Chapter 157 - Protector of All

{Skill: Frost Touch has been added}

{Passive Skill: Arctic Resistance has been added}

“A new passive skill?” I admired it with a smile.

I received so many skills from all sorts of monsters that I wasn’t entirely sure how many I had at that point. Out of all those skills, I got a handful that were like that one, passive skills.

They always appeared at rarer rates than the other ones but since they didn’t pack a lot of power, I never thought to use them all too much. By a rough count, I had about four at that stage.

I’ve been relying on Rabbit’s Foot all this time but maybe I should swap them out now and then. I suppose since we’re leaving the dungeon, I’ll give this one a try.

I scrolled through the skill menu and focused my attention on the Golem tree. An icon floated to the centre and glowed.

{Passive Skill ‘Study’ has been selected as the default}

Sturdy gives me protection against projectiles, so does that mean I’m arrow-proof now? I have to admit…I don’t want to find that out the hard way.

After I finished devouring the boss and collecting the drops, we walked towards the massive portal that appeared just outside the castle doors.

Arga strapped as many rusted weapons and supplies as she could to her back. She even got Veldor to help carry some of it, reluctantly of course. Her gleeful expression took the stage on her face as she rushed through the portal, ahead of us.

It was a successful trip overall, the three of us managed to successfully increase our strengths. I managed to level up by nearly 10 levels. I made the massive jump to level 29 and realised just how many skills I had to review from our trip.

By the time we left the dungeon, a new day had already begun.

Time works differently in some dungeons, we came to realise summoned ones aren’t any exception. For us, it was just over a day but in the real world, we had been gone for nearly three. Kana wasn’t happy with me when we returned, but after explaining what happened she let me off with a dirty look.

I spent the rest of the day sleeping, after so many hours of non-stop fighting, my body was long overdue for some shut-eye. The moment I reached my room, I lost feeling in my legs and collapsed into bed. I slept like it was my last and only woke up the next day, with half my face drenched in a drool puddle on the pillow.

A chilly breeze rushed through the window and tickled my chin as I dragged myself off the bed. I grabbed my shoulders and gripped them tightly.

“Maybe I should have gone with that arctic resistance skill instead…Brrrrrrrr~” I said as I walked over to close the window.

A group of adventurers outside the window caught my eye. They were walking towards a merchant table at the end of the street, laughing and joking in a carefree manner.

I grinned.

I wonder if those two passed out at home just like I did. Should I check in?

I opened the map and confirmed my theory. Arga’s icon remained frozen on top of her house's position. I felt a sense of satisfaction knowing I didn’t need a map to read Arga’s movements. It had gotten to the point where I could vividly picture her passed out over her bench in the smithy.

“Veldor’s not at his guild building, where could he be? Is it possible that he’s…I thought so.”

Istoria’s monument site in the cemetery, it's often where Veldor would visit in his spare time. I didn’t get the satisfying feeling of seeing him there, if I had to put it into words, I’d say I felt uneasy.

His icon moved away from the site and into the street, that’s when I closed the map. My grin had faded and a grim frown took its place.

I rubbed the area between my eyes and a sigh escaped me.

“What would I even say if I did visit…well, I won’t come up with anything sitting here.”

***

Approaching the entrance to the cemetery, I crossed through two large statues of angels. They were dressed in armour and had massive feathery wings that wrapped around their bodies. They looked more like adventurers than angels.

The area was gated in by a wide perimeter of metal fences with lots of vibrant red-leafed trees throughout the field.

The space was easily larger than the residential area, with tombs and statues in every corner of the place. It was baffling to think how they managed to fill more space when so much of it had already been taken up.

The entire area was filled with lush grass, a field contained in a city.

A few familiar names came up when I looked around, mostly adventurers who made the news when passing on from large raids or bosses on the higher floors. The one I was after, wasn’t hard at all to spot.

A large chunk of marble stone elevated the figure dressed in holy armour. He looked even more majestic than I remembered, every feature of his face elevated to an angelic degree. I couldn’t imagine how many days it would have taken for them to chisel that one detail alone.

His eyes faced forward and yet it felt as though he were looking over me, the whole cemetery, protecting the entire city from that pedestal.

My face scrunched up, it took everything I had to keep myself from bursting out in tears on the spot. I thought I was okay, that it didn’t phase me to see him but I realised how wrong I was.

[Edward Windward. Age 34. Leader of Heaven's Gate guild, friend and protector of all.]

“Protector of all…” I muttered.

Tears began to form on the sides of my eyes but right before they could touch my cheek, someone's hand passed into my peripheral. It reached out and placed a flower at the base of the statue, I turned away and wiped my face.

“Sorry, am I interrupting?” The stranger asked penitently.

“No, no of course not! I was thinking of something pretty sad and must have gotten something in my eye. I didn’t think anyone else was here.” I frantically wiped my face while trying to hide it from him.

Wait a minute, I didn’t even sense him approaching me! He got right next to me without so much as a sound or even a signal…for him to be able to mask his presence like that, is he an assassin-class adventurer?

“Don’t worry about it, everyone cries after losing someone they care about. It’s what makes us human.”

His voice floated on the wind and graced my ear with every word. The way he spoke was quite refined, almost elegant but had a demanding quality to it. It was clear he was an adventurer but not like the ones I was used to talking to.

“The truth is, I was a great fan of his. He taught me a lot of what I know today and even though we were considered rivals, I thought of him as nothing less than a brother to me.”

As rivals? Who is this guy?

I turned to greet the stranger but nearly stumbled over my own feet once our eyes met. My hands shook aggressively at my sides, I was so nervous that I thought my heart might have jumped out of my chest.

He greeted me with a warm smile.

“Y-y-you’re…!!!”

“Oh my apologies, I didn’t introduce myself after talking so much. My name is Eren, Eren Gardner.”

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