《These Familiars Are Strange》


 Chapter 2 Strange status

    "9th ss Low Grade Familiar."


    The instructor and all of the staff members were stunned when they saw the familiar that appeared.


    I was also standing there in a daze looking at the bat that had appeared in front of me.


    This bat looked around a bit before turning to look at me.


    The moment that bat''s eyes fell onto me, they immediately opened wide and lit up.


    This bat looked like it was filled with joy when it saw me beforeing forward to rub its head against me.


    But I really couldn''t react to this since I was still in a daze over what the instructor said.


    The entire area was filled with silence as everyone was stunned when the results were announced.


    After a long silence, the instructor finally came back to his senses.


    With a sigh, the instructor said, "It isn''t just his parents, even his big brother only awakened a trash familiar. It seems like talent really was decided from birth, talent isn''t something that can be changed¡­"


    It was like a dagger was stabbed into my heart when I heard this.


    Without a single care for what I thought, the instructor continued with another sigh, "It seems like I really backed the wrong boat here. I wonder if I can still find someone else to be a mentor to¡­"


    Another dagger right to the heart.


    I looked around at the staff, but it didn''t seem like any of them were looking in my direction. All of them seemed to have turned to take care of their own matters, as if they were working hard.


    But in my heart, I knew that they were doing this to avoid interacting with me.


    Just like the instructor, they were treating mepletely differently now.


    Only, what was I supposed to do about this?


    Eventually, the instructor turned to look at me. The look on his face waspletely different than before, he even narrowed his eyes to look at me as he said, "What are you still doing here? Why aren''t you getting out of the way already? There''s still other people that need to go through the summoning ceremony."@@novelbin@@


    A bitter smile appeared on my face when I heard this, but I still had to say, "The status for my familiar. I still need the status page."


    The instructor looked like he wasn''t interested in this at all, but he still pulled out a piece of paper that he threw over at me before saying, "Get out of the way already."


    With a sigh, I caught the paper and walked off the summoning tform.


    When I did, I heard the whispersing from all around me.


    "Wasn''t he supposed to be the top scorer?"


    "It''s just scores, how could itpare to actual talent? He''s nothing more than a fake."


    "Ha, ha, and to think that I actually had a crush on him. Now I can see the truth."


    I just ignored all of them since I had already been prepared for this scenario, but it would be a lie to say that their words weren''t like daggers that pierced my heart.


    At this point, there was nothing that I could do other than finishing my mandatory education and then finding a job that was suited to my abilities.


    But of course, I couldn''t me it on my familiar.


    It was summoned because of my abilities, so it was just a representation of what I was capable of.


    With a sigh, I looked at the status sheet that was printed out.


    I didn''t know what I was expecting, but it was as disappointing as I thought it would be.


    Echo Bat


    Level: 1


    Exp: 0


    Strength: 5


    Vitality: 5


    Intelligence: 10


    Dexterity: 13


    Skills: Echolocation


    This was a familiar that was only useful for scouting areas, it didn''t have any other uses.


    However, when I looked at it closely, I could see that the Echolocation was only useful up to twenty meters. That was far from being enough to be useful¡­so it seemed like the only skill that this bat familiar of mine had wasn''t of any use.


    With a sigh, I slowly turned to look at the bat familiar that was still hugging me and rubbing its head up against me.


    There was a part of me that didn''t know what to do with this bat familiar, but it wasn''t as if I could just abandon it¡­


    But all of a sudden, there was this blue screen that suddenly appeared in front of me as I looked at my familiar.


    I was surprised to find that it was a status screen.


    Statuses were supposed to be special information that could only be discovered by those that had an appraisal skill, or used a special appraisal item. That was why I had insisted on getting the status for my familiar from the instructor earlier in hopes that this familiar of mine would have some kind of secret.


    But now¡­


    "Echo Hypnosis? What is that?" I softly said to myself in a shocked voice.


    The status that appeared in front of my face waspletely different from the one that I had gotten from the instructor.


    This status screen had the same stats as the sheet of paper, but there was an extra skill that wasn''t on the sheet of paper.


    It was a skill that I had never heard of before even with all of studying on different kinds of familiars.


    There was a part of me that wanted to turn back and ask the instructor, but I didn''t get the chance to do so.


    There was argemotion that suddenly caught everyone''s attention.


    "1st ss High Grade Familiar!"


    This loud announcement filled the entire area and everyone immediately turned to look in the direction that it came from.


    There even seemed to be some kind of blue glowing from the summoning tform that it came from.


    Standing in the middle of the summoning tform was someone that I recognized.


    Long Tang Tang.

 Chapter 6 Subduing

    The Gale Wolves that froze had shocked looks on their faces as they looked at me.


    The looks on their faces made it seem as if they couldn''t understand what was happening.


    That was because all of them had suddenly frozen in ce.


    A few looks of struggle appeared on the faces of some of the Gale Wolves. It seemed like they were trying to break free of whatever was holding them in ce, but they just weren''t able to do it.


    I looked at them with a surprised look too.


    Even though I had a few expectations, this was far beyond what I had imagined.


    After all, these Gale Wolves were certainly much stronger than the things that I had tested the Echo Bat''s additional ability on.


    The Gale Wolves were D Rank Monsters, while the things that I had tested on were the normal animals that were in the park near my house. It was hard topare the two of them since there was arge difference in power between them.


    But it didn''t seem to matter as the Echo Bat''s ability seemed to work on the Gale Wolves.


    However, that was just the beginning¡­


    After looking at the Gale Wolves for a bit, a determined look appeared on my face.


    Since I had alreadye this far, the only thing that I could do was take this to the end.


    "Submit." I said in a calm voice before the Echo Bat released another silent cry.


    The moment that the Gale Wolves heard this silent cry, there was this strange look that appeared on their faces. With the way that their faces rxed, it was almost as if they were being numbed by something.


    Their expressions just dulled, but they also turned to look at me with these rxed expressions.


    After a moment of silence, the expressions of the Gale Wolves suddenly became much friendlier.


    There were even a few of them that barked at me, which waspletely different from the way that they treated me before. Instead of growling at me in an aggressive and hostile manner, they were barking at me as if I was part of their pack.


    I didn''t let them go yet and slowly walked forward towards the Gale Wolves that were still frozen there.


    Seeing me approach, the eyes of the Gale Wolves lit up and they barked even more as if they wanted to y with me.


    I could see the same look as the neighbourhood dogs when they saw someone that they wanted to y with on the faces of the Gale Wolves. In a way, it almost seemed like they wererge dogs, rather than powerful wolf monsters.


    I walked over to the one that was closest to me and then slowly reached out my hand towards the Gale Wolf''s head. Seeing my handing closer, the Gale Wolf didn''t resist at all as it waited for me to reach out to it.


    Well, it wasn''t as if it didn''t do anything at all.


    It actually tried reaching its head forward a bit even though it was still frozen, as if it wanted to press its snout up against my hand.


    I reached out and patted the Gale Wolf on its head. With the way that it rubbed up against me slightly, to the best of its ability even though it was frozen, it seemed like it enjoyed it.


    I looked at the other Gale Wolves and it didn''t seem like they were nning on fighting back, so I said, "Release."


    The moment that I said this, all of the Gale Wolves had surprised looks on their faces.


    Then the next moment, they ran towards me.


    They didn''t attack me when they reached me, they just pressed their snouts up against me and rubbed up against me as if they wanted me to pat them on the head as well. But since there were so many of them and they were quite big, there wasn''t enough space for all of them to stand by my side.


    This caused a bit of friction between them and it even seemed like they were about to start fighting for my affection.


    A bitter smile appeared on my face when I saw them acting like this.


    With the way that they were acting now, it really didn''t seem like they were the same monsters that had wanted to attack me not that long ago.


    "Calm down, there''s no need to fight." I said to calm them down.


    The Gale Wolves seemed to care very much about what I said as they immediately stopped fighting with each other and turned to look at me as if they were waiting for an order.


    The way that they all looked at me was as if they wererge dogs, even though they were powerful wolves.


    This made me feel even more bitter when I saw them like this, but I didn''t have time to think too much about this.


    "Grr¡­"


    There were still these growling sounds that wereing from in front of me.


    Even if I had subdued this one group of Gale Wolves, that didn''t mean that I had subdued all of them. There were still other Gale Wolves that wereing through the tunnels to attack me.


    However, there was no fear on my face even though I recognized this fact.


    After all, it didn''t seem like they posed any threat to me.


    I looked at the Gale Wolves that I had already subdued and said, "Go and meet them. Stall them for me and I''ll bring them into our family."


    The Gale Wolves didn''t immediately understand what I said, but the Echo Bat gave another cry and they all nodded before running into the tunnels, leaving me behind.@@novelbin@@


    I shook my head with a faint smile as I watched them head down the tunnel, but I quickly followed after them.


    ¡­


    I looked at my watch and found that half an hour had passed.


    Then I looked up at all of the Gale Wolves that were standing in this space in front of me.


    The first group that I had tamed only had around twenty Gale Wolves.


    Now there was arge pack of over two hundred Gale Wolves standing in front of me.


    The way that they acted was as if they were arge pack of dogs, waiting for my affection.


    "Isn''t this power a bit too broken?" I couldn''t help saying to myself.

 Chapter 9 What makes you think…

    Wang Teng''s face had be swollen from being pped like this.


    As his face became more and more swollen, Wang Teng finally learned not to say anything.


    Or it was better to say that it became hard for him to say anything since his face was swollen.


    Seeing that he didn''t say anything else, I just rubbed my hands together to help them recover a bit after pping him across the face like this. I didn''t care about the way that he looked at me like he wanted to take revenge.


    Eventually, Wang Teng slowly said, "You should know why I did that. If you didn''t get close to her, then none of this would have happened."


    "I know, but what makes you think that she belonged to you in the first ce?"


    "Ha, everything in this world is mine for the taking! That is the right of the rich and powerful!" Wang Teng recovered his vigor a bit, but all that earned him was another p across the face.


    Shaking my head, I said with a sigh, "It really seems like you don''t learn at all. You should know what kind of situation you''re in and you''re still acting like this. It seems like even in the end, you''ll never learn."


    "You¡­" Wang Teng was about to say something, but then he realized that there was something wrong with the words that he heard.


    There was a slow look of recognition as he started processing these words before saying, "You¡­you wouldn''t dare. If you dare, then you''ll know what will happen to you."


    I just looked at him with a smile as I said, "What makes you think that I wouldn''t dare? Don''t you already know what kind of ce we''re in? This is the kind of ce where people go missing all the time."


    Turning around to look at theckeys that were still frozen and then looking at Xia Xue, I said, "If you were to go missing here, do you really think that anyone would think anything of it?"


    "They''lle for our corpses and it''ll be exposed that you were the one that killed us. When that timees, you won''t be able to escape the consequences."


    To my surprise, it was actually Xia Xue who said this.


    Wang Teng was caught off guard at first, but then he quickly said with a nod, "That''s right! If you dare, they''ll find out right away based on the condition of our corpses! My father won''t let this matter rest if you dare do anything!"


    I just ignored him as I looked at Xia Xue with narrowed eyes.


    I hadn''t thought much of her since she acted like a girl who only cared about using her beauty to trap powerful men, but it seemed that I had underestimated her.


    It seemed that there was a brain inside of that pretty head, it was just that she chose to hide it normally to fool men that she wanted to use.


    After looking at her like this for a bit which made Xia Xue look away from me, I turned back to Wang Teng with a smile on my face as I said, "Who said that I would do anything to you? There''s no need for me to dirty my hands."


    With a snap of my fingers, there were severalrge figures that appeared around us.


    These figures were on all four limbs, unlike humans.


    When they saw these figures, Wang Teng''s group was caught off guard by them.


    Even though they had already heard the howls from these Gale Wolves earlier which was what stopped theckeys, they had actuallypletely forgotten about them.


    After the Gale Wolves appeared, it took a while for them to process what was happening, but the moment that they did¡­


    "You traitor! You have betrayed mankind!"


    That was what Wang Teng said as soon as he came back to his senses.


    He didn''t even think about his own position as he said this, that was just how shocked he was to see the Gale Wolves following my orders.


    With a shake of my head and a faint smile, I said, "Why do you think that? Just because they''re following my orders, does that mean that I''m working with the monsters?"


    "What else could it mean?" Wang Teng said without hesitation.@@novelbin@@


    I didn''t bother answering this as I simply gave a shrug and said, "Does that really matter to you at this point?"


    Wang Teng trembled when he heard this before slowly looking at the Gale Wolves.


    His eyes filled with fear before he looked back at me as if he was meeting me for the first time. With the way that he looked at me, it was as if he didn''t even recognize who I was.


    That was just how much this situation confused him.


    He just couldn''t figure out what had caused this change in me.


    It was simply because I wouldn''t take it anymore.


    There were many things that I had to take in the past because of my position, but no longer.


    With this power of mine, I would do what I would have to do to be stronger. I wouldn''t let anyone push me around anymore.


    Especially if that person had ns to kill me in the first ce.


    If theye for my life, then they should at least leave theirs if they fail.


    "I promise that I won''t say anything about this as long as you let me go. You can have the rest, just let me go." Wang Teng soundedpletely defeated when he said this.


    It was as if there wasn''t a single part of the arrogant young master from before as he said this.


    It was as if all he cared about was his own life.


    Theckeys had shocked looks on their faces, but they couldn''t say anything since they were still frozen.


    As for Xia Xue, she was just too shocked to say anything.


    "If you spare me, I''ll get my father to give you¡­"


    "Not interested."


    With a snap of my fingers, the Gale Wolves jumped at Wang Teng and hisckeys.

 Chapter 12 What they deserve (1)

    I had already expected this scene when I walked out of the dungeon, but it really seemed like it was much worse than I expected.


    Of course, it wasn''t hard to tell why this was the case.


    It was easy to see that there was someone who was trying to create a bigger scene than was necessary.


    He was doing all of this just to save himself.


    Only when facing someone that had prepared everything, it was hard for him to find any footing at all.


    Slowly shaking my head, I said, "I don''t know anything about this. It was hard enough for me to survive the dungeon in the first ce, so of course I don''t know anything about this."


    There was a confused look that appeared on the strike team captain''s face when he heard this before he asked, "What do you mean by this?"


    With a sigh, I said, "I don''t know what happened, but the ce that I was sent to in the dungeon was the territory of the D Rank Gale Wolves. It was hard enough finding a ce to hide, so I didn''t even have time to think about anything else."


    The strike team captain immediately knitted his brows when he heard this before turning back to look at the instructor.


    The moment that his gaze fell onto the instructor, there was a chill that ran down the instructor''s spine.


    He knew exactly what I was talking about, but if he was to admit it¡­


    So the only thing that the instructor could do was lie.


    He could only deny everything and use his status to put pressure on me.


    "He''s lying. How could he have been sent to a ce like that and survived when he only has a 9th ss Low Grade Familiar? It''s clear that he''s trying to make an alibi for himself."


    The instructor pointed at me as he said this at the top of his lungs.


    The strike team captain didn''t look at me, rather he narrowed his eyes to look at the instructor.


    After a moment of silence, the strike team captain slowly asked, "Is that so?"@@novelbin@@


    The instructor couldn''t help feeling that there was something wrong about the way that the strike team captain said this.


    But even if there seemed to be something wrong, he couldn''t just remain idle now.


    If he were to remain silent, there was no doubt that it would all be over for him.


    "I''m certain of it!" The instructor said in a voice filled with determination.


    The strike team captain narrowed his eyes once more before walking over to the terminal that was set up. This was the device that was linked up to the entrance of the dungeon that allowed them to control the dungeon itself.


    After pressing a few keys, there was a record that appeared.


    To others that didn''t know what this was, they didn''t have any reactions.


    But to the instructor and the staff members that knew what it meant¡­


    "No, this is fake!" The instructor shouted the moment that he saw this, but the strike team captain just ignored him as he went over to Lin Fan.


    Raising his hand to put on my shoulder, he said, "I''m sorry for your suffering. We will make sure that he gets what he deserves."


    A confused look appeared on my face as I asked while pointing at the terminal, "What is that?"


    The strike team captain looked over at the instructor and said, "It''s the records of usage for the dungeon entrance. It shows exactly who sent who where."


    As soon as I heard this, I understood what happened.


    There were records proving that the instructor had tempered with the gate and had sent me to a different ce from the others.


    With that, it was easy to prove that the instructor was responsible for whatever happened.


    Based on the expression on the faces of the instructor and the other staff members, it didn''t seem like any of them knew about this. It seemed that only those from the Summoner Association knew about these records.


    Of course, these records never would have been essed if it wasn''t for the fact that this turned out to be much bigger than it had actually been.


    If it wasn''t for the fact that Wang Teng''s group had died, then no one would have known about what the instructor did.


    That was just how the world worked¡­


    These small things were ignored unless they were brought into the light.


    "I, I, I didn''t do anything! I was just doing what he asked me to do!" The instructor finally admitted the truth.


    Now that even the Summoner Association was involved in this matter, there was no way that the instructor was able to hide this any longer.


    At this point, if he kept trying to hide it, then he would be punished much worse than he might be if he just told the truth.


    The strike team leader didn''t seem like he was interested in hearing what the instructor had to say. Judging by the look on his face, it seemed that he thought that all the instructor could do was lie.


    But he still listened to him as he wanted to see what he had to say.


    It was just that before the instructor could say anything, there were others that came out of the dungeon.


    Seeing the otherse out, the staff members went over to help them.


    Especially since none of them wanted to get involved with the instructor that was being interrogated.


    It was as if they wanted to be as far away from this as they could.


    I didn''t think that it had anything to do with me until I heard the sounds of running from behind me.


    Then when I turned around, I saw a slender figure running over before jumping at me.


    I had to quickly raise my hand to catch her before she mmed right into me, but the force that she jumped at was still too much for me that it made me stumble back a bit.


    The only thing I heard was¡­


    "Are you hurt?"

 Chapter 15 Come with me

    After another week passed, the time for graduation was getting closer.


    Everyone that had gone through the summoning ceremony was now being offered positions inrge guilds or they were being recruited to higher institutions of learning.


    Those higher institutions of learning were run by the government and one would be guaranteed a good job once they graduated from those higher institutions.


    It was just that this didn''t have anything to do with me.


    The only offers that I got were from the lower ranked guilds, but the reason for that was that they wanted to recruit me as cheapbour. They just wanted someone to help them run errands or in a worst case scenario, be a human shield for them.


    I was well aware of this since I had seen the cases on the news and had heard about this from my parents through their workces, so I naturally knew that these offers couldn''t be trusted.


    It was just that without these offers, there wasn''t a real future for me.


    Or at least that was what one would think.


    I had already figured out my next move, I was just waiting to graduate to take that final step.


    But before that happened¡­


    "Can I talk to you alone?" Long Tang Tang suddenly came over to my desk and asked me this.


    I was surprised to hear her inviting me to talk alone like this.


    In fact, it had been a while since I had even seen her.


    She had just shown up all of a sudden this morning and called me out to talk.


    I knew that she was busy with all the recruiting people that had wanted to talk to her.


    She was someone who had summoned a 1st ss Top Grade Familiar, she was someone that everyone wanted to recruit. So it was no wonder that she was so busy with all those recruiting people.


    They would all give her the best conditions that would bring her out of her current situation.


    But I still followed her since I wanted to know what Long Tang Tang wanted to talk about.


    The look on her face made it seem that she had something serious to talk about.


    She brought me to the back of the school and when we were alone, she suddenly turned around to say, "I''ve epted an invitation to the Sacred Academy."


    I was surprised to hear her say this, but I wasn''t surprised that she chose that ce in the end.


    The Sacred Academy was the best ce for development.


    It was the ce where our country focused all of its resources to develop those that would defend our country in the future. So it was the ce that had the best resources, resources that even the top guilds wouldn''t be able to match.


    It took me a moment toe back to my senses, but then I gave a nod to show that I understood and said, "It is the best ce for you. I hope that you''ll remember me in the future."


    There was a trace of bitterness that appeared in my smile as I said this.


    After all, it was impossible for me to follow her.


    Long Tang Tang seemed like she wasn''t happy with this response as she bit her lip and looked right at me. It was almost as if she was asking if there was anything else that I wanted to say with the way that she looked at me.


    I was a bit confused why she would do this, but there was also a part of me that knew.


    Only, I couldn''t bring her down.


    Seeing that I wasn''t going to say anything, Long Tang Tang finally couldn''t take it anymore and said, "I''ve talked to them about you."


    "What?" I waspletely caught off guard by this.


    What would there be for her to talk about with them regarding me?


    Long Tang Tang didn''t respond right away as she just looked at me with this strange look.


    Then after a moment of silence, she said, "I told them that if they want to ept me, they have to prepare a spot for you as well. It took a while, but they finally agreed to let you in as an exception."@@novelbin@@


    "What?!" I said in apletely shocked voice.


    Long Tang Tang slowly nodded as if she was confirming this, but the way that she looked at me was as if she was waiting for my response.


    I didn''t say anything as I knitted my brows and I looked at Long Tang Tang.


    She also didn''t say anything as she looked right back into my eyes and waited.


    I didn''t know what to say to this¡­


    Then as if she could see the change in my eyes, Long Tang Tang suddenly said, "This is a big chance for you. If you go to the Sacred Academy, I''m sure that you''ll be able to find a way to rise up. You''re a smart and strong person, I know you''ll be able to find a way."


    The way that she said this was almost as if she was trying her best to persuade me, but it just didn''t work at all for me.


    If I really didn''t have anything, then I might have been persuaded by this.


    But I had something that I could rely on to rise up on my own, so I didn''t want to ride her coattails.


    The main thing was that I didn''t want to drag Long Tang Tang down.


    If I were to actually ept this and go with her, there was no doubt that she and I would both receive a lot of bacsh and suppression because of it. It was fine if I suffered alone, but if it made her suffer too¡­


    I couldn''t do that to her.


    "Please,e with me."


    In the end, it was as if she gave up trying to be logical and directly appealed to my emotions.


    But¡­


    "I can''t." I said with a shake of my head.

 Chapter 19 Slimes

    With the document from the Explorer Association, I was able to easily make my way into the dungeon.


    There was only a single person who was guarding this dungeon, which went to show just how little they cared about this dungeon. Or it could even be said that this was a show of just how little danger there was here.


    When the guard saw the document that I had, he just waved his hand for me to go in on my own.


    Even though the Explorer Association seemed a bit hands off, I had to admit that the influence that they had wasn''t small.


    With the document from the Explorer Association, I had been able to get free transport and was allowed to enter the dungeon without a single word. That was just how much power the governments had already given the Explorer Association.


    After entering the dungeon, there was a strange look that appeared on my face.


    That was because this ce didn''t seem like a dungeon at all.


    As far as the eye could see, there was just grass and open sky. It seemed like a wide open field rather than what a dungeon would feel like.


    But this was the dungeon that I chose.


    This was the Slime Hole.


    As if to prove that this was the right ce, there was a slime that suddenly jumped out of nowhere.


    I had no idea where it came from, it was almost as if it had suddenly popped out of the ground with the way that it had appeared like this.


    Even though I knew that this slime was a monster, I couldn''t help finding this little slime a bit cute.


    It was a small round ball of liquid that was just bouncing up and down, it almost looked harmless with the appearance that it had.


    Of course, I knew better than that.


    It even seemed like the slime wanted to prove that it was dangerous, so it suddenly shot out a stream of liquid at me.


    I immediately dodged out of the way and couldn''t help letting out a sigh of relief when I saw the reaction that the liquid had when it touched the ground. There was smoke that starteding up from the grass that had been drenched in that liquid.


    That was because this liquid was actually acid.


    Even though the slimes seemed harmless, they were actually balls that were filled with acid. It was to the point where even the surface of these slimes would be covered in acid.


    Just touching them would result in severe burns.


    So I knew better than to let my guard down.


    "Stop it."


    The moment that I said this, the Echo Bat that had been flying over me suddenly opened its mouth and let out a silent screech.


    Then once this screech was released, the slime suddenly froze in ce.


    As I watched this happen, there was a part of me that wondered¡­


    "What does it use to hear the sound?"


    The slime was nothing more than a sack of liquid with a core in the center, so it didn''t seem like there was anything that it could use to hear the sound.


    Was it vibrations through the liquid that brought the sound to the core where it processed it?


    As this thought passed through my mind, there were more slimes that appeared around me.


    They had appeared in the same way as the first slime, they had all suddenlye out of the ground.


    This time, I didn''t even need to give an order to the Echo Bat for it to stop them in ce as soon as they appeared.


    Just like this, I stood there surrounded by slimes that were frozen in ce.


    Slowly, I came back to my senses and said, "Control them."


    The Echo Bat just gave another screech and then the slimes suddenly surrounded me. Though they didn''te close enough that they would touch me, they just bounced up and down in ce around me as if they were happy to see me.


    I didn''t reach out to touch them either since I knew the dangers of touching the slimes, but I couldn''t help feeling that they were cute with the way that they bounced around me.


    While this was all happening, there were more slimes that appeared outside of the circle of slimes that were around me.


    They didn''t seem to approach when they found that I was already surrounded by slimes.


    It seemed that slimes did have their own circle where they respected boundaries, they didn''t steal prey from each other.


    I didn''t do anything at first, but once there were enough slimes gathered¡­


    "Attack." I said in a simple voice which made the Echo Bat let out another screech.


    This time, the slimes that were being controlled by the Echo Bat reactedpletely differently.


    They suddenly started shaking and then jumped away from me. They were targeting the other slimes that had appeared afterwards, sending out sprays of acid at them.


    The slimes that got hit with the sprays of acid didn''t take much damage, but they were stunned by the fact that they were attacked by other slimes. The slimes that were under the control of my Echo Bat jumped down on the other slimes and crushed their cores.


    Once their cores were destroyed, the slimes deted and popped like balloons.


    Destroying the core was the only way to destroy the slimes.


    Watching this, I said, "Keep a few by my side to protect us. Let the rest sweep through the slimes thate."


    The Echo Bat gave a simple nod before giving another screech.


    If it was anyone else, they would certainly have problems facing these slimes at once. But for me, I didn''t have to lift a single finger to kill these slimes.


    All I had to do was let them kill each other and watch the chaos happen.@@novelbin@@


    All that was left was for me to pick up the loot that dropped.

 Chapter 23 Golden hands…paws

    The Scavenger Rabbit turned around with a proud look on its face and held up the item that it was holding in its hands.


    When I looked at it closely, I found that it was a ring.


    At the same time, because I was looking at it closely, there was a window that popped up.


    Storage Ring


    Has a storage space of 10 cubic meters.


    There was a smile that appeared on my face when I read this.


    I didn''t think that the perfect item hade at just the right time.


    But the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that the Scavenger Rabbit really had a broken ability just like the Echo Bat.


    It seemed that as long as I allowed it to get my loot, there would be nock of treasures in the future. After all, it was able to get a treasure like this Storage Ring from just the simple slime.


