Chapter 36 Returning Home

"Laurene, wake up. It's time to go."

She instantly got up at his voice and was about to speak, then she noticed Pride behind Evan and choked on her words.

"Oh yeah, this is Pride, we just formed a contract."

Evan spoke without a care in the world before turning to Pride and continuing.

"This is Laurene, she's the new Fourth."

Pride's red eyes widened slightly at his words,

'As I thought, there is a new generation of the seven heroes. Surprisingly, he's stared gathering the seven already?'

She then looked at Ralphie who was unconscious and the mutilated troll not far from him. The sight was too bizarre, she did not even bother to ask Evan concerning it.

◇　◇　◇

Ralphie opened his eyes and met a red pair of eyes staring back at him, he did not recognize those eyes, nor did he recognize the face they were on.

"Welcome to the afterlife mortal."

He hurriedly stood up and took distance from the woman immediately, his hand on his sword and his unique skill already activated, it was an automatic response.

"As I thought, even though your weakened, your aura is still threatening enough."

As Ralphie heard that voice, he turned around and saw Evan seated on the ground with Laurene on his lap.

"Young master?"

"Good morning Raplhie, how was your sleep?"

At Evan's question, Ralphie slowly recalled the series of events that led to him being unconscious. He immediately wanted to reprimand Evan but he held it in, he decided to let the Duke handle that.

"Why did you enter that door? Did you know what was behind it? Who's that woma-?!"

He looked around as he was speaking and realized h could not see the woman he saw before.

"Where is she?!"

Evan shrugged his shoulders and gave a reply that Ralphie definitely would not believe.

"Someone who was down here with us, she was only gonna be here till you woke up."

He did not understand, how did she leave without him noticing? Predicting his thoughts, Evan pointed at the teleportation circle that was behind him.

It was the exit leading to outside the dungeon that appeared shortly after Ralphie killed the Troll King Gu.

"Let's go already, we'd deal with the other shit later."

Evan said as he stood up and carried the sleeping Laurene on his back he started walking out without even waiting for Ralphie.

Ralphie hurriedly followed behind and they left the room, marking the end of Evan's first dungeon expedition.

◇　◇　◇

'Artemisia's reward though, didn't expect to go there this early.'

Artemisia later responded to him, with a quest saying the reward she promised was at the end of the quest.

He felt cheated but when he saw the quest details, he was shocked.

'The Lair Of The Lizard Lord'

It was a quest to attack a dungeon that was about to overflow, in the game the dungeon overflow happened much later, when the demon invasion had already begun and it claimed a lot of lives in the process.

The lizard lord was a level 700 monster capable of levelling mountain ranges with ease. It commanded forces of hundreds of lizard men at level 400-500 and it was one of the most difficult quests in the game.

'This time, I'm attacking nearly 10 years before that, they won't be that strong yet.'

The Lizard lord was probably around level 100 now.

'Still, six hundred levels in ten years, that's too much.'

Existences classified as 'monsters' by the system had the ability to level up faster when they killed members of other races.

The amount of people that would enter the dungeon within ten years would not be small, and the amount who died, would be even higher.

It becoming level 700 in 10 years was understandable.

'They're not gonna let me go out so easily once Ralphie tells the Duke and Emperor of what happened here. Guess I'm gonna have to sneak out.'

Evan grinned evilly to himself as he walked out of the dungeon while constructing a plan to somehow go over to 'The Lair of The Lizard Lord' that was in the Beast Kingdom.

◇　◇　◇

The trip back to the duke's mansion was as uneventful as possible, mostly due to Evan not wanting to cause any more trouble, for now.

The moment they arrived, they met the Emperor who was already waiting at the door of the mansion.

Such a thing was normally unthinkable but when one thought about the fact that it was the overprotective emperor who was doing this, it kind of seemed acceptable.

He hugged her, and then checked Laurene's body for any irregularities. After seeing she was fine, he then hugged her again and didn't let go until the Duke and The Empress who arrived later pulled him off.

"Tsk...you're not the only one who wants to hug our daughter you know?"

Those were the empress' words before she picked up Laurene with a barely perceptible speed and hugged her.

Evan was shocked, he could not catch the empress' movements at all. He appraised her and was even more stunned.

|Name- Claudia Hayes

Race- Human

Level- 200

Existence Level - Master

Titles- Empress of the Great Western Empire, Head of the Intelligence Division

Class - Shadow Master

Health – C+

Energy - B-

Strength – C

Agility – A-

Durability – C-

Intelligence - C+

Condition- Happy

Magic Tiers- Shadow Tier 3.

Skills- Shadow Control, Concealment (Extreme), Dagger (Extreme)

Unique Skills- Life Sensing. |

'What?! Isn't she supposed to be the empress?!!'

"Oh my, it seems your appraisal can see through my concealment."

Claudia had her hand over her mouth while smiling at Evan as if amused. Evan on the other hand was still in a state of shock.

'What sort of empress is that?'

She stared at his shadow with a weird expression before shaking her head and walking away with Laurene in her arms. Evan, however, was slightly scared at this action.

'Did she notice it?'

He looked at the emperor who was being dragged inside by the duke and appraised him.

|Name- Rudeus Hayes

Race- Human

Level- 220

Existence Level - Master

Titles- Emperor of the Great Western Empire, One Flash Sword Master

Class - Sword Master

Health – B-

Energy - B-

Strength – B

Agility – C-

Durability – C

Intelligence - C+

Condition- Sad

Magic Tiers- Light Tier 2

Skills- Swordsmanship (Extreme), Light Magic (Medium), Thought Acceleration.

Unique Skills- One Flash Sword. |

He was shocked once again, the emperor, Rudeus was a lot stronger than he expected.

'Why the hell were they background characters in the game??'

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says that they are going to be useless in the face of the coming disaster, as such she did not bother adding them]

"No No No, even so at least make their levels known, this just messed with most of my calculations, I have to change my plans."

"Plans about what?"

Evan was shocked when he suddenly saw the duke in front of him.

He then realized that he had unconsciously followed the group to the mansion's lounge, his mother, the duchess was also there.

[Kyaa, he got caught!]

[he wants to run away~]

[Someone hold him!]

[Hey, what about that scary lady in his hand]

"Nothing serious, I'd tell you later."