There he was far underground for many hours, but no one came to check this place. By this time, the battle above should have finished already.

‘Such sly monkeys…’ a huge smile appears on Ben’s face.

Unable to hold in his excitement, his mood brightens, making him even forget the issue that having the exit closed like that brings him.

‘There is still hope! The sect may never find this place and the monsters will be persecuted so much that they will have to abandon their plans or die fighting.’

The monkeys wanted to hide this jewel, and they, for sure, did. They only had to destroy the whole tunnel system leading down, then the humans would be unable to find anything, and more importantly, the later had no reason to even look for it.

Cold tunnels can be found anywhere around this region. What we saw above was nothing new, since the signs of the twin vein don’t reach the surface. The only suspicious point is how the monkeys got here and became so strong. However, analyzing that alone can lead to many theories. No one would confidently bring up the idea that a dual vein is deep below.

Maybe if humans haven’t explored this place before, someone would waste their time excavating here, but how much did they dig the city already? This place was sacked clean, but no one never found the dual vein altar.

‘Such sly Empire too! They both did me so much good by hiding this place so damn well!’

“Hahgg ha aaahhhhh ougch“ Ben ends up hurting trying to laugh out loud, but how could he hold in when he may be the one to benefit the most.

Fortunately, the monkeys’ plan has one big mistake. Even if they hid this place well enough and wanted to come back here later, they should by no mean have shown such incredible fighting capabilities.

Humans are very fearful about things they can’t understand! Having suffered unexpectedly in such average looking mission, if they haven’t rated the matter of erasing those monkeys as urgent, they for sure will do from now on. Humanity wouldn’t have survived so far if they didn’t take such issues seriously.

Being overcome with happiness, Ben even begins to cry a little. He ends up sitting down before the now-closed tunnel entrance trying to catch his breath.

‘Having such strong emotions is too tiring. I have been bored for too long! I am like a starving person over-eating.’

[Really heavy deep breath]

Feeling his mood swinging too much, that even his mind was getting heavy, Ben close his eye and focus, trying to calm down.

He ends up staying still for a couple of minutes.

‘Not only I almost died, but I also found this place. I am too old to be stimulated this much, and I have even been quite stressed out since last year, due to my life force running out. But this is so damn great. I can come and go whenever I…’

‘WAIT! How the fuck will I come and go whenever I want? Is there another exit? I feel so stupid now. It is not like I can dig my way out.’

Ben’s bright smile slowly fades away, and a frown appears in its place.

‘The energy is still flowing, and like water, this can only mean it is going somewhere. But I wonder where.’

[slap slap]

Ben slaps his face twice with both his hands to try to wake his mind up. He gets up and begins to walk following the flow while trying to sharp his sense a bit.

‘Now the big question is: are the Empire and the Monkeys the same? Did they bury their entrance back then too? That would be an issue for me.’

As Ben goes on, the diameter of the tunnel gets smaller and smaller until he is again walking on fours.

‘Is this my life now?’ Ben asks himself due to the sense of déjà vu.

‘There is no intersection so far, this only goes on and on.’

Ben kept going for a quite while until it finally connected to another tunnel.

The new tunnel he found himself in is bigger than the one at the entrance to the altar.

Finding this place, Ben finally can stand again.

Looking around, the difference that got his attention the most is not its size but how so many smaller tunnels connect to this big one.

‘How did the monkeys find their way into the altar? It is like finding a needle in the haystack!’

Looking in both directions, Ben can’t even see where the big tunnel ends or start.

The tunnel system reached an unimaginable size, and the whole thing looks like an inversed swiss cheese, as he can see holes and more holes and more holes everywhere.

‘I am finally fully enlightened on why the robbers never found the dual vein. Of all the available options in this whole complex bullshit, only a single tunnel that looks no different than the others, that doesn’t even emit anything that seems special, only one single path in this sea of possibilities will take you to where the altar is! And I am even more shocked on how the damn monkeys found that place, but It does make sense how they did another tunnel because navigating here would be a nightmare!’

Ben found it easy to differentiate who made which tunnel. The ones made by the monkeys are much clumsier, while everything else has a sense of nature, like the difference between a river and a canal.