    If I were to let it loot even stronger monsters, there was no telling what it would be able to find.


    As this thought passed through my mind, my eyes lit up as I looked back at the Scavenger Rabbit.


    As if it could tell what I was thinking, another proud look appeared on the face of the Scavenger Rabbit and it put its arms at its waist before puffing out its chest. The way that it stood there was as if it was saying¡­


    "Praise me!"


    The Echo Bat didn''t seem like it was happy seeing the Scavenger Rabbit act this way, so it suddenly came forward and kicked the Scavenger Rabbit from behind. The Scavenger Rabbit had beenpletely focused on posturing, so it didn''t notice this kick at all.


    It was sent flying forward until itnded right in front of one of the slimes.


    When it stood up again, the Scavenger Rabbit looked up with an angry look at first, but it quickly revealed a fearful look when it saw the slime standing there in front of it. It reverted to the same appearance that it had when it first appeared.@@novelbin@@


    It seemed that if it wasn''t doing what it was good at, it had the personality of a coward.


    Only when it was doing something that it was confident in would it show that confident appearance.


    So this Scavenger Rabbit really wasn''t reliable.


    After all, the slime that was standing in front of the Scavenger Rabbit was one of the ones that was being controlled by me.


    It wasn''t as if this slime would do anything to the Scavenger Rabbit in the first ce.


    But this Scavenger Rabbit''s personality made it afraid of everything.


    That was why it was afraid of this slime even though it just stood there.


    It took a while for the Scavenger Rabbit to realize that the slime wouldn''t do anything to it and once it realized this, it acted as if it was embarrassed. It turned to look at the Echo Bat and then started to posture as if it wasining to it.


    However, the Echo Bat just raised one of its hands as if it was threatening the Scavenger Rabbit which made the Scavenger Rabbit immediately back down.


    I shook my head with a bitter smile before saying, "Alright, stop fighting. We''ll all be partners in the future, so there''s no need to fight like this."


    The two of them just looked at each other before turning away from each other anding to my side separately.


    The Echo Batnded on my left shoulder while the Scavenger Rabbit looked up at me like it wanted to be picked up from my right side after seeing the Echo Batnd on my shoulder like this.


    However, I didn''t pick it up as I pointed forward towards another slime corpse and asked, "Can you do it again?"


    The Scavenger Rabbit followed my finger to look in the direction that I was pointing in.


    When it saw the slime corpse there, its eyes lit up and it gave a nod before jumping over.


    The Scavenger Rabbit did the same thing as before and it didn''t take long before it dug out another item.


    This time, the item was a bit familiar.


    It was a dagger, but I had found one of these daggers before.


    It was the same dagger that the King Slime had dropped earlier.


    My eyes lit up the moment that I saw this.


    This Scavenger Rabbit, it really had golden hands¡­No, this Scavenger Rabbit had golden paws.


    It was able to find loot that was supposed to drop from a boss from one of the normal monsters.


    If it was able to use its Looter Skill on the boss, then there was no telling what kind of loot it would be able to find.


    As well, this was just a simple F Rank Dungeon.


    If I were to go to higher ranked dungeons¡­


    I could already smell all of the money that I would be able to make from this.


    As long as I had this Scavenger Rabbit, then there was no doubt that I would be rich.


    Not just rich, but also powerful.


    After all, these items were also powerful magic items that could be used to increase my own power.


    There might be times where I wouldn''t be able to use the Echo Bat''s powers, but it was different if I used the magic items.


    The magic items would allow me to be stronger even if my familiars were considered low rank familiars.


    I already thought that I would be able to rise up with the Echo Bat, but it was different with the Scavenger Rabbit added in as well.


    Though there was a part of me that wondered where these familiars of mine came from¡­


    The appraisal hadn''t been able to find the hidden skills of my Echo Bat and I doubt that the appraisal would be able to find the hidden skills of the Scavenger Rabbit.


    Also, there was the fact that there were appraisal screens that appeared from time to time when I looked at things.


    I couldn''t help looking down at my own hands and saying, "Do I have some kind of hidden power?"

 Chapter 27 A sudden surprise

    The loot for this dungeon was monster corpses that could be taken out and butchered.


    These monster corpses had valuable materials that could be sold for a decent amount, which was why this kind of corpse was something that people liked to farm.


    After all, the other dungeons would just straight drop loot.


    A dungeon that dropped corpses would make them much more money since there was more materials that could be gotten from aplete corpse. It all depended on how well the butchering of the corpse was done.


    But that wasn''t the reason why I waited for the dungeon''s loot system to kick in.


    Rather, there was something that I wanted to test.


    After the Fanged Wolf''s corpse dropped, I stopped holding back the Scavenger Rabbit.


    I turned to the Scavenger Rabbit and asked, "Can you still use your ability on this corpse?"


    The Scavenger Rabbit looked at the Fanged Wolf corpse on the ground and there was a momentary pause from it before it slowly gave a nod.


    Seeing this, I pointed at the Fanged Wolf''s corpse before saying, "Alright, go ahead then."


    The Scavenger Rabbit gave a nod before moving over to the Fanged Wolf''s corpse and started digging around in it. It didn''t take long for the Scavenger Rabbit to finish what it was doing, but it didn''t turn around to show me what it had found this time.


    Instead, it just stood over the pile of items that the Fanged Wolf corpse had suddenly turned into and waved its hand for me toe over to take a look.


    I didn''t need to walk over to see what it had looted since it was arge pile.


    Since my parents worked in the harvesting business, it could be said that I had been trained to recognize materials to a certain extent. But that was because they had been worried that I wouldn''t be able to summon a good familiar and would end up working with them anyway.@@novelbin@@


    Though it didn''t exactly happen that way.


    Still, the knowledge that they gave me was useful.


    I could recognize that the Fanged Wolf had turned into a pile of materials that would have been the same as if it had been butchered. However, the quality of the material was something else.


    I picked up the pelt and looked at it carefully before saying to myself, "This looks like it was perfectly skinned from the Fanged Wolf¡­"


    I looked carefully at the rest of the materials and saw that they were of the same quality.


    It seemed that the Scavenger Rabbit''s Looter ability allowed it to get the perfect loot from this Fanged Wolf corpse, but there was something different about this.


    It was that there wasn''t a single other item that was dropped because of its Looter ability.


    It seemed that it was only materials from the Fanged Wolf that dropped.


    In a way, it could be said that this was the perfect harvest, butpared to the loot that it usually got when it used its Looter skill, it was a bit of a let down.


    Once the Fanged Wolf''s were turned into corpse drops from the dungeon''s loot system, it seemed that they no longer contained any good items.


    As for how I knew that, it was because I didn''t get a single special item after letting the Scavenger Rabbit loot through the rest of the Fanged Wolf corpses. It seemed that there were only materials that could be gained from the Fanged Wolves once they had been turned into corpses by the dungeon''s loot system.


    It was unknown what caused this, but then again, it wasn''t as if I fully understood how the Scavenger Rabbit''s Looter ability worked in the first ce.


    At the very least, it seemed that all of the materials that the Scavenger Rabbit obtained were of the highest quality and would sell for a decent amount. It wasn''t as if I had suffered that big of a loss testing this with these Fanged Wolf corpses.


    Not to mention, it wasn''t as if I couldn''t find more Fanged Wolf corpses.


    The Fanged Wolves were the weakest monsters in this dungeon in the first ce, there were still elite monsters and bosses to look forward to. This was just the beginning of my dungeon run.


    After it had finished looting all of the Fanged Wolves, the Scavenger Rabbit came over to me and stuck its chest out as if it was saying, "Aren''t you proud of me? Don''t you see how much I''ve done? Can''t you see how great I am?"


    The Echo Bat on the other hand didn''t seem to like this, so it flew off my shoulder and flew right at the Scavenger Rabbit with one foot stuck out. It came in with a flying kick at the Scavenger Rabbit.


    However, the Scavenger Rabbit had learned its lesson and dodged out of the way in time.


    It was used to using its abilities now, especially its high agility, so it was used to dodging out of the way of the Echo Bat''s attack.


    But dodging out of the way just made the Echo Bat more angry.


    It didn''t help that the Scavenger Rabbit had turned around and pped its butt as if it was taunting the Echo Bat.


    The two of them seemed like they were about to fight even more, but I stepped in before that could happen to stop them.


    I didn''t care if they did this outside of the dungeon since it seemed like this was how they bonded, but this wasn''t the right time for that. We needed to not fight each other while we were in the dungeon since anything could happen at any time.


    It was just that before I could stop the two of them from fighting.


    "Ah! Save me!" There was a scream that came from the distance.


    This was the voice of a woman and it seemed like she was in some kind of trouble.


    It seemed that there was nock of sudden surprises in this dungeon.

 Chapter 30 Iris

    Yu Xiang''s eyes were wide open in shock as he fell forward.


    It was as if he couldn''t believe that he had died in the end.


    This was the same for all of the others as none of them had expected to be killed like this.


    All of them thought that this would be a simple job, but it turned out to be anything but that.@@novelbin@@


    After stabbing Yu Xiang in the back of the neck like this, I just pulled the dagger that I was holding back and calmly shook the blood off the dagger. Without even blinking an eye, I put the dagger back into the Storage Ring.


    I didn''t bother looking at Yu Xiang''s corpse as I turned to look at the girl who was sitting in the center of the clearing.


    She had her hands at her chest, almost as if she was guarding herself.


    The look on her face made it clear that she was afraid of me, or rather she was afraid of what I just did.


    I wouldn''t me her since I would be scared too in her situation.


    So with a simple nod to her, I turned around to leave.


    There was a dazed look that appeared on the girl''s face before she suddenly sat up and said, "Wait, don''t go."


    When she said this, I suddenly stopped and turned around to look at her again.


    The girl just looked at me in a dazed manner again, as if she didn''t know what to say. There was still a trace of fear that was on her face, but that was only normal since she didn''t know what this situation was.


    During this, I got a good look at the girl.


    She was a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, showing that she was a foreigner. However, she really was a beautiful girl with her long lush blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, and fair skin.


    If she was just standing out in public, one would imagine that she was a model.


    At the same time, when her hands came to her chest¡­it really entuated it and she wasn''t small at all.


    It waspletely different from my childhood friend, Long Tang Tang.


    After a moment of silence, I said, "Are you alright?"


    The girl was a bit surprised to hear me ask this, but then she slowly shook her head before saying, "My legs arepletely out of energy and I can''t stand up at all."


    I gave a simple nod before stepping forward slowly. While doing so, I said, "I''m going to approach you now, is that alright?"


    The girl looked at me silently for a bit before slowly giving a nod.


    When I came over, I reached my hand out for her to take.


    The girl hesitantly reached her hand out, but she took my hand in the end and I helped her stand up.


    At the same time, one of the Fanged Wolves came over since I gave them a signal. I helped her over to the Fanged Wolf and helped her get on the back of the Fanged Wolf before saying, "We need to leave this ce first."


    The girl slowly gave a nod again.


    With that, I got on the back of the other Fanged Wolf and we left this clearing that still had all the corpses in it behind.


    After traveling for a bit, I stopped by a cave that the Fanged Wolves found.


    This cave had a small creek and pond in front of it, so this was the perfect ce to rest.


    I helped the girl down from the Fanged Wolf and then over to the cave before getting some water for her from the pond.


    Only after she had some water and calmed down did she let out a sigh of relief.


    It was the kind of relief that one would have when they realized that they had just escaped death.


    Even though she let out this sigh, I didn''t say anything as I waited for her to recover.


    After a while, the girl finally calmed down again and she turned to look at me to ask, "Who are you?"


    I had expected this since that was certainly the first question that she would have in this situation.


    With a calm look on my face, I said, "Would you believe me if I said that I''m someone that was just passing by and heard that you were in danger?"


    The girl immediately knitted her brows as I expected, but I just looked back at her with a calm look on my face.


    After another silence, she raised a brow and asked, "Are you really not someone that my father sent to watch over me?"


    "Your father?" I asked in a confused voice.


    I didn''t know anything about this girl, so naturally I didn''t know anything about her father either. So even if she asked if I was sent by her father, it wasn''t as if there was anything that I could say to that.


    She looked even more surprised to hear this and then she narrowed her eyes to look at me as if she was scrutinizing me, but there was nothing that I had to hide from her since I was telling the truth.


    There was another long silence that hung in the air before she finally stopped looking at me like she was scrutinizing me. She lowered her head and said in what seemed to be a shy voice, "Thank you for saving me."


    I gave a simple nod in response.


    "What is your name?" She said while looking up slightly, as if she was feeling shy.


    "Lin Fan."


    I had no reason to hide my name from her since I had helped her. I didn''t think that she was the kind of person that would pay kindness with a dagger to the back.


    "Lin Fan." She seemed to repeat under her breath before suddenly saying, "My name is Iris, but you can call me Wei Wei, that''s my nickname."


    As she said this, there was a smile that appeared on her face that seemed like the sun was rising thatpletely caught me off guard.


    She was already beautiful when she didn''t have any expressions, but when she suddenly revealed a smile like this¡­

 Chapter 34 Kong Gorilla

    Once Iris was ready, I had the Fanged Wolves take us to the territory of one of the Elite Monsters that they found.


    I had some of the Fanged Wolves scout out the area while I was looting the corpses of Yu Xiang''s group, which is why I knew about this Elite Monster.


    It turned out that even though Iris hade into this dungeon looking for an Elite Monster, she didn''t have any information about this dungeon at all. It seemed that she had been relying on Yu Xiang''s group for everything, which was why she had hired them.


    Though in the end, all that resulted in was her being betrayed.


    While we were heading to the territory of the Elite Monster, I couldn''t help asking, "Do you know why they chose to betray you?"


    Iris didn''t say anything at first as if she was lost in thought, but she eventually shook her head and said, "There''s too many reasons why, so I can''t tell. I''ll have someone look into it when I get back."


    I didn''t ask anything else after this, but it did tell me something about her and her family.


    For there to be so many reasons, it seemed that her background really wasn''t shallow that there were so many culprits.


    I really couldn''t help wondering just who was behind her¡­


    But for now, there was something else to focus on.


    Once we reached the edge of the territory of the Elite Monster, the Fanged Wolves gave us a signal to show that we were getting close.


    After that, they suddenly started moving in a different pattern.


    They were moving with their bodies low as if they were stalking something.


    It was the order that I gave them before we arrived in this ce, I wanted them to sneak into the territory of the Elite Monster to see if we could take care of them in an ambush.


    As we snuck forward, I heard Iris say, "I''ve never seen this kind of precise control before. Just what kind of familiar is this?"


    A trace of bitterness filled me after hearing this.


    If I were to tell her the truth, I was sure that she would find it hard to believe.


    With the Fanged Wolves leading the way, we soon found a clearing that was in the middle of the forest. However, this time, it wasn''t an empty clearing. This time, it seemed like there was some kind of crude vige that was in this clearing.


    There were huts that were made of sticks and leaves that were in this clearing.


    And walking among these huts were some goris who were the ones that had created this vige.


    Naturally, these goris were monsters as well.


    These goris were known as Power Goris and they were E Rank Monsters just like the Fanged Wolves, but they wouldn''t gather like this for no reason. Even if goris had higher intelligence than normal monsters, they were still monsters that wouldn''t gather together for no reason.


    The only reason they gathered together was because there was a leader that brought them all together.


    That leader was the Elite Monster that we were looking for.


    That Elite Monster was known as the Kong Gori, a higher evolution of the Power Gori and a D Rank Monster.


    After approaching this vige of goris, we didn''t attack right away as we watched the vige from behind the brushes. We were looking for the Kong Gori since we didn''t want to waste our energy with the Power Goris.@@novelbin@@


    It was just that it didn''t seem like the Kong Gori was in the vige.


    After a while, Iris asked, "Are you sure that it''s here?"


    I said with a slow nod, "The Fanged Wolves followed the scent here, so they''re sure that it''s here. It''s just that it doesn''t seem to currently be in the camp¡­"


    No matter how we looked around, it didn''t seem like the Kong Gori was here.


    It seemed like the Power Goris were the only ones that were here.


    But that didn''t make sense since the Power Goris wouldn''t gather unless there was something holding them together. Just the fact that they were still in this vige meant that there should be a Kong Gori nearby leading them.


    Where was this Kong Gori.


    There was a part of me that was wondering if we should just leave, but I decided against it in the end.


    The Kong Gori had been chosen not because it was the closest, but also the easiest one to take down. If it wasn''t this Kong Gori, then it would be another Elite Monster that we would have to take down.


    And the other Elite Monsters were anything but easy to take down.


    So it was best if we could take down this Kong Gori.


    Only¡­where was it?


    "Snap."


    The moment that the sound of this branch snapping was heard, we immediately turned in the direction of the sound.


    It wasing from above us.


    "Ook." That was the only sound that we heard beforerge rocks started falling from above.


    We could see the one that was throwing it.


    It was a gori that was bigger than all of the other goris in the vige.


    This was clearly the Elite Monster, the Kong Gori.


    Only how did it get the jump on us when we were the ones that should have snuck up on it?


    The other question that was on my mind was¡­


    "Just how are you able to climb up there without making a sound when you''re so big in the first ce?"


    This was the bitterint that I wanted to make when I saw the Kong Gori.


    It really was just too big to be bncing on the branch like that.


    The Kong Gori seemed like a monster that used brute strength, but to also have this kind of agility just simply wasn''t fair.


    But it didn''t matter if I wanted toin about it since it was already attacking us.

 Chapter 37 Painful loss

    Iris snapped back to attention when she heard me calling to her.


    Though there was a look on her face that seemed like she had questions for me, she put aside those questions for now as she raised her sword and gathered the lightning from her familiar.


    It seemed like she was going to use a final attack.


    The Kong Gori was an intelligent Elite Monster, so naturally it was able to tell that Iris was charging up some kind of final attack.@@novelbin@@


    It knew that it had to get out of here before she finished charging that final attack or else it might be the end of it.


    The only problem was that Iris wasn''t the only threat to it.


    No matter how the Kong Gori tried pulling away, it found that it wasn''t able to break free of the grasp of the other human that was holding it in ce. It seemed that no matter how much strength it used, it just wasn''t enough.


    Just what was this human that had this kind of strength?


    The Kong Gori could tell that its death was near, which was why it became more desperate.


    The look in its eyes became even more feral and it seemed like the red to its fur was increasing in intensity. It seemed that it was bing more and more wild with the way that it was slowly changing.


    It seemed that the Kong Gori was about to burn all of its life essence in ast ditch effort to escape.


    But what it didn''t know was that this was what I had been waiting for.


    I had already tested it before on the King Slime, but there was a certain amount of resistance to the Echo Bat''s hypnosis the higher the grade of the monster. A Boss Monster would have a high resistance while an Elite Monster would have a small resistance to the hypnosis.


    Unless it was weakened, it wouldn''t fall for the effects.


    Now that the Kong Gori was willingly weakening its mind by using this final buff to increase its strength, that also meant that¡­


    The Kong Gori suddenly stopped moving as if it was frozen in ce.


    Its eyes trembled the moment that this happened, showing that this wasn''t something that the Kong Gori was in control of. It was something that had suddenly happened which hadpletely caught the Kong Gori off guard.


    In fact, the Kong Gori had a trace of fear in its eyes.


    It recognized that if it couldn''t move, the only thing that it could wait for was death.


    And naturally, it was afraid of death.


    The Kong Gori looked around even though it was frozen, as if it was trying to find the thing that was freezing it in ce. It was desperately searching for a way to break free of this restriction so that it could do anything.


    But there was more and more fear and despair that filled its eyes as it realized that there was nothing that it could do.


    No matter how hard it tried searching for the thing that froze it, it wasn''t able to find a single thing.


    It was as if this thing waspletely hidden in sight.


    "Get down!" Iris suddenly shouted when her sword was covered in electricity.


    She had finished charging her attack and it seemed like she was ready to release it.


    The moment that I heard this, I lowered my head and leaned in a bit, pulling the Kong Gori forward. This put it in the perfect position so that she would be able to cut off its head in a single sh.


    "Thunderp sh!" Iris shouted as she swung her sword out, creating a beam of light.


    Though it looked like a beam of light, it wasn''t actually that.


    It was a sword sh that consisted of pure electricity that flew out when she shed out in front of her.


    The Kong Gori only had a look of despair in its eyes as it realized that there was nothing left for it to do.


    The only thing that it could do was ept its fate, ept its death.


    But how could it be willing to ept something like that?


    Thest thing that the Kong Gori saw wasn''t the sh that cut off its head, but rather a smile.


    When the Kong Gori looked down at the human who was restraining it, it found that there was a smile on the face of that human.


    "It was you!" The Kong Gori shouted as itsst words, it was just that the only thing that it actually said was¡­


    "Ook!"


    Naturally the humans weren''t able to understand this, so Iris had no idea what the Kong Gori was talking about.


    The Kong Gori''s head was taken off by this electric sh from Iris and flipped twice in the air beforending on the ground. This head rolled a bit beforeing to a stop.


    The eyes of the Kong Gori were wide open like it couldn''t ept the situation that it had fallen in.


    But there was nothing that the Kong Gori could do.


    After the head flew off, I let go of the Kong Gori''s hand and released the hypnosis, causing the Kong Gori''s body to fall to the ground with arge thud.


    This was the corpse of an Elite Monster, so there was no doubt that there would be great loot to get from this corpse. The only thing was that I wasn''t able to obtain this loot.


    When I made that deal with Iris, I had promised that I would give her the corpse as a trophy to show her parents.


    So I could only watch with regret as the dungeon''s loot system turned the corpse of the Kong Gori into drop, which was the corpse of the Kong Gori since that was what this dungeon dropped.


    My heart couldn''t help twisting from the suffering that came from this painful loss.


    If only I had been able to have the Scavenger Rabbit use its ability on the Kong Gori¡­

 Chapter 40 Vine Serpent (1)

    "What is it?" I asked in a soft voice.


    The Echo Bat leaned in and used one of its wings to cover its other hand. Once hidden, that other hand pointed in a direction behind us.


    I didn''t look, but I gave a silent order to the Fanged Wolves to see if they could find anything while pretending to move forward.


    But in the end, they weren''t able to find a single thing.


    Even with their refined senses, they weren''t able to find a single trace of the thing that was stalking us.


    It seemed that whatever it was that was following us was quite skilled at hiding themselves.


    "Is there really no way of getting them to show themselves?" I couldn''t help saying to myself in a frustrated voice.


    I had alreadyid the trap, but it didn''t seem like they were nning to bite it at all. It seemed that whatever was stalking us was quite cautious that it didn''t want to make a move unless it was certain that it would be able to win.


    This was the kind of enemy that was the hardest to deal with since it was hard to bring them out of hiding.


    It didn''t seem like we would be able to lure them out with the way that things were going¡­


    That was when I made a decision.


    This was the kind of enemy that wouldn''te out unless they were certain of their chances of victory, so I would give them that. If they were patient, then I would make it seem like they had won.


    After all, those that thought that they won would always let their guards down at thest second.


    That was the opening that I was looking for.


    "Find some traps." I said to the Fanged Wolves.


    It seemed like there was a bit of hesitation from the Fanged Wolves when they heard this, but they still followed my orders in the end. It wasn''t strange that they were hesitant since it didn''t seem like a sane thing to do.


    But this was my determination.


    Since this was the territory of the Elite Monster, it wasn''t as if it waspletely empty.


    Unlike the Kong Gori that gathered other monsters together to live as a group, this Elite Monster was one that lived alone.


    So there wasn''t much in this territory, but there were still some things that it set up to keep itself safe.


    Such as traps for those that made their way into its territory.


    This was a cunning type of monster, so it was only natural that there would be traps.


    Once the Fanged Wolves found the trap, I got off the Fanged Wolf that I was sitting on and walked towards the trap.


    This didn''t seem suspicious at all because the trap was actually in the middle of a clearing. This was the perfect ce for a rest, so those that didn''t know about it would approach it thinking that it was safe.


    It was an apple tree that was right in the middle of this clearing that seemed oh so inviting.


    After walking over, I could already see what the trap that had been prepared was.


    There were snakes that were hiding among the branches of the apple tree that would attack whoever approached the moment that they reached out for the apples. The apples were enticing since they were special apples that were filled with mana, which made them taste even better than normal apples.


    At the same time, since they were filled with mana, they were elixirs that could make one stronger.


    So I reached up for an apple without any hesitation.


    As soon as I did, the snakes that were hiding in the branches suddenly came out of hiding and snapped their open jaws at me. They bit right into my arm and seemed to poison me before fleeing back into the tree.


    After being bitten by the snake, I stumbled a bit and ced one hand on the tree to lean against it to stabilize myself.


    The snake was a poisonous snake, so this was the natural reaction that came from being bitten.


    But I pushed through it and waved my hand at the Fanged Wolves toe over. I stumbled over to the Fanged Wolves and tried to get on their backs so they could carry me away.@@novelbin@@


    In the middle of this, there was something else that suddenly appeared.


    It was another snake, but this was a snake that was much bigger than the other snakes that had appeared from the branches of the tree earlier. This was arge python that seemed to blend in with the leaves around it, but it was visible now because it opened its mouth to sink its teeth into me.


    Only right before it was able to snap its jaws together to bite into me, therge python suddenly trembled and froze for a second.


    That second was all that I needed.


    I stopped pretending that I was dizzy and shed out at the python with the dagger in my hand.


    The python wasn''t able to pull away since it had been temporarily frozen, but it was still able to shift itself a bit so it didn''t get cut too deeply by the dagger. It still bled a bit from being sliced in the underbelly.


    This python immediately pulled away, but it was already toote.


    The damage had already been done.


    After the python realized that it had failed, it started moving back to the leaves as if it wanted to blend back into the leaves of the apple tree. It was just that it wasn''t able to do so as it was attacked from two different directions.


    One was the Fanged Wolves who were now able to locate the python based on the scent from the blood flowing from the wound that I inflicted on it.


    The other was from the snakes that had been hiding in the tree previously that had bitten me.


    They came out of hiding and wrapped around the python to prevent it from running away.

 Chapter 44 Cicada, mantis, oriole (2)

    The way that this personmanded the different monsters, it wasn''t something that Tie Gang had ever seen before.


    It wasn''t even something that Tie Gang had heard of before and Tie Gang was someone with quite a bit of experience.


    He had done quite a few things in his time as the leader of this group.


    He had also done quite a few things before his time as the leader of this group.


    He could be considered quite the veteran in matters regarding familiars.


    But even then, Tie Gang had never seen or heard of something like this before.


    He really couldn''t stop the bad feeling from filling him.


    There was a part of him that strongly told him to stop this now and avoid this person¡­but it was already toote for that. His people were already in position and it didn''t seem like they would listen to him if he told them to retreat.


    Tie Gang didn''t even need to think about it to know that it was because of Xiang Chun.


    So in the end, he had no choice but to go through with this matter.


    But that was on his own terms.


    When he came back to his senses, Tie Gang said to the others, "No one makes a move until I give an order." In a colder and more serious voice, he added, "I''m serious about this. We''ll all die if you make a move before I tell you to."


