Chapter 317: Ascension Quest

A bed had already been cleared in the resting room arranged by the Players Association. The healer cut open the cloth stuck to his shoulder. Zich’s temples twitched from the pain.

The treatment continued for a while. The bleeding in his shoulder finally stopped, and his breathing no longer pulled at his chest with pain with every breath, but if he moved even slightly, cold sweat still appeared on his forehead.

Helen brought the cup to his lips, watched him drink a few mouthfuls, and only then put it back on the table.

Nadia had been waiting by the door the whole time. Only after the healers temporarily withdrew did she walk in.

"Congratulations."

Zich turned his head to look at her.

"The spot you gave me wasn’t wasted."

"Far more than not wasted." Nadia pulled the chair to the bedside but did not sit too close. She glanced at the thick bandages, and the words that had reached her lips paused again.

Zich saw her hesitation.

"If there’s something, wait until I can sit up by myself."

"That’s what I meant too." Nadia nodded, her voice softening. "Get your injuries healed first. Our agreement still stands."

Zich looked at her and, after a moment, nodded as well.

He did not ask further. The Ancient Beast King Soul Stone he had obtained had not yet been examined, the summoned creatures needed to recover, and he himself could not even lift his hand easily.

...

When Zich woke up, there was a stack of letters beside his bed.

The top one was sealed with golden wax, and two gift boxes sat next to it. He stared at them for a moment, then reached out, and his shoulder immediately sent a jolt of pain through him.

"You only slept. It’s not healed yet."

Helen came in from the doorway carrying water. Seeing his movement, she directly took the stack of letters into her hands.

"These are for you. Some people want to invite you to dinner, some want to discuss cooperation, and some want to buy the things you brought out of the tower."

"That fast?"

"They’ve been waiting since last night. Father didn’t let them in."

Zich took the water and slowly drank a couple of mouthfuls. After sleeping, his mind was finally clearer, but his body felt like it had been taken apart and put back together. The slightest movement would reveal a new source of pain.

Helen placed the letters by his legs and pulled out only one of them.

"This person wants to buy the Ancient Beast King Soul Stone. He’s asking when you’ll be available to meet."

Zich glanced at the signature. He did not recognize the name.

"He knows I got it?"

"The reward for the final floor was announced long ago. Who doesn’t know by now that you cleared it?"

Fair enough.

Zich put that letter back and did not open the other gift boxes. The moment he opened his eyes, people had already come to his door with money.

Of course he liked this kind of change.

But before negotiating a price, he needed to first see exactly what he had obtained.

He took the Ancient Beast King Soul Stone out of his spatial bag. Helen also quieted down.

The stone was not large. It could be held in one hand, and a faint light seemed to shine through its deep color. Zich turned his palm over and examined it carefully twice. Just this one thing, Nadia had said, could sell for several million gold coins.

He thought of the claw the Soul Devourer had clamped onto his shoulder, and his fingers could not help tightening slightly.

It had almost really torn his arm off.

Helen watched him. "Want to sell it?"

"Not for now."

Zich put the soul stone away and set the purchase inquiry aside by itself.

"I can listen to offers. How to use the thing, we’ll figure out after."

Helen nodded. Seeing that he could already hold the cup steadily on his own, she finally pulled over a chair and sat down, rubbing her wrist.

Zich noticed that there was also bandaging wrapped under her sleeve.

"Did you get your injuries treated?"

"Treated already. They are much lighter than yours."

"Then go back and rest too."

Helen raised her eyes to look at him.

Zich pointed to the side of the bed. "In my current state, I can’t even walk to the door without someone supporting me. You don’t need to keep watch the whole time."

She had still wanted to say something, but a knock had already sounded from outside the door.

Arthur walked in. He closed the door. Turning back and seeing that Helen was still sitting by the bed, he told her to go change her bandages and rest first.

This time, Helen did not insist. When she reached the door, she glanced at Zich again.

"Until the doctor agrees, don’t get out of bed."

Zich raised the hand he could still move.

The door closed, and at last only the two of them were left in the room.

Arthur pulled over a chair and sat down, pushing the stack of letters to the side.

"Any you’re interested in?"

"I haven’t finished reading."

"Take your time. Some people genuinely want to buy things, and some only want to use this chance to get to know you. You can talk, but you don’t have to feel that receiving a letter means you must agree to anything."

Zich nodded. He had received offers before, but after fighting through the Trial Tower, these things delivered to his sickbed were clearly only the beginning.

Arthur’s gaze fell on the purchase inquiry that had been left out separately.

"Are you planning to sell the soul stone?"

"Not yet, still thinking about it."

Arthur glanced at him.

"Look at the list first. Don’t rush to send away the most valuable thing you got from the tower."

"I didn’t say I’d sell it cheap."

Arthur laughed.

Zich did not laugh for long, though. He looked down at his shoulder wrapped in bandages, thought for a while, and still spoke up. "In the last fight, there were several times I could have handled things better."

Arthur did not interrupt. He waited for him to continue.

"The moment I got close, it used chains to cut off my retreat. When I pulled back, it went after the badly injured summons. I knew it was forcing me to go save them, and I still went back."

Zich frowned.

"I won in the end, but next time..."

"Next time, don’t go into battle carrying today’s wounds." Arthur cut him off, his tone very calm. "Once you’ve recovered, train the parts you can improve. Lying in bed now and repeatedly thinking about why you didn’t do better at the time will only make you feel more and more that every step could have been done better."

"What you faced was an enemy that could fight back and make judgments. Some of the choices you already made were indeed wrong, and some simply cost too much. Wait until you’ve calmed down, then separate the two."

Zich raised his head and looked at him.

Those few sentences were more useful than all the congratulations.

"I understand."

Arthur stood up and left, closing the door behind him.

Zich leaned back against the pillow and rested for a while before opening his own panel.

The information he had not had time to look at carefully during battle unfolded one by one. The experience accumulated in the trial and the gains settled from the final match had all become real.

His gaze stopped on the level column.

[Level: 30.]

Zich looked at it for a long time, then slowly clenched his fingers. Strength had already begun to return, but the wound on his shoulder still reminded him that this number could not erase the price he had paid.

Level thirty...

Before entering the Trial Tower, the first thing he had wanted had finally been achieved.

Nadia had said that the spatial pressure in the outermost layer of the Underground Tomb also required level thirty to withstand. However, the most important thing for him right now was his ascension quest.

As if reading his thoughts, a new string of text appeared before him.