Chapter 336: Chapter 336
Aaron woke up with a headache.
"Why the hell did the smoke make me live through those memories?" Aaron muttered to himself, not understanding why the smoke revealed those memories to him.
The worst part was that he felt he knew the two men shown in those memories from the man’s perspective, whose face he couldn’t see at all.
He thought for a while before he remembered, "Wait...Victor...I knew him; I remember seeing his face on the Internet. He is one of the five human gods. Was this ruin connected to him?" Aaron wondered.
"Hmm, the third person, he was not one of the five, but I feel like I have seen his face somewhere...where?" Aaron scratched his head, trying to think where he had seen it.
After a minute, "Damn it, I can’t remember, which shouldn’t be possible with my high INT value. I may not recall everything at once, but I should be able to recall it all if I concentrate. Why can’t I seem to remember him?"
No matter how much Aaron thought about it, he couldn’t place the third one.
"Well, whatever. It’s not a big deal if I can’t place him, but the big deal was the first person, who might have left a smoke remnant in these ruins, might be connected to one of the five human gods".
"Not just anyone, the second one to reach such a stage. If the smoke was really related to him, then the ruins might be of some importance to him, maybe I can earn...wait, damn it...how could I forget about the betrayal?"
"Though the first person didn’t feel anger because of the betrayal, it was still betrayal. If I tell others about this, there is a chance that Victor might send someone to silence me before this information reaches too many ears", Aaron worried for a second.
No matter how strong he was, no matter how many creatures he could stand against at his stage, Victor is considered a god, a rank beyond Rank-9. With a snap of his fingers, Victor can end Aaron.
"No, I can’t reveal anything about the castle. Wait, if I don’t know, how can I tell how I exited the ruins?" Aaron wondered for a minute.
"Hmm, I don’t see any portals here. Let’s first see if there was a portal leading me out of these ruins", Aaron thought.
He then started to look around the hall. The throne was still there, but it looked different from what it was before. It looked broken. Even the walls have cracks that were not present before.
It was as if the castle had gone through centuries in such a short time. He knew it was a short time because he checked the time, and it had been just a week since he encountered the smoke and fell unconscious.
So, the castle, no matter what, shouldn’t have degraded to such a state.
"Maybe it has to do with the smoke man. He seems to be gone as he showed me those memories. Whatever he might have done to keep this place up seems to have gone as well, but it doesn’t matter to me anyway. What matters is I find a way to leave these ruins as soon as possible", Aaron thought and started his search for an exit.
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Aaron observed many doors when he first entered the hall. He started to check these doors one by one, hoping to find an exit.
Aaron has been inside for months. His parents should be worried sick due to his absence, especially if the alliance has already contacted them, which is possible, given that it has been months since his disappearance.
The doors led to rooms filled with supplies. Although most contained food, which had long since spoiled, there were other supplies, such as potions, weapons, armour, and mana stones.
There were many gains he acquired from this small adventure of the check behind the door scenario, but the most significant gain was something that he didn’t expect. Something he was looking for, though not actively, as he has no idea where to check.
"What are these doing here?" Aaron wondered as he looked at the pair of bracelets.
These are not normal bracelets. They are part of something bigger. They are Death Deflect bracelets.
--
Death Defelct bracelets: You can deflect fatal attacks once a week.
Status: Damaged (can be repaired)
--
Yes, Aaron found the third of the Death Set, which he had been looking for. He has two of the items from the set and wants to complete the set to enjoy more perks, but he has no idea where even to start looking.
There were no instructions left behind, and he had to depend solely on luck, which was taking a long time to come his way.
Luckily, his luck is very high. He has a luck trait and a blessing that increases luck as long as he is under the moon of the world, which made the blessing useless in the ruins, but the other two are more than enough to get him here.
In fact, he volunteered to come to the Wastelands, as he felt that staying too long in Rock City would make him lazy and weak over time. He wanted to hone his strength, and he thought that the Wastelands were the best place to do so.
So, everything played its part, though subtly.
"Anyway, it doesn’t matter for now, where I find them, but to find them all. I can speculate about its existence here later on, when I have time, but for now, let’s see if the exit is here or not. Only two doors remain", Aaron muttered as he went on to check the last two.
The last but one door led to nothing but spoiled food.
Before opening the last door, Aaron prayed, though it was not something he grew up with here. He prayed to the world and the universe, hoping to find the exit, and the universe answered his prayers.
"A Portal, hahaha", Aaron laughed out loud.
He saw the same gateway that he saw in the tunnel that he fell into after he touched the unidentified object in the ground that day.
"Wait, I can’t leave. I need to record the castle first, though I am not sure how much I should put in the report once I leave this place", Aaron muttered to himself.
He quickly closed the door and began to record the things he saw inside the cattle, although the report mentioned little of his gains. Most he found were decayed items.
Even among the weapons, armour and potions, a lot were spoiled, decayed and couldn’t be used. They would work in his favour.