Endless Leveling Done Right!

Chapter 751: The Trial Of The Hermit [Part 2]

After the coronation ended, Alex walked along the hallways of the castle on his own.

He had asked the guards escorting him to leave him alone, saying that he needed some time to think.

Yes, what he needed right now was time.

The memories he gained when he became King Aetherion were something he wished to digest properly. He believed doing so would help him better understand his current situation.

And since he needed privacy, the place he headed to was none other than his own bedroom.

Yet, the moment he opened the door, he saw a familiar face casually munching on some cookies without a care in the world.

“A-Astrea?” Alex asked.

Since the young lady was busy eating, she didn’t notice that someone had entered the room.

So, when Alex had called her name, she was so surprised that she almost choked on her food.

“A-Alex?” Astrea said after wiping her lips with the back of her hand. “Why do you look older? And why do you have pointy ears? Are you an elf right now?”

Alex currently looked like a twenty-five-year-old man with silver hair and pointy ears.

The young lady then moved closer, then pulled back to look at him from head to toe. She even circled around his body a few times like she was some kind of food connoisseur about to eat some delicious meat.

‘So, this is what a mature Alex looks like,’ Astrea thought. ‘Not bad…’

Alex wasn’t the only one who changed, though.

Even Astrea now looked like a lady in her mid-twenties, giving her a womanly charm that made Alex unable to stop staring at her.

“What are you doing here?” Alex asked.

“I should be the one asking you that question,” Astrea replied. “What are you doing in my room?”

Then, as if waiting for that moment, both of them suddenly held onto their heads as an influx of memories washed over them.

A few minutes later, both looked at each other in shock.

“You’re… King Aetherion?” Astrea asked in disbelief.

“And you’re Queen… Elyndra,” Alex replied calmly. “The Queen of Faelarun.”

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, only broken when Astrea walked toward the table and picked up another cookie.

“Want some?” Astrea smirked.

“Sure.” Alex approached the table and took the cookie that was handed to him.

The two didn’t know what to talk about, so they focused their attention on eating the cookies on the platter for the meantime.

After they finished all the snacks, the two had no choice but to finally accept reality.

However, before they could even do that, they heard a knock on the door.

“Who is it?” Alex asked.

“It’s me, Elaris.”

“Come in.”

Alex found the name sounded familiar. Fortunately, the moment he saw the lady’s face, he immediately recognized her.

She was none other than Lapiz and Aeris’ mother, the same one whom they wished to save in Hy-Brasil!

Since Alex had no idea what Elaris looked like, he asked Lapiz to show him a photo of her.

Thankfully, she always carried a portrait of her family, so Alex was able to get a good look at Lapiz’s mother.

“Your Majesties, we have finished the preparations for your honeymoon,” Elaris said in a business-like tone. “Everyone worked hard for this, so I hope that both of you can produce an heir as soon as possible.”

“W-Wait!” Astrea immediately stood up in panic after hearing the Head Maid’s declaration. “What honeymoon?! What heirs?!”

“Your Majesty?” Elaris looked at her queen in confusion. “Both of you got married three months ago. However, since you had to deal with the Demons, you decided to move your honeymoon to after King Aetherion’s coronation.”

“Wait, what?” Astrea blinked. “We got married three months ago?”

“Yes,” Elaris replied. “You even tried to escape on the day of the marriage. Because of that, all the mages had no choice but to use magical bindings to tie you down while you made your vows.”

“T-Then… Did we do it already?” Astrea moved closer to ask in a volume only Elaris could hear. She conveniently ignored the part where she had been bound and forced to participate in the wedding.

“Do what?” Elaris tilted her head in return.

“You know?” Astrea said. “Did we *beep* each other?”

“Beep?” Elaris frowned. “What is beep?”

Astrea facepalmed because she didn’t know how to say it without being judged by Alex and Elaris.

Seeing how helpless she looked, Alex decided to give her a bit of help.

“I mean, did we have the chance to consummate our marriage after we got married?” Alex asked.

“Not yet,” Elaris replied. “That’s because right after your wedding, the Demon Lord sent his army to attack the border of our kingdom. Both of you had no choice but to deal with them first. With that said, the war against the Demon Lord ended a week ago. Of course, our side emerged victorious.”

