Chapter 331: Castle Town Ruin

"Look at you. You're too optimistic. I spent 200 years to reach this point. You are 150 years too early to say that you will reach my level." Remilia smirked.

Normally that should be the case but I'm not normal after all. How long was it since I started?

"If I tell you I spent only a few months, give or take, to reach this point. What will you think?"

As if she felt my words were all about jesting, Remilia furrowed her brows. "Huh? Jokes should at least be somewhat believable, you know? And you can't impress me with just a joke."

"But I'm not joking. It's the truth." I shrugged and told her how it started for me. The milestones I reached and the fact that I still haven't completed my Mortal Pathway. All of that except I am cultivating 5 Mortal Pathways.

Although I want to impress her, I can't just give away all my secrets to her. In any case, just proving that it's not even a year since I started was enough to make this woman speechless.

"… What kind of monster are you?"

"A monster that's willing to chase after someone that can squish me with her fingers?"

As a Monarch to reinforce that Oxflame Monarch, her UPL was surely ranging between 1400 and 1500. Lower than that will not be enough to cope with their disadvantage. According to the chart given by Alwyn, a Rank 3 Transcendent's UPL starts at 700, Rank 4 starts at 1300 and Rank 5 starts at 2100.

With the limitations set by this Dimensional Space, one's UPL couldn't exceed 1500.

Well, if her UPL is really that high, if she was added as my Companion and buffed by the Domain of Valor, that's almost 100 UPL already. That's probably enough to dominate anyone in here if skills and abilities weren't accounted for.

"Oh please, drop that. I'm not going to interact with you here. If you're truly leaving in six days then this is the last time we will see each other." Remilia waved her hand and turned around to approach the crumbled doorway of this dilapidated house. Although her posture was still the same, she's now trying to run away from me.

Quite ironic, isn't it?

"I will come back here and take your hand. Wait for me."

"… Is this how you get those two women to climb up your bed? Are you interested in me because I'm a Monarch?" Before completely stepping out, Remilia stopped there, refusing to look at my direction.

"No, they confessed to me and I'm also attracted to them so… It's just a matter of our feelings towards each other." I answered her first question before moving onto the next. "Also, your strength is not related to why I am interested in you. Even if you're a Mortal Rank, I will still chase after you, given that we had the chance to meet, of course. Well, I only have one experience at courting someone and with our circumstances here, it's impossible to do the same thing. This chance to talk to you is already rare enough…"

Remilia stood rooted on that spot for a long while, processing every word that I just uttered.

I'm not seeking for her immediate answer so let's relieve her of that.

"You don't have to think that hard, you can even forget everything I said in here and focus on your task. In the future, I will come back to this world and… make you mine."

Upon hearing that, Remilia finally looked at me again and after another long silence, her voice that I'm slowly getting used to already once again filled my ears.

"… Then I will look forward to what kind of surprises you will bring me in the future. Don't blame me if you arrived late and I already have someone else. Farewell, Daisuke."

"Knowing you, there won't be anyone worthy. And even if there is, I will just take you away from him. You can also feel something tugging at you that is connecting the two of us, right? See you soon, Remilia."

At the moment, that's a lie. There's no tugging feeling at all. If I can use the Dragon Queen's words, our destiny wasn't set to converge yet. But leaving those words to Remilia, I was hoping for it to become a seed that will someday bloom into something else.

After that, she didn't reply anymore. The Energy Screen covering the place was removed and she finally disappeared from my line of sight.

I was about to leave as well when I found a shiny object at the ground where she was standing earlier.

A diamond-shaped crystal.

-

-

I was certainly in a fairly good mood as I went back to the fortress to meet up with Udann. With the crystal in my hand, if not for my Adaptability which let me keep my calm, I would probably be grinning like an idiot.

After all of the things she said, she left something that could let me contact her. It's the same crystal as the one Alwyn gave me, a communication crystal which could send my voice directly to her.

Perhaps, just like the communication device of Yumiko, I could still use it even if I go back to the Mortal World or Earth. However, with the recent examples with my skills, the distance between worlds would increase the energy needed to use it. But that's fine, this is much better than having nothing at all.

When I arrived at the spot where I left him behind, Udann was still there, waiting patiently. Because of that, I decided to increase his Energy share to 20% of the statues we will kill. He already broke through after all so it went back to the normal 9:1.

Just like I thought, since the carrying of their goods and supplies were now finished, the Dafirae Tribe and the other freed Rank 1 Transcendents decided to clean up the other ruins to get the stones. There were even some that's going in the same direction as us.

To beat them to it, I activated the Domain on both of us for the bonus Speed buff.

A little more than 20 minutes later, we're now before the gates of a seemingly castle town ruins.

It's a walled town with a decrepit old castle in the middle and what could be called luxurious houses in its vicinity although they're all already ruined to the point of being uninhabitable. Upon further observation, the place was at least 10 times bigger than that fortress which only has one structure inside its walls. It has four entrances, one in each direction

Even if there are competitions, we could pick our own farming spot anywhere inside this castle town ruin. Just that, we still have to be careful. If I think about the games I've played when I'm still not exposed to these world-hopping adventures, places like this often contain boss monsters.

Boss monsters are all strong despite being at the same level as your character. There's a possibility that I'm just overthinking it but hey, it's always better to be this cautious, right?

"Then, I'll lead the way." Udann declared while holding tightly on his glaive. Even from the entrance, we already took down at least 10 statues that were carved like a castle guard. Also, they all look like those pricks that often have itchy palms, waiting for the people trying to enter to put a coin to relieve that itchiness.

I nodded at him and said, "Be careful. We couldn't gauge their strength when they're not moving."

Just like the statues at that fortress, only when we reached a certain distance will they start moving. There were also new types of statues that can be seen apart from those weapon-wielding soldier statues. There were civilians; men, women, children and elderlies.

Looking at it from a far, it feels like the place truly emulated a real castle town with people living in it.

In a run-down merchant stall, a merchant-looking statue was there with clasped hands and a humble expression on its face.

If this was discovered on Earth, they would've thought that the people living in this place were all turned to stone.

When Udann reached the vicinity of a few civilian statues consisting of children running towards something, they suddenly emitted clunky sounds before their heads unnaturally turned towards him.

As if in a horror town, each and every face of them curved up into a creepy grin as they started emitting energy from their mouths.

A split second later, energy waves were unleashed towards Udann from their mouths.

Since I already reminded him, Udann made a movement using his glaive. He spun it in front of him, creating a shield made of energy. With the addition of the Quintuple Shields which stacked up one after the other, it blocked the Energy Wave from the children statues.

Each of the energy waves they sent were at least Rank 1 Transcendent in strength. However apart from that, the children statues couldn't move from their spot and could only produce the same clunky sounds.

While Udann was still being bombarded by their attacks, I wielded the Willful Sword and sent a Purple Lightning Dragon towards the statues in front of him.

However, the elderly statues that were out of range earlier and were behind those children-statues suddenly made the same clunky sounds. Soon after that, thick Energy Shields were conjured from them which stacked up to block my attack to protect the children-statues.

I see. So here, there are now different variations of these statues. Interesting.