Assimilate All Talents

After bidding farewell to the squad, Sol left the palace. Gone was the Royal Knight Captain uniform; in its place, he wore the Song of the Wind leather armor set he had commissioned from Terrence back when he was preparing for the Knight Selection.

Sure, he could have acquired something of higher quality like unique, but most armor was pointless for the current him. His [Invincible Body] combined with his absurdly high vitality already made him more durable than most. He had worn Song of the Wind for its comfort, mobility, but mainly because it had the [Mending] enchantment, which allowed it to self repair over time. If needed, he could even speed up the process by injecting his own mana. Most armor wouldn’t survive anyways against A-Rankers fighting with all their might, but at least this way, he wouldn’t have to worry about ending up naked mid-fight.

Outside the palace, his first destination was a secluded meeting spot where Amber waited. Though she had assisted in moving Commander Zaman to safety during the vampire attack, Sol never explained her identity to anyone. Even when Zaman asked him he just said she was an adventurer friend. He couldn’t really tell the truth as Amber was still technically a criminal.

Though a victim of the Kirman kidnappings, she had committed crimes when she went by the name Red Sands under Cane’s behest. These included kidnapping other adventurers and assassinating Cane’s rivals—serious, though not unforgivable offenses. Sol had debated using his connections to pardon her, but it felt excessive bringing Commander Zaman into this and they had bigger concerns, like prosecuting rebellious nobles. Besides, Amber’s real appearance was largely unknown thanks to the red cloak she wore at all times back then. As long as no one investigated her too closely, she could stay under the radar.

Walking through the city, the two passed areas where the destruction varied greatly. Most buildings had clear signs of damage but were still standing, but places where powerful B-Rankers or A-Rankers fought were basically reduced to rubble. Despite the chaos, the destruction was relatively contained.

Their destination was one of the few places left virtually untouched in the entire city: Necropolis, the dungeon plaza.

The outer edge of the plaza bore only faint signs of battle—scorch marks and shallow craters—but near the dungeon entrance, everything was pristine. The guards who usually patrolled the area were absent, likely reassigned to aid in recovery efforts. Only two remained at the dungeon’s entrance.

Approaching them, Sol noticed their tense expressions.

"Wait, don’t enter the dungeon," one of the guards said, raising a hand.

"Why not?" Sol asked, confused. No one had mentioned the dungeon being off limits. ’Could this be because of the Princess’s deal with the dungeon?’

The second guard, looking uneasy, explained, "You can go in, but… yesterday, an A-Rank monster left the dungeon. It went back inside later, but we’re worried it might be an early sign of a dungeon outbreak."

’Ah, they don’t know yet.’ Sol realized the guards hadn’t been informed of the recent deal with the dungeon.

Reaching into his spatial ring, he pulled out his Royal Knight badge and held it up.

"A Knight Captain!"

"Apologies, sir! We didn’t recognize you!"

The guards saluted, their earlier wariness replaced with deference.

Sol waved off their concerns. "It’s fine. I’m not here on official business. But you can relax, this isn’t a dungeon outbreak. Let people enter unless you receive orders from above that say otherwise."

He kept the explanation vague, unsure how much the Princess wanted disclosed of the deal between her and the dungeon. Reassured by his rank and confidence, the guards visibly relaxed. They were extremely worried as the city really didn’t need another disaster when they had yet to clean up the mess from the last one.

"Yes, sir! Please proceed!"

The duo descended the dungeon stairs. On the first floor, instead of heading to the teleporter, Sol walked to the room’s center. From his spatial ring, he retrieved the Tynamo Cannon and placed it on the ground.

Unsure where he should face, he spoke the the empty space in front of him and said, "Hey… Necropolis? Dungeon? I’m not sure what to call you, but I’m here to return the void root."

The purpose of them returning to the dungeon was to give back what they had stolen, the void root. While he won the bet against Shadow Crawler at the time and wasn’t obligated to return the legendary item, Sol gave his word that when he reached A-Rank and dealt with the harbinger pursuing him that he would return it and he came to do just that. Parting with such a powerful weapon hurt, but he now had other means of fighting A-Rank enemies, like his [Lesser Channel Control] and his new law technique, [Swift End].

After a few seconds of silence, Sol glanced at Amber. "Do you think it heard me? I thought the cannon would, I don’t know, sink into the ground or something. Should we go to Shadow Crawler’s boss room?"

Amber shrugged, keeping quiet like usual, but before either could decide on their next step, the teleport sigil near the wall began to glow.

With a flash, Shadow Crawler appeared, its tone casual as it said, "Hey~! You kept your word! And a lot sooner than I expected."

The 30th floor boss was honestly surprised that Sol reached A-Rank already. It made its way over to Sol and as it approached Sol realized that this was the main body of the Shadow Crawler, but there was something that truly shocked him. Looking at the boss’s tethers, Sol could see that it didn’t have one or two law techniques, but eight in total!

Sol hid his shock and gave the boss a simple smile. "Hey, you came to pick it up?"

"Of course!" Shadow Crawler eagerly said while picking up the Tynamo Cannon. His eyes gleamed with joy as he held the weapon. "Though Mother doesn’t need the void root as much anymore thanks to the deal we made with the kingdom, it’s still a sizable boost of energy that can push her growth."

Sol felt it was a waste for a legendary item such as that one that could create void energy to serve as a battery for the dungeon, but he didn’t speak his thoughts out loud.

Passing the Tynamo Cannon to its tail to hold, Shadow Crawler turned to face Sol again and said, "So about yesterday. You can take our skills, right?"

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