“Ssss…” Lucius gasped in pain for a few seconds before relaxing.

“Even dissipating it is painful… no doubt it’s from a collapsed hell dimension,” Lucius said.

He could have said to be both lucky and unlucky as yesterday he had managed to randomly form this hell imprint. Alas, it was from a collapse hell dimension which meant that it couldn’t really be used and even the demonic energy released from it was impure.

Lucius could not have let it exist in the world, as it would have only brought trouble to him and thus chose to dispel it back. But that was simply not enough for him as he needed to dispel the current hell imprint that he had on his body.

“Argh!” Lucius yelled in pain as he placed his hand over the left side of his chest where the hell imprint was.

He pressed upon it, making the mark disfigure and eventually fading away.

~haa~haa~haa~

Lucius took tired breaths as he reeled from the fatigue. He left the empty space and returned to the real world, opening his eyes that were now bloodshot due to the pain.

‘I’ll just continue and see if I can find a better coordinate. Though the presence of that one can be both good or bad.’ Lucius thought to himself.

Too tired from this, he just decided to sleep for now and recover. Putting his body under undue strain was in no way good for him.

***

Morning soon came and Lucius had woken up late as a few knocks were heard on the bedroom door.

Lucius opened his eyes in response to the sound and rubbed them.

“Come in…” He spoke in a low voice.

Kiana walked in and saw the tired looking Lucius.

“Do you not feel well?” She asked with concern.

“I’m fine, it’ll just take me a little bit more to get sorted out,” Lucius said before standing up to wash his face in the basin.

“Oh yeah, a letter came from Gellor.” Kiana suddenly said.

Lucius who was midway to cleaning his teeth with salt, stopped and looked at Kiana.

“What does it say?” he asked.

“They are done with the job and are coming back soon. Though they did sustain some injuries, so may be a bit slow. But if everything goes right, they will be here by tomorrow.” Kiana said.

“That’s good. They’re early too, aren’t they?” Lucius asked.

“Indeed. I think they managed to get good weather which should have made their journey easier for them.” Kiana replied.

Feeling content at this pleasing news, compared to last night’s disappointment, Lucius felt his sleepiness fade away. Quickly changing into his clothes, he went to his daily routine.

Though when it was lunch time, he got some shocking news at the dining table.

“Thirty soldiers have been killed and among them, two of them even had rare ranked gifts.” Lita read from the letter that had just arrived.

Her forehead was covered in lines and one could tell that she was greatly concerned by this.

“Those bandits are really going overboard now, aren’t they?” Lucius said with a frown.

~Sigh~

“The troubles just keep on piling up. We’ve already had to cut our expenses since the trade is already slowing down. We have managed to handle the daily essentials for the city for about a month, but if it extends beyond that we will need to use our saved wealth.” Lita said in a sad tone.

Lucius did not feel good about this either as the loss of his family was a loss for him. It was HIS money that was being stolen this way, and it was not something he tolerated.

The rest of his day passed in thinking about this and soon it was nighttime. He didn’t have any success today either, and simply expended his remaining energy on it before sleeping. Though when the morning came, it was exciting for Lucius.

~Neigh~

The sound of horses neighing could be heard, which prompted Lucius to take a look outside his window. There he saw a carriage leaving from the mansion’s ground. He couldn’t tell who that belonged to as there were no identification marks on it and it saws just a generic carriage anyone could hire.

He quickly got dressed and went down to the main hall, where Kiana was standing, along with a couple of servants who were carrying a box.

“What’s this?” Lucius questioned.

“The Rune crystals of the Rock Bees… they have finally arrived.” Kiana said with a smile.

A grin appeared on Lucius’s face as well, and he couldn’t wait to check them. He quickly asked the servants to bring the box to his lab and dismissed them.

“So that carriage was Gellor and the rest I assume?” Lucius asked while he took out the nails from the box that were keeping it shut.

“Indeed, I gave him the payment,” Kiana answered.

“Why did he leave so fast, though?” Lucius questioned.

“Two of his companions, Ariana and Barty, are injured and thus he wants to let them rest first. But to do that he would need payment and thus he came here first.” Kiana explained.

“Ah, I see…”

~creek~

With that, the final nail was pulled out from the box and Lucius lifted the lid. The inside of the box was filled with straw, which Lucius quickly removed to reveal the five dull grey rune crystals of the rock bees.

He picked up one of them and looked at it closely, particularly at the unique pattern that was imprinted on the rune crystal. This pattern was the ‘Rune’ of the rune crystal and was used to identify what the rune crystal was and which beast it belonged to.

“Perfect…” Lucius muttered.

“Now then Kiana… Would you like to help solve the problem of bandits and take revenge for our selfless soldiers who gave their lives?” Lucius asked with a grin.

“If the bandits dared to kill our soldiers, then they should be ready to pay the price. If I can get revenge for them, I will happily oblige.” Kiana said, with a hint of fierceness in her eyes not questioning why Lucius had said this.

“Excellent…” Lucius said as he opened a drawer that contained certain materials.