Chapter 286: It's me

"The residents of this floor stay away from the middle."

"Is there a reason for it?"

"In the past, there were the strongest families from each border living here. But it has changed for some time. There is an unknown group doing something in the middle…"

"What about the guardian's family?"

"I don't know. If we look at the floor's system, then no residents were hurt nor their lands were invaded by this group, so the guardian family might be just keeping an eye. This group must have some backing if this is true."

Kyoya and Hiro were speaking about their next goal.

A few weeks have already passed and everyone felt the power growing within them. Kyoya also helped his new friend deal with light attributes through quests and Hiro's mood was slowly returning to the one where he dreamed big.

His wives were genuinely happy and also content with their strength growth.

Returning to the next goal, both Kyoya and Hiro wanted to go to the middle area where the different elements coexisted with each other.

It was a challenge for both of them, but also the place where the fox woman might possibly be. Kyoya had nothing to lose and he was naturally eager to check the new areas and complete his mission!

Besides, if the husband failed to find a woman, then would he be the husband?

"Let's pack things up and head out then."

"Yeah."

Hiro's underground base was actually done by the treasure!

It was an item that could form the base in ground below 30th floor, so it was an item worthy of the title treasure. Kyoya and Josef were interested in that with the latter trying to learn a few ideas out of it.

Josef's Labyrinth was his playground and weapon, the thing he wanted to develop as much as possible. He learned a few tricks and both Hiro and Josef became good friends out of this encounter.

The party left the hidden base, then an already familiar forest extended its branches and leafs onto the husband's heaven. No monster could be heard in this area as everyone had enough quests to deal with those!

After some time, those monsters were nothing more than victims of the husband's game system that kept powering up his friends!

-

"You better stop here."

After an adventure that lasted a while, Kyoya and his party got stopped by the old man clad in the old and long robes. Those robes completely hid his features and appearances, so nothing could be seen.

His face was also hidden and darkness only poked its eyes out of the hoodie.

"Why?"

The husband's question was just a natural and formal course of events.

This question alone asked for a lot. Why would the old man block anyone from coming close to the middle area and what were his origins? What was going on in the middle area for the unknown group to warn everyone?

The old voice didn't answer any of those questions.

"I warned you."

"Thanks, but we also got our goals which shouldn't be that weird, right? Bye."

"..."

Kyoya didn't bother the old man anymore and passed through him together with his party. Everyone at least glanced at this old person, then their attention returned to the front where the air felt heavier.

A few kilometers further, Kyoya and his party could finally take a peek at the middle area.

"Now, I feel like there is something fishy with the guardian family. This system is flawed if anyone from higher floors can deal with those like that."

"True. But it's usually just one or two things that gather attention from the higher floors, then those stronger people just leave after gaining what they want."

"It's still flawed and annoying."

The middle area was soaked in various elements and Kyoya could see all of those from the wall he found himself on. He stood atop the tall wall with his party and kept his eyes on various elements that were penetrating the abandoned cities.

Each element had a city assigned to it and it was probably where the strongest residents lived in, but all of this was abandoned with the elements set up free.

In the very middle of those cities was a bottomless pit, however. It was dark and impossible to see through. It would take some real courage even from the most brave person to extend his head to take a proper look.

"I don't know… what it is… but I feel like someone is constantly looking through me."

"Who? Who is threatening us?"

After Xiaoxiao spoke with her arms hugging her body, Kyoya believed her on the spot and threw his eyes around to find any suspicious bastard. But the whole city was abandoned and no soul could be seen.

Could it be possibly this bottomless pit?

"It's me."

"..."

Appearing not too far away from the husband, the unknown voice revealed itself.

It was a short man, around 160 cm! He had mature lines and muscles beneath his suit, so there was no mistake that he was some kind of expert. His white hair gently fluttered in the abandoned city, then a smile spread on his lips.

"No need to be so tense. If I wanted to get rid of you, then we would be speaking with our weapons, wouldn't we?"

This man was stronger than Mervase, there was no mistaking it. He was also a lot of calmer and certainly confident in his every step.

The husband didn't even have time to think how fucked up his encounters were lately. One by one, the strongest people began to come out. Even on the 19th floor, there was an ice master, but he had limits due to his soul!

But now, there was one hella strong man in person.

"I agree. Still, I don't like how you tried to probe through Xiaoxiao."

"I actually probed through two people from your party. This orange-haired woman and black-haired one."

"..."

The other woman was Noe whose eyes went wide after this remark.