Chapter 41 - Greetings

Yuki finally reached the final gateway after walking around the walls of the castle.

"Looks like I'm finally here," Yuki told himself.

Just as he entered the 10 meter diameter range of the gate, the system began to bid him farewell.

[Stage 10: Complete]

[Save point reached]

[Dungeon: Forgotten Souls | Status: Complete]

[Reward: Pot of greed]

Yuki double tapped on the brown pouch to open its information chart.

[Rank: D]

[Attack: 0]

[Description: Contains 1 Million silver]

"Well I guess I won't have to worry about running out of money from now on," Yuki said in joy.

Yuki finally walked through the gateway which made the white light begin to disappear, in turn making the outside visible. Despite expecting to exit out of the other side of the dungeon, Yuki could recognize himself leaving from the exact way he had entered.

"Why am I not at the other side of the mountain? It's not like I walked in a circular loop. I was walking straight the entire time."

"Guess it's one of the magical powers of the dungeon," Yuki thought to himself.

Once he had walked down the stairs of the dungeon gate, he recognized a few familiar faces. However, Yuki didn't recognize the other figures that were seemingly waiting for him.

"What took you so long?!"

"We were worried sick!" Rui exclaimed.

Jobon as well as Katsumi nodded in agreement.

"You have some explaining to do," Katsumi spoke.

Yuki had been caught off guard, however he was happy that his friends were concerned about him. Just as he was about to tell his friends about his adventures in the dungeon and about his awakening, he quickly noticed a few things wrong which caused him to turn up his guard.

"Why are there other people here? It should only be my comrades."

"If they knew me, they would at least say something, there's something going on here," Yuki thought to himself.

[Activate Skill: Faker]

"This is perfect for the occasion!" Yuki told himself.

Yuki took a deep breath and prepared a fake story to tell his comrades. He trusted them but he knew that there was something going on in the background.

"All I did was explore the first stage of the dungeon," Yuki said.

"That's gotta be a lie. How could 1 stage take you 3 whole weeks?"

"Did you at least beat it?" Jobon asked.

"Nope! It took me quite a while to discover the weakness of the skeletal monsters. Even after I did, I ran out of supplies so I couldn't defeat them," Yuki lied with a smile on his face.

"And you still say it with so much pride," Katsumi rolled his eyes.

"Anyway we should go and catch up," Rui suggested.

"Wait, don't forget Rui, Yuki should talk with the judicial association first," Jobon said with a half hearted smile.

Yuki assumed that Jobon was talking about the people that were waiting in the back, there were about 15 of them however 1 stood out. He was a slim man with glasses which was a bit taller than Yuki. The man with glasses began to approach Yuki.

"Greetings Yuki, I am Carmi. I have come from the newly formed judicial association and I have presented myself today to ask you a few questions," The man with glasses said.

Yuki just nodded back from confusion.

"The official questioning will take place in the kingdom however, we would like to confirm something first, would you be so kind as to present your player profile for us?" Carmi asked, however, he sounded like he was demanding.

Yuki wasn't usually the argumentative type but he wanted to test some things out.

"And what if I refuse?" Yuki asked.

"While we have just been sent to the mysterious world a few months ago, it seems like many of the things work the same as our previous planet. The world is starting to become like the previous one. Just like on that planet, refusal to comply will end up with you apprehended for treason."

"Was that a satisfactory answer?" Carmi asked.

Yuki already knew that he was much stronger than all of the people present, however he did not want to start any more problems. However, he was a bit disappointed in his so-called friends.

Yuki nodded and complied.

[Open: profile]

[Player: Yuki Kaito]

[Level 2: 31400/40000]

Yuki couldn't smile in front of all these people but he was happy that his skill activation worked.

"Thank you, we greatly appreciate your cooperation," said Carmi.

Carmi took out a book from seemingly nowhere and started writing in it.

"Now if you'll follow me. We will head back to the kingdom for your official interrogation," Carmi said.

"Wait, what did I even do?" Yuki asked.

"You don't get to ask any questions here. I am the interrogator here," Carmi tried to silence Yuki.

"There are only a few people in the world who are level 2, who do you think you are talking to me?" Yuki began faking an act in hopes of answering some of the questions that he had.

"It seems like you don't quite understand what kind of position you are in. Let's start walking to the kingdom and I'll explain as we head there," Carmi proposed.

Yuki agreed and began walking alongside him while everyone else followed from behind.

"While you were gone in the dungeon, several witnesses came out and have accused you of murder," Carmi spoke.

"But that was for self defense," Yuki rebudled.

"Even excluding the two people you murdered out of so called self defense, what about the 7 allies you had teamed up with? Isn't it odd that all 7 disappeared without a trace however, you're still alive?" Carmi continued.

"There would be no way that you killed all 7 of them all by yourself, you must have had an accomplice. That would be what a normal person would think. However, we have recently learned that there is a huge strength gap between level 1 and 2."

"The current theory is that you levelled up as quickly you possibly could then murdered all seven of them."

"So why did you do it? For fun?..."

Carmi quickly turned around, grabbed Yuki by the collar and stared into his eyes.

"... or does the killing of a player provide a reward?" Carmi asked.