"I greet Elder Sinai" said the escort guard in the sa chanical tone.
They had arrived a minute ago and were now standing in front of the scholar looking Elder.
"Greetings" said Ezra, bowing his head a little before raising it back.
"Thank you for fulfilling such an odd request from , Beliat" the elder replied to the Dragon escort, dismissing him and turning to face Ezra.
"I hear you encountered a Nascent level madman in the secret realm" he said.
"That is correct" Ezra replied, nodding casually.
’Not any sign of fear or tension’ the Elder noted.
"Alright, since this is a serious matter, I’ll have you tell all about it, please follow "
Without waiting for an affirmation, Sinai turned and began to walk away.
Ezra followed behind without a fuss.
As they walked, Sinai decided to strike up a conversation and glanced towards Ezra.
"I heard that you have enough firepower to give even Nascents a tough ti"
"It is but an exaggeration" Ezra replied with a straight face.
"I see" he said succinctly, withdrawing his gaze back to what is in front of him.
They reached what one would consider an office, where Ezra found many other Transcendents and even quite a few more Elders.
"This is the departnt responsible for the safety and security of all the secret realms in the Black Dragon clan. We are the ones that verify a secret realm is safe enough for an expedition party’s entry. We are the Secret Realm Intelligence Departnt"
Afterwards, he took Ezra to what was basically an interrogation room, but with walls of a more friendly color, and sat him down, sitting across him.
Sinai initiated the conversation, straightening his glasses as he did.
"Right now, thanks to the tragedy that occurred there, it’s highly likely that the expedition for the Alchemist’s Tomb will not happen next year" he began.
"And now, you’re here telling that the Desolate Madlands has begun recreating Nascent level madn once again...I’m going to need a thorough explanation from you"
His expression was serious.
"Not a problem"
Like this, the briefing began.
Ezra told them of his ability to conceal himself and his adventure crossing into the mad caverns to get as much Ladium as possible.
He then added that he could only remain concealed for a period of ti, and said that during the fourth day of the expedition, he realized he had entered beyond the periphery he initially intended to stay in, and thus decided to exit the mountain, but because of the nature of the mountain range, he had lost his way and began to wander from mountain to mountain in the opposite direction expecting that he would eventually exit the mountain range.
After giving up on hunting madn to direct all his efforts to find the entrance out of fear of not making it to the entrance on ti, he got hold of the sight of the periphery of the mountain range four days later after going through many cycles of search and recovery each day.
It was the eighth day of the expedition at this point.
At that ti, he was exhausted from jumping all over the place while maintaining concealnt and his mind was equally exhausted from holding up his guard against all the madn around him while doing this.
Therefore, once he saw the periphery of the mountain, his body relaxed and succumbed to the exhaustion it had held back for days, forcing Ezra to find a small cave near the peak of a mountain to sleep in.
His concealnt was soon to wear off anyway, so Ezra didn’t think it was too bad and made sure to hide his presence using his darkness affinity and took a nap, from which he woke up hours later at night ti.
This was when he t the Nascent level madman.
He was woken up abruptly due to his senses ringing out loudly like a bell.
At this ti, when his concealnt was still worn off, the Nascent level madman barged in.
Ezra emphasizes that he was sure of what he felt because of how vivid the mont was.
He had thought he would die.
The entire cave compartnt was destroyed with a blow which sent Ezra flying out of the mountain and falling to the ground.
Even while doing this, he spotted the Nascent level madman and was forced to activate his concealnt despite his aching head.
At this point, Ezra activated in the interrogation room to dispel any doubts whether he could really do such a thing.
He continued with his story.
Making a not very graceful landing, Ezra quickly hid nearby, watching as the Nascent level madman searched for him, before leaving soon after, leaping elsewhere.
Scared out of his wits, Ezra ran straight out of the mad caverns in one go, unhindered by fatigue due to being so close to death.
Also, the long nap had given him enough ti for his body to recover and only his mind still ached, so it wasn’t too much pressure.
Getting out of the mad caverns, he ran across the two mile gap and ended up at the first mountain range one ets close to the secret realm entrance.
Packed with far less madn, Ezra decisively found another makeshift cave and slept, exhausted from running such a long distance.
He woke up almost a day later, completely refreshed with all his fatigue gone.
Taking his ti, Ezra cleaned his clothes of any dirt and dust.
He emphasized that they were of great quality so they hadn’t torn at all throughout the ordeal.
After taking his ti to freshen up and eat heartily from the rations he brought along with him, Ezra headed straight for the secret realm entrance and exited on the night of the ninth day.
Having lost all desire to do any more adventuring, Ezra was intent on reporting the situation to avoid a reenactnt of the tragedy in the Alchemist’s Tomb.
And here they were.
Though his story sounded plausible enough and was backed with the evidence of his concealnt ability, Sinai took it upon himself to question him further.
Here, Ezra added that during the ti he was freshening up, he heard a faint rumbling coming from the mad caverns that continued for almost ten minutes before subsiding.
To this, Sinai’s face freezed.
Seeing this reaction, Ezra thought...
’They must know sothing about the factories. Well, it makes sense’
A few more questions later, Ezra was allowed to leave after a bit more than four hours of grueling questioning.
On his way out, Sinai inford Ezra that he would be rewarded for giving such vital information but didn’t ntion what it would be.
Cleared of all suspicions, Sinai’s gaze towards Ezra was much more friendly now and he saw him off with a smile.
Out of sight, Ezra let out a large sigh of relief.
’With this, no one will suspect for doing anything’ he thought, but then wondered...
’When did I get so good at lying?’
He hadn’t even rehearsed that story beforehand!
Yet sohow he reported it so well that even he would’ve believed himself had soone told him!
With this, he was also able to figure out the best formula for lying.
’To perfectly mislead soone, you have to tell ninety percent of the truth and ten percent of lies’ thought Ezra.
’So...I’m an expert lair’ he acknowledged, smiling.
’This could co in handy’
With suspicions cleared and the full story reported, Ezra was free to leave Centra, and that’s exactly what he intended to do.
’Who knows if they might find sothing else and try to call back into that room? I need to leave imdiately’
Moreover, he already had sowhere he planned to visit.
Without any fanfare, he headed to the main entrance and exited Centra with the guise of heading back to his galaxy.
Ezra has sothing else in mind though.
But first, he took out his communicator and gave a short report to the clan leader, if you could even call it a report.
Then, he talked to Sidal, who reported to him about the happenings of the AlphaNova company.
Right now, thanks to Ezra providing pills from the Alchemist’s Tomb, Sidal had solidified his position as the company’s heir and was now actively involved in its managent.
Beyond that, the Cretin council, who were currently investing millions into him monthly, were requesting a check up to reevaluate his level and talent.
From Sidals words, it seed there was sothing making them worried for ti as they doubled the amount of his investnt in hopes of a faster advancent.
’Well, I did intend to a beco a Nascent as soon as possible anyway’
With that, Ezra closed contact and got to work.
Concealing himself, he floated in space with no one around him, taking a deep breath before activating .
Ezra held his breath as space began to unravel.
Connected to a very peculiar space, Ezra’s heart pounded as he waited for results.
By all ans...it opened!
With not a second of hesitation, Ezra rushes in.
Taking a bit more ti than the instantaneous Teleport, Ezra exited the other side of the portal seconds later with a familiar view in front of him.
Ezra was back in the Desolate Madlands!
His hunch was right!
He could really go in and out of secret realms any ti he wanted!
This was too good!
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