Chapter 207: Returning to the outside world
Chapter 207: Returning to the outside world
Almost two-thirds of the contestants who entered the dungeon had died as only a few of them were standing before the final gateway to leave the dungeon.
While Don and Arrora were walking towards the portal, Rosaline was standing behind them and searching for someone.
Arrora's heart was beating fast as she was thinking about the cubs and the tigress in Don's space ring. With a long breath of sigh, Don and Arrora stepped into the gateway.
Just when they stepped out of the portal, they were welcomed by a huge crowd of people as they were cheering and lighting fireworks that decorated the sky with their unique colors and figures.
Don did not see Princess Audrey anywhere as Rodrigo was accompanied by his royal guards.
"Young master, please this way"
While Don was standing with Arrora, a young girl came to them carrying drinks on a tray with a wide grin on her face.
"No, thanks"
The girl was shocked to hear him refuse the drinks considering the other contestants were even playing with the girls.
"I don't drink"
Don noticed the girl was starting panic thinking that she had done something wrong.
"Oh? Then would you like me to get you something to eat, young master?"
The girl asked Don as he shook his head.
"Look, there's someone available, try your luck there"
Arrora knew that these girls are trying to serve the contestants well in the hope to be their concubines. And looking at she's barking at the wrong tree, Arrora pointed the girl at another young master's direction as the girl curtsied them and ran towards him.
"Don't let anyone leave the place"
Suddenly Don heard Rosaline's voice from behind and turned back to see she and Aster stepping out of the portal.
"Miss Rosaline"
The old mage who gave the space rings before they entered the dungeon came running to Rosaline.
Even though Don couldn't hear what she's talking about with the mage, he knew that they were talking about the robbery and the disappearance of Chase.
The old mage couldn't help but raise his brows and startle when he heard Rosaline as he quickly nodded his head.
"Men, close the gates, no one will leave until we say so"
The crowd stopped cheering and everyone looked at the old mage with shock and surprise.
"I'll go and bring Lord Baxter and Lady Lara"
The old mage said to Rosaline and rushed towards the big tent located where the stage was before.
While everyone was staring at Rosaline, Don noticed individual booths built around the ground as each booth was different in sizes and elegance.
By looking at the people standing beside the booths, Don realized that each booth is representing a sect. The biggest and fanciest booth was occupied by the people wearing the robes of the cold moon palace and adjacent to the cold moon palace's booth, there was the Redland Academy booth.
He also recognized the booths of Landsor and Gepria which were built in unique structure as the Lansor booth looked like a bow while Gepria's booth looked like a leaf.
Besides these famous sects, he noticed a few unknown booths that had little to no crowd before them.
"Rosaline, Aster, what the hell happened back there?"
A middle-aged man with long grayish hair descended from the sky riding an arrow-like flying item.
He had a longbow on his behind and the crest of the Lansor on his chest.
"Master Kaiden"
Rosaline and Aster bowed towards the man respectfully
"Master Kaiden, we don't know what happened to Chase, she didn't meet us inside and we searched for her but we couldn't find her"
"You couldn't find her because she's dead, Aster"
The moment the words escaped Kaiden's mouth, Aster fell on the ground as Rosaline stood there shocked.
"How? Who?"
Tears started to flow out of Aster's eyes as the crowd felt like they were being hit by lightning.
Chase was one of the renowned prodigies of the moon empire and the core disciple of the Lansor, the school of Archery. No one had imagined that she would lose her life inside the dungeon.
"you two didn't meet her during your time inside?"
"No, Master Kaiden"
Rosaline shook her head and there was a grief in her voice.
"The robbers"
Aster said with the gritted teeth as Kaiden frowned
"Who?"
Rosaline looked around to find the youth who said that he saw Chase going into the forest but she couldn't find him as she guessed that he's probably dead.
