Building a World Class Empire in another World
Chapter 105: Key, dead lands

Chapter 105: Key, dead lands

The lady left everyone to their rooms. Because of the taxes and people leaving, there were very few traders, so barely anyone stayed in the inn.

Aric walked into his room, the smell of old wood wafted into his nose, mixed with the smell of moss grown on some parts of the walls.

There was a worn-out table at the very end, with an oil lamp on it. The chair stood tucked under the table; it looked fine, but Aric made sure to remember not to sit on it.

The only saving grace to the room was the two-person bed. To his surprise, it had sparkling clean sheets and looked sturdy.

He walked to the bed and sat down, resting after a long walk to the town. A good chunk of the day was already gone, but there was still a lot of daylight before the sun said goodbye.

Aric decided to take a look at his system. It had been a while, and he was yet to make any serious developments that gave him more gold and EXP.

But before checking his stats, he decided to check the item box that he had gotten a while back but was yet to use.

He had been extremely busy and couldn’t use it, so there was no better time for him to do it than now.

"System, open the special item box."

[Special Item Box]

[Key]

When Aric saw what was inside, he raised his brow, looking at it again to be sure that he heard it correctly.

"A key? What the hell is that?"

He decided to take the key out and see what it was first. The key appeared on his palm, and it was actually just that—a key.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with a key?" he yelled, feeling that the system had somehow scammed him. But as he was getting pissed off, he saw something at the base of the key—it was the symbol he had seen when he met Terra, and the same symbol that Randel Montego had.

Seeing this symbol, his interest was immediately piqued.

He rubbed his hand over the symbol, feeling the roughness of it, when suddenly it cut his finger just a little bit, and blood seeped out.

He jerked back his thumb immediately and noticed that the cut had healed up immediately. The key absorbed the blood that had spilled over it and then suddenly it floated off his hands and moved through the air on its own.

A mysterious lock appeared out of nowhere, and the key flew into it, unlocking it. A doorway appeared within the room. Aric stared at the door, uncertain of what to do.

He couldn’t see what was on the other side. The only thing he could see was the darkness that seemed thick enough to feel.

Yet strangely, he felt a pull toward the door, like something urging him to go into the door.

He took a step in the direction of the door, walking slowly. This was the reward he got after making it to level 20. There was no way it would be something to kill him, right? Right?

He pushed all doubts aside and walked to it. His first foot stepped into the darkness. His foot didn’t go down, but yeah, he didn’t feel any ground.

He couldn’t feel a surface beneath his feet, yet the feet didn’t go down.

"Yeah, really assuring," he said in a sarcastic tone before fully stepping into the darkness. His body entered completely, and the doorway closed. The key fell to the ground and vanished.

[....]

The saintess walked through a hallway, her footsteps echoing off the walls. The hallway led her outside of the temple on the mountain, where four figures were waiting for her.

Elan and the three prodigies: Maya, Ella, and Luke. The three of them were the best of the new generation of elites.

Maya had jet-black hair and eyes as black as the abyss. She had a small body, wearing the white clothes of the elites and her sword on her back.

Ella was taller than Maya. Her golden blonde hair reflected the light of the sun, and her crystal-like eyes made her stand out.

She had her sword on her waist like the saintess. Lastly was Luke, a tall young boy with coffee-brown hair and eyes. He had no special features and seemed completely normal.

"I believe you have all taken what you’ll need inside your rings?" she asked.

"Yes, saintess," they all replied at the same time.

"For the duration of this mission, you’ll call me Fey. No one should know that I am the saintess," Fey said and turned to Elan.

"We should head out now. We already spent the whole morning preparing," Fey said and started descending the path in the mountain.

They all followed behind her. The wind blew their clothes as they walked. Elan stared at Fey as they walked, his eyes hiding killing intent.

"We are heading to the Elven Empire first, but we must head to one of the cities in Vermont first. It is the closest to the Dead Lands, after all," she said.

"Why not begin our search from that forest, and then make it through Aragon, Vermont, and then the Elven Empire?" Elan said.

"I thought of that too, but I don’t think that’s the best course of action for us. It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but if we make our way to the Elven Empire, we will be able to narrow down where all the half-elves went.

From there we can easily know where to go next," Fey explained.

"Hmm, whatever you feel is right," Elan said, his voice oozing with detest that he barely tried to hide.

Fey heard the detest in his voice, but she didn’t bother with that and continued walking down the mountain.

They had to be cautious as they descended. After all, this was the Dead Lands.