Chapter 26: Wait…Dungeons?

'Is this really that effective?' Ephemella thought as she followed what Compass Carburettor did, struggling at the start as she winced in pain every time the rope lashed on her legs. She was also struggling to balance herself correctly because of the weight on her chest dragging her down.

"Hmm, I need to wear an armour." She frowned, quickly wearing one from her dressing room. As she moved, hopping a little, she nodded, "My chest weight doesn't hinder me too much now."

She then began to skip, slowly getting a hang of the action as she spent more than six hours at a stretch on it. Soon, she was getting used to it when she thought, 'I can see why he's doing this nonstop. It makes my legs more spring-like and is also strengthening my wrists further. It is indeed necessary to wield an Armament.'

'Is this a training method used in Plottopia?' She thought, smiling as she felt it was the right decision to have taught him about their powers, 'I can feel like this would allow me to grow even stronger.'

Due to her enormous reserve of Darlac, she wasn't even sweating after exercising for so long. She then muttered, "Even though this is beneficial, it only works the most at the start. For my level, the intensity isn't enough."

The Darlac in her body began to be expended at a faster pace as her five Iron Puppets arrived forward, grabbing a skipping rope each. Then, they too followed her actions, beginning to skip one after another.

It was Ephemella controlling all five at the same time. Now, her Darlac was getting expended at a faster pace while making all her five Iron Puppets repeat the same action as her allowed her to clearly determine the differences in her body and the Iron Puppets, bolstering her understanding of them even further.

Seated in his room, Compass Carburettor frowned, thinking of something, 'For some reason, I can feel that the Queen's trust in me has increased over the days. Normally, it is impossible to read her emotions. But when General Artica is mentioned, she isn't able to maintain her cool completely. And in that state, I'm able to judge her emotional state better. And after every day, she indeed seems like she trusts me more and more.'

'Has she been using the truth serum on me? When she noticed that I didn't even sense anything strange, she realised that I wasn't hiding anything. Was that why she's opening up to me more?' He thought, feeling that might very well be the case.

As he didn't have any animosity towards her, he was fine with it. Moreover, it was through her that he received tremendous help and information. It really made him regard himself for not trying to escape from the palace once he arrived in this world.

If he had done that, he would have to struggle to earn money, obtain information little by little, spend all he earned on his food expenses and work even harder to obtain enough money for his other basic needs. He would then need to find a way to awaken himself to Darlac and work his way up.

Everything needed him to spend too much time and effort for minimal gains. But by the time he did that, Regriel would have gotten accustomed to his powers and would have begun to grow at a tremendous pace. It would be too late to face him by then.

At present, Regriel was a fat man without any talents. He wasn't even able to carry his own weight. He was as useless as useless can be. But with time, the System would modify him, starting with his physique.

He would start to train himself while the system would give him rewards from time to time to motivate him. And by motivation, it was mostly hatred. Through mysterious coincidences, or by directing Regriel to act in a certain manner, it would make him attract the animosity of other males.

After all, as a fat stump of uselessness, he was accompanied by powerful pretty women. So, any male would feel jealousy. And upon noticing how incompetent he was, they would make a move on him.

While suffering losses through each encounter, his pride would be wounded. The humiliation would force him to work harder. And in such a manner, he would train and work hard in bettering himself. And, the System would put him in a Fasttrack of progress.

The results that a person would have obtained with 8-10 years of training would be given to him within a year, or even shorter depending on how the System planned for his fate to play out.

'No matter what, one year. If I fail to kill Regriel before then, I can stop dreaming about obtaining System Fragments from him. He would have become too strong for me to face alone by then.' Compass Carburettor thought, 'Thankfully, I have the Queen by my side now. She needs General Artica. And to free her, Regriel has to be killed. Our goals align, so, she'll provide me tremendous help.'

'Thanks to her, I can blindly train nonstop and improve my abilities. The food she's providing me is also highly nutritious to the extent I feel like I would fatten up if I stopped training. Thanks to her, I can continue growing at tremendous speeds.' He clenched his hand into a fist, feeling the faint Darlac flowing through his body.

He then sat in his study, pulling up the documents the servants had given him. Upon looking at them, he sighed, 'Even though I don't know the words, their meaning is automatically translated into my head.'

It was a journal detailing everything Regriel had experienced for the past week, depicted to the finest details. It seemed the Queen indeed had competent spies, judging by how they were even able to record all the conversations shared between Regriel and General Artica.

"Regriel hasn't done much. Everything is being done by General Artica. They arrived at Peckle City on the same night as Regriel's supposed execution. General Artica ambushed some thugs to steal the money on them. Using that, she booked a room for their stay. On the next day, she entered the Peckle Dungeon to hunt monsters and obtain more funds…"

"Wait…dungeons?"