They were dark masters without doubt or ones who controlled them behind the curtains. He didn't care who they were, just wanted to know their identities to start planning a decisive blow for them in the future.
After the end of this war, he released his friends and team to collect more loot. The masters of this kingdom went towards their king, leaving behind endless corpses of monsters and dark masters. And William collected all of this loot for himself.
Weirdly enough, the masters who came with him from the other world showed great interest in doing the same. William didn't know that his effect on them was deep, and they learnt from his friends and team how to properly scavenge the battlefield.
As everything became calmer, William found a safe spot, isolated from all the ruckus going on around. It was a small hill, and there he carved a cave using his flying weapons, sat down, and started to examine the rings.
"It's regrettable I didn't collect the cores from the monsters I killed…" He mulled over this point, yet wasn't that bitter about it.
In the middle of that war, he didn't have any time at all to breathe. He was fighting in the middle of a flood, without a moment given to him to collect anything.
On top of that, the monsters he fought and killed were all weak, and wouldn't donate that much of spirit points anyway. He knew the last stretch between him and the dark gold grade would be crossed by old-fashioned training. In addition to the absorption of spirit power stored within his fox statue back at the Scorching Lands city, or from the things he acquired from the other world.
Arriving at the gold grade wasn't a problem, but starting from there his real struggle would start. The monsters he could kill and devour their cores would grow scarcely low in number, hardly found in the first place.
That meant he'd depend mainly on his training techniques, a thing that'd take him long years to reach the pinnacle of power.
He was ready for such a step as he already foresaw it from the start. But when he felt he was this close to overstepping in that domain, he started to miss the old good days.
"What's the problem in killing monsters, devouring their cores, and levelling up?" he shook his head while laughing in mockery over his personal greed, "anyway, as there is a path, I'll dauntlessly tread it!"
He started to open the rings and check their content. All the rings were sealed, but he had the right method to crack them open. Using his darkness element solved everything, and he found tons of stuff inside every ring.
Be it gears, materials, cores, even riches, and crystals… He found tons of things there, but not the things he truly wanted.
"Come on, where the hell is that thing?" William was sure the source of this toxin came from a portable item. Sloth gave him already inspiration about this, and he was looking for something similar to that candle.
Yet after a few hours, he went through hundreds of rings without finding anything of value. The most he found was a group of scrolls,
He randomly checked them, and they were all sealed. He knew the right method to read their content but decided to do this when he'd return back to the Scorching Lands.
He knew Lara wanted him to return back to her city with her, yet he didn't like this. The next period was going to be tough, needing lots of time to close on himself and focus on training.
Besides, he'd need to focus on his friends, team, and the newly gained masters. He'd search for the gems among all that, and start supporting them totally using his vast knowledge and growing net of interests and guild.
Not to mention Karoline. She was currently so weak, but she was the most important asset he had gained since coming back in time.
As he was going through all the rings, he suddenly received a call from Sloth. The latter's tone seemed more cheerful, as the disaster facing the kingdom ended at last and the king was safe.
"The king wants to meet me? Right now?!" William was surprised when he heard what Sloth said, "Isn't the capital destroyed?"
Sloth explained in brief what the king intended to do, and why he wanted to meet him. Sloth was also invited, something that William took as a move to appreciate both efforts in this war and even reward them.
"You have to come, he is the king after all," Sloth knew William enough to read his lack of enthusiasm to do this.
"I will come," William took in a deep breath, "I need to speak with him about different issues in the end."
William's guild was in the kingdom, so it was foolish to not have good ties with the monarch leading the entire place. At the same time, he did indeed want to speak with the king about a few things.
He looked at the many rings he hadn't checked yet and decided to postpone such a task. Sloth asked him to start moving right away to meet the king as soon as possible.
"Let's go," William was inside the cave he created, but wasn't alone. Lina was there, per habit, and Karoline as well. The two kept their silence, as they got used to what William was doing.
They heard him speaking with Sloth and got what was going on. "Why do humans have kings? Are they like the strongest monsters in a region?" Karoline returned to speak weirdly in the eyes of Lina after behaving normally during the past war.
"It's something similar," William casually responded while he led them toward the King's location.
"I want to see what a king looks like."
"Is he a normal human? Or a giant?"
"Does he roar?"
As the three of them travelled, Karoline kept speaking like this, making even William feel irritated by her.
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