The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 394: Local Delicacies

It took 15 minutes for all the dust to settle and the shaking to calm down after the explosion.

After making sure that they were still alive, everyone opened their eyes and began to look around, realizing who saved their sorry lives.

It was Ann, who stood in the center of the tunnel while raising her finger to the ceiling where a myriad of falling boulders were suspended by a black thread that shimmered in black light. Thankfully only one or two layers of rocks collapsed. The ones that withstood the direct shock.

The tunnel walls behind seemed fine for the most part.

This was to be expected though as the mine on BlackRock Island was very stable. While digging, it only needed to be supported once or twice and in some places. That didn’t stop the family from reinforcing it throughout the years though.

Magic seemed to cause very low damage to the walls. That’s why it took the family ages and ages to do everything manually here! That was also why magical bombs had minimal effect.

“HURRY, CHECK FOR DANGERS, CLEAR THOSE BOULDERS, THEN GO CHECK ON THE WOUNDED!!” Ann scolded, making the shocked family members quickly hurry to work.

“How long can you hold those?” Marcos, who was saved by his wife, asked nervously as he looked at the collapsed debris she was holding. If those fell on them, it would be very troublesome.

“If you have the power to ask, GET WORKING!ʼʼ she scolded as the men hurried to get the loose boulders down one by one, making sure to check for damage behind them and put support if needed.

“Are there any casualties?” Ann asked as the dust became thin enough to clearly observe the situation.

“None from our side, the other side’s situation remains to be seen!” Alfred who acted fast reported. “They are under the rubble…”

“Good…” Ann said. Thankfully, She was fast enough to activate her protection artifact and cover all the men, otherwise most of them would have been dead…

All the elders seemed safe as they had their own protection artifacts, the guards on the other hand, varied, the few who were closest to the explosion, or to the sides far from Ann’s protection were the ones who suffered the most!

“Olaf!” Marcos suddenly called as he spotted Olaf, who when the explosion happened, moved in front of the patriarch to shield him as Ann grabbed him from the back.

He took most of the explosionʼs shock with his body, and despite having an S-ranked armor and an SS-ranked protection Talisman that was gifted to him by Ann ages ago, he was thrown away.

“I am fine… I seem to still have some years to live…” Olaf said as he coughed some blood then tried to stand up… “Ahh…” He fell. His leg seemed to have been broken when he hit the tunnel wall earlier… It was bent at a strange angle.

“MEDIC! Quickly help Olaf!” Marcos ordered as he gave Olaf one of his emergency healing pills.

Olaf was really one of the best and most trustworthy guys here! Only if all the men were like him.

Ann nodded, she was thinking the same as she looked at the men who worked very fast. “How are the tunnels?” She asked as the last of the debris that she was holding was moved by the men, allowing her to deactivate her skill and sigh in relief.

“Some of the side ones seemed to have collapsed, but the main tunnel that had backup supports survived!” one guard reported. “We should be able to clear everything in a week or so,”

“Good!” Ann said. “Check on that bastard Antonie and his men… If any of them are still alive, grab them… We need to ask them where they got the Blue Thunder Bomb!” she said. Those bombs were very rare, she had only seen them used once before about 59 years ago by an old woman from the von Richter family.

“Also excavate that building and get me the artifact they were using!” she said, pointing to the second branchʼs base, which had now turned into rubble. “I need to deactivate all the golems… And I need to know why they didn’t summon them back!”

“I understand!” Marcos said after making sure the medic began tending to Olaf.

“Alfred… Send men to check on the state of the entire main tunnel, all the villages, and the kids down in the tunnels… Tell them to return, their mission is over!” Ann said as she began dusting her armor and checking its damaged parts. “And be careful… We don’t know if there were more traps!”

…

“Is that the gate the patriarch told us about?” someone asked. As the heirs all looked up.

“Probably…” some guy replied.

“Will it explode?” one heir asked fearfully, making the heirs quickly step away from it after remembering what Ann said.

“I don’t know…” his friend replied. “I don’t like this… Don’t be a jinx…”

“Let’s step away from it… Remember what the patriarch told us!” Mike suddenly said.

No one replied… On the contrary, the ones who were previously retreating quickly stopped doing that.

As elite heirs, they had their pride… And they didn’t want to be associated with one side by obeying Mike.

They…

The gate suddenly grew larger! Doubling its size.

