Kanzaki Rei decided that unless it was absolutely necessary, he would never seek out a Diviner for divination again.
It wasn't that the results were useless.
It was just that… the feeling afterward was strange.
He had spent a huge amount of money, yet it didn't feel truly worth it.
Even if he hadn't known the answers, it didn't seem like he would have suffered any real loss.
The money had basically been spent just to buy peace of mind.
And that had cost a full 55,000 gold coins.
Rei's heart was bleeding.
After returning to his room, he took out several books.
"City of the Circle Travel Guide""Monster Distribution Around the City of the Circle""Geography of the City of the Circle""Specialty Foods of the City of the Circle""Enemies and Diplomacy of the Loren Kingdom""On National Power"
He had borrowed all of them from the library.
Originally, he had planned to read them directly in the reading room.
But Pali had been sitting at the librarian's desk.
For some reason, reading in the same room as a Diviner made Rei feel incredibly uncomfortable.
It was like all his secrets were being seen through.
So he ultimately decided to read in his own room.
"The Thousand Hollow Expanse, huh…"
He flipped through the book.
"An open-air cave system with extremely complex structures. Some caves may also serve as entrances to dungeons. Insect-type monsters frequently appear here, with ant-type monsters being the most common."
"Ant-type monsters: live in colonies, act collectively, individual strength is generally weak. Most species are vulnerable to fire. Common attack methods include formic acid, mandible bites, ant venom, and leg stingers…"
Rei thought about it for a moment.
He decided to replenish his soul supply first.
Souls were his trump card.
If he had enough souls stored—
Even against a Fifth-Tier King-Class monster, he would have the ability to flip the entire battlefield.
And recently, he had also created several new necromancy spells on his own.
Those spells also required souls to cast.
Furthermore—
Rei had tested something during his time in the Combat Arena.
Using souls inside the arena consumed them for real.
The Combat Arena did not restore participants to full condition at the start of each new battle.
In other words—
The arena only guaranteed that competitors would survive after the fight.
Everything else remained perfectly synchronized with reality.
Any items consumed in the Combat Arena were genuinely consumed.
"I also need to find a way to block divination."
Rei could hire Pali for divination.
But other people who might harbor ill intentions toward him could just as easily hire another Diviner.
From Rei's perspective—
Just because Diviners claimed to be neutral didn't mean they couldn't be used.
And honestly…
That whole "Diviners are neutral" argument felt extremely vague.
If I want to help someone, I simply appear in front of them frequently.
If I don't want to help someone, I simply never appear at all.
Is that really neutral?
Early the next morning, Rei saw Obades in the restaurant.
To his surprise—
He was working there again.
A Level 6 Unbreakable Guardian, working as a restaurant chef.
"Obades, one serving of Stir-Fried Ice Stones."
In this other world, Rei genuinely enjoyed trying dishes that simply didn't exist on Earth.
Rei sat down in front of Obades.
In the kitchen, Obades rapidly flipped a small spatula.
Inside the pan were dozens of tiny stones.
Clink—clink—
With two final flicks of the spatula, the sizzling hot stones were shoveled onto Rei's plate.
Steam rose from them.
"Yo, Rei!"
The mysteriously respawning Akase had appeared again.
The moment Rei felt a hand suddenly resting on his shoulder, he already knew who it was.
"Hehe~ rested well yesterday?"
"So… what's the plan tonight?"
Akase spoke with a conspiratorial tone.
Rei suddenly remembered.
The last time he had treated everyone to dinner, someone had said he would take Rei to "a certain place."
"What plan?" Rei asked, pretending not to understand.
Akase leaned close to Rei's ear.
"A place that'll make you feel really good."
Oh~
So that's happening now?
True enough—Rain Town definitely didn't look like the kind of place that had those kinds of establishments.
You needed a big city for that.
"But I plan to explore a dungeon today."
Akase tilted his head.
"Where to?"
"I'm planning to explore some ant nests. Need to gather some souls."
Rei's Death Priest profession couldn't be revealed to outsiders.
But everyone within the team already knew about it.
And their attitude toward it had been very clear.
As long as Rei didn't start randomly killing people, they had no problem with it.
"Oh~ so what do you say? Want company?" Akase grinned.
"Brother Akase is joining too?"
"Well, I've got Harvest Month Syndrome right now anyway."
"Harvest Month Syndrome?"
Akase explained:
"It's when Harvest Month ends, you've already earned a ton of money, and suddenly you can't bring yourself to run around hunting monsters for those tiny, stingy rewards."
Sounds a lot like post-vacation syndrome.
Especially after a long holiday.
"I'm actually going to hunt monsters, though."
Akase laughed.
"That's fine. I'll just watch you fight."
For a Death Priest, souls had to be collected through kills personally performed.
Ah…
So he just wanted to hang out.
Still—
Having a Level 6 warrior protecting him was extremely reassuring.
Rei had no real reason to refuse.
In fact, Rei had been planning to invite him anyway.
He had some ideas he wanted to test, and having a powerful ally around as insurance would be useful.
If his experiments went wrong, things could explode badly.
Obades was working right now.
Kumironi had gone to the Church of Life for missionary work…
Everyone else was busy.
The only person left was this warrior who looked completely idle and carefree.
Akase laughed.
"Haha, besides, you treated us the last two times. Consider this me repaying the debt."
7 gold, 26 silver.
Was that the cost of hiring a Level 6 warrior bodyguard for an entire day?
Looks like those meals had actually been a great investment.
"Alright. Let's go together."
After breakfast, they stopped by the Adventurers' Guild to check the quest board.
The Adventurers' Guild in the City of the Circle was vastly more impressive than the one in Rain Town.
The area alone was dozens of times larger.
The main hall was enormous and open.
There were even multiple service counters.
There was also a second floor, a VIP reception hall, and…
[Fighting Room (Conflict Resolution Chamber)]
What was that supposed to mean?
Just as Rei was wondering—
Smack!
Akase bumped into a man.
Before Rei could react—
A tall, bald man with a snake tattoo on his head grabbed Akase by the collar and lifted him into the air.
"Hey! Watch where you're going! Are you blind?!"
Huh?
Does something like this really happen?
Rei suddenly understood the purpose of the Fighting Room (Conflict Resolution Chamber).
Before the man could say another word—
BOOM!
A black blur shot across the hall.
By the time anyone realized what had happened—
The man was already embedded in a distant wall, cracks spreading across the stone.
Uh…
Aren't you supposed to go to the Fighting Room first?
"Sir! If conflicts occur, please resolve them in the Conflict Resolution Chamber!" a staff member shouted.
Akase scratched his head.
"Haha, sorry. My body just reacted automatically."
The receptionist sighed as she handed him a ticket.
"Please pay the fine at the front desk. This is your penalty notice."
Oh…
So hitting someone outside the Fighting Room resulted in a fine.
Rei glanced at the amount listed.
Assaulting a Level 3 adventurer: 50 silver coins.Damaging the wall: 10 gold coins.
A Level 3 adventurer was only worth 50 silver?
Why was the wall 10 gold?
Was it made of gold or something?
Was that the procurement price?
While Akase went to pay the fine—
On the other side, a janitor calmly walked over to the unconscious adventurer Akase had smashed into the wall.
The man was literally pried out of the wall.
Then he was mopped aside like trash.
The blood on the wall was quickly cleaned away.
Watching how calm and practiced the staff were, Rei had the strange feeling that this sort of thing happened all the time.
Come to think of it…
Shouldn't someone try to save him?
That guy lying on the floor with his eyes rolled back looked a little…
dead.