The boy came down from his sand castle to greet the woman. He stood in front of his castle and remained with a straight face.
"Welcome to my castle," he said as he led the woman towards the sand castle.
Just like in the desert, there was no one in the sand castle. Everything was built using sand. There were no tables made of wood, only tables and chairs made of sand.
However, the woman did not look surprised. She appeared to have come to the sand castle several times so she could adapt. She then sat in front of the boy.
"I'm sorry. I can only serve this to you," the boy handed her a glass that had been on the table since the beginning.
The glass, of course, was made of sand. Even what was in it also sand. That made the woman reject the sand glass with a smile.
"I really appreciate it. But you don't have to bother offering me sand. Sorry, I mean, a glass of water."
The boy gave no response. Instead, he drank the sand in the glass. He really drank it, making the woman wince.
"I came to talk about your contractor, Radmilo Laiv. His action is interesting. I would like to bet on him, but I'm more interested in Hector," the woman started the conversation as the boy continued to drink the glass of sand.
She was forced to continue her words because she did not want the room to be quiet. "Hector is a great contractor. If he can copy Radmilo's power, then he can overwhelm everyone."
The boy put down the glass but said nothing. He was thinking about Hector. What the woman said was true. Hector was another great contractor besides Radmilo.
The Prime Mover supporting Hector was not low-level either. Hector could make copies of people he touched. However, the copy would be automatically locked in its inventory and would only be unlocked if the people he copied died.
That was why Emrick's copy did not look old even though Radmilo had killed him using the <Speed Up> skill. Hector had copied Emrick's body when the man was alive. People would not notice since he copied Emrick moments before the emergency meeting started.
"Yeah, I admit Hector is great. But he doesn't know the detail about my contractor power. Radmilo will use his skills if he finds Hector planning to kill him," the boy voiced his opinion, ignoring the sand that came out of his mouth.
"Have you forgotten that my contractor, Maido, has the power to see the future? Hector can kill him one day to take away his power. When that happens, then he can know if Radmilo will use his skill."
The boy wiped the sand off his lips, saying, "I'm not sure Maido will lose that easily. He will have run away from Hector if the effects of Wren's power had decreased."
"I hope Wren didn't mess things up," the woman sighed then took out a gold box from under her cloak. "So you are going to bet on Radmilo?"
When the woman opened the gold box, the boy immediately scooped up sand from the table and put it in there. "This is the value of my bet. I can increase it depending on the situation."
"Oh, thank you, Lefter!"
"May I know who bets for my contractor?"
The woman shook her head. "You are the first person I came to. I will let you know after gathering the data. And I think I should go now."
"You may leave now, Thenia. I will greet you better when you come again."
Lefter, the boy, waved his hand with a straight face. Meanwhile, Thenia got up from her chair and left the sand castle while smiling happily.
The sand that filled this red place was no ordinary sand. Another Prime Mover wanted this sand but Lefter never gave it to them. They could not steal since Lefter could control time.
The Instruments who were ordered by their Prime Mover to steal the sand always end up in misery. The sand could control time. If the Prime Mover got their hands on this sand, they would create a magic hourglass.
The hourglass could make the user go back in time if the user reversed it. Because of that, Thenia was happy when she accepted the sand as a bet.
"I think I should think of something to keep my contractor from losing," Lefter muttered as he climbed the stairs.
People with high positions in this world had been watching over the earth for a long time. After making sure that the people of earth were developing in intelligence, they made a game that was considered doomsday for humans.
As long as the game lasted, Thenia was forbidden to use her power. She could see into the future and it took less fun to play if she knew who would survive in the end.
To add to the excitement of the game, the Prime Mover was given the freedom to create a secret with their contractors. Lefter chose to keep the use of the <Spool Back> skill a secret.
This caused the other Prime Movers to not know that Radmilo had returned to the past. On the other hand, Lefter also did not know the secret the other Prime Movers have. He had to keep his secret so they would not notice.
***
Clem had spent hours waiting for Radmilo to let him into the guild room. However, he became worried as he sensed that no one was there.
The axolotl monster reduced its size to a small size and ran into the guild. Clem got to Radmilo's room and there was nobody when he opened it. The man seemed to use an item to escape from the dungeon.
"I hope master is all right," Clem muttered as he remembered how bad Radmilo's condition was.
At the same time, Radmilo returned to his apartment. He wanted to test his power while his condition was still bad. Thus, he could figure out how many times he could use his power in a condition like this.
Radmilo snapped his fingers to stop time. However, a notification appeared, preventing his power from activating.
[Warning! Your state is currently unstable!]
[The <Pause> skill usage time will be limited for the safety of your body]
[Do you want to keep <Pause> active?]
"There are no usage time details here," Radmilo said while re-reading the warning notification.
However, he still did not find a line about limiting the use of <Pause>. Radmilo had felt something was missing from the system from the start, but he could not find what was wrong. It was like the missing thing was already in front of him and he could not see it.
Since Radmilo did not know the limits of using his power, he decided to activate <Pause>. It was the only way to find the skill's usage time limit.
Now the time had stopped. Radmilo would wait while doing a raid on the dungeon near his apartment. He did not go to a faraway dungeon because Dianella would interrogate him about it. Also, it was troublesome if his power suddenly reached its limit and he ran into someone he knew.
"Okay. Let me see what I can find here," Radmilo spoke as soon as he arrived in front of the dungeon which was five meters from his apartment.
The rent price for his apartment was cheap because it was close to the dungeons. There were still other dungeons there. However, Radmilo chose the largest dungeon of all.
[You have entered the Former Amusement Park!]
[Mid-level dungeon
Danger rank: B]
The notification appeared when Radmilo entered the dungeon. He looked around and found that the game rides in the dungeon were very dirty. Everything was filled with mud.
Radmilo only needed a little time to realize that the monsters in this dungeon were mud monsters. It was a troublesome type of monster in his opinion.
There were a lot of mud monsters in the Former Amusement Park. They would be a big ball if they united to attack Radmilo. However, they attacked the man separately.
"I don't want my clothes to get as dirty as my shoes," Radmilo said as he took a sword out of his inventory.
He swung the sword at every mud monster that attacked him. The monsters immediately realized that he was a formidable opponent. They step aside from the playground and huddle with each other.
A moment later, the monster darted to Radmilo to catch his leg. Their main power was 'glue'. If they could catch Radmilo, then the man would have a hard time escaping their glue power.
However, Radmilo noticed their intentions. He slashed them before running towards the Ferris wheel. The mud monster did not receive any significant effect from his attacks. They only separated for a few moments before getting back together as before.
The mud monsters chased again Radmilo with greater speed than a while ago.
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