Various concerns

Desmond returned home after waiting for two hours for the magical rope to fade away. He, of course, cussed all the elves to be damned before traveling back home.

It only took him 3 days to complete the long and excruciating journey. He was happy to be home after such a tedious mission.

The teleportation device was destroyed after teleporting from the tunnel. It was beyond repairable, as the system stated, inspecting its condition. Nonetheless, he stored the broken thing inside his system's inventory.

The reward for completing the 'easy' quest was delivered to him, as promised. The Moon grass helped him rank up a sub-rank.

Now his overall rank is;

[Name: Desmond Shepheard]

[Hero Name: Leviathan]

[Title: The slayer of the Wolf (Given by a bunch of wannabe heroes)]

[Rank: Rank E-]

[Strength: F+]

[Mana: E+]

[Stamina: F+]

[Charm: C+]

[Intelligence: B]

It's been over a week and a half since the journey and completion of the quest, and many things happened during this week.

One of the things is that the academy is now officially under the federation. It was not a surprise for Desmond, as he knew about it earlier. Even in his first timeline, this was the case.

This was huge for the world, though. The Hope Academy, which was self-sufficient since the beginning of its construction, was now going under a firm.

Many supported this change as what transpired during the entrance ceremony shocked the world. They voiced that the academy must have a protector to protect the future heroes, and what better protection than the Vagabonds themselves? Like all other matters, there are always two sides to the coin. Some of the people were against the new change. They reasoned that the Hope academy was better off without being dragged into a political war. It was reasonable, but what was done was done. It cannot change now.

The next thing was that the Hell-beards were successful in making the first batch of actual working mana cells. It can be commercialized. After producing some more, this would be sent for review, weeks before commercializing it. Thus, increasing the hype around the product.

The academy will be reopened next week. They have done extensive security sweeping and other secure things, some of them with the help of the Federation itself. This made the angered and feared parents once again sent their kids to the academy without any fear of losing them. They all will be joining the academy in the coming working day.

What's more, the news stated that the mighty Home-Bringer himself will be there at the academy, which only helped to elevate the students and the parents alike. I mean, who doesn't want to meet the enigma itself?

The past week was not wasted resting. Desmond was contemplating all the things he has seen in the underground tunnel and the lab. The breathable water. The Bluek Hylark. The dwarves and the revelation of the other intelligent species. The Elven girl and her guards.

He unconsciously touched the pendant on his neck.

[Can't believe you still have that thing around you?]

"Well, this is quite comforting to wear. I still think it has some special properties." He examined the pendant while laying on the couch. It was elegant and simple. The material was unknown, maybe some Elven metal or crystal. He tried to appraise it but failed as the rank of the appraisal tool was too low.

[Of course, it has. It can't be even appraised but be careful on wearing it. If anyone finds out about it- anyone who knows about the outsiders, then you are taken.] The system warned him about the potential dangers of wearing something from another species and someone finding out about it.

"Yeah, I know. I'll be careful." He clutched the pendant tightly.

He wondered how many 'humans' know about this revelation. He was sure, some of the higher-ups are knowledgeable about the matter. But he was too low-ranking to ask questions about something potentially dangerous to humanity. He will be silenced without a second thought. So asking about the matter to someone is off the charts.

The best thing to do right now was to investigate it himself. But with his limited resources, that might be a problem not to mention the dwarves have already built a base in the human realm. Not just any base, but a villainous one at that. It will be a huge problem if they take out the humans by surprise.

His fight with dwarves was a literal massacre but that was because they were too low ranking, he might have thought about them as a weak species but after watching the elven guards he was sure that the others were not simple ones.

Whatever they are planning, good or bad, he needs to be prepared and quickly too.

His thoughts trailed off but suddenly thought about someone who can help him.

[Are you sure about him?] System voiced out its concern.

"Well, he was good in my old timeline, how bad can he be now?" He cracked his fingers, thinking about the old man, who might have possible information about the outsiders.