The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 395: The Portal!

“So, are you finally horny enough to use this communication skill in its intended way?” Margret asked as soon as Victor contacted her, she was wearing her crimson bathrobe and relaxing in front of her computer. She had just finished her morning shower and was in the mood for some stock trading. This was the lifestyle she always wished for!

“Ah… I have not considered that yet…” Victor seemed tempted. “Sadly, it is not the right time…” he sighed.

“Oh… Do you have a girl on your side?” she immediately asked. That was the only reason Victor would not say yes immediately to any perverted act.

“Ah… Maybe…” he answered. He clearly had more than one.

“Oh... A new one?” Margret asked.

“Is there any other kind?” he replied with a frown.

“Good point…” Margret replied, feeling a little defeated. If she corrected him she would be calling herself ‘old’! “So, if not for having phone sex, where are you contacting this lonely housewife who was left alone to rot by her husband who went away to expand his collection?” she asked. That was a mouthful.

“I am going on a trip… “ he wanted to add that it was also to expand his collection, but she interrupted him.

“You are leaving, where? For how long?” Margret snapped immediately. This was not the right time for Victor to be absent.

“Look, I don't have much of a choice here. It is to another world…” he didn’t elaborate. Choosing not to tell Margret about the scheme in the family yet.

“WHAT?” Margret asked in surprise.

“It is called Ismeralia, a fantasy world of some sort, but don’t worry. I plan to return in a month or two. I will be leaving the girls in your care…” he said.

It took Margret a few seconds to fully comprehend what he just said.

“You are not kidding?” she asked, just to make sure.

“Nope… I just contracted Lily to confirm some things, and this is the best course of action I can take in the current situation…” Victor sounded serious. “The family might presume me dead though, so I wanted to remind you to act a little sad and tell the girls to do the same or my parents might really begin to hate you…”

“I know… I know… Will we be able to contact you?” she asked with a frown as she looked at the tightly packed schemes schedule on her computer screen. She would need to change a few of her plans involving Victor. Super Troublesome!

“I don’t know yet… But we will act on the presumption that it would not be possible,” he said. “Just be prepared to implement any of the backup plans, I have a feeling that the Dark Chamber would use this chance to replace me, I would have done it that way if I were them, so make sure to warn all the girls!” he explained. “I believe the fake one will act as if he had just experienced something horrific, and fake an amnesia…”

“Don’t worry… I know what to do!” she said as she stopped modifying the spreadsheet. Fake Victor was a Victor too, she could use him. “Shall we proceed with the current plans?” she asked.

“I don’t see a problem with that, just be careful… Did you meet with the other side yet?”

“No, it will be in three days, I need to give Abe some time to read all the files on the phone…” she said.

“Good, make sure to keep Lin nearby at all times, and to inform Elise of any updates…” he said. “I don’t want to come back and have to rescue some kidnapped wives…”

“Don’t worry… The only one to be kidnapped will be Abe…” she said.

“Perfect! Remember to just make them remove us from their suspicion list and to only try to find out their identity!… I don’t like it when I am in the limelight and my enemies are in the shadows, we need to flip the situation around!”

“I know…” Margret nodded. “In fact, your absence will close one of our loopholes…” she said, readjusting one of her schemes.

“Oh… About my relationship with Crimson Pearl?” he asked.

“Yes… Don’t worry, I will tie up everything neatly on my end,” she nodded. “Would the family trouble us after you are gone?” she suddenly asked.

“Some might try… There was a failed coup attempt lately, and after this, Titus might get released as a favor to stabilize his grandfather. You have Mike’s and Alice’s numbers, just call them if that guy shows up…” he said in a worried tone. He was not sure about the situation of the family. “Oh, and if Lily doesn’t contact you, don't worry about her…”

“I never do… “

“Just tell Hilda and my mother that she went on a mission somewhere if they asked…”

“Fine… Is there anything else?” Margret asked. She didn’t like Lily much and she knew that Lily didn’t like her. That would never stop them from working together though, they did wonders in bed when they cooperated, forcing poor Little Victor to work extra hard!

