Chapter 31: Chapter31-The Teleporter’s Guide

I’d already given up. But with only six seconds left on the clock, the scene suddenly began to zoom in. The perspective shifted beneath the throne, where a faint blue glow caught my attention. Something was resting there in the shadows.

I quickly squinted to get a better look.

Then I finally saw it.

Wait.

Is that a skill book?

Yeah, I was right. It was.

The image sharpened, bringing the object into focus. For the first time, I could clearly read the title written across its cover.

The Teleporter’s Guide.

What the hell?

No way. Was that actually a teleportation skill book?

[3... 2... 1...]

The thought barely finished forming before the timer hit zero.

The instant it did, everything collapsed. My vision went dark, and a familiar sensation of falling overtook me as the fog closed in from every direction.

***

I jolted awake in the backseat of the car, right where I’d blacked out just moments before.

Holy shit.

What I’d just seen... that had to be a teleportation skill book, didn’t it?

If it really was what I thought it was, then I was going after it. No matter what.

I glanced toward the front seat. Allen was still absorbed in the same old book he always read.

Thank God. He hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.

I needed to find that dungeon as soon as possible.

From what I’d seen in the vision, the dungeon portal was sitting on an empty plot of land right next to an abandoned hospital.

The sign on the building had read HA Healthcare.

I’d have to tell Allen about it so he could track the location down for me.

But not right now. If I brought it up out of nowhere, he’d probably get suspicious.

It would be smarter to wait until tomorrow and bring it up more naturally.

The real problem was the dungeon itself.

Based on the sheer size of the place and the presence of that dullahan, the dungeon had to be at least D rank. Possibly even higher.

And that created a serious issue.

At my current rank, stepping into a D rank dungeon or anything above it would be complete suicide. Dungeons at that tier spawned enormous numbers of high-ranking monsters.

Thousands at a time, easily. I might even be lowballing that estimate. Either way, the scale was absolutely ridiculous.

Let’s assume the best case scenario and say the dungeon I just saw is D rank.

At that level, it would spawn roughly a thousand uncommon rank monsters in a single cycle. Every time it reset, the same number would appear all over again.

As for the dullahan, I’ll assume it’s a rare rank monster. That’s probably being generous, but I’ll roll with it for now.

If that’s accurate, then getting my hands on that teleportation skill book would mean fighting my way through every single one of those monsters and killing them all within an hour.

That’s the window I’d have before the dungeon reset.

Once I cleared everything, I’d need to grab the book and get out before the next wave spawned.

All of this assumed the dungeon only allowed solo entry. I really hoped that wasn’t the case. If it was, I’d need to completely rethink my approach.

The uncertainty made me restless. I didn’t have time to waste. I needed to move fast before that Leon guy got there first and walked off with the skill book.

I had no way of knowing whether Leon would claim it. The vision hadn’t shown what happened after he finished that dullahan.

But the odds were high, especially since it wasn’t a hidden skill book.

Yeah, In this world, skill books found in dungeons fell into two categories.

The first category consisted of hidden skill books.

These were concealed somewhere inside the dungeon, tucked away in secret rooms or hard to reach areas. Hunters had to actively search for them or stumble across them by luck.

The second category consisted of non-hidden skill books.

Unlike hidden skill books, these were left out in the open, easy to spot for anyone passing by.

But even if a hunter somehow overlooked them during the run, it didn’t matter. The dungeon itself would grant the skill automatically as a reward once the boss was defeated.

If that dullahan was the dungeon boss, then Leon must have received the skill book the moment he killed it.

Teleportation skills were rare enough that no one in their right mind would pass them up. I was willing to bet he took it immediately.

My head was pounding. There were too many variables I didn’t have answers for. I didn’t know the dungeon’s rank. I didn’t know how I’d manage to fight through the monsters inside, much less claim the skill book for myself.

And I had no clue when Leon would actually enter the dungeon. Tomorrow? The day after? Maybe even tonight?

Then something occurred to me.

