Once Rey left the Eighth Floor and returned to the Hobgoblin Clearing, he was once again welcomed by their subservient bows.

Rey was already so used to this that he merely waved his hand and they respectfully dispersed to fulfill their respective roles.

He called for competent-looking Hobgoblins—twelve in number—and decided that they would be the team responsible for his Monster Core Harvesting.

Spending the rest of his limited time bringing them down to the Eighth Floor and explaining how they were to trail straight down and harvest all the Monster Cores that were left there, Rey could see that the Hobs understood him.

'Is it just me, or have they grown more intelligent?'

He shrugged it off as nothing, deciding to remain as skeptical as possible.

'I'll come back tomorrow to see how they fare. Hopefully they get this on their first try.'

That would remove a lot of hassle from his future endeavors.

'I would have told them to burn the corpses, but I don't want them to start a fire down there…'

It was better to give them one instruction at a time.

To ensure the Hobs could make it down and back up, Rey provided them with a rope long enough for such.

They would use the rope to descend and ascend—a task pretty simple for Hobs.

He knew it would be harder to climb back up due to the load of Monster Cores on their backs, but Rey didn't think it would be an issue.

"I should get going now…" Rey caressed BMM's Monster Core as he shoved it into his [Subspace], right beside his rack of Platinum Coins.

There were some items he just had to fit into his [Subspace], and not just leave them in the Hobgoblin Hideout.

'About forty-five sacs of Monster Core should remain with me in [Sunspace]…'

And then his Spatial Ring was also locked in there along with more stashes of Monster Core, his Platinum Coins, and finally… BMM's Monster Core.

'That leaves only three free spaces in [Subspace]'s Slots, but that's no big deal.

He already had the Royal Dungeon's staple mask and goggles on, so Rey proceeded to make his exit.

'Need to get a lot stronger tomorrow!'

********

Rey arrived in the Royal Estate and found some commotion in the compound.

He didn't know what was happening, but it seemed there were a lot more than usual taking patrols in the Estate.

'I should probably avoid them…'

Rey utilized [Stealth] with an array of other Skills to blend in with his environment and escape their gaze.

As a matter of course, he was successful with it.

'Ahh… I really need a shower. I hope everything is fine, though.'

Rey had a bad feeling clogging his heart, and despite his best efforts to calm himself, the feeling wouldn't go away.

'Must be the leftover tension from earlier…' He huffed, remembering how BMM made him feel during their encounter.

'To think I'll be fighting stronger Monsters than that tomorrow.'

He couldn't describe how he felt about it. It was a mix of fear and anxious excitement.

Rey wanted to do it right there and then, but he also recognized that tons of preparations had to be made before jumping right in.

This complicated thought process occupied his mind while his heart raced for some weird reason.

He found a few more guards on his way to the Otherworlders' Living Quarters, which struck him as strange.

'There are usually no guards stationed this close to us…'

Not only did the Nation believe they could take care of themselves, but having guards watch over them that way would make a lot of his classmates uncomfortable , so they desisted from it.

'There's also the fact that they can't afford to waste all that manpower…'

Rey felt like this was perhaps the most influential reason for their decision.

'So why are there guards here now? Did I miss something?'

Curiosity, but also nervousness, rugged at his chest as he approached the door.

Fortunately, it wasn't guarded.

'Maybe I'll just ask Trisha what's up.' As Rey opened the door, he had a slight inclination that perhaps he shouldn't.

He couldn't quite place it.

It wasn't [Danger Sense], since that only alerted him when some kind of harm was approaching.

This feeling felt intuitive—almost instinctive.

Despite that, Rey ignored it.

'I really need to freshen up and go to the Library…'

As a result, he twisted the knob and ventured into the living room.

What his eyes saw, however, stopped him dead in his tracks as soon as he entered.

'W-what's going on…?'

Right now, all of his classmates were in the Living Room.

Yes… ALL OF THEM!

Guards were also there—about ten of them, all of them looking like elite soldiers.

'What is the meaning of this?'

Head Warrior Brutus and Grand Mage Lucielle were also around, and they were initially facing the classmates—which meant their backs were turned to Rey.

However, the moment he stepped in, everyone turned to look at him.

His classmates raised their heads and stared at him. The guards stopped everything they were doing and stared at him, and the two strongest in the Nation slowly turned to look at him.

Literally all eyes were on Rey.

"Look who finally decided to join us." Lucielle was the first to break the silence with her sweet voice.

Despite sounding playful per usual, there was a strange sense of seriousness about her vibe.

"Rey Skylar, you are—"

"Wait!" Adonis swiftly stopped Brutus from saying what he was about to utter.

He quickly rose from where he sat among the rest of his classmates and approached the unmoving Rey.

"Rey… something serious has come up."

As usual, Adonis had a very calm and respectful tone. His smile was relaxed, but his gaze felt purposeful.

He was being serious right now.

'What happened? What's going on?' Rey's thoughts echoed as he watched Adonis near him.

And more importantly…

'Why is everyone looking at me like that?!'

"Rey, could you tell us where you've been all day?" At this point, Adonis placed his hand on Rey's shoulder.

He could feel a slight pressure emanating from his hand.

Rey wasn't sure if Adonis was doing it intentionally or not, but it felt immensely threatening.

"Please, Rey… tell us everything."