chapter 10
Seven years have gone by in the blink of an eye. Today, we finally received our Adventure licenses. They honestly looked a bit like driver's licenses from my previous life. Naturally, these things are R enchanted to ensure there couldn't be any counterfeits.
Sophie approached and asked, "How is your mom so strong? It doesn't make any sense. I mean, she became an adventurer at 20 and retired at 50. Even back then, the amount of capital she needed to buy such a large number of properties and invest in those properties was significant, but that could be explained by getting lucky in a dungeon. Her strength, on the other hand, only the 12 demon knights and the demon lord are strong enough to fight your mother; everyone else would not stand a chance."Hidden realms are artificially created dungeons, and their entrances appear and disappear randomly. The one Mum's party had found had an accelerated flow of time. The few seconds' difference between them when they entered it was probably hours, days, or even weeks in the realm. As such, they were separated for the first couple of years before everyone met up again. My mother came across a Fountain of Youth.
There are two types of Fountain of Youth: the one that grants eternal youth allows you to drink only a single sip if you do not want to endure the most painful death imaginable, and the second type reverses aging. For example, if you're 70 and take a sip, you'll be 65. The type that grants eternal youth restores your body to its prime and stops your aging rather than simply reversing your age like the other type. The one found by my mother was the eternal youth type.
These fountains don't stay put for long as they always appear and disappear randomly, and the water becomes useless once it's a certain distance away from the fountain. So, you can't take any water with you. "Apparently, the person who created the hidden Realm had intended it as an artifact workshop. Judging by my mother's account, it was likely abandoned, as only failed prototypes remained. Yet, even these held significant value and could be sold at auctions for substantial amounts. My mother was the sole survivor of the expedition. She rarely speaks about it, "naturally, the adventurers' guild did inquire about how long it had been, but my mother simply didn't know. She would be 250 if she had never come across that hidden Realm, which is why she claims that she is 250. Many people accused her of lying, but I genuinely believe she had lost track of time.""She did the occasional dungeon dive just to acquire funds. Before the real estate market took off and she could live off the rent, apparently she spent half of her fortune on her house. Given how unnecessarily grand and luxurious it is, I believe her""Hey guys, I got tickets to the grand final match at the Colosseum! Oh, it's to celebrate all of us getting our licenses?" "Oh, interesting, I was unaware that any tournaments were going on at the Colosseum, let alone the grand finals," Sophie said. "Yeah, this tournament is for those under 100 years old, so it's not as popular. It's a battle of skills, so the competitors are only allowed to use steel weapons. Armor and enchantments of any type are prohibited, along with flight magic, teleportation magic, magical items, and magical tools."