Chapter 218: Identity Problems
"Of course, I would know about it. I would have to be an idiot to know that you will invite me. I know that you’re leaving the capital to go to the territories of the Dukes. I also know that the Vampire King is in the kingdom, and it would be unsafe for you to leave the capital alone, and Rale would not allow you to take the risk. I have known how cautious Rale is. His first suggestion would be to take someone who could keep you even more safe against the Vampire King," High Duke Mila replied as she smiled.
She couldn’t help but glance at Rale as she said it, but Rale didn’t react and kept his expression neutral. Ryder on the head was nodding his head in praise.
"That’s interesting. You’re pretty clever to guess that much from a little bit of information. Still, how did you know that I would invite you and not the High Dukes who are considered to be stronger?" Ryder asked again with an amused smile on his face.
" That part was even easier. It’s easy to guess what His Highness will do and who he will choose to accompany him when the choice is between two old men or a beauty," High Duke Mila said with a cheeky smile on her face.
Ryder shook his head as he smiled wryly.
"Are you saying that I chose you for your looks," Ryder let out as he frowned.
"Not exactly, but that should be one of the factors, I believe. The second reason should be that the stronger High Dukes need to stay in the capital to keep the place safe," High Duke Mila replied with a serious expression as she placed the book in her hand on the table before her.
"Well, you’re right on both accounts, I guess. A female company is definitely better than a male one on long journeys," Ryder replied as he smiled. He was really amazed that the clever thinking of High Duke Mila
"Anyway, If I knew that you were ready to leave, I would have made plans to leave today, but I have delayed them already. We will leave tomorrow morning," he told High Duke Mila.
"I understand," High Duke Mila replied as she smiled.
"Great. I’ll take my leave then," Ryder said as he stood up and left the library.
They stepped out of the Palace of High Duke Mila and started flying back to the Royal Palace.
"Rale, Do you know of a good hunting ground with somewhat weak monsters? I have noticed that it has been a few days since I hunted and increased my strength. I would like to resume, or my progress will be stalled," Ryder told Rale while they were mid-air.
"The Royal Palace has a special hunting space with His Majesty made for hunting, but I don’t think we can use that. There are no weak monsters there. Almost all monsters here are at least on the same level as the Royal Guards, and from what you told me, I can’t harm the beasts or killing them won’t benefit you," Rale replied as he shook his head.
"That’s true. I can’t hunt monsters that strong," Ryder muttered as he shook his head.
’Heck, let alone monsters that strong, I couldn’t even hunt a level two hundred dragon in my last time, and a dragon which was way more powerful than that was killed by Devilia like it was a toy. The Royal Guards can only be slightly weaker than Devilia. This is not something I can achieve even if I am level 200, let alone now,’ Ryder thought as he sighed.
"The Other High Dukes also have a personal hunting space and the Spatial tunnels connecting to that place, but the monsters there aren’t weak either. I think we can hunt in the forests of Dukes. Those forests have some young monsters that are not too strong," Rale suggested as he landed before the Royal Palace.
They entered the Palace.
"Those places do have weaker monsters. At Least Devilia’s forest had monsters I hunted. The problem is that I can’t go there unofficially today to hunt when I’m going there tomorrow officially. Is there no other place?" Ryder inquired.
" I do have an idea if we don’t want to go to the places of Dukes. We can go to the Human Realm for a short trip. I heard that the place is filled with weak Monsters. The last time we went there for the thing called the Dungeon Exploration, it helped Your Highness. We can go there again," Rale replied.
"That did help. Alright. Let’s take a short trip there. We can spend twenty hours here since I don’t have to lea... I mean sleep tonight," Ryder replied as he nodded his head.
He had already decided that he would spend the night in the game and then the day too. He had taken the nutrition pull to keep him nourished during his gaming. He didn’t need to do anything significant in the real world tomorrow, so he was fine spending the night here.
"Alright. We’re leaving now. Just the two of us," Ryder told Rale as he started walking towards the underground room, which has all the spatial tunnels, which led to various realms.
Ryder didn’t tell Miku that he was leaving this time since Miku was somewhere preparing for their journey, and he didn’t want to wait for something so minor, but he did tell a maid to inform Miku that he was going to sleep in his room.
Ryder entered the secret underground place and opened the Spatial tunnel, which led to the human realm.
Ryder and Rale entered the Spatial Tunnel together and appeared in a dense forest.
"This place is different. Why are we not in the empty lands where the dragon rests like the last two times?" Ryder asked Rale with a frown.
"That’s because the Spatial Tunnel changes the exit location in the human realm after four travels. We traveled four times by going back and forth, so that tunnel exit was changed. That’s what I know, at least. Even I’m not sure why it happens, but this is it," Rale said.
"Oh, it is good then. Even if the location of the exit is exposed, people can’t know about it since the tunnel changes location, so it’s pretty good. At Least from the safety point of view," Ryder muttered.
"Let’s leave and see where we are," Ryder said as he started to leave the forest with Rale.
’Now that I think about it, only a few people know what Hades looks like in the game. The team that was with Shu should be the only one. Since they don’t yet allow recording of the gameplay or live telecast yet, no one else knows about me.’
’ I didn’t think about this before, but I’m going to become a big target when those things start since some tech-savvy person might actually find my true face and looks. The Changes I made were only minor on the face sides, and the height and other stuff is the same.’
’ In the world with a population in billions, there can be millions of people that will have a face with similar body dimensions that can make themselves look like me with minor changes on their faces at the time of creating character, so the looks of my character is not a proof that Hades is Ryder, but still, I should be more careful and take some more caution. I need to confuse them even more.’ Ryder thought as he was walking in the forest and thinking about his popularity in the future when he becomes famous is the game and in the real world for different reasons.
He knew that he needed to be serious now and take precautions against those things.
’ The best thing I can do is confuse everyone so that no one knows what I look like. If I appear before someone with one face and in front of others with a different face, it will be impossible to recognize me. If I’m not wrong, there is an item like this in the game. Something that an unknown player had received during the year when I died.’
’ It was a normal grade item and didn’t show up in treasure rankings, but some people noticed this and the company came forward and told everyone about this item. If I get that item, I can claim that I got that at the start of the game, and I kept changing my fave every time. Even the ones that saw me before will believe it. This thing will be easily handled, and only Shu will know, but he won’t betray me. I think I should go for that item since I’m here. That thing should be near that dungeon too. I’ll get two birds with one stone,’ Ryder thought as he smiled. ’But first, I need to know where I am.’
