was fast, I could barely react.

I slowly peeled myself off the wall. Nevertheless, it looks like I am fine, although my arm feels a bit stiff after that impact. It felt as if someone threw a bus at me.

“I thought that I saw something, and I wasn’t wrong.” The old man spoke up as he aimed his sword towards me.

This is the first time someone seen through my stealth cape. What the hell is this dude?