Versatile: Alternate World

The weapon of Greed turned out to be a knuckle. I would understand more if it was staff as most of the time, rulers do have a scepter with them and sometimes, a golden staff they use to signify their power and royalty to the normal populace. But a knuckle is something I didn't expect. Well, this weapon is not found in the past timeline so why would I be complaining about this?

Also, from the looks of the name, it seems like the power of touch that King Midas have in the stories where everything he touches turns into gold is the reason why it was a gauntlet. Because in the stories in Alternate World, King Midas asked a soldier to cut off his two hands to avoid the "blessing" he received from causing more chaos, after that, he died from blood loss due to the people around him didn't bother to help him patch up his bleeding wound since they are fed up with him being a greedy and a tyrant of a ruler. Of course, this is different from the Midas in the real world as this is the Alternate World counterpart.

As for his hands that have been cut off, no one knows what happened to them, and many speculated that the one who granted his request to turn everything he touches into gold reclaimed it by taking the hands away from the populace. I can see now why it was associated with the sin of greed at the very least.

With Mammon gone for good, I decided to check the interior part of the Sea Worm to see if there is anything left here that hasn't been digested by the Sea Worm. I might even get a chance to get a treasure!

Unfortunately, that was all vain as my search proved to be fruitless as most of the stuff left there is just debris from the old village that got eaten along with some dead bodies that have been shattered after it got frozen by the Eternal Ice and got eaten by the Sea Worm. I left the place as soon as possible. The smell is a bit disgusting and if not for the fact that I wanted to find some kind of treasure there, I wouldn't even bother to stay there for long.

"Master. You are back. Seeing you calm and composed means you defeated that guy from earlier?" Gobu asked as he welcomed me by giving me a towel to wipe the smell off my body.

"Yeah. Although he was threatening at first, he didn't live up to his danger and ended up dying fast. We don't need to mention that guy, he is irrelevant now. By the way, how is the bodyguard?"

"Sir Atlas is the one attending on her at the moment, over there."

"Alright, thanks for the help Gobu, you can go back and rest now."

"Thank you, Master."

Gobu returned to the summon's area while I approached Atlas to see the current situation of the female bodyguard.

"How is she now, Atlas?"

"She is still unconscious but she is not in harm's way. Her breathing and stable and she didn't suffer many injuries either. She just had a sprain in her left hand, probably when trying to survive the Sea Worm's attack and as she was trying to cling to something, it ended up badly. I already patched it up and she just needed to let it sit and heal or else it will become bad again."

"That's good. So is there anything interesting that happened while I was inside the Sea Worm?"

"Ah, yes Master. Earlier, I saw some Merfolk swimming nearby. They just swam past this area so they didn't know there are people here."

"So it means the Kingdom of the Deep Sea is already back on its feet and the population has finally returned from the brink? The last time we were there, no one was left behind except for the guardian of the place."

"Perhaps they did. If they are emerging from the sea and settling above the sea surface, I think they are now ready to interact with other races now. I don't know what is going on but that is probably the main case here."

"How about we stay in Aquagius in the meantime, Master? We don't have any pressing issues at the moment and we barely explored Aquagius. Not only that but I think it is also time for Tina to visit her Dad."

Inside the summon's area, Tina grumbled. "Is it really necessary for me to even interact with my parents? They don't really care about me, so why would they bother?"

"You might be right that they have neglected you but they are under the influence of control. They are free from those shackles Tina, I think it is time to check with them and talk to them. If it is still the same thing that you have experienced before, then nothing we can do about it. You still have a family with us to welcome you back," Atlas persuades Tina.

Tina hesitates. "Let me think about it for a bit."

I shook my head at Atlas. "Just let her do her own decision. It's her life and we cannot dictate it. But I think your suggestion is good. We have yet to explore the expansive area of Aquagius and we can start hunting enemies here. We can do that as we wait for the Kingdom of the Deep Sea emerges."

Before we depart from this place, I decided to look around this area and check if there are any hidden things present in the area or any missed treasure chests that are just hidden in plain sight. But like always, I ended up finding it a disappointment. It was a secret area but there are no bonuses to be found. That is what sucks a lot in secret areas in Alternate World. Liberate Secret Areas are full of the good stuff while secret areas that can only be discovered by unique means have no such things present in them. It's like getting an achievement over doing nothing.

After the survey, I returned to Atlas and the female bodyguard and pulled out a teleport scroll to return to the surface. I don't want to waste the lung moss I have right now as that is a current rare resource I have and I don't know when I will have to use it and become a handy item like what happened after the chase scene against the sea worm.

"Ready Atlas?"

"Anytime, Master."

RIP!

The scroll ripped into two and invokes the magic circle of teleportation beneath our feet and we were engulfed in a blinding light before we reappeared in the Teleporter section of the Insect Kingdom.

Compared to my arrival in the Insect Kingdom a few hours ago, right now, the players are all over the place. They are so many of them that it was kind of amusing that this place was a battleground before and almost got destroyed if not for my intervention.

"Master. I guess we should find a lodging house to camp for the day while waiting for the Kingdom of the Sea to rise up to the surface."

"I doubt we can get any lodging house on inns in the Insect Kingdom. With all the people here, I can guess that every room in most inns is occupied."

"Oh, that's very understandable especially if there is a huge happening after a few days. Many people will want to stay here for a while. We should have secured our place to stay while we are here," Atlas sighed in disappointment.

"Atlas, tsk tsk, did you forget that we don't need to go to an inn? We already have a house in Aquagius and although we just used it as a temporary place to stay for a while, that is still home for us here."

That's when Atlas remembered the cottage we made not too far from the Insect Kingdom. It was an area built by a player and NPC which means I have access to it anytime I wanted to enter the place. As for intruders, they cannot enter the building unless I permitted them to enter. I have access to the area and since I know some players like to explore, there will be at least one or two players who might discover the cottage Lina made before which is why I limit it to my permission on who can enter. In short, it is a private home that we can take any time we wanted to.

We went there by using Leona's flight abilities to reach there without trekking the whole area. With an injured person with us, this is the best way to transport anyone.

And as expected, the place is still the same as before. And although it's been a while since we got there, the place is still clean and good to go. You can say that our escapades in the past have saved us future annoying problems. And it's a big win for me.