Source?

Elizabeth was sitting in her chair with a thoughtful expression. She was still worried about Aizen.

'That idiot…' She mentally cursed him; Even knowing he was strong, she was still worried. That desert has little explored, and there may be many unexpected dangers.

"Elizabeth-Sama." Faust entered Elizabeth's office.

"Speak." She replied in an emotionless tone.

"That person you call a player is here."

…

"Send him in."

-

Aizen was flying over the desert, looking for something that could lead him to the source. Occasionally, he would also drop down to kill some King class monster to gain XP, as normal monsters don't give a significant amount of XP. One would need to kill hundreds of normal and elite monsters to earn the XP of a King class.

*BOOMM!*

'More matrices…' Aizen watched the matrices with a grave expression.

'I'm close.'

-

Aizen spent hours and hours in the desert, looking for the matrices and killing the monsters. He felt himself getting closer and closer to finding the source. Every matrix he found connected to another matrix, forming a kind of giant network.

'It's impressive that this reaches the city of Kiron.' He was really curious about the person who did this. If he were an elf, then that person would probably still be alive, as elves have an extremely long life.

'I've also never seen an elf in person.'

Aizen had already seen photos from other players about the elves, but they were all blurry and not good quality. This was to be expected, as elves don't often visit human realms, so finding them is tricky, especially for players, who are still weak.

An Abrah centipede darted towards Aizen, but was frozen and killed shortly thereafter.

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Magic core

Info: Abrah's magic centipede core. Can be used in crafting magic items.

༺═────────────────────────────═༻

"That must be worth a lot of money." Aizen put away the item. He received two magic cores in total, the first Abrah centipede he killed also left a core; However, the drop was not 100%, as not all of Abrah's centipedes have magic cores.

*BOOOMMM!*

As Aizen sent out another wave of mana, the ground began to shake.

"What is it?!"

The barren ground continued to shake badly, making any nearby monsters cower in fear.

A castle-like structure submerged from the ground.

The castle was made of sandstone, majestic.

The ambient mana immediately became agitated.

Aizen looked at the sand Castle with a shocked expression.

'Is that… the Source?!'

-

"What is your name?" Elizabeth asked the young man.

"J-Jareth, miss." Jareth replied, a little nervous.

Jareth was confused when a man came to his house, saying that the city lord wanted to talk to him. He doesn't remember doing anything wrong to have to talk to the city lord.

"Jareth, what do you think of this town?"

"Well… wonderful." Jareth replied, with a forced smile. He was afraid he'd say something that didn't please Elizabeth, and she'd send him to a torture chamber or something.

"Do not lie to me." She showed a grave expression. "Just say what you think."

…

*Sigh!*

"Honestly… I can't see a viable solution for this city. As a merchant, I guarantee that no one will invest in a bankrupt business. The only good thing about this city is the trade routes, which lead to several important places in the country." Jareth replied in a sincere tone.

Elizabeth frowned a little. She knew he was right, but she still didn't believe that this city had no solution. If she fails, her father will be disappointed; she doesn't want that. Even though was left with a troubled city, her hopes were still high. After all, she had a trusted person by her side.

'Aizen will bring the solution.'

"I called you here to talk about business." Elizabeth said.

"Business?..." Jareth showed a confused expression.

"I want you to help me with a project in the future; I'm thinking about opening a chamber of commerce in the future. What do you think?"

This idea was a suggestion from Aizen. He told Elizabeth to invite Jareth to open a business; She had been confused by Aizen's suggestion, but after hearing about it, she was excited.

Jareth would be the trader who would make deals with the player community, as Aizen was too busy to do these things.

…

"This…" Jareth felt he would face trouble if he declined the offer.

-

Aizen watched the castle with a wary expression. He was sure the source was inside this place, but it looked dangerous.

When Aizen tried to enter the castle, a barrier prevented him from going through. He tried to break the barrier, but it was useless.

'How do I open this?'

He headed towards the front gate and saw a magic matrix there.

"I need to decode this." The barrier was probably there to prevent anyone from entering the castle without decoding the barrier. After seeing the magic matrix, Aizen was speechless.

'So hard…'

This was the most difficult magic matrix he had ever seen, its complexity made him even more curious to know what was inside this castle.

Aizen sent his mana towards the magic matrix, trying to find a way to decode it; Doing this was similar to opening a safe but not knowing the password. It was necessary to understand enough of the matrix and try to find the correct pattern.

-

After several minutes of trying, Aizen managed to find the solution. He moved the matrix in strange patterns and made some signals.

*Shudder!*

The ground shook again. The barrier was destroyed, opening the castle gate.

'Here we go.'

The feeling that this castle gave was a little sinister. However, it wasn't enough to make Aizen turn around and walk away.

Aizen took the Oblivion and entered the castle.

-

The sandstorm grew stronger in the Desert. The monsters were running out of control.

"Young master, something is happening in this desert." A middle-aged man said to the boy in front of him.

"I feel a dense energy coming from a certain direction…" The young boy opened his eyes.

"Let 's get going."