503 Etton

Having spent a couple weeks sight-seeing and exploring what the kingdom of never-ending snow had to offer, the two soon made their journey back to Etton via the skies, upon Robin Sol's wings.

A stroke of luck awaited the duo as they hovered into the vicinity of the stonewalls, a retinue of giants who wore a matching set of fur-equipment and wielding identical polearms were patiently awaiting their return. Deliberately landing early and walking the rest of the journey, Sora Kaka who was approaching her king in [Hide] quickly made her report.

"My King, the giants appear to have been in discussion, many of their nobles, named-warriors, have been sighted visiting their king. I believe they're weighing the benefits and consequences to joining the alliance. A majority vote will be held at a later unconfirmed date."

Without even gesturing to the dhan, ensuring her stealthy-exit remained unknown to the giants, Asai strode through the large gates, smiling as he met the retinue who were equally glad to finally catch sight of the man.

"Your Grace, we welcome you back to our kingdom. Her Majesty has ordered us to deliver this letter to you. Please."

Having fulfilled their orders, the men dispersed in multiple directions as they broke apart and entered many alleyways and streets. Asai observed their return for a moment, watching as a few dhans stalked their targets, before opening up the letter.

"Grand Duke Trichia, we may be more inclined towards sending our sons and daughters to war, and to join your cause, if you were to perhaps share your potent and blessed seed. We have many daughters who desire nothing more than a strong mate. Over the course of the weeks, please remain within the kingdom as potential candidates visit your villa.

Goddess grace you

Hera"

Robin, who was reading the letter over his shoulder chuckled, realizing that her man once again had to pull magic-tricks out of his family-jewels, for the sake of Del Lagos' future and current alliance.

"Robin, do I look strong to you?"

Without imbuing mana into her eyes, she inspected her man who naturally radiated a charisma befitting a king, a conqueror and even a monster's. The lingering of his fingers, that appeared as if they were ready to strike within a single twitch of a muscle, on top of his gaze that eternally saw more than other's would.  Whilst to the untrained eye, or even average-day-human, he would appear to be a young man in his 20's. To Robin, who had been surrounded by knights, warriors, beasts and monsters, she instinctively knew that the man standing before her was incredibly strong.

Somehow trying to put such feelings and notions into words, she struggled to convey her thoughts.

"So, we're so strong, that we're no longer able to hide it?" "I wonder if there's a skill for this?"

Whilst the man had a mask that could amplify his bloodlust, which radiated killing-intent corresponding to the man's level in strength. A tool or accessory which could hide and reduce such an aura would perhaps only be obtainable via another risky dungeon dive, or crafted in elven lands. 

Having his thoughts reach thus far, a warmly-written letter was possibly long-due, to both his contacts in Via Marea and the queen of Ignis.

...

Having made their way back to their allotted villa, where a pouting Martha was quietly waiting, as she was left behind and kept out of their little honey-moon get-away. Sora returned with a dozen of her agents, Lucied included.

"My king, we lost track of them."

"Go on..." Surprised to hear a failure coming from someone so capable and resourceful, the man felt intrigued over disappointment.

"The giants, they have these totems that disables our stealth. Or more correctly put, the totems these named-warriors and nobles decorate their homes with, they inflict damage upon all intruders who aren't designated. So much damage that it's enough to trigger our senses and nerves, which causes our stealth to fail and deactivate..."

"Putting her words into gaming-terms, I would assume these totems deal consistent DPS in their limited AOE, just enough to trigger the system into believing them having been caught and wounded. Which removes [Hide] exposing them, before they jumping back into another [Hide] which would only then be also cancelled out..." Good job finding out about these security-systems of theirs, see if you can learn more about them."

"Yes!" Sora and her agents departed, leaving only Lucied behind to serve their king.

The peculiarity of [Hide] in which the dhans pride themselves so highly in. Whilst stealth is extremely strong in such an open-world setting, where pre-emptive and positioning could easily turn-tables. It wasn't as godly and powerful as the humans believed to be. When a user in [Hide] attacked, the system would recognise the damage-dealt and disable the stealth. Equally, when receiving damage, the stealth would also deactivate as it would recognise the caster having traded damage.

The only exception would be the advanced stealth skills that Miku had within her repertoire.

[Miku: Lvl 89]

[HP: 100 MP:100]

[Skills unlocked:]

[Mortal Rising]

After entering [Vanish] First attack has +60% critical chance. Upon successful critical [Vanish] remains.

"My king, would you like to relax? Perhaps a hot bath would be to your liking? And whilst we're at it, I could tend to your needs, and massage your royal-body?"

Lucied, eager to please her king, pulled the man out of his thoughts as Robin and Martha equally joined in on urging the man inside and away from the coldness of the snow.

Upon entering, the man found crates upon crates of Etton-delicacies, ales, beers, bottles of wine and even a few battle-axes and polearms that Bethel would enjoy awaiting his return.

"Gifts from the nobles who would very much like to meet you, having done their research, they believe forming trade-lines with you is quite the possible venture. Something to enrich their people and citizens with." Lucied quickly updated her king.

Popping open a bottle of wine, Asai helped himself to the luxuries a grand duke was afforded, especially as a VIP diplomat. 

...

However, he couldn't help but feel something was off.