"Master Kaiden, while we were inside, most of the contestants got robbed by these unknown robbers"
"Tell me everything you know"
Kaiden asked Rosaline as Rosaline and Aster started to tell everything from the youths got robbed after the rain of treasures to what happened with the golems. And Aster didn't forget to tell the events that happened in the herbal garden.
Everyone who heard Rosaline and Arrora felt their muscles going rigid as Kaiden clenched his fist and radiated an immense amount of killing intent because Chase was one of his best and favorite disciples who he groomed to be the next elders of the Lansor.
He would have accepted if she died in a duel or a tournament with honor but hearing Rosaline and Aster, he realized that she might be murdered by the robbers in a deceitful way. Thinking this, Kaiden couldn't control the killing intent radiating from him as it almost choked everyone who was standing around him, including Don and Arrora.
"Lord Kaiden, please calm down"
Suddenly a flash of light appeared and made the killing intent disappear.
"Teacher Baxter, Teacher Lara"
Rosaline bowed to the red-haired man and the woman who came rushing towards Kaiden.
Baxter and Lara were one of the elders of the cold moon palace but even they approached Kaiden with respect and addressed him as Lord because he was not only the second elder of the Lansor but also a heavenly level mage.
Kaiden didn't say anything to Baxter and Lara as he closed his eyes and cast a spell.
"Shadow Barrier"
When he opened his eyes, a dark blackish barrier surrounded the ground and formed a dome.
"Search everyone's space rings, the robbers must have put the things they stole in their space rings, if we can find them, we'll find what happened to Chase"
Baxter said and ordered the old mage to search everyone's space ring.
"I've already sent a message to the board in star empire to conduct a thorough search, if the robbers came alive out of the dungeon, we'll get them "
Kaiden and everyone else knew that there's a possibility that the robbers had already perished inside the dungeon but as far as Kaiden was concerned if the robbers had the skills to deceive and kill Chase and robe everyone blind, it was very unlikely that the robbers would have died.
"Hand over your space rings"
The old man came to Don and Arrora and ordered them to give their space rings.
Don and Arrora removed their space rings from their fingers and gave it to the old man without saying anything.
Arrora's ring had some plants and herbs that grew in the forests and the old man did not react much when he searched her ring. However, when he searched Don's ring, his eyes went wide in surprise as he found the extremely rare and precious purple restoration pill that had a hundred percent effectiveness. Besides the pill, there wasn't much that drew the old man's attention as there were some low-level magical items and plants.
"Here are your rings"
The old man nodded as he gave them back their rings and went to search the next contestant who survived the dungeon.
Since the thieves robbed everyone clean, the old man searched for a horde of rare herbs and precious pills in the space rings. Yet, the old man couldn't find what he was looking for as even though the survivors had extremely rare treasures in their space rings, none of them had the items that Aster said they stole from her and the people before her.
"My Lords, I searched every single space ring but I couldn't find the items that Miss Aster said they took"
Kaiden frowned when he heard the old mage because there was no way for the robbers to store the items that they robbed other than putting them into their space rings and they wouldn't have left the items in the dungeon after taking the risk to rob everyone inside.
That left Kaiden with one possibility, the robbers took the gateway to reach the Star empire.
"I will go to the Star Empire"
Kaiden said as he jumped onto the arrow and flew away.
Don and Knight robbed too many people and had an immense amount of experience in the field of robbing so no matter how hard Kaiden searched, he wouldn't find out about them.
"Please, everyone continue the celebration"
The red-haired woman, Lara said after seeing Kaiden disappear into the horizon.
"You, stay here"
When Don took a step to leave the place, the old mage stopped him.
When the old mage stopped them, the gazes of Rosaline and Aster landed on Don as the old mage whispered something to Lara and Baxter.
The crowd noticed Baxter and Lara looking at Don and Arrora and they stared at them to see what's happening.
"Come with us"
Lara seemed surprised and shocked but Baxter didn't show any emotions as he motioned them to follow him to the main tent.
Seeing his plan was in motion, Don nodded at them and followed them into the tent as Rosaline and Aster followed them behind.