Chương 119: (B2) Chapter 46 - Preparation (2)

The world materialized around Ethan as he exited the Endless Coliseum for the second time. His heart hammered against his ribs, adrenaline still coursing through his veins even as the familiar surroundings of his room came into focus. His body knew he was safe. His mind was having a harder time accepting that fact, mostly because it was still trying to process what had happened only on moments before. He had died. There wasn't really any nicer way of putting it. The Sage had obliterated him.

Ethan's armor and aura had held up well enough against the first few spells, but that hadn't mattered once the attacks started coming from every direction. His aura had been torn apart, his armor battered beyond its limits, and eventually an icicle the size of a spear had punched straight through his chest. The Sage hadn't even given him time to properly react before following it up with enough magic to ensure there was no return.

A phantom ache pulsed through his chest at the memory, and Ethan sucked in a sharp breath. His hand instinctively moved to the spot where the icicle had impaled him, fingers pressing against perfectly intact skin. Yet he could still feel a bone-deep chill lingering throughout his body, as if a piece of that ice remained lodged somewhere inside him. He patted himself down more thoroughly, checking his chest and stomach before running a hand across his face.

"Fucking hell," Ethan muttered. He had entered the Endless Coliseum intending to test what the ability could offer him, and he supposed it had delivered on that front. Unfortunately, he hadn't exactly been given much time to explore its limits. He had barely lasted a handful of exchanges against the Sage before the fight had become completely one-sided. Ethan had tried closing the distance, but every attempt had been met by another barrage of spells.

The bastard had controlled the entire battlefield from the moment the fight began, forcing Ethan to react until eventually there had been too many attacks coming at once for him to do anything about them. It was humbling, to say the least. Ethan knew exactly how powerful he was for his level. His attributes were high, his skills were strong, and his cultivation gave him advantages most people on the second level couldn't hope to replicate. Against another level thirty combatant, Ethan expected to win.

Not necessarily easily, but he would enter the fight confident that he was the stronger of the two. Yet the Sage had been level thirty as well, and Ethan had been dismantled so thoroughly that it was actually quite embarrassing. Oddly enough, Ethan found himself smiling. This was exactly what he needed. Power had never been Ethan's problem since returning to the Trials. If anything, he had accumulated too much of it too quickly.

His skills had developed in different directions, his cultivation had changed drastically from his previous life, and his recent breakthrough had altered the way his mana and aura interacted entirely. He had Worldfire, Mana Infusion, Aura Overload, his poisonous aura and molten mana. Individually, every part of his build was powerful. The problem was that they were still exactly that—individual parts. The Sage had made that painfully obvious. Ethan had everything he needed.

Now he needed to turn it into something cohesive. His entire build needed refinement, and for the first time since regressing, Ethan had access to something that would let him push himself against opponents strong enough to expose every weakness without the rather unfortunate consequence of staying dead. That was going to take time. Fortunately, Ethan was more than prepared to put in the work. He rolled his shoulders and shook out his arms, waiting as the last traces of phantom pain slowly disappeared.

The chill in his chest lingered for another few seconds before finally fading with it, leaving behind nothing more than the unpleasant memory of being skewered. Ethan took one final breath, making sure there weren't any hidden consequences he had missed, before nodding to himself. Good enough. Despite having just experienced his second death, Ethan pushed the matter from his mind. He could dissect the fight later. Right now, he had more immediate concerns, and his plans weren't going to organize themselves.

Most importantly, he needed to know whether he could afford to hire the Gliders. With that in mind, Ethan grabbed what he needed and left the house, pushing the thought of death from his mind. —~~— Ethan left Seb with two things. The first was enough gold to cover both his and Striker's shares from the expedition. The second was a problem Ethan had no intention of helping him solve. The old man had tried to refuse the money, of course. Ethan had expected that much before he'd even arrived.