“Yes, just call Alpha and the girls and inform them about my trip, tell them to be careful too…” Victor replied.

“I understand…” Margret said. “One last thing, when you finish will you return here straight away?” she asked.

“... Probably not…” he said with a sigh. “I will contact you though,”

“Oh… Good,” Margret didn’t need more. “How about we try something before you go…” she suddenly said in a seductive voice.

“Well... I….. “ he paused all of a sudden. “Something happened, I will contact you again before I go through the gate…” he said in a hurry and disconnected.

“Take care then…” she said to herself, pouting a little as she relaxed on her chair and gazed at the ceiling.

She was wondering how she was going to spend the next few months without Victor… Although she refused to admit it, She had become a little addicted.

She needed to get a bigger toy, it seemed… No, she needed to order a custom-made one, carved out of obsidian.

…

“Mistress… We found this under the rubble in a side tunnel… We think it was the artifact they were using to summon the Golems!” one agent said as they presented Ann golden cauldron.

“Did you try to activate it?” Ann, who was relaxing on a comfy sofa and observing the work around her in the tunnel while drinking a cocktail, asked glancing at the cauldron.

“There was no response… Our appraiser swears it is an artifact, but he says his rank is too low to see anything else…”

“Oh… Interesting…” Ann said. “Dust it for fingerprints and DNA samples, then send it to the vault… I will have a look at it later!” she said. She had more important things to take care of. And this vault would be a perfect trap… “Did you find Antonie’s corpse?” she asked.

“No… We believe he escaped somehow, as there was a broken part in our array that we presumed it was due to the shock earlier…” the agent answered nervously. For the last 5 hours that was the only explanation they could find.

“Oh… Find the party responsible for that part and question them…” she said just a man came running. It was Alfred who frowned looking at the cauldron then looked back at Ann.

“Is there news?” she asked. She was making him do the sensitive task instead of the injured Olaf, and although he was technically a supreme elder, he didn’t complain like the other snobby bastards.

“There are a lot of Golems at the left mine, they seem to be randomly patrolling the old chamber.” Alfred quickly reported. “The villages are all safe, as well as the miners who were locked in them…, The kids might be in trouble though…” He added.

“What?” Ann sat right up.

“The men I sent there reported that the tunnel they were in was one of the few who collapsed…“ he nervously explained.

“Continue…”

“Communications are not possible due to the nature of the minerals there, but the kids are alive, all of them, we checked their life jades… We believe that they are trapped in that chamber!” Alfred said, “I already sent the digging team but they are working very slowly clearing the rubble, but there seems to be a huge boulder that is blocking the tunnel…It is very strange as nothing is working against it…” he reported, looking at one paper in his hand.

“Did they take a sample?” she asked, relaxing a bit.

“We still need a thorough investigation, so we sent it to the surface, but the preliminary chemical analysis reported a 19.4% unknown material… The same one found in the mine in minute quantities…” he said.

“Oh…” Ann frowned. “Well, as long as the kids are fine, I guess we will have to wait… Hopefully, they will act responsibly and not make any…." She didn’t continue as an agent came running.

“What?” Alfred asked.

“Master… 30 Minutes ago... The... the life jade of Elite heir Jaiden Von Weise cracked… He is presumed dead…” the agent who came running from the communication office at the entrance said as he caught his breath.

“WHAT?” Ann frowned, she stood up and grabbed the report, taking a look at it.

“I thought you said the kids were fine?” she glared at Alfred.

“Ah… The chamber they were in is too close to the Volcano’s Magma chamber…” he suddenly remembered. “Could it be…” he didn’t continue as Ann suddenly stood up.

“Let’s go…” she said. It was not the time to lose the elite heirs now, as she was the one who chose that chamber and if anything bad happened to them, the family and the elders would definitely turn against her!

“Ahh… Where are you going?” Marcos, who was supervising the excavation by himself, asked as he noticed Ann leaving.

“To have a look at the kids!” she said in a hurry.

“The Golems are still loose down there… It is very dangerous!” Marcos said. He sounded worried. "What if Anonie still has some cards left..."

