“Congratulations!” the twins called out at our small celebration lunch after I finally reached Rank C in both guilds.

  “What are you planning to do now?” Cora asked.

  “I plan to finally buy some real estate here in the city.”

  “Oh yeah, you were paying for a visitor permit and a hotel the entire time. Good for you!” Cora added with a smile. I turned to Juliet, noticing she was quieter than usual—and very tired. She even had circles under her eyes, she picked at her food and didn’t flirt with me at all during lunch.

  “Did something happen, Juliet?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Not really, just work. Investigators are giving us a hard time. Five dungeons have already vanished, three of them being D-rank. Not counting the academy’s restricted training dungeons, there is only a single Rank E and Rank D dungeon in the entire city. It’s getting really annoying. The investigators even contacted the academy and nearby cities asking if they are also facing this issue! I hope the dungeons stop disappearing or the investigators will go really mad.”

  “Let’s hope so!” I said with a wry smile.

  Cora ended up quickly changing the topic and we chatted for a while longer; after that, we each went our own way. This time I decided not to pick up any bounty hunter jobs. I had a few things I needed to take care of.

  The first was a visit to the Real Estate Guild. I marched in with my two C-rank IDs, straight toward one of the clerks.

  “Hello, I would like to buy some real estate here in the commoner district!”

  “Greetings! Let me check if you are able to do that first, please. Do you have an ID or a recommendation letter?”

  I showed her my guild IDs. She checked both and nodded with a smile.

  “Thanks! In that case, what real estate would you like to buy? You can pick anything guild-owned—in other words, most of the district!”

  “Would it be possible to move into a more private setting?” I asked, since I didn’t want to handle the purchase of multiple properties here in the middle of a hall.

  The receptionist nodded with a smile. “There is that option, but it comes with a fee of one gold!”

  I know that I should no longer get surprised by the greed of this world; but a one-gold fee just for using a private chamber was a lot. Not that I can’t afford it or anything, it just sounds wrong on principle. I unwillingly nodded; it was still a better prospect than handling things out here.

  The receptionist led me to a spacious room: ivory walls, white stone floors, and furniture of black wood and blood-red fabric, contrasting with the walls and floor. I sat down on the sofa while the receptionist sat across from me on a chair, with a small table between us.

  “What do you want to buy, Mister Shrier?”

  “Three things, but firstly: the ‘Healing Heart Orphanage’!”

  The clerk froze for a moment, then nodded with a well-practiced smile. “Yes, the orphanage is owned by the guild and can be bought, but that would cost over eighty gold. That is…”

  I pulled out one of the two large sacks of gold I received as a divorce settlement/family business payoff from my inventory, and the clerk’s voice trailed off as I placed it down on the table. Several seconds later, she spoke again.

  “For… residential use, sir?” the clerk stammered.

  “Something like that!”

  “Healing Heart Orphanage it is, then! Anything else?”

  I smiled. “I would like a nice home here in the district!”

  She nodded. “Would you like a mansion or something smaller?”

  “A mansion would be nice!”

  “Let me show you the mansions we have at our disposal. Do you want to see just the empty ones, or will occupied ones do, too?”

  “What is the difference for me?”

  “Well, if you buy an occupied property, unless you decide to become the one collecting rent for it as is, you will have to wait for a month until we have everybody in there move out. Speaking of moving out, do you want us to clear out the orphanage?”

  “No, I want the orphanage to stay exactly as it is. And as for the mansions, show me both!”

  The clerk started tapping on her tablet for a while, then she connected it to the table with a quick chant, and pictures of mansions started to float in front of me. There were twenty of them.

  “I would like something close to the Cock-a-doodle-doo rooster and the orphanage!” I spoke, not wanting to drag myself across the entire district when having lunch with the twins or visiting Selah. The clerk nodded quickly and about sixteen of the floating pictures disappeared, leaving me with four.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Any of them close to the entrance to the academy district?”

  Baron Quenly and Rebecca were calling me for jobs all the time, and my plan was to teach in the academy anyway; having a mansion close to the gate would be handy.

  This request eliminated two more mansions, leaving me with two—both huge and ostentatious. One was pressed right against the wall of the district, right next to the gate. The second was a little further toward the middle of the district. I carefully considered both options and decided to ask one more question.

  “Is either one of them unoccupied?”

  The clerk nodded quickly, dismissing the one deeper inside the district and leaving only the bigger one pressed against the wall of the academy district.

  “This one is free. In fact, it was occupied until a few weeks ago when the renter moved up to the noble district!”

  I nodded. “Perfect, I will take that one!”

  By this time, the clerk’s smile was natural and wide. “This one costs a hundred gold!”

  I just pointed to the sack and shrugged, and the clerk obediently nodded. “You mentioned three things. What might the third one be?”

  “I would like to buy two plots of land in the district. Can you pull out the map? I will point them out for you.”