‘This place should be connected to everywhere up above, accessible for everyone. Overwhelmed with options, the path to their secrets is hidden in a mad complexity. There is no hidden door or protective array, only a fabricated image of insignificance. I wonder if this backfired and their enemy back then suspected them of holding a secret, so they kept going and going, killing and destroying because they weren’t able to find it.’

The capital of The Sunset Empire became a dangerous ground mainly because no one wants to take care of it. The fighting was to such a degree that abandoning the place was more financially viable than dealing with the consequences. The winners got the land but found no use for it.

‘I feel compelled to believe that someone else would have already made this place their home if the dual vein existence was known.’

‘However, looking at this, I see no way they could have found it. Did anyone even know what is hidden? And even if they knew, how long would it take? The Empire hid it too well.’

Crouching down, Ben’s right-hand touches the ground. Runes begin to flow from within his shirt. They connect to the ground leaving a mark, and once finished, the runes retreat at a freakish speed.

A small rune fades into the ground, disappearing.

‘I would rather not leave a clue, but I will not find the way back otherwise.’

[sigh]

‘It feels like I am desecrating a piece of art!’

While the mark he left is small and hidden, anyone with a sharp sense could be able to see signs of a foreign force if they look close enough or are lucky. Ben contaminated a perfect painting of ordinariness.

’Whatever, if someone finds it because of me, so be it… Guess I am not as decisive as the Monkeys or the Empire.’

Finishing the mark, Ben stretches.

Since others are finally unable to catch him red-handed, he can finally take a calm breath.

‘I should make sure my body is at its peak before going to the town again. If it wasn’t for the package I have been waiting for…’

Ben then finds a place to sit, since his body went through too much and needs time to recover and stabilize fully.

—

A few days later…

”Testing. One. Two. Three.”

[Ha]

‘I CAN TALK!’ Ben thinks as he puts his hand in the air commemorating.

Having full control of his body again, and having restored its full functionalities, Ben finally regains his ability to talk. With the ongoing pain finally gone, his wild emotions calm down.

‘With this harvest, I gained up to a thousand years. I took a heavy load from my shoulders this time. Feels so much better!’

Ben happily takes out an extra set of clothes from the spatial bag in his chest. He finally changes into clean clothes after so long, and, to not leave any more traces, he stores the ragged clothes.

“Now, I need to get the hell out of here!”

Following the same logic as before, Ben walks in one of the directions the flow goes, trying to avoid any tunnel where things are too wild.

However, his first choice soon became too small for him to pass through, so he could only go back and try another. He ended attempting a few dozens before finding a tunnel only big enough for him to squeeze through.

‘Finally!’

When he finally gets out, Ben sees himself inside a basement, but the building has no ceiling anymore as he can see the sky.

Moving around, he tries to pinpoint where he is, and all his speculations seem to be accurate as he finds the place around him to be the ruins. Ben quickly finds confirmation once he is above ground, as he sees landmarks he often used before in his navigation through the ruins.

‘I am somewhere downtown. An average exit. Who would guess where this small hole can lead to.’

Having his horizon widened so much, Ben begins to see this broken city in a new light.

‘Imagine how it was before if even after so long something is still hidden. It is not for nothing that not every hole is called Empire.’ Ben feels awed.

Like he did so many times before, Ben walks out of the ruins towards the closest inhabited town.

The only difference that he found, while going out, is the presence of quite a few more people than one usually sees in such abandoned ruins.

‘This influx of visitors was probably caused by the big mission to destroy the monster den. Oh well, It has been a long time since I saw the sun since I didn’t even get to hear rumors about such an event before. When something like that happens, it is the talk in the region for weeks and sometimes even months before it happens.’

Seeing the influx gives Ben the strong feeling that he has been unconscious for a long time.

‘I will only pass by the town, eat something and then get my package on my way out, only coming back here when I need to. Here comes a new identity, the getting used to it is always the hardest time.’

Keeping his pace up, and not bothering with anything and anyone, the town is Ben Higgs’ objective!

Keeping his pace up and not bothering with anything and anyone, the town is Ben Higgs’ objective!

—

{ Friday, August 24th, 1800. Planet Spirit, Aurora Town. }

[bang bang] the door of a room opens and closes loudly, as a young man enters hastily.

