Chapter 162: Surprise Upon Return

"Thank you so much for finding the thief," the store owner bowed to Rein. "Here, take this for your troubles," the man took out a glowing red armband, Rein instantly recognizing what it was.

"Are you sure? You're already giving out a reward to my friends who took the commission," Rein hesitated to take it, but the store owner insisted, placing it into Rein's hand before going back into the store.

Rein looked at the item with a smile, then got Versys to appraise it, confirming his theory about the item. It was an attack artifact, one that would cut his attack by a tenth, but drastically increase his bonus when he leveled up.

"Might as well put it on now," he thought, strapping the armband around his elbow area, instantly feeling a depletion in his attacking power. "I should also put the other 2 artifacts on too in that case," he concluded, taking them out of his inventory, strapping the yellow belt to his waist and the blue anklets to his ankles.

His stats now looked like this:

Speed: 42.25

Strength: 45.39

Defense: 37.01

He felt his confidence drop as he looked at his stats, laughing at the pathetically low numbers.

"Well, that's not good. I've gotta make use of my skills and Springs to compensate for those stat losses," he thought to himself, which excited him somewhat, the idea of having to use more strategy to win battles giving him a breath of fresh air.

With everything finished, he finally set his sights on returning to the Hasbin Gulf, and with everybody gathered, he could finally hold the meeting he'd been waiting to hold. Using the self teleportation Spring he got from the teleport pads in the gulf, and the waypoint he set for himself before he left, he could arrive back at his dorm room instantly, despite his drastic speed drop.

He finally bid the town of Tura farewell and used the teleportation Spring, evoking a red magic circle under him that encased his entire body in a crimson glow, suddenly feeling the matter of his body decompile for a brief moment, then recompile elsewhere, the exact place being his room within his luxury dorm suite.

"I'm back girls!" He yelled into the room as he appeared, hearing his voice echo back to him. "Hm? That's weird, am I so weak with these artifacts that I can't sense people around me anymore?" He thought as he walked to the door and set his hands on the handle, where his heart suddenly dropped, his eyes widening as the breath was sucked out of his body in shock.

He threw the door open and laid his eyes upon a room he was familiar with. Rather, it used to be a room he was familiar with. The couches were ravaged, the walls and floors cut up, the entire room was in shambles. Furniture was destroyed, plates and cupboards broken in the kitchen, all of the doors disassembled.

He was speechless, his mouth gaped open as his eyes scanned the ruined room. The worry in his heart grew and grew as he made more out of the situation, concluding that there had been some sort of fight, going by the slash marks on the walls. He thoroughly checked each room and investigated the area, finding nothing of note, and nobody in sight. As he returned to the living room again, he looked back at his own room, which was seemingly untouched.

Finally, he decided to leave the room and rush down the stairs, with hopes of someone being around who could tell him the situation. But as he left the room, the entire dorm building itself had been disheveled, the same way his room was. Though his senses were weakened, he could still feel out his surroundings. They were barren, the entire building had been abandoned.

"Shit… What the hell happened…" He uttered to himself as he reached the ground floor.

He then remembered the basement, the workshop where Raxo, Saphrilla, and Emria often work. He thought that maybe some of the residents of the dorm would've taken refuge down there, a small hope lingered in his heart. However, as he descended, the same familiar state was applicable to the workshop, everything dismantled as if someone made it a point to destroy everything.

He scoffed to himself in anger, then ran back up the stairs, and rushed out of the dorm building. However, what he had seen was even more horrifying than what was inside. He hadn't taken the time to gaze out of any windows so far, so he had no clue what to expect.

The previously bustling town he had come to call home was no more, all of the buildings he was used to seeing towering over the busy streets now crumbled to the ground, mountains of flames piled upon the buildings dotted around the city, creating a clumping cloud of smoke that lingered in the ceiling of the cavern, cutting off most light being emitted from the glowing stones.

Along the rubble-filled streets were countless bodies buried under the fallen buildings, some of them with slash wounds resting on top. The corpses of numerous citizens, most of which Rein recognized, were all lifelessly sprawled across the ravaged city.

Rein's breath shivered, his body shuddering in anger as he approached the scene in front of him. He noticed something. There were other bodies along with the citizens. The corpses of men in Econican armor, the same as that day 6 years ago. He felt his stomach regurgitate, his mind going into severe turmoil as memories came flowing back, making him collapse to his knees in pain.

"Not again…" His cold, rigid, yet fiery enraged voice uttered. "These aren't Econican soldiers… So that was your plan you stupid bitch…"

Overrun with anger, he grabbed onto the artifacts he placed on his body and pulled on them, with the intention of removing them, this being no time to tie himself down with debuffs. However, as he tried taking them off, he felt them stick onto his skin, as if they'd been locked on to him, with no way of removing them.

"What the hell…"