The heirs quickly forgot about their stupid pride and hurried back.

The gate grew smaller again making them sigh in relief.

“Why is it pulsing like that?” One annoyed heir asked as he made sure to step back.

“I think it is just horny…” Victor replied. “Wanting someone to en…. OUTCH!.” Alice stepped on his foot, shutting him up.

“Do dungeons do that?” Zoe asked too. Deciding to ignore Victor for now, he seemed to have turned on his pervert mode which she didn’t like.

“No…” Mike answered softly. “Not as far as I know…”

“It is mine! I saw it first!” Bruno repeated.

“...”

“It is definitely an S-ranked dungeon!” Bill stated, trying to act smart.

“No… Itʼs Probably higher… At least SSS,” Alice was the one who replied. She had seen S and SS-ranked dungeons before, and their gates were different from this one.

“You think you are smart…” Bruno scolded.

No one commented. Most didn’t like Alice, but as a disciple of the heavenly sect, the girl knew a few things… And yes, she was smart… Smarter than Bruno at the very least.

“Shall we send a team to explore it?” someone asked.

“I think brother Mike will be a good candidate…” one of Bill’s lackeys said.

“No one is going anywhere… The family already told us that if we found the gate, not to get near it!” Bill scolded, acting all important again. “We don’t want anything bad to happen to cousin Mike…” he added.

“...” Mike just snorted. He was pondering if he could push Bill inside without anyone noticing. He was not the only one with such thoughts as the heirs of each faction and branch held similar thoughts toward all the others!

“But it is mine!” Bruno scolded. No one cared anymore.

“No matter what… We can’t stay here! If this gate were to explode like it did 20 years ago, we would all be dragged away!” Alice who seemed to be the only sane one said. “I advise everyone to stay near the walls… We should find a way to clear the rubble at the entrance before anything!” she added as she walked toward the blocked entrance, and began inspecting the boulder.

Ignoring the gate, a few others hurried to help her. They all agreed that they should leave this place first! Yes, they should secure the exit first and then wait for the elders to come and distribute the points. They should already be on their way… Right?

“This boulder is strange…” Alice said, after trying to move it a few times. It seemed to be resisting her magic.

“Let’s focus on moving rubble away from the entrance first, this should be our priority!” Alice said as many heirs quickly started working.

Others didn’t. They just stood and watched. This group included Bill, Bruno, and Victor who despite Zoe shooting him some glasses to come and help, held his ground while hugging Kuu.

He simply didn’t care about the drama around him, as his eyes focused on the gate. He knew what it was without using his appraisal skill as he had seen similar gates in the past and it was not a dungeon gate!

Dungeon gates were restricted by the world’s rules so they were 2 dimensional! Simply, they look like a circle that does not have a thickness… This gate on the other hand was not. It was

spherical, so it was a 3 ….

No, wait… It was pulsing… It was swaying, getting subtly larger then smaller as if it was breathing.

That effect couldnʼt be explained in 3 dimensions, but across a fourth one, this was a possible movement!. This gate was a 4-dimensional hyper-sphere in a 3-dimensional world… And only one thing had those properties… A portal to another world!

[ANCHORED PORTAL, SS]

[DESTINATION WORLD: ISMERALIA]

[CONDITION: LIVING MATTER]

His appraisal confirmed his guess.

The gate suddenly grew larger again, making the few brave and idiotic heirs who came close to inspect it step back again…

He was right, what he was looking at now was only a part of it, and it must be a lot larger than what it appeared to be… The rest of it was just in a higher dimension, entering this one and retreating every once in a while.

Victor, who let Kuu stand in front of him as a cover as he sneaked to take a closer look, didn’t retreat, on the contrary, he stepped closer to the hall in the wall and began to look around.

He had never heard of an anchored world gate before, but he did hear of an Anchored Dungeon gate, the one generally known as a Moving Dungeon that changed location with time.

It was ages later that it was discovered that this phenomenon happens when the gate gets its coordinates from a physical object for some reason or another.

This causes the gate to be attached to that object as it was anchored to it, moving with it when it moves!

If Victor’s guess was right, this Portal that was swaying slowly as if it was a boat in a lake, must be anchored to a part of the magma below, or an object floating on the magma. That would also explain why the portal Violently exploded and then disappeared years ago when they tried to clear the magma and build a vault around it. It caused a violent disturbance causing the gate to move in some strange angle and expand in three dimensions…

Victor squinted his eyes, he watched as the portal moved, keeping his eyes down, analyzing every part of the huge magma lake below… He was searching for the anchor point, stabilizing it was the best way to stop this portal from moving.

