Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

Meanwhile...

Inside the Abyss-Rank Ruin, Atlas stood at the deepest chamber with the scythe firm in his hand. In front of him, on a raised circular pedestal, sat a small Crystal Sphere. It radiated a rainbow-colored glow that filled the entire chamber around it.

The Crystal Sphere was the ruin’s core relic.

Atlas picked it up and looked at it for a moment.

”This will go to the Rosaria Household. It’s time to exit.”

He came out of the ruin shortly after. The area outside was clear. No Rosaria guards, no one was waiting nearby. He concluded she had kept her end of the agreement without needing to be told twice.

He went directly to the Rosaria Household from there. He had memorized the route while coming to the ruin earlier, so finding it again took no effort. Fifteen minutes later he was standing in front of the massive gates. This time the guards outside opened them without asking anything or stopping him to check.

He walked in and found Flora near the front of the door.

”Lady Seraphiel is in the same reception room, Mr. Atlas,” she said.

He nodded and went inside, after passing through the corridors of the massive house again he arrived at the room, it was the same as before. Seraphiel was sitting on the same couch. Atlas sat down when she gestured and placed the Crystal Sphere on the glass table between them.

”Lady Seraphiel, this is the relic I got in the ruin.”

Seraphiel picked it up and examined it for a moment. Then she nodded and set it back on the table.

”Alright, Mr. Atlas. You kept your end and I kept mine. But...” She paused and turned slightly. ”Flora, bring the things I asked you to prepare.”

Flora entered the room a moment later. The long sword rested on her waist as always, and she carried a small pouch in her hand.

Atlas looked at the pouch and then back at Seraphiel.

”This wasn’t in the agreement,” he said. Not accusing, just stating it.

Seraphiel nodded. ”It wasn’t. But when you clear a ruin you receive a reward through the guild. Since I hired you as an Explorer, I am handling that directly. The total comes to one thousand five hundred gold. One thousand of that has been converted into ten platinum coins to reduce the carry weight.”

Atlas arched an eyebrow slightly.

’She is right about the reward and the hiring. But isn’t the amount a bit much?’

Flora walked over and handed the pouch to him. Atlas took it and felt the weight of it in his hand for a moment. Ten platinum coins and five hundred gold together had a clear weight to them.

’...Well. She is a noble. This probably doesn’t mean much to her.’

He nodded. ”Thanks, Lady Seraphiel.” He set the pouch down on his side of the table. ”I wanted to speak to you about something. Alone.”

Seraphiel looked at Flora. Flora nodded and left the room, pulling the door behind her.

”Yes, Mr. Atlas?”

Atlas took a short moment before speaking. ”It’s about the agreement. I’m planning to leave this city after one more Abyss-Rank Ruin. I’ll be travelling after that. Does your household have a branch in the Central City of Celestara? Or an agent who handles business there? If so, I can transfer whatever relics I want to sell through them instead of coming here.”

Seraphiel looked at his masked face for a moment before answering.

”We can arrange that. We have a branch house in the Central City. And I had already planned to move there myself as Guildmaster, for personal reasons. So it won’t be a problem.”

Atlas nodded. Then he spoke again.

”There’s one more thing. I may not stay in Celestara for long either. Eventually I’ll have to travel to other continents, which means the contract will have to end at some point. Is there a process for that?”

Seraphiel paused.

A sharp sting passed through her chest for just a moment. She frowned slightly at it, not understanding where it came from, and dismissed it.

”There is a way,” she said. ”We would have to nullify the contract through a new contract relic with both our countersigns stating those terms. Or you can nullify it by signing a new contract that states you are unable to fulfill the original agreement’s conditions. Once that new contract is signed, both cancel each other out.”

Atlas took that in and nodded slowly.

”Understood. Then I’ll excuse myself, Lady Seraphiel.”

He stood, picked up the pouch, and left the room. A minute later he was outside the Rosaria Household entirely and walking the route back toward his inn.

As he walked, he thought about the ruin.

Increasing all his attributes to 40 had gone smoothly, that had surprised him more than anything else inside. He had expected resistance, some degree of pain or loss of control the way it had happened before when his attributes were lower. Instead the opposite had happened.

’How does my control increase every time I raise the attributes?’

Before, increasing his attributes had always cost him control. His strength would go beyond what his movements could account for, and he would damage things he didn’t intend to damage or move further than he planned. That had been consistent from the beginning. But now, every time the number went up, his control over his own body went up with it. He didn’t understand the reason behind that yet.

Also after increasing the Attributes to 40, his overall strength had surged so much that to test it he had punched the Ruin wall for a test and the result?

A massive crater had been formed in the wall, he was utterly shocked by it but, he concluded one thing clearly ’I am not sure but looks like I am closing the gap to S-rank...’

He was still turning that over in his mind when he noticed them.

Two individuals ahead of him on the path. Human, both of them, wearing travelling and Explorer attires. Nothing about them looked unusual on the surface.

But Atlas felt it immediately.

’Human travellers. Both A-rank.’

His eyes narrowed under the hood.

He was already cautious around any Human he crossed paths with, even back on the Human Continent. Here in the Angelic Continent, that caution was higher. He stayed as low-key as possible around any Human he encountered, regardless of whether they had given him a reason to be suspicious or not. Two A-rank Humans appearing in Lumivale, a city on the Angelic Continent, was not something he was going to walk past without doing something about it. A-rank was not a common level. Most Explorers who reached it stayed in their own continent’s central areas where the resources and guild infrastructure could support them. There was no obvious reason for two A-rank Humans to be walking through a branch city on the Angelic Continent, and that alone was enough for him.

He activated Spirit Instinct and Sense Nullification at the same time.

His presence dropped away completely. He also pushed his own Spirit outward to cover the scythe fully, wrapping it so that when Spirit Instinct masked his presence, the scythe’s presence was pulled under with it. He had figured out that much from testing it inside the ruin. The scythe carried its own presence separately from him, and without covering it first, masking himself alone would still leave the scythe to be sensed by those two.

So he made sure of it with this method.

And it worked. Both dropped away together.

He continued walking at the same pace, passing closer to the two as they walked in the opposite direction. Neither of them reacted to him. To them, there was nothing on this part of the path worth looking at.

Then he heard one of them speak.

”Tch... damn that receptionist. She’s already suspicious of us. Asking for a fingerprint or blood for registration? She’s definitely onto something, Feras.”

The one called Feras nodded. ”Yes she is. Well, our job is assassination. Getting information is the problem right now. Assassinating someone when we have no face or image of them... it’s not easy.”

”Veyron also said he doesn’t keep any image of any commoner pests, we have to find him ourselves hah...This is becoming a headache even to us it seems.” Feras spoke again.

The first one pressed his lips together. ”Hmm. Only one way left to find this Atlas Crosswood, Feras...”

Feras frowned and spoke in confusion and a slight amusement ”Oh? You have an idea? What is it Levin?”

Levin smirked and turned to him.

Atlas was already two steps past them when that name came out.

His eyes went wide beneath the hood and he turned while remaining concealed, his mouth parted on its own as only one word came out.

’What?’

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[A/N: We are finally in cheering reads section guys! Throw PS or GT so we can utilize the ranking and pull more readers!!]