[Chapter 246. Imprecise Information]

Searanox rubbed his eyes, the gesture betraying a moment of genuine exhaustion. "I mean in this world," he clarified. The strain of the night's operations began to show in the slight tightening around his jaw.

"Oh, just two so far," she corrected her statement, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment at having misunderstood his question.

Searanox nodded, dismissing his drones with a mental command. The blue lights winked out one by one until only the moon remained to illuminate the grim tableau. "Alright. How did you find these dungeons? Any special trick you'd like to share?" he asked, leaning forward in anticipation of her answer.

"We used a magical device to locate them. It points to all the dungeons within a certain distance." Anax provided the information willingly, her hands clasped behind her back in a posture of submission that was both practiced and genuine.

Searanox stood from his chair so fast that it fell backward with a clatter, echoing through the clearing. His sudden movement caused Anax to flinch. "Where is that device?" he demanded. All pretense of casual conversation vanished, replaced by an intensity that made the air crackle.

She pointed a trembling finger toward Quin. "Inside Kandora's ring." The simple sentence hung in the air with immense implications.

He snatched the ring from Quin's outstretched palm and began to unlock his gauntlet, the complex magitech mechanisms whirring as he prepared to access the storage device's interface.

"My ring is protected against theft. It's no use to you," Kandora said, her cold voice carrying across the space despite her physical weakness. A small, triumphant smile touched her lips—the first crack in her stoic demeanor, revealing pride rather than fear.

"Then why don't you grant me access to your ring? It would make this a lot easier if I knew where to find all the dungeons," Searanox said. He crouched in front of the kneeling Kandora, bringing his face to her level. His proximity was intimate in its violation, a deliberate power play designed to remind her of his complete control over her situation.

"As if I would give you all that I possess," she spat. The words were laced with aristocratic venom despite her broken state. Her eyes blazed with defiance, challenging him to do his worst.

"Great, another Vanessa," he muttered to himself, standing back up. The reference was lost on his captives. "Anax, what would happen if she died? Would the ring be open then?" he asked. His voice was calm and analytical, as if discussing a hypothetical scenario rather than contemplating the immediate death of the woman before him.

"No. The contents of the ring would be sealed unless there is another who has access to it," Anax explained. Her voice remained barely above a whisper as she struggled to maintain composure despite the brutal scene she had just witnessed. Her eyes darted between Searanox and Kandora, betraying the conflicting emotions within her.

"Cool. Ulrum, it's your responsibility that she stays alive. Gron, you will carry her if she refuses to follow." Searanox's tone was devoid of warmth. He issued commands with the precision of a military leader, his eyes never leaving Kandora's defiant face, daring her to test his patience further.

Searanox took his chair and stored it back in his ring, the object vanishing with a faint blue shimmer. "We are moving," he said, summoning a travel drone before mounting it. The metallic construct adjusted beneath his weight with a soft humming sound that seemed unnaturally loud in the night's silence.

All of them looked toward him with the same question in their eyes. Vindala spoke up first, her voice trembling. "Where do we go, if I may ask?" The formal address hung in the air between them, a remnant of their previous life that seemed completely out of place in their current predicament.

Searanox didn't answer with words, but gestured toward Androxis. Its black tower pierced the broken cloud cover like a spike driven through the sky. The distant fortress seemed to pulse with energy, a contrast to the serene moonlight bathing their surroundings.

"Do we mount one of these constructs too?" Anax asked, raising her hand tentatively. Her movements betrayed a nervousness that her carefully controlled voice attempted to conceal.

Searanox turned to her, giving her a soft smile, and answered just as softly as she had asked. "You'll mount something else another time. How long do you need to reach it?" His words carried an unmistakable suggestion that made Anax flinch as if struck, the implication hanging between them like a physical threat.

Anax was unable to speak. Her face, which he could now make out under the bright moonlight, held a red hue that turned even darker at his comment. She looked to the ground, then up to the clouds, as if searching for an escape from her captor's gaze, before Quin answered in her stead. "It took us until nighttime to reach the first dungeon." His deep voice rumbled with exhaustion, his shoulders slumped under the weight of their recent experiences.

"Alright, and when did you move out?" Searanox asked, looking back at him. He saw that Gron had a wiggling, protesting Kandora slung over his shoulder like a sack of grain. Despite her weakened state, she continued to struggle weakly, her movements more symbolic than effective.

Quin thought for a moment, his brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to recall the details of their journey. "As the sun reached its highest point, I would say." The imprecise measurement of time seemed natural to him, yet it grated on Searanox's mind.

"Don't you guys use hours or any other method to keep track of the time?" he asked, his voice taking on a sharper edge. He struggled to work with such vague temporal markers. The moon cast long shadows across his face as he waited for their response, his patience wearing thin.

"We use the rise and fall of the suns and moons. It's the only method I'm aware of," Quin said, his voice rough as gravel. He shifted his weight, the moonlight catching the exhaustion etched into the lines of his weathered face. The mention of suns in plural made Searanox pause—another reminder of how alien other worlds remained despite his growing familiarity with the System.

"Right, good luck with that then... If my guess is correct, that would be somewhere around five hours. And from where did you begin your journey?" Searanox's fingers twitched, resisting the urge to shoot him in the leg. The imprecision grated on him like sand in a well-oiled machine. His eyes scanned the horizon, noting the moon's position as an inadequate substitute for proper temporal measurement.

Gron lifted a heavy arm, his muscles straining under the weight of Kandora, who was still draped over his shoulder like a prize elk. He pointed a trembling finger toward the jagged silhouette of the mountain range beside Androxis, their peaks cutting sharp edges against the star-strewn sky. "Our basecamp is right at the mountains," he explained, his words coming out in puffs of visible breath despite the mild night air. "Where the foothills begin."

Searanox nodded and looked toward the mountains, the dark expanse seeming to pulse with unseen dangers. "Well, that sounds like we have one more thing to talk about later," he said, his voice dropping slightly as he processed the implications. "For now, you will all make your way toward the black tower. You can't miss it. Be there before the night is over. The sooner, the better." His gaze swept across each of their faces, pausing longest on Kandora's expression. "I'll leave a drone with you," he added, summoning another floating construct with a mere thought. The violet light from its optic lens bathed their terrified faces in its eerie glow. "If she runs off... you guys will have to pay for everything that is in that ring, with blood and hard work."

The threat hung heavy in the air as his travel drone shot off into the distance toward Androxis. Its propulsion system created only the slightest whisper of sound as it accelerated into a dark speck against the night sky.

<Iris, would you be so kind as to prepare six rooms for me on the second floor? Send someone out to get a good amount of food, mostly meat. For let's say, twelve people.>

The telepathic message formed clearly in his mind, working flawlessly despite the distance.

The answer came quickly. Her mental voice carried that peculiar mix of efficiency and subtle curiosity he had come to recognize.

<Certainly. May I ask what you need it for?>

<A surprise, my dear.>