    The others were shocked to hear this, but they slowly nodded in agreement.


    After all, it was rare for them to see Tie Gang act like this.


    He was not someone that would act this way unless it was absolutely necessary.


    So they knew that it wasn''t the time to act up.


    Tie Gang was the leader that had led them through many dangerous situations, so there was a level of trust that he had built up with his subordinates.


    After giving this order, Tie Gang focused his mind and paid attention to every move that Lin Fan was making.


    The way that he was watching him was as if he was trying to find every little thing that he could about Lin Fan.


    But Lin Fan didn''t seem to notice that he was being watched.


    It seemed that Lin Fan waspletely focused on fighting the Boss Monster.


    The Boss Monster of this dungeon was a deer monster called the Thunder Deer.


    During this time, the Thunder Deer had only been using physical attacks against the monsters that Lin Fan controlled to attack it. It didn''t seem to do anything that lived up to its name as a Thunder Deer.@@novelbin@@


    Because it only used physical attacks, Lin Fan was able to wear it down with the monsters that he controlled to the point where it was covered in wounds.


    It seemed like it was very injured by the time that its horns suddenly lit up.


    There was electricity that ran through the horns of the Thunder Deer all of a sudden.


    It was as if this Boss Monster had reached its second phase.


    Once the electricity filled the horns of the Thunder Deer, it lived up to its name as the Thunder Deer. There was a moment where it gathered the power inside of its horns before it suddenly released that power, shooting it at the monsters that were around it.


    Different from the physical attacks that it used, since this was an attack that used mana, it couldn''t be frozen like before. The lightning that the Thunder Deer released suddenly streaked out and hit three of the monsters that were around it.


    It would have hit more if not for the fast reactions of the monsters that allowed them to dodge out of the way in time.


    But the three that were hit were pierced by the bolts of lightning and fell to the ground while still smoking.


    That was more than enough to show the power of these bolts of lightning that the Thunder Deer shot out.


    The Thunder Deer seemed to recover some of its power when it killed these three monsters.


    It gathered even more of its electricity and it started shooting the bolts of lightning out indiscriminately. It was as if the Thunder Deer just wanted to take out as many enemies as possible at this point.


    There were several more monsters that were hit by these bolts of lightning and were turned into smoking corpses, but that didn''t stop the others from attacking the Thunder Deer.


    It was as if the monsters felt no fear from the might of the Thunder Deer''s lightning bolts.


    This just didn''t make any sense for the Thunder Deer who lived in a world where power meant everything.


    Those that were weaker should have naturally feared it and wouldn''t have dared to attack it like this.


    So it just couldn''t understand why they were grouping up against it.


    But during this, Lin Fan suddenly showed signs of exhaustion.


    It was a sudden change, but it seemed like he was running out of energy.


    The moment that Tie Gang saw this, his expression changed.


    It was as if he saw his opportunity.


    But he didn''t push forward right away, he just continued watching Lin Fan fight.


    After seeing Lin Fan bing more and more exhausted, he finally gave the order to his men.


    "Move forward and surround him. I want him dead first before we take down the Boss Monster." Tie Gang said in a serious voice.


    His subordinates were surprised by this since normally their n was to split in half to take down the target and the Boss Monster at the same time. But now it seemed like their boss was going against his own rules to attack the target first.


    While they were confused by this, they didn''tin since they knew that this wasn''t the time for that.


    But as they approached, Tie Gang couldn''t help feeling the bad feeling fill him again.


    "Just what is this feeling?"

 Chapter 47 Lot of loot

    After Tie Gang was killed, there was nothing else that his men could do.


    Tie Gang was the strongest among them and even he couldn''t do anything against the Thunder Deer. Or it was better to say that he couldn''t do anything against the person that was attacking them from the dark.


    That meant that none of them would be able to do anything against that person.


    At the same time, they knew that they couldn''t run away from this ce since they had seen what happened to those that had tried running away.@@novelbin@@


    The conclusion that they came to was trying to kill the Thunder Deer before anything else happened.


    What they were aiming for was to take down the Thunder Deer and hopefully find loot that would help them out of this situation.


    The Thunder Deer was already weakened, so it would fall from one good blow.


    Only before any of them couldnd that final fatal blow¡­


    "Damn! Why am I frozen!"


    That was thest thing that they thought to themselves as they tried to attack the Thunder Deer.


    Then they were hit with a bolt of lightning right through the chest and they were unable to block this as they were turned into charred corpses.


    Once the rest of Tie Gang''s group was taken care of, the Thunder Deer looked like it was relieved. It thought that it had finally driven off all those people that had invaded its territory and that it would be able to recover from its wounds.


    It was just too bad that it didn''t notice a certain someone taking something out of his inventory.


    I had been watching all of this from afar, hiding in one of the trees.


    I made sure that I wasn''t far enough that the Echo Bat''s hypnosis wouldn''t reach them, but I also made sure that no one was able to see me.


    Now that Tie Gang''s group had been taken care of, the only thing left was taking down this Thunder Deer.


    It was possible for me to take down this Thunder Deer with the monsters that I still had control over, but it would take a while.


    After thergemotion that had been made by Tie Gang''s group, I wanted to end this as soon as possible so that no one would be able to show up and take advantage of anything.


    So that was why I pulled out this special item.


    This was one of the three items that the Scavenger Rabbit had gotten from the Vine Serpent.


    I didn''t want to use it because this was an item that was a one time use item, but it was a powerful one since it was a one time use item.


    Vine Thorn.


    One Time Use Item.


    A powerful thorn created from the fangs of the Vine Serpent. Has a powerful piercing effect, but can only be used once since it will shatter from its own power after being used.


    I had gotten four of these, one for each of the fangs of the Vine Serpent.


    Each one used would mean one less item in the future, but sometimes it was better to use things rather than hoarding them. I was the kind of person that used consumables in video games when it was necessary instead of saving them for the final boss.


    After all, if you saved them until the end, you might not get a chance to use it.


    Especially if you lose your life before you can use it.


    Taking one of the Vine Thorns in my hand, I made sure that the Thunder Deer stopped moving before taking aim.


    Since this had a powerful piercing effect, there was only one target for me.


    It was the Thunder Deer''s neck.


    I wanted to pierce right through its neck and separate it from the rest of its body in one single attack.


    The Thunder Deer stopped moving to catch its breath and that was the moment that I made my move.


    I raised the Vine Thorn over my head carefully before taking a deep breath.


    Then letting that breath out, I used all of the power that I had to throw the Vine Thorn at the Thunder Deer.


    My training in the past with different weapons paid off as my throw was perfect. It was aimed right at the Thunder Deer''s neck, about to hit it from the side.


    The Thunder Deer had sharp senses since it was a Boss Monster and quickly turned in the direction of the Vine Thorn.


    When it did, it immediately recognized the danger and did the same thing as before where it gathered electricity in its horns to shoot out a bolt of lightning. Only when the bolt of lightning hit the Vine Thorn, it was ripped apart like it was nothing but paper.


    The bolt of lightning just couldn''t stand up to the piercing power of the Vine Thorn.


    The Thunder Deer was shocked, but it was already toote for it to shoot another bolt of lightning. So the only thing that the Thunder Deer could do was try to dodge out of the way.


    Only, how could I let that happen?


    Since it was weakened from all the fighting, the hypnosis of the Echo Bat had a greater effect on the Thunder Deer. The Thunder Deer was frozen in ce and could only watch as the Vine Thorn pierced its neck.


    There was no resistance at all and the Thunder Deer didn''t feel any pain as its neck was ripped apart.


    The Thunder Deer''s eyes were still wide open in shock when its head fell to the ground.


    The rest of its body dropped a few secondster and blood poured out from its neck, where its head had been previously.


    I was a bit surprised since I didn''t expect this kind of power, but I also gave a satisfied nod in the end.


    It really was worth it to use the Vine Thorn.


    Jumping out of the tree, I looked around the area with an excited look.


    There was a lot of loot for me to pick up.

 Chapter 49 To kill or not to kill

    With the speed of the Fanged Wolves, it didn''t take any time at all for me to reach the safe zone that Iris had mentioned.


    Only I didn''t bring the Fanged Wolves with me into the safe zone.


    This safe zone was a ce that had other people as well, so I didn''t want them to know about my abilities.


    It was just that to my surprise, she had brought her Fanged Wolf here as well.


    It created a pressure on the others that they didn''t dare approach her.


    The moment that I walked into the safe zone, Iris'' eyes immediately turned in my direction and she started running over.


    This attracted the attention of the other people resting in the safe zone.


    A beautiful woman would always be the center of attention after all.


    But there was a bitter smile on my face since I didn''t want to draw this attention.


    It was just that there was nothing that I could do.


    After running over, she jumped at me with all her force, so I had no choice but to catch her in my arms. As I caught her in my arms, I could feel the soft feelinging from in front of me that made a blush appear on my face again.


    Only it didn''t seem like Iris cared about this as she pressed herself up against me and softly said, "You''re back."


    With a small nod, I said, "I''m back like I said."


    There was a moment of silence that lingered in the air before she slowly looked up at me with a smile and gave a nod.


    That just made things even more awkward for me.


    At the same time, the situation was made even worse by everyone looking in our direction.


    The way that they looked at me¡­


    It wasn''t hard to guess what they were thinking as I held Iris in my arms.


    After she came back to her senses, Iris realized her mistake and she moved out of my arms with a blush on her cheeks.


    A trace of bitterness filled me seeing her like this as I wanted toin.


    "Do you really have to add more fuel into the fire like this?"


    After all, I could see the way that the others were looking over at us.


    It really made us the center of attention in this safe zone.


    With a cough, I said, "Shall we leave the dungeon then?"


    Iris quickly gave a nod as if she found a way to relieve the awkwardness of the situation before giving a whistle.


    The Fanged Wolf that I left her came over to her side and went down to let her get on its back. It seemed that during the time that I hadn''t been with her, she had gotten even closer to the Fanged Wolf.


    It really made me wonder what would happen once we left the dungeon.


    After all, it was impossible to take the Fanged Wolf out with us.


    After getting on the back of the Fanged Wolf, she looked at me with a surprised look and asked, "Where''s your Fanged Wolf?"


    With an awkward smile, I said, "It wouldn''t be good for me to bring it into the safe zone with me, so it''s waiting outside for me."


    Iris thought about it and thought that what I said made sense, so she gave a simple nod in response.


    But then she did something that sent a chill down my spine.


    "Get on. Let''s go together." She reached her hand out towards me as if she wanted to pull me onto her Fanged Wolf.


    I could feel the various envious res that were piercing into my back, but I forced myself to remain calm as I said, "I''m fine, I''ll just walk."


    She looked like she had something to say, but she held herself back in the end as she simply said, "Alright." Though based on the look that was on Iris'' face, it seemed like she was disappointed.


    The two of us quickly left the safe zone after that.


    I had my guard up as we left since there was no telling if anyone would try something, but it seemed that the Fanged Wolf was enough to scare them off.


    The people that were in this safe zone were people that only explored the outer areas of the dungeon in the first ce. They were people that weren''t strong enough to fight against the Elite Monster, let alone the Boss Monster.


    So it wasn''t as if they would take the risk of fighting someone that could control a Fanged Wolf.


    After leaving the safe zone, the rest of the monsters appeared.


    There was a surprised look that appeared on Iris'' face when she saw all of the monsters that were under mymand. She slowly turned to look at me with this surprised look, but I didn''t say anything as I just looked at them.


    This was when I had toe to a decision.


    It was whether to kill them or not to kill them.


    These monsters that I had tamed were still monsters of the dungeon, so they couldn''t be taken out with us.


    But since they were also monsters of the dungeon, that meant that there was loot that they would drop if I were to kill them.


    It was just that with everything that we had gone through, it felt a bit wrong to kill them¡­


    In the end, the deciding factor was Iris.


    She suddenly came forward to pet the Fanged Wolf that she bonded with on the head and said, "It''s time for you to go home."@@novelbin@@


    It was clear that she knew exactly what I was thinking, which was why she was letting the Fanged Wolf go before I did anything.


    But this also helped me remember something.


    Those that harmed me, I would take revenge against tenfold.


    But those that helped me¡­


    It would be wrong to pay kindness with violence.


    At least I didn''t want to be that kind of person.


    "Go on, go back to your homes." I said with a wave of my hand, releasing the previous hypnosis on them.


    Iris looked at me with a smile before turning to wave at the monsters that were leaving.


    As I watched them leave, I gave a small nod.


    I came to the decision that no matter what happened, I shouldn''t lose my true self.


    I shouldn''t do anything that I would be ashamed of.


    That''s what it meant to wield this power.

 Chapter 52 World Summoner

    Once one went far enough into the Ifrit District, the entire surrounding area changed.


    Unlike the rest of the Ifrit District, this ce was where the truly powerful and rich lived. This was a ce that had more buildings than it did have people living here.


    That was why it had be much less crowded once we arrived in this part of the Ifrit District.


    But the buildings all around us became even more luxurious.


    It reached the point where I even started doubting whether they were pieces of art rather than buildings.


    After driving for a bit longer, the cars finally stopped in front of one of the residences. Though to call it a residence was a bit of a stretch with how big and wide it really was.


    It was a bunch of buildings together, each other which could have been called a mansion.


    That was more than enough to show just how rich and powerful Iris'' family was.


    She didn''t seem surprised at all, rather it seemed like she was happy to be home and happy to see me like this. So Iris just casually opened the door and grabbed my hand before saying, "Come, let''s go and see my parents."


    A trace of bitterness appeared on my face when I heard this.


    I wanted some time to prepare my heart, but she really wasn''t given me that chance at all.


    But it didn''t seem like she wanted to give me that chance at all.


    At the same time, it didn''t seem like the bodyguards were nning on stopping her at all. Though they did re at the fact that Iris was pulling me along by my hand, as if they weren''t happy to see this.


    With Iris leading the way, we quickly arrived in the hall of the main building.


    After bursting in through the door, she said without any hesitation, "Dad, mom, where are you?"


    "We''re in the living room." A voice came from the living room.


    Iris didn''t seem to react to these words since she was used to hearing them, but the moment that I heard them¡­


    It was as if I was being hit by some kind of wall with the power that came from those words.


    They were much stronger than normal words, just words alone were enough to put pressure on me.


    That was more than enough to show me how powerful the person inside of the room was.


    It made me anxious to go in, but it didn''t seem like Iris was the same.


    Since she wasn''t affected at all, there was no hesitation in her movements as she pulled me into the living room. I didn''t resist since I was still dazed by the pressure of these words, so I was just dragged along with a hint of bitterness on my face.


    When we came into the living room, I saw two people sitting on the couch.


    These two were clearly Iris'' mother and father, but I was more stunned by who the two of them were rather than their appearances.


    That was because they were people that were considered famous, so one look was already enough for me to tell who they were.


    These two were World Summoners, that was why they were famous.


    As for what World Summoners were¡­


    The Summoner Association ranked summoners between S and F Ranked based on the amount of power that their familiars could demonstrate, but that wasn''t the limit of the rankings.


    There was a rank that was above S Rank that was only reserved for a select few.


    World Summoner.


    Those that were given the title of World Summoner were known as the strongest in the world and those that protected the world itself, which was why they were given the title of World Summoner.


    Now there were two of them in front of me.


    The Overlord of mes and the Queen of Ice.@@novelbin@@


    That was the title of these two.


    But their real names were Huo Fan Tian and Alexandra Petrov.


    It seemed that Iris got her appearance from her foreign mother rather than her father, but there were a few traces of her father in her appearance.


    As I stood there stunned by these two, Iris let go of my hand and went forward to where the two of them were sitting. Without any hesitation, she jumped onto the couch with them and went to hug her mother, the Queen of Ice.


    A smile cracked on the cold face of the Queen of Ice, the one that was said to never smile.


    It seemed that nothing could stop a mother''s love.


    The three of them seemed to be talking about something, but I really couldn''t hear anything since I was just too shocked by what was happening in front of me.


    Only it didn''t seem like I was allowed to remain silent as they turned their attention to me.


    I didn''t know why they were turning their attention to me, but they all looked at me at the same time which snapped me out of my daze.


    "So you''re the one that saved my daughter?"


    I waspletely caught off guard by this that I couldn''t help slowly giving a nod in a dazed manner.


    But before the Overlord of mes could say anything else, Iris cut him off by saying, "Dad, what did I say about being nice?"


    One might never think that someone would dare talk to the Overlord of mes like this, but it was different for Iris.


    She was his daughter, so she dared to talk to him like this.


    At the same time, since she was his beloved daughter, the Overlord of mes didn''t dare go against her words.


    With an awkward smile, Huo Fan Tian said, "Honey, I know, I''m just asking him a simple question. I''m not being mean at all."


    Iris red at her dad as if she didn''t trust him before moving away from her parents and walking over to stand by my side.


    That created a very awkward silence that filled the air.

 Chapter 56 Become an Explorer

    Iris was caught off guard by her mother''s sudden words, but then she asked in a hesitant voice, "What is it?"


    "Be an Explorer." Alexandra said with a faint smile.


    Iris was even more confused when she heard this, but she wasn''t the one that responded.


    Rather, it was Huo Fan Tian who suddenly stood up and said, "No! How could we let our daughter be an Explor¡­"


    Before he could finish though, he was hit in the head by an icicle.


    The icicle didn''t do any damage to him as it started melting the moment that the tip of the icicle made contact with Huo Fan Tian''s head, but there was momentum to make him sit back down.


    At the same time, Huo Fan Tian didn''t fight back since he knew who it was that had hit him in the head with an icicle.


    It was Alexandra who had one finger raised and pointed at him.


    A bitter smile appeared on Huo Fan Tian''s face as he sat back down, but then he still revealed a look like he waspletely opposed to this.


    Iris didn''t seem to care about how her father felt about this matter, she just asked her mother, "Mom, what do you mean by bing an Explorer?"


    Alexandra calmly exined, "You know that you''ll be heading to the Sacred Academy when the new semester starts, but you won''t be spending all your time in the Sacred Academy since it''s a ce that encourages free development. That''s why I want you to be an Explorer in your free time."


    Iris still seemed confused as she asked, "Aren''t there better things to do with that free time than bing an Explorer?"


    "He''s an Explorer as well." Alexandra said with a sly smile.


    Iris was once again caught off guard, but then she quickly picked up the phone and took a close look at the information on Lin Fan.


    When she read that he just became an Explorer today, she couldn''t help being surprised.


    But she quickly understood what her mother meant by this and said, "Then I''ll just be an Explorer full time. That way, I can join him in the dungeons whenever I want and we''ll be able to get closer."


    "No!" Huo Fan Tian broke his silence to chime in, but all that happened was that he was met with another icicle.


    However, it seemed that Alexandra also disagreed with this as she said, "No, you have to still go to school properly. It''s the Sacred Academy, so it''s not as if you can just quit whenever you want, it''ll have an effect on your future if you were to drop out."@@novelbin@@


    "But I just want to go with him." Iris said with pouted lips.


    "Ha." Alexandra gave a long sigh before saying, "It seems that once you have love, you really don''t need to care about anything else. Even your parents are forgotten by you."


    Iris'' face immediately turned red, but she still came over to Alexandra''s side and grabbed her arm before saying, "Mom, it''s not like that at all."


    Though she said this, it also seemed like there was a small part of her that agreed with what Alexandra said and she was a bit resistant to denying it.


    Alexandra patted Iris on the head before saying, "Alright, I know." Then in a more serious voice, she said, "But you really shouldn''te on too strong. You should know thating on too strong might drive him away."


    Iris was a bit surprised, but she slowly nodded in agreement.


    Alexandra patted her on the head again before saying, "Don''t worry, you''ll be able to see him plenty as long as you be an Explorer. I''m sure that you''ll be able to move him with your efforts."


    "Really?" Iris'' eyes lit up when she asked this.


    Alexandra said with a nod, "Of course, there''s no one that won''t love my lovely daughter."


    But then she slightly knitted her brows as she said, "But you should remember how he reacted when I tried to give him that admission notice for the Sacred Academy. It seems that he has some kind of attachment to that ce, so he''ll most likely head there in the future."


    Iris'' eyes lit up even more when she heard this as she started daydreaming, "We''ll be able to walk around campus together and then work together when we dive into dungeons."


    Alexandra shook her head seeing her daughter like this before snapping her fingers in front of Iris'' face to draw her attention back to say, "But it also seems like there''s something personal for him at the Sacred Academy. From the reports that I received, it seemed that he was quite close to a girl that enrolled there for the new semester. I think you might have somepetition."


    Iris'' expression immediately fell when she heard this, while it seemed like Huo Fan Tian was filled with joy.


    Alexandra shook her head once more before saying with a faint smile, "Are you the type that gives up that easily?"


    Iris'' expression slowly returned to normal before a determined look appeared on her face. With a strong shake of the head, she said, "Of course not. I won''t back down now just because of a bit of a setback."


    Alexandra patted her head again with the same smile as she said, "As expected of my daughter."


    But that didn''tst as her expression became serious again, "But you''ll have to do this when the new semester starts. For now, there''s something else that we have to do first, even if you don''t want to do it."


    "We''re going back there?" Iris slowly asked this question.


    Alexandra said with a nod, "We have to go back there at least once since they are family."


    "But all they''ll do is try to set up an engagement for me." Iris immediatelyined.


    Alexandra said with another nod, "Even if they do, we won''t agree to it. But they are still your father''s family."


    Iris turned to re at Huo Fan Tian who looked even more awkward, but in the end she said, "Alright, I''ll go back with you."

 Chapter 59 A bit of business

    "Boss Qian, do you have a moment?" My father called out to someone that was standing around with a clipboard in hand.


    When that person heard him, he turned around with a smile and said, "Brother Lin, why are you being so serious? Is there a need for you to talk to me that way?"


    My father revealed a smile as well before saying, "My son is here with me today, so I thought that I should address you properly."


    "Come now, there''s no need for that."


    After Boss Qian said this, he turned to look at me to say, "Nephew, since you''re Brother Lin''s son, then you''re family. There''s no need for you to address me that seriously, you can just call me uncle."


    "Actually, Boss Qian, my son wanted to talk to you about some business." My father said in a more serious voice.


    Boss Qian was surprised to hear this, but then he said in the same casual voice, "Alright, tell me what you need."


    The way that he said this was as if he could already guess what I wanted to say.


    Though I could also tell that his thoughts weren''t correct.


    After all, he was looking at me with a trace of pity as if he thought that I was worthy of this pity.


    With a cough to calm myself, I said, "Boss Qian, I have some monster corpses that I need dismantled. I was hoping that your workshop would be able to help me with this problem."


    Boss Qian was surprised to hear this, but then he said with a smile, "Of course, that''s the business that we''re in. As long as you don''t mind us taking a fee, we''ll be happy to dismantle the monster corpses for you."


    With a wave of his hand, Boss Qian said, "Come with me. I''ll take you to a ce where you can show us the product."


    I followed him with a simple nod.


    Boss Qian brought us over to a room that had somerge tables on them before saying, "You can just drop them on here and let us take a look at them."


    This was a room that was filled with tools as well, so it was a ce that was used for dismantling monsters.


    Only it was surprising to me that he would bring me to a ce like this.


    After all, I was someone who didn''t have any fame at all, so he didn''t know what kind of monster corpses I would even be bringing.


    I might even be wasting his time if I brought trash corpses.


    But I could tell that he only did this because of his respect for my father, which rolled over to me.


    In that case, I should show something that was worthy of this respect.


    I walked over to the table and with a wave of my hand, I brought out arge wolf corpse.


    The moment that this wolf corpse appeared, both Boss Qian and my father were caught off guard. They had never expected me to take out arge wolf corpse like this, especially one that was in this condition.


    Since they worked in a dismantlingpany, they naturally knew what this wolf corpse was.


    "Fanged Wolf!" Boss Qian said in a surprised voice.


    During this, my father slowly turned to me with a strange look.


    This dismantlingpany that they worked for was one that only took care of dismantling for lower grade monster corpses. The higher grade monster corpses were sent to a specialized dismantler that would take care of it.


    The highest grade corpse that they usually dealt with were D Rank Monster Corpses.@@novelbin@@


    So for me to take out an E Rank Monster Corpse like this was certainly surprising.


    They didn''t expect me to take out something like this.


    After giving them a moment toe back to their senses, I said with a cough, "Boss Qian, will you be able to take care of this Fanged Wolf corpse for me?"


    Boss Qian turned back to look at me with a surprised look before revealing a wide smile to say, "Of course, of course, it''s not a problem at all. For argepany like ours, we can naturally take care of this. We can even help you sell off the parts that we get from the corpse for a small fee."


    I just gave a simple nod before saying, "Alright, I''ll trust you to take care of this matter for me. Only¡­"


    I walked over to the other dismantling tables and said, "It''s not just one corpse that I need you to dismantle for me."


    With a wave of my hand, there were several other Fanged Wolf corpses that appeared.


    "I hope that you''ll be able to take care of all of these for me."


    Boss Qian''s eyes lit up when he saw this.


    Fanged Wolf corpses weren''t that rare, but they weren''t thatmon either.


    If he were able to process these, then there was no doubt that he would be able to get a goodmission for himself.


    But what Boss Qian cared about the most was¡­the young man that took out these Fanged Wolf corpses.


    What was more important was if he could sign a contract with this young man that could provide this kind of high quality Fanged Wolf corpse. If he could, then he could ensure that there would be a steady supply of these monster corpses in the future.


    With a firm nod, Boss Qian said, "No problem at all. We can handle all of this for you. I''ll even lower the fee since you''re bringing in bulk business for us."


    I gave a grateful nod before saying, "Thank you Uncle Qian."


    Boss Qian''s eyes lit up again as he patted me on the shoulder to say, "Nephew, there''s no need to thank me. We''re all family here."


    I could see that he was hesitating about something, so I brought it up for him, "In the future, if I need someone to help me dismantle monster corpses, can I bring them here?"

 Chapter 61 Underwater dungeon

    Once the matter at the dismantlingpany was settled, there was nothing stopping me from heading back to the Explorer Association to find a new dungeon.


    Right now, the most important thing was diving into the dungeons and getting more loot.


    The more monsters that I took down, the more loot I would get.


    The more loot that I got, the stronger I would be.


    So I was actually quite excited about diving into another dungeon.


    But of course, the most important thing was finding a dungeon that was suitable for me.


    Or that would have been the case if it wasn''t for¡­


    "You''re back, I was waiting for you."


    When I arrived at the Explorer Association, I didn''t even need to go look for her. An Xue Yun was already waiting for me at the receptionist desk, looking like she was already tired of waiting for me.


    I didn''t know why she was already here or how she knew that I wasing, but I had no choice since she already called out to me. She was even waving her hand at me toe over to her.


    I doubt any of the other receptionists would see me if I were to ignore her since they all pretended like they didn''t see what was happening with An Xue Yun.


    So the only thing that I could do was walk over to the desk that An Xue Yun was behind.


