Chapter 262 Encounter

[Ace POV],

"Is this really a good idea?" I muttered as I turned to face the little gryphon who was following me from behind.

Of course, it was blue. At first, I considered leaving him in the alternate dimension till I remembered the time difference between the alternate dimension and the true world.

Perhaps by the time I returned, blue would have died of starvation, which I didn't want because he was the closest thing to me feeling emotions, no matter how uncomfortable they were to feel through him.

But, on the other hand, I still didn't think it was a good idea to bring blue to the true world because, aside from his inability to defend himself, he would be nothing more than a burden given the location I was going to know.

As I considered this, I turned to open the bronze door, and after blue had passed through it, I did so as well before closing as we both made our way up to the surface via the stairs ahead of us.

While climbing the stairs, I considered ways to quickly make blue useful to me, or at least less of a burden, and the only thing that came to mind was to level him up, and there were no other options aside from the confirmed method of him accumulating primordial records from eating things with magic in them.

It was better to say I hadn't tried other methods to level him up yet, and even if there were, I guess the most direct method is to kill monsters to farm primordial records and level up, but another question was whether monsters could level up by killing other monsters.

I couldn't tell because I wasn't sure if blue having a status was normal or if it was because he was my tamed beast.

In any case, it was left for later. What I should concentrate on now is killing some rats today, finishing all of my job requirements, levelling up, and evolving.

Hmmm.

I'm curious if I'll be the first person in my team to evolve.

It's possible, but given that I spent nearly two days, if not more, in the alternate dimension and didn't see the three's shadows even once, it's possible that they were already close to evolving and wanted to do everything at once.

It makes me wonder if we'll evolve together. I'm quite curious about the powers we'll receive after evolving.

As I was thinking these thoughts, Blue and I reached the surface, and after the obligatory covering up, which has almost become a tradition at this point, I carried Blue on my back and dashed off.

At this point, I figured I had no choice but to carry him wherever I went in the true world, and I should also see if I could level him up, though I doubt I'd have the time.

Before going into the earth rat den, I'll probably just look for a place to put blue and hide him until I'm done with my business in the earth rats.

While thinking about these things, I continued to run, following the directions on the map that would lead me back to the earth rats' den, making sure to avoid every monster I encountered.

This was how things went until I came to a complete stop just a fair distance from the den.

I came to a halt because of something I noticed on my map. It was a blue dot, and when it appeared on the map, it meant that a contact from my contact list was at the location displayed on the map, which happened to be close to the earth rat den.

But there is only one person on my contact list who could be at this location: Celeb, the man I happened to save from death in the den.

Hmmm.

'I wonder why he never contacted me again,' I thought before remembering that I had been in the alternate dimension for a long time and that even if Celeb tried to send me a message, it would not work because we were in different worlds.

As I considered this, I slowed my charge and began slowly making my way to the earth rat den, wondering if Celeb was the only one in the location the map indicated.

I also remembered that I wasn't the only one who could see Celeb's location on the map; if he happened to be looking at it right now, he could see mine as well.

Even if Celeb's intention was also the earth rat den, and even if he was possibly accompanied by others, I would not give up on the den given how far I've come to prepare for it.

Perhaps something will happen if we run into each other, but the explosives in my storage ring provided me with numerous opportunities to take a risk.

This was my train of thought as I slowly moved forward, and as a result, it took me a while to get close to half the distance between me and Celeb.

At this point, I could tell Celeb was going to the earth rat den, but I couldn't tell if he was alone. If he was alone, I wouldn't bother with him and just go straight to the earth rat den, but if he wasn't alone, things would be much more difficult because I knew what their deal was with the den.

I haven't forgotten that the item of their 'king' was the reason Celeb and his friends entered the den despite the danger, so if Celeb was with someone else now, it was most likely due to this item.

Despite this, I kept pushing forward slowly until I could finally see the earth rat den in the distance, but there were also a few unfamiliar people nearby.

Well, almost a few unfamiliar people were close to it because I later discovered Celeb in the group as they all stared at the rocky hill that was filled with numerous holes that also served as the earth rats' den.

Hmmm.

'Now what do I do?'

I tried to narrow my eyes to see what was ahead of me as I pondered which step to take next, but it had little effect.

If I used my mental clock to calculate the time, I'd say it was close to seven o'clock, indicating that visibility of the surroundings was quite low. It wasn't that it was too dark to see anything because my eyesight had already advanced beyond the point where it could be adversely affected by a dark environment. It was because I was trying to make out the features of the men in front of me but couldn't because of a variety of factors.

Apart from it being a little dark to see their feathers properly, I also had to be careful because only the heavens know how sensitive they are to stares.

Blue, thankfully, was surprisingly quiet as it continued to observe from my shoulder.

As I considered this, I decided to move forward a little.

For one thing, Celeb is obviously a subject of a ruler in the true world, but what I'm most curious about is whether or not this ruler is one of the Dawn Empire's kings. It's possible that it's the emperor, but a king seems more likely.

For one thing, the emperor's subjects should be elites, but Celeb... maybe he'll become one in the future, since he certainly doesn't look like one when I last saw him.

Then there was the fact that he could also not be under a Dawn Empire king and just happened to be wearing a pendant with the Dawn Empire symbol.

In any case, my goal should now be to find a place to hide blue first, then enter the earth rat den after the group in front of me does.

There were many holes leading into the den, and each hole was a tunnel that went underground and began to branch off into smaller tunnels, making the road down there more difficult the deeper someone heads down. Therefore, there was less of a chance that I would meet the group if we both entered the den through different tunnels.

The only problem with this is that Celeb and I are both listed in each other's contact lists, so if he opens his map, he will see that I am nearby.

It's not that I'm afraid of meeting him or his group; I just want to avoid anything that appears to be a potential future problem.

Hmmm.

I'm wondering if I can remove him from my contact list. With the ability to sell my pills in the shop, I didn't really need him again.

I'm only rethinking his use because of the knowledge I could possibly learn from him.

As I considered these thoughts, I realised that I had unintentionally gotten too close to Celeb's group. Although there were still 200 metres separating us, it wasn't particularly far away when compared to other people with my physique.

I was about to slowly go back where I had come after considering this when I saw a familiar figure standing next to Celeb, which caused me to stop.

I wasn't sure because I was looking at his back and his amour made it difficult to confirm, but the person figure does look familiar, but I was so focused on him that the person suddenly turned to look at me, but before I could make out his face, I felt a touch on my shoulder and passed out.