It was not that he feared this trap as he could easily escape this chamber by shifting through the walls, and even if he ended up going to another world, he had a way to get back.

He was worried about two things, the first was exposing his skills, and the second was his siblings and the other heirs going there. This would damage the family greatly and make whoever planned this proceed with his scheme!

Victor couldn’t just let anything like that happen.

The gate kept breathing in and out like a living being, swinging to the sides, every now and then as Victor watched.

So, after 10 minutes of squinting and hot red glowing magma, he managed to find absolutely nothing…

“Shit…” He silently cursed. There must be some temporal delay between the anchor point and the Portal. They were not moving in sync.

“ATTACK!” someone suddenly said, startling Vector who quickly looked back and watched as a few heirs attacked the boulder with their strongest attacks after clearing the rubble around it.

BOOOOOOOM, BOOOOOOOOOOM, BOOOOOOOM

The chamber shook and dust flew around…

Victor cursed and stepped away.

The portal began to grow a little larger, pulsing at a higher frequency as the attackʼs shockwaves reached the magma.

“STOP!” Mike quickly stopped them, looking at the boulder that only suffered minuscule damage, then at the Portal that began swaying violently.

“Shit…” Bill cursed as he noticed the abnormality. “Stop…” he repeated. “Let’s wait for the elder for now, apparently our attacks are causing the gate to activate!” he said, acting all wise as he looked at the gate.

Their attack only left a small scratch on it. It was clear that this was not the way to remove it.

“He is right… Let’s stay away from the gate, and wait…” Alice said. “Hopefully the elders will have a way to remove this boulder smoothly,” she said. She was sure that she had the power to push that boulder away if she used her Draconian Surge a few times, but it would cause too much damage to the chamber, so she decided to leave it as a last resort.

Victor nodded then returned to observe the Portal, when it swayed Violent moments ago, he managed to see something… Searching for it… He lost it… Shit… All those melted rocks and minerals that are floating on the surface are obstructing his vision.

Did he need to try his luck again and make it move?

No… Wait, The portal was connected to its anchored point by fate… Could his fate eyes work?

Victor quickly activated his Fate eyes. This was the first time he tried them on something that was not a living thing.

Slowly, out of the gate, many thin lines of possibility extended, reaching for each of the heirs.

And a thick line went down, into a certain point in the Magama…

GATCHA!

Squinting his eyes he finally saw it, a small black pebble that floated on top of the Magama.

[SACRED BLACK GOLD ORE]

It had to be something this precious…

Sacred black gold was the material from which the strongest weapon artifacts were made. This small pedal would cause a massacre in the future if it appeared on some auction floor.

Shit… This pebble was circular in shape… It was impossible to stabilize it without moving it.

Victor frowned… Shall he take it? No, if he tried to move it, the portal would move with it, and the direction was uncertain, this might cause an ‘explosion’.

Then what to do?

Could he take it inside his storage?

Impossible, the portal is a four-dimensional object, and being Anchored to the pebble, would stop it from entering a confined three-dimensional space. This was something he knew better than anyone, as he had to study world portals for years before he could time travel.

How about the cauldron? No, it was also a confined space, as the demon used it as a bastion…

And it was buried under the rubble at the moment. Rita, who had been trying for the last 15 minutes, could not get out to get it.

He could try to use his inner storage space and force this with his authority. but there was a 99% chance of him exploding if anything went wrong, and a 100% that the gate would be stuck to him if he succeeded, so this was not an option.

Victor pondered.

How to get rid of this trouble… He was sure that whoever planned this trap, didn’t just leave them with the portal for a random chance for it to grab them. He must have been planning something else, and they were only a part of a bigger plot!

To stop that scheme the best way was to get rid of the gate, and to get rid of the gate, he must get rid of that nasty pebble without making it move!

This was a dilemma!

Did he have any good skills for that?

Space shifting?

This was a good method, but too bad it was still in cooldown after he used it to extract Rita from the von Zwei base.

Teleport?

No, it was only at F rank, he could only use it on himself and for a small distance.

Isolation?

He was not sure what this would do… But if the anchoring was positional, it would be useless.

Spanking?

