Before Entering the Hidden Realm

 After his encounter with the bandits, he was put under house arrest. Surprisingly by the Duke himself. The Duke probably learned of the accident from the head, which made the man put him under house arrest for the week.

 While it was boring not to be doing any exploring or going out fighting and challenging himself, Ryker believed it was the right call as he would likely meet more bandits when he went out.

 In fact, from what he had heard, almost all adventurers were not allowed to take on missions for the near future, as the presence of a Genesis Lake bandit would mean adventurers were not safe even if they took the easier commission outside the capital.

 The Adventurer Guild had dispatched a group of Genesis Lake adventurers to deal with the threat, along with several guard captains with similar strength.

-x-

 "Curse it! You will pay for this!" the woman who led the bandit group cursed at the group chasing her, fleeing from them. 

 She also shouted expletives at them when given the chance, making the group speed up to chase her and end her reign of terror once and for all.

 "That brat must have warned them of my presence," she hissed to herself before flying faster, not planning to be caught by the group chasing her down. 

 Thankfully for her, she had prepared for something like this and sent most of his men away, while keeping several of her more disgruntled men with her to be sacrificed, their deaths would mean fewer chances for them to cause trouble and clear the house while at the same time make them believe her group had been destroyed, however unlikely they believe it.

 However, for her to have a chance to get her bandit group back together she had to survive first. Thankfully, she had a trump card hidden. 

 The group chased after her since she had just sped up, making them all do the same thing as well. They tried to encircle the woman though they often failed to achieve that, the woman weaved around and flew in nonsensical patterns to throw them off.

 As they chased her, she suddenly sped up her pace, throwing them off guard once more. The adventurers were surprised by wanting to press on, only to be stopped by one of the guards.

 "Why are you stopping us?! She is getting away!" one of the adventures yelled at the guard. The guard remained silent before pointing at the mountain.

 "This is a forbidden area, one set up by the previous Duke. There are a lot of powerful beasts here, along with what the Duke believed to be the main base of the bandit, or so he assumed," the guard said.

 "And why didn't the Duke try to destroy this place?" calming himself down, the adventurer asked the guard.

 "It's because of the natural suppression around the mountain. One High Captain of the Guard once traveled there to deal with the bandits fleeing the area. Only one survives. The survivor told the previous Duke of the natural suppression, preventing the use of qi once they got close enough to the mountain.

 He told how everyone was slaughtered by bandits who seemed to be used to fighting in the area. The only reason he survived is because the late High Captain sacrificed himself to buy the man enough time to get the words out to the Duke," the guard told the adventurers, who paled at the prospect of fighting without using qi.

 "If that is the case, we should get back and report this to the head and the Duke," the leader of the adventurer group said before leaving the area, the guard following suit.

-x-

 "I see, so the bandit went to that place," the Duke said, surrounded by some of his most trusted subordinates, along with the head of the Adventurer Guild.

 "Unfortunately so. If not, we could end one source of trouble," the head said before looking at the report once more.

 "It's a pity we have to do this. The hidden realm would likely be unable to be opened in the next decade or so and would take some time to heal the damage. But, it might be the best chance to strengthen our forces as much as possible before the bandit's uprising," the Duke replied before looking in a certain direction.

 "Who knew, maybe we can get the previous King's secret with his help?"

-x-

 Ryker spent most of his time while in house arrest by practicing alchemy. He practiced other auxiliary professions too but mostly it was just alchemy as he wanted to create several pills that would help his lovers.

 However, with only one day left before the opening of the hidden realm, he had sent some of the guards assigned outside his house to buy some pills for his use in the secret realm. They had returned a few minutes ago and delivered the pills.

 He smiled, his preparation for the hidden realm had been completed. All that is left to do is go into the hidden realm itself.

-x-

 The day had arrived. Ryker had woken up early before heading towards the store where the hidden passage was located, as the Duke told him to. Inside, he was greeted by none other than Hylla, who gave him an approving nod before leading him through the passage.

 When they reached the Duke's mansion, the servant finally spoke, "The Duke ordered you to meet him in his office first before he brings you to the entrance," 

 "Is there anyone else the Duke will send to the hidden realm to get some opportunities?" he decided to ask, as the hidden realm seemed like a good way to motivate his subordinates to do better.

 "There will be some guards along with me. That's the only one that the Duke will send to the hidden realm in his stead," she replied, making Ryker observe the servant once more.

 To his surprise, her cultivation seems to be at the peak of Genesis Source, shockingly high for who is supposed to be a servant, even if a rather close one to the most powerful person in the entire Duchy.

 He decided to not think too much about it as he had other things to worry about, namely the deal with the Duke and what he was supposed to do to complete it.

 As he was thinking about what the agreement entails once again, the servant seemed to receive a message from the Duke, the frown on her face was the first time he saw any expression aside from the usual calm and blank one from her.

 "The Duke call. We should go to his office, now,"