I reached out mentally. "System, how far into the future can Seer’s Eye see? How many days ahead does it show?"

A virtual screen appeared in my mind, and the system answered.

[Host, your Seer’s Eye skill can perceive up to five days into the future.]

Five days, huh?

Not bad.

If the vision showed Leon inside that dungeon, then he would probably enter around five days from now. That put it somewhere around the 10th of February.

An idea started forming.

What if I had Allen track down that dungeon tomorrow and book it for two straight weeks?

I could reserve it entirely for myself and cut Leon off before he ever got the chance to step inside.

That could work. It would give me enough time to come up with a solid plan, especially if the dungeon turned out to have a solo entry restriction.

Booking a dungeon for two straight weeks would cost a fortune, of course.

But honestly? I didn’t care.

Being the son of the third richest person in the world meant money was the least of my worries.

What mattered more was that by locking down the dungeon for two weeks, I could stop anyone else from entering. Leon included. He wouldn’t even come close.

The realization loosened some of the tension that had been building in my chest.

I let myself sink deeper into the seat and released a slow breath.

"Haa..."

Being rich really did make everything easier. Much easier.

It was a genuine blessing to have been born into this kind of wealth.

Now the only thing left to figure out was how to deal with the other monsters inside that dungeon. Not the dullahan though. I’d already decided against fighting it.

There was no way I could take on something like that and come out on top. It was completely beyond my reach. At my current rank, I probably couldn’t even leave a scratch on the thing. Fighting it directly simply wasn’t an option.

I’d have to try something else. Maybe lure it out of its cave somehow, slip in while it was distracted, grab the skill book, and get out before it noticed.

It might work. But the risk would still be enormous.

Still, there was no point in overthinking it now. I’d wait until I had more information about the dungeon before committing to any real plan. Worrying about it endlessly at this stage wouldn’t do me any good.

I turned my gaze toward the car window.

Outside, the city rushed past in a blur. Other vehicles moved around us in smooth, organized lines.

Buildings and skyscrapers bled together as our speed increased, their sharp edges softening into streaks of light.

The city at night looked stunning, its lights scattered across the darkness like stars pulled down from the sky.

Watching it all gave me a strange sense of calm.

I found myself wondering how long it would take to reach the top rank in this world.

And more than that, whether my life here would turn out better than the one I’d left behind.

I really hoped it would...

***

"Fuck. Fuck me."

I was tearing through my wardrobe right now, cursing at myself the whole time.

Why?

Because I was trying to find a T-shirt. Not just any T-shirt either. One that Allen had given me.

A day ago, Allen handed me one of his shirts so I could properly attend a meeting with HIST members. And now I’d somehow managed to lose the damn thing.

Anyway, so what exactly was HIST?

Ambrosia, humanity’s walled haven, was ruled by a dictatorial government.

That government was controlled by two major associations: the Hunter Association and the Federal Association.

Each of these associations controlled two agencies of its own. These agencies monitored the state and its cities, and they were tasked with investigating and enforcing laws across a wide range of criminal activities. That included rebellion, cybercrime, organized crime, public corruption, rule violations, and violent crime.

The agencies in question were HIST, which stood for Hunter’s Intelligence and Security Taskforce and was controlled by the Hunter Association, and HUNTER, which stood for Homeland Unit for National Threat Evaluation and Response and was controlled by the Federal Association.

But none of that actually mattered right now.

What mattered was that I was frantically tossing clothes everywhere, throwing pants and dresses all over the floor in a desperate attempt to find that one specific shirt.

"He’s going to be pissed. Really pissed."

The reason I was so worked up was straightforward. The shirt Allen gave me wasn’t just some random piece of clothing. It was one of his personal favorites. He’d told me that himself before handing it over.

Now that I actually thought about it, why the hell had he given me his favorite shirt in the first place?

Couldn’t he have just picked out something else? Something that wasn’t so important to him?

Actually, who had even asked him for a shirt?

I sure as hell hadn’t. He was the one who offered it to me.

Uhh... How had it even come to this?