“Wake up, Ginn! We found him!” yells a red-haired young man clad in blue.

In a big bed, the young man sleeping in white underwear wakes up in surprise.

He jumps off the bed with his long messy black hair. Below his emerald green eyes, one can see the signs of lack of sleep. Lost a bit, Ginn Aravyz looks at his childhood friend with confused eyes.

“Matt stop this yelling, or you are going to kill me.” Ginn puts both hands in his head, not delighted by his headache firing up.

[deep breath] Ginn tries to calm down.

Not even looking at his friend’s reaction, Matt goes around the room to get water, a cup, some towels, and a container. Noticing that his friend got up, he comes closer, giving the things to the semi-naked young man.

“Fast, clean yourself, and dress up!”

“Calm down, and explain yourself clearly!” Ginn yells, running out of patience.

His enhanced grogginess due to him not having had the time to sleep at all lately.

“We found the man we believe cured the idiot successor! The people you planted around town six months ago contacted me saying the old man called Dyn has finally appeared here after so many months!” Matt explains with his big red eyes wide open and a wide slime.

“Fuck, where are my clothes?!” finally understanding the situation, Ginn hastily moves into dressing himself.

“Clean yourself up too, because you look degenerated! You didn’t even shower when you got here this morning!” Matt repeats himself.

“We don’t…” but before Ginn can finish his sentence, Matt interrupts him.

“I sent Yuri straight there, as he was outside guarding this place. He should stop the old man if he tries to leave the town, so please at least make yourself not look like a dying homeless person!”

Stopping for a moment, Ginn tries to compose himself.

“Hopefully, Yuri doesn’t mistreat the doctor! You should have sent Yukk!” Ginn says, remembering how Yuri has such an explosive temper, different from his twin.

“Come on. I didn’t have the time! I sent the first one I saw, and then came here since I knew the importance of this info!” Matt explains.

Looking at his friend’s face, Ginn understands he has been too hastily, so he puts the clothes he already had in his hand down, uses both his hands to try to control his messy hair, and goes to catch the water and other things Matt prepared.

“Alright, thank you. Please, help me catch a new set of clothes too. I will take a quick shower.” he then begins to drink some of the water to help his walking up.

Both calming down a little, they begin to move effectively. One goes straight to the attached bathroom, while the other goes to the closet to select clothes.

It doesn’t even take two minutes for Ginn to get out of the bathroom now in towels and using his spirit energy to dry his long hair. His appearance is a bit less wild.

In the bed, Ginn sees a new set of clean clothes, and his friend seems to be long gone.

Not wasting time, he dresses in the purple outfit. Its design required for those of the inner circle of the New Horizons Sect. With his trained skills, it doesn’t take long, and by the time he finishes dressing up, his hair is already dry.

He then ties his hair in a notch, and before getting his shoes, he goes to the side table with a mirror and uses cream from a bottle to hide his unsightly appearance.

As he leaves the room, Ginn’s tired appearance and his sweaty smell are gone.

A small crowd is waiting for him right outside.

“Ready?” Ginn asks when he sees them all.

[ “Yes!” ] they all respond together.

—

After arriving in Aurora town, Ben Higgs went to a public bathhouse first. Having cleaned himself better, he is now in one of this town’s small restaurants.

Enjoying his food, Ben begins to think about how everywhere is so much more crowded than before. The mission to attack the den seems to have been a lot bigger than he initially thought.

In the middle of what others would consider early dinner, Ben expression freezes as he notices a group of people surrounding him while creating a spirit energy curtain.

Leaving his food be and straightening up his posture, Ben’s expressionless face looks at the young man entering this now isolated area.

Ben sees the dark-haired young man wearing the not so easy to forget purple designed clothes, and he instantly connects him to the ungrateful bastard and the old baldy. ‘Should I begin to hate purple?’ He asks himself.

Looking straight at Ben, the young man is happily smiling, while his two emerald-like eyes shine.

“Good afternoon, Dyn Myer. I am Ginn Aravyz, and I was initially only intending to say I would like to talk to you about some serious business. However, how could I have guessed I would be this surprised. Oh well, how should I put this…”

< ”Hello, my fellow Earthling. What’s up?” > Ginn Aravyz greets the old man using the commonly known language from Earth, English.