Arc spent the next few minutes clearing out the Valemont Castle servants for the additional rewards on his way out, intentionally killing time to allow Liz to finish up those in the compound.

By the time he exited the castle, she was up against the last few, but couldn’t speedrun the battle. So Arc had to sit and wait at the dried-up fountain, with no intention of assisting her.

He simply watched, taking note of her strengths and weaknesses. She had too many flaws, but fought decently for someone who’d lived a normal, youthful life until only a few days ago, when the rule of survival changed to kill or be killed.

The notifications rang again as soon as Liz scorched the very last one of the ghouls.

[Bonus mission completed]

[Calculating additional rewards...]

...

Arc swiped the notifications away from his vision just as Liz jogged over, her breathing disheveled, with a few strands of hair stuck to her damp face.

She moved them behind her ear with a finger.

"Hey," she said as she stood before him. "Did I make you wait too long?" she asked.

"You sure took your time," Arc replied plainly.

"I’ll... take that as a compliment," she said with a smile.

[You have received 15,000 EXP points as a reward]

[Random EXP Multiplier activated...]

[10× Multiplier triggered...]

[You have received 150,000 EXP points]

[You have leveled up! | Lv23 >>> Lv24]

[You have leveled up! | Lv24 >>> Lv25]

[You have leveled up! | Lv25 >>> Lv26]

...

[You have leveled up! | Lv31 >>> Lv32]

[You have leveled up! | Lv32 >>> Lv33]

[You have leveled up! | Lv33 >>> Lv34]

...

[You have leveled up! | Lv41 >>> Lv42]

[You have leveled up! | Lv42 >>> Lv43]

[You have leveled up! | Lv43 >>> Lv44]

"Oh my gosh. I just leveled up ten times. I’m at Level 22!" Liz exclaimed in shock as she looked up at Arc, only to see he was just as surprised as she was.

"What’s your level?" she asked as she navigated through her system to the party feature, her eyes widening in even greater shock. But almost immediately—

[You have been removed from the Party]

"Y-You... you’re—" she couldn’t bring herself to finish her sentence.

"We’re done here. I’ll sort through the loot later. We should leave," Arc cut her off as he stood up.

All the rewards had been disbursed to him as the party leader. But the system sent a notification of all the loot to every member of the party to ensure a fair distribution.

He began walking toward the exit, leaving Liz, who was frozen on the spot for a moment, before she regained her senses and ran after him.

"W-Wait, how are you at Level 44? H-How did you level up more than me when it should take you more EXP points to level up? What have you been doing all this while? Slaying dragons?!" Her mouth let loose like a broken dam as she switched positions at his sides, totally forgetting or ignoring his ’no questions’ rule.

Arc utterly ignored her as he calmly walked out the castle gates and got sucked out.

Liz followed closely behind, her voice crossing the void first before she appeared behind Arc once more, breaking the silence of the forest with her loud voice.

Arc turned to peer into her eyes, and her next words immediately got stuck in her throat. She pressed her lips together as she slightly leaned back, avoiding his gaze.

Arc kept his gaze on her for a moment without saying a word before he looked away and began walking down the path back to the extraction point. He knew dungeon time flowed relatively differently from reality, but there was no way to know for sure how long it had been. The best course of action was to return the way they came.

Liz quietly followed behind him this time, and they walked in silence for a while before they entered the clearing just as Felix and Jack were arriving as well.

Joan and Rose had been the first to arrive and were already waiting for them.

"I hope we didn’t make you wait for long," Felix spoke up first as they got close.

"Not at all," Rose replied with a smile. "We arrived not too long ago."

"Good to know. We discovered a river at the center of the island," Felix said as he took out water bags from his inventory and dangled them before the group with a smile. "We don’t have to worry about water anymore. Here, have a drink," he said and began passing the water bags around.

Arc had no reason to reject the offer and accepted a water bag. He inspected it to learn that the water bags had in fact been crafted from Silver Wolf hide.

Either Felix had learned the Crafting skill, or he had commissioned someone outside their party who had the Crafting skill to make them. Arc suspected it was the latter and found it impressive that Felix was already making acquaintances with other players.

He uncapped the water bag and took a few sips, unlike the others who were taking large gulps in their thirst, before sealing its cap and storing it.

Joan took a moment to catch her breath after drinking her fill before wiping her lips and looking up at Felix.

"Actually, we finished much earlier because I learned a skill that made the job easier."

"That’s right." Rose beamed beside her.

"Oh, that’s great news. What skill is that?" Felix asked.

"It’s called [Appraisal]," Joan said.

Liz’s heart made a somersault in her chest, and she turned to stare at Arc, only to see his expression was relatively calm, like it had nothing to do with him.

"Apparently, it lets me inspect items and objects to read their descriptions. I can read the description of almost everything on this island, and it helped us find an ore mine on the west side," Joan stated.

"Also, I can inspect people, and probably monsters as well, to read their basic info," she added, and suddenly moved her gaze to Arc.

Arc felt a slight tingling sensation and immediately knew she used the skill on him. Her brows furrowed in confusion at what she could—or could not—see. So she moved her gaze to Liz, who was standing with Arc, only to frown.

She shifted her gaze to Felix, then to Jack and Rose, and back to Arc and Liz, staying on the latter as her frown deepened.

"Liz, why can’t I read your info?" she asked right away, dropping the spotlight on the red-haired girl.

Liz slowly shook her head as she shrugged her shoulders. "How should I know?" she shot back with a raise of her eyebrows. "How should I know why yours is malfunctioning? Because I was just about to say that I learned the same skill too, but mine’s not broken like yours, and I can read everybody’s info just fine." Liz spun the tale.

"Then would you explain to everyone why you left the party?" Joan shot back as she crossed her arms beneath her chest.

Felix was confused by the question and quickly went to check, only to discover that Liz had indeed not only left the party, but her information was hidden now.

He looked up in surprise and confusion. "Liz, what’s going on?"

The red-haired lady was truly caught off guard now, and her lips parted several times, but no words came out. Her heart began climbing, and the harder she tried to think of something, the duller her brain became.

She wasn’t scared of being exposed. She was scared of losing Arc. She was scared of losing everything she’d achieved and built with him and couldn’t bring herself to look at him at this moment.

[GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT]

A large projection of a petite girl suddenly appeared in the sky, drawing everyone’s attention. Not just the party’s, but spanning across several human and nonhuman islands.

The petite girl spun around cutely as she spread her arms.

"WELCOME, BRAVE PLAYERS, TO THE BEAUTIFUL REALM OF THE GOLDEN AGE FILLED WITH OPPORTUNITIES AND DANGERS, WHERE THE STRONG ARE REWARDED, AND THE WEAK ARE TRAMPLED UPON."

Her cute voice boomed across the islands.

"MY NAME IS LAYLA, AND I AM YOUR NEW HOST."

’What the hell is going on?’ Arc frowned.