Later, after midnight.
Gelman lit the Teleport Lantern atop the tower.
As expected, its light tore through the darkness of the Ancient Labyrinth, illuminating the distant reaches like a lighthouse.
Despite being so conspicuous, the Gold Bar Parasitic Species still didn't attack the Ancient Labyrinth Tower.
Their current task was to keep searching for more living hosts to parasitize and bringing them to the sea of blood beneath the tower. With fearless devotion, they dissolved themselves into it.
New Painful Bloodthirsty Apostles were being born.
Ging waved to the three of them as he watched them vanish in the light of the Teleport Lantern.
Once the light disappeared, only the pale moonlight remained atop the tower.
He was alone there, but he felt neither fear nor pity for himself. He was simply excited.
Starting tomorrow, he, the Ruin Hunter, would begin a true exploration of the tower and the Ancient Labyrinth.
Just as Don Freecss had done.
September 28, 12:15 a.m.
The Castle of Rimuru Lantern lit up, and three figures appeared in its glow.
Before setting out, the Gelman Squad had said they would return to Greed Island at the earliest by midnight on September 28.
And they had done it.
But no one had treated that as a definite, precise return time.
After all, they were challenging the Ancient Labyrinth, home to one of the Five Great Disasters, the Gold Bar. Its B+ danger rating was no joke.
No one on Greed Island had expected it to be an easy journey.
The Gelman Squad would almost certainly run into all sorts of difficulties, as well as some unlikely events...
It would have been perfectly normal if they hadn't returned as promised. The cruel but very real possibility that they might never return had also hung over everyone.
So