Lily and Natalia heard from Sabrina and Dagon about the plan to deal with Draven, and it was frankly wonderful, just like baiting a fish into the hook using bait. The bait was Almond, the fish was Draven, and the hook was Admiral Rudra.
“Mom, Dad. Thank you. That’s a great plan, and I’m glad Admiral Rudra agreed,” Lily said, grinning as she added,” And I am sure Almond will pass the moral test easily.”
“We hope that’s the case,” Dagon said with a nod. “Anyway, I’m in a hurry—there’s a gold-colored A-rank dungeon door on the verge of breaking about five kilometers from the northern city border. I won’t be able to see you off at the airport.”
“No problem, Dad. You hurry up.”
Dagon left hurriedly.
Sabrina looked at Lily, her eyes glinting as if she was scanning her body, “Dear, do you want to open the rest of your Chakra points now, or did your mentor say she would do it?”
“She will do it,” Lily replied with a smile. “But we don’t have much time, so I’d like you to help Natalia open her Chakra points. I’m sure she will be accepted in the guild, given her specialized class and potential, but it’s better she gets some help before her examination test.”
Natalia clasped her hands and cheekily smiled, “Thank you, auntie.”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Sabrina waved her hand and got up from her chair. “Let’s go to the training room and finish it. Your primary class is quite good due to its skill, and your specialized class is an all-rounder and powerful being at SS-rank. I’m sure League of Firefly will consider you an asset to nurture. But if not, GAA will always have a spot for you.”
“Nah, I’ll make sure she gets in the League of Firefly guild,” Lily grinned. “I’ll make better use of her.”
“Auntie, I think Lily is going to violate me!”
Sabrina couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, alright. Don’t do that, Lily.”
“…” Lily.
“Hehehe,” Natalia.
…
The night descended soon as time passed swiftly in the training room.
Lily didn’t want to stay idle, so she was also playing with her new class skills, exploring better usage and applications to use them in her combat style.
Sabrina was proficient in opening the basic chakra points all over the body, so she was done helping Natalia just half an hour before their departure to the airport.
Fortunately, the airport system all over the world has drastically improved, and the fuel usage has also changed to magic crystals from dungeons. Each monster dropped magic crystals with attributes, and there was usually a magic crystal vein in dungeons from which Adventurers could mine the crystals.
The Grand Abyss Labyrinth didn’t have those, but both of these supernatural forces were important for humanity’s growth.
The Labyrinth allowed Adventurers to level up and get stronger, while Dungeons gave much-needed resources.
Failure to clear a dungeon before its border turns completely black results in disaster, so it’s critical to clear dungeons on time.
Usually, the Dungeon Doors spawned with a white-colored border, but if left unattended, their color would change to blue, then red, then golden, and then black.
Dungeons became a high priority for adventurers because there had been multiple disasters occurring due to dungeon breaks. The patterns and time required for their color change weren’t discovered because it appeared that each dungeon door had a different period, making GAA and Earth Union put much effort into locating and observing them all over the world.
GAA shared responsibilities of handling Dungeons with Guilds by giving them territories because of that, but generally, dungeons were considered fortunes and a place for training for Adventurers as long as they were cleared on time.
Thanks to dungeons that often dropped stat-increasing items, it was hard to judge an Adventurer’s stats purely based on their rank and level. Not to mention other factors like mastery of five important Mana techniques—Physical Enchantment, Aura Enfold, Focus Field, Mana Transmutation, and Flow State.
…
The distance from Frostar City to Firefly City was 6758 kilometers. The flight took three hours. If it was in the past, it would’ve taken a lot more hours, but the safety measures while in the air and the functions of the airplanes had drastically improved thanks to the addition of Magitech, which was developing fast.
With the additions of various magitech developments, the importance of Dungeons increased even more, igniting competition between Guilds. GAA was still at the forefront of development, but many organizations backed by Guilds were researching their own new Magitech.
Firefly City—one of the ten biggest cities on Earth.
League of Firefly had a huge array of structures to their name. A headquarters building, a training center building, a combat arena, and other smaller facilities.
It was like a university campus.
As Lily and Natalia landed, both went their separate ways for the time being. Natalia’s grandparents picked her up while Lily was picked up by a woman in her mid-twenties with wavy red hair.
“Lily Darkwood,” Lily cordially smiled as she stretched her hand for a handshake.
‘So she is the one that senior Aria favored, huh?’
“Hazel Sol, nice to meet you, young lady,” Hazel said with a smile, sizing her up, “Well, you’re gonna be popular among the guys. Hope you don’t mind some courtings.”
“I do mind, as I am taken,” Lily plainly said and took her hand back as they both started walking.
Thanks to the storage pouch, many people didn’t need to carry their luggage, though Lily kept an umbrella since she didn’t like to walk empty-handed, it wasn’t just any normal umbrella–It was an Epic-grade defensive-type item that her father had given her.
‘Taken, huh? Poor girl got trapped by some guy, but the world of adventurers is a cut-throat one,’ Hazel thought as she wryly smiled. “That’s a surprise, Lily. Is he some famous rookie or an older guy around my age who impressed you?”
‘So she is the type that’s more into this?’ Lily thought. She could easily read this Hazel girl.
“What about you, Hazel? I feel like you got someone good as your partner.”
“Eh? Haha, well, he is kinda good,” Hazel smiled. “He’s got an S-rank specialized class on top of an A-rank primary class and is doing good.”
“I wanted to join him on the second cycle of Labyrinth on the 6th floor, but the guild said no,” Hazel sighed. “I need to get better.”
‘Duh. You’re focusing on the wrong areas as an Adventurer. I bet she is also cheating with someone, securing another lap to ride on,’ Lily rolled her eyes.
Funny thing, Lily was actually right.
They arrived at the car, so Hazel sat in the driver’s seat, and Lily went around to sit in the passenger seat after folding the umbrella.
But just as the car started and Hazel drove the car, she spoke again, “Anyway, I heard from senior Aria that you have the potential to be the super rookie like the one we already have.”
“Maybe.”
Hazel responded while smiling, “You got S-rank primary class, right? In that case, someone like you must surely have gotten into a relationship with a talented guy, haha. Is he also going to join League of Firefly?”
“No idea. It’s up to him,” Lily replied.
“Oh, to be honest, if you want to be in a relationship with someone, it would be better to be in the same guild. There are only benefits this way,” Hazel said with a grin.
‘Geez, will she stop talking about relationships and stuff?’ Lily sighed internally. She didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
“Yeah, noted. Anyway, how far is the guild’s location?”
“Just ten kilometers. We’ll be there soon.”
‘Great.’
Hazel could feel Lily didn’t want to talk about it.
‘Tsk, the new kids get some attention and think they are something. Class ranks are not all there is to become a powerful Adventurer. Well, she’ll find out how tough competition is here soon enough.’
There was silence in the car for ten minutes before it was broken by Hazel who cursed out loud and pressed on the brakes.
Lily blinked, her eyes focused on a three meters tall door manifesting several meters away, in the middle of the road.
“Wonderful,” Lily said as she got out of the car.
“Wait, Lily. What are you doing?”
“It’s a three-meter-tall door with a white border, meaning that it’s a D-rank dungeon gate,” Lily took out her daggers and positioned them at her waist with the sticky belt, and her outfit also changed, turning hazy black wispy magic robe, looking badass. After all, it was her specialized class’s second SSS-rank skill, a toggle-type skill–Dreadspire Mantle.
“I am going inside. I was supposed to be allowed to enter any dungeon I wish within my rank difficulty range anyway.”
‘And because I don’t want to hear your nonsense anymore.’
At that, Lily jumped into the dungeon door.