    "How did you know that I wasing?" That was the first thing that I said when I came over.


    "The Explorer Association has more power than you think." An Xue Yun casually said before putting a piece of paper on the table and saying, "This is the next dungeon that I''ve chosen for you."


    I looked down and saw that thismission was for a D Rank Dungeon.


    This was an underwater dungeon known as the Fishmen Hole.


    Just based on that, it wasn''t hard to guess what kind of ce this was.


    However, I didn''t understand why she wanted me to go to this ce.


    As if An Xue Yun could see through the look on my face, she said, "You''ve only been to dungeons onnd, so you''ve only seen what dungeons onnd can be like. But if you want to be stronger, you have to adapt to all kinds of terrain. There''s no telling what you''ll face in the future, so it''s best if you start getting used to these terrains early."


    I couldn''t deny what she was saying, but it still felt like it was too early for this.


    After all, I didn''t even have a single artifact or skill that was rted to going underwater. If I were to go right now, there was no doubt that it would be hard for me.


    So I didn''t feel like going into an underwater dungeon was the right move for me.


    Once again, as if she could see through the look on my face, An Xue Yun said, "This is a special dungeon that I picked out for you. This is the perfect dungeon for the current you right now. As long as you go through this dungeon, I guarantee that you''ll be much stronger than before."


    The way that she said this was as if she was certain of this, but I couldn''t help showing my doubt.


    Only she was the only one that had believed in me and had done all those things for me¡­


    If I were to reject her now, it would certainly be bad for our rtionship.


    Having a personal receptionist definitely wasn''t a bad thing, so I didn''t want to ruin our rtionship.@@novelbin@@


    So I said, "Alright, register me for that dungeon."


    "Good choice." An Xue Yun said with a smile before taking back the piece of paper to help me register for the dungeon.


    While she was doing this, I couldn''t help asking, "Do you have anything that I can use to help me breathe underwater? I don''t have anything right now, so I hope that you can give me some kind of gear."


    "You don''t need it." An Xue Yun calmly said without even looking up from herputer.


    I looked at her with one raised brow, but it didn''t seem like she noticed me with the way that she continued putting information into theputer.


    After a while, she turned back to put something on the table. I recognized this as the pass for the registered mission, so I reached out to take it.


    But before I could, she pped another piece of paper down in front of me.


    I looked at it and saw that it was a booking for a private driver.


    When I saw this, I looked up at her with one brow raised.


    An Xue Yun just said with a smile, "It''s one of the perks of having a personal receptionist. We can call these to take you to the dungeons that you have chosen, it''s all paid for by the Explorer Association."


    I couldn''t help revealing a look of appreciation when I heard this.


    It seemed that I had made the right choice going along with An Xue Yun.


    Even though this perk didn''t seem that big, I knew that this wasn''t the only perk that they would offer. I knew that there would be more perks if I let An Xue Yun be my personal receptionist.


    There was nothing wrong with taking these perks since they would help me in the future.


    Taking both of these, I still asked one more time, "Are you sure that the Explorer Association doesn''t have any gear for me?"


    An Xue Yun just waved her hand with a smile as she said, "Go on, the driver is already waiting for you. Go quickly ande back quickly or else you''ll have to spend a night in the dungeon."


    A trace of bitterness appeared on my face when I heard this, but I didn''t say anything as I took the two pieces of paper and headed out of the Explorer Association.


    For now, I would trust the ns that An Xue Yun had arranged for me.

 Chapter 63 Half fish?

    Walking down this corridor for a bit, it didn''t take long for me to encounter a monster.


    It was just a single monster that seemed to be wandering around the corridors of the dungeon, but this wasn''t a monster to be looked down on.


    Since this was a D Rank Dungeon, this meant that the ones that were wandering around were at least D Rank.


    And this one was one that had a strange appearance.


    It looked like a human when it was walking around on two feet like this, but looking closely, one could tell from its appearance that it wasn''t human. There was half of this monster that was half fish.


    This was a Sahuagin.


    Since this was an underwater dungeon, it was only expected that there would be aquatic monsters like this Sahuagin.


    Once we approached each other, the Sahuagin didn''t waste any time in charging at me.


    However, it froze when it was halfway to me.


    That was because there was the Echo Bat that was on my shoulder with its mouth open.


    As soon as I moved away from the entrance of the dungeon, I had already called out the Echo Bat.


    After freezing, the Sahuagin had a look of confusion and fear on its face, as if it couldn''t understand what was happening. However, it did realize that it was in a very bad situation since it was just standing there doing nothing in front of an enemy.


    There was some trembling that came from the Sahuagin as if it was trying to break free of whatever was holding it in ce, but it just wasn''t able to do anything.


    This Sahuagin was a D Rank Monster that was on the same level as the Elite Monsters from thest dungeon, but the Echo Bat was still able to freeze itpletely with its hypnosis.


    The first part of this was because this Sahuagin was just a normal monster, so it wasn''t buffed by the dungeon like Elite Monsters were.


    The second part of this was because the Echo Bat had be much stronger than before.


    Since we had already cleared out an E Rank Dungeon, the Echo Bat had gained quite a few levels and was much stronger than before.


    Echo Bat


    Level: 16


    Exp: 300


    Strength: 21@@novelbin@@


    Vitality: 21


    Intelligence: 90


    Dexterity: 77


    The increase in its intelligence had raised its mental will, which made it easier for it to impose its hypnosis on stronger monsters.


    Which included this Sahuagin.


    I didn''t finish off this Sahuagin right away since I was waiting to see if there were any other Sahuagins that woulde and help this one, but it seemed like it was just on patrol alone.


    Since that was the case¡­


    I took out the dagger from the Slime King and slit the throat of the Sahuagin in one swift motion.


    This dagger from the Slime King had really been useful. The sharpness that it possessed was something else, it was able to cut through most monsters that I face with ease.


    Once the Sahuagin fell, I called out the Scavenger Rabbit to start digging as per usual.


    Since this was a D Rank Monster, I couldn''t help feeling a bit excited about the loot that it would drop.


    But in the end, I was a bit disappointed.


    I had the expectation that it would drop the same items as the Elite Monsters that were at the same rank, but there was a reason why those were Elite Monsters and this Sahuagin was just a regr monster.


    Even if it was the Scavenger Rabbit using its skill on it, all the Sahuagin dropped were normal loots like Slimy Fluid, Sahuagin Skin, and such.


    The only special piece of loot was¡­an iron trident.


    This was the weapon that the Sahuagin had been using, but it wasn''t that special either. It was just a weapon that was much stronger and sharper than a normal iron trident.


    Even if I was a bit disappointed in these drops, I understood that this was what the limits of a normal monster were.


    So instead of thinking too much about this, I continued down the passage to find even more monsters.


    But there was something strange about them that I couldn''t help thinking about.


    From the loot that they dropped, I was able to tell what kind of monsters they were.


    At first, I thought that there would only be Sahuagins in this dungeon, but that wasn''t the case.


    The first monster that I encountered was a Sahuagin, but the next one was a Fishman as the name of the dungeon suggested. The third one I encountered was a Merman, but this one was clearly different since there was a distinct separation between the top and bottom halves of the Merman unlike the Fishman and the Sahuagin.


    Both the Fishman and the Sahuagin were a hybrid of fish and man which made them seem too simr to tell apart.


    In short, it was strange how all of them were half fish, but they were called many different names.


    Why was there a need to give them different names like this?


    But it didn''t seem like the dungeon system cared as it gave them all different names like this.


    I really felt that it was strange and couldn''t help being stuck on this for a while, but the fact that I could get stuck on this was a good thing.


    After all, it meant that the monsters that were in this dungeon were just too weak for me to struggle against.


    I easily breezed my way through the dungeon until I noticed that something was different.


    It wasn''t that the monsters had changed, it was just that there seemed to be more of them.


    At the same time, the walls around me seemed to have changed as well.


    It seemed that the walls were made of some different kind of material, as well as being designed in a different manner.


    As if there was something special about this ce.

 Chapter 66 Quest Dungeon

    The loot from an Elite Monster really was on a different level.


    There were four items that the Scavenger Rabbit got from the Fishman Priest.


    The one that attracted my attention first was naturally the staff that the Fishman Priest used before.


    Sacred Fishman Staff.


    That was the name of the staff, but that wasn''t the important thing.


    The important thing was what kind of item it was.


    Heal, buff, and cleanse.


    These were the abilities of this staff.


    I finally understood how the Fishman Priest had broken the hypnosis that my Echo Bat used. It was the cleanse spell that the Fishman Priest used to break the hypnosis, but I never thought that the hypnosis would be considered a status effect to be cleansed.


    I thought that it was a status effect, I thought that it was more of a contest of wills.


    But when it came to the system that resembled a game, I guess that was just how it was ssified.


    After admiring the staff a bit longer, I put it away.


    In the future, this staff would find a lot of use in my hands. Especially when I could control the monsters with the Echo Bat''s power.


    It would mean having a powerful army in the future.


    The second thing that caught my attention was a scroll.


    The reason it caught my attention was the strange glow that was around it, but I was even more shocked when I saw the description of the item.


    Sacred Fishman God Scroll


    Break this scroll to draw on the power of the Fishman God once.


    It was a simple description, but just this simple description alone was already shocking enough.


    Did god really exist?


    Though it was only the god of the Fishmen, it was still something that was powerful to be considered a god.


    It didn''t give any information on what kind of effect this scroll would have once it was broken, it just said that it would draw on the power of the Fishman God once when it was broken.


    So I had to question it¡­


    "Would this scroll even work for me since I''m not a Fishman? This is a scroll that borrows the power of the god of the Fishmen, would it even work for a human?"


    There was a part of me that was even worried that the Fishman God would attack me since I was the one that killed one of his priests.


    It really didn''t seem like something that could be relied on¡­


    Still, in a worst case scenario, this was certainly a powerful item to use.@@novelbin@@


    It would be one of those things that could be used as a way to take down the enemy with me.


    The third item was a coat, but it wasn''t the coat of the priest. Rather, it was a slick looking trench coat that seemed to have water flowing on its surface.


    Looking closely at it, I could see that this was just the texture of the material that it was made of and not actual water, but it still looked quite cool.


    This was the thing that Icked at this moment.


    I had plenty of offensive options, but what I wascking was armour. I didn''t get any armour at all in thest dungeon, so my defenses were a bit weak right now.


    It wasn''t just the fact that this Falling Rain Coat looked really cool.


    Though I could see the way that the Echo Bat and the Scavenger Rabbit looked at me when I was testing it. It was one of the few times that they agreed on something¡­


    The fourth and final item was actually the most important thing.


    I thought that it would be the most useless thing since it looked like it was nothing special. It was just a scrap of paper that didn''t even have a special glow around it.


    It was so normal that I was confused why this thing had even dropped from an Elite Monster like the Fishman Priest.


    That was until I saw the popup that came from it.


    It wasn''t the regr popup that I saw from special items that I looked at, this was a popup that was apletely different shade. But I knew what this popup was since I had heard of it before.


    "Quest Dungeon¡­" I couldn''t help muttering when I saw this popup.


    The Quest Dungeon that I was talking about was a special and rare kind of dungeon that appeared once in a while.


    As for what was special about this dungeon¡­


    It was that there were quest items that could drop in these dungeons.


    The quest items were used to create a quest that a person would have to finish that was usually rted to the dungeon.


    As for why a person would want to finish this quest¡­


    It was naturally for therge reward that would follow afterpleting the quest.


    The Quest Dungeons gave some of the best rewards that one could imagine, which was why there were people that would sell everything that they had just for a chance to do one of these Quest Dungeons.


    It was almost a guarantee that they would get their money back.


    Though whether they were strong enough toplete it or not was apletely different question.


    Piece of the Underwater King''s Orders 1/4.


    It seemed that there were three more pieces to find before I would be able to start the quest, but I wasn''t worried as long as I had the Scavenger Rabbit. It would only be a matter of time as long as I had the Scavenger Rabbit''s golden paws.


    Though I couldn''t help being a bit worried about the name of this item.


    Underwater King.


    A king was without a doubt a Boss Monster, but a King Boss Monster was different.


    These were Boss Monsters that were stronger than normal Boss Monsters.


    Not to mention that it wasn''t the Fishman King and was the Underwater King¡­


    It really seemed like this would be a dangerous quest¡­


    But I could always not do it if I felt that I was in danger.


    With how fast I was growing, it wouldn''t be toote to do thister.


    Though I did wonder about something.


    "Did she know that this was a Quest Dungeon? Was that why An Xue Yun sent me here?" I couldn''t help asking myself in a confused voice.

 Chapter 70 Fishman Knight

    After giving Wang Rong the Skill Orb, I finally started moving faster.


    With Wang Rong''s power, it should be even easier to deal with the Elite Monster in front of us.


    Though I was certain that he didn''t know what I was nning to do.


    After letting the Fishmen lead for a bit, we finally arrived at the ce where the Elite Monster was.


    This was different from the temple that the Fishman Priest was in.


    This ce almost seemed like a castle with the way that it was built.


    It was clear that this would not be an easy ce to break into, let alone bring out the Elite Monster.


    But to my surprise, the Fishmen seemed like they were eager to do it.


    It was almost as if they were confident that they would be able to lure out the Elite Monster that was inside of this castle.


    It was especially true for those Fishman guards that once protected the Fishman Priest.


    With the way that they acted, it was as if they were filled with confidence.


    I didn''t get why they were filled with this confidence, but since they were¡­it was worth it to give them a chance.


    The Fishmen approached the castle and the same thing happened where there were other Fishmen that came out to stop them. Only this time, the Fishmen actually seemed like they were armed with proper weapons and armour.


    They stopped the Fishmen that approached the castle and seemed to be keeping them out, but then they suddenly let them pass.@@novelbin@@


    It was like before where the Fishmen that I controlled said something to the guards and then they were allowed to pass.


    As for what they said, I had no idea.


    In the end, the Fishmen smoothly entered the castle and disappeared from sight.


    I just patiently waited for something to happen, but it didn''t seem like Wang Rong was able to wait as patiently.


    After a few minutes passed, he couldn''t help asking, "Boss, what do we do¡­"


    Before he could finish, there was a sound that came from the castle.


    It wasn''t the same explosion that came from the castle as the sound rang out.


    Rather, it was the gates of the castle opening and a grouping out of the castle.


    It seemed to be the Fishmen that I sent into the castle previously along with another group. At the center of the other group was a Fishman that waspletely in armour and even had arge sword on its back.


    This armoured Fishman was clearly the leader of the group.


    At the same time, it was clear that it was the Elite Monster that I was looking for.


    Wang Rong deeply knitted his brows after seeing the Fishmen lead this armoured Fishman out.


    In a heavy voice, he asked, "Boss, what do we do now?"


    I didn''t say anything as I waited to see what the Fishmen I controlled would do.


    They didn''t disappoint me as all of a sudden, they stabbed the armoured Fishman from behind. One of them was even able to stab through the gaps in the armour to actually injure the Armoured Fishman.


    As soon as this happened, the situation exploded.


    The armoured Fishman pushed through its wounds and grabbed therge sword on his back to sh out in front of it.


    The Fishmen under my control knew that this would happen, so there was no hesitation at all as they moved away from the armoured Fishman after stabbing him. They had already cleared the area, so that none of them were in the path of his sword.


    As soon as I saw this, I grabbed Wang Rong and lifted him off the ground to his shock.


    "Boss, what are you¡­"


    He didn''t get to finish those words as I already tossed him at the Fishmen guards while saying, "Go and distract them with your abilities. The rest of the monsters will follow you."


    Wang Rong looked like he didn''t know whether tough or cry when he heard this, but he still followed my orders and called out his familiar.


    After he called out his familiar, he seemed to be sinking as if he was growing heavier while flying. When hended, Wang Rong didn''t stop at all as he charged right into the lines of the Fishmen guards.


    They were taken aback by Wang Rong charging in like this, but they were able toe back to their senses as they swung their tridents at him. They were using the range that they had to push Wang Rong away to create more space for them to fight in.


    Only there were ''tink'' sounds that rang out when their tridents hit Wang Rong.


    It was the sound of metal shing against each other.


    Wang Rong wasn''t even pushed back by the swings of the Fishmen guards.


    At first, he looked surprised that he wasn''t hurt at all and then there was a look of confidence that appeared on his face.


    With a single step, Wang Rong started pushing back against the Fishmen guards.


    Find more chapters on My Virtual Library Empire


    With how hard his body had be, he was even able to snap the tridents that were swung at him.


    After pushing forward, the Fishmen guards just weren''t able to do a single thing against him as they couldn''t break his defenses. At the same time, the rock hard fists that Wang Rong punched out with were more than enough to defeat these Fishmen guards.


    He was shocked and ted by the fact that his power had grown this much.


    I was feeling the same thing.


    After all, I had no idea just how strong Wang Rong would be even if I solved his mobility problem. But with the way that he was fighting, it was almost as if he had gained wings all of a sudden.


    The shackles really had been released from Wang Rong and now he was a monster in his own right.


    But that wasn''t important right now.


    I turned my attention back to the Fishman Knight that was swinging its sword around.


    Unless I took care of it, this wouldn''t end.

 Chapter 73 What do you want to do?

    With Wang Rong by my side, it was much easier sweeping through the monsters of this dungeon.


    The longer that we were in this dungeon, the more confident he seemed to be.


    At the same time, it seemed like he was losing interest in showing off with his power. Discover stories at My Virtual Library Empire


    He had his fill of using that power to destroy the monsters, so he was able to calm himself down.


    Once he calmed down, he was able to easily see the position that he had to take. From time to time, he would be in front of the monsters, leading them in a charge. Other times, he would fill the gaps in the line of the monsters.


    In short, he had a sharp intuition that told him exactly where to go when he was needed.


    I was very satisfied with Wang Rong''s performance.


    After all, I had only chosen to take him under my wings because I pitied him, but it turned out that he was actually quite the talented person.


    He just never had the chance to show that talent.


    "Boss, where are we going next?" Wang Rong asked in an excited voice.


    Even though we had been fighting Elite Monsters, it didn''t seem like he was tired at all which was a second trait that I approved of.


    "We''ll¡­"


    Before I could finish, we suddenly heard something that cut me off.


    "Help us! Please help us!"


    It was the exact same situation as when I helped Wang Rong.


    The only difference was the reaction that Wang Rong had when he heard this voice.


    The way that he furrowed his brows and narrowed his eyes, it was clear that he recognized the owner of the voice.


    No, with how he reacted, it seemed like he was quite intimate with the owner of this voice. It was as if the owner of the voice was someone that he could never forget.


    I didn''t say anything at first, but then I asked him, "Do you want to take a look? It''s not toote to leave after we see what happened."


    Wang Rong had aplicated look on his face for a while before he slowly gave a nod in response.


    At that, I led the way forward.


    It didn''t take long for us to arrive where the voices wereing from.


    It had been one voice at first, but then there were other voices that also started calling out for help.


    When Wang Rong heard these voices as well, it was clear that he recognized them. It was clear that he knew the people that these voices belonged to.


    At the same time, it seemed to make it harder for him to go forward.


    If it wasn''t for the face that I was leading the way, he might not have even gone towards those voices.


    When we came close, we found the same situation as before.


    It was a group of humans that was currently being attacked by a group of monsters.


    Wang Rong''s expression fell the moment that he saw them and it was as if he had fallen in a daze with the way that he stared at these people.


    "Are they the ones that used you as bait to run away earlier?" I asked him in a calm voice without any emotions, almost as if this wasn''t my problem at all.


    Wang Rong trembled when he heard this and he didn''t say anything, but he gave a nod of affirmation in the end.


    I had already expected this, so I wasn''t surprised at all.


    I just watched these three people fighting the monsters for a bit before asking, "What do you want to do then?"


    Wang Rong slowly looked at me with a surprised look on his face, as if he didn''t understand what I was doing.


    I didn''t say anything as I calmly looked back at him, waiting for him to make a decision.


    Wang Rong just didn''t know what to say as the look on his face became even moreplicated.


    But eventually¡­


    "Let''s save them." He said this through gritted teeth, as if he had to fight with himself just toe to this decision.


    I slightly narrowed my eyes to look at him, but then I said with a nod, "Alright, if that''s your choice."


    There was a slightly confused look that was on Wang Rong''s face when he heard this, as if he couldn''t understand why I said this.


    But I didn''t give him a chance to think about it as I suddenly grabbed him by the cor.


    "Wait¡­" Wang Rong tried to say, but he didn''t get a chance to say the rest as I had already picked him up by the back of his cor and was already throwing him.


    All Wang Rong could do was reveal a bitter smile before calling out his familiar.


    As he flew through the air, he hardened himself and started to sink down, but he still reached the three that were trapped by the monsters.


    With the momentum of the throw, he was able to crash right into the monsters, catching them off guard. At the same time, with the power of his defenses, he was able to smash the heads of two monsters that were in his way.


    Without any hesitation, Wang Rong charged at the other monsters that were here.


    They had been surrounded by around a dozen monsters, but that was nothing for Wang Rong who was already used to his new powers.


    With a few punches, the rest of the monsters fell to the ground.


    "Why is it you?" The leader of the group of three said in a shocked voice.


    The other two had simr shocked looks on their faces after he said this.


    Wang Rong turned around with a bitter smile and asked, "Were you not expecting me after what happened?"


    The three of them revealed awkward looks when they heard this, but then the leader said in a natural manner, "It''s a good thing that you''re still alive. We had been searching around for you this entire time."


    It seemed that he was quite shameless as he told this bold faced lie.@@novelbin@@

 Chapter 76 Fishman Chief

    When it was over, Wang Rong came back with a heavy look on his face.


    There were also traces of blood that were on his body, but it didn''t seem like he cared about them as it seemed like he had a lot on his mind.


    When I saw him like this, I took out a towel from my Storage Ring for Wang Rong.


    He was surprised when I tossed it at him, but I just said, "Wipe yourself off."


    Wang Rong didn''t say anything at first, but he still eventually took the towel and wiped the blood off himself.@@novelbin@@


    Even then, he didn''t say a single word.


    Though he hadn''t actually dealt the final blow, there was no doubt that he was the one that had caused their deaths.


    So it was only natural that it hung heavy on him.


    But the fact that their corpses were left behind was more than enough to prove his loyalty.


    Since he had proven it, then there was no reason to doubt him.


    It was better to leave him alone to gather his thoughts.


    Not to mention that there was another ce that I wanted to go.


    Though when I wanted to head to that ce, it seemed like the Fishmen that I asked to lead the way seemed anxious. It was as if they were afraid of whatever was in that ce that they didn''t want to go there.


    I knew exactly what was there, which was why I wanted them to lead us there in the first ce.


    In the end, they still followed my orders since they were hypnotized even if they seemed afraid.


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    With the Fishmen leading the way, it didn''t take long for us to arrive.


    This was a ce that was like the other ces where the Elite Monsters resided, but it was also different.


    That was because there wasn''t just a single building that was there, there were several buildings that were ced together. With the way that they were ced, it was almost as if there was some kind of settlement here.


    That was the first sign that there was something different here.


    The second sign was the number of monsters that were gathered around the area.


    It waspletely different from the number of monsters that had been gathered around in the area of the Elite Monsters.


    It was like night and day with how many monsters were gathered here.


    That was only natural since this was the ce where the Boss Monster of this dungeon was.


    Wang Rong snapped out of his daze when we arrived in this area and came forward to ask, "Boss, are we really doing this?"


    I turned to look at him to ask, "Why do you think that we can''t do this?"


    "It''s a Boss Monster, it''spletely different from the Elite Monsters that we fought before¡­" Wang Rong''s voice trailed off with worry as he said this.


    Anyone would feel the same way if they were in the same situation.


    A Boss Monster was a Boss Monster for a reason.


    However, I didn''t have any fear of the Boss Monster since I had already fought the Thunder Deer before.


    Even if it was a C Rank Boss, I was still confident since I was much stronger than before.


    So I just said, "Don''t worry, just trust me and it''ll all turn out fine."


    Wang Rong still had a trace of doubt on his face, but he eventually nodded in agreement.


    We didn''t head into this monster settlement right away and instead sent a few of the monsters that I controlled in to scout it out first.


    Since this was a monster settlement, it was easier to scout since there were all kinds of monsters here. It wasn''t like before where there were only Fishman guards, there were also Mermen and Sahuagins here as well.


    So I sent a few of each kind in to scout out the entire area, including the area for Mermen and Sahuagins.


    The different monsters actually lived apart from each other and it even seemed like there was some kind of racism between them judging by how they treated each other.


    It seemed that the Fishmen were the upper ss citizens while the Mermen and Sahuagins were the lower ss citizens.


    It really seemed strange seeing the monsters act like this.


    But it wasn''t as if I was here to think about monster hierarchy.


    Instead, I was keeping my eyes open for the Boss Monster.


    It wasn''t the scouts that I sent that found the Boss Monster in the end, I was the one that found it. Only that was because the Boss Monster was walking through the monster settlement like it was looking for something.


    Or it was better to say that it was looking over the monster settlement as it walked through.


    It seemed like it was actually governing the settlement.


    This Boss Monster seemed like one that had intelligence, which would be a problem.


    Wang Rong could also see this, so he asked, "Boss, are you sure about this?"


    I didn''t say anything as I continued observing the Fishman Chief walking through the settlement.


    The way that it walked through and governed the monsters¡­it really seemed like it had the same biased thoughts as the other Fishmen.


    That gave me an idea of how to take them down.


    There was no need to fight them ourselves, it was better if we could incite a fight between the monsters.


    Though I did feel strange about doing something like this.


    It felt weird that the monsters were like this in the first ce.


    "Let''s observe and wait a bit." I said without even turning back to look at Wang Rong.


    Wang Rong let out a sigh of relief when he heard this, but I ignored him still.


    I started observing the monster settlement carefully, looking for gaps in their society that I could exploit.


    The other thing that I was waiting for was for the monsters to let their guards down so I could do what I needed to do.

 Chapter 79 Thanks for this opportunity

    Once it had gathered enough water, it swung its trident forward and sent that water at the monsters attacking it.


    This water formed a jet of water that crashed into anything that was in its way.


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    The power of this water jet was much greater than anything that the Fishman Chief had shown so far.


    It was strong enough that it swept the monsters off their feet and carried them until they were mmed into a wall.


    After shooting out that jet of water, the Fishman Chief continued to gather water around itself.


    With the way that it was surrounded by this water, it was almost as if it was the ruler of the waves.


    But this wasn''t the only thing that the Fishman Chief did after gathering this water around itself.


    The water that gathered there started to spread around the Fishman Chief, as if it would cover this entire area in water.


    The Fishman Chief was empowered in the water, so it was going to cover this entire area in water. This was the special ability that the Fishman Chief released when it reached stage two.


    But the moment that it did this, there was this strange smile that appeared on my face.


    "Boss, what''s wrong?" Wang Rong asked with a concerned tone when he saw this strange smile, but I didn''t say anything.


