After Lianne and her group departed, Rohan went around the area and collected all his belongings that had been scattered in the fight against the Hoplite.

’Perhaps I really should invest in a Space Pocket...’

Ever since he was accused of owning one and hiding the Lava Hellebore inside it by the greedy Awakened who wished to rob him the previous day, this thought had crossed his mind every now and then.

Having a Space Pocket, even the smallest kind, would make his life so much easier. He only ever collected small pieces of loot anyway — Genes, Genetic Armaments, Origin Crystals — and so even the smallest kind would be more than enough for his current rate of looting.

Not to mention that it would allow him to avoid situations like this one. Rohan spent over an hour going around the town, retracing everywhere he’d been in that short fight against the Hoplite — then searching in a several dozen metre radius around these areas.

In the end, he was able to find the most precious items; the E rank Camouflage gene, the few Genetic Armaments he’d been collecting over the past few days, gathered both from Rudith’s group, as well as any Awakened that felt like testing their luck against he and Elane.

Aside from that, he was able to recover 90% of his Origin Crystals. He wasn’t too bothered about losing that last 10%. ’I’ve already absorbed the best ones beforehand.’

He could look all day for the remaining lost items and never find them. Part of him suspected that some of Lianne’s group must have picked some up if they found them when they did their rounds of this ruined town.

But he neither had the evidence nor the patience to question them on that before they left. He was just happy that they didn’t stick around.

All that he lost were a bunch of Ordinary F rank Origin Crystals, everything Elite tier and above had long been absorbed to fill his Evolution Gene up, or for his own cultivation.

’That takes care of my loot, now I only have one thing left...’ He glanced over at the building Elane crashed into when the hoplite killed her.

After a few moments of hesitation, he headed over and gathered up the scattered loot from her corpse.

The whole time, he did his best to avoid looking directly at her lifeless body. ’Why are you getting so worked up for! She’s not really dead, just... this incarnation of her.’

Still, he managed to get through that without any trouble, and since Elane’s loot had been scattered in an enclosed space, it was much easier to find and gather.

But compared to his own, her’s wasn’t that much of a big deal. It sucked that Elane had been killed and sent back to the Outside universe, but at least he was still around to scavenge her loot for her.

’It’s just some Origin Crystals anyway. All the Genes and Genetic Armaments are kept with me since it’s much more secure than with her, thanks to my Molten-stone Skin.’

***

Rohan spent the remainder of the day recuperating from his injuries.

He chose to hunker down in the town, ironically inside the same house the hoplite used to stay in, since it was the only one with a roof to shelter him from the overnight rain, and an actual bed to sleep in.

It was only come sunrise the next day that he woke up feeling like himself once again. ’Man, even after nearly a month of this, I can’t get used to the insane recovery speed Awakened have.’

Rohan took one last look around the ancient house. ’I wonder what was so interesting about this place that the hoplite decided to stick around here for a while. Or perhaps there was no special reason behind it?’

Rohan shook his head and turned towards the door, about to open it.

But at that moment, a weird feeling caught his back.

’Hmm, that’s odd. I haven’t even opened the door yet, yet I feel a draft coming in?’ Rohan frowned. He looked around the building, but didn’t find any holes or openings that led to the outside.

’Could it be something Lianne’s people did?’

He did point them in this direction and explain that the hoplite had stayed in this building, after all. Even though they hadn’t done a very thorough job of searching this place, it was entirely reasonable to assume they might have displaced some bricks or disrupted the stability of the building.

It was ancient, after all.

’Where the hell is that draft coming fro— What the hell, did it just come from below this time?’ Rohan frowned and started inspecting the floor below his feet.

He felt around for a bit, until he felt a clear breeze against his hand coming from a small gap in the floorboards under the bed.

’No wonder I didn’t feel it in the night. The bed blocked it.’ But the more he investigated, the more intrigued he became. Did this building actually have a hidden basement?

’Did the hoplite purposely try to hide this by positioning the bed directly over it?’ Now that he was so close to the truth, Rohan just had to go all out with his investigation.

He grabbed a corner of the bed and tossed it aside. Moving heavy furniture was nothing with the strength of an Awakened.

Now that he was able to see it clearly, Rohan was certain that this place had a basement. And it was definitely something either the original owners of this house, or the hoplite, wished to keep hidden. It blended in almost perfectly with the rest of the floor.

If it weren’t for the natural deterioration of the wooden floor over hundreds of years, this place might have remained hidden from Rohan’s perception.

Feeling a rush of curiosity, Rohan summoned his spear and propped it in a the gap where the draft came from, and forced forced the floor apart.

Crack!

With the state of the floor, he made quite a mess as it came apart in splinters and pieces, but the empty space below was finally revealed.

Rohan stumbled backwards in astonishment.