Endless Evolution: Last Star Chapter 2060: Storage in the middle of nowhere

Silvana had expected that she and Gladius would head to Relana’s atelier. Still, instead, they found themselves in front of an abandoned warehouse somewhere in the middle of the vast Second Ring.

"What are we doing here?" Silvana looked back.

There was nothing around them but endless fields and a few clearings.

Unlike the Third Ring, which was full of residential buildings and factories, and the First Ring, where most of the shops and commerce were located, the Second Ring was a rather quiet and even desolate place.

Most of the Second Ring was set aside for farms, livestock, crop cultivation, factories, and so on. This part of the Citadel produced most of the goods used in the Third Ring and First Ring, yet, despite its size, relatively few people lived here.

A single skyscraper in the First Ring housed more people than several square kilometers in the Second Ring.

Gladius walked up to an old door and picked up a key from under a rock by the entrance.

"This is my little storage unit. It might seem strange to you that someone like me would choose a place like this instead of something well-protected at the Zero Vault. But the view is nice here, and most importantly, it’s quiet. Also..."

Gladius pointed to the side.

"There’s only one road leading here, and you can’t get here in a regular car - you need an SUV."

"So, what’s in this storage unit?"

Gladius waved his hand.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. It contains everything I found interesting during this World Wipe, as well as things I might need from time to time. As you can see, this isn’t my main storage, it’s just one of them."

Silvana nodded as Gladius unlocked a simple iron lock and stepped inside.

There were no modern security measures here, nor any combat AI ready to report intruders and neutralize them.

For this storage unit, it was enough that, unaware of its existence, no one would ever come here, let alone try to break into some rusty, forgotten-looking storage unit.

Click.

Gladius flipped the switch as the lights came on, illuminating the storage room.

As soon as Silvana stepped inside, she froze, her eyes widening.

To the left was a section for various weapons, not only rare swords, spears, and axes that had once belonged to powerful monsters, but also artifacts, some of which looked quite eerie.

On a stone slab, a red orb hovered, covered with a multitude of open eyes. Its amber pupils moved in different directions until they settled on Silvana and filled with curiosity.

Silvana gulped, but decided not to pay it much attention. She realized that for someone at Gladius’s level, this was most likely nothing more than a trivial matter.

"What about this axe?" Silvana asked, pointing to a massive icy axe hanging at the top of the wall.

Gladius glanced over his shoulder.

"Oh, that one belonged to a rather capable Ascended Lord. If that guy had been more careful and I hadn’t had to deal with him, he would definitely have become a True Lord one day."

Then, Silvana’s gaze fell on yet another artifact.

It was a hand as black as charcoal. It stood upright on the table, while its purple fingers moved from side to side. Still, the hand showed no sign of going anywhere.

"What about this one? What can this artifact do?"

"This thing?" Gladius scratched the back of his head. "Right, it was one of the artifacts belonging to a pesky clan. They’d kept a low profile for a long time, but then they decided they could lay down their own rules in the Primal Lands. Well, the Old Light and I had to show them they were wrong."

He pointed at the hand.

"This is my trophy. As far as I remember, it can create an obsidian prison for a single target, while spirits actively drain energy from it. Something like that."

Silvana nodded.

’The Old Light... The guild is the only faction in the Primal Lands, not counting their numerous clans. Hmm, so Gladius and the other Second Rank Phantoms sometimes work with them? That’s interesting.’

Her eyes scanned the various weapons before turning to look at the right side of the storage area.

Stored here were neither weapons nor artifacts, but various paintings, statues, monster parts, rare materials, and so on. It could have been anything from a dark horn that occasionally spewed flames to a bright amber root that seemed capable of glowing forever on the energy it possessed.

"I take it all of this is also your trophies, and you found all of this while carrying out your missions in the Dead Lands?"

Gladius shrugged nonchalantly, keeping his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, something like that. I’m a Second Rank Phantom, but that doesn’t mean all I do is relax and drink cocktails at fancy restaurants. None of us can live without battles, and we all understand that the Citadel needs our help."

"Are the other Second Rank Phantoms just like you?"

Gladius smirked.

"Well, they can’t be exactly like me, but I see what you mean, so yes. Even the heads of the Twelve Branches often take on missions and consult with the Gamma Division, they’re usually the ones who give us our missions."

"Huh..."

For some reason, Silvana hadn’t expected to hear that.

"What surprises you so much about that?"

"N-Nothing, just..." Silvana stumbled over her words. "After K2-Level, Adam practically stopped taking missions. He focused on his own progress and only completed his trials. The last mission he had was hunting Breydar, and he completed it."

Gladius nodded.

"Breydar was a powerful monster, and what’s more, Adam also killed members of the Veiled Souls Clan, and as a result of that whole situation, one of the True Lords died. You underestimate just how many lives this will save for the Citadel in the future."

Silvana gulped. She had never thought about it that way, but Gladius was right.

One Viscount whom Adam had defeated could, under different circumstances, have killed dozens of Phantoms.

"Alright, enough about that, we came here for something else." Gladius pointed ahead, toward his small workshop right here - at his storage.

He picked up a pair of scissors lying on some pieces of fabric and snapped them open and closed several times with an excited expression.

"How about we figure out the design for your outfit?"