The Author's POV

"Are you guys ready?"

Kevin looked around the room and then asked.

Presently, Ren, Melissa, Amanda, Jin, and the other members of Ren's mercenary group were all standing in front of him.

They were currently making preparations to return to earth, but because the portal had been deactivated for safety reasons, they could only do so with Kevin's assistance.

"We should be."

Ren spoke, glancing around to ensure that everyone was present.

"Although I would have liked to remain here, I have something to do in the human domain, so everyone can only follow me back."

"Mhm."

Kevin nodded his head silently when he heard Ren's words.

The difference in time flow, while beneficial, also presented some challenges, and so should be viewed as having an equal amount of potential disadvantages as advantages.

Particularly so if one was from Earth or a human being.

'With time flowing slower here, one might find themselves aging rapidly.'

In spite of the fact that Ren and Kevin only differed in age by a matter of a couple of months, the fact that Ren had spent some time in Immorra meant that he could now be considered to be older than Kevin.

The same went for Emma and the others.

It was strange to think about the fact that they were now technically older than he was, despite technically being younger.

'What a mess.'

The point that was being made was that spending an excessive amount of time in Immorra was not necessarily a good thing. They were effectively running the risk of aging at a rate that was significantly faster than average humans on earth.

In the time it took for one year to pass on earth, ten years would have been up and running in Immorra.

It was because of this particular factor that no one present ever entertained the idea of concealing members of their family or close social circle here.

"Since everyone is ready, I'm going to start the portal."

Currently, he could feel eyes glaring at the back of his head, but he pretended not to notice.

Taking his mind away from the matter, Kevin took out a core from his dimensional space and crushed it in his hand.

A scene that was all too familiar to Kevin began to materialize in front of everyone as the mana from the core began to disperse into the room.

This resulted in the unavoidable thickening of the air, through which strands of mana could be observed floating.

After a short period of time, a white ball materialized in the middle of the room, and the mana that had been dispersed throughout the space began to swirl around it. After exactly one minute had passed, a portal formed in front of everyone.

The room became deafeningly quiet when the portal appeared.

"…I never get tired of seeing this."

Ren mumbled in surprise, blinking his eyes a couple of times, seemingly trying to imprint the scene inside of his mind.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Let's get going."

***

The moment I emerged from the portal, the first thing I did was check on the state of the headquarters.

Given the number of procedures that dwarves had performed in this location, I dreaded the worst.

Messy floor? Broken furniture? Torn couches? ...was what I expected to see the moment I set foot in my headquarters, but...

know what? "It doesn't

was pleasantly surprised to find the room

cluttered as I had anticipated it to be. It was clear that the dwarves

"Ugh, my stomach."

"It's bright."

"We're back."

one, people began to appear from the portal that

coordinates of my warehouse, he was able to teleport

Kevin was the very last person to emerge from the portal after a total of ten minutes had elapsed since the opening of

it's okay to leave the

make out Kevin's voice as he emerged from

"Don't worry about it."

waved my hand

span. Our absence won't hurt them

dependable enough to handle such

Suriol around and contracted to me, there was

direct contact with me through the

me to go back. I'll have to get

there was no time for

I needed to get back home quickly because the assembly was going to start in approximately two hours, and it would

truce between the Union and the Monolith was set to expire

isn't even just about the Union

the Monolith versus the entirety of the human

been seen before, would emerge from their hiding

Jezebeth had set a decree to conquer

The war was inevitable.

"Ren…"

to believe that the Monolith most likely already had a Mana compressor operational by this point in time. But not

drain the mana of the earth and transform it into

appearance would signal the beginning of the

"Ren."

the world and dungeon desyncs occurring at an increasing rate, it was reasonable to assume that the human

"Ren!"

Amanda standing behind me with her mouth closed and her jaw set

from this expression that I

"Yea?"

"You...nevermind."

sighed and shook her

her ear before handing me

called. She wants to

"Huh?"

I looked at the phone that Amanda was holding, my face

Call me?

couldn't she just call

"Yes?"

—Ren.

from the speaker of

you call Amanda, and

sent

"Oh, did she?"

Amanda

with her hair. My mouth

you're

Fine.

there anything that you

told me to tell you that he will be leaving in

"Ugh."

I groaned out loud.

this? Couldn't he have just messaged me? It's not like my phone won't receive the