Chapter 97: The Return

"Alter?" Hearing that her recent loss of composure was due to this, Artoria was surprised at first, but then she fell into a silent, knowing state.

"Although you are indeed a bit stuffy, you don't look like the type to develop a dark side just because someone provoked you with their chest," Ereshkigal mused. "During the swimsuit fashion show, you had a similar reaction out of shyness, but it passed quickly."

"Was it because of Choco's puppet form?" Zhao Tianhe asked casually.

Artoria’s delicate body trembled, and she sighed.

"Is it because of that monster?" Ereshkigal suddenly understood why Artoria felt so pressured.

Because before a way to break it was found, even if Artoria returned to her prime form, she was helpless against Choco's puppet state. It wasn't something that could be solved by firepower alone—or rather, the firepower of Excalibur simply wasn't enough.

If it were Gilgamesh's Ea, perhaps the dungeon could be annihilated at its source, but Excalibur lacked the strength to destroy a complete subspace. One must understand that the subspace housing a dungeon is far sturdier than a Reality Marble.

As a legendary king, Artoria’s knowledge was vast, but for a monster like that, the only word she could find in her heart was "calamity." Possessing a strong sense of pride, she was deeply troubled by the fact that she had contributed almost nothing to the battle; this was the true source of the pressure in her heart.

"I understand how that feels. Being less capable than even A-He, that really is..." Ereshkigal patted Artoria’s shoulder in comfort.

However, Zhao Tianhe, standing nearby, felt his spirit take a heavy blow. 'Just what is my status in their hearts?' he sighed inwardly.

"It... it's not that I'm inferior to A-He," Artoria shook her head. "Compared to upright strategy and tactics, these nuanced matters aren't my specialty. Besides, I haven't experienced what you and Ereshkigal went through, so it's only natural I couldn't have thought of it."

"Yes, yes. If it were the great King of Knights, surely you would have thought of a way to break the deadlock more easily, right?" Ereshkigal teased with a smile.

"Of course!" Artoria said, lifting her head with confidence.

"Wait, aren't knights supposed to be humble?" Zhao Tianhe said with a wry smile.

"But it's not a problem if it's the truth," Artoria replied calmly. "Although your perception is stronger than mine, you are still lacking in many other areas. I cannot continue to teach you the way of the mage, so you must listen carefully to Zelretch. A good teacher is more important than anything!"

'After splitting off the Alter, the original seems even more positive and sunny,' Zhao Tianhe thought to himself. He also noticed that the summoning time for the Alter had just increased by three minutes!

'It seems that finding peace of mind comes with a price...' Zhao Tianhe sighed internally.

The next day, Zhao Tianhe calmly set off alone to take the airship. He had visited Alisa earlier, but unfortunately, although her soul had returned, both her body and soul were still recuperating under magical care and she had not yet woken up. Unlike Zhao Tianhe, whose soul and body were reinforced by the Hero System, the forced separation of a soul from the body is a very taxing experience for an ordinary person.

Although he had gained some fame from the banquet the previous night, in the public eye, he was at most a clown. Who would have guessed that he was actually the summoner of Queen Artoria? The general public assumed he was merely Artoria's teammate, and a mage at that, which explained his poor physical stamina. Occasionally, reporters would come up to ask about Artoria, but Zhao Tianhe would dismiss them with a few casual words.

After another full day of flight, Zhao Tianhe finally returned to the nostalgic harbor city of Port St. Ross. Leaving the airship port, he hailed a skiff. After specifying his destination, he headed toward a small island in the outer seas called Bal Island.

"Does the gentleman have an urgent matter?" the skiff operator asked.

Bal Island was a considerable distance from Port St. Ross. Renting a temporary skiff cost a full 50 silver coins, equivalent to two days' income for the operator, so most people without urgent business chose to take the ferry.

"Yes, I am a Hero, just transferred to take charge of clearing the dungeon there," Zhao Tianhe explained. "I believe it's called the 'Evil Light Sea Tomb'? A B-rank dungeon."

"Oh." The driver understood. B-rank Heroes were wealthy; this amount of money was indeed nothing to them.

***

Along the way, Zhao Tianhe learned about Bal Island while chatting with the driver. The island's unique seafood was very popular, attracting many visitors every year, and it was a key source of local revenue—a famous gourmet island on the Gold Coast.

