Nearly eight hours had passed since I’ve boarded my plane, and we had finally arrived at Lochaven City.

Nothing interesting really happened during the eight hours of my flight, well, aside from the fact that I’m still a bit hungry.

Looking out the airplane’s porthole, a bird’s eye view of the city greets me.

Lochaven City was also called the city of diversity due to the fact that you can meet and experience different kinds of people and cultures/traditions, respectively.

It was also a city filled with many high-rise buildings of different sizes and structures.

If Dublin City is rich in economy, then Lochaven City would be rich in military prowess and technology.

This was due to the fact that many strong dungeons and leylines are there, which brings many rewards and dangers at the same time.

Honestly, there is not much difference between dungeons and leylines, aside from the fact that leylines will disappear after a short period of time, while dungeons may take years.

Actually, there is one thing that differentiates leylines from dungeons: it’s how they function.

Basically, leylines are an unstable form of dungeons, which means that people can get forcibly sucked in, or monsters may, or most likely will appear.

Dungeons, on the other hand, can last for so long because of their stability. People (and other creatures) can also freely go in and out.

And because Lochaven City is a hotspot for that, it’s become much more advanced than other cities.

Although I said that it’s a hotspot for leylines and dungeons, there have only been about 100 leylines and dungeons combined that have been recorded in the past millennium.

What’s more is that, currently, there are only 10 dungeons, and obviously, one of them contains the All-stone.

One may think that because there are only 10 dungeons, they have already been explored. However, that is not the case.

After all, even on Earth, even with the technology we have at that time, there are still many unexplored areas on both land and sea.

Sure, Vanteer is much more advanced than Earth, but we’re talking about exploring a whole new world.

There will undoubtedly be progress in the exploration, but it won’t be fully explored yet.

Besides, the All-stone wasn’t found until years later by a small treasure hunting team.

That’s where my confidence lies.

Although I don’t know exactly where the All-stone is, I do know which dungeon they went to and how to find it, so I’m not exactly worried.

I say ‘not exactly worried’ because me being here years early means that I will have to encounter years worth of traps and monsters that are still yet to be killed or deactivated.

Well, that’s what my tome ability, , is for; a great offense and defense ability at the same time. It’s the perfect ability for me.

And I also have my other ability, , to help me get out of any precarious situation, which I became more proficient in since I’m becoming better at manipulating nature’s mana.

A couple more minutes later, the plane finally landed at Lochaven’s airport.

Stepping out after a few minutes, I whistled in admiration at the size of the airport apron and, of course, the airport itself.

It was probably twice as big as the airport in Dublin City, but the aesthetic designs seem to be the same, not that I hate it.

I took my time heading out of the airport since I wanted to enjoy the view and the time that I’ll be spending here until I get the All-stone.

It was still early in the afternoon, so I could afford to be laid back for an hour or so before traffic became heavy.

Besides, even if I go late, since I didn’t bring any luggage, I won’t have a hard time going to my hotel.

As I walked, my mind couldn’t help but think back to the purple-haired beauty.

As the author, I should know if I wrote a character with such a memorable impression, but I really can’t think of a single character that shares the same features as her.

This was strange because ‘background’ characters like me had neutral hair colors and normal hairstyles, and important characters like the protagonist had bright hair colors and unique hairstyles so that the readers would know that they are, in fact, important characters.

Despite that, I can’t recall her, but I do find her very familiar; I really just can’t figure out why.

However, now that I’ve encountered her, the question I should ask myself is, ‘What will I do with her?’

Without me knowing who exactly she is, she’ll just be an unwanted variable that may hinder my future plans. Although normally, the chance of that happening is really small, but since she got that ‘important character’ vibe, I can safely assume that we’re bound to cross paths again in the future.

Or maybe I’m just overthinking things. Maybe she’s not an important side character, but instead just a really beautiful background character who coincidentally has bright purple hair.

…

“Damn it!” Groaning, I scratched my head in frustration.

It would’ve been fine if it was just a detail that was added in to fill in the gaps of the world, but we’re talking about a living person that has the aura of an important character. It would be too stupid of me to just gloss it over.

Haa, damn it…

It’s probably best to just ignore her, or at least, I should not think of her for now.

After all, I already got my hands full with the All-stone.

I’ll let the me in the future deal with it, but for now, I have to concentrate on the matters at hand.

Stepping out of the airport, there was a line of taxis in front of the exit, waiting for passengers. I called out to the taxi in the very front and told him my destination, which was the hotel I’ll be staying at.

I sat at the back of the taxi since kids at ‘my’ age aren’t allowed to sit at the front by law, which makes sense considering that Lochaven City, at any moment, could be under threat, and having kids sit at the front pose a risk to them.

Anyway, while sitting at the back, I took out my phone and earphone, then plugged the latter into the former’s earphone jack and pretended to listen to music.

I did this to signal the rider that I was not in the mood to talk and mostly because I was listening to MERLIN as she gave me more details of Lochaven City I didn’t know of.

Fortunately, though, there wasn’t much detail MERLIN gave since Lochaven City was one of the prominent places in the novel, which basically means I know most, if not all, of the details about the city.

Of course, that’s just half of the reason, the other half of the reason why I’m listening to MERLIN is because she’s also tracking the surroundings if anyone is trailing me and making appropriate security measures within her reach without making me look suspicious.

After what happened with Piers, the most logical conclusion I came up with is that someone spotted me and thought I looked suspicious with the briefcase and my route and all that; hence they called the authorities, and after they found out they were leading to Piers Spencer they had the SWAT team launch an ambush at the opportune moment.

This annoyed me so damn much since there were more people who looked more suspicious than me, but I still got singled out.

As such, I decided to be more casually discreet with my actions and had MERLIN be on the lookout 24/7.

After 20 minutes, we safely arrived at my destination.

I stepped out after paying the driver and, with my phone, texted the post office that I should have my package delivered to my hotel room before the day ended.

With that done, I entered the hotel and went up to the desk receptionist.

The process of getting my room was more or less the same, but I still got treated like a child.

“I hope you enjoy your stay, sir!” The desk receptionist smiled as she slightly waved goodbye.

I went into the elevator and pressed the button for the 50th floor.

After a while, the elevator reached my floor, then I walked down the corridor toward my room.

With the keycard she gave me, I unlocked the door and went in.

The room was pretty wide and had a minimalist aesthetic, which suited my tastes.

Unlike the room I got in Goldwyvern City, my room here offers pretty much all the rooms one would get in a house, like a kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room, bathroom, and bedroom.

Although, the first three rooms are close together and the bathroom also serves as the laundry room since the washing machine and dryer sit there.

Luckily, the bedroom was separated from them and had a door that led to a balcony with just enough space to move around.

There was also an air conditioner, so I turned it on and lay on the soft, comfortable bed, letting the cool breeze caress me as I rested.

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.