Elaris then walked toward the door. Though, before leaving completely, she gave the King and Queen one last glance before leaving a message.

“Everyone is expecting an heir soon,” Elaris said. “However, since Her Majesty is a dragon, it might be hard for her to conceive. Lastly, some Elders don’t want the High King’s bloodline to be stained with dragon blood, so they have also prepared a few candidates to become His Majesty’s concubines.

“They are assigned to another room, so if His Majesty is ever curious, just let me know, and I shall take you to them.”

“Wow… you even have concubines,” Astrea said coldly. “Lucky you.”

“T-That will be all, Elaris.” Alex didn’t know why, but seeing Astrea’s cold gaze gave him goosebumps. “We’d like to eat our dinner in this room together, so just bring it later, okay?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Elaris bowed respectfully and left the room.

An awkward silence followed suit, with Alex looking at Astrea, who had crossed her arms over her chest.

The young lady was ignoring him on purpose, which made the young man feel like he was about to have a headache.

“Let’s set aside other matters first,” Alex said before sitting on the chair. “For now, let’s talk about what we need to do.”

Astrea didn’t reply, but she did sit on the chair across from him.

“First, the person we met just now is none other than Queen Elaris,” Alex stated. “She is the person we need to save from this place.”

Astrea nodded. “But why is she acting like that? It’s like… she’s really a maid.”

“It’s because of the Synchronization Rate,” Alex replied calmly.

“Synchronization Rate?” Astrea blinked. “What’s that?”

“Right now, we aren’t in our real bodies,” Alex explained. “And the memories we are getting here and there will slowly erode our consciousness. There will eventually come a time when we forget who we are and act like we are truly a part of this world.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Very serious.”

“Then what should we do?!” Astrea asked. “Will we turn into someone like Queen Elaris and forget our own memories if we don’t clear this challenge?”

“Yes.” Alex nodded. “This is why not many can leave Hy-Brasil and why they get stuck on this island forever. However, there is always a way. We must turn the current narrative so it reaches a good ending. If it ends badly, we will be stuck here.”

What happened between Alex, Latifa, and Fran during their previous trials was similar to this.

They had relived parts of history that had already come to pass.

Sadly, the stories they played didn’t have a good ending.

Fran spent hundreds of years guarding the grave of her companions before disappearing without a trace.

She had lived a very lonely life, with no one even remembering her after she died.

As for Latifa, who played the role of Princess Yvraine, she had become a dwarven princess who was captured by the Barbarian King.

In the original storyline, her kingdom had been destroyed, and the barbarians treated her like a war prize. They had no idea what horrors befell her after she had been captured, but it must’ve been horrible.

But one thing was certain. They would obtain great rewards from this.

After Alex and Latifa helped them reach a happy ending, they were rewarded with the Verdant Throne, a power that allowed the two of them to combine their powers.

After completing Fran’s story, she and Alex gained the Gaia Rings, a pair of ancient artifacts that bordered divinity. With it, any trait they had would be drastically boosted.

“The first thing we need to do now is to find the problem in this era and fix it,” Alex explained. “Since the Demon Lord has been defeated, the enemy might not be demons this time around. Once we identify the enemy, we must work together to defeat them.”

“Is that the only way we can escape this place?” Astrea asked.

“Yes,” Alex replied. “But I do have a question. It has been bugging me for quite some time now. How did you get here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Everdawn City?”

“I was in Everdawn City,” Astrea replied. “I went to the Everblossom Meadows and picked a flower. I then blew on it and made a wish.”

“And what wish did you make?” Alex asked.

“I wished to see you…” Astrea immediately covered her lips before she could say the rest of her sentence.

However, she had already spilled the beans.

“You wished to see me?” Alex asked, doing his best not to smile after hearing the young lady’s wish. “Why do you wish to see me?”

Astrea looked at Alex for a few seconds before standing up.

She then walked toward the door and escaped as fast as she could, leaving the young man scratching his head.

Even then, Alex couldn’t stop smiling for some reason.

Unfortunately, his companion’s mood didn’t match his.

Somewhere out there… his friends were also facing their own trials.

However, unlike Alex and Astrea, whose Synchronization Rates were still in the single digits, the members of his club already had their Synchronization Rates close to one hundred percent.

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