Undying Warlord

217: Favor

[Red River Mountain, Tier-1 Level 20]

[Silvergrass Plains, Tierless Level 10]

[Mythical Forest, No requirements]

[Bluestar Ocean, Tier-2 Level 5]

[Mountain Ring of the Elements, Tier-1 Level 10]

[Goblin Liar, Tierless Level 3]

[Swamp of the Lamia Queen, Tier-1 Level 18]

…

..

As he read through the list of permanent Gates that had been found, Dilan grew slightly worried about a few of them.

From his experience, Gates would cause monster tides every now and then.

That was how it had been with the Krendel's Underground Valley.

The monster tides that would emerge out of the permanent Gates with the highest requirements to enter should be quite dangerous, which was why Dilan had told the Scouts to pay attention to them.

He had to become stronger quickly and intended to enter the Pagoda of Time once again, at best using the <Duo>, <Team>, or <Group> mode.

While Duo was self-explanatory, the Team mode required 5 participants to enter the Pagoda of Time at the same time.

Meanwhile <Group> spoke about a group of 10 Ascenders entering the Pagoda of Time at once.

Dilan wanted to get his hands on as many Dungeon Points as possible, which was why he had to break the records that had been set up by the Pagoda of Time.

For now, breaking his own records would be quite annoying because he wasn't sure of surpassing his previous achievements. With that in mind, he didn't want to waste his time and decided to go on a <Solo> raid.

He still had a few hours left with his increased drop rate and doubled Dungeon points.

One raid of the Pagoda of Time was still possible, and the only question was, who he should enter the Pagoda of Time with.

Everyone was busy and was gearing up for the challenge. A few Ascenders had already formed groups to enter the Pagoda of Time to figure out the actual difficulty of the Instance Dungeon.

Dilan's report might be quite helpful but he couldn't precisely determine the dangers of the first 10 floors. The speed at which he conquered the floors using his overwhelming combat prowess and overpowering stats didn't allow him to make accurate assumptions of how his team would fare when faced with the same challenge.

Yvonne was amongst the Ascenders, who wanted to test out the Pagoda of Time. She was searching for new pets to use with her Origin ability [Angel of Death], and bipedal monsters such as Minotaurs were definitely a good choice.

From what she had heard, they were exceptional melee fighters, which further fueled her to try getting her hands on some Minotaur corpses to control them whenever necessary.

Oliver, Ailee and a few others were also out, probably completing some tasks. Thus, Dilan picked Kathrine to join him, after he had finished his discussion with Sarah, and Sven, who were both equally interested in the trading hub idea.

Dilan liked it as well but he was actually not good at planning stuff. His management skills were below-average and he didn't have time to think about a properly working system with which the majority of Survivors would be satisfied.

Others could focus on the troublesome administrative tasks while he would become stronger and be the first one to explore anything to determine whether it was too dangerous for the others to enter or not.

'It's good to have competent workers.' Dilan thought with a smile as he turned his attention to Kathrine.

"How about we enter the Pagoda of Time? It should be quite good for you as well. We will be able to procure quite a few treasures and can determine the danger level…though, if possible I wish to rush through the Instance Dungeon so that we can get more Dungeon Points for breaking the records set up by the Pagoda of Time."

Dilan spoke in an excited tone, and it was different than his usual way where he only spoke the bare minimum. The change in his behavior stupefied Kathrine for a moment.

However, it didn't take her long to calm down as she nodded her head. She was not sure what to say right now because her heart was thumping wildly.

Kathrine thanked her past self for not rushing into the Pagoda of Time and to work on something else instead. It had allowed her to get an invitation from Dilan and to spend some time with him alone.

Even if they would just hunt monsters, and slaughter them mercilessly, Kathrine was content with that as long as he was by her side.

She nodded her head once again while answering in a barely audible voice, "I have time."

In reality, Kathrine didn't have time and was overflowing with workload because hundreds of members of the Porter Unit needed to be managed.

Others had long since started to manage the Porter Unit but Kathrine had to help the managers right now in ensuring that they did not mess up.

Having migrated to a new place where everything seemed foreign to them and not constructed in the way they needed it, many Survivors felt lost about what to do.