Absolutely not! The pebble was just too young… Ehm… small for such a thing…

Then what?

Victor smiled… He got an idea…And from it, he formulated a plan.

That’s it!

The only problem was that this involved him entering the portal… There was no other way for it to work… After that, he only had to wait for less than a month and use his space shifting to return! That’s only if that world was habitable and not some fiery hell or a shit hole.

Looking at the appraisal, Victor noticed the other world’s name.

Ismeralia?

Victor frowned. Where did he hear about this before?

He slowly activated his eidetic memory skill and slowly began to remember. He knew a few things about that world. He heard about it right when he joined the Imperial Library.

Ismeralia was a fantastic land that was ruled by humanoids and had several kingdoms and a long history. At that time, they said that it had fallen to the demons some 50 years ago or so like many other lands.

Apparently the imperial wanted to retrieve something from there and they sent a team for that mission.

Victor knew about this stuff as they were recruiting scions for the mission… That’s the last he heard about that, as neither he nor the ostracized Yulian were privy to most of the secret military stuff. Not before they were a done deal anyway.

A few years after that he remembered hearing rumors about a lord being very pleased and rewarding the imperial family handsomely.

Still, too many unknowns, thankfully, he knew who to ask!

His smart-ass Wife!

Making sure no one was looking at him, he relaxed a bit, closed his eyes, and quickly called to Lily using his Dragon marriage connection.

“LILY…”

“What?” she asked.

“You are free?” he asked.

“Yeah, just traveling…” Lily replied directly.

“Did you finish cuckolding me?” he asked. A certain girl had been telling him a few things.

“... Who knows… At the moment I am being hugged by this handsome muscular dude from the back,” she said. Telling the truth. “Jealous?”

“Yup…” he nodded. “Just make sure he grabs hard not to fall,… I still need him to be a witness when your family starts causing trouble!” he said.

“Don’t worry… I will make sure he will still be able to talk by the time I finish with him,” she said. “So, do you need anything?” Lily asked.

“What do you know about Ismeralia?” he asked directly. That girl knew many things that he had no access to in his previous life.

Lily took a few seconds to reply as if she was recalling. “Where did you hear of that?” she asked.

“I am now standing in front of a portal to Ismeralia in the family’s mine, the one at Blackrock Island… Some crazy dude trapped me here with the rest of the heirs, and it seems like they are planning to send us there…“

“WHAT?” Lily asked in a worried tone.

“You heard me… “

“And you are not resisting…” she asked.

“I am considering my options… What can you tell me about it?”

“Let me remember…. Ismeralia… A fallen world. It was ruled by humans and elves with a few other races before it was invaded by demons. The war lasted more than 100 years until the demons finally managed to enter the capital Ishmar and use the X-ranked artifact stored there to secure a victory,” Lily narrated as if reading from a book in her memory.

“Like some kind of capture the flag game?”

“I am not sure… But something like that…”

“I remember your family sending an expedition there, What did they want?” Victor asked. “The X-ranked artifact?”

“... Yes… “ Lily hesitated. “I don’t know what’s its purpose though, but the one who needed it was the Fate sect. They requested it from my father who happily obliged without asking questions as he needed a favor from them… ”

“This artifact might have something to do with fate?” Victor asked. He was tempted. X ranked fate artifact!

“Not sure…”

“Your family got it?” Victor frowned.

“Apparently, but I didnʼt see it as the delivery happened outside this world… The casualties were very high; about 79% died and those who managed to return had their memory wiped out by the lord who got it!” she said. “Probably, the Fate lord.”

“I see…”

“Are you planning to go there?”

“Probably I would have to, this gate is probably a one-way trip through… ” he said, those who left before didnʼt return after all. ”What do you think?” He asked. He already made up his mind, but he wanted to hear Lily’s opinion.

“... Go… The war there must have already started, but the demons are still very weak…” She hesitated again. “You can always use your space shifting to come back… You will need about 7 anchor points, and you probably have more than that…” she said. There was a little jealousy in her voice.

“You are the only anchor point I need!” he lied. She was right, every connection he had with his wives and blood slaves could be considered a coordinate point in space. And he needed at least 7 to travel from one world to another without a gate.

“Yeah yeah…. Like I would believe you…” she casually said. “But you know what going there would mean…” she said.

“That we will miss the chance to meet each other again until a year later or so….” he said.