Seb still seemed to think he owed Ethan something for everything that had happened, and apparently accepting his rightful share of the expedition's profits conflicted with whatever he had created in his head. Ethan had allowed the argument to continue for all of thirty seconds before deciding he'd had enough and forcing the gold into the man's hands. They had all gone on the expedition. They had all risked their lives, and they had all contributed to what they'd brought back.

Ethan wasn't about to start taking larger shares simply because he happened to be the one carrying everything. If Seb genuinely felt the need to repay some debt, Ethan had given him another way to do it. Come with him to find the System Monolith. That had finally shut the old man up. Ethan hadn't pushed after that. The expedition he was planning wasn't some casual trip beyond Nexus's walls, and he wasn't going to trick anyone into joining it.

Seb knew enough about the second level by now to understand that traveling into unexplored territory came with risks. Ethan had simply laid out what he intended to do, told him he could use a healer, and left the decision with him. By the time Ethan departed, Seb had promised he'd think about it, which was good enough. Ethan would have preferred a yes, but he'd take an honest answer over reluctant agreement any day. More importantly, Ethan had left the meeting with a single golden coin. Love this story?

Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Combined with the ten silver already sitting inside his storage necklace, and the fifty silver for the skill upgrade token, it put him in a good negotiating position. One gold was nothing to scoff at on the second level. It was enough to buy equipment most people at his level could only dream of, fund a small expedition, or live comfortably in Nexus for a rather unreasonable amount of time.

Unfortunately, Ethan planned on doing at least two of those things at once, and he had a feeling his newly acquired wealth was about to disappear almost as quickly as he'd gotten it. Whether he could hire the Gliders and still afford to repair his armor remained to be seen. But if worst came to worse, he'd just have to go hunt another Wendigo. Its antlers alone had netted them half their profits. So he could only imagine how much he'd gain if he brought an entire body. But that was only half the reason.

The other half was because… well… Fuck all Wendigo's. Ethan looked up at the building standing before him, before heading inside. The Gliders were different from most of Nexus's larger guilds. While organizations like the Broken Dawns had planted themselves firmly within the city center, competing for the most visible and valuable territory around the System facilities, the Gliders had built their headquarters near the outskirts of the island. It made sense once you understood what they actually did.

Their wealth didn't come from dungeon teams or controlling territory inside Nexus. It came from transportation, exploration, and getting people to places they couldn't reach on their own. More importantly, they operated ships. Ethan pushed through the doors and stepped inside. The building was far less impressive than the Broken Dawns headquarters, consisting of a large open hall filled with tables, noticeboards, and several counters running along the far wall.

People moved constantly through the space, many dressed more like travelers than fighters. It felt less like a guild headquarters and more like a trading post, which Ethan supposed wasn't far from the truth. He waited near the entrance until someone finally noticed him.

"Can I help you?" Ethan turned toward the voice. A woman stood behind one of the nearby counters, looking at him with the mildly impatient expression of someone who had watched him stand around doing nothing for long enough. She looked to be somewhere in her thirties, with dark hair tied tightly behind her head and a thin scar running from beneath her left ear to the edge of her jaw.

"I'm looking to hire a ship," Ethan said. The woman straightened slightly at that, and Ethan was glad he was in his armor so she couldn't see his age.

"For transport?"

"Exploration." Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"You want to hire a ship for exploration? Where to?"

"Uncharted territory to the west. I believe there is an island around two weeks away. I want to explore it." The woman stared at him for several seconds before nodding.

"The Gliders can definitely provide what your requesting. But it's not cheap." Ethan nodded.

"I assumed it would be." The woman looked him over again, this time with considerably more interest.

"How long do you expect the total trip?" Ethan had considered that question already.

"Hard to say. I'm searching for something specific, and know the general location. I'd say around a month or two."

"Hm, let me run some numbers. Will you be providing protection?"

"I will."

"Okay. I'm going to need names and levels for each individual. We also supply guards no matter the case, in order to protect the ship. But with your added numbers we would expect you to participate. Is this going to be an issue?"

"No madam." Ethan responded.