If they were able to think of a solution on their own, they would simply do whatever they believed to be correct.

However, it was important that they had everybody's consent with respect to their decision and opinion because their work was not only for themselves but for everyone to live comfortably.

Dilan was glad that Kathrine had some time to spare for him. He roughly knew her abilities, how high her average stats were, along with her strengths and weaknesses.

Having a dependable partner would make it easier for him to conquer the Pagoda of Time in less time.

Yet, before entering the Instance Dungeon, Dilan wanted Kathrine to help him with something he had hesitated to do before as he had been in a weakened state.

"Kathrine, can you do me another favor?" He asked when they had left the toy factory. They were on their way to the Pagoda of Time and Kathrine was beaming, happy to have some time alone with Dilan.

"Of course, I can help you!" She immediately blurted out, before cursing herself in her mind.

'Calm down girl! You don't even know what favor he needs…'

Taking a deep breath, Kathrine calmed down. She didn't even know when she had begun to look at Dilan differently. However, her interest in him had become more apparent to herself the more time passed.

It was weird because she had actually never felt interested in men. Only her family had been important to her and nobody else.

Of course, there had been many men trying to hit on her every now and then, but Kathrine blocked their approaches coldly and without hesitation.

Yet, somehow she was opening the doors of her heart for Dilan who was oblivious to it. First of all, he was not fazed by the beautiful woman in his group. He never approached them without reason, he didn't have any lustful thoughts about them, and he never laid hands on any beauty in his group even if he was the strongest of them all.

Not many would be like him with the kind of power Dilan had.

There were also more than enough beautiful women, who would find it an honor to be his romantic partner even before the words tumbled out of his mouth.

They knew that there would be no worry about safety, food, and enough resources to potentially become stronger as long as they belonged to Dilan.

However, the last thing Dilan could be bothered about was to have someone by his side to have some pleasure at night.

Other things were far more important, such as becoming stronger and resting when it was required.

Sleeping with random women just because nobody could stop him was a waste of time and pointless so he could simply postpone it.

After all, it was not as if he couldn't control his lust and desires. That was quite easy, even more so after the Primordial Ascension had occurred.

This was actually weird because most men and women had to face serious issues since the Primordial Ascension happened.

All Ascenders had grown more sensitive to the emotions they felt, they had mood swings quite often and it was hard for them to hide their feelings.

In the past, it was common to hide your emotions, whether you disliked your superior, or if you have romantic feelings for someone.

However, this had become quite difficult to do since the Essence one absorbed seemed to increase not only one's physique in terms of Agility, Stamina, Strength, and Health but it also added something new, Mana.

The jury is still out on whether it was the Essence or the existence of Mana that increased the emotions and sensitivity toward everything and made people hyper-aware of their five senses.

But it was a fact that the higher an Ascenders' level, the more difficult it was for them to hide their true feelings, good or bad, murderous or filled with peace.

Suppressing them completely was quite difficult, which was how one could tell whether a person was innately good or bad. Dilan nourished the good and paid more attention to the 'bad' people, so as to find out more about them.

Kathrine was a good person, who had focused on protecting her sister in the past. Now that Yvonne didn't need her protection anymore as her strength exceeded Kathrine's, she focused on protecting the weak, and helping them in every possible way.

However, even she had problems suppressing some emotions, such as her true feelings toward certain people.

Kathrine didn't really like Williams, Sven, and Xenia because they had once led a gang. It might only be a prejudice that people including her had against gangs but they were certainly not known for being peaceful.

That was also why she didn't believe that the Shepherds gang had been all that nice in the past, even if Williams and the others were evidently trying their best to support Dilan.

This was something she couldn't overlook, which was why her dislike against them had diminished quite a bit already.

But that was actually not the biggest problem. Rather, it was her growing feelings for Dilan. She felt that there was something more than being friends between them.

But then again, Kathrine didn't even know whether Dilan looked at all of them as friends, or that all of them were just baggage, tools, or something else to him.

It was impossible for them to look at Dilan's deepest thoughts which bothered Kathrine the most.

Thus, it was not surprising that she was utterly dumbfounded when she found out what favor he wanted from her.

"I want you to strike me with the full force of your lightning!"