    I just slowly pulled out the crown from my Storage Ring and put it on my head.


    Wang Rong had already seen this crown before and knew what it did, so he took a step back.


    However, he still felt that he should ask something, "Boss, what about the ones that you sent down there?"


    Though he felt strange that he was asking something out of concern for the monsters, Wang Rong couldn''t help asking this since they had fought alongside him during this time.


    It would be a bit too cold if he didn''t say anything.


    "What do you mean? They''re not down there anymore." I said in a calm voice without even looking back.


    Wang Rong was surprised to hear this and he went to take a look.


    He had spent enough time with those monsters to tell them apart from the others by now and when he looked closely, he found that it was true. All of them had disappeared from the crowd of monsters down there.


    There wasn''t a single one of them down there.


    "When did you¡­?" Wang Rong asked in a shocked voice.


    I didn''t respond to him as I started gathering electricity in my crown.


    Since the Fishman Chief had set things up for me, I naturally wasn''t going to turn him down.


    During the time that I was gathering my electricity, the Fishman Chief was going on aplete rampage which helped me even more. He started swinging his trident around and there were attacks formed from water that were shot in every direction.


    It really had fine control over the water as there were many precise shapes that it changed the water into.


    Only the Fishman Chief had lost control of itself and was wildly attacking in every direction.


    It didn''t even notice that the ones that had actually been a threat to it were gone.


    As for the other Sahuagins and Mermen, they bore the brunt of these attacks and didn''t have time to realize that the ones that led them were gone.


    Once the Fishman Chief had spread the water out enough, I suddenly shot out the bolt of lightning.


    The Fishman Chief was able to react to it, but the first thought that it had was to raise a wall of water to stop this attack. That might have worked against normal attacks, but this was a bolt of lightning that it was trying to block against.


    The moment that the bolt of lightning hit the wall of water, it suddenly shattered apart and disappeared without a trace.


    But the reason that it disappeared wasn''t because it had been blocked by the wall of water.


    The reason that it had disappeared was because it had been absorbed by the wall of water.


    This wall of water was naturally connected to therge pool that the Fishman Chief had summoned under itself. That meant that the moment that the bolt of lightning was absorbed by the wall of water, the electricity quickly spread through that pool.


    In no time at all, the electricity reached all of the monsters that were currently stuck inside the pool.


    There was the smell of fried fish that filled the air as this electricity spread through this pool.


    In no time at all, all of the Fishmen, Sahuagin, and Mermen were charred ck by the power of the bolt of lightning.


    It was only the Fishman Chief who was still standing.


    It had also been charred, but it wasn''t as bad as the others as it had natural resistances as a Boss Monster.


    But with the way that it was leaning on its trident, as if it would fall over at any moment, it really seemed like it was on itsst legs.@@novelbin@@


    The Fishman Chief looked around for where this bolt of lightning came from, but it was already toote as there was another bolt of lightning that wasing at it.


    The only thing that the Fishman Chief could do was raise another wall of water while jumping up into the air.


    The bolt of lightning was absorbed by the wall of water, but that was still a problem since that meant that the water was being charged with this electricity. The others had already been burnt to a crisp by the pool of electrified water, so there was nowhere for this water to go.


    At the same time, the Fishman Chief couldn''t control the water anymore now that it was filled with electricity.


    It could only turn to look at the one that had shot this bolt of lightning at it with a gaze that was filled with grudge.


    "Thank you for this opportunity." I said with a smile to the Fishman Chief.

 Chapter 83 A small miracle (1)

    No one paid any attention to us when we came out of the dungeon since we were two ordinary guys.


    Unlike before where I had Iris by my side when I came out of the dungeon.


    It seemed that a beautiful girl would always be the center of attention.


    It was just the two of us that came out of the dungeon. The monsters that I had tamed received the same fate as theirrades that I had tamed in the previous dungeon.


    Those that worked hard should deserve a reward and it didn''t feel right to take their lives after everything that happened.


    So I let the monsters return back to the dungeon. Your adventure continues at My Virtual Library Empire


    Though I did give them the order to follow me if anything did happen in the future like with the other monsters.


    While I didn''t know if this would have any use, at least it would make it so that they wouldn''t sh with humans as much. At least, this gave them a chance to survive until we could possibly meet again.


    After leaving the dungeon, the first ce that we went to was¡­


    "Boss, are you sure that you want to go there?" Wang Rong asked in a hesitant voice as he slowly led the way.


    With the way that he was leading the way, it really seemed like he didn''t want to bring Lin Fan to where he wanted them to go.


    I didn''t say anything at first as if I was lost in thought, but then I said, "There''s something that I want to try. If it doesn''t work, it doesn''t work. But if it works, then it''ll be considered a little miracle."


    Wang Rong had a confused look on his face when he heard this, but he eventually nodded in agreement.


    Though it was certainly hard for him to ept what I said and I could see that from the look on his face.@@novelbin@@


    In the end, the two of us took the bus to a hospital.


    When we walked in, we didn''t seem out of ce at all.


    It even seemed like the nurses of the hospital recognized Wang Rong and were familiar with him based on how they all greeted him after seeing him.


    Wang Rong respectfully greeted all of the nurses before leading me to a certain room.


    Inside of this room was a little girl who was in bed hooked up to a life monitor.


    This little girl was Wang Rong''s little sister, the one that he wanted to make money for since she had an illness since she was young that had kept her in bed like this all this time.


    It took arge amount just to keep her alive, but Wang Rong never gave up.


    He had even thrown himself into dangerous Explorer work just to earn the money to pay her hospital bills.


    When we came in, the little girl was still sleeping.


    I took this time to get a good look at Wang Rong''s little sister.


    It really was hard to believe that the two of them were rted¡­


    He was a chubby normal looking man and his little sister was a cute little angel. It really was hard to believe that the two of them were rted based on their appearances.


    Wang Rong had a bitter smile as if he could guess what I was thinking, but he didn''t say anything. He just focused on how I would react, as if he was waiting for me to say something.


    But when I didn''t say anything after a long while, Wang Rong couldn''t help looking nervous.


    He couldn''t help asking in the end, "Boss, can you do anything?"


    I didn''t answer as I continued looking at his little sister, but then I suddenly shook my head and said, "I can''t say for sure, let''s wake her up and let me test something."


    Wang Rong slightly knitted his brows as if he was hesitant about this.


    I didn''t say anything since I knew that there was nothing to gain from pushing him on this matter.


    I wanted to wait for him toe to a decision on his own.


    In the end, Wang Rong gave a slow nod and went forward to tap on his little sister''s shoulder.


    Her eyes slowly opened when Wang Rong tapped her on the shoulder like this and she looked up at Wang Rong before asking, "Big brother, you''re back?"


    Wang Rong gave a slow nod before saying with a smile, "I''m back."


    The little girl slowly sat up, but she didn''t seem happy.


    When she sat up, she said, "Are you still doing those dangerous things to earn money for me? I''ve already said that you don''t have to anymore. I know that nothing will change for me, so you don''t have to sacrifice yourself anymore."


    Wang Rong slightly knitted his brows, but then he quickly revealed a smile as he said, "I told you, there''s nothing dangerous about it. You should know how strong your brother is, so there''s nothing that you have to worry about."


    "But¡­" The little girl was about to say something, but Wang Rong cut her off.


    "There''s no buts. You just have to listen to your big brother and get better."


    The little girl had a sad look on her face, but she didn''t say anything else.


    After a long moment of silence, the little girl finally noticed me who was standing in the room with them and asked, "Big brother, this is¡­?"


    Wang Rong had also seemed like he forgot that I was here with the way that he reacted, but then he said in an awkward voice, "Right, Xiao Jing, I forgot to introduce you. This is my new friend and boss, Lin Fan."


    The moment that she heard this, the little girl whose name was Wang Jing immediately knitted her brows while looking at me.


    The way that she looked at me was as if she felt hostility towards me.


    I could guess what she was thinking based on the way that Wang Rong introduced me, so all I could do was say with a smile, "It''s not what you think."

 Chapter 88 Sudden alarm

    In the end, there wasn''t a chance for me to ask any other questions.


    Or it was better to say that I knew that An Xue Yun wouldn''t actually answer any other questions that I had for her.


    Even if there were things that I wanted to learn from her, it was unlikely that she would say anything else.


    So I just didn''t bother asking and instead talked about splitting this reward with Wang Rong.


    "Wang Rong?" An Xue Yun asked in a confused voice before picking up a small tablet on the side and tapping it a few times. After tapping it, she looked down at what she found and slightly knitted her brows.


    When she looked back up, she turned the tablet around to show me what she had and asked, "Is this the one that you''re talking about?"


    I found that she had pulled up Wang Rong''s profile in the Explorer Association''s database, which was what she was currently showing me.


    There was aplicated look that appeared on my face seeing this.


    After all, this should be considered sensitive information that they weren''t supposed to share¡­yet here she was sharing it to me like it was nothing.


    Still, since she was sharing it with me, it wasn''t as if I wasn''t going to take a look.


    Getting more information on Wang Rong wasn''t a bad thing.


    ording to this profile, Wang Rong was someone who awakened a 1st ss Low Grade Familiar. It wasn''t considered good, but it wasn''t considered bad either, which was why his defenses were so strong in the first ce.


    It was just that the price that he paid for the strong defenses wasn''t really worth it.


    The other thing that I took note of was the fact that Wang Jing was his only rtive.


    ording to his profile, his parents had been caught in a dungeon break a long time ago and had been killed.


    Maybe that was why he was so desperate to help Wang Jing since she was his only rtive left.


    After reading for a bit, I said, "That''s right, he''s the one that I saved in the dungeon and now he''s following me."


    An Xue Yun gave a nod to show that she understood before saying, "What about the other three that were with him? Did you save them as well?"


    I shook my head with a calm look on my face before saying, "I have no idea about the other three. They had abandoned him when they were being chased by monsters, which was how I met him."


    "Is that so?" An Xue Yun slightly knitted her brows.


    I wasn''t worried since it didn''t seem like she doubted me, it was that she wasn''t happy with what I said about the other three in Wang Rong''s group.


    Explorers were all in the same situation, so those that actually abandoned theirrades were looked down on by the Explorer Association.


    If they didn''t take care of each other, then no one would after all.


    "I''ll look into this matter, you don''t have to worry about anything."


    I gave a nod before telling her how to split the money from the loot between me and Wang Rong.


    When I was done, she looked at me with a strange look.


    I just looked back at her with a calm look on my face as I said, "That was what he agreed to."@@novelbin@@


    She gave a slow nod, but there was still that same strange look on her face.


    Eventually, An Xue Yun took care of everything.


    She showed me how much the appraiser said that the items that I turned in were worth and then I got a notification on my phone that I received the money for both the loot I sold and finishing the mission.


    With that settled, I turned to leave.


    There was no reason for me to stay here any longer after all.


    An Xue Yun followed behind me and asked, "Are youing in tomorrow?"


    I had to think about it before slowly shaking my head.


    "Good, you need to rest up after each dungeon. Don''t just be in a rush to throw your life away, take some time to get into top shape beforeing back for another dungeon." She said in a voice of approval after seeing this.


    But before either of us could say anything else¡­


    "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"


    There was thisrge rm thatpletely caught me off guard.


    I looked at An Xue Yun and found that she was just as surprised by this rm as I was, but then she deeply knitted her brows as if she was very disturbed by this.


    I raised my voice so that she would hear me and shouted, "What is that rm!?"


    An Xue Yun didn''t seem to hear me, but I knew that it wasn''t because she didn''t actually hear me. It was that she was deep in thought that she didn''t react to what I was saying.


    After a long period of being frozen there, she suddenly went to the side and grabbed another tablet off a table. This was a table for staff members of the Explorer Association, so this tablet was linked to the Explorer Association''s database.


    When I peeked over her shoulders, I immediately knitted my brows as well.


    Dungeon Break.


    Those were the words that I saw when I peeked over her shoulders.


    A dungeon break hadn''t happened in a long time since most dungeons were cleared out before that could happen in this world filled with summoners with powerful familiars. The only way that a dungeon could even break now was if there was one that was very remote and wasn''t discovered by humans, or if it was¡­a new dungeon that had suddenly appeared.


    I looked further down and immediately narrowed my eyes before turning around to leave.


    As if she could sense the anxiety that was in me, An Xue Yun quickly reached out and grabbed my arm to stop me from leaving. Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire


    "What''s wrong?" She asked in a concerned voice.


    I flicked my arm to throw her off and said, "That''s my neighbourhood!"


    Then without even turning back, I ran out of the Explorer Association.

 Chapter 90 Dungeon break (2)

    After leaving the car, I could see some things that looked familiar to me and started making my way towards my house.


    But after walking away from the car for a bit, I understood why she wanted to guide me.


    It wasn''t just because she was afraid that something would happen as I made my way to my house. It was because she knew that there would be this strange miasma that appeared in the area where the dungeon break happened.


    This was a strange dark mist that filled the air that clearly didn''t seem like it was a good thing.


    Not only did it block vision, it seemed like it was corrupting everything that it came in contact with, leaving behind these ck marks.


    If I had to guess, this was most likely residue that came from the monsters and the dungeon.


    With this miasma in the air, it really was easy to lose one''s way.


    "Can you hear me?"


    I suddenly heard this voice in my ear which caught me off guard and then I was a bit confused since I didn''t know what to do, but eventually I just spoke out loud in hopes that it would work.


    "I can hear you."


    "Good. The path that you''re taking should be clear, but watch out just in case."


    A faint smile appeared on my lips when I heard this, but I still said, "Alright, thank you."


    The information that she gave me couldn''t really be considered useful, but at least it meant that I wouldn''t be caught off guard when An Xue Yun suddenly spoke to me while I was fighting.


    I just continued forward slowly, making sure to keep an eye on everything around me.


    But the silence around me made it seem like there wasn''t anything there.


    It was a deafening kind of silence that made it seem like I was the only person in the world.


    Only that didn''t make any sense at all.


    This was a ce where there was a dungeon break, so there should have been far more noise than this. There should be all kinds of explosions and different noisesing from all around me as I got closer to the center of the dungeon break.


    I was just surprised and confused by how silent this all was¡­


    That was unless¡­


    "Did the monsters already finish clearing out this area and move to a different ce?" A grim and worried look appeared on my face when this thought passed through my mind.


    The more that this ce was silent, the more that it felt like this was the case¡­


    After this thought passed through my mind, I couldn''t help moving faster.


    But as I moved faster, there was more noise that was made.


    I even kicked a few stones into the distance which created a chain reaction of rubble falling.


    Once that happened, there was noise that started appearing around me.


    Through the dark mist, there were a few figures that approached me.


    When they came through the mist, I saw what they were.


    They were a group of monsters.


    These wererge figures that came out of the dark mist, they were muchrger than me at the very least.


    But that wasn''t what caught my attention first.


    The first thing that caught my attention was the blood that was on the end of their clubs.


    These were orcs that were holding clubs that were thicker than me, which was more than enough to show what kind of strength that they possessed. Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire


    The blood that was on the end of their clubs created a pattern that wasn''t normal.


    The pattern that it had showed that there was something that was smashed by the club, which caused the blood to stter like this.


    After I recovered from the sight of the blood on the clubs, I noticed that there was something else.


    One of the orcs seemed to be holding something in their other hand.


    It wasn''t anything big, it was actually even considered small and thinpared to the orc.


    Only I narrowed my eyes and deeply knitted my brows the moment that I saw it.


    An arm.


    It was a human arm.


    As soon as I saw this, there was no hesitation left in my heart.


    I gave an order to the Echo Bat and there was no resistance at all in the orcs as they were frozen in ce.


    In the first ce, these orcs were nothing more than E Rank Monsters, so it was easy for the Echo Bat to hypnotize them.


    But I didn''t hypnotize them the same way that I did the other monsters that I encountered.


    There was no mercy in my heart for any of these cruel monsters.


    There was a heavy and serious look on my face as I pulled out the Fishman Knight''s great sword and I walked towards these orcs. But before I could swing thisrge great sword at the orcs, I suddenly stopped myself.


    I looked at the orcs with a strange look on my face as a thought passed through my mind.@@novelbin@@


    It wasn''t that I didn''t want to cut down these orcs anymore, it was just that I felt that doing this would give them too easy of death.


    It didn''t feel right to kill the orcs like this, especially with what they''ve done.


    It felt like I should do something that would make them suffer more.


    Many different emotions appeared on my face, but eventually I said with a sigh, "Make them follow."


    The Echo Bat didn''t question my order and just gave a simplemand to the orcs.


    When the orcs received thismand, they still stood there in a daze, but I knew that they were just waiting for orders.


    So I simply said, "Follow me."


    When they heard this, the orcs moved to where I was and then stood there behind me as they waited for me to move.


    I took onest look at the orcs and said, "Drop the arm."


    The orc that had been holding the arm dropped it on the ground as soon as it heard this.


    Then with a sigh, I said, "Follow."


    Without even looking back at them, I continued on my way.

 Chapter 93 Dungeon break (5)

    After leaving that area, I came across several more orcs that I had the Echo Bat take control of.


    The previous fight had gotten rid of all the orcs under my control, so I needed a few more orcs just in case anything happened.


    It was even quite lucky that I ran into these orcs right after that fight, especially since I hadn''t run into anything earlier.


    But that was also because I was getting closer to the center of the dungeon break. The closer that I got to the center of the dungeon break, the more monsters there were.


    Only I didn''t know at this point.


    The only thing that I was focused on was getting to my house as soon as possible.


    But it turned out that I didn''t need to do that.


    Since there were more and more orcs that appeared, that meant that there were also more people that needed to be rescued.


    Though it was the same thing where I had An Xue Yun call for backup after I took care of the orcs and let the rescuers help these people instead of helping them myself.


    That was until¡­


    "Ah Fan, what are you doing here?"


    The moment that I heard this, the tension in me snapped.


    That was because it was my mother who called out to me.


    I immediately looked around the entire area in an attempt to find her and I finally saw that she was waving at me out of the window of a convenience store.


    I allowed myself a moment to let out a sigh of relief, but then I quickly focused my mind and went over to where she was.


    Only when I went over, that meant that I also brought the orcs over with me.


    "Ah Fan, look out!" My mother shouted before she tried to jump out the window like she wanted to help me, but there were arms that came from behind her that pulled her back in.


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    A faint smile appeared on my lips when I saw this before raising my hand to stop the orcs from following me.


    When they saw this, it wasn''t hard for them to figure out what the situation was.


    Still, I gave an exnation, "They''re with me, I''m controlling them. That''s how I got here in the first ce."


    After I said this, the arms that had been holding my mother back stopped pulling her back in and she was able to stand at the window again. Though there was a dazed look that was on her face as she looked at the orcs still.


    I could see that there was also a trace of fear.


    That was normal since humans were afraid of monsters in the first ce, they were bigger and stronger than them. As well, the monsters seemed like they were determined to kill as many humans as possible.


    It was only natural to fear monsters.


    While she was dazed, I asked, "Where''s Jun?"


    "I''m here." A head poked out from behind my mother. It was my big brother and he was the one that had been holding my mother back from jumping outside.


    Seeing that they were both fine, I let out another sigh of relief before asking, "What happened? Why are the two of you here?"


    Lin Jun exined, "We were at home, but I wanted to get some snacks and mom wanted toe with me for a magazine, so we came to the convenience store together."


    I didn''t notice it since I had been focused on getting home, but this ce was actually the convenience store that was right near our house.


    I had gotten close to home, it was just a few blocks away.


    Seeing that the two of them were fine, I said, "Alright, it''s time to go. I''ll bring you two out of this ce."


    After I said this, there were awkward looks that appeared on their faces.@@novelbin@@


    It was as if there was something that was holding them back from following me.


    "What''s wrong?" I asked while slightly knitting my brows.


    The two of them didn''t say anything at first, but then a voice came from inside, "If you''re worried about us, then you don''t have to be. We''ll take care of ourselves. This young man came for you all, so you can just leave with him."


    When I looked over, I found that it was an old man that walked out of the back room.


    After he walked out, there were several others that also came out.


    If I had to guess, these were most likely the other customers and the employees who worked in this store that had been caught in the dungeon break. There were young and old that were among this group.


    There were even two kids who seemed to be no older than ten who were trapped in here with them.


    As soon as I saw this group, I knew why they were hesitating.


    My mother and big brother were good people by nature, so they were worried about these people that they had been trapped here with. But they also knew how dangerous it would be to ask me to bring these people along with us.


    That was why they were hesitating about leaving with me.


    "They cane with us." I said after a moment of thought.


    I might not have said this before, but now¡­I was strong enough to say this.


    At the same time, the guilt of leaving behind so many people just so I could help the two of them did build up.


    It wasn''t as if I didn''t feel any guilt, it was just that in my mind, the two of them were more important.


    But now that I had found them, there was no reason for me to leave these people behind.


    "Young man, are you sure about this?" The old man asked.


    With a simple nod, I said, "Don''t worry, I''ll keep you all safe and get you out of this ce."


    There were looks of doubt that were cast in my direction, but eventually they agreed toe with me.


    They knew what the situation they were in was, so it was better toe with me. If they stayed here any longer, then there was no doubt that they would eventually be found by the monsters.


    If I was able toe all this way, I should be able to bring them out of here.


    That was why they chose toe with me.

 Chapter 96 Dungeon break (8)

    My brows were deeply furrowed and I was tensely biting my lip when I saw this.


    No matter how I thought about it, it didn''t seem like I would be able to take down this Orc King.


    In fact, with how fast the Orc King was killing the orcs, it didn''t even seem like I would be able to stall it for long.


    Once all of the orcs died, there was no way that I would be able to do anything to the Orc King.


    If I were to fight this Orc King myself, the only thing that would happen is that I would be squashed into a meat patty just like the orc that it smashed previously with itsrge club.


    Or even the other orcs that it was still currently smashing.


    The Orc King seemed like it hadpletely lost its temper and was just taking it out on the orcs that were around it. It seemed like it was in full rampage mode and it wouldn''t leave that rampage mode until it was done killing all of the orcs that had once served it.


    The Orc King''s rampage showed that it didn''t actually need any of the orcs.


    It alone was already more than enough with the power that it possessed.


    There was a part of me that really wanted to run after seeing the power that the Orc King possessed since I knew that it would be meaningless to try and fight this Orc King.


    But in the end, I didn''t run since I knew that I still had to buy time.


    There was no way that they could have gotten away that quickly, so I had to buy some more time for them to get away from this dungeon break zone. If I didn''t, then the Orc King would easily find them and kill them all.


    So while watching the Orc King go on a ughter, I slowly pulled out a staff that I pointed down at them.


    This staff was the staff from the Fishman Priest.


    The reason that I didn''t pull this out sooner was because I had been trying to save my mana.


    I was only using the orcs as a distraction, so I didn''t want to waste my own mana since I needed that for when I escaped from this ce. But with the way that the orcs were being taken down, I had no choice but to use my mana to buff them.


    They were just being taken out too quickly¡­


    So with a sh of light from the staff, there was a light that appeared around the remaining orcs that were around the Orc King.


    When this light appeared, the Orc King suddenly stopped rampaging.


    It stood there and looked at the orcs that were covered in this light, as if it was thinking about something. The look of rage that had been on its face had also disappeared and it was just deeply knitting its brows.


    The orcs didn''t waste this opportunity and used their speed to move away even faster from the Orc King.


    After a long moment of silence, the Orc King suddenly charged out at one of the orcs in front of it.


    The difference in speed between them was clear even though the orc had been buffed with the power of the staff. It seemed that the natural difference between the normal orc and the Orc King was just too great for even the buff to negate it.


    The only thing that the orc could do in the end was grab a stone and throw it at the Orc King.


    The Orc King just shattered that stone with a single swing of its hand and the fragments were actually sent right back at the orc, killing it on the spot. But the Orc King wasn''t done just yet.


    All of a sudden, the Orc King suddenly grabbed that orc and started swinging it around as if it was preparing for something.


    Then all of a sudden, the Orc King released its grip on the orc.


    The moment that the Orc King released its grip, that orc flew through the air and mmed into a building.


    But the building that this orc corpse mmed into wasn''t just any building.


    It mmed right into the building that was beside the one that I was hiding behind.


    The orc corpse was smashed to pieces, but it had enough impact that it was able to create arge hole in the building itself. Thisrge hole caused the building structure to falter and in no time, that building copsed.


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    If it had been a bit more to the side, it would have hit the building that I was hiding behind¡­


    The way that the Orc King was looking over in this direction, it was almost as if it was looking for something.


    "Did it sense me?" I couldn''t help saying under my breath in a tense voice.


    The Orc King just looked in this direction for a bit longer before turning around to charge at another one of the orcs that was nearby.


    When I saw this, I knew that I had to do something, so I had the Echo Bat give an order.


    The orcs that had been running suddenly stopped and they all picked up rubble that they threw at the Orc King from every direction. They didn''t stop after throwing just a single stone, they kept grabbing more and throwing more stones at the Orc King.


    The Orc King didn''t seem bothered at all by the fact that the orcs were throwing stones at it as it kept charging forward.


    When the stones came close, the Orc King just simply swung its club around itself and deflected all of the stones.


    Some of the stones hit other stones and shattered in the air.


    Some of the stones were rebounded back at the orcs and killed them on the spot.


    The Orc King didn''t care as it grabbed the orc in front of it and spun it around a few times above its head before suddenly turning around to face me.@@novelbin@@


    When it was facing me, it suddenly stopped spinning that orc around and sent it flying right at me.


    "Shit! It does know where I am!" I cursed under my breath.

 Chapter 99 Dungeon break (11)

    "Ke, ke." Coughing a few times, I slowly stood up.


    It was just that when I stood up, it was very obvious that I wasn''t in good condition.


    My legs were shaking as I stood up, which showed that I was barely able to hold myself up.


    When the Orc King saw this, it narrowed its eyes to look at me before suddenly moving faster.


    Even though I seemed like I was on myst legs, the Orc King could see the traces of struggle that were in my eyes. The Orc King seemed to recognize that I didn''t give up, which was why it wanted to finish me off as soon as possible.


    But this was also what I wanted to see.


    When the Orc King came closer and closer, I first pulled out the staff to buff myself before pulling out the great sword to wield along with the trident. Others might not be able to wield the two of them together, but the strength that I possessed allowed me to wield one weapon in each hand.


    With these two weapons, I faced the Orc King as if I was prepared for death.


    I could feel the Echo Bat''s ws tensing on my shoulder.


    Earlier I had given it the order to try and stall the Orc King, but that hadpletely failed.


    The difference in grade was just too big that the Echo Bat wasn''t able to affect the Orc King at all. The Orc King was just too strong for the Echo Bat''s hypnosis to have the slightest effect, so it didn''t even stop for a second even though the Echo Bat used its hypnosis.


    "I''m fine, just go up and watch."


    The Echo Bat''s w tensed again when it heard this as if it was afraid of something, but eventually it let go and flew up into the air.


    I looked right at the Orc King and prepared for myst stand.


