Return to the Crystal Palace

(Denzel's POV):

Two days after the "Failed Grand Invasion" by Chrominus, I have decided to return to the Crystal Palace along with Malech's group, Rika's group, and Bella's group in a large magic carpet. Speeding through the skies by propelling the carpet with wind magic and shielding air resistance, it was quite a spectacle for my mana capacity.

"Zel, are you alright?" - Rika

"I guess? I'm a little exhausted though so I may end up in bed once we return."

Rika, who was in a sitting posture, was leaning her head on my left shoulder. Entrusting some of her weight to me which increased my workload for a bit. Bella then moves behind me and starts pouring some mana to refill what I lost.

"Good grief, Denzel really doesn't try to act exhausted even if the hints are there already. You're overdoing it you know?" - Bella

"Mm, isn't he the busiest person in his group?" - Rika

As Rika starts wondering about my workload a thought crossed my mind about Seymour, Robin, and Michael. For sure, Michael is still in his expedition along with his friends. But it seems Robin and Seymour are doing the cleanup along with the others at the castle.

"What's in your mind?" - Rika

Rika stares right into me eyes while exclaiming her worries. No good! I must keep my attention up at all times.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking that I'm not as busy as Seymour who is cleaning up the warzone."

There's no use thinking about it, since he talked about the witch farm project that will start in a month, I have to prepare myself.

"Michael's safety though."

"Ah right, Michael said that his group is enough to get through the first half of this game. I don't think there's any use worrying about him." - Bella

Even if Michael fails, he can actually escape with his friends using a magic mirror. But I wonder about that, considering that he intends to begin the hardmode phase of the game, if he succeeds then he definitely has to return immediately. It��s going to be difficult just trying to survive the night in early hardmode.

Another thought that crossed my mind is whether the boss in hell is empowered to some extent. From what I remember, the Eye of Cthulhu can summon mini demon eyes at a rapid rate and can fire a laser at first phase. In the second phase, the only way to damage it is by the inside of the mouth which can be closed at instinct or will.

I don't know about the two bosses in the corruption and crimson biomes but surely. The boss in the dungeon which is Skeletron, is going to be superbuffed beyond the limits too. While pondering heavily, I heard Malech making a ruckus in the back.

I turned my head and saw him pulling his chain scythe up. He didn't seem to notice my gaze and pulled up the grabber that caught a golden bird.

"It's a success!" - Malech

Malech turns to the front and sees me looking at the bird with surprise.

"Hmm, want it Denz?" - Malech

"Yes, but actually no. You have some space in your room to keep pets right?"

I remembered that the rooms below the sky floor have a larger area than the standard sized ones around the lower floors of the crystal palace.

"Actually, that's right, can I then take a glass bottle from the public storage?" - Malech

"You better put holes or it'll die."

"Got'ya~" - Malech

I looked at Rika who smiled from the exchange between Malech and me.

"Was it something?"

"No, there isn't any of the sort. It's just that, the past and the current you are pretty different." - Rika

"Ahaha, how did you know that?"

It seems Rika was pretty much told about my past due to Bella's camp. The rest however, doesn't know about it yet. After a long trip, we landed on the garden of the crystal palace.

"Finally!"

"We're back!" - Malech

First thing I want to do is go to bed, but there's one thing that needs attention. I went to the spiral staircase and looked down to the lower floor.

Down there, I saw William inside a black box.

"Ey! You alright down there?"

"Do I look like I'm fine!?" - William

William spats out complaints after being bored and stuck in a single spot for two days. I jumped down to the ground floor and dispersed the mana near me. The black box was beautifully dispelled and William's appearance who had cuts and bruises around his body showing a lot of marks.

"That seems heavy. Hold on, let me go ask Bella for this."

William was badly damaged after his side of the fight. Damn, aside from me, he's the strongest one in my subgroup. I guess having someone as support really does help in many cases.

I called down Bella and had her fully heal William who was in a state of showing dead eyes. I then explain what happened during and after the war. He wasn't exactly pleased with how it ended.

"Even though I nearly died, why am I left out in the party?" - William

William was seriously dissatisfied. It's not like we left him out on purpose, he was twelve hours away from the castle. In any case, it's nice that everyone survived the war.

"I seem to notice a familiar presence, is that Flora?" - William

"As expected you know her?"

"Her?" - William

As Flora arrives to the ground floor at the center of the spiral staircase, William tilts his head in confusion. Similarly, I also tilted my head since I didn't understand what he meant.

That was only for a second though.

After thinking that it might be that, I turned to Flora with a serious face.

"Girl?" - William

William turns his head to Flora and mutters a single word which made me conclude something.

That's a dude?!?!?!?!?! Hold on! I didn't know about this! Nobody told me that you could log in with a female avatar when you're a guy!

While clearing off my head with my confused thoughts, William has clearly stated the truth.

"You're misunderstanding Denz, Flora is a guy in real life." - William

"That's a dude?!?!?!?!"

The words that were once in my head suddenly left my mouth in shock.

"Ehehe~, I didn't really have the time to explain." - Flora

"Don't 'Ehehe~' me! I didn't think you wouldn't be able to have a female avatar if you're a guy! So how!?"

"Calm your tits Denz, don't worry about it, he simply paid for that." - William

William summarizes what he knew about the avatar usage, it was possible to use a female avatar if you paid for the special System Gear that allows you to manipulate gender.

"Haaah, I want to crash. You know what guys, I need to rest for now. I have been circulating mana non-stop for half a day."

"Alright then, see you!" - Bella

Bella seems to have responded and moved up to her room in the 6th floor.

"William, I'm passing you this."

I passed a blue coin to William which he caught easily, he peeked and saw a blue coin with an emblem of a pair of wings and a sword in between it.

"This?" - William

"Return it to me once I wake up, it's a rule in this palace for the guests to definitely obey me, or the one holding the blue coin. It's to avoid conflicts in this place."

I'm definitely leaving some things to him, since he's pretty much close to my level in terms of survival.

"The tasks to do are in the meeting room, open the cabinet on my seat to access the diary and open the recent page. All things to do are in there."

"Got it!" - William

"Don't use the emblem on the actual residents of the palace."

I emitted pressure towards William who was surprised to what I said about using it against residents.

"The list of residents are written in the diary as well so kudos to you."

I moved to the sky floor and crashed to my bed. It seems Rika fell asleep while waiting, so I hugged her while my consciousness drifted away to the dreamland.

===================

After a few days of resting, I finally woke up from the dreamland. It was around 8 AM according to the sun shining directly towards us from the side. There is a special feature in the sky room that I implemented. It will tell the time by letting light pass through the crystals. Each crystal will allow sunlight to pass through in each hour of the day. From 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM. Right now, the crystal that sunlight is passing through is the third from the east.

In front of my eyes that was trying to wake up, Rika's sleeping face was in front of me. Her body shined as the sunlight directly hit her and brightened her face. I pulled myself closer to her face and kissed her forehead. She smiled even though she was asleep and snuggled to the bed. Wai-! Her shirt is a bit too open, it's not harmful to peek right?

It surely wasn't harmful to peek but I was stopped when I heard the door open. Kuu! I was so close!

While abandoning the "curious" thoughts of mine, I raised myself and looked at the culprit who stopped me.

"Gayle?"

That's quite unexpected...