The Author's POV

"Very well, you will be allowed to gain access to our treasure to pick whatever skill you want."

Gervis said. Then, pausing, he looked at me straight in the eyes and solemnly said.

"But I warn you, don't be too greedy. When one must choose a skill, one must choose a skill nearing their rank. If you choose a skill that is far above your rank, it would destroy your body, so be careful."

"I understand."

I replied with a subtle nod.

What Gervis said wasn't wrong.

The only reason why Jin and the others didn't have extremely powerful skills that were far above their rank level with respect to their background was exactly because of this problem.

Their immature bodies couldn't contain the power of the skill.

Most times they'd end up suffering extreme consequences.

As such, one had to be careful when choosing a skill.

"I'm glad that you know."

Smiling in satisfaction, Gervis turned to look at the others in the hall and raised his cup.

"Now then, since we're over with all of that stuff, it's time for us to celebrate our victory! Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Everyone replied back, raising their cups in celebration.

And so for the next couple of hours, everyone feasted on the delicious food on the table.

I also feasted like never before as I tried all of the food on the table.

It had to be noted that the food was made by cooking special beasts. They weren't simple beasts at that, but vicious and powerful wild ones that had to be hunted beforehand.

Not only did the meat contain mana, but it also had additional effects in helping the body recover faster.

With each bite I took, I could feel myself feeling more and more refreshed.

The feeling felt euphoric to me.

'Since it's free I might as well.'

Without holding back, I stuffed myself with as much food as possible, much to the shame of Douglas and Waylan. But I didn't care. Unlike them, I was still in my growing phase.

It was only after my stomach could no longer hold any more food that I finally stopped.

"I think, I ate too much..." I muttered while leaning back on my seat and rubbing my stomach which was now bulging slightly.

Regret slowly started to seep in.

I had eaten so much that I felt like I could explode at any second.

Aside from that, I also was slowly starting to feel sleepy.

Fortunately, by the time I was done eating the banquet had already come to an end and everyone slowly went back to their residences.

Following Douglas and Waylan out, I also prepared to head out of the hall, but before I could go out, someone tugged my pants.

Lowering my head, I spotted Gervis looking up at me from below.

He was here to remind me about my previous request.

"Ren, I've talked to Randur and he will be bringing you to the treasury tomorrow morning. Go get some good rest."

The moment he mentioned the words 'treasury' my mind sobered up real quick and I nodded my head.

"I understand. I'll be up first thing in the morning.

"That's good. Have a good rest."

"Thank you."

Lowering my head to thank Gervis, I rushed out to catch up with Douglas and Waylan who had already exited the hall.

Just like that, the reward ceremony had come to an end.

***

The next day.

"Huaaaam…"

Waiting outside of my residence, I let out a long exhausted yawn.

After getting back from the banquet last night, I fell asleep almost immediately.

I slept like a log.

Honestly, if not for the fact that I was so excited about my reward, I probably wouldn't have gotten out of bed.

"You're already up?"

Startling me out of my thoughts was a familiar voice.

Turning my head in the direction of where the voice sounded, I spotted Randur in the distance.

"You're finally here."

"What do you mean finally? I'm right on time." Randur replied, taking out a small item resembling a pocket watch and checking the time. "In fact, I'm a couple of minutes early."

"Well, to me it's finally since I've been waiting for this moment since about a month ago."

I replied back, walking up to him.

"A month? That's quite a long time? You were that confident in the plan working?"

"Not really, but it served as good motivation for ensuring that the plan would be a success."

"That's quite smart."

Randur replied, stroking his chin. Then, turning around he beckoned me to follow him.

"Come, our next destination is quite hidden, so we must be extremely careful."

"Yes."

Since we were headed for the treasure, which was the place where all the most precious equipment and items were stored, the place was heavily protected and hidden.

His seriousness was understandable.

Silently following Randur from behind, we walked through the streets of Henlour.

Finding the silence uncomfortable, I decided to make small talk on our way to the treasury.

"Have the barriers been set up again? The ones that I took down?"

"Yeah, Jomnuk set them back up as soon as we beat Inferno."

"Oh? I see."

Was a bit worried about this part just in case the demons once again tried to attack, but it looked like I was worried for nothing.

Most likely, Jomnuk re-activated the barriers. Since I only disabled the barriers and never actually destroyed them, he was able to set them back up in no time.

"That's good."

After that, I continued to make small talk with Randur on our way to our destination. Before long, we stopped in front of a large portal.

"Hey."

Casually greeting a dwarven guard that was standing guard of the portal, Randur headed for the portal and started to configure its coordinates.

Staring at him from behind, I thought.

'I see, so in order to keep the location of the treasury a secret, the dwarves must've only told the coordinates of the place to a select few individuals…'

Reminded me of what Inferno did.

"Alright, I'm done."

It was only after a couple of minutes after Randur went to the portal that, clapping his hands together, he turned towards me and indicated to me to get in the portal.

"I've already set the coordinates, you go in first. We can't let others know of the location of the place."

"Okay."

Taking a step forward and greeting the guard, I climbed up a couple of stairs and soon stepped into the portal.

"See you on the other side."