    With a single step, the Orc King suddenly disappeared.


    When it reappeared, it was already right in front of me.


    The speed that the Orc King moved at really could be considered a cheat¡­


    That was the thought that ran through my head before I focused on the Orc King in front of me. With my left hand, I swung the great sword up at it as if I wanted to sweep it away.


    The Orc King just simply grabbed the great sword with its free hand.


    It didn''t even use the club, it just grabbed the great sword with its bare hand.


    In the end, the great sword wasn''t able to pierce through the thick skin of the Orc King, though it was able to make a mark at least and draw a few drops of blood. But that was it, it was only able to draw a few drops of blood.


    After grabbing the great sword, the Orc King wanted to pull it and me towards it.


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    Only I knew what it was thinking and let go of the great sword right away.


    Instead, I used my other hand to flick the trident and gather up a pir of water that shot up at the Orc King.


    The Orc King swung the club down at the pir of water, but it seemed that there wasn''t enough force to stop it. That was because I was using all the mana that I had to create this pir of water just so the Orc King couldn''t stop it.


    In the end, the pir of water separated me and the Orc King.


    This would have been the perfect opportunity to run away, but I wasn''t nning on running away.


    I knew that if I did, it wouldn''t take long for the Orc King to catch me.


    So the only thing that I could do was¡­


    Ssh!


    With a loud sshing sound, the pir of water fell down and the Orc King was able to see what was happening.


    But the moment that the pir of water came down, the Orc King was shocked to find that there was a sharp fang that wasing towards it.


    The worst part of this was that it could feel a sense of dangering from this sharp fang.


    If it had the time, the Orc King would have dodged out of the way.


    But it just didn''t have the time, so the only thing that the Orc King could do was raise its club to stop it.


    When the club made contact with the fang¡­


    "Crack!"


    The club actually shattered apart and was turned into splinters of wood by the fang.


    The fang continued to pierce towards the Orc King without any impediment at all.


    The Orc King could only use its hand to block the fang, but even then it wasn''t able to stop it as it pierced right through the Orc King''s hand.


    In the end, the Orc King was pierced right through the chest with the fang that was stabbing towards it.


    It reached all the way to the other side of the Orc King and it spat out blood because of this, but the Orc King seemed to refuse to fall. It was still standing even though there was a fang that was piercing through its body.@@novelbin@@


    The Orc King tried to use its other hand to attack the one that had stabbed it with this fang, but it just wasn''t able to.


    It felt like it was losing all of its strength and not just because it had been stabbed like this.


    That was because there was a poison that was also coating the fang.


    This was a poison that I had gotten from the Vine Serpent, so it wasn''t a weak poison at all.


    It was more than enough to poison this Orc King and stop it from moving.


    The Orc King could only stare in shock as it never thought that the prey that it thought it could easily defeat would actually kill it like this.


    Then the Orc King fell backwards with arge thud.


    But at the same time, I also fell backwards andnded with my back to the ground.

 Chapter 103 Third familiar

    There was a part of me that was skeptical about this since the Orc King was a monster that had broken free of the dungeon.


    Without the influence of the dungeon system, it was unknown if it would even drop anything good.


    But this was an A Rank Monster, so I was willing to take that risk.


    I didn''t believe that an A Rank Monster would give anything bad.


    Though there was the matter of the Scavenger Rabbit being afraid of the Orc King''s corpse even though it was already dead.


    I didn''t know if that was a good sign or not, but it was certainly a sign that there was something special about the Orc King''s corpse.


    At the very least, it shouldn''t give me anything bad.


    It took a moment to calm the Scavenger Rabbit down, but then it went forward to start digging through the Orc King''s corpse.@@novelbin@@


    There was also a trace of excitement that was on the Scavenger Rabbit''s face when it did this that showed that it was likely that something good woulde from the Orc King.


    After a while, the Scavenger Rabbit turned around to show me what it looted.


    I didn''t really feel anything until I saw something familiar that the Scavenger Rabbit was holding.


    I had to take it and put it up in front of my face for a closer look before I was able to figure out just what this thing was.


    It was another Summoning Scroll.


    Even after the dungeons that I cleared, I had never found another one of these¡­


    Thest one had given me the Scavenger Rabbit, so I couldn''t help wondering just what this one would give me.


    There was no doubt in my mind that I would be using this thing.


    I was just worried that I would summon another familiar that was strange¡­


    But even if the familiars that I summoned were strange, there was no doubting the power that they had.


    If it wasn''t for the Echo Bat and the Scavenger Rabbit, I certainly never would have reached the point that I was currently at.


    It was all because of them that I had been able to gather all of these powers and items for myself.


    So even if this Summoning Scroll gave me another strange familiar, I would ept it.


    Taking a deep breath, I finally calmed myself down and then took the Summoning Scroll in both hands.


    In one single movement, I ripped the scroll in half and activated it.


    When the scroll was ripped apart, it turned into bits of light that fell to the ground.


    It was just like before where the light seemed to form a swirl of light that seemed to be summoning something.


    But there was one thing that was differentpared to before.


    The swirl of light in front of me was much more intense than the one that had appeared when I summoned the Scavenger Rabbit.


    "It seems like the result will be different this time." I couldn''t help saying to myself with a trace of excitement.


    Perhaps I''ll finally be able to summon a familiar that was higher than 9th ss Low Grade.


    But in the end, the swirl of light seemed to calm down and the familiar that was summoned was revealed.


    The moment that I saw that familiar, there was a bitter smile that appeared on my face.


    That was because in the center of the swirl of light was a little white kitten that seemed to be sleeping.


    It didn''t seem to have a single care in the world as it slept there on the ground, even though it had just been summoned.


    I didn''t know what to do at first, but that didn''t matter since the Scavenger Rabbit was already moving over to the little white kitten. The way that it moved seemed like it was swaggering towards the little white kitten.


    Aftering over, the Scavenger Rabbit tapped on the little white kitten''s side a few times which woke it up.


    As the little white kitten woke up, the Scavenger Rabbit took a stance as if it was trying to show off. It was just waiting for the little white kitten to see it so that it could show its superiority.


    But when the little white kitten woke up, it looked at the Scavenger Rabbit with an annoyed look and just scratched its face with its ws.


    The Scavenger Rabbit waspletely caught off guard by the little white kitten that it wasn''t able to react in time, but it wouldn''t have mattered. The little white kitten was actually faster than the Scavenger Rabbit, so it wouldn''t have been able to dodge in time.


    After being scratched like this, the Scavenger Rabbit immediately turned around to look at me with an aggrieved look.


    It seemed like it wanted toin about the little white kitten, but I wasn''t in the mood to care about that.


    That was because the little white kitten had also noticed me.


    It slowly got up while looking at me and then walked over to my side.


    Aftering over, it circled me twice before¡­rubbing its head up against my leg.


    The Scavenger Rabbit looked even more aggrieved seeing this and it came over to stomp its foot on the ground as if it was still angry.


    I just shook my head with a faint smile seeing this.


    The Echo Bat also flew out of the summoning space and then pped the Scavenger Rabbit on the head before looking at the little white kitten with an approving look.


    The little white kitten treated the Echo Bat differently.


    It seemed to be impressed by the Echo Bat, so it treated it with respect. Stay tuned for updates on My Virtual Library Empire


    The way that the little white kitten approached the Echo Bat was almost like it wanted to take the Echo Bat as a big brother.


    The Echo Bat gave another nod of approval before patting the little white kitten on the head.


    The Scavenger Rabbit just looked aggrieved the entire time.


    I shook my head with a faint smile seeing them act this way.

 Chapter 105 New Explorer

    A weekter, I returned to the Explorer Association.


    I was cleared from the hospital much sooner, but the moment that I left the hospital, I received a threatening call from An Xue Yun.


    She said that if I didn''t take the rest of the week off to recuperate, she would show me how angry she could really be.


    I didn''t know what An Xue Yun''s true identity was, but I had already seen plenty of what she could do. So I figured that it was better not to piss her off or else it might be a bit troublesome.@@novelbin@@


    But now that a week has passed, I just couldn''t remain idle.


    The previous dungeon break had already shown me how weak I am still.


    If it wasn''t for the lucky dragon fang and poison from the Vine Serpent that I got, then I wouldn''t have been able to take down the Orc King. The Orc King showed me just how outssed I was whenpared to A Rank Monsters.


    The only way for me to be stronger was to dive into the dungeons and find new items to make myself stronger.


    The only way to dive into the dungeons was through the Explorer Association.


    So I was back to the Explorer Association.


    "Boss, are you alright? You can rest a bit longer if you want." Wang Rong said when he met me at the entrance of the Explorer Association.


    Since I was going into a dungeon, I naturally called Wang Rong and brought him along as well.


    In the future, he would be my tank, so he had to be stronger as well.


    I just calmly shook my head and said, "I''m fine. Let''s go and find a dungeon to explore."


    Wang Rong still had a worried look on his face, but he eventually nodded in agreement and followed behind me.


    But then as if he remembered something, he took something out of his bag and handed it over to me.


    I raised a brow to look at him when he did and he said, "This is breakfast from my little sister. She says that you have to take care of yourself."


    As he said this, there was a trace of a bitter smile that appeared on his lips.


    I looked at it for a bit before asking in a strange voice, "Is there only one portion?"


    Wang Rong could hear the strange tone in my voice, so he said, "It''s fine, I already had breakfast before heading out, so you can have this."


    I raised a brow again before shaking my head to say, "No, I''m fine."


    Wang Rong slightly knitted his brows when he saw this before saying, "Boss, are you saying that you won''t take my little sister''s handmade breakfast?"


    There was a slightly aggressive tone to his voice when he said this that surprised me, but I just calmly said, "I''ve already had breakfast, so I can''t eat it even if I took it."


    "Oh." Wang Rong said in a surprised voice before slowly nodding and putting the breakfast back into his bag. Under his breath, I heard him say, "I tried, little sister. He''s the one that doesn''t want it."


    A trace of bitterness filled me when I heard this as I had a vague idea of what he was talking about.


    It was just that I didn''t think that I made that kind of impression on Wang Jing in the short period that I met her¡­


    Pretending like I didn''t hear anything, I went over to the receptionist desk where An Xue Yun was. But the moment that I came over, I was surprised to find that there was someone already there.


    This person just stood there by An Xue Yun''s desk, looking around as if they were looking for someone.


    When they saw the two of us walking over, their eyes immediately lit up.


    Though the direction that they were looking in was more directed towards me rather than towards Wang Rong.


    "Lin Fan, you''re finally here! I heard that you wereing here today, so I came to see you!" She said while waving her hand at me.


    I immediately recognized who she was since she had made a deep impression on me thest time that we met.


    It was Iris.


    "What are you doing here?" I asked in a confused voice.


    She pouted her lips when I asked her this before saying, "You didn''t even tell me that you wereing here. I had to find out from the bodyguards that you wereing this morning."


    A bitter smile appeared on my lips before I asked, "Shouldn''t you be at school right now?"


    The new school year had just started, so Iris should be at the Sacred Academy right now.


    It didn''t make sense that she would run to a ce like this.


    "You''re surprised, aren''t you?" Iris said with a teasing smile which instantly made many people take a step back.


    Even I was a bit dazed when I saw her smiling at me like this.


    But I still gave a slight nod in response.


    "Well, it''s because I''m here to do some extracurricr activity. I became an Explorer to go into the dungeons for experience, so that''s why I''m allowed toe here." After saying this, she thought for a bit before adding, "Not to mention that the Sacred Academy is a pretty hands off school, so they allow their students to pursue their interests."


    I was stunned when I heard this since this was clearly not what I expected.


    Being an Explorer was not something that was particrly looked fondly on, so someone that was the daughter of two World Explorers shouldn''t havee to a ce like this.


    But here she was standing in front of me.


    I really didn''t know how to react.


    Seeing the stunned look on my face, Iris'' smile became wider before she said, "Alright, let''s not stand around any longer. Since I''m here, let''s go into a dungeon together."


    "Ke." There was a cough that came from the receptionist desk.

 Chapter 109 Death Forest

    It didn''t take long for Mo Yun to show up at the entrance of the Explorer Association.


    When he arrived, he came in and ushered us over to his car.


    Though from the corner of my eye, I could see that there were others that followed us.


    It seemed that after what happened, Iris had received quite a few new bodyguards.


    But before I could be worried about what was happening, I received a text.


    "We''re not going to follow you in. You''ll have to keep the young miss safe."


    This was the text that I received from the bodyguard that acted as my contact with the Huo Family.


    I was surprised to receive this text, but it didn''t feel like it was some kind of trick.


    After all, if it was, why would they bother texting me like this?


    It really felt strange that they were doing this, but there was no time to think about it.


    With Mo Yun''s fast driving, it took us no time at all to arrive at the dungeon that we were heading to today.


    During this time, Wang Rong and Iris chatted quite a bit with Mo Yun. He was someone that I acknowledged as being charismatic, so it was only natural that he was able to tame the two of them as well.


    When we arrived, he looked at me to say, "I never thought that you would be rising this quickly. I truly look forward to seeing what you be in the future."


    With a smile and a nod, I said, "Please look forward to it."


    He was certainly someone that I wanted as a friend in the future.


    I remembered how he drove me to the dungeon zone, a dangerous thing that others wouldn''t have done. This was a favour that I would never forget and hoped that I would have a chance to repay in the future.


    This time, there were far less people that were gathered around the entrance of the dungeon.


    Thest dungeon that I went to was a D Rank Dungeon, it was also known as a median dungeon.@@novelbin@@


    The rank that most Summoners and Explorers were at was the D Rank.


    That meant that this was the median level for them.


    That was why most Summoners and Explorers either went to D Rank or E Rank Dungeons. Those were the ces where they would be able to make the most profit without risking their lives too much.


    C Rank Dungeons were much more dangerous and it was unlikely that they would be able to earn much from entering a C Rank Dungeon.


    That was why most people just avoided the C Rank Dungeon and favoured the D or E Rank Dungeons.


    With less people gathered around, it was much easier for us to enter the dungeon.


    But since there were less people around, that meant that more people took notice of who entered the dungeon. That included someone who took a photo of Lin Fan''s group and sent it somewhere.


    ¡­


    "So it''s the Death Forest! We''re going after them!"


    The red haired young man still hadn''t given up.


    The of people that he deployed had worked and he found the dungeon that Iris had gone to.


    But the look on his face almost seemed like he wanted to kill someone.


    "If he disappears in the dungeon, then no one can say anything." A fierce and terrifying smile appeared on his lips.


    ¡­


    When we entered the dungeon, the first thing that hit us was the stench of this ce.


    It was the smell of decay since this was a dungeon that was filled with undead monsters.


    As the name suggested, this was a dungeon that was filled with death energy which meant that the monsters that filled this ce were a bunch of undead. Find your next adventure on My Virtual Library Empire


    At the very least, there weren''t any undead that were at the entrance of the dungeon.


    But aftering in, I could see the worried look that was on Iris'' face.


    "Is everything alright? If there''s something wrong, then you can leave first and we''lle get you when we''re done here."


    She slowly shook her head before saying, "I''m fine, I''m fine, I''m fine."


    I might have believed her if she didn''t say it three times¡­No, even if she didn''t say this three times, it was hard to believe her with the way that she was acting.


    It was clear that she was on guard against something.


    "ck."


    "Eek!" Iris screamed as she jumped towards me and grabbed me.


    I couldn''t help falling into a daze when this happened since¡­I was hit head on by her airbags.


    She wasn''t hiding her figure, so they hit me right in the face¡­


    But it didn''t seem like she had time to notice this as she was hiding her face in my chest, as if she was afraid of seeing whatever made that noise.


    In the end, it was Wang Rong who awkwardly said, "It''s just some bones scattered on the side." He said this while pointing at the pile of bones that had copsed beside the entrance.


    With awkward coughs, Iris and I separated from each other.


    After another awkward moment of silence, Iris slowly said, "I might not be as fine as I said I was. I might¡­now this is just a hypothetical, but I might be afraid of the undead¡­"


    Bitter smiles appeared on the faces of Wang Rong and me.


    If you were afraid of the undead, why did youe with us in the first ce?


    But it wasn''t as if we didn''t have an answer for that.


    Still, it was already toote to fix this, so we could only bring her along with us.


    Raising my arm, I said with a sigh, "Then stay close."


    While I didn''t feelfortable like that, it was better than her running around and causing more trouble.


    Iris'' eyes lit up when she saw this and she quickly grabbed my arm with a happy look on her face.


    It was as if she suddenly overcame her fear.


    It made the bitter smiles on our faces be even more bitter.


    Still like this, we headed off into the forest.

 Chapter 113 Boss, is this for me?

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    A lich¡­


    It was one of those famous monsters that one heard stories about.


    In short, it was one of those monsters that could be considered a disaster since it was a monster that could create even more monsters. Every person that fell at the hands of the lich could be another monster.


    That was why whenever a lich appeared, a disaster zone would be dered and everyone would be evacuated.


    There were few people that lived to tell the tale after fighting a lich.


    And it seemed that there was a lich in this dungeon.


    Was it the boss of the dungeon?


    If it was, then this dungeon wouldn''t just be considered a C Rank Dungeon, would it?


    It felt like it was leading up to something and I couldn''t help feeling worried about this, but in the end¡­there was nothing that I could do about it now.


    I was already here, so it wasn''t as if I would run away.


    If I couldn''t beat the lich, then at least I could still run away.


    That was the thought that passed through my mind before I started looking at the other items that the Scavenger Rabbit presented me.


    The other items were more expected from the Skeleton Knight.


    It was a set of bone armour and a bone sword.


    I didn''t need them to be appraised to know what kind of power these two items had.


    Just rapping on it with my hand was already more than enough to show how strong these two items were.


    After I finished examining the items, I turned around to wave for Wang Rong and Iris toe over.


    Though before turning around, I made sure to slip the Lich''s Seal away.


    It wouldn''t be good to show this thing to the two of them.


    Making them worried would just harm us rather than help us.


    Once they came over, I could see the way that Wang Rong was looking at the items that I was holding.


    So I just casually handed him¡­the armour.


    "Boss, is this for me?" Wang Rong asked in a strange voice that seemed to have a trace of disappointment.


    I could see the way that he was looking at the sword that I was still holding, as if he wanted it as well.


    But I didn''t hand it to him.


    There was something else that I was nning on giving him.


    With a nod, I said, "That and something else."


    With a wave of my hand, there was arge sword that suddenly appeared in front of me.


    When Wang Rong saw this, his eyes opened wide since he recognized it.


    It was the great sword that he had wanted previously, but I had taken for myself.@@novelbin@@


    Now that I had found a better sword, it was only natural that I would pass this great sword down to him. If he became stronger with the great sword, then that would be good for our group.


    But there was another trace of disappointment in Wang Rong''s eyes when he saw this great sword.


    He looked at the bone sword in my hand with a longing look before picking up that great sword.


    When he did, there was a bitter smile that appeared on his face since he could feel just how heavy this great sword was.


    While he was able to wield it, it was definitely hard for him to swing it around.


    It would be better if he took the lighter bone sword.


    But it didn''t seem like I was going to let him take it.


    Seeing the way that he looked at me, I just said, "Go on, swing it around a bit and see how it feels."


    When he heard this, the bitter smile on his face became more bitter.


    Wang Rong wasn''t a fool, he could clearly hear the teasing tone that was in my voice as I said this.


    But still, I just waited for him to swing that sword around.


    After swinging it around for a bit and getting a feel for it, it seemed like Wang Rong was getting used to the weight of the great sword. At least it seemed that he was swinging it much more smoothlypared to before.


    So I said, "Why don''t you put on your armour as well and test it all together."


    Wang Rong''s face had another bitter smile appear on it when he heard this.


    He looked at me as if he was asking me to let him off, but I just looked at him with a smile as if I was just waiting for him to do it.


    In the end, it was Iris who spoke up to help Wang Rong.


    "Shouldn''t we leave this ce? There might be other monsters that show up soon since the Skeleton Knight is dead."


    With a nod of agreement, I said, "You''re right, we should go."


    If it was before, I wouldn''t have done something like tease Wang Rong like this.


    If it was before, I would have beenpletely focused on clearing the dungeon as soon as possible and getting as much loot out of this ce.


    It was certainly different now since it even felt a bit fun exploring the dungeon with them.


    I could tell that I was slowly opening up to the two of them and feeling more rxed around them.


    Perhaps this might be a bad thing in some cases since it made people sloppy, but I didn''t feel that it was a bad thing in this case since it felt like we were working better than before.


    There was a sense of trust that was hard to describe between us¡­


    Or perhaps it was just good to be able to trust people with some of my secrets.


    In short, it felt good to have the two of them with me in this dungeon.


    "Alright, let''s go before the Fanged Wolves disappear." I said before getting on the back of one of the Fanged Wolves.


    Iris got on the same one as me while Wang Rong was left with the other one for himself.


    We headed back to where we left the undead.

 Chapter 116 To the grave

    When it was all over, there were only bits and pieces of the red haired young master and hisckeys that were left behind.


    It wasn''t just the red haired young master that had been ripped to pieces like this, it was also hisckeys that had received the same treatment.


    Their corpses were left the same way to make it seem like they had been killed by the monsters in the dungeon.


    Of course, it wasn''t necessary for them to be taken care of like this.


    It was possible to kill them simply without any pain at all.


    But it was better this way since it allowed me to vent a bit of my anger.


    I didn''t want to cause any trouble, but this red haired young master chose toe after me. He even went as far as chasing after me in this dungeon, so it was clear what he wanted to do.


    As such, I couldn''t show mercy to him.


    Showing mercy to this kind of enemy was just hurting myself.


    After it was done, we walked over to see what remained of the red haired young master and hisckeys. At the same time, I was nning on collecting the things that they had dropped.


    It wasn''t that I was after the stuff that they had, but rather because I needed it to create an alibi.


    Even if the magic weapon that the red haired young master had was an enticing item, I knew that it would be too much trouble keeping it for myself. It would be nothing more than a trouble ma if I were to keep it on my person.


    After all, it was the best evidence that I had been the one that killed the red haired young master and hisckeys.


    So instead of keeping it with me, I was nning on giving it to one of the skeletons and releasing it back into the dungeon.


    If someone killed the skeleton and took the magic sword, then that would be the best proof that the red haired young master was killed in the dungeon.


    As we stood there, Iris had a strange look on her face.


    Eventually, she asked, "Was that really the only way to have done it?"


    It seemed that she had been disturbed with the way that things turned out. It seemed that she wasn''t very supportive of the method that I chose to take care of the red haired young master.


    But even if that was the case¡­


    "I did what I had to do. I have no regrets over what I did." I said with a serious look on my face.


    It wasn''t that I was just saying this for her sake.


    I was very serious about this.


    To me, someone that gave me kindness would be repaid and someone that came at me with hostility would receive hostility in return.


    There was no bending that rule.


    This was a part of me that I needed her to ept if she wanted to keep following me around, or else there would be conflict in the future.


    With everything that had happened between us and how it got the Huo Family involved, it was best to make this clear as soon as possible.


    There was a tense moment of silence that lingered in the air before Iris slowly gave a nod of agreement.


    It seemed like there was still something that she was struggling with based on the look on her face, but she seemed to also push this down as she agreed with me.


    I understand how she felt, so I added, "It isn''t as if I''ll do this every time. As long as they don''t go too far, I won''t do anything to them." Narrowing my eyes to reveal a cold look, I added, "I won''t ever let anyone thates after my life go."


    As I said this, I couldn''t help thinking of Wang Teng¡­


    That was my first time, so it was a memory that would live with me forever.


    However, it was also the reason why I was so firm in this decision.


    Iris gave another nod before turning away from the corpses that were on the ground.


    I didn''t say anything else about this as I also turned away. Experience tales with My Virtual Library Empire


    I had already picked up the things from the ground, so all that was left was scattering the things that belonged to the red haired young master and hisckeys to the undead that were under my control.


    I needed to send them off to the different corners of this dungeon.


    I needed the people that were clearing this dungeon to find the items left behind by the red haired young master and hisckeys to report them in after all.


    When it was done, I turned back to Wang Rong and Iris to say in a serious voice, "This is a matter that we need to take to our graves. We can never speak of this to another soul."


    The two of them also had serious looks on their faces as they took onest look at the corpses on the ground. After taking that look, they nodded in agreement.


    They weren''t fools, they knew the trouble that woulde with admitting to killing the son of the Tide City''s governor.


    They knew that this wasn''t worth whatever fame it would bring.


    Especially for Iris who had to worry about the prestige of the Huo Family and her own status as a student of the Sacred Academy.


    Though it was also that she was afraid of implicating Lin Fan.


    Though this matter did put a bit of a strain on their rtionship, it wasn''t as if it was enough to change her feelings about the man in front of me.


    So she would do what she could to keep this secret.@@novelbin@@


    Wang Rong just knew that it would be dangerous for all of them to admit this, so he would keep this secret.


    Once that was done, we headed off towards the next Elite Monster.

 Chapter 120 Not a lich

    "Let''s leave this thing here for now."


    That was the decision that I came to in the end.


    Iris and Wang Rong looked at me silently for a few seconds before nodding in agreement.


    They understood why I wasn''t touching this strange pir filled with dark energy.


    After all, there was no telling what this thing was.


    If I were to destroy it without that information, it was very likely that I would have provoked something that I didn''t want to provoke.


    Since we''re in the dungeon, it was best not to poke ho nests right now.


    It was better to see what else was in the dungeon before taking care of this thing.


    That was why we headed off to take care of the rest of the Elite Monsters.


    The Elite Monsters of this dungeon were quite easy to take care of since all of them were just like the Skeleton Knight and the Flesh Golem. They were all stationary like NPCs as they stood there in the ce.


    As for the reason for that¡­it was the same reason why the Flesh Golem was standing there in ce.


    After searching around for a bit in the area that the Elite Monsters were stationed in, we would always find one of the strange pirs from before.


    At the same time, it seemed like the pir was always a set distance away from the Elite Monster.


    That just went to show that the Elite Monster had been standing there in ce for no other reason than to protect these strange pirs.


    The one confusing thing was still why those Elite Monsters were standing there guarding the strange pirs and what purpose those strange pirs served.


    Did they serve some kind of special purpose?


    That was the thought that was on my mind until Iris said something.


    "It seems like they''re set up in some kind of formation¡­"


    As soon as she said this, I turned to see that she was holding a piece of paper and a pen in her hand. On that piece of paper there seemed to be some scribbles, but looking closely at it, I was able to see that she had drawn some kind of map.


    She had been jotting down the path that we had taken, as well as theyout of the pirs that we had discovered.


    Based on the drawing that she made, it really seemed like the pirs wereid out in a way that seemed to be surrounding a center point. With the lines that she drew, it showed that there was indeed some kind of formation that was beingid out by the pirs.


    Though we had no idea what kind of formation this was.


    "Let''s see what''s at the center of this."


    Though I said this, I already had a guess as to what was in the center of this formation.


    It was most likely the lich that was the boss of this dungeon.


