Ronan did not respond to Elicia’s remark. He had asked the question merely out of jest and in humour. He did not know if Elicia had replied in humour or seriousness but for whatever reason he was not willing to continue this topic.

They continued to ride in silence. Shortly, they were outside the walls of the city of Kovliar and traveling through the unending wasteland.

"Elicia," Ronan asked, leaning in slightly. "Alartun said something about the situation not being ideal for crystal collection. What was that about?"

"You did not notice?" She responded a moment later.

Ronan’s breath hitched. He wondered if whatever Alartun had talked about was something so common that everyone was expected to notice it. For a moment, he regretted asking the question. He should have waited to return to his world and study the three books. He did not have any response and hence he remained silent.

"You did not notice how the entire outer perimeter of the city is devoid of abominations, barring a few here and there?" she said.

"I did notice," Ronan responded, recovering his composure.

"Yes," she continued in her flow. "It is their reproduction season. They have all migrated toward the Athar Rock."

"Athar Rock!" Ronan mumbled in slight surprise.

He knew about the Athar Rock and what it meant from his reading. It was one of the first things he had read in the book The history of Acrolius. It was something which was related very closely to the initiation of the apocalypse in this world.

"There is an Athar Rock near Kovliar?" He questioned.

"Yes," Elicia said, a touch of pride in her voice. "It is around seventy kilometers from here. And the rock formation is quite large."

"Oh!" Ronan responded. "I was not aware."

"Now you are," she said. "The presence of the Athar Rock so close to our city is something which makes Kovliar quite an important location. A lot of outsiders visit Kovliar because of the Athar rock."

"Regardless," she continued. "The abominations have been gone for around a month. And therefore, it has been quite difficult to collect crystals recently."

"Alartun was not wrong or lying about it. There has been a major slump in the supply of crystals, and the market for a lot of things is down right now. People are not willing to spend crystals on things they do not deem important."

Ronan was not able to understand everything, but a lot of pieces were falling into place for him.

"I think the abominations will take another month before they finally return," she added.

"And since you brought up this point," she added, "you must keep it in mind while analyzing the market of Kovliar." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"I may have gotten you a fair price in this deal, but for the next month or so, you might struggle a bit to get a good price for your products."

"I see," he mumbled.

They continued to ride in silence. True to what she had said, they only encountered a few scattered abominations along the way, and even these creatures paid absolutely no heed to them. A few hours earlier, Ronan had thought this phenomenon to be normal, but it seemed that it was anything but normal. A lot more abomination might be expected in normal times.

The abominations had migrated toward the Athar Rock for their reproduction cycles. He understood what reproduction meant conceptually, but he obviously had no idea about the exact details of the biological process in these monsters.

Minutes later, they finally reached the abandoned building.

"Here we are," Elicia said as the motorbike came to a halt.

"Thank you, Elicia," he said, getting off the bike.

"Should I keep you company?" she asked, looking back at him. "Wait here with you?"

"No," he shook his head. "I am fine. And anyway, my friends would not want to reveal themselves in your presence."

"As I said," he added. "For us, secrecy is one of the most important aspects."

"I may sound intrusive," she remarked, "but where do you even go from here? Where do you stay?"

"You surely would not be travelling back to your city thousands of kilometers to the north every other day," she added with a chuckle.

"Haha!" Ronan laughed in response. "If we are able to build a successful, long-term relationship, then you might eventually find out."

Elicia stared at him for a moment before she nodded her head in acceptance. She had not really been expecting any answer.

"See you in three days," she said. "Bye!"

"Byebye!" Ronan replied.

Elicia twisted the accelerator, and the motorbike shot back toward the city of Kovliar. Ronan watched her until she completely disappeared into the horizon.

Ronan took a deep breath and entered the building. He climbed the concrete stairs and arrived on the first floor. He could have easily activated the ability of the cube from the ground floor, but whether it was because of the familiarity of the room or purely out of cautious instinct, he preferred the first floor.

Ronan willed the artifact, and the cube materialized in his hands.

TIME: 4:50 PM | 4:50 AM

TRAVEL

Energy [100%]

Solar Energy Detected

No External Energy Detected

Ronan pressed his finger against the word TRAVEL, and a moment later, he completely disappeared from the first floor.

When Ronan reappeared, he was in the familiar space of his room. He took a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing upon his safe return to his homeworld. Like his previous visit, this time too, he had not been in any real danger in the world of Acrolius, but even so, the familiarity and security of one’s own world was incomparable. Additionally, the air and atmosphere here were a stark contrast. It was pure and calm, unlike the oppressive and chaotic environment of Acrolius.

He took a couple of minutes to organize his thoughts and settle his mind.

Barely a couple of hours remained before the start of the day. He had already taken a day off from his college and work today. He knew he no longer strictly needed the part time job, but he did not wish to miss another day of college.

He might have preferred to sleep for those remaining two hours, but there was something far more exciting calling to him, filled with intense anticipation.

He took out all the crystals and the gold beads from his pockets and placed them onto his bed. The gold beads were immensely valuable to him, but right now, his mind was entirely focused on the red crystals, and his heart was pounding rapidly in suspense.

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