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...

"It

to find the room

wasn't nearly as cluttered as I had anticipated it to be. It was

"Ugh, my stomach."

"It's bright."

"We're back."

to look around, one by one, people

with the precise coordinates of my

from the portal after a total of

you sure it's okay to leave the dwarves

make out Kevin's voice as he

"Don't worry about it."

my

bigger life span. Our absence won't hurt them much, plus,

was dependable enough to handle such

me, there was nothing that I had to

make direct contact with me through the

think it's time for me to go back. I'll have to get ready for the

there was no time for me to

going to start in approximately two

Monolith was set to expire in fourteen days, fighting between the two sides was

even just about the

versus the entirety of the

with a great number of other important figures who had never been seen before, would emerge from their hiding places at this time in order to

of this was unavoidable. It was especially so since Jezebeth had set a decree to conquer

The war was inevitable.

"Ren…"

believe that the Monolith most likely already had a Mana compressor operational by this point in time. But not just any mana compressor; rather, one that operated

enough to completely drain the mana

would signal the beginning of

"Ren."

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

"Ren!"

I turned around, I saw Amanda standing behind me with her mouth closed and her jaw set in

this expression

"Yea?"

"You...nevermind."

and

hair behind her ear before handing me

just called. She wants to

"Huh?"

holding, my face

Call me?

call me on

"Yes?"

—Ren.

familiar voice echoed from the speaker

is it, mom? Why did you call Amanda, and how did you know that

Amanda sent me

"Oh, did she?"

Amanda from the

ignored me and fiddled with her hair. My mouth

how you're

Fine.

anything that you

Edward, Amanda's father has contacted me and told me to tell you that he will be leaving in an hour and a half, so you better hurry home

"Ugh."

I groaned out loud.

he have just