    This formation was most likely some kind of formation that the lich had set up to achieve some kind of goal. As for what that goal was, it was most likely rted to the dark energy that was inside of these strange pirs. Continue your saga on My Virtual Library Empire


    "It must be trying to strengthen itself, right?"


    That was the thought that passed through my mind after thinking about what the strange pirs were for.


    My guess was that the lich was using the formation of the pirs to gather the dark energy that was necessary for it to evolve even further.


    Even if the lich was already considered a powerful monster, that didn''t mean that it was the most powerful form of undead yet. There were still Elder Liches and Lich Kings that were above the lich.


    So it would only make sense that it would use this formation to try and make itself stronger.


    But it seemed that my guess was wrong.


    That was because when we arrived at the center point of the formation, we found that there wasn''t a lich.


    "Death Knight."@@novelbin@@


    Iris and I said the same thing at the same time when we saw the monster that was standing in the middle of this clearing.


    But it wasn''t the only thing that was in this clearing.


    There were marks that were on the ground and they seemed to be surrounding the Death Knight.


    So our guesses were correct that there was some kind of formation that was here, it was just that my guess was wrong that there would be a lich here.


    Only that still didn''t exin why the lich that had created all of these undead would create this kind of formation for this Death Knight.


    What was it trying to do?


    After staring for a bit, Iris suddenly said, "It seems like a kind of magic array that''s used to gather and condense energy."


    Wang Rong and I both looked at her with surprised looks.


    With an awkward smile, Iris said, "I''ve picked up a few things from the things that my parents taught me."


    Wang Rong still looked confused as he didn''t know who Iris'' parents were, but I just gave an understanding nod since I knew.


    With two World Summoners as parents, it was only expected that she would have this kind of knowledge base.


    "So the magic array is gathering energy for the Death Knight?" I asked her.


    With a nod, Iris said, "That''s right. It seems like it''s set up in a way where it forces that energy that it gathers into the Death Knight itself."


    "But for what reason?" I asked in response.


    This time, Iris shook her head to show that she didn''t know.


    I didn''t me her since I knew that it wasn''t her fault.


    So I just turned back to look at the Death Knight with slightly knitted brows.


    After a while, I said, "Let''s go back."


    The two of them were surprised to hear this, but they agreed with me since they also had a bad feeling about this Death Knight.


    However, I wasn''t going back as if I was leaving the dungeon.


    I was heading to where thest Elite Monster we took down was.

 Chapter 125 A bit too easy…

    Since I had been focused on forming the hand, Iris had gone back to the tablet to keep an eye on the lich just in case it did anything.


    It hadn''t moved at first, but then it suddenly made a move.


    It was only a small move, but any movement from the lich was important.


    Especially since this small movement was actually quite the significant one.


    When I looked at the tablet, I found that the lich had slightly turned its head.


    It was as if the lich had noticed something¡­


    As soon as that happened, I stopped putting more pieces together and waited to see what the lich would do.


    After a while, it seemed like the lich lost interest in whatever it had noticed, but that didn''t mean that I let my guard down. The fact that the lich noticed something like this was a clear sign that putting this hand together was something that the lich cared about.


    Not to mention that there was this aura that came from the hand that was simr to the lich''s¡­and the lich was missing a hand.


    It was obvious that this hand was rted to the lich in some way.


    "What is the range on that camera? How far can you go before you lose control of it?" I suddenly turned to ask Iris this question.


    She was surprised to hear this, but then she quickly said, "We can go to the ends of the world and I would still be able to control it."


    I was surprised by this answer, but I quickly said with a nod, "Alright, we''re changing locations. We''re going to get as far away from this ce as possible."


    It was a good thing that they picked things up fast.


    From my reaction and the reaction that the lich showed earlier, they could already guess what I was thinking.


    In no time at all, we packed up and started heading away from the dungeon.


    But from time to time, we stopped to set up a few traps with the undead along the way.


    Only when we were far away from the passage did I say, "Make sure to keep a close eye on the lich and follow it if it moves. Tell me right away if something happens."


    Iris gave a quick nod before focusing on the tablet.


    At the same time, I turned my attention back on the skeletal hand that I was putting together.@@novelbin@@


    I started finding different pieces that would connect to the hand that I had already created, but I didn''t put them together just yet. With my experience, I knew how close it had to be for the force to pull them together.


    So I made sure to keep them just separated enough that they wouldn''t automatically connect like before.


    Once I had gathered enough of them, I turned to look at Iris to see if she was ready before suddenly bringing them all together.


    As soon as they came together, the same force as before pulled the bones towards the hand that had already formed and in no time at all, the hand wasplete¡­or it was almostplete if not for the singlest piece that I purposefully held back.


    That was because I wanted to see what the reaction from the lich would be if Ipleted this hand.


    The moment that all of those pieces came together, the aura of the skeletal hand became much stronger than before. When it became stronger like this, it was easy to feel the aura that came from this hand.


    It was clear that this hand was the missing hand from the lich since it gave off the same feeling as the lich.


    But what I was more interested in was the reaction of the lich.


    As expected, the lich reacted the moment that the hand was close topletion.


    It immediately stopped reading the book that it had been reading and stood up to look in the direction behind it. It was as if it had sensed something with the way that it suddenly stood up like this.


    After standing there in a daze for a bit, it suddenly started to move.


    It didn''t walk, but rather floated off the ground.


    The way that it moved didn''t seem fast at first, but then it started picking up speed as it moved further away from the library.


    Iris had to push the camera to keep up with the lich which made a bit of sound, but it didn''t seem like the lich cared at all about the camera as it was only focused on a single thing.


    With the way that it was staring forward, it was as if this one thing was the only thing that was on its mind.


    I didn''t hesitate after seeing this.


    Rather, it just confirmed what I had already been thinking and that just made it easier for me.


    So taking thatst piece, I snapped it onto the hand.


    As soon as thisst piece snapped in, the way that the lich moved changed. It was getting further and further away from the camera, while moving faster and faster.


    It seemed that the lich was sensing something that was dangerous to it, which was why it was in a rush.


    As it was getting further and further from the camera, it seemed like the camera would lose it.


    But right before it did get away, we heard something through the camera.


    Discover exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire


    "How did they find my core?"


    As expected, this hand formed from the bones that hade from the Elite Monsters of the dungeon was the core of the lich.


    The core of a lich was what kept the lich alive.


    It was the thing that condensed all of the mana of the lich.


    It was what kept them in this mortal ne.


    So I quickly snapped thest piece into ce and waved my hand at Wang Rong toe help me.


    With the two of us working together, we were able to shatter the hand.


    It almost seemed a bit too easy¡­

 Chapter 129 Give me some face (2)

    When Governor Nangong heard this voice, he couldn''t help revealing a frown.


    It wasn''t that he recognized this voice, it was just that he could feel the pressureing from this voice when it rang out. Find adventures on My Virtual Library Empire@@novelbin@@


    This voice was projected in a simr way to how he had projected his own voice earlier. And since it was projected in a simr way, that meant that Governor Nangong was able to tell just how much power was behind this voice.


    This was a power that wasn''t beneath his own.


    In fact, this was a power that even surpassed his own.


    That was why he had this concerned look on his face.


    "Who are you?" Governor Nangong asked in a slow voice after a long moment of silence.


    As soon as they heard this, the soldiers all revealed surprised looks.


    That was because they knew what kind of personality Governor Nangong had, so they knew that he was not someone thatpromised on things that easily. The fact that he actually backed down to ask this¡­was more than enough to show that the other side wasn''t a normal person.


    Then before anyone could react, the soldiers that had been surrounding the area suddenly parted.


    There was a single path that opened up in the line of soldiers.


    They didn''t even know what moved them. By the time that they reacted, they found that they had been moved out of the way by some force that they couldn''t control.


    Once they had been moved out of the way like this, there was a single figure that walked through this path.


    This slightly bent figure became the center of attention.


    The one that had the strongest reaction from seeing this figure wasn''t Governor Nangong, but rather me because the moment that I saw this person¡­


    "Why is it him?" That was the first thing that I thought when I saw this person.


    "Sir, who are you? Why are you getting involved in this matter?" Governor Nangong said in a cautious voice that waspletely different from the way that he spoke before.


    "I''m no one special, I''m just hoping that you''ll give me a bit of face and let them go for now. After all, I want one of them as my disciple." The old man who appeared said before turning to look at me.


    I was surprised to see him looking at me like this.


    This old man¡­was the old man that had been with my mother and brother when they had gotten caught in the dungeon break.


    He was the one that had been able to keep calm and guide everyone out of the dungeon break zone. He was the one that I had thought had a deep back story, but it seemed that I had underestimated just how deep that back story was¡­


    A very displeased look appeared on Governor Nangong''s face when he heard this.


    After all, it wasn''t just about giving this old man a bit of face.


    It was about letting the one that murdered his son go.


    This was his precious son, the only thing that he had left after his wife died.


    So how could he let this matter go that easily?


    The old man could see the look that was on Governor Nangong''s face, so he said, "Take one attack from me. If you can''t, then just drop this matter for now."


    Governor Nangong still looked displeased when he heard this, but he slowly nodded in agreement.


    After all, he had no idea just how strong this old man really was.


    He could tell that this old man wasn''t inferior to him, but he couldn''t get a full grasp of just how strong this old man was.


    If he could use this one move to judge the old man, then he would be able to figure out if he should go all out against him or not.


    The old man naturally could see the look that was on Governor Nangong''s face, so he raised his hand and created a sword of wind while giving a sigh.


    Governor Nangong couldn''t help slightly knitting his brows when he saw this.


    There was a part of him that seemed to recognize this sword of wind, though he wasn''t certain where he recognized it from. It almost seemed like some kind of memory that was deep inside of him.


    It was this kind of vague memory that made a deep impression on him.


    But it was already toote for him to think anything else since the old man had already finished gathering his attack.


    Governor Nangong didn''t waste time either as he gathered his mes in front of himself to create a wall of mes that would protect him.


    Since it was a wall of mes, one would think that it would have the advantage against wind since wind was what enhanced mes. One thought that the wall of mes would swallow the de of wind, making it even stronger.


    But this old man''s wind sh was different from the wind shes of normal people.


    That was because his mana was much more condensed than normal people''s.


    The way that he shed out and the sh that he released all looked like he was just casually swinging his sword, but Governor Nangong who faced the pressure of this knew that it was anything but normal.


    After all he was in the face of the terrifying pressure that the wind sh was putting on him.


    "This¡­" That was all Governor Nangong was able to say before the wall of mes was scattered.


    Even the mana that he had been gathering to reinforce the wall of mes was scattered with just a single gust of wind from the wind sh.


    When it was over, Governor Nangong was still standing there, but there was now a faint line of blood that was on his neck.


    That showed that if the old man wanted, he could have taken Governor Nangong''s head with just that one sh.


    "Zephyr de Mu Gong?" Governor Nangong slowly said in a shocked voice.

 Chapter 131 Choosing a master (1)

    There was a deathly silence that hung in the air once Governor Nangong and his army were gone.


    That was because none of us dared to move.


    The three of us were all staring at Mu Gong, waiting for him to do anything.


    But Mu Gong didn''t do anything as he kept staring in the direction that Governor Nangong and his soldiers went off in.


    With the way that he stared in that direction, it was almost as if he was seeing something that we weren''t seeing.


    Though after a while, he turned back to look at us.


    Or specifically, he turned to look at me.


    When he was looking at me, he said, "Come, let''s go."


    The three of us all had confused looks on our faces when we heard this.


    I slowly asked him, "Where are we going?"


    "Where else? I''m sure that there are people that are worried about you because of what happened. If I don''t let them see their precious daughter, I''m sure that they''lle charging in soon." Mu Gong said with a faint smile.


    When I heard this, there was a bitter smile that appeared on my face as I slowly looked at Iris.


    She had an embarrassed look after hearing this.


    As for Wang Rong, he really didn''t know much about Iris, so he didn''t understand what Mu Gong was referring to.


    Mu Gong didn''t give us time to think too much about it as with a wave of his hand, we were picked up off the ground. It felt like there was something invisible that was lifting us off the ground.@@novelbin@@


    With his moniker, this was most likely a gust of wind that was currently holding us up.


    But even though he looked like a weak old man, he was anything but weak. At the same time, it seemed that he was someone who very much liked speed.


    It was too fast even for young people like us.


    "Don''t you enjoy the feeling of the wind running through your hair like this?" Mu Gong said while flying through the air.


    Only none of us were able to say anything since we were being hit with the wall of winding at us. It was just too much wind that none of us were able to move a single muscle.


    It even seemed like we were about to be knocked out by the wind.


    It was just a good thing that the dungeon wasn''t far from the Ifrit District where Iris lived, so it didn''t take long for us to arrive.


    The Ifrit District was a district where the rich and powerful lived, so naturally there were many guards that were in this ce. Even the air would be patrolled by powerful guards that would stop any intruders.


    But there wasn''t a single guard that appeared when Mu Gong arrived in the space above the Ifrit District.


    This was a form of respect and at the same time, it was a form of fear.


    Since they protected the rich, it was only natural that they would also have the best equipment that would tell them how strong Mu Gong really was. They would be able to tell that he was one of the World Guardians and they wouldn''t dare to stop him.


    That was just the respect that one received once they reached a certain point.


    When we arrived, that was when he finally slowed down and we were able to talk again.


    Though we didn''t really have the mind to say anything as¡­


    "Huff, huff, huff."


    All three of us were bent over while panting, trying to catch our breaths.


    The wind pressure from the flight just now was so much that it even made it hard to breathe. So we were actually quite winded from being hit in the face with the wind like this.


    But during this time, there were people that came over to where we were.


    They were people that we recognized.


    It was Iris'' mother and father.


    When they walked over, the first thing that they did wase over to Iris'' side to make sure that she was alright.


    The two of them seemed just like normal parents.


    But then again, it wasn''t strange that they would be like normal parents.


    Even if they were World Summoners, that didn''t mean that they weren''t normal parents.


    So it wasn''t strange that they were worried about her when they heard that their daughter was in danger.


    After a few minutes of this, they invited us in.


    Though judging by the way that they looked at Mu Gong, it seemed like they were even a bit afraid of him. Even as World Summoners, they weren''t able topare to this World Guardian.


    That was how different their titles were.


    After sitting down in the same living room, Mu Gong was the one that spoke first as he said, "You have to make a decision now."


    I was surprised by this since he was looking at me when he said this.


    With the way that he looked at me as he said this, it really seemed like there was some kind of important decision that I would have to make. It was just that I didn''t really understand what he meant by this.


    After all, I didn''t even know what he was referring to.


    Seeing this, Mu Gong didn''t answer my doubts as he turned to look at Alexandra to say, "You want to take him in as a disciple as well, right? Well, I''m interested in taking him in as my disciple, so he''ll have to decide which one of us he will follow."


    As soon as she heard this, Alexandra couldn''t help knitting her brows.


    It was as if she was unhappy that she had been exposed like this.


    But I was more surprised since I didn''t know that they had this n at all. Continue your adventure with My Virtual Library Empire


    Now there were these two different options that wereid out in front of me and it seemed that I had to make a decision¡­

 Chapter 135 Irregular

    After getting what he wanted, Mu Gong just left in a hurry.


    He said that he would contact me in the future if he had something for me before heading off.


    He didn''t even leave a way for me to contact him or for him to contact me¡­


    So there was a bitter smile on my face.


    And since Mu Gong was gone, there was no reason for us to stay here any longer since we were just bothering the Huo Couple.


    In the end, we followed An Long to the Explorer Association.


    Even Iris came along, but it didn''t seem like her parents were against it.


    Once we arrived at the Explorer Association, we didn''t go to the same counter as usual.


    Instead, An Long brought us up to the top floor of the Explorer Association and showed us into an office.


    This office was clearly an important one and there was a name te that said, "President of the Explorer Association." So it was clear that this was his office that we were in.


    Once we sat down, the first thing that An Long did was¡­


    "Ha¡­"


    He leaned back in the chair that he sat down in and let out a long sigh as if he waspletely exhausted. This waspletely different from the image that he gave off as the president of the Explorer Association.


    None of us knew what to think about this or what to do.


    It was only An Xue Yun who was still able to act normally.


    But this was her father, so she should already be used to any other personalities that he had.


    It almost seemed like he was forcing himself to act the way that he had been acting just for the sake of the Explorer Association.


    It took a few minutes before he finally opened his eyes to look at us who were just awkwardly standing there since we had no idea what to do with An Long like this.


    When he opened his eyes to look at us, the first person that he looked at was¡­me.


    "You, you''re now an Irregr." Discover stories with My Virtual Library Empire


    "Huh?" I said in a confused voice since I didn''t understand what he suddenly said to me. After waiting for so long, the first thing that he said was that he was making me an Irregr.


    Only I had no idea what he meant by Irregr.


    An Xue Yun seemed to expect this, so she exined it to me.


    It turned out that Irregr was a special title in the Explorer Association.


    It was only given to those that deserved it and to be deserving of it, one had to prove that they were indeed an irregr. They had to show their ability that far surpassed all other Explorers, which would them the title of Irregr.


    After everything that I had done¡­it seemed like I did fit this title.


    Especially since three World Summoners and one World Guardian had been gathered because of me.


    Well, it was more like two World Summoners and one World Guardian.


    It wasn''t as if Iris'' father, Huo Fan Tian had been gathered because of me.


    It was more that he was dragged along by his wife.


    Perhaps I might have wanted this title in the beginning, but now after everything that had happened and all of the attention that I''ve drawn¡­it was better if I didn''t draw as much attention.


    It was better if I just remained lowkey and avoided everyone''s attention.


    So it wouldn''t be good to get this Irregr title¡­


    "I appreciate it, but I think I''m good."


    "Huh? You''re good? Do you even know what you''re saying?" An Long immediately sat up in his chair and pointed his finger at me when he heard this.


    With the way that he looked at me, it seemed that he wasn''t happy that I was rejecting this.


    "Instead of getting another title that would draw people''s attention to me, it would be better for me to just remain lowkey and slowly develop my powers."


    "Who said anything about having you draw attention? That''s the reason why we''re making you an Irregr instead of just directly increasing your rank. The Irregr title is an internal title that is hidden from everyone else, it''s something that only the people of the Explorer Association will know about."


    An Xue Yun added, "It''s also a title that would give you plenty of benefits."


    I turned to look at her as she described the benefits that came from the title.


    When I heard this, I couldn''t help feeling a bit moved by what she said.


    It seemed that the title really wasn''t an empty one, it seemed like the Irregrs got quite a bit from the Explorer Association. Almost as if they were being trained up by the Explorer Association.


    As if she could see what I was thinking, An Xue Yun added, "Those that receive the Irregr title are usually those that are important to the Explorer Association that we try to keep safe."


    She said this with a meaningful look.


    I didn''t say anything as I just looked straight at her, as if I was confirming something.


    When I saw that her expression didn''t change at all, I gave a slight nod.


    An Long seemed even more unhappy with this as he said, "Do you really think that the Irregr title is something that is so easy to obtain? Do you think that we give this title to just anyone? Is it really something that you can get at the market like vegetables?"


    Though heined, it didn''t seem like he was going to take back this title which made a faint smile appear on my lips.


    I understood what he was nning to do.


    Basically, he was using this as a way to show that the Explorer Association supported me and at the same time, he was building a bond with me just like how Mu Gong had done by making me an in name disciple.


    With the terms that came with it, it really didn''t seem like there was anything bad about it.@@novelbin@@


    So I just gave a nod as I said, "Alright, I''ll take it."


    An Long gave another displeased snort, but he didn''t say anything this time.


    An Xue Yun just shook her head before going to the side to grab some papers that she wanted An Long to sign.


    The only one that seemed a bit worried about this was Iris who had a nervous look in her eyes.

 Chapter 138 Hide your identity

    The letter that I received this morning was actually an invitation to a specialpetition.


    It was one where those that had special talent from all over the country would be chosen topete against one another.


    This was the kind ofpetition that wouldn''t be open to the public, it was only those that had a certain level of influence that would be allowed to watch thispetition.


    This was without a doubt apetition that would attract a lot of attention.


    Yet this crazy old man was sending me to a ce like this¡­


    Wasn''t this basically asking me to expose myself?


    That was why I needed more information about thispetition so I could figure out what my next step was. They already knew enough about me that they were already sending this invitation, so I needed to know what to do about them.


    The only ones that could give me information were those that had enough status to know about thepetition.


    That was why I came to see An Long.


    At the same time, it was also why I called Iris over since her parents were also World Summoners. They might have also told her something or she could have asked them about thister for me.


    As for Wang Rong¡­


    Well, I could only apologize to him that he didn''t have the status to help me in this matter.


    After seeing this letter, An Long looked at me and asked, "So what''s the matter? Do you want me to give you information on what thispetition is about? I''m afraid that even someone like me can''t do something like that."


    I couldn''t help knitting my brows when I heard this as I thought that he was just making fun of me, but it seemed like he was being serious.


    So I said, "You should know that I don''t want to show off, so sending me to this kind ofpetition¡­"


    An Long slowly gave an understanding nod, but he still asked, "What''s the problem?"


    "Huh?" I waspletely caught off guard by him saying this.


    After all, it was impossible that he didn''t see the problem here.


    Stay tuned with My Virtual Library Empire


    So he was either making fun of me or he knew something that I didn''t know.


    It didn''t seem like he was about to say it at first, but then An Xue Yun said, "Why are you trying to act all cool? Just tell us what you know already."


    Another bitter smile appeared on An Long''s face when he heard this as he looked at his daughter like he was saying, "Why can''t you just let me act this way for a bit? I''m your father, why are you treating me like this?"


    But he didn''t say this out loud.


    Instead, he just gave a sigh before turning back to me to say, "You can just participate in thepetition while hiding your identity."


    "What?" I immediately said in a surprised voice.


    He just looked at me and gave another sigh before saying, "It''s one of the rules of thepetition. This is a specialpetition that brings in talents from all over the country, so there''s no doubt that there would be grudges between people. That''s why you''re allowed to hide your identity when participating. Though if your method of hiding your identity is broken by others, then there''s nothing that you can do. At the very least, it gives you a chance topete fairly without anyone targeting you because of past grudges."


    After this long exnation, I started feeling that perhaps thispetition that I had been invited to was different from what I thought it was.


    But it wasn''t as if I had been moved yet.


    As if he could see this, An Long added, "The prize for thispetition is special since it''s something thates from the country itself. At the same time, the dungeon that thispetition takes ce in is special since it has loot that wouldn''t drop from any other dungeon. It''s one that is monopolized by the country, so only those that have permission can enter the dungeon normally. The only other chance to enter this dungeon is during thispetition."


    After he finished, he looked at me with a smile that almost seemed like he was trying to entice me.


    The more that he said, the more moved I was.


    It seemed that Mu Gong hadn''t just done this randomly, it seemed that he had actually thought things through before arranging this for me.


    But still, it wasn''t as if I liked having this kind of thing suddenly sprung on me like this. I really would have preferred some kind of warning before this thing suddenly popped onto me.


    After thinking about it, my decision was¡­


    "Do you know how long I have before I respond to this?"@@novelbin@@


    "Huh?" This time, it was An Long''s turn to be surprised.


    After all, he thought that after everything that he said, Lin Fan would immediately choose to ept this invitation. But instead, he was now asking how long he had before he had to ept it.


    It even seemed like he was leaning on rejecting this invitation.


    But this was an opportunity for him, so he couldn''t just let him waste it.


    "Are you sure that you''ve thought this through?" An Long asked in a serious voice.


    I didn''t hesitate for a single second as I said with a nod, "That''s right, I want to dy this as long as possible so I can prepare for it. If I don''t feel that I''m ready, then I won''t go."


    After all, this was apetition between elites of the country, so it wasn''t as if it was a ce that I would thrive in.


    I didn''t think that I was fully prepared for this, even if it was an opportunity.


    I could see the strange way that An Long looked at me, but I just looked right back at him with the same calm look on my face.


    So he said with a sigh, "Two weeks, you have two weeks to respond. Thepetition starts in a month."


    I gave a nod before turning to An Xue Yun to say, "Can you find some dungeons for me?"


    An Xue Yun quickly nodded in response before heading out.


    When they left, An Long watched them leave with a strange look on his face.


    In the end, all he could say was¡­


    "This kid is too cautious."

 Chapter 142 Becoming a target

    I snuck out the next morning, but I also knew that they were awake since I could sense them with my heightened senses.


    Still, there was no need for any words.


    The ce that I headed to was the Explorer Association since that was the ce where I responded, so that was the ce where they picked us up.


    "What? You''ve never seen this kind of thing before? It''s a space gate. As long as you step through, you''ll be transported to the ce where thepetition is being held." An Long exined when the portal appeared in front of us.


    Wang Rong and I couldn''t help being surprised by this since this was our first time seeing something like this.


    We had heard of this thing before, but it certainly wasn''t something that we would have been able to use at our level.


    This was the kind of thing that would be highly restricted by the country and the Summoner Association because of how dangerous it was. This was a power that could allow one to appear wherever they wanted, so it was the perfect tool to use for assassinations.


    It was just a good thing that it wasn''t that easy to open up space gates in the first ce, so there were also only a handful of people that could actually use this power.


    An Long and An Xue Yun had bothe to see us off, though one received a much worse reception than the other.


    "What? I came all this way to see you off and you''re looking at me like I''m a bother?" An Long said when he saw the way that we looked at him.


    But it wasn''t as if we could help it.


    Read thetest on My Virtual Library Empire


    After all, he had been at the Explorer Association whenever we came to pick up another dungeon request. It really seemed like he didn''t do any work even though he was the president of the Explorer Association.


    None of us said anything since there was nothing that we could say in this situation.


    In the end, the one that broke the silence was An Xue Yun who raised her foot and kicked out at her father.


    An Long just let himself be kicked to the ground like this by her, even though he was in front of others. It seemed that he cared about her more than he cared about anything else.


    "Stop acting like that already. You already know what you do normally that they look at you like this." An Xue Yun said in a cold voice that made it seem like they weren''t father and daughter at all.


    But An Long didn''t say anything in response.


    He just couldn''t refute this because of the things that he did normally.


    He was someone that liked cking off after all.


    With that, we turned to face the space gate and prepared to step through.


    But before we did, An Xue Yun''s voice came from behind.


    "Go and win this thing."


    I turned to look at her before giving a firm nod and turning back to walk through the space gate.


    Iris and Wang Rong followed right behind me, but I saw Iris turning to look at An Xue Yun as well.@@novelbin@@


    I didn''t see what she did, but it wasn''t that hard to guess¡­


    After stepping through the space gate, it felt like the space around us was being warped. It was as if there was something that was bending the space around us, though it didn''t seem like the bending of the space was directly affecting us.


    It didn''t take long before that stopped and the darkness in front of us opened up to reveal a bright light.


    When we stepped out of the spatial passage, we arrived inside of what seemed to be arge hall.


    There were many others that seemed to be in this hall as well and they all seemed to be standing there as if they were waiting for something.


