"Shia, I need to visit an acquaintance. You can stick around if you wish, I will be back in a month at the most" Eon said while brandishing his staff. He rapidly chanted what sounded like gibberish and the space in front of him opened up.
Before Shia could say any words, Eon's figure disappeared into the portal.
Eon's destination was none other than the kingdom's capital, Pith. His portal opened up inside of a room in a large building, it was the Freedom Union's headquarters. His sudden appearance frightened many of the passing employees some let out startled screams and some even fell on their butts. Before they could kick up a bigger fuss however, one of the higher-ups in the organization motioned for the employees to calm down. They then realized that the person was a guest and naturally complied, some even lounged around out of interest not showing fear but curiosity.
"Master Eon, what a pleasant surprise to have you come here." The man bowed deeply as he spoke, he had zero intentions of standing back up. Eon let out a half-hearted laugh in response and then solemnly spoke.
"I think we need to talk Richard." He then formed a simple smile as he looked at the bowing man.
Some of the employees were startled by the way their boss was addressed. But since their boss didn't mind and was even showing such subservient behavior what could they do? The previously nosy employees quickly focused back on their work, this had nothing to do with them.
Richard's expression froze for a moment before he quickly recollected himself. He let out a dry cough and replied, "W-Why yes, of course Master Eon! I would love to hear you out. Please come with me." He stood up and led Eon away.
Richard initiated some small talk and after walking for about a minute they finally entered a luxurious office. Richard performed a short incantation which brightened up the room.
The glamour of the office was then revealed in full force. It was adorned by all kinds of crystals and expensive paintings. The furniture was similarly high class, likely of designer brands. As the second in command in the headquarters, he could afford such extravagance.
Richard sheepishly motioned for Eon to sit down on one of the expensive couches. He then circled around the table in the middle and sat on another couch directly opposing it.
Just as Richard was about to speak a woman entered the room carrying a set of tea. She placed it on the table and served both of them tea before quickly scurrying off. Eon didn't mind it at all and grabbed his teacup.
"Richard, you do know we had an agreement right?" Eon took a sip of his tea after sending Richard a meaningful look.
"Ah... yes! Of course, I do master Eon, I do." Although Richard was being exceedingly careful, it wasn't because he was weak. He used to be an A-class adventure before retiring and joining the Union. His skill with the sword was even said to be mesmerizing. Inside of the headquarters he only lost out to the leader's magic spells.
"Then you have been taking good care of my disciples, yes?" Eon's casual remark made Richard break out into cold sweat. He knew that something must have gone wrong after hearing that question.
He didn't know how he should reply, if his answer was wrong how would he explain himself? Still, he had to trust the work of his subordinates. He nodded vehemently and with a smile. In reality, he just didn't know what to say and had no other choice but to nod in response.
Eon scoffed at Richard's response. He was extremely disappointed by the Union's lack of information and accountability.
"Then I hope you are well aware of the whereabouts of my second disciple William yes?" Eon glared at Richard and put his teacup down awaiting a reasonable response. Truthfully he already knew that the answer was no. He was done playing around with Richard.
Richard froze for a second before his expression turned ugly he jumped down from the couch nearly hitting his head on the table as he prostrated himself before Eon.
"I am sorry!" He cried out.
"Tsk, I am going to need you to cooperate with me for a while." Since the incident happened inside of a Union owned dungeon he naturally had to gather information from them before doing anything.
Had it been a regular case he would have simply acted right away but William's possible death had left him stumped. The spatial shield he had imbued on his robe was in no way weak, it could only be broken through by monsters in the A-class range and they still would have to exert a bit of effort.
Based on the dungeon's suspected level the only creature capable of doing so would have to be the boss but killing William should still be impossible. Eon had also provided him with a one of a kind teleportation magic device. He had crafted it himself so he knew it was more than capable of leaving locked spaces. That meant that if the enemy was too strong William should have still been able to flee and arrive outside safely.
The safest thing to do was for him to act but he needed to gather more information first and the Freedom Union although unreliable, was his only option for the moment.
***
The rough ground was the first thing Ed felt after being resummoned. He instantly knew he was back to his orcish body. He quickly got up and took in his surroundings. He let out a sigh of relief after he found himself still inside the cottage.
'Luckily nobody came to visit.' Having little to no friends and responsibilities can have its benefits or so it would seem.
It was very dark inside suggesting that it was still night time. His trip seemed to have taken no longer than 8 hours. He was ultimately quite satisfied with how it turned out. He had learned a lot of things in regards to the dungeon. While this knowledge couldn't help him at the moment nobody knew if that would change in the future.
'I should get some sleep then' The fatigue he collected from this little trip was definitely not small. With that in mind, he jumped into bed.
Morning came before Ed knew it. He was awoken by a series of knocks on his door. He groggily sat up and rubbed his weary eyes. He then heard somebody's voice coming from the door.
"Ed! ...is he still sleeping?" The voice belonged to none other than Shel. She sounded somewhat concerned for whatever reason.
Ed then let out a yawn and made his way to the door. His yawning figure was the first thing Shel saw once he finally opened the door. She seemed somewhat relieved by it and was even in the mood to crack jokes.
"So even you need to sleep every now and then, huh?" Her impression of Ed was some sort of restless training maniac. Needless to say, his tired expression was completely new to her. Her expression then changed to one of confusion.
"What were you doing anyway? I have never seen you so tired." She knew that Vorgarag had dismissed Ed early and that he simply returned to his cottage. There was no word of him doing any more training either so how he managed to exhaust himself was beyond her. What could a man do in a closed space to tire himself so much after all?
"I guess all of my fatigue finally caught up to me at once, anyways let's just go" Ed scooched past Shel and led the way towards the training area. Shel didn't pry anymore and followed after him.
They simply arrived at the training area and Ed followed his predetermined schedule while Shel watched from a distance and even practiced on her own. Ed practiced the basics and deepened his understanding of the axe. Sometime later, Ed started to see more improvements in his ax-wielding skills.
[Axemanship has leveled up]
'Perfect, I don't know how much longer I can train but if it is this fast I should have no problems facing the next horde of adventurers.' Ed nodded to himself inside his head. His strength was considerably greater than before. He just might be able to last longer than a couple of seconds against that Samuel person now.
'Wait that doesn't sound optimistic at all' His battle senses weren't hardened so there was no way for him to know how he fared in comparison to others. He might even be underestimating himself.
[Assimilation is off cooldown]
'That's great!' Ed's suddenly stopped practicing his moves and his eyes sparkled with joy.
'Since I gathered my books I should be able to assim- No wait I need to... get them first...' His excitement was quickly doused as he came to a realization. His expression turned serious and he motioned to Shel that he would be back and sat aside somewhere. He then tried to enter his system space but it was fruitless.
'F*ck... I might need to wait' The dungeon must still be keeping tabs on him meaning that he couldn't open up the special space. Ed might need to assimilate something else for the time being.
'I will just get back to training. If by the time I am done I still can't get my books back I will find something else to assimilate' He felt stupid for overlooking such a simple fact.
Still, it was something that happened to people, so he quickly accepted it and moved on.. He picked up his weapon and got right back to training.