Those were the last words I heard before my vision blurred and slowly I was enshrouded by a familiar uncomfortable sensation.

*

"Ugh, I hate portals."

I muttered as I took a step out of the portal.

Despite having been through quite a lot of them, I still hated the sensation I got from taking them.

It felt as though I had been spun around in circles at extreme speeds. Nauseating to say the least.

"What's this smell?"

While I was recovering, a rustic scent lingered in the air, invading my nostrils. Lifting my head up, my eyes soon paused on an enormous ancient door that stood opposite of me.

At the moment, there was no one standing outside of the door, but I knew for a fact that there were people guarding it.

They were most likely hiding somewhere.

"It's nice isn't it?"

Coming out of the portal, Randur looked at the enormous door in the distance. A sense of pride could be felt in his words as his eyes paused on me.

"Yeah."

I softly replied back.

The more I stared at the door, the more noticed the complexities around it. It felt more and more majestic to me.

"Follow me."

Walking towards the door, Randur took out a small badge from his dimensional space and placed it inside of a small socket in the middle of the door.

Ci Click—

With a small clicking sound, once the badge entered the socket, a soft rumble sounded and the ground trembled.

Rumble—

"Take a step back."

Pushing me back a bit, Randur watched as the enormous doors opened up before us.

"Since it's a secret, I can't tell you much about the place."

Randur said as he interlocked his hands behind his back.

"All you need to know is that even if multiple <SS> ranks tried to break through the door, it would take them at least a day to break through the place. And that's if they were all attacking with their strongest attack..."

Bang—

With a small bang, the sides of the door smashed against the walls enabling me to see what was on the other side of the door.

"…ah."

No words could describe what I felt when I caught a glimpse of what stood behind the door.

I was speechless.

With countless treasures ranging from all sorts of artifacts to cores and skill books, neatly displayed throughout the enormous room, my eyes couldn't help but start to glimmer.

My heart slowly sped up.

Halting his steps by the side of the door, Randur looked at me and said.

"I'll wait for you over here."

Raising his hand and pointing towards the room he continued.

"You're free to pick anything you want from the room. You said you wanted a skill book right?"

"Yes."

"Then you can find those over there, at the very end of the room." He said as he pointed towards the very end of the room, on the right side.

"Thank you."

Unable to hold my excitement, I nodded my head at every one of his words.

Seeing how excited I was, Randur sighed and shook his head. He was all too familiar with this scene.

"Go, choose your skill, but remember, you're only allowed to choose one, don't take any more than you're supposed to."

The last part of his sentence was said with an incredibly serious tone, as Randur warned me about the consequences of being too greedy.

"Don't worry, I'm not that stupid."

I honestly replied back, curbing down on my excitement a bit.

Although everything was tempting, I wasn't someone who was blinded by greed.

Thanking Randur one more time, I quickly headed in the direction he previously pointed at, the direction where the skill books were located.

The room was fairly large, about the size of the Lock's arena ground.

As I headed towards the skill book section, there were many things that attracted my attention, but, I had a clear goal from the very beginning.

Even though everything in the room was tempting, I didn't let them tempt me away from what I really needed.

'Where is the <B> skill section? I should also check the <A> rank section while I'm at it.'

Before long I arrived at the place Randur pointed at, and the first thing I did was look for all the <B> ranked skills available.

I also kept a lookout for the <A> ranked section.

Although I wouldn't be able to use it immediately, by the time I broke through <B> rank, I should have no trouble learning an <A> ranked skill.

If I had to estimate, I'd estimate that within half a year or less I would have no problem breaking through to <B-> rank.

I was <C+> ranked at the moment, but that was thanks to the contract. Once that expired, I'd regress back to my old strength.

Well, that was unless I improved during that time, which in that case, I would not regress and remain the same.

As I was in deep thought, pondering over which level of skill I should get, the corner of my eyes caught the side of a small section.

A small section where only a couple of books rested, but the energy coming out from each book was palpitating, borderline terrifying.

'What if...'

Catching sight of the area, a dangerous thought flashed through my mind.

'…no, no, no, let's not be delusional."

Shaking my head, I tried to get rid of all useless thoughts from my head.

That section over there was the <S> ranked section, and for a brief moment, I was almost tempted into going there. But after rationally thinking about things, I instantly dropped the idea.

By the time I would end up breaking to <S> rank, at least five years would've passed, and in the meantime, I could've used the skill that I had gotten from here to further improve my strength.

Plus, I actually already knew of an <S> ranked skill that I wanted, was just too weak for it to get it.

'Let's see what they have.'

In the end, for the next hour, I looked through the <B> rank and <A> rank sections, till finally, after a long time, I narrowed my search to two skills.

[[A] Eyes of Chronos]

Upon using this skill, the user will be able to see everything in slow motion. The more mana is used, the slower the time will be in their eyes.

[[B] Quick burst]

Upon using this skill, the user will be able to display a quick burst of speed that is 10x the user's regular speed. Effect of skill will only last for a single burst, with a cooldown of 5 minutes per user.

Staring at the description of the two skills before me, stroking my chin, I muttered.

"Which one should I choose?"