"Bal Island is located in the outer sea, and there are many dungeons nearby. It is said that the unique seafood there is caused by the trace amounts of life energy leaking from the dungeons, so they can't be raised anywhere else. Even if you manage to keep them alive, the next generation degrades into ordinary seafood," the driver said with a smile. "Things there are very expensive. As a native of Port St. Ross, I've only been twice in my life—once as a child with my parents, and once the year before last with my children."

Some of the seafood was exported, some were reserved by local restaurants, and the rest was sold at the local market and the piers of Port St. Ross. After all, for seafood, freshness is paramount. Transporting them outward, whether by freezing or using life magic, consumed significant resources and resulted in high prices. They were top-tier luxury goods inland, highly profitable but low in total volume.

'I must work hard to train my skills in seafood cooking! I'll apprentice at a restaurant!' Zhao Tianhe felt his spirits lift. However, he felt something was off, because after the battle in that unknown dungeon, his passive skill had actually leveled up!

Passive Skill: Super Magic Intuition Lv.3 (71/40000)
When casting a spell, there is a 5%+2% (Lv.2 enhancement) chance to randomly cast a spell of the same branch and element that is 1~3 levels higher than the original.
Lv.2 enhancement: Additional 1% chance to cast a spell 2 levels higher.
Lv.3 enhancement: Increases trigger probability by 2%.

It wasn't just leveled up; the skill now had an experience bar. Through verification over these past few days, Zhao Tianhe realized that every time he triggered the skill, he gained one point of experience.

'Well, this doesn't actually conflict,' Zhao Tianhe thought carefully. He could practice cooking while spamming auxiliary and protective magic on himself to level up the skill!

And so, it was decided. Zhao Tianhe planned to spend money to find a connection to learn cooking.

After leaving the city, free from traffic controls, the skiff picked up speed. Two hours later, they arrived above Bal Island.

Zhao Tianhe looked at the apartment gate and knocked. Because there were so many dungeons of high density around Bal Island, the Hero apartments were built together for Heroes of different tiers, just like in Rogge Town. Of course, Rogge Town did it to save money, but Bal Island was different.

In the complex covering thousands of square kilometers, the east side faced the sea and possessed its own private waters. Many low-ranking Heroes earned extra income by catching seafood there. Two towering twenty-story buildings housed E to C-rank Heroes, while the east side facing the sea consisted of detached villas for B to A-rank Heroes. Additionally, the complex featured restaurants, pool halls, and other entertainment facilities, including bars and other adult entertainment. Many Heroes lived there with their families, forming a thriving community.

As Zhao Tianhe walked in, he first saw a group of children playing soccer on the lawn. A few young women and elderly people were chatting and reading nearby, and some teenagers were practicing magic. This was a world of difference from his previous environment. Rogge Town was a novice camp filled with young people. In Port St. Ross, dungeon density was lower, so Hero apartments were built closer to the respective dungeons.

'This feeling... I miss it,' Zhao Tianhe thought, looking at the scene. He had a surreal feeling of being in another world, as if he were still back on Earth.

He asked for directions and arrived at the B-4 villa area, where Zhao Tianhe's team resided. The scale of this villa was similar to the C-rank one, just with the addition of a pool and an airship hangar. At that moment, a group of people was having a party in the front yard. Many beauties in swimsuits were frolicking, while staff in waiter uniforms were busy with barbecues, fruit platters, and drinks.

Zelretch was naturally among them, with a brown-haired model-like beauty and a petite blonde elven beauty surrounding him.

"Hi!" Zhao Tianhe waved with a smile, while a gust of wind elements surged around him—a Flight spell. Along the way, he had been casting wind-based acceleration spells on himself to train his skill, essentially trying to keep his mana bar from ever being full.

"You really are diligent," Zelretch said with a laugh. "Come, let me introduce you."

In the front yard, besides Zelretch, there were six team members: three Otherworld Heroic Spirits, two summoners, and one combat-oriented Hero currently taking the summoner certification exam.

"Hi!" A giant with blue skin, nearly three meters tall, greeted Zhao Tianhe with a laugh. "I've heard a lot about you! To think you used a summoned creature to earn the Association's first-class merit, the 'Nameless Sword Badge,' and St. Ville's special honorary medal, the 'Hero of Humanity.' Amazing! Hahaha!"

Because Zhao Tianhe had saved over four thousand children, the authorities were not stingy with praise. The Nameless Sword Badge was the second-highest honor after the special-class 'Face of the Nameless,' a reward worthy of leaving one's name in history. Not even one was awarded globally every few years; they were usually only given to those who performed meritorious service during a dungeon-related magical disaster.

