Seeing that I was too busy thinking and not touching the treasures in the room, the fairy grew a bit impatient.
She floated towards me as she said, "Hmm? Why are you staying still her— gah!" I grabbed her almost immediately when she came near me. I tightened my grip on her body, and the fairy knew that if this continued, she could die!
"W-Why… a-are y-you… d-doing t-this!?" She asked, trying to breath as I squeeze her within my right hand.
I stared at her, holding her face closely to mine, and with my mouth full of mirth that was not exactly reaching my eyes, I asked, almost whispering to her ears, "Why is a fairy like you trying to kill me?"
Her small eyes widened, shocked and, quite frankly, terrified. She could die at any moment now since I literally have her in my hands. I can kill her easily. Just a single hard squeeze and… *pop*.
"L-Let me… guh… e-explain!" She said, suffocating in my hand.
I wanted to kill her because, after all, she just tried to lure me into a trap.
[Don't worry about killing her. Turns out, that barrier around the orb was created with fairy magic, and the only way to open it is by offering a fairy's body. Thankfully, you have one in your tiny, wittle, baby hand!]
He sounded way too enthusiastic for my taste, but that information is pretty useful at the moment.
'I just have to kill her, right?' I asked him in my thoughts.
[Yup]
I looked at the struggling fairy.
Using my other hand, I held her head within my fingers, and, with a quick twist, the fairy died without much struggle.
The fairy's body was turning cold, fast.
'What do I do now?'
[Why don't you throw the little corpse into the barrier? It's way funnier to see a fairy's body make a bit of a plop and turn to bloody bits!]
I sighed, and did not heed the words of this deranged psycho.
Instead, I roughly tossed her body at the barrier, and the moment the two made contact, the barrier slowly dissipated.
Seeing that the barrier was gone, I went ahead and took the orb off the short pillar.
Holding it within my hands, I realized how cold it was. It was very cold, and I felt like my hands were burning in ice.
I covered my hands with my mana barrier, and the orb's coldness was now unable to go pass through it.
Frowning, I said, "What is this orb? It's way too cold to be held by any normal person!"
[Hmm, it must be the essence of an ice planet. I wonder how it got here though. Oh, wait…]
'What?' I asked.
[Can we assume that we are on the same planet anymore?]
Slowly, my eyes widened at the realization.
That's right! I was teleported the moment I entered those golden doors! Why am I assuming that I am in the same world? I saw many creatures here in the dungeon that were not in my world! I even battled them! And there's no proof that my weapon, Thanatos, is from the same world also!
"Thanatos, be honest with me. How many continents were there in your world?" I asked my weapon, agitated for the answer.
"There were eight of them. Why are you asking though?" The weapon responded.
"Nothing…" I muttered.
'That confirms it, we're in a completely different world. But I need to return soon, how can I return back?' I asked myself, looking around the room for any exit.
I inspected the things around here, almost touching the traps just to see if there were any transportation talismans around here.
Then, as I blinked for a fraction of a second, when I opened my eyes again, I was back in the lobby where I met the elf man.
I heard someone sigh behind me, and a familiar voice sounded, "Finally, I was able to locate you and bring you back here. And you got the orb, perfect!"
I turned around to see the elf guy, AKA, Whitewood.
"How did you get me out of there?" I asked Whitewood, who was completely calm and looked elegant as he sat at a nearby table, with a cup of tea in front of him.
"Come, sit," He gestured for me to sit in front of him, and I followed.
Sitting down, I asked again, "How did you get me out of there?"
"I can use space magic however I want, that's why. I can traverse through other dimensions, and I did the same for you. But it was hard locating you considering that some kind of magical circle was put inside the dungeon so that space magic users like me cannot get you out. But since I am far from the average space magician, I was able to get you out. Thankfully, you didn't die, or else I wouldn't be able to sleep at night," He explained, crossing his legs.
I narrowed my eyes, and said, "What are you?"
