Infinite Realm

As Sato drew the monsters away from the wooden house, Lu Zhen dashed into it with a flash. He had gone through the loopholes and blind spots of the monsters and since their focus was on Sato, none of them spotted him

Amongst the monsters Sato had drawn away from the wooden house were five Ground Rats that were slightly bigger than the others, seven Mud Bears, three Earth Snakes, and one Kobold. From the experience and info gathered by a majority of players, the strength of the monsters was around level 6 Elite or level 7 whereas the kobold was either a level 7 Common or Elite or even a level 8. If anyone else were in Sato's shoes, they would find it difficult to maintain an appropriate distance from the monsters and not get injured in the process but Sato didn't have an issue pulling this off.

*Step* *Step*

With the monsters drawn away from the building, Lu Zhen began speeding his way without fear of being discovered.

Compared to the view from the outside, the wooden house turned out to be bigger than he had thought. Just two seconds after entering the building, Lu was confronted with an intersection.

Two of the paths led to the left and the right sides respectively while the last one went straight ahead.

'It should be at the centre of this building.' Lu Zhen thought.

Technically speaking, the most important facilities of a building is usually located at the centre of the building. While there wasn't any specific reason for this, most people believed that this was either for aesthetic appeal or because the important places were better suited to be right at the core of the facility, signifying its rank.

Having selected a path, Lu Zhen darted forward and ignored the other road. It wasn't that he didn't want to check out those places but instead he had an important task which he had to fulfill before he could check out other places.

It didn't take long for Lu Zhen to reach the end of the road, after taking a few cuts and bends. The building was small, to begin with so a level 9 [Assassin] would not have any problem scouring through it with ease.

There was a room at the end of the road and the doors were slightly open. Suddenly feeling the air being different here, Lu Zhen minimised the sound from his footsteps before approaching the door in stealth. He peeped through the opening in the door and saw two kobolds standing guard in place. The kobolds each held a long pole with a pointed tip in their hands. They stood still like the Queen's guards in front of the Buckingham Palace but released a ferocious aura that suffused the entire room.

In between the two kobolds was a swirling blue wormhole that looked like a portal to a mysterious place. This was the Exit gate that Lu Zhen had been looking for.

Lu Zhen was first thrilled at finding the Exit gate so quickly but he suddenly frowned as he realised something.

'Exit gates are supposed to be safe zones but there are two guards here.'

It should be known that all Exit gates were safe zones as they had a strange characteristic that seemed to repel monsters away from them. The only exception to this was the Exit gates on the Middle region's 9th floor. Even then, the monsters there were acting as guardians of the Exit gate. Rather than calling them monsters, they were more like bodyguards that existed to guard the gate. This was a natural occurrence and not like the one before Lu Zhen, where a kobold took the role of a guardian.

'What does this mean?' Lu Zhen racked his brain to better comprehend the situation but he was stuck at an impasse.

Since there was nothing he could do about it, Lu Zhen proceeded to go on with the tasked and informed Sato and the others of his discovery. At the same time, he dropped a short description of the path he took as well as a crude map of the place.

'This is strange.' Sato suddenly frowned upon hearing the report.

At first, Sato was quite surprised that Lu Zhen had found the Exit gate just within a minute or so after taking action but as he heard the details reported by Lu Zhen, as well as his conjectures, Sato couldn't help but grimace a bit as he felt that things were quite bizarre.

Just like Lu Zhen, Sato realised that there was a problem with the Exit gates. Apart from the Middle region's 9th floor, this was the only floor that had an Exit gate guarded by monsters. Sato Couldn't ascertain whether this truly had anything to do with the Kobold King as the previous Exit gates they had passed through weren't guarded by monsters either.

"There's no other explanation for this than the Kobold King's advance. You all should remember that the sub-BOSS areas were also a result of this. Maybe it had decided to set up such checkpoints from the 7th floor down. " Seiichi voiced out his thoughts.

"Maybe." Sato sighed.

This was the only logical explanation for this so Sato didn't bother to think of anything else. No player had ever comprehended the true essence and form of these Exit gates. Even after becoming the inheritor of the Caventry's legacy, Sato still didn't have any information in regards to this. It seemed as if the Exit gates had nothing to do with the Caventry, but this was quite strange.

The entire Black Grill's Cave was a huge seal and this was a fact. Apart from the monsters dwelling there, who had somehow found a way in, every other thing was a creation of this seal, including the golems. This was why even with the Kobold King's strength, no Rock golem species was a part of its army. However, for something else to exist here without the means of the seal was quite ludicrous; especially if it were something as important as the Exit gates, which possessed teleportation capabilities that could send one to the next floor or the previous one.

'This entire map is crowded with mysteries and I doubt we would be able to discover the truth any time soon.' Sato sighed. By 'we', he didn't refer to his team but the entire player-base of IR.

"Sato." Fudo suddenly called out in the team chat.

"Any problem?" Sato asked. The monsters behind him didn't seem to add any pressure to him so he had a lot of energy to spare in the team chat.

"I sense movement from the outside." Fudo said.

"I'm not so sure as I only sensed a slight fluctuation in the mana flow, but I think there's someone, or better yet, some people, approaching."