I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100
Chapter 66: Threat Level: Alpha

Elliot searched for the recipes, trying to replace for any clue as to how to unlock the Terran Royalty Series.

They walked back to the guild with nothing but those thoughts in his mind.

His hunch was to collect something from the beasts of each castle. Elliot's biggest bet was the eyeballs. The Manual loved eyeballs that it was required for almost every high-level Brewing.

And his biggest question was to what the Series does. Will it give him more power? Unlcock more features?

"You okay?" Lance asked, patting Elliot on the shoulder. "You seem to be deep in thought."

"Well, I just don't know how to approach Ed about this," Elliot lied. "Maybe he doesn't want that sword and the burden that goes along with it."

"But his people–"

"And what if Ed decides to live in Etheoria even after Biankka's defeat?"

Lance paused and gasped, "Oh, no!"

–

"No," Ed said firmly. He was sitting on their table with a mug of coffee in his hand. There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin looked paler than it usually does. "I don't want to risk getting that sword. If Biankka fears Connor, then maybe she would also fear Lance who's way stronger than Connor. Thus, we don't need the sword."

"Okay," Elliot said. "But after we defeat Biankka, would you stay there to rule?"

Lance tried holding Elliot back from pressuring Ed but it was too late. He had already blurted out the question everyone dired to ask.

Ed was silent for a moment. "I don't know."

When Elliot was about to ask any more question, Lance had already pulled him away. "Don't pressure him, Elliot."

"But he's my friend," Elliot said. "What if it's taking a toll on him just thinking about it."

"So don't go around making him stress about it even more. This is just like every–" Lance stopped himself and wiped with his face with his hands. "Sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice."

"Tell it to me straight," Elliot dared.

"I'm not– Look," Lance paused and breathed deeply. "Your decision making is questionable. You trust people easily, you go for things without thinking about them twice or thrice, and you don't take things seriously."

Elliot scoffed. "I am neither of those things."

"You are all those things," Lance sighed. Elliot was looking at him with an expression that held both confusion and anger. "But hey, that's what I'm here for. I'm making sure you're on the right path, and making sure that you're all safe."

"So you're saying that I'm not good enough to decide things on my own?"

"That's your take on all that?" Lance quirked his brow and couldn't help but chuckle in frustration.

"You two sound like an old married couple who are arguing over peanut butter," Connor butted in between the two, separating them and shooting both of them with dirty looks. "By arguing like this in front of Ed, he's now even more pressured."

"What?" Elliot asked and saw that Ed wasn't in his seat anymore. "Oh."

"By arguing over lessening the pressure in his shoulders, you both actually gave him even more pressurem. What would he think after hearing his two friends argue whether they would dump him or keep him?" Connor sighed. "Let's go replace him."

They found Ed at the back of the guild house. He was hugging his knees and was being comforted by Midnight. Midnight was caressing Ed's back while Ed was muffling his cries.

This situation was not healthy for Ed. All his life from point unknown up to just a few weeks ago, he had wanted company. He had wanted people to treat him close to them. And now that he had found them, something like this happened.

Midnight saw the four approach to which he shot a sinister look at. He whispered something at Ed that made the sobbing boy snap his head at the direction of his friends.

"Elliot, Lance, fix this," Midnight whispered. "Ed is not okay."

"Okay. Thank you, Midnight," Lance responded. The raven-haired man ruffled all their hairs before walkin back inside.

"Hey," Elliot sat beside Ed. "I'm sorry for arguing about it. But don't worry. Whatever your choice is, we will respect it. We're your friends, your teammates, your family. We will not hold our family back from what they want, right?"

Ed gulped, snuffled and nodded. "I can't believe I'm acting like a teen when I'm actually thirty. I even walked away crying."

"I know it's giving you too much pressure," Lance said. "I can relate and testify that it's not easy. Being someone who is expected to take over leadership is not an easy job, I know how you feel."

"But I don't want to be on the spot," Ed muttered. "I don't want to be the center of everything. I just want to live a normal Adventurer life. With you guys."

Elliot snorted, "I see that our cheesiness had come for–"

"Then you will."

Elliot wad cut off by Axla who walked over to Ed and leaned down. "It had been decades since we were all looking for you, our only hope. But if that's what you really want, we don't have to force anything on you. We fail to protect you before so we understand that you're not accustomed to being the Heir. I apologize for giving you a burden in your thoughts, your grace."

Xelon appeared a few meters away, leaning on a tree. "Then I guess it's the end of Etheoria."

"I don't want to rule," Ed stood and wiped the tears that wet his face. "But I didn't say that I'm not going to help."

This puts a smile on Xelons face. He walked over and handed Ed a thin book. "This is the map that the elders of Etheoria have been keeping. This map shows the chamber to the Eternal Chaos Sword and the labyrinth it is in."

Ed took the book and opened it, seeing the maps, traps, and where the exact location of the Eternal Chaos Sword is located.

"Ethereum is a condition spell, right?" Elliot asked. "How do they exactly incorporated this on objects such as the ones shown in the maps. The doors, stairway, halls. How?"

Elliot was curious as to how the chamber worked. Like his situation, he used up his HP after failing to meet the MP requirements the skill needed. But how this logic worked on objects raised a question in Elliot's mind.

"Ethereum stems from conditions but in a more spiritual level," Axla started. "Basically, it involves souls, spirits, death, and life. When you want to conjure something with Ethereum, you exchange it with your life points or your soul, and etcetera. But with the Ethereum that protects the sword, they were placed there by extracting the soul of the items to meet the condition."

"The soul of the items?" Connor gasped. "Is there such thing?"

"That's another complex spell that was casted before Ethereum was put in place," Xelon replied. "Every item that has Ethereum in that chamber was a person before. They were cursed to become objects to extract their souls."

"That doesn't make any sense," Elliot interrupted. "Why not just put regular things in there? What's so different about it. And sacrifice people too? That's a bit too extreme, don't you think?"

"You see, Ethereum loves souls," Axla said. "If there's a soul involved, Ethereum would react in a way like a child reacting to candy. To protect the Eternal Chaos Sword heavily, Etheoria had to make sacrifices. The Duke who stored the sword sacrificed 5,000 of his people to create the chamber. Each part of the chamber was a human that was cursed and then their soul was extracted to put forth the defense."

"What does these Ethereum does anyway?" Lance asked. "Why do you all keep making a fuss about it?"

"When you come in contact with the range of the chamber and you're not the Heir…" Axla trailed off. "You die."

"W-What?" Elliot gasped. "But what if someone destroys the door or the labyrinth itself? A large-scale explosive skill should suffice."

"Destroying a part of the chamber would also result in death," Axla replied. "But not just one death. For every human that is equivalent to the soul that was destroyed, 10,000 humans will be slaughtered in exchange."

"Now that's what I call extreme," Ed snorted.

Axla was about to say something when the towers started to ring. The grounds shook and an incredibly large and fearsome aura appeared from nowhere.

"She's attacking us," Axla said worriedly. "Biankka has come for us."

'Strike alert! A horde of… black knights in black hourses are approaching the city. All Adventurers on standby, please report to the North Gate immediately!'

'Strike Threat Level: Alpha!"

While everyone else were worried, there was a particular memory that replayed on Elliot's mind.

He still couldn't shake off the fact that he could now use the red symbol from Biankka.

He just had to make sure he delivers the final strike.