He chuckled, "It's not the matter of 'what' I am, it's 'who' I am. Well, to answer your question, I am Chester Whitewood, the one and only dimension-travelling merchant! With the degree of my space magic, I used it to sell stuff not seen before to other dimensions. And, it made me quite rich. I have a few million tons of gold in my house. And since you retrieved this orb for me, and along with that scythe, I can give you a few thousand tons of gold, if you want."
My mouth was gaping. This guy is a dimension traveler? How cool is that!? Maybe I can ask him to teach me space magic? Hmm, that's a good question, but I can guess that Chester is quite the busy guy since he is, after all, a dimension-traveling merchant.
I nodded, and said, "That's fine by me. Make that ten thousand, if possible."
"Mhm, of course. I'll even give you a hundred-thousand tons!" He said, with a smile full of avarice.
I gave him the cold orb, and he took it.
Then, a ring with a small blue gem attached to it appeared on the top of his right hand, and gave it to me.
"This storage ring has the space of a hectare, and this is where the gold is kept. I'm also giving this ring to you. It is a prototype, so don't put living beings into it. It might just self-destruct and cause a black hole to eat your land," He casually said, as he casually gave the ring to me.
Meanwhile, here I was, nervous as heck!
This thing can cause a damn black hole!? Are you f*cking kidding me!? Why give this to me at all!?
"Though, as long as you don't put a living being in there, it's fine. Nothing will go wrong, it's my invention, after all," He said with a little bit of pride in his voice.
Still a bit nervous, I said, "T-Thanks, you cannot imagine how big this is for me."
He chuckled, full of mirth, "Mhm, you also cannot imagine how much you have done for me," He said.
Turning my head in confusion, I asked, "Why?"
He tapped the orb in his arm, and said, "This orb is worth one-hundred-million tons of gold, and it's thanks to you that I finally have it in my hands. My client, a frost dragon, wanted something that can help him grow stronger. He said that the stronger he becomes, the more he will give me. So, I said, what if I gave him the essence of a planet? He was ecstatic as I knew where to get it, but this dungeon was a bit hard to navigate through, and I'm not exactly the fighter-type. So, I needed someone who has great skills at fighting and can defeat strong opponents, who just happens to be you. Though, I have asked hundreds before you and they all failed. When they failed, I erased their memories of this place and just had them participate in that thing called, Beast Tower. My most interesting encounter with a disciple of your sect was maybe Adalius Navarel. But I can guess you're not interested in that."
I had the look that said, "You think?"
I sighed, rubbing my forehead, as I said, "Can I ask for another hundred-thousand tons of gold?" I needed a bit more pay for my headache and hard work.
"Don't get too greedy now, or else I'll get mad," He said, playfully.
"Besides, a hundred-thousand tons of gold is more than enough for you to live in your land without worrying for money ever again! You basically have all the gold you can have in the entire world!" Chester said, trying to persuade me.
I sighed in my head, 'Well, a dimension-traveling merchant is still a merchant, so he would like to have less losses. A hundred-thousand tons of gold must've been a bit too much for someone like him.'
"Can you at least teleport me back to the sect?" I asked him.
He nodded, "Yes, but take this first," He gave me a black card that came out of nowhere from his hand, "This card lets you teleport to me in my free time. It's black right now, but once it's white, you can teleport to me. Think of it like a friendship gift since, as the owner of the scythe, Thanatos, you are bound to be someone special."
Chester has a thing called, "Natural Businessman". That's why he was able to grow his merchant company as this big right now, not just because he was a dimensional traveler. And, over time, he had managed to obtain the ability to sense business opportunities, and boy, oh boy, this kid is definitely a huge opportunity for business.
Chester Whitewood's character and name were both taken off Marvelous Chester, who's from the game, Dark Souls. I personally like the mysteriousness and gothic style in Marvelous Chester, and I sometimes found myself thinking whether he is from the past or from the future.
But yeah, it might not be obvious right now, but Chester Whitewood is also full of mysteries.
Anyway, thank you for reading, and as always, stay well.
If you don't want a spoiler, don't scroll down any further.
Whitewood isn't Chester's real last name.