    When we arrived, I could hear them talking.


    It seemed that they were talking about us.


    "What are they wearing?"


    "Do they think that they''re cool or something?"


    "Are they trying to act all mysterious?"


    It seemed that our clothes had attracted everyone''s attention.


    That was because we were wearing dark clothes and masks that covered our faces.


    It waspletely because it was functional that we were wearing these outfits.


    Itpletely hid our appearances and our identities, so that was why it was the best choice.


    It wasn''t because I thought that these clothes were cool or anything that I was wearing them. Even if there were other clothes to choose from, these ones stood out the most because of how practical they were.


    Though¡­they did look cool too¡­


    But the fact that they were a bit over the top when it came to hiding one''s appearance was what drew attention.


    It didn''t take long before the attention of the others in the hall were all drawn towards this group in these outfits.


    At first they were just curious, but then¡­


    "Look at them hiding their appearances like cowards. It''s clear that they aren''t anything special, so they''re trying to stand out."


    "Right, I wonder who even allowed them toe to thispetition like this."


    "It''s clear that they''re trying to use appearances to scare people, they''ll be easy to take down."


    In a matter of moments, the opinion of the entire crowd changed and we had be everyone''s target.


    It seemed that they all believed the one idea that we were just trying to scare people with our appearances.


    I was hoping to remain lowkey and do what I needed to do, but it seemed like this wasn''t possible.


    I just hoped that they wouldn''t put us all together in the dungeon.


    If they did¡­with the way that everyone was already targeting us¡­


    Well for now, I just acted like I didn''t see anything and I urged the two behind me to look the same with secret signals.


    For now, it was better to act like we weren''t bothered by this.

 Chapter 145 Castle in the Sky

    Along with us, there were two other groups that grabbed their pieces of paper in the end.


    But it was certainly surprising to see who they were.


    It was the Dark Knights Team and the Luminous Knights Team.


    Neither of them seemed to move while the pieces of paper were floating in the air like this. It seemed that neither of them wanted to pick anything and just wanted to take whatever was left.


    So when the three of our teams got our pieces of paper, they both looked at our team that had waited until the end like them.


    The way that they looked at us was as if we had caught their attention.@@novelbin@@


    The way that they looked at us was as if we had somehow piqued their interest and now they were paying attention to us.


    It was as if they thought that we had waited until the end to pick these pieces of paper because we knew something special. They thought that we were the same as them, which was why we waited until the end.


    But the reality was that we weren''t like that at all.


    I just wanted to wait until the end so we wouldn''t attract any attention.


    I just wanted to be lowkey¡­


    But it was already toote since they had this misconception.


    The only thing that I could do was hope that we didn''t run into each other that early in the dungeon.


    Once everyone received their piece of paper, the person in charge said, "Thepetition will begin now. You will be free to move however you want in the dungeon, but just remember that we will be judging you on the things that you bring out, as well as who will be able to clear the dungeon."


    Though he was exining the rules of thepetition, there were those that entered the portal before he finished exining the rules.


    Your journey continues at My Virtual Library Empire


    At the end, he added, "The time limit will be three days starting from when I started this exnation. If you feel that you''ve already gotten enough, then you are free to leave at any moment. If you don''t leave when the time limit is up, the return stones that we''ve embedded into the maps will bring you out when the time limit is up. But that also means that if you lose the maps for some reason, don''t me us for being trapped in the dungeon."


    It seemed that those that entered the dungeon before he finished his exnation did earn an advantage in terms of having a bit more time, but it really wasn''t that much longer since it was only ten minutes.


    At the same time, it seemed that there was something gained from listening to this exnation.


    "For those that have remained to this point, let me give you a special present. It''s a special hint that will help you in the dungeon."


    The way that the person in charge said this was almost as if they were stalling for time.


    But in the end, they said, "When you''re in the dungeon, you shouldn''t just think about what''s in the castle. You should also try to think about what''s outside the castle."


    As soon as he said this, he pointed to the portal and said, "Now go on, do your best and don''t leave any regrets."


    Right when his voice fell, there was a light that came from the portal.


    Then it was as if there was something that was pulling us as we suddenly started flying towards the portal. It was as if there was some kind of barrier around us that came from the pieces of paper that we got.


    With these barriers, we were thrown right into the portal and we entered the dungeon.


    While entering the dungeon, the pieces of paper still covered us in this barrier that kept us together. However, the other teams that had different barriers around them disappeared from our line of sight.


    It seemed that these pieces of paper had some kind of mechanism that sent people to certain locations.


    When the world seemed to stabilize, the first thing that we did was look around ourselves to make sure that we were alright.


    Since we didn''t enter the dungeon the normal way, that meant that we didn''t get put in a safe zone that was always there by the dungeon entrance. There was the chance that we could be dropped right in the middle of the monsters in this dungeon.


    But that didn''t seem to be the case.


    It seemed that this room that we had been dropped in was a safe area.


    Or at least there weren''t currently any monsters that were here.


    After looking around the room for a bit, I went over to the window that was on the side of the room.


    Looking out the window from here, I could see that there was nothing but sky that was out there. But when I went over to take a look, I could see that it wasn''t that simple out there.


    This dungeon was known as the Castle in the Sky and it really was that.


    Looking out the window, I could see that there was some kind of foundation that this castle that we were in was flying on and beyond that, it didn''t seem like there was anything other than sky. As far as the eye could see, it seemed like there was only sky in front of us.


    The clue was to look beyond that castle, but it really didn''t seem like there was anything out there.


    So the only thing that I could think of was the foundation of the castle.


    Was there something in the foundation that this castle was built on?


    After thinking for a bit, I turned to look at the door and said, "Let''s explore for a bit."


    Iris and Wang Rong nodded in agreement before following me to the door.


    It didn''t matter what theories I had right now.


    The only thing that mattered was exploring this ce and finding out more about this castle in the sky.

 Chapter 149 Tiny thing

    The moment that the wind de mmed into the door, there was no resistance at all from the door.


    It was shattered to pieces by the wind de from the Astral White Tiger.


    I had to admire the power that the Astral White Tiger now possessed.


    After absorbing that bead from Mu Gong, itpletely mastered the wind element and could send out wind attacks like this. Though it still had its limits since it was just a cub.


    Other than simple wind des like this, it had trouble forming the stronger attacks.


    It was only a matter of time before it grew up enough to use the stronger attacks and could visually form them, but it was still a matter of training and time for now. Until it had the time to grow up, it wouldn''t be able to actually use these attacks.


    At the same time¡­I learned something about the Astral White Tiger.


    It was a child, so it was fickle and didn''t actually like training.


    So it was hard enough to get it to the point where it was able to use these attacks in the first ce.


    After shattering the door, the Astral White Tiger looked like it wanted to charge in, but I stopped it.


    "Come back."


    As soon as the Astral White Tiger heard this, it looked at the door with a look like it wanted to charge into the room, but it still came back to my side in the end.


    At least I still had a high enough position in the heart of the Astral White Tiger that it still listened to me.


    Wang Rong on the other hand didn''te back.


    He knew that I wasn''t talking to him, so he just raised his weapon and faced that door as if he was prepared for anything that came out. Stay tuned for updates on My Virtual Library Empire


    And there was something that came out of the door after the dust settled.


    There were two sets of living armour that came out through the smoke and charged at Wang Rong.


    He didn''t panic at all as he just used the power of his familiar to raise his defenses before swinging the great sword in his hand at the sets of living armour. The power that was in this swing picked up those two sets of living armour and threw them through the air until they mmed into the wall behind them.


    Each one hit the wall on both sides of the door.


    Wang Rong had also gotten stronger after carrying that heavy great sword around for a month, so he was able to swing it without a problem.


    While Wang Rong dealt with these two sets of living armour, I summoned out the undead and sent them forward towards the door.


    When the two sets of living armour saw this, they wanted to stop the undead.


    However, they didn''t get a chance since Wang Rong blocked their way.


    With his great sword, there really was no gap for them to exploit to get past him. At the same time, there was no way that they could match the power that he showed with the great sword since he had sent them flying earlier.


    So the sets of living armour could only resign themselves to being sent flying while the undead charged through the door.


    There were sounds of fighting that came from inside of the room, but it didn''t seem like it was that bad. The only thing that came out of the room in the end was a small set of living armour.


    It was half the size of the normal set of living armour and it almost seemed like it was made for a child with how small it was.


    With the way that it moved, it really didn''t seem like any kind ofbatant.


    However, even after being thrown out like this, it tried to go back into the room as if it was trying to protect something.


    "Not on my watch." Wang Rong said as he sent the small set of living armour flying just like the other two sets of living armour.


    He didn''t struggle at all with the addition of this extra set of living armour.@@novelbin@@


    It was as if he could take on several more sets without a single problem.


    There were some more sounds that came from the inside of the room, but it didn''t take long for something else toe out. When this thing came out, the sets of living armour stopped fighting with Wang Rong.


    They froze as if they had suddenly lost contact with the one that controlled them before.


    That was because there was something different that came out with the undead.


    It waspletely surrounded by the skeletal wolves and the skeleton knight had its sword pointed at the neck of this small thing.


    It was a humanoid creature, but it was much smaller than any other creature that we had seen previously. It looked like it wasn''t that different from a human, but it was very shortpared to one.


    One could say that it was child height, but this thing wasn''t like a child at all.


    There were wrinkles on its face and arge white beard on its chin.


    It was anything but a child based on its appearance.


    "A gnome." I couldn''t help saying out loud when I saw this humanoid creature.


    Gnomes were a strange thing since they were considered a monster and part of the other races.


    Gnomes had alsoe from the dungeons, but they were a race that humans could actually make contact with unlike the rest of the monsters because of their intelligence. There were even settlements of gnomes that lived on our.


    Their specialty was building things with their hands and magic, so it made sense that this gnome was the one that controlled these sets of living armour.


    But it didn''t seem like we would be able tomunicate with it.


    The words that came out of the gnome''s mouth werepletely different from anynguage that was from our.


    Even the trantor that Iris had didn''t have any effect at all.


    So I just gave a nod to the Echo Bat.

 Chapter 152 Manta rays

    The sets of living armour didn''t move slowly as they led the way.


    It seemed that they had only been moving slowly before because they had been wandering on their own.


    If the gnome controlled them, they were able to move much faster and more smoothlypared to when we fought them the first time. It seemed that only if they were set to autopilot would they move that slowly.


    But of course, the gnome focused on leading the way and focused on controlling the suits of living armour, so they weren''t clunky at all.


    They really were quite useful.


    I was even wondering if I could take those machines out of this dungeon.


    While I didn''t know if they would still work without the gnome working it, just the fact that I could create an endless army of living armour was already enticing enough.


    No, if that was possible, then wouldn''t they have already brought something out already?


    So there must be something in this dungeon that restricted people from bringing out these machines that made the sets of living armour in the first ce.


    Explore more at My Virtual Library Empire


    Well, there was plenty of time to figure that outter since it was all in my hands.@@novelbin@@


    Right now, it was time to find out more information about this dungeon and decide what to do next.


    After following the two sets of living armour for a while, we arrived at a different part of the castle. Though just based on the appearance of this ce, it really didn''t seem that different from the rest of the castle.


    It didn''t seem like there would be any special monsters here.


    However, the sets of living armour raised their hands to stop us when we arrived at this ce.


    It was as if they were stopping us from going any further, even though it didn''t seem like there was anything there. But it didn''t take long for us to understand why they had us stop.


    "Screech."


    There was this sound that came from above us.


    When we looked up, we saw that there was something that had blended into the ceiling. If we didn''t look at it closely, if it hadn''t made a sound just now, we wouldn''t have been able to notice it.


    But looking at it, there was a strange look that appeared on my face.


    That was because this monster that appeared was a strange one.


    It had an appearance that really was hard to describe just from looking at it from below. When it started moving and revealed more of itself, it became easier to describe just what kind of appearance it had.


    A manta ray.


    It seemed to be some kind of manta ray, but it wasn''t one that swam under the water.


    This was a manta ray that seemed to be able to fly through the air by pping the skin ps on its side. These were the skin ps that would have allowed the manta ray to move through the water by pushing through it, but it seemed like what it was doing now was actually letting the manta ray push through the air.


    There was no doubt that there was some kind of magic that was being used to move the wind under it to let it fly in the air like this.


    It was unknown exactly what kind of magic it was, but the flow of mana showed that it was some kind of elemental magic.


    After making that sound, these manta rays started moving around the area almost as if they had sensed something. They were moving around as if they were trying to find something that had stepped into their territory.


    The only thing that could have done that was us, so they should be looking for us.


    Only I didn''t understand how they would have been able to detect us.


    Since they used wind magic to fly, did that mean that they were sensitive to the movement of the wind?


    If they could, then they most likely would have tracked us with the change in the wind.


    But that didn''t matter since they were now looking for us.


    It seemed that it was inevitable that a fight would break out.


    That was why both the two sets of living armour and Wang Rong moved forward as if they wanted to be the vanguard. They wanted to be the ones that stopped the manta rays from reaching the rest of our group.


    Unfortunately, that wasn''t necessary.


    Unlike the sets of living armour, these manta rays weren''t already being controlled by something else. That meant that I would be able to¡­


    The manta rays suddenly froze in the air as if something happened.


    Wang Rong and the two sets of living armour immediately prepared to charge when they saw this, but I stopped them by saying, "There''s no need."


    Wang Rong turned back to look at me with a surprised and confused look, but I stepped forward and waved my hand at the manta rays flying in the air.


    When they saw this, they suddenly floated down to my side.


    It didn''t take long for them topletely surround me, but I didn''t show a single trace of panic.


    Once they werepletely around me, I raised my hand to pet them and they started fighting over who would be the first one to receive this honour.


    In the end, all I could do was shake my head and say, "Now, now, there''s no need to act like this."


    When they heard this, the manta rays calmed down and took turns in letting me pet them.


    I had to admit that it was a strange feeling petting them since they had rough skins, but at least this showed that they were tamed to the point where they could act docile.


    I could see the way that Wang Rong and Iris looked at me with strange looks, but I didn''t answer their doubts. I just said, "Come and have a look at them. We''ll see how we can work with them."

 Chapter 155 Little chat

    The living armour did what they could to fight against this man in his stone armour, but there was nothing that they could do against it.


    No matter how they tried to fight back against him, they just weren''t able to scratch the stone armour around him.


    A few of them even chipped their weapons when they tried to attack him.


    It was as if he was made of steel while their weapons were made of stone.


    But it seemed that even the man in the stone armour was surprised by how hard this stone armour was when he said to himself, "This stone¡­Just what kind of stone is this that it''s this hard?"


    It seemed that the stone that this Castle in the Sky was built with was also special.


    Though that should have been something that was expected since this was a special dungeon in the first ce.


    With the man in the stone armour leading the way, there was nothing else for the rest of his group to do. The living armour just couldn''t do anything against him, so he was able to knock them all down.


    Though he knocked them down, it didn''t seem like he was able to find a way to break thempletely since they kept getting back up.


    That was until one of his teammates suddenly stabbed out at one of the sets of living armour. Well, it wasn''t that person itself that stabbed out at the living armour, it was his familiar that did it.


    It was an owl that seemed to be using its own feathers as arrows.


    I already knew just how strong the defenses of the living armour was, so I knew that this owl wasn''t ordinary that its feathers were able to pierce through.


    It pierced right through the chest of the set of living armour that it was shot at and destroyed the core that was inside. The moment that it destroyed the core, the living armour fell down like a puppet with its strings cut.


    After taking care of that set of living armour, the person with the owl said, "Brother Shi, just keep distracting them and letting them hit you. I''ll take care of them soon."


    The man in the stone armour who was called Brother Shi scowled at this person with the owl as he said, "Little brat, why didn''t you do that sooner? And the rest of you, just watching me fight all on my own, how heartless are you all?"


    They just smiled when they heard this.


    With the way that they fought, it was clear that they felt no pressure at all dealing with these sets of living armour. Read chapters at My Virtual Library Empire


    It seemed like they were even making a game out of it.


    But the strength that they showed made them more than qualified to do this.


    Still, I looked down on them for letting their guards down like this.


    First, they ran through the dungeon without even scouting out the area around them and drew all kinds of attention while chasing after the living armour. That was what allowed them to fall into this trap and be surrounded by the living armour in the first ce.


    Though they had the strength to back this carelessness that it didn''te to bite them in the butt that they were surrounded by these sets of living armour like this.@@novelbin@@


    The second reason I looked down on them was because they didn''t pay any attention to the surrounding area while they were fighting.


    They just focused purely on the living armour and didn''t notice anyone creeping up on them.


    Namely, they didn''t notice that I was right there behind them.


    After taking care of a few sets of living armour, it seemed like they were about topletely wipe them out.


    But before they could¡­


    "Ha, let''s finish¡­"


    Before Brother Shi could finish these words, he suddenly froze on the spot.


    The others didn''t say anything either since all of them froze on the spot along with Brother Shi.


    The living armour seemed confused by this, so they didn''t attack right away. But seeing that Brother Shi didn''t do anything, they started moving forward to attack him.


    Though it didn''t seem to have an effect as their weapons were unable to break through the stone armour that was around him.


    The living armour seemed to slowly learn that to hurt Brother Shi, they had to aim at the parts of his armour that didn''tpletely cover him. They had to aim at the gaps in his armour to hurt him.


    But they didn''t get to do that in the end as there were more sets of living armour that came out.


    Brother Shi and his group seemed like they were panicking when they saw this, but they were confused to see the living armour charging at the other living armour. It seemed like some kind of internal conflict between them when they attacked each other.


    At least, it didn''t seem like the living armour were nning on attacking them.


    They were still panicking since they had been frozen on the spot and there was nothing that they could do to break out of whatever was holding them.


    "How about we have a little chat?"


    When they heard this voice, they tried to look behind them, but they couldn''t since their heads were still frozen.


    But the owner of the voice came forward to stand in front of them.


    The moment that they saw the owner of this voice, there were strange looks that appeared in their eyes. However, none of them said a single thing since even their lips wouldn''t move.


    However, their eyes seemed to say¡­


    "Why is it you?"


    I was standing there in front of them with my face covered again.


    We had taken off the outfits when we arrived in the dungeon since they were hard to keep on for long periods of time, but now I was using them for their intended purpose.


    "You''re going to tell me what I want to know, or else."

 Chapter 159 God of fire

    After spreading out, they weren''t actually attacked by the other two groups.


    Instead, it seemed like the other two groups were just observing them to see what they were doing.@@novelbin@@


    The teams that chose to stick with the Fire God Team couldn''t help feeling worried when they saw this.


    They thought that there was something happening that they weren''t being attacked.


    They had to have something to gain from this to not take this opportunity.


    It was just that they didn''t have that much time to think about it as Huang Tuo gave an order.


    "Surround it and attack from all directions."


    There was a trace of hesitation that came from these teams when they received this order from Huang Tuo, but they had no choice but to follow the order when they felt the pressure that came from him.


    If they didn''t obey him¡­


    Well, there was no backing down now.


    So the only thing that they could do was summon their familiars and draw their weapons, but there wasn''t a single team that actually charged forward to attack the Master Gnome.


    Instead, all of them chose to use long range attacks to attack this Master Gnome.


    The Master Gnome had been standing in the middle of this hall without even moving, which did seem strange. Only no one had been able to figure out what this Master Gnome was doing.


    When the attacks were about to hit the Master Gnome, there was this barrier that suddenly appeared around it.


    At the same time, the Master Gnome''s image seemed to waver.


    It was as if the Master Gnome was never there, it was as if it was some kind of illusion that had been there.


    After wavering like that for a bit, it seemed to fade away until the Master Gnome was gone.


    In the ce of the Master Gnome, there were several sets of living armour that appeared. However, these sets of living armour were different from any other that they had encountered before.


    These sets of living armour were muchrger and seemed to be made of a stronger material. It seemed like this was a higher grade of living armourpared to the ones that they had faced before.


    After these sets of living armour appeared, they didn''t hesitate as they spread out in all directions.


    It seemed that they were targeting those that had attacked the illusion of the Master Gnome.


    The moment that they saw this, the various teams started to panic and headed in one direction.


    They all headed towards the Fire God Team.


    Huang Tuo slightly knitted his brows when he saw these sets of living armour appear.


    He had already expected something like this to happen, but these sets of living armour were a bit more than he expected which was why he revealed this expression. But even though he had revealed this expression, it didn''t mean that he was actually bothered by this.


    He could sense that aura that the sets of living armour released, so he could tell that they weren''t a threat to him.


    It was just he had been nning on seeing what else the Master Gnome had before making a move. But now that these teams were running towards him, it didn''t seem like he had a choice.


    So with a sigh, Huang Tuo summoned his familiar behind him.


    It was a peacock that appeared.


    The moment that this peacock appeared, it didn''t hesitate at all to open up its feathers and mes started to gather around Huang Tuo.


    These mespletely surrounded him and seemed to form some kind of me armour as they wrapped around him. It was as if he was a god of fire that had descended to the earth with the way that he controlled the mes.


    After that armour of mes formed around Huang Tuo, he raised his hands in front of him and condensed some of the mes into a sword of mes.


    Once that sword of mes had condensed, Huang Tuo took his first step forward.


    That one step was followed by a swing of his me sword that released a sh of mes at the set of living armour closest to him.


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    That sh of mes hit the sword of the living armour and pushed it back.


    It wasn''t able to cut right through the living armour, but it also wasn''t destroyed by the living armour. It seemed to carry the living armour off the ground with the force that it had and the living armour was sent flying back at the other sets of living armour.


    The other sets of living armour also raised their weapons to block this me sh that came at them.


    It took three sets of living armour to finally stop it.


    But that didn''t mean that they hadpletely stopped it.


    After being in bnce for a bit, the me sh finally disappeared as it was broken by thebined might of the three sets of living armour.


    Only, there was smokeing from the weapons of these sets of living armour.


    It seemed that the me had been strong enough that it melted a part of these weapons.


    However, it wasn''t as if this single sh was all that Huang Tuo could do.


    That single sh was only a casual first attack from Huang Tuo that he used as a test of the might of these sets of living armour.


    He released two more me shes at the sets of living armour.


    This time, all of them had to work together to block it and there were even two weapons that snapped in half because of this. The mes that Huang Tuo released were just too strong to be stopped by the sets of living armour.


    So in the end, they destroyed the weapons that they used.


    Huang Tuo didn''t seem like he was about to stop.


    As expected of one of the top contenders.


    When he released his power, he really looked like a god of mes.

 Chapter 162 Rat

    Huang Tuo narrowed his eyes to look at the new monsters that appeared, but it didn''t seem like there was a trace of panic that was in his eyes.


    That was because there was no need for him to panic.


    He could easily see that these monsters that appeared weren''t that strong in the first ce.


    Even if they had surrounded them, it wasn''t as if they would be able to do much to him.


    As for the others¡­well, he simply didn''t care about them.


    In the first ce, he was just using those that flocked around him, so it didn''t matter to him what happened to them. If they fell to the weak monsters that appeared, then that was all that they were worth. Enjoy new tales from My Virtual Library Empire


    However, Huang Tuo soon realized that this wasn''t the case.


    "These monsters¡­they''re too organized¡­"


    While fighting the sets of living armour with guns, Huang Tuo was also paying attention to the monsters that appeared behind them. And when he looked carefully at them, he noticed that they were fighting in formation.


    The three different kinds of monsters were all working together, which made them stronger than normal.


    The ogres used their mes to attack, the manta rays controlled the wind to make the mes stronger, and the living armour finished off anyone that was dazed by the mes.


    The other thing that he noticed was that these monsters didn''t finish anyone off.


    Since they were monsters of the dungeon, one would think that they wouldn''t have any qualms about taking the lives of humans that invaded the dungeon. But this wasn''t the case with these monsters.


    When the ogres and living armour went in to attack, it seemed that they deliberately held back from dealing the final blow. It seemed that they always aimed to injure rather than to kill.


    "A rat, it seems that a rat has slipped in." Huang Tuo muttered to himself when he realized this.


    However, there was also a trace of surprise that was in his eyes after he realized this.


    After all, he never thought that there would be someone that would have the ability to control the monsters.


    Yes, there was someone that was controlling the monsters or else they would be this organized.


    This was the first time that Huang Tuo had actually felt surprised sinceing into this dungeon. And it was certainly the first time that Huang Tuo has felt surprised because of another one of the teams.


    In his eyes, the only teams that were qualified to be on the same level as him were the other top contenders. But now it seemed that there was this dark horse team that was hiding in the dark manipting the monsters.


    "Humph, they don''t even dare show their faces. It doesn''t matter what tricks they y, they won''t be able to do anything."


    Though he said this, he still changed the way that he acted.


    He no longer focused purely on the living armour with guns, he turned his attention to the new monsters that appeared. It wasn''t just the living armour with guns that he had to deal with, he also had to take care of these other monsters as well before they could y any tricks.


    But he found that he actually wasn''t able to do anything to them.


    The manta rays stopped all of his attacks.


    When he used the mes to attack them, the manta rays would summon currents of air to redirect the mes that he sent at them. The currents of air would make the mes stronger, but they also followed those currents of air away from the monsters.


    It wasn''t strong enough topletely divert it, but it was enough to create gaps for the other monsters to dodge out of the way.


    So Huang Tuo just couldn''t take care of them.


    The other reason was because he was diverting mes to dealing with the living armour with guns as well, so his full attention wasn''t on these monsters that intruded afterwards.


    It seemed that unless he gave them his full attention, he wouldn''t be able to take care of them¡­


    In that case, the only thing that he could do was take care of the living armour with guns first.


    Or that would have been the case if not for¡­


    There was thisrge scale barrier that suddenly appeared around the living armour with guns that stopped his mes. It seemed that no matter how he concentrated the mes, he wasn''t able to prate this barrier.


    So Huang Tuo had no choice but to back down temporarily.


    He didn''t make any moves after backing down since he could tell that whatever had created this barrier was about to make a move. Something that could make a barrier that could even stop his mes definitely wasn''t ordinary.


    It seemed that the Master Gnome was finally about to show itself.@@novelbin@@


    And that was what happened.


    But it was different from the hologram earlier.


    This Master Gnome did have the same physical appearance, but he was covered in all kinds of different equipment. It seemed like he was some kind of cyberpunk warrior with the way that he was equipped with all of this.


    The first thing that the Master Gnome did after appearing was aim the cannon on his hand at the living armour.


    The look on his face seemed to be filled with anger and before he fired that cannon, he seemed to say something. It was just that no one was able to understand what the Master Gnome was saying since there was anguage barrier.


    But based on the look on his face, it seemed to be something on the lines of¡­


    "How dare you betray me!"


    The living armour that he pointed the cannon at weren''t the ones with guns, but the ones that came afterwards to attack the different teams of humans.


    But the fact that they were working with the manta rays and ogres showed that they had betrayed the gnomes.


    So that was why the Master Gnome as the leader of the gnomes was filled with rage towards them.