  She nodded without delay and pulled out the map of the district. The first plot I pointed to was a long-since-closed, rather dilapidated tavern in the poorer part of the district right next to the outer wall. The person that was once renting the place had to abandon it since he didn’t have enough money to pay rent. The second was a small, unoccupied house tucked right between two blacksmith workshops. Nobody wanted to live there due to the noise that came from the workshops all day and late into the night.

  The clerk looked surprised that after buying two pieces of prime real estate I followed them up with two pieces of crap, but she didn’t comment.

  We did all the paperwork, and about an hour later, I left the place as the owner of four properties—and with a little over two hundred gold less in my pocket.

  “You bought the entire orphanage,” Alrune said quietly.

  “She needs a stable environment. Not a headmistress worried about rent.”

  A pause—warm, heavy. Some of Alrune’s feelings seeped through before she drew them back.

  “Then she will have it,” Alrune said. “Through us.”

  In a good mood, I headed to the orphanage, where I surprised the receptionist when I asked for the headmistress instead of Selah. I had to wait a bit before she arrived, then she quickly led me to her office.

  Once inside her small, simple office, she pointed me to a chair directly across the table from hers and spoke.

  “What can I do for you, Mister Shrier? Did something happen? You normally come visit on Sundays.”

  As I sat down, I pulled out the property deed—bearing the seal of the Real Estate Guild for the orphanage—and spoke.

  “I bought the orphanage. You no longer have to worry about rent. You can stay here for free.”

  The headmistress froze in a half-sitting, half-standing position, staring at the deed, opening and closing her mouth for several seconds. Then she finally sank into her chair as tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. She pinched herself on the cheek, and only after feeling the pain did she speak.

  “I-is this f-for real?”

  I nodded wordlessly. A wide smile spread across her face as she spoke.

  “Thank you! Thank you very much. In that case, please consider Selah’s stay here fully paid for as long as she needs it. I know it doesn’t even come close to what you’ve done, but I can’t, in good conscience, accept any more money from you.”

  “Thank you. And please don’t tell Selah—there’s no need for her to know. And if anything comes up at the orphanage, contact me right away.”

  She nodded in understanding, tears of joy rolling down her cheeks. “Thank you once again!”

  We exchanged contacts, and I left the orphanage, heading straight toward a dungeon—a very special one.

  The dungeon we headed toward was different in what it did, and the moment we entered, its uniqueness shone through.

  ▽▽▽

  Eligible dungeon detected!

  [Quest #7: Obtain a Dungeon Core Crystal from The Broken Wing Descent!]

  Complete The Broken Wing Descent 100 times by healing the wounded angel to receive its core, closing the dungeon once and for all!

  0/100 Completions

  Rewards: 1× Dungeon Core Crystal

  △△△

  “Wait!” sounded inside my head as I chuckled.

  “Yep! We are not going to be closing this dungeon anytime soon!”

  Her response came heavy, full of emotion, as she let go and allowed me to bask in it.

  “Thank you!”

  As we left the safe room, we found ourselves in the middle of a dense forest, with a single road stretching forward. I followed it swiftly, encountering numerous groups of green, lizard-like creatures called kobolds—very distant and small cousins of dragons—rushing toward the center of the dungeon. There were multiple control points and camps along the way, filled with them, including a few lieutenants: small, young dragonlings.

  As I drew closer to the center, the forest began to burn, adding heat to the obstacles one had to pass. Soon, I arrived at the middle—a clearing surrounded by flames. Battlefield was the more accurate word.

  The body of a recently deceased ancient green dragon lay off to the side of the clearing. A huge group of kobolds swarmed a barely alive angel, numerous wounds visible across its body, with even more kobolds pouring in from the burning forest to join the fray and two dragonlings looking for an opening to the side. Their eyes burned with hate and bloodlust.

  Despite its grievous wounds, the angel—a mythical and extremely powerful creature—was still fending off the onslaught. But the strength of kobolds lay not in the individual; it lay in numbers.

  Seeing the chaos, I whispered, “How about we take the new skill for a test run?”

  “Finally!” Alrune spoke, her voice full of eagerness.

  I smiled and began chanting.

  “Our souls bonded,” I took a fighting stance, readying my cane in my left hand so I could unsheathe quickly. “But let the bond materialize,” I moved my right hand to the sword, “just for one strike!”

  As I finished the chant, I felt it—my life energy and stamina siphoning rapidly, Alrune’s mana flowing with them. But I wasn’t the one guiding it, nor my emotions. It was Alrune alone.

  The next moment, right in front of me, a breathtaking sight materialized—an ethereal figure emerging directly from my body.

  It was Alrune—translucent, yet unmistakably her. The most beautiful and majestic sight I could ever imagine. Her face was perfection, her long, curly hair cascading down her back, her eyes filled with warmth and love, her full lips curved into a gentle smile. Her body was both pristine and the embodiment of lust, clad only in a breastplate and a short skirt. Majestic wings spread behind her.

  She flew to me, embraced me in a hug, kissed me, then soared behind me, taking position slightly above and back as she summoned her sword.

  “You call, I respond!”