Chương 54

Ethan frowned as he tried to process Ani's guess.

''Can you explain the reasons for this assumption?''' First, it was something bartender Bob said in Ehrendil: Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. It was strange because from your memories I know that this is a quote from Nietzsche, and while it's possible that there are similar quotes in Azora, the way he said it doesn't sound natural in Azoran. As far as I understand, there aren't many dialects in Azora because the civilization here is much older and well preserved.''' Bob?

What does he have to do with the Olsens?''' Both he and Justin had a similar black ring with an ax symbol. It might be related because their design stood out among the other accessories the locals wore. Other than that, just like Katherine, Bob was also interested in initiating a conversation with you. You're giving a lot of clues about your origins. That might be their actual interest.''' That's a lot of maybes, Ani," he said, leaning back at the corner of the tub.

''Is that all?'''Another thing was Justin's abrupt laugh at your joke, sugar momma. There is no such phrase in Azoran. The term should be strange to him, but not only did he understand your meaning, but he also overreacted. This increased the probability of the assumption to 34%.'''I don't know, Ani. It seems a bit forced. We don't even know the cultures of the other places yet,'' he said with a troubled face, biting his lip lightly.

''Even so, it's not something I can ignore. I think the best move is to go and visit Olsens. At worst, I can learn what she wants from me.'' Ethan pushed himself up and dried off before absentmindedly walking toward the bed, reconsidering his meetings with Bob and Justin. Should I speak with Bob first? It should be safer than Katherine... Forget it. If she wished me dead, I wouldn't be alive right now. First thing tomorrow, I'll go to the Olsens and see what that's all about.

He slept soundlessly without any dreams. It was already noon when he woke up. Other than a slight headache, he was feeling quite energetic. Skipping breakfast, he went to the fancy bathroom once again. Since he was going to visit the vice president of Ehrendil's council, he wanted to be presentable at the very least. The outfit he chose was naturally the best he had: the wastrel noble robe he bought from Audrey. It was mostly black with silver motifs on its loose sleeves.

It had wide shoulders and a majestic image of a coiling white dragon on the back. Tying his hair at the back, Ethan looked at the mirror and found himself damn dashing… until he smiled. He was still missing a few teeth thanks to Travis's slap, and it ruined his image completely. Sadly, not even the high-grade potion fixed that kind of injury. There has to be dental care in this world… right? Maybe I should talk with the adventurer's guild about our rights.

Ethan shook his head with a wry smile and tried to remember Travis's twisted face when he'd lost his arm. It cheered him up right away as he went downstairs merrily. There was a busy crowd in the mansion. Almost everyone from yesterday was around, nervously talking with each other. He located Pete with a few others and joined them.'' Hey! Are you okay, Ethan? I heard what happened yesterday just now,'' Rachel called, running from the kitchen.'' Yeah. I'm good. More importantly, what are you guys going to do now?''

he asked, turning toward Pete.'' There will be a meeting in an hour. We'll decide what to do there. I'm guessing many people will leave, and we might even drop the mercenary business,'' Pete informed.

''I've been meaning to ask you. Can you stay around until the end of the meeting?''''I, uh, sure. I was planning to visit Ehrendil, but it's not something urgent.''''You should talk to him, Ethan,'' Michelle piped from the side, gesturing to Pete.

''We can still continue business as usual with a leader, but he insists he isn't fit for the position.''''He seemed pretty fit to me yesterday,'' he said, looking at Pete and lifting an eyebrow.

''Getting cold feet because of the crowd?'' Pete shifted his eyes.

''N-Not exactly. I-I'm thinking about what's b-best for–''''Yeah, I get it. I know your medicine, come,'' Ethan said, wrapping his arm around his neck and dragging him outside.

''First, we need to find a dentist, though. That does exist, right? Right?''''I can help you with that,'' Rachel said from behind, joining them briskly.

''More specifically, my senior sister could help with that, and your order should also be finished. We can take it before returning.'' Ethan blinked.

''Your what?''''M-My, you know… t-that's what we call each other. I-It's the custom,'' she said, flushing a little. Ethan stared at her, his lips pressing together. Rachel moved toward the door.

''Hmph. If you don't want it, suit yourself.'''' Hold on. I do want it!'' He ran after her with a grin, still dragging Pete. The trio moved along the streets of Niamaris while chatting. Ethan's hands were full of street food. Despite looking like a rich young lord, he acted like a bona fide country bumpkin, buying everything that smelled good and flashing toothless smiles at bad jokes.'' Hey, did any of you see Abraham? Beet was with him as well. Why didn't they show up yesterday?'' he asked between bites.''

He must've activated his silence runes once it got noisy,'' Rachel said, irritated.'' And even if you killed Leo in front of him, he wouldn't spare a glance at you,'' Pete added.'' Don't speak badly about my favorite guy. He is above worldly concerns. What do you mortals know?'''' You don't really think that he can create his golem army, do you?'' Pete asked idly.'' As long as you can rain money on him, I think it's only a matter of time. The dude was one of Earth's best scientists, hand-picked by Ani.

Don't let his conduct misguide you.'' Pete opened his mouth hesitantly, then closed it, a frown forming on his face.

''E-Ethan, I'm not sure about this being a leader thing. I d-don't have Leo's confidence or charisma. There's fierce competition out there from more experienced people. Even if I get chosen somehow, wouldn't I just drive our group off a cliff?'' Ethan opened his [Void Mute] to cover three of them.

''What if I told you that I know a safe haven? Not only can you acquire priceless skills and artifacts there after completing a trial, but you can also settle there, build a city, and make it your base of operations? Oh, and it comes with an option to teleport all over the continent.'' Pete and Rachel looked at each other in disbelief. It was Rachel who spoke first.

''What's the catch?''''Well, if you move without waiting for me to investigate, you might run into the property owners if they eventually return,'' he said.

''Although their tiers would be low, personally, I wouldn't want to mess with angry Ascendants.''''But the skills and the artifacts? Can we still acquire them and return?'' Pete asked in a hurry.''Sure. In exchange for some basic maintenance work and entertaining a friend of mine.''''I think we have a lot to talk about.''''No problem,'' he said, taking another bite from his crispy roast duck.

''That senior sister shouldn't take up much of our time, right? I'm guessing we'll buy some kind of elixir?'' Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.'' Nope. It's a good ol' dental implant, but much faster