Chapter 44 Return Stone?
[You have obtained a Return Stone.]
[Do you wish to use it?]
‘What’s this’, thought Aiden as he picked up the white stone looking at the description that appeared.
[Return Stone]
[Description: You can return to the world without completing the trial using this stone. When you use the stone, you will not receive the penalties which given at the start of every trial. Think of it as a second chance if you are close to dying.]
“Wait, this is great!” shouted Aiden out of nowhere.
When Mia heard him shout, she immediately got up from the ground to see what was happening to him but was extremely confused when she saw him looking at his hands intensively.
She tried going toward him but quickly stopped not wanting to approach him again so soon after what happened.
She was embarrassed and she didn’t want this to happen again.
‘Is he going to do it again?’ thought Mia, imagining a scenario in her head.
She didn’t want him to think that she was an easy girl as she didn’t even complain to him when he did it.
‘What if he thinks of me as some sort of whore,’ thought Mia, worrying.
But Mia was worrying about absolutely nothing as Aiden didn’t think about what had happened between the two of them.
He didn’t even care about it since he had no idea that what he did could be considered as intimate, having no contact with any women in his life.
His mind, on the contrary, was focused on that little stone in his hands.
He was thinking about the possibility of using this stone when he was close to failing a trial. He thought exactly the same as the system, this was perfect for a second chance at a trial.
But as kept thinking about his use, a question popped into his mind.
‘Why is such a thing here?’
He did not understand why something like that would be here, after all, it seemed like the [Return Stone] came from the minotaur who had just died which didn’t make any sense.
*Beep*
It seemed like the system had an answer for him as he heard the beep sound in his mind.
[Return Stones can only appear one time in every trial. The only way to acquire them is to kill the strongest monster of the trial.]
As he read the information given to him by the system, he thought about when he killed the boss monster in the first trial which clearly was the strongest monster there.𝒏𝒐𝑽𝗲𝑙𝗇𝐄xt.𝑐𝑜𝑚
Another beep resounded in his head.
[Return Stones cannot be obtained in the first trial since in the first trial finding the strongest monster is quite simple. After completing the first trial, you get summoned into bigger universes which increases the difficulty of finding the [Return Stone].]
‘So, if I understand correctly the minotaur over there was the strongest being in this trial which is why he dropped the [Return Stone]?’
*Beep*
[Strongest monster, not being. But, yes he was the strongest monster.] answered the system keeping it short.
‘Being? Does that mean there’s someone stronger in this universe?’ asked Aiden to the system, but once again there was no answer.
The system really seemed to answer only the questions he wanted as if someone was controlling it from behind.
After answering all the questions he had in his mind, Aiden decided to confirm that only he could see this stone.
“Mia?,” called Aiden.
Hearing her name, she jumped up a little wondering what he would ask of her.
“Yes?”
“Can you see something in my hand?”
It was a question that she completely didn’t expect, it was clear that there was nothing in his hands.
“Hmm, are you trying to trick me like earlier? I’m sorry if you wanted another answer, but there’s nothing in your hand.”
Hearing this, confirmed the fact that only awakened beings could see the stone in his hand. It seemed like this object was hidden from the people leaving there.
“Alright, I guess I’m hallucinating then, should we back?” asked Aiden, not wanting to lose any more time on the task that he would have to accomplish.
‘I only have five days left, I’ll need to be fast.’
It really surprised Mia that Aiden didn’t seem to want to talk about their little incident together.
‘Is he ignoring it?’
Even if Mia wanted to talk about it she decided that it was best to do the same as Aiden and focus on the task ahead of them.
“Sure, follow me,” said Mia as she started walking back.
“So, are you finally going to tell me how I’ll infiltrate the Upsilon Empire?”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. You’ll be entering by going into a secret tunnel,” responded Mia, who didn’t want to tease him again.
“Did you build it?” asked Aiden, wondering about how the existence of the tunnel came.
“I guess you can say that,” responded Mia not saying anything more.
A few minutes later, Aiden and Mia were arriving in front of a hole that was big enough for at most two persons.
“There it is to enter the Upsilon Empire simply follow it, I’ll be waiting for you here to guide you back. If you don’t come back in five days I will take for granted that you have died.”
Aiden nodded his head as he heard her explanation.
“Then, I guess I’ll see you in five days,” said Aiden as he started descending into the hole.
“Wait, not so fast, I think you forgot. It’s time to talk about the payment.”
‘Oh no, what is she going to ask of me?’ thought Aiden.
“I won’t ask for much as you saved me from the monsters yesterday, but there’s something I need that can only be found inside the Upsilon Empire. It’s some sort of Elixir, I heard it can do miracles to one’s body.”
“Where can I find it?”, asked Aiden immediately.
‘Maybe it could even help me, well it depends on its effects,’ thought Aiden as Mia started explaining to him where to find it.
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