The hunt continued for 29 more days, just as I planned. With time I got better at killing the boss, but there were few close calls because I overestimated my abilities. I was sent flying like four or maybe five times. Nothing my body couldn't withstand, though.

I managed to hoard up 40572 more crystals.

Me smashing the boss crystal into the ground repeated itself few more times, but I eventually let go of my resentment. I also noticed that the floor was back to its original state each time I returned to the dungeon.

Ki'rei started joining me when I got confident enough that she is safe. She would hang out with the shadows at the back, sometimes coming closer to see the battle. She wasn't reckless. Always kept her distance, and remained hidden.

At some point, while resting before going to the next floor, we had an interesting conversation.

We stopped close to some torches, so we would have a bit of light. She was sitting on a pile of crystals, hoarded up on the cart with a stripe of dried meat in her hands. Wrestling with it for each bite. The dancing flame was reflecting in the stones. I was leaning over the side of the same vehicle, slowly chewing on some dried persimmon

- What did you do before you met me? - I suddenly asked her.

-I spied on your people.

- And before that? What did you do before we came to this world?

- I was collecting crystals in the forbidden lands.

- Forbidden lands?

- Yes. The lands under the floating city. Monsters fight there with each other, and they usually consume the crystals to grow stronger, but sometimes they kill each other simultaneously, and then crystals just lie on the ground - she explained.

- That sounds dangerous, and what do you mean by stronger?

- It is. You have to be very careful to avoid everything and snatch the crystals before monsters find them. And I mean exactly what I said. They eat the stones and grow stronger. The worst are the ghosts.

- Ghosts? What do you mean by that?

- That's how my masters call them. I've been told that they are the shells of Bahumdabar's who died under the control of the tree. They are mad and attack everything, but they stick to their territories.

- Territories?

- The old cities. They roam around the old cities, and there are only very few of them. I actually never seen any of them, because it's dangerous to go close, but my masters told me about them.

- Ok... I have few questions now. First, how do your masters know about them, and second, how many cities are out there?

She shrugged her shoulders and didn't say a thing. I tried to ask her again, and again, but she remained silent.

This was an interesting piece of information and made me think a lot about how safe we really were in the city. Maybe it was just sheer luck that something didn't come from that region, and killed us all. I needed to warn Hatta, but I really didn't know how without letting him know about Ki'rei and Xuvi.

Then finally time to return came, and we packed ourselves to head out, and travel to the other side of the canyon, getting few more crystals, as I had to cut the way through orcs. It took us two days to reach the cliff, and as we made it up the narrow path, she left me saying that she has to go, and do something.

Things like that really made me wonder if a can trust her. On one hand, she was like a young, cute kid, but on the other, she was a genetically designed creature that obeyed her creators. Creators that clearly had some plan, but I didn't know what it was.

There was a simple way to find out though, but I needed to be ready, and right now, I didn't feel ready at all.

I set up my camp out there, and spend the last night before reaching the city alone, with a head full of thoughts and worries. The moment I was gonna get some answers was approaching inevitably. I wanted to push it in time a bit, because of few reasons, entangled with one another.historical

First of all the orc boss was supposed to die hundred times. Yes, I know it's a silly reason, but the second one was that I needed an ace in the sleeve, and to get one, I needed more class points. I really wanted to get that Shadow knight class, and also the second tier of Shadow walker seemed like a great idea because the skill it was giving me was the best to escape. I needed to upgrade it asap.

p I finally fell asleep, just to wake up the next day, and travel back to the city. I reached the device by late evening, and Hatta was already waiting for me, probably notified by the guards.

He was not the only one whose attention I grabbed, as there were many people around the city center looking at my carts filled with crystals, pulled by shadows. Some people were even lurking around, barely visible in the dim light of the approaching dusk.

Hatta smiled widely upon seeing me.

- You survived.

- Yep. I told you I will win.

- You really are incredible, Peter.

- Said a guy who is running the whole city.

- Speaking of which, I still need to finish few things today. I also bet that you are deadly tired, so how about we will talk tomorrow?

- Sure. I'll come by in the morning.

- Good. Good night, Peter.

- Good night.

I proceeded to sell all the crystals, but I was too tired to do any shopping besides just getting the fresh clothes. Then I went to take a bath, eat in the cafeteria, and finally got to my room, to have a proper rest.

The long period of hunting in the canyon finally came to an end with 50 943 705 points remaining on my account, and seventy-two class points.