"Right then. Let's work something out. Please come with me." She said, walking over to a couple seats, papers in her hand. Ethan followed her over and took the seat opposite. She introduced herself as Mara, one of the people responsible for organizing schedules for all of Nexus, which saved Ethan the trouble of being passed through three different people before finding someone capable of actually making a decision. He gave her the broad details without revealing anything about the System Monolith.

He needed a ship capable of traveling beyond the commonly explored regions of the second level, enough room for a small combat team, and a crew willing to remain outside Nexus for an extended period. He would provide the fighters and determine their direction of travel. The Gliders would provide everything necessary to keep them in the air. Mara listened without interrupting, though her expression became progressively less impressed as Ethan continued.

"While this is all do able, and the gliders do frequently pioneer the exploration of level two, there's a few small snags. Number one is a proper heading. We are happy to explore, though we need a good reason." she said once he finished. Ethan considered it for a moment, before looking down at a map that was engrained into the table. He pointed to where nexus was.

"We are currently here. I believe to the west, in between Nexus and Caldera, there are a string of unexplored islands." He said, pointing in the general direction.

"Now, if I'm right, and I know I am. Then that means first rights to any dungeon or other valuable item discovered. I'm willing to make a deal that lets the gliders in on the rewards for discovery." She snorted before leaning forward.

"One gold, eighty silver." Ethan's expression didn't change, but internally he winced. That was more than he had. And he still needed to get his armor repaired.

"I can make that work." Mara snorted.

"And fifty percent." Ethan frowned.

"Of what?"

"Anything sellable you bring back."

"That's excessive."

"You're hiring one of our ships to take you into uncharted territory with your word alone," Mara replied.

"We're supplying the ship, crew, provisions, fuel, maintenance, and taking the risk that we don't find anything. The coin covers the costs. Fifty percent gives us a reason to agree to it." Ethan leaned back and considered the offer. It was expensive. Very expensive, actually. Depending on what they encountered, fifty percent of the materials could easily end up being worth several times the upfront payment. Monster cores would complicate matters even further, especially if they stumbled across anything valuable.

Then again, Ethan wasn't going out there for monster parts. He was going for the System Monolith. Anything else was secondary.

"Fifty percent of sellable materials," Ethan said.

"Nothing provided directly by the System." Mara's eyes sharpened slightly.

"Planning on finding System rewards?"

"I just need to know where the line is." A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Fair. Anything harvested or acquired during the expedition that can reasonably be sold. Fifty percent belongs to the Gliders."

"Monster cores?"

"Sellable." Ethan grimaced.

"Forty percent."

"Fifty."

"Forty-five."

"Fifty."

"You don't negotiate much, do you?"

"I already gave you the price." Ethan stared at her for a few seconds before sighing. The Gliders had survived for a reason. Their ships were reliable, their crews knew what they were doing, and most importantly, Ethan knew from his previous life that they regularly traveled farther from Nexus than nearly anyone else. He extended his hand.

"One gold, eighty silver and fifty percent of everything sellable we acquire during the expedition." Mara clasped his hand firmly.

"Done."

"How soon can you leave?"

"A week." Ethan nearly smiled. That was better than he'd expected.

"I'll be ready."

"You'll need to give us final numbers before departure."

"That won't be a problem."

"And the coin is paid before we leave."

"Naturally." They shook once more before Ethan stood. The negotiations had been considerably less painful than he'd expected, even if his storage necklace was about to become depressingly empty. And he needed to hunt another Wendigo, He could live with that. Money was useful because it allowed him to accomplish things, and hoarding it simply for the sake of watching the number grow had never particularly interested him—well that was a lie, it had interested him once upon a time. Just not any more.

Anyway, he'd gotten what he came for. A week from now, he would have a ship. Ethan stepped back outside and looked toward the distant center of Nexus. One major problem dealt with. He had transportation, Seb was considering joining, and there was still enough time to make the rest of the preparations before departure. Things were beginning to move. Now he just needed to find some more money. It was a good thing he had a big sister.