“Yes… I doubt you will be back in a month or two, and by that time my family will definitely get me and Yulian back!” she said. That’s why she had many things to do.

“Don’t worry, when I return, I will make sure to aim for your location…” he said. That’s what she wanted him to say.

“You better do…” she said. “Our connection would be very weak when you leave, so make sure to tell the girls what to do before… I am not sure if your skill would work across worlds…” she said.

“Good point…” Victor said. “Then… See you…”

“Oh, and make sure not to try any of the local ‘delicacies’ there… Your stomach might not be able to handle them…” Lily suddenly interrupted.

“Ahh… That is for my stomach to decide…” Victor said then cut the connection. There was no need for goodbyes between them, as Lily, unlike the rest of the girls, had a way to connect to him no matter what!

Finishing with the conversation, Victor sighed. To tell the truth, after hearing Lily, he affirmed his decision to go!

Unlike this world, the other world featured a myriad of treasures and opportunities to level up as that world already awakened!

If Lily’s calculations were correct, Ismealia was now in a state of war with the demons, which meant a chance to get tons of experience points… Such a chance was enough to make him one of the strongest in the world before the Reckoning!

For now, he just had to wait for the scheme around him to proceed as he gave his girls some orders in case he couldn’t connect to them from the other world. He couldn’t leave anything to chance as he must return to this world by the time of the tournament. This was pivotal for his plan.

He also had to tell Tom that the system was upgrading or something…

He sighed again and looked at the portal.

“Don’t ever think of going inside that dungeon!” Alice, who seemed to have finished trying to break the boulder, noticed her brother’s greedy eyes and suddenly said. He didn’t notice when she walked beside him.

“Ah… I am not an idiot…” he said, pouting like a kid. “And I have a harem to return to!” he added.

Alice nodded and sighed in relief. True, Victor would never leave his harem to go on a dangerous adventure! She was wrong… He was always ready to go collect more Harem.

“Zoe…” Victor suddenly called his cousin who was nervously looking at the gate.

“What?” she asked, seemingly still a little angry with him.

“I was thinking… Once we leave here, I want you to take Kuu with you…” he said. Began preparing for his departure…

“WHAT? WHY?” Both Zoe and Kuu, who had tears in her eyes, asked.

“Kuu is too weak, and having lived her entire life here, she is totally unfamiliar with life in modern society… You as a female would be able to help educate her!” he said. He didn’t just want Zoe to take care of Kuu after he left, he was secretly making an experiment, whether leaving Kuu with Zoe might make her a true Scion! “It will only be for two weeks… Then I will get my Kuu back!” he said, making the poor girl sigh in relief. So he was not abandoning her!

“Don’t you have enough wives to teach her?” Zoe asked. “How about your sister?”

“No… Those girls had turned feral after marrying me… I don’t want her to get into any of their bad habits, but stay nice and pure like you are!” he said, boiling two girls in one sentence. “And Alice is not an option too…” he added, throwing Alice an apologetic look. She didn’t mind.

“And I think she would be safest beside you…” he finally told the truth.

“I don’t believe you!” Zoe spat looking away. She was getting immune to his scams. The cooking method needed to be adjusted, but it was not the time for that!

“Fine… we will talk about this later!” Victor sighed and said. This conversation was already over, once he left, Zoe who had a heart of gold, would surely take Kuu in.

The only thing he needed to consider was how to implement his plan while making it an accident…

…

“Why are you absent-minded?” Yulian, who was hugging Lily from the back as they traveled on a motorcycle on a highway, asked.

“Just something… Hold on tight, we will reach the next town in an hour or so, we can rest then…” she said, frowning.

“Can we try the local delicacies there too? This place is just very exotic…” he said casually, thinking about the beef stew they had in the last village. “Why are you slowing down?” he asked as he noticed that Lily slowed the motorcycle to a halt in the middle of nowhere.

“You want local ‘delicacies’, huh… I swear, the two of you should have been the ones who were married…. ” she said angrily as she stepped down and took a baseball bat out of her storage ring.

“I don’t understand… What… Why… AHHHHHHH…Stop…. Ahhhh………..” Yulian wailed in pain. What did he do now?

“Don’t worry, I will make sure you will perfectly understand what you did when you meet that guy in the afterlife… I will make sure to send him there after you!” an angry Lily said, venting her anger.

That was the last thing Yulian heard before he crossed to the afterlife. His evil sister would not leave him there to rest for long though.