Cade finally knew why Cynthia was like that. She was angry that her plan did not work. She thought that if she forced Cade, he will not agree and thus, she decided to gain his pity by saying it was fine for him to not join her party.
Cynthia knew that Cade was a good man and he might join her if she said that. She waited for him outside the dungeon, she took care of him when he was unconscious and she even said that with a regretful smile.
Unfortunately for her, Cade did not see her 'regretful smile' because she was too bright and he cannot see her properly.
People in the ward had gotten used to Cynthia and prepared themselves with sunglasses and they can clearly see Cynthia's regretful smile.
Looking at Cynthia like that, Cade panicked until the man on the bed beside him told him what actually had happened.
However, to everyone surprise, even when Cade already knew why Cynthia like that, he still refused to form a party with her.
Cynthia left the ward with sad face. Looking at her, Cade did feel a bit bad refusing her. Maybe he should reconsider joining her.
After Cynthia left, everyone around him in the ward joked about Cade refusing Cynthia and Cynthia will broke up with him because Cade did not want to form a party with her. Cade did not say anything and just went along with their joke.
Once his geniusphone fully charged, Cade checked the internet and 95% of the news was related to the time limit dungeon. Everyone was talking about it and fear can be seen among everyone on the social media.
The top ten trending topic on most site was about the time limit dungeon. Celebrity gossip and everything else were drowned by the time limit dungeon news.
It was understandable because it pertained to the future of the universe. Highest authorities from every star sector decided to convene a conference to discuss and planned the best counter for the time limit dungeon.
Cade forgot about asking Shihoon about the changed in the system but fortunately for him, he found about it online.
Apparently, the changes happened around the time Cade met the humanoid toad. He remembered that the system was still the same when he met the humanoid toad and that meant it happened after that.
He also wanted to know what happened to the humanoid toad but loses his chance of asking Shihoon about it. He decided to give Shihoon a call later. Calling Jonathan at the moment might not be a good idea because of what happened to his home planet.
Cade then started calling all the phone numbers that he got from Shihoon and thanking them one by one for saving him. He also did not need to call Shihoon about the humanoid toad because one of the explorers he called told him about the toad.
Cade was surprised to hear that the humanoid toad did not evaporate after it was killed. That explorer also said that they handed the humanoid toad's corpses to the authority as they suspected that the humanoid toad might have some connection to the time limit dungeon.
The reason they believed that was because the system changed immediately after the humanoid toad was killed.
The dungeon started changing before because of the appearance of the time limit dungeon and it was possible that the system was like that too.
News about the humanoid toad did not get online as they believed that the government was the one blocking the news from getting online. The reason was unknown.
The big tongue toad dungeon was also closed by Dineon's government as they feared that more of the humanoid toad was inside.
What happened to the humanoid toad's corpses were also unknown. They tried to ask the government about it but they did not get anything and decided to just leave it to the government.
If the humanoid toad was related to time limit dungeon and the government messed up with the corpses they got, they said the explorers will take action against the government. The explorers did not want to end up like Planet Snowball.
Other than the changes Cade had known about the system when he was inspecting it himself, he also found out another shocking changes to the system.
Due to his link growth skill, he did not find anything new happened to the skill function. However, to his surprise, the changes was so big.
Before the system change, skill cannot increase in level. The level of the skill depended on the level of the monster it came from. The same goes for their grade.
However, after the system change, all skill turned to level 1 of their respective grade and with frequent used or training with it will increase their mastery. Once the mastery reached 100%, the skill will level up.
"It is similar to what my link growth is capable of doing except, I need to use the magic crystal… I wonder if my mastery can increase without the use of magic crystal?" thought Cade.
Other than that, there were also rumors that equipment can be further enhanced to become stronger with the right materials but that was just rumors.
Another news was that, it was also possible to increase stat by training or doing something repeatedly. The news was not rumor as many explorers had tested it and it worked. However, it was really hard to achieve even one point.
Cade stayed in the hospital for few more days for further check up and during the duration he was in the hospital, he was reading a lot of news and new information about the time limit dungeon.
He also started planning on what he should do next. Entering another dungeon was not a bad thing but getting disconnected from outside world was a huge problem not only to him but everyone else.
Other than that, he started surveying online for equipment he can use to upgrade his clothes equipment as well as his mouth mask.
He found a few good one but it cost quite a lot. He did have enough money and he will have more, once he sold everything, he got from the big tongue toad dungeon.
However, since he was in the hospital, he cannot sell or buy anything online. He will do that once he got home.
Cynthia had been visiting Cade everyday since he woke up even when Cade had refused joining her party. However, after that day, Cynthia had never once mentioned anything about the party.
She came to see Cade and only talk about something else but it was mostly about their college. Due to many students and lecturers got worried about their loved ones, most of them went home and the college decided to close until the issue about the time limit dungeon became stable.
So, Cade had more time he can spend to increase his strength. The last day Cade in the hospital, he got a shocking news from Cynthia.
Cynthia decided to go home as apparently, the Golden Dragon Star System was also going through the same predicament as everywhere else.
A time limit dungeon appeared on one of the planets there and she was in the level limit of the time limit dungeon.
She came to meet Cade in the morning as she needed to depart as fast as she can.
"It is nice of knowing you Cade and it is regretful that we cannot party up together. Take care of your health well and I hope we can meet again in the future," said Cynthia as she was smiling sweetly.
In her eyes though, Cade can see that she was scared and even though she was smiling sweetly, the bright light was not present as usual but she needed to go.
She was not order by her family to enter the dungeon but she felt like it was her obligation as part of the royal family to enter the dungeon.
"Are you really leaving?" asked Cade. Cade did not know why, but he felt a bit heavy of letting her entered the time limit dungeon. He understands her reasoning but if she went inside the time limit dungeon, the chance of her not coming back was high.
Compare to Shihoon and Jonathan, Cade had spent much more time with Cynthia. He also got to know a lot more about Cynthia and they had gotten quite close with each other since he got injured. He had already considered Cynthia as his friend.
"How about the important role that you should be doing here?" asked Cade. Cynthia came to Dineon because a fortune teller told her that she will have an important role to play in the planet pertaining their future.
"That- It was just something predicted by a fortune teller. It did not mean that everything the fortune teller said was right," said Cynthia. She stood up from her sit as it was time for her to go.
"Goodbye," said Cynthia as she left Cade with a smile. Cade blankly stared at her leaving figure.
"I pray you to be safe…" Cade refused to say goodbye.