Purple patterns appeared on the gray floor of the Ancient Labyrinth Tower's top floor. They all flowed toward the center, where a Lantern emerged.
Buzz—
The scene twisted into a vortex for a moment, and four figures flew out, each holding hands with one of four scrawny Messenger Imps.
Gelman let go of the Messenger Imp's hand and looked down at the projection of his Hunter Badge.
"Lantern location: Ancient Labyrinth"
"Cooldown: 160 days"
One hundred and sixty days—that was more than five months. If they waited for the Teleport Lantern to fully cool down, they wouldn't be able to return until August or September.
However, with the Hunter Badge: Silver White Triangle, Gelman believed they could return sooner.
Now it was just a matter of when he could gather three more unused Teleport Lanterns.
Neither Gelman nor Shizuku was making her first trip between the Ancient Labyrinth and Rimuru Castle, so both of them seemed quite calm.
Morel and his student Knuckle, on the other hand, looked around curiously.
"So this is the Dark Continent? This is the Ancient Labyrinth?"
Gelman put away the Teleport Lantern, and the four Messenger Imps vanished.
When he turned around, he saw that Morel and Knuckle had already stepped out onto the balcony to gaze into the distance.
Shizuku pointed at a huge, obviously newly installed bronze-colored clock hanging from the top of the tower.
"Gelman, wasn't that clock not here before we left?"
"No, it wasn't."
Shizuku patted her full chest in relief.
"I thought I'd misremembered again."
Was that really what mattered here?
Gelman circled around to the back of the bronze clock and found an iron bar hanging there as well. He picked it up with both hands.
"I think Ging or Biscuit came up with the idea. We could