As for the 'Hero of Humanity' medal from St. Ville, it was the highest honor the human race could bestow. This year, the only other recipient besides Zhao Tianhe was the Grand Archmage Lu Changtian, vice-dean of the Fourth Research Institute of the Sky Palace, who had released the 'Equipment Enhancement Machine.'

"This is Han'ar, a Namekian," Zelretch introduced.

"Nice to meet you," Zhao Tianhe nodded at the blue-skinned giant who looked a bit like an Avatar. His special talent didn't match his physique; he was a scout specializing in stealth and assassination, possessing a natural talent for perception.

Han'ar’s summoner was a curvaceous blonde elven beauty named Bulei. A level-six Archmage, her strength was on par with Zelretch's, but her age was over ten times his!

The other two Otherworld Heroic Spirits looked no different from normal humans. An elderly man with a withered body, long beard, and a robe sat on the balcony upstairs reading a magazine and greeted Zhao Tianhe. He was the "Slayer Elder" from the Three-Star Realm, and his name was literally Slayer Elder. Though he looked decrepit, his talent was "Berserker Rage," allowing him to strengthen his power attribute with fury; he excelled in head-on combat.

Slayer Elder's summoner was a somewhat frivolous-looking young man with a ponytail and a goatee who was chatting with a group of beauties. His name was Li Shan, a level-five mage especially skilled in support and healing magic—the type most suited for close-combatants.

A red-haired youth who looked barely over twenty, with a fit, scarred, and tough-guy appearance, gave Zhao Tianhe a casual greeting before returning to boast to the beauties. He was Hack from the Third Galaxy Empire. The scars on his body were a testament to his role: he excelled in close-quarters combat and absorbing damage, becoming more defensively resilient the more he was hit, with a high resistance to magic. He was the team's main tank. His summoner was a pot-bellied, greasy-looking middle-aged man named Roar, a well-rounded level-five mage.

"There's one more person you know," Zelretch took flight, and Zhao Tianhe followed. The two flew over the villa to the beach on the east side.

On the beach, some were playing, some were sunbathing, and others were working on harvesting seafood. A girl in a white one-piece swimsuit had a large mass of seawater floating in front of her. The water was constantly changing and twisting, turning into steam one moment and ice the next. At the same time, she was enveloped in a seawater shield that reflected most of the light.

Even though he couldn't see her face clearly through the water shield, Zhao Tianhe didn't even need his super-perception to identify her instantly. It was that legendary figure who had won this year's "Best Female Hero of the Year," known as the "Meat-Bullet War God"...

Li Mei!

That iconic figure was simply too conspicuous! And too pleasing to the eye...

"What a coincidence. Though I thought she would stay in St. Ville to develop her career because of her fame and that Deputy Minister of Finance, Will," Zhao Tianhe said with a smile.

"St. Ville may be the human capital, but it's not necessarily better than here," Zelretch shook his head with a smile. "This Elven Sea, or the Endless Sea, hasn't been fully developed yet. Every year, millions of people from inland move here. In contrast, the capital mainly attracts magical researchers, with research-oriented mages flocking there in large numbers."

In other words, the economy here was developing faster, and there were massive resources waiting to be tapped.

"So this girl prefers a vibrant city? Hmm, indeed." Zhao Tianhe had spent many days in the capital. Although the atmosphere was lively due to the Robert Ceremony, he honestly felt that level of excitement was only slightly better than the usual Port St. Ross. As a famous tourist city and vital port, Port St. Ross indeed had advantages in certain areas that the capital couldn't match.

Zelretch and Zhao Tianhe flew to Li Mei's side. She quickly dispersed her spell, leaving only a layer of seawater shield above.

"Mr. Zhao Tianhe! You're finally back! Where is Miss Artoria?!" Li Mei said with a look of pleasant surprise.

'Don't tell me this woman gave up on developing in St. Ville just because of Artoria?' Zhao Tianhe kept his expression amiable, but he muttered inwardly. 'Don't get too close, or Artoria's pressure will only grow. And this... lesbian vibe... I don't know, it feels a bit uncomfortable...'

"Haha, let's talk about that later at the dungeon," Zhao Tianhe said with a smile. "I need to look at the details of this dungeon in a bit."

"Okay, okay! I'll introduce you to the situation there, and then let's go!" Li Mei said, grabbing Zhao Tianhe's hand with enthusiasm.