Chapter 206: Carfew

A red cube vibrated and Lord Rudyard picked it up and infused his mana into it to receive the call. He is a man in his late forties, though he looked like there were still many years left of his prime. His face was long, and it was far more rigid today than any other. Sitting on the chair, he answered the call.

"Lord Rudyard," a voice came from the cube. "Through the tracking, we have found out it was still within the bounds of the tenth floor."

"You do not need to use the tracking device to know that," Lord Rudyard said in a rigid voice. The item had only been stolen about an hour ago. How could they smuggle it outside so fast. Moreover, the tracker he had put was not working like he would have thought.

The robber probably isolated the item early, knowing that. But they have to smuggle the item if not now but someday and to do that, they have to remove the isolating component and it would take a couple of hours at the latest to remove the tracker. And when they do that, he would finally get their location. The only bad hunch he had was what if they just left the item in the isolated state for months? What if they did it when he was away for questioning about the disappearance of the item?

"Say what you find out so far?"

"We have managed to extract some of the teleporting equipment they have used," the voice said again. "The technology indicated it was specially made for the one-time usage and could make a space jump with the maximum of 7500 km."

"Even if the robbers had someone of the top backing them, they would not likely to move anywhere near Gala with that distance," Lord Rudyard said and fidgeted with his cube to open a map of the area from his mining site to the surrounding 7500 km distance. His eyes narrowed as they drifted to the space abandoned ages ago. The place where the infectors move around freely. That was the only safest place to teleport out in his vision, though the fear of infectors and other dark creatures made it quite a hard place to get by.

"Relay people to the abandoned region on the west and south-west. tell them to isolate the areas first and search for the robbers there. if you find anything relegated to the event, call me," he ordered, frowning, and suddenly a glint appeared. "And announce the news of the item being stolen away. Not directly to the council but to create some rumours that would be the next big talk among the nobles."

"I'm sorry, Lord?" the voice asked again. "Did you just say to relay the news of the item being stolen away?"

"Do as I say and search the perimeter of our sites. Investigate who was behind the rebelling of the workers," Lord Rudyard said. "I want an answer within two days."

He cut the call after that and opened a bigger map—more like a blueprint. It had layers below layers. 7500km went only four layers below and four layers above.

Sucking a breath, Lord Rudyard tried another number on his cube and waited. It took far more time for the call to pick up, but luckily, it got where he had intended.

"Roan, you called without any clue or sign. You should have good news with you," a gruff and uncaring voice came from the cube.

"Greeting High Lord," Lord Rudyard said, narrowing his eyes. "Unfortunately, bad news was all we have. Someone from the council stole the item that you desired so much."

"Huh?" the other person grunted loudly.

"I kindly ask permission to use some of your privileges to relocate and bring back the stolen item," Lord Rudyard said without wasting breath. "I already have narrowed down their location, but without your help; all of it will go in vain."

No voice came for a moment and then another voice came from the cube, and it was that of a woman.

"Lord Rudyard, please explain the situation from the start, then we will consider helping you," the female voice said, and Lord Rudyard gritted his teeth. "You have wasted well enough of our resources already without showing any result other than the so-called divinity you spoke of. If you lost that too, we have to give you a personal visit someday. So please start from the beginning."

. . .

"What's the deal with the seventh floor?" asked Jacob. "We have been travelling for hours, yet there is no sign of these illusions ending."

"I wonder who told us we will be able to complete the test within an hour with his super sensing ability?" Michelle said, poking her finger in the head Jacob.

"I'm admitting it is my fault for not buying the helping map," Jacob said. He was really regretting not buying the map of the testing region first. It was quite expensive but it was not like they could not afford it. 

Around them were thick forests with green trees all over. In their life, they had never seen such greenery in one place. Birds were singing in euphoria while the swirling of the squirrel came into their ears as well as the fresh smell of water at the waterfall at a short distance. Unfortunately, all of these were just illusions. The test of the seven-floor was another test to measure the perception of the mahasayer and so far they have failed. 

Actually, the test was actually wrong. As they have learned, the system of the tower was broken and this was the second next sign they have found after what they had been through in the underground dungeon. The test of perception was not supposed to be this hard, it was almost unachievable with their current level. Even Michelle, who had a high perception closing to the fifties mark, could not find the success route out of it. 

The only way they could do that was through the map. They could literally cheat in this test if they invest a handsome sum to buy an assisting map. Moreover, it was directly selling from the freaking omega store. Unluckily for them, Jacob announced they would be able to get away with the fantastic sensing ability that went almost 400 metres surrounding him.

But the cruel thing was that the archer's sensing ability could not differentiate illusion from the truth. He thought he would be able to manage that, but he was an utter failure there. He could not even make head to tails of the situation.

"I wonder how Davin and Kevin were faring," he muttered and tried to hurt the tree next to him. He had to look very carefully to notice the chance to appear after a very few short milliseconds later.

"They probably already finished the test," Michelle snorted. "While here I'm having a cramp on my knees just for believing in you."

"I already apologised, more than twice actually," Jacob said to her, squinting his nose. "Do you want me to carry you now for the rest of the test?"

"You might die if you move aimlessly like that," Michelle said. "Let's just abandon this test, for now, we'll come back tomorrow after checking out the place Evan and others mentioned before."

"As you wish," Jacob said. "I'm a little surprised, actually; I thought you would start burning the forest to pass the test now."

"I could do that, but it would be extremely exhaustive," Michelle added and opened the omega menu to abandon the test. "I'm already tired of moving around, much less trying to burn this entire forest."

[Please confirm your choice of abandoning the seventh-floor test.]

With an exchange of glances, both of them teleported out of the illusionary forest.

It was already noon when they got out and found the others waiting for them. Kevin and Davin really ended the test with the assistant of the map while the trio of Evan, Lillian, and Lan was just waiting. Though all of their expressions told there was something amiss with the situation.

"Looks like we could not return to Gala today," Davin broke the bad news to them. "The teleportation gates aren't working for a couple of hours now."

"Not working might not be the right word to describe it," Evan added. "It's much like they have cut off the line."

"What happened?" Michelle asked, raising a brow. 

"Don't know," Evan answered. "But it appeared something transpired in the inside that they have to cut off all the transportation route."

"How long will it stay like this?" 

"Not sure, but I don't think it will work today," Evan stood up and continued. "How about just leave with us? Now you guys have an excuse as well." 

"Looks like it is the only option now," Davin said and stood up.

The seven of them then strode away from them to the other direction of the gate.