Hall

After Vlada carried him up onto the ledge he stared in surprise at the view. Unlike what he had expected, which was a dark cave, the crack in the wall, which he had thought was the entrance of a cave opened up into a wide brightly lit hall.

"Didn't you say it is a cave?", he asked Vlada in confusion. Although she hadn't said so in these exact words, he only now realized that he had seen the information she had transmitted in this way.

At first, he didn't want to enter it, since it could be seen as rude to just enter someone else place. And it could also be dangerous. But taking a closer look, he was able to see a thick layer of dust on the floor, lighted up by the bright crystals embedded in the walls and pillars.

"Seems like it has been deserted.", he murmured to himself, something he seemed to do more often lately. Maybe it was that he had gotten used to having others besides him and now that he was alone in the wilderness he wanted to hear a voice sometimes.

He carefully stepped into the hall, with his feets disturbing the dust on the floor. Weirdly as soon as he entered he didn't feel any movement of air but it still seemed fresh and clean unlike what one would expect in a dusty hall.

There should be some kind of magic at work here to ensure fresh air as well as block any wind that could enter through the entrance. From Ivan's understanding, it should be some kind of longterm formation, although he didn't understand why the user didn't add anything which worked against the dust.

Although the hall looked impressive with the glowing pillars it was completely empty. There were no other entrances except the crack through which he had entered, making him wonder what it had been used for. Because the crack he had entered through seemed to have come into existence later on.

"Maybe there was a teleportation formation here before?", he silently speculated while casting a skill that would clean the hall.

Now with the dust gone, it was possible to see the floor which was covered with indecipherable patterns. Just by looking at it, his head started to hurt. Thinking that there was no way for him to understand them now, he took out his phone and made some pictures.

After photographing every single bit of the floor he then took out some furs to cover the floor. These furs not only hid the headache-inducing patterns but also made it more comfortable.

Because of the still working formation, the temperature inside was very comfortable and the view outside was great.

"This is a great location. Maybe I should make this my outpost?", Ivan asked himself. Although he wouldn't be able to use his teleportation app to come here, it wasn't impossible to create a teleportation gate to connect this space to Lara's villa. It was only that those gates were impossibly expensive.

"Guess I'll have to wait for me to get good enough and learn from Jacky." Until then he could only use Vlada to fly here. But he could still make this hall into a comfortable home for when he stayed inside the forest. Maybe he could even make a small garden. There was a pond not far away and the earth below was well suited for all kinds of herbs commonly found in a forest.

He opened the System Shop to find out if it offered anything he could use. Although the teleportation app didn't work outside of the safe zones this wasn't the case for the shop. With just a small fee it was possible to receive items everywhere in the system realms.

While searching through the store he saw a wide variety of furniture available. Besides furniture, there were also all kinds of magical tools that could improve living conditions. Some had interesting functions but required mana to work. But with one tool he found it wouldn't be a problem to install them in this hall. This tool was able to use EU to supply other tools in the vicinity with the mana they require to function and there wasn't even any loss. Besides the conversion rate of EU to mana was impressive.

Just by using one Blood Essence Crystal similar to the one he had shown at Jacky's Shop back then, he could run all the basic appliances needed in a kitchen and bath for more than a month straight.

The only thing that scared him was the price. He was definitely unable to pay for it any time soon. But at least he had confirmed the feasibility of his idea.

Satisfied he laid down, planning to sleep for the night and then in the morning once again continue exploring.

Soon he had fallen into a routine, composing of getting up, go out and hunt bears as well as collect herbs and then return to the hall and refine some of the lower quality, or damaged, herbs he had gotten that day. Then he would use his phone to call his family and chat for a bit before going to sleep.

With this routine in place soon two weeks had passed, leaving only two more weeks time until he had to accompany Miss. Klein.

Today Ivan had decided to change up his routine. He felt that he had gotten all he could from the surroundings. His inventory was filled with parts of Steelback Bears as well as other monsters he had encountered. His herb ring was filled with herbs, all of which had a good quality, the rest had been refined into pills which filled up the rest of his inventory.

"I really don't have enough space to store items.", Ivan sighed. Although his inventory was relatively large it still seemed to be too small to store all the things he wanted to put inside it.

"Isn't there any way to get more storage space besides expanding the inventory?", he wondered. Expanding his inventory was way too expensive for his taste.

Of course, there was. Just like the chest, he had gotten from Lin back then. But the chest was way too clunky to carry around and he couldn't put it into his inventory. "Maybe there is a bag form of it or something like this. I should check."

Checking the Systems Store he found what he looked for. Not only were there storage bags but also storage rings, which were much more comfortable to carry around and which had a higher storage space as well. But as always the prices were way too high for him to even entertain the thought of buying them.

"In the end, money is everything.", he sighed depressed.

Shaking his head he got ready to leave this little hideout. "I'll be back", he swore. During these two weeks, he had fallen in love with this place even more and it had hardened his resolve of making it his outpost.

As he went deeper into the mountains he passed the spot where he had spotted the little girl before. Back then he had checked on her the next day but she was already gone. Besides her, the bears were gone as well, so he reckoned that, if she truly was that little aunt, that her nephew had caught her and had taken care of the bears. And if not, then something else should have happened, which he couldn't guess. But there was one thing that he was sure of and that was that the girl was fine. Because if not, then there was no way that the bears would vanish as well.

He entered a valley which should lead him further into the mountains. In the center of the valley was a small stream. In its clear water, there were occasionally some small fishes flitting around. And while the trees here were much smaller than in the forest before, they were still numerous.

By following the stream he reached a large pool into which a waterfall thundered down. This was the end of the valley and also the start of a much more arduous journey. From now on he wouldn't be able to just relaxedly walk onto more or less flat ground, but he would have to climb over rocks and cross dangerous terrain.

By looking upwards it was possible to see the dark spots in the sky. Each of them symbolizing a dangerous monster that would attack as soon as it spotted a worthwhile prey. Those monsters also stopped him from using Vlada to leisurely fly through the mountains.

He moved his fingers in order to warm them up before gripping the stone wall. Then with clumsy moves, he started the climb. The goal was a small ledge about halfway up the stone wall.