Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 83: A Personal Stake

Julien fell back onto the leather couch and stared up at the ceiling.

He rubbed his tired eyes with his good hand.

"Seriously, how many massive reveals am I going to get today?" Julien asked, letting out a heavy breath.

"First, a multiverse, then a fake guild leader from another dimension, and now you are telling me Alice’s missing little brother is a secret SSS-rank prisoner. Why is he even being held by the Republican camp?"

Isabella uncrossed her legs and leaned forward.

"We don’t know the exact details," she admitted, her tone staying perfectly calm.

"They must have found out about his potential before we did. The camp operates completely outside of standard Association rules. So they probably locked him up to use his skills for themselves, or maybe to hide him from people like Kane."

Julien just sat there and thought about it.

He honestly did not care about multiverse conspiracies or saving Earth 1151 from some cosmic tournament.

That stuff was way too big for a guy who just sold potions.

But Alice was different.

She had raised the dead to protect him during the boss fight, and she stayed by Chris’s side the entire time.

’I owe her,’ Julien thought to himself.

’I can’t just leave her brother locked up in some shady military camp.’

"I will do it," Julien said, looking right at the guild leader with a serious expression.

"I will go get him."

Isabella gave a small nod of approval.

"Well, you kind of have to," she said simply.

"We need him on our side if we are going to survive Phase II of this sick game."

"But what about Kane and the other SSS ranks?" Julien asked, trying to map out the immediate threats in his head.

"Aren’t they going to come after me the second I step out of this building?"

"Kane will lie low for now," Isabella replied.

"He has a fortified base over in District 4, and he is currently being watched by some of my strongest hunters. Only Gina is acting highly suspicious right now, so we aren’t completely sure what Kane’s next move is."

Julien nodded slowly because that made sense.

But then another thought popped into his head, and he sat up a bit straighter.

"Oh, one more thing," Julien said.

"We had some companions back in District 5 before the whole gate break happened. Milana and Ignis. Can you please search for them? They helped me out when I really needed it, and I have to repay them."

Isabella just stared at him for a few seconds.

Her eyes were totally cold and unreadable.

The silence stretched on long enough to make Julien’s stomach twist into a tight knot.

"Milana was taken to a nearby medical district for immediate care," Isabella finally said, her voice completely flat.

"She was badly injured in the wave, but she will survive. But Ignis was found dead under the collapsed Association building."

Julien did not reply. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The words just hit him hard in the chest.

He remembered the guy clearly. Ignis had covered for him and fought hard, and now he was just another broken body buried in the rubble.

So many casualties happened for god knows what reason.

Was it all just to thin the herd for a tournament?

"Take your time and process things," Isabella said, breaking the silence.

"You can decide when you want to visit the Republican camp. I already have people positioned there to sneak you inside the perimeter. But once you are through those gates, you are completely on your own."

Julien just nodded again.

He stood up from the couch and turned away from the screens.

His mind was racing with a million different thoughts as he walked out of the underground base.

He took the private elevator back up to the main floors and walked down the pristine hallways toward the infirmary.

The contrast was actually sickening to look at.

Outside, people were bleeding in the dust and losing their homes, but in here, everything was spotless and perfectly air-conditioned.

It felt wrong to be safe while people like Ignis were dead.

He finally reached the high-security medical wing and stopped in front of a private room and peeked through the glass window on the door.

Chris was lying flat in a large hospital bed.

Alice was sitting in a small chair right by his side, looking completely exhausted.

Chris was actually awake, but his arms were resting on top of the white blankets, heavily wrapped in thick bandages.

The doctors could not fix the magical backlash from the sword so his hands were still completely broken.

Seeing his friend looking so helpless made Julien feel sick.

’I must be the only pathetic SSS-rank player in the entire universe to let my friends get hurt like this,’ Julien thought to himself, resting his forehead against the cold glass.

’I have the rarest system in the world, and I still can’t protect anyone when it matters.’

He took a deep breath, pushed the door open, and walked inside the quiet room.

Alice looked up quickly, her eyes widening a bit when she saw him.

She looked like she wanted to ask a hundred questions about where he went, but she stayed quiet so Chris could rest.

Chris slowly turned his head on the pillow and gave a weak, tired smile.

"How are you feeling?" Julien asked, pulling up a chair on the other side of the bed and sitting down.

"Never better," Chris joked, though his voice sounded rough and scratchy.

He looked over at Julien’s own hand and chuckled softly.

"So, did you uncover the deep mysteries surrounding the world with the boss?"

"You won’t believe me even if I tried to explain it," Julien replied, giving a tired laugh.

He looked down at Chris’s ruined hands again.

The doctors here were the best in the city, but normal healing magic just bounced right off the heavy curse left by the Ruined Knight sword. The damage was too serious.

Julien knew he had to do something right now.

He closed his eyes and mentally opened his system interface.

He normally just scrolled straight to the potion section to grab some cheap health vials or basic stamina pills.

But this time, he skipped past all the basic tabs.

He scrolled all the way over to the brand new Tier 3 Inventory menu that he unlocked after the boss fight.

The screen glowed a soft blue in his mind as he looked past the standard weapons and the heavy armour sections.

He needed something stronger than a potion.

His eyes scanned the floating text and landed on a very specific tab labelled

[Healing Arts].

He clicked on the tab, and a massive list of glowing gold scrolls appeared in his vision.

These were not items he could hold in his hand.

They were pure knowledge, packaged and ready to be sold or consumed.