Rogue Villain-Chapter 241: Self-Care

Before long, Ackster and Wilma arrived at their destination. Wilma guided the hot air balloon to an inconspicuous patch of forest in the middle of seemingly nowhere. Ackster took a deep breath as they neared the ground.

"This...?"

Wilma looked at Ackster before sighing. No matter how much she complained, reproached, or encouraged him to take care of himself, Ackster was going to do what Ackster was going to do. And since his Pain Tolerance skill was already SS rank, it was already too late to do anything about it.

"Yeah. Tenger Continent. It’s somewhere between Badhurst and Lill, but it’s not too far from where you’re from."

"I see. That’s why it smelled familiar."

"Ackster."

"Yeah?"

Ackster turned his gaze from the forest to Wilma.

"I know you’re not going to listen. But please take care of yourself. All your effort—all the effort in the world—won’t be worth it if you end up dead, crippled, or mentally disabled after it all."

"I’ll take care of myself when I’ve done what needs to be done. But until then, I don’t have much of a choice."

"What needs to be done?"

"You’ll find out when the time comes."

Ackster winked. Wilma sighed.

"Are you going to be busy after you’ve dropped me off?"

"Whatever you want me to do takes priority."

"I appreciate it. Can you look for arsonists in Vider? And Hydras in the Land of Dragons?"

Wilma sighed.

"Sure. Anything else?"

"Keep me informed on the Kargas-Land of Dragons situation, please."

"I can do that."

"Great."

Ackster saw the clearing where the ruin he was supposed to enter was. He was extremely reluctant now that he knew who he was supposed to be working with. But the layout of the ruin and that person’s personality gave him hope.

Since Wilma had told him he came of his own volition and wanted something inside the ruins, it was likely he would ignore everything else.

"See you around, then."

"Bye."

With that, Ackster leaped down from the hot air balloon and landed in the clearing, leaving two small pits. Considering his weight, it was a miracle he didn’t make a crater upon touchdown. But he was a little dissatisfied since the two deep indents were proof he didn’t have perfect control over his power.

Ackster looked at the stone archway hidden in the dug-out tunnel with skeptical eyes.

Apparently, the Blood Moon disaster had brought two of these to the surface.

Archaic runes covered the perfectly cut head-sized stones. As far as possible, the ones who excavated it had cleaned the archway of any dirt and debris. But it still looked like just a nice decorative stone arch.

Ackster sighed.

Although it looked like just a delicately arranged pile of stones, he could tell that it was a portal. Most likely, thanks to his deep dive into the Space Jelly Habitat and the dinner he found at the bottom, he could sense spatial fluctuations flicker inside the archway. It could also be his Overhuman Senses showing why they were beyond human.

The reason didn’t matter, especially when Ackster already knew it was a portal. After all, his task was to go through it and sit around inside while his coworker went through the other portal, which needed a continuous sacrifice to activate.

Without delaying, Ackster went ahead and walked up to the portal, disappearing as soon as he passed through. Less than a second later, Ackster appeared in an empty stone room with neither walls nor windows.

However, Ackster’s Overhuman Senses picked up several tiny holes, crevices, slits, gaps, and openings all over the walls.

’With teleportation magic that good, why need something this barbaric?’

A moment later, pins, nails, needles, blades, darts, sharp metal sheets, and all kinds of sharp objects flew straight at Ackster from all sides, even below. It reminded him of Bo’s training poles, just a little more lethal.

Still, as he was now, Ackster could dodge all of it if he wanted to. However, he wouldn’t be a sacrifice if he wasn’t sacrificed. He let himself get hit so that the weapons and projectiles could draw his blood.

Ackster’s blood seeped into the floor as if lured away.

His body quickly pushed out the foreign items and patched up the wounds, but blood continued to drip down as more and more projectiles pierced his body.

***

In another part of the forest, a second stone archway, similar to the one Ackster passed through, had its runes light up with a powerful blue glow, one by one.

"Oh! I don’t know what kind of sacrifice Miss Wilma picked up, but the Gate might reach full power with this. This is the most stable we have ever seen it!"

A bespectacled man in a mage’s robes looked at the archway’s glowing runes with fervent eyes while writing down a bunch of things in his notebook.

The lights fluctuated slightly as they spread from the first to the second rune, before sharing the light with the third and fourth rune. It was just the start, but the light stayed as strong as in the beginning as the runes all over the stone archway continued to light up.

"Oh! Amazing! This purity! This efficiency! Whoever or whichever civilization made this archway knew how to preserve the energy in the transferal process. It’s amazing! There’s no loss!"

The bespectacled researcher stared at the archway being powered up with eyes brighter than the runes. He exclaimed in excitement, totally forgetting that he wasn’t alone. But that didn’t matter since the other person was also watching the Gate with rapt attention and crossed arms.

Ackster’s temporary coworker had flowy, robe-like clothes and an empty scabbard at his hips. His short, dark hair moved slightly from side to side in the wind.

Eventually, under the two men’s gazes, the final rune lit up. A blue shimmer sparked into existence within the archway, and the researcher jumped.

"Ah!" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The researcher pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at the other man.

"That is your cue."

However, the other man had already left an afterimage behind and entered the Gate,

"...Good luck. Sword God."