Chapter 40: All Eyes Watching

Chapter 40: All Eyes Watching Ember City—one of humanity’s most crucial strongholds—sat right on the border of the Withered Lands. The outermost ring was a massive wall with human soldiers constantly making their rounds, keeping watch for monster attacks. Once you passed through the outer gate, you’d see neat little villages dotting the farmland. These villages were home to regular folks. They busted their butts from dawn to dusk, growing the basic food that kept all of Ember City fed. Getting through the outer villages brought you to the inner city wall. This inner wall was even more impressive—built entirely from solid rock and covered in mysterious defensive magic circles. Rock-solid and ancient as hell, it had saved Ember City’s bacon against powerful enemy attacks more times than anyone could count. The inner city was where the nobles, Psionics, and loaded merchants lived—the real heart of the whole place. The inner gate guard barked: "Transit papers!" The lead guard captain hopped off his horse and handed over the alchemical ring. The guard slapped it onto some nearby magical contraption. Blue light flashed before he tossed the ring back to the captain. A muffled voice came from under the armor: "You’re good to go!" "Clip-clop clip-clop!" The carriage, with guards riding escort, rolled through the gate. They cruised down the main drag until they pulled up in front of the Valois family estate’s front entrance. Their arrival caught the eye of folks on the street, and some nosy neighbors started running their mouths: "I know that carriage—doesn’t it belong to Duke Iris? And didn’t Duke Iris come racing back home a while ago?" "Weird, who’s riding inside?" ... The guards dismounted as the captain called out: "Young Master Carlos, we’re here." The carriage door swung open, and Carlos stepped out with his four badass Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards. The second he showed his face, he naturally drew a crowd of gawkers outside the gate. "Well I’ll be damned, Young Master Carlos is back." "The same Young Master Carlos who awakened his powers for the first time just a few months back?" "Yep, I remember his awakening was the Death Herald path!" "Check out those four freaky skeletons next to Young Master Carlos—has he already leveled up?" "In such a short time, he’s already got sublimation skills?" "Holy crap! That’s insane!" "..." Inside the carriage, Sara heard the chattering crowd outside and suddenly had an "oh shit" moment. She quickly stopped the other three who were about to follow Carlos out. "No way, we can’t get out now!" The twins blinked their big eyes, totally confused. "Why not, Sister Sara?" x2 Yolanda finally caught on, backing up her best friend. "Yeah, Sara’s right—it wouldn’t look good for us to get out." The twins were even more lost. Right then, Carlos outside noticed the four women were still holed up in the carriage and called out: "Everyone out—come with me to see my sister." "Yay!!!" x2 Hearing this, the twins instantly broke free from Sara’s grip, hopped out of the carriage, and fell in line behind Carlos like good little soldiers. "Hey! You two!" "Yolanda, they..." Sara was pissed and turned to chew out her best friend. "?? Where the hell did she go?" Looking outside, Yolanda was somehow already standing sweet as pie next to the twins. "Screw it, I give up!" Sara was even more ticked off. She threw open the carriage door, made a graceful leap to the ground, then quickly ducked her head and followed along. The rubbernecking crowd went wild again: "There’s more people in that carriage!" "Man, I’m so jealous—is this what the rich life looks like?" Not only that, but scattered in the crowd were some old acquaintances from ten years back when Yolanda and Sara used to live in the city, rubbing their eyes in disbelief: "Wait a minute... isn’t that Yolanda?" "Come to think of it, doesn’t that last one kinda look like Sara?" "..." Sara, bringing up the rear, heard this and picked up the pace, totally mortified. She never imagined she’d be coming back to Ember City like this! Carlos had thick skin and didn’t give a damn about the residents’ gossip, calmly leading his four Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards and four women into the estate. The guards took the carriage and horses toward the stables while the crowd of onlookers slowly broke up. After that, Word about Carlos possibly pulling off a successful sublimation spread through Ember City like wildfire. As for Sara’s worries about her reputation, she didn’t need to sweat it. Since the four women were seen as Carlos’s servants, they didn’t really catch much attention from the locals—at most people would comment on how lucky they were. ... Inside the Valois Estate Iris, decked out in silver-white armor, stood in the courtyard. Carlos hustled over—she was the person he cared about most in this world. "Iris, I’m back." Iris reached out and gave Carlos’s right shoulder a solid pat, making a thumping sound. "You said one month—how’d it turn into a full four months!" Even though she was giving him grief, you could hear the happiness bubbling up in her voice. She hadn’t expected her brother’s first trip to the Withered Lands would drag on for 4 whole months! If Carlos hadn’t explained before he left that he might be gone for a while, plus the family’s life charm had never shown any signs of trouble, Iris would’ve been a nervous wreck ages ago and sent search parties into that place. But as long as he came back safe and sound, that’s all that mattered. "Sis, you know how it is. With its help, I’m not gonna run into problems—hell, I’ve gotten way stronger instead!" Carlos looked a little sheepish. He’d originally figured one month tops, planning to grab a few Spirituality points and then bounce, saving the full "dungeon crawl" for round two. Who knew that once he got into the groove of "grinding," that hardcore gamer itch to get stronger took over completely. Killing monsters, leveling up, then more monster killing, more leveling up, then grinding Dark Mist nodes, then taking out human traitor camps after finishing those up. The rhythm was addictive and he couldn’t stop until he’d pushed the Withered Lands to their limit. Iris was blown away inside—from where she stood, her brother had changed big time. His aura was several times stronger than before. She actually felt like she was looking at a Mid-tier Psionic (Spirituality 20-29). And those four purple-striped skeletons next to him were obviously sublimation products packing some serious killing power. All this was the incredible transformation he’d gained from just four months in the Withered Lands, where the Dark Mist power was at its weakest! She wouldn’t pry into any of the details—she just wanted Carlos to keep living his best life, get married and have kids, so the family could keep thriving.