“The Golems are in the other direction… And I don't mind killing any idiot who appears before me! ” Ann said. although she might not look like it, she was an experienced player who conquered a lot of dungeons.

“Then let me quickly assemble a team and accompany you…” Marcos quickly said. “Just in case…”

“Suit yourself… But you better hurry…” she said. “Make sure to send any information about the kids directly to me!” she told Alfred as she hurried down the tunnel.

…

“Was it poison after all?” Zoe asked nervously, looking at the young man who fell on the ground with black smoke going out of his mouth an hour earlier.

Instinctively, she hurried to Victor’s side as the few eldest heirs hurried to check on the ‘corpse’ that began to turn black very quickly.

At first, everyone thought that the guy who seemed a little sick for the last hour had a heart attack or something, but a few minutes later two other heirs, the dead guy’s friends who touched him when he fell, began to show the same symptoms as he did earlier. Everyone began to panic, especially as fingertips and lips were turning black a sign of poisoning.

This made Mike quickly give them antidote pills and then order all the low-level players to stay away from them and the corpse.

“Yes… Let’s be careful and not go near anyone…” Victor said, grabbing Zoe and Kuu to his side as he appraised everyone in the room, searching their abnormal status of whether they were positioned. He quickly found four… five…. Ten… Damn, more than half of the heirs here were poisoned!

Victor frowned… and searched again searching for anyone with positioning skill.

It was pointless. Half of the heirs here had poisoning skills.

How about poisoning artifacts?

None!

Victor frowned. Then faced Mike.

“Brother, I think everyone here should take an antidote pill… what if this Poison is airborne?” he said. “What if it came from the gate!” he added. This was impossible though, the gate only transferred living matter.

Many nodded, What Victor said made sense.

“I don’t have a lot of those…” Mike said with a frown. “Only S-rank pills seem to work…” he sighed as the few who had pills like that quickly took them.

“I have some!” Victor said, “Did you forget my class!” he proudly added, taking a bunch of pills. “I will take 10000 Coins for each! I am a merchant you see… This pill not only cures 99% of all S-rank poisons, but it also provides protection for the next 10 hours! ” he added before anyone could thank him, causing many to frown. This bastard never cared about them, he just wanted to sell pills!

“Cousin… Not many have that money…” Bill, who was acting righteously, said. He was telling the truth. That much money was about half his fortune, and he was one of the rich ones!

“My brother can give you a loan! You just have to leave something with him as a guarantee…Maybe a promise for some favor...” Victor quickly replied with a smile as he took two pills and casually put them in Kuu and Zoe’s mouths. “On the house…” he said with a dashing smile.

Zoe, who was poisoned too, blushed and looked away as the pill dissolved in her mouth… If only he was not a pervert…. WHAT WAS SHE THINKING! HE WAS HER COUSIN!

Bill, who watched how Victor casually dismissed him and then began flirting with the girls, frowned… He never liked this brat! If Mike really helped those heirs, he might be able to focus them to support him later!

“Cousin, I think…” Before he could say a thing the entire tunnel shook causing the gate to expand a little as the heirs retreated toward the entrance.

BANG

BANG

BANG…

Someone was banging on the boulder from the other side, trying to break it with some skill. This was the third time they tried. And they were clearly getting impatient as the attacks were getting stronger.

“Shit… If this goes any longer, the gate might really swallow us before they reach us!” a guy said nervously as the gate began to say again.

“STOP!” someone tried to call for them, but the sound was not reaching. They have already tried communicating before in various ways from shouting to tapping on the walls, but nothing worked… Nothing unless they tapped the walls hard enough to shake the entire tunnel, and that was not an option.

Victor frowned, he needed to do something, or the portal was really going to swallow everyone here.

He quickly let go of the girls and hurried to Mike’s side.

“Brother… Give those to our cousins… we need to get their IOU before the gate swallows them!” he said in a hurry causing not only Mike but everyone else to silently curse at him…

Looking at the gate though, they all hurried to get a pill though…

If the gate was really the origin of this poison, this would be troublesome!

