Zich stepped out and stopped in his track Because the mansion standing in front of him was much larger than he had expected.

The estate sat atop a small hill, surrounded by tall stone walls that stretched far in both directions. A massive iron gate stood at the entrance, and beyond it, a long paved path led up toward the main building. Trees grew on both sides of the path, and several smaller structures, likely storage buildings, training halls, and servant quarters, stood scattered across the grounds.

The mansion itself was three stories tall, built from pale gray stone with dark wooden accents along the windows and balconies. Its roof curved elegantly toward the corners, and faint runic patterns glowed softly along the edges of the walls, indicating active defensive enchantments.

Zich slowly took it all in. Even back in his previous life, he had never owned anything close to this.

"The key, please," the driver said politely.

Zich handed over the silver token, and the driver pressed it gently against the rune carved into the iron gate. A soft pulse of light spread across the entire fence before the gate slowly opened on its own.

"From now on, the gate will recognize your presence directly," the driver explained. "You won’t need the token unless someone else attempts to enter."

Zich nodded. He stepped through the gate, and the driver bowed once more before climbing back onto the carriage and disappearing down the road.

Silence followed after the driver left. Real, complete silence.

It was just what he was looking for.

Zich slowly walked up the long stone path toward the main building.

The front door opened on its own as he approached, recognizing him through the same enchantment as the gate, and warm light spilled out from inside the entrance hall.

The interior was even more impressive than the exterior.

A large chandelier hung from the high ceiling, its crystals glowing softly with stored mana. Polished wooden floors stretched across the entire entrance hall, and a wide staircase curved upward toward the second floor along the far wall. Paintings, decorations, and small magical artifacts had been arranged neatly throughout the space, all clearly chosen to fit the mansion’s overall style.

Zich walked further inside, admiring the view.

The first floor contained a spacious living room, a fully stocked kitchen, a dining hall large enough to host at least twenty people, and several smaller rooms whose purposes he could not immediately identify. The second floor held bedrooms, six of them, each one larger than the entire shelter room he had been staying in earlier. The third floor was mostly a single open space, likely intended as a private study or personal training area.

But what caught his attention the most was the back garden.

When he opened the doors leading outside, a wide open courtyard stretched before him, completely surrounded by tall stone walls. Trees grew along the edges, a small fountain bubbled quietly near the center, and a flat stone training ground occupied most of the space.

And above there was a barrier. From outside the walls, no one could see, hear, or sense anything that happened within this courtyard. It was the kind of barrier that wealthy nobles used to hide their training methods from competitors.

For Zich, it was perfect.

A slow smile finally appeared on his face.

He stepped into the center of the training ground, took a deep breath, and quietly raised one hand.

"Tiamant."

Black particles immediately gathered in front of him.

The enormous bone dragon slowly took shape, its massive body unfolding into the open courtyard, and behind it, the twelve chained skeletal dragons emerged one by one. The ground trembled faintly under their combined weight, but the barrier above did not react at all.

There were no alarms, no disturbances, or frightened players banging on his door.

Tiamant lowered its enormous head toward Zich, its hollow eye sockets glowing faintly.

Zich reached up and lightly placed his hand against the side of its skull.

"Much better," he muttered.

The bone dragon let out a low, satisfied rumble that vibrated softly through the ground.

Zich looked around the wide courtyard once more, at the tall walls, the silent barrier, the open sky, and his enormous summon standing freely beside him without a single problem in the world.

For the first time since entering the Ascension Mountain in this life, he finally felt like he had a place that actually belonged to him.

That night, Zich slept peacefully on the large extravagant bed. As for the down payment, that was something he was confident he would get in a couple of days.

...

While Zich was sleeping without a care in the world, in another part of the privileged area, Jayden was calmly looking out the window with narrowed eyes.

The two lackeys he had sent had not returned so far. According to his calculations, they should have been back already. This delay could only be caused by one thing...

’Did he kill them?’

Tonight had been really strange. Just after he had sent out his minions to force the answer out of Zich or pin him as the one responsible for the death of Rael, a powerful presence had swept through the entire settlement.

’And afterward, they disappeared...’

Jayden’s gut told him those disappearances had to do with the appearance of whatever existence had produced that powerful intimidating aura.

The two lackeys had both been level 18 and 19. Jayden had thought they would be enough to deal with Zich, but he had clearly underestimated the latter’s strength.

Because fights were not allowed in the shelter, there was no way for Jayden to report the incident to the authorities, which made him grit his teeth in frustration because there was no way to know if his minions had truly died.

’I need to give them an answer,’ he thought, clenching his fist.

The longer Jayden took to provide the killer or an explanation for the smiths’ deaths, the more incapable he appeared before the family head.

This was not because of love. It was out of pride and ego.

Without hesitation, he picked up a communicator, a small basic device in the Ascension Mountain used to send messages.

[I need your help with something.]

A few minutes later, a reply came.

Unknown: [As long as the pay is generous. We good.]

Jayden: [Can you do the job?]

Unknown: [Hahaha, we’ve been in Layer One our entire lives. Plus, as you know, our networks stretch through the other floors as well, so if there’s someone who knows the mountain like the back of our hands, then it’s us failures.]