Chapter 240 Sneak Attack?

[Ace POV],

After returning to the true world to find the portal was still there, I curiously checked its information to see if there had been any new changes to it, only to find nothing.

Its difficulty was still set to normal, and given the present situation, the dungeon appears to be capable to run for another time.

What I didn't know was if the dungeon would vanish after a few more entries, but it didn't appear to be the case. Despite this, I had no intention of returning to the dungeon.

This was due to several factors.

For one thing, I was exhausted from all the hours I'd spent in there, and while I had the basic stamina pill to help me with this exhaustion, I didn't forget that taking too many pills was poison to the body despite their many benefits due to impurities in them.

It was okay to digest the pill in a reasonable amount, but when the intake becomes unreasonable, it becomes dangerous to the body, so this was one factor that made me limit myself to only taking pills when necessary, though I have not strictly followed this rule since I did abuse the use of the pills.

Aside from that, the primordial records I could obtain from the dungeon were now insufficient for me to level up.

The first run went well because I was weak at the time, but as my level increased, so did the number of primordial records required to level up.

The only thing the dungeon could give me now were the resources I'd gain inside, which were the magic gems and the slime monster's crystal cores.

These two were important materials, but since I had a lot of them in my storage ring and wasn't using them right now, going to the dungeon would only add to their already large stock.

Having more is certainly beneficial, but the stress that accompanied it was something I did not want to deal with right now.

As I considered this, I took a look around before calling out the primordial chronicle in my head, and as soon as the blue panel appeared in front of me, I made my way to the map section, and after determining the direction home was, I picked up my speed and dashed in that direction.

It was finally time to call it a day.

Perhaps it was because of the time, but I did not encounter many monsters on my way home, and the ones I did encounter, I ran away from, not because I was afraid, but because I saw no point in fighting them because, aside from the fact that it no longer held that much importance to my job, the monsters did not appear to be the types that could elicit an emotional response from me, thus my actions.

My journey back to the grassy hill that led to the bronze door of the alternate dimension, on the other hand, was rather smooth.

It was already nighttime in the true world, so Anna and the others could be in the alternate dimension, but given the time difference between the true world and the alternate dimension, it's very likely that they are not in the alternate dimension and are instead outside in the true world doing whatever they are doing.

This was one of several thoughts racing through my mind as I got closer to the grassy hill, occasionally consulting my map.

Everything was going swimmingly well until I came to a halt in my run.

The area I was in was filled with trees, much like most places in the true world, but that wasn't the issue.

The problem was that the surroundings were too quiet, which may not seem like a big deal, but I just felt the surroundings were just too quiet.

The fact I also felt I was being watched didn't help at all.

Because I suspected something was going on in my current surroundings, I chose to walk to my destination instead, raising my guard to the max, but the further I walked, the more I felt myself being watched.

I was so uncomfortable that I just wanted to get out of there, but just as I was about to run, I noticed something approaching me from behind, so I tilted my head to the other side, only to see an arrow flash past me.

At this point, I didn't need to think much to realise I was being attacked, so I dashed from where I was, but it appears that it wasn't just one person attacking me, but several, because as soon as I moved, several arrows appeared on all sides and were coming at me.

Seeing this, I circulated the earth mana in my body and directed it to my right foot, and immediately after doing so, I slammed my foot on the ground as multiple tall walls appeared in four places around me to protect me from the raining arrows. However, before I could run out from the walls I created using earth magic, I saw a fireball being fired in my direction, and without thinking, I sent my own fireball at it as both attacks denoted themselves in midair.

'Is this an assassination?' I wondered as it was ironic that I had never received an assassination threat in the world I knew, but had received one that appeared to be similar in an unknown world.

As I thought of this, I circulated my mana again to manipulate the earth walls I created and dismissed them before turning to make several earth spikes from the ground and shooting them in different directions around me.

At this point, it was obvious that I was being attacked, but while I couldn't see who was attacking me, they could, which put me at a significant disadvantage.

This is why I randomly sent an attack to various locations to see if I could bring the rats out, but while I did hear some screams in the background, the rain of arrows did not stop to allow me to create even more chaos, but there was one thing I did notice.

After my attack, I began to hear a strange language in the woods that I could understand for some reason, which could only mean one thing.

The universal language only comes into play when I am not speaking with humans from my world, implying that the attack on me was not carried out by my race but by another, but why?