As the heirs hurried, Victor casually inspected them… Marking those who had their own pills… Only five left, one of them was probably the culprit.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The noise from outside intensified again making the tunnel shake and the portal sway. The heirs quickly stuck themselves to the walls again as the portal grew larger then smaller… This time it was a little larger than before.

Victor frowned.

The pebble that anchored the Portal was at the moment stuck at a small island of solidified rock on the face of the Magma, but it would not take long for it to be dislodged if the attacks outside.

This might appear dangerous, but the last movement of the gate gave Victor an idea about the portal’s relation to the pebble’s axis of rotation.

Thinking for a moment, he decided to try something… He was going to try this at the last part of his plan, but he didn’t mind doing it a little earlier, it was just a little risky…

Activating his disguise skill, he took out his trusty Ethereal Fishing Pole from his storage space, he aimed at the Magma and threw it.

The pole’s ethereal line flew directly, not hedging down, but up as Victor tried to make it past the walls of the cave.

BANG…

The line was cut…

Victor frowned. The wall of this cave seems to contain too much sacred Iron that absorbed the man of the ethereal line when it went through it.

He needed a physical attaching point, so he quickly looked around and found some protruding rocks, remnants of the collapse earlier.

He quickly formed a line again using his energy and threw it. Making sure not to go inside the walls, he made go just around the rocks, Barely touching them.

Then he made it move to the peddle, going around it without touching the magma, and then he made it go up again to another rock.

Slowly he began to form a web around the pebble to support it. He had just to make sure not to make it move in an unwanted direction.

BANG!

BANG

BANG…

The shaking started again…

This time though the lines successfully supported the pebble, making Victor sigh in relief…

BANG!

“DAMN!” Victor cursed.

Out of nowhere, a bubble in the magma burst, causing some splashes of hot sacred iron to touch the line… It was severed again, causing a backlash in him that sent him backward into Kuu's embrace.

He couldn’t help but cough up some blood.

“Are you ok, young master?” Kuu asked nervously as she wiped his mouth with her sleeve.

“I am fine…” he said. “This is definitely that poison. Thankfully I took the pills before…” he added, making the few who were still hesitating hurry to take some pills from Mike.

“Um…” Kuu nodded worriedly.

Victor just patted her head, then looked at the pebble. This was tricky… It seemed like he couldn’t delay his plan any longer.

Damn it… He really wanted to know the full scheme before leaving….

He sighed again and prepared this pole.

BANG

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSshshshshshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Suddenly a different sizzling sound could be heard from behind.

Looking back, Victor noticed as the impregnable boulder turned green then black before it slowly melted releasing a ton of some very nasty fumes. The chamber was full of black smoke, but no one cared, as they realized that help had come!

It only took it 5 minutes to completely be gone.

From behind Ann Von Wiese slowly entered the chamber with her high heals, followed by a group of guards and a few worried elders, including Alfred who sighed in relief when he noticed Victor.

“I SAW IT FIRST!” a large man jumped right up in front of her, causing her to kick him to the side before she made sure it was one of the heirs… It was his fault for jumping out like that.

“Sow what?” Ann, as she made sure he was still alive. This guy was as durable as a steel Dildo.

“That!” Bruno, who seemed to have lost a few teeth, said without caring, probably expecting a reward. He pointed backward, making An follow the direction of his finger with her eyes

Through the smoke, the first thing she saw was the hole in the wall…

The magma lake…

Then she saw it… THE PORTAL!

“SHIT! Everyone out! NOW!” she said as she turned around then something flashed and Ann who was not prepared, seemed to have hit an invisible barrier and she was thrown away, nearly falling into the Magma lake if she did not make a back flip and support herself in time.

As she fell on her knee, she inserted her adamantium-made high heels into the ground, supporting herself a few feet away from the cliff behind her.

Disregarding her torn dress she stood up and looked at the entrance where a new light barrier was erected, shimmering with intense energy. Behind it, a man stood straight with a victorious smile on his face.

“IT WAS YOU!” Ann who was shocked and furiously shouted. It didn’t take much IQ to put things together. The man was none other than her pushover husband, the patriarch, Marcos Von Weise.