Chapter 234: Into the Woods

"Sir Moon, do you think a house by the sea is better than a palace like this one?" Gustav asked, looking at Moon, who walked ahead into the palace.

"What idiot would want a house like this?" Moon grumbled. "To sleep in a different room every day?" He shot Gustav an Are you stupid? look.

As he spoke, Mishu jumped out of his bag and ran off.

"You’ll need a house that big; one day you will have your own servants as such," Gustav pressed again.

"I don’t think I’ll have any of that," Moon dismissed again, not even slightly interested in a large structure of stone.

"Boss!"

Basil took advantage of Mishu no longer being in the bag and ran closer to Moon. "Boss, let’s have a house so big on the third floor and take over the entire floor."

Moon pursed his lips.

Turning to check on Basil, he found him drenched in sweat and panting, but not out of breath.

"Your stamina is good," Moon praised.

Basil was doing much better than most. Of the people Moon knew, Boa and Delilah were in the worst state.

Ophelia even had to support her sister for a while to make it.

"Of course, I ran for a living," Basil explained with his nose held in the sky.

"Yeah... right..." Moon remembered that dependable subordinate of his used to work as a thief, if that counted as work at all.

Being chased was a daily routine for him on the third floor.

The third floor had a special rule as well, one that made it interesting without forcing it into complete isolation like the first.

Moon rubbed his chin, thinking about the proposal Basil had just made...

Taking over the third floor entirely... ’That doesn’t sound too ba—’

"Let me guide Sir to his room." A servant approached Moon all of a sudden with a bow, interrupting Moon’s train of thought.

Moon nodded and followed wordlessly, getting into a new room that he would use for less than a day.

Only to be abandoned again by the next morning.

Sigh~

Moon dropped his bag on the ground and dropped his butt on the bed with a sharp exhale.

He stood up, taking a look out of the window.

A tree blooming red flowers was within an arm’s reach. Birds stood on the strong branches. He could also see a nest a little further away.

Moon watched the rather peaceful sight for a while...

It was rare to see anything peaceful on the first floor, or nearly impossible entirely... For sooner or later, it would be completely destroyed.

In the facility, there wasn’t a single blade of grass... It was also too high in the sky, making it impossible for any bird to reach.

Thus, Moon leaned on the window and kept watching for a little longer.

Knock~

Until someone interrupted his train of thought again.

"Come in," Moon said a little louder for his voice to reach; he had recognized the knock somehow and knew who was at his door.

"Boss." Basil opened the door and slid his head inside. "Food is ready," he announced.

"Did you eat yet?" Moon asked.

Basil shook his head. "Not yet; I was about to arrange a tray and move to the room."

"Arrange two and bring them here," Moon said casually.

Basil’s smile shone behind his mask all the way to his eyes. "Right away, Boss."

Before long, Basil returned with the food. "Where do I place them?" he asked.

"Just like last time," Moon answered curtly.

Basil dropped to the ground with both trays in his hands littered with food. "I guess we won’t be eating chicken for a while," he lamented.

Moon chuckled. "Why not?" He turned around and sat on the ground as well. "I’ll ask Fisher about it."

"Boss is great." Basil gave Moon a double thumbs up.

"What did you tell Talia and the others, though?" Moon asked, concerned about his absence. Talia was in favour of him eating with everyone.

"I told them we have plans to discuss invading the third floor soon," Basil said proudly, bringing the tips of his fingers to his mask.

By night time, Mishu had already returned and fallen asleep on the bed. Moon, on the other hand, walked out to resume his smithing with Dorbish.

Of course, he had finished his daily thread-knotting training first.

The new palace had a similar layout to the one from before.

Waiting for the metal to heat, "What are you making, actually?" Moon asked.

He’d been helping Dorbish without asking what he was trying to make... The piece of metal needed much work before taking shape anyway, so he had no idea.

"An axe," Dorbish answered.

Moon’s eyebrows rose. "Don’t you already have a cool one?" he asked.

To Moon’s logic, having many weapons was like having many lives, but having the same heavy weapon twice was not very useful.

The axe Dorbish had was huge; thus, Moon thought he would either make a piece of armor or maybe a smaller weapon.

"This axe belongs to my father," Dorbish began explaining. "When the selector appeared over my head, I could only grab this axe before the gate took me."

Moon listened to the new piece of information he was unfamiliar with among ascenders.

According to what Dorbish said, a selector would appear to those who were chosen to ascend, and they only had a few seconds to take whatever they could before the trial began.

"Well, you should be thankful you weren’t in your underwear with nothing else." Moon shrugged.

Dorbish nodded. "I had my armor on; managing to take the axe of my father and the pyjamas you saw was already a feat."

Moon nodded deeply, remembering how he had had no weapon or clothes.

"I also want to use the reward of the first trial properly; can’t with that axe," Dorbish added.

"Which reward?" Moon asked.

Dorbish waved his arm—

Thud~

A huge shield appeared, long and tall... Just slightly shorter than Dorbish himself.

Black entirely, just like the material Dorbish’s armor was made of.

"Cool shit!" Moon exclaimed.

"Can’t walk around with both a huge axe and a huge shield," Dorbish explained.

"True," Moon agreed, nodding.

The metal was finally bright within the flames. "Let’s get to work," Moon said while moving to extract it.

The first day was slowly coming to an end.

Moon and Dorbish had another meal before running to sleep whatever they could while they still could.

Yet, before long... A new day began.

"Sir Moon." Gustav approached the sleepy-faced Moon, looking haggard and barely holding it together. "Are you okay?" he asked in a concerned tone.

"Ah... I’m fine," Moon said dismissively. "Just busy with things to do every day," he vaguely explained.

Gustav nodded. "This time around, the road will end soon, and we will be travelling through the woods."

He started filling Moon in, just as Talia came closer to them.

"Anything problematic about these woods?" she asked.

Gustav shook his head. "Nothing."

"The road to the next city, the paved one, will be too long to travel on foot; thus, we will go through the woods instead."

Gustav slowly gave his justification, which was nothing concerning in any way for either Moon or Talia.

"That one will drain them a little, which is good," Moon whispered discreetly.

Talia nodded. "It’s fine; they should be able to bear at least that much before marching into war," she agreed.

It might be a little more tiring for the group, but other than that...

It was just fine...