The Echoing Gallery-Tomb was even more absurd than Erich had imagined. The entire region was shattered, with different landmasses completely separated from one another. Below lay a bottomless blue void with no visible end. Without the ability to fly, it was practically impossible to move an inch in a place like this. But then again, among the adventurers who could reach the second floor, who didn't know how to fly?
Erich spread his wings and flew toward the nearest floating stone platform. Under twice the gravity, every flap of his wings was extremely taxing. He flew very slowly, adjusting his direction several times before landing stably.
The Echoing Gallery-Tomb was likely much smaller than the first floor. After navigating between several floating islands for about an hour, Erich ran into someone.
The other person was a one-eyed woman wearing an eyepatch, squatting on a stone monument and prying something off. Hearing the commotion, she turned her head and sized Erich up.
Erich instinctively reached to pull up his hood, only to remember that his cloak had long been devoured clean by those insects. Currently, he was relying on just a few rags to cover his vitals.
“Lost?” the one-eyed woman asked.
This was somewhat different from what Erich had expected. Based on his past experience, the moment anyone recognized his face, their first reaction would be to figure out how to knock him unconscious and carry him out to claim the bounty. But this woman merely glanced at him before returning to prying at her monument.
“I'm looking for a Return Platform,” Erich said.
“That way. Cross three floating islands, and there's a half-collapsed archway on your right. Go through it and you're there,” she said, pointing in a direction without raising her head.
Erich paused, then fished out a few insect carcasses from the pouch at his waist and placed them next to the monument.
“Stone-scale bug carcasses. Can I trade these for some Silence Powder?”
The one-eyed woman finally stopped her movements and looked at him.
“You don't know how to make it?”
“No.”
She pulled a small leather pouch and a crumpled piece of parchment from her bosom.
“Take it. The method is written on there. See if you can figure it out yourself.”
Erich took them, nodded in thanks, and spread his wings again. Behind him, the one-eyed woman's voice drifted over: “Hey, you're Erich, right?”
He didn't look back.
“The people on the second floor aren't as boring as those on the first,” she continued. “Anyone who can make it here alive fought their way up with real blood and steel. No one cares about that petty bounty. Buy me a drink next time we meet.”
To be honest, Erich was a little flattered. Since transmigrating, this was the first time someone other than Isa had treated him with such a “normal” attitude. Perhaps everyone on the second floor had a bit of class, or maybe he looked so exposed right now that it triggered a sort of concession to the miserable. Regardless, it was quite nice.
【Welcome to: Ash Wasteland】
After finding a Return Platform and placing a magical beast core on it, Erich quickly returned to the first floor. The familiar dusty yellow wasteland stretched out beneath his feet.
The scenery was familiar, but there seemed to be more people. Previously, one could fly for half a day without spotting a single soul, but now, every short distance Erich flew, he could see a squad of troops in standard armor patrolling the wasteland.
The area around the Return Platform was even more bustling. Over a dozen people were stationed there, thoroughly inspecting every adventurer who wanted to leave.
When it was Erich's turn, the inspecting soldier froze for a moment, clearly recognizing this notorious playboy of the empire.
“...Name?”
“Erich.”
And then Erich was let through. This actually made him a bit uneasy; he had expected at least some questioning, considering he was someone with a bounty on his head and a disgraced noble.
Still, this was for the best. He stepped into the pillar of light.
Within just a few seconds, after an unknown number of days, Erich successfully exited the Abyss. He beheld the true sky and bathed in genuine sunlight.
But before he could even take a single breath of fresh air, his head felt as if it had been struck by a hammer. An intense pain shot straight to his crown, accompanied by a sharp, high-pitched ringing in his ears.
The exit curse of the first floor was akin to a severe cold, but the second floor's curse was far more severe: persistent tinnitus and intermittent hearing loss, lasting anywhere from a day to a week.
Erich stood rooted to the spot, motionless, waiting for the most intense wave to pass. After quite a while, the ringing receded into a background noise—still constant, but no longer enough to drive him mad. He tidied up the remaining scraps of cloth covering his lower body and walked toward Ash City.
The Adventurers' Guild was the same as ever. The familiar receptionist girl was looking down, keeping the books, while a few familiar faces sat at a corner table, drinking and boasting. The familiar commission board was covered in familiar requests, though the spot at the very top where his bounty poster used to hang was now occupied by a different commission.
When Erich walked in, the room grew a bit quieter.
Seeing Erich enter, no one made a move. His original body was of noble birth, after all—the eldest son of the Edmond family. Even if he had been exiled, he was still an upper-class figure who once had access to magic, as well as a notorious playboy. Although exiled, who knew what his actual strength was? And who could say for sure that the Edmond family wouldn't have a change of heart one day and welcome this exiled eldest son back? When the bounty was active, people were willing to take a gamble, but now that the bounty was gone, only a fool would go out of their way to provoke such a person.
Having figured this out, Erich walked up to the counter and slapped the core of the Bone-Spine Pearl Mother onto the desk.
“Turning in a commission. For the Bone-Spine Pearl Mother.”
Everyone's gaze converged on him.
Everyone present knew exactly how many people that spider had devoured on the first floor of the Abyss. Just last month alone, the number of adventurers who had perished to it was easily in the double digits.
The receptionist girl pulled a small magnifying glass for appraisal from her drawer and peered closely at the core. After a few seconds, she looked up.
“The core of the Bone-Spine Pearl Mother... it's real.”
A collective gasp echoed through the room. An old hunter in the corner suddenly stood up, staring at Erich's abdomen, his voice filled with disbelief. “Is that... a Battle Scar? Is that a Battle Scar on you?”
The atmosphere in the room grew even heavier. Everyone knew that a Battle Scar wasn't something one could obtain through mere practice. In the entirety of Ash City, the number of adventurers who possessed a Battle Scar was in the double digits.
Erich didn't reply.
The receptionist girl had recovered herself and respectfully presented seven gold coins and a set of brand-new clothes.
“This is your reward. Please take it.”
The money was real, and so was her respectful attitude. Erich pocketed the gold coins, changed into the clothes right in front of everyone—covering the red pattern on his abdomen—and then silently pushed the door open and walked out.
The inn was diagonally opposite the guild. Erich pushed open the door to his room, picked up his old clothes, and turned to walk to Isa's room across the hallway.
The room was very quiet, with everything exactly as it had been before he left. On the nightstand sat a cloth bag containing the savings the two of them had accumulated during this period. Together with the seven gold coins he had just received, it totaled about twenty gold coins. The purchasing power of a single gold coin was roughly equivalent to ten thousand yuan, so twenty coins should be enough for him to pay his tuition fees—even though sixty percent of it technically belonged to Isa.
“Let's go, Isa.”
After speaking softly, Erich walked out of the inn.
The capital of the Radiant Empire, Radiant City—Morningstar Academy.
According to the memories of his original body, traveling from Ash City to Radiant City would take nearly a month by ordinary carriage. However, if he could hitch a ride on teleportation arrays along the way, the time could be cut down to three to five days. But the fee for teleportation arrays was outrageously expensive; ordinary people couldn't afford it.
He walked toward the city gates, glancing at the bulletin board as he passed. Posted on it was a brand-new notice.
Morningstar Academy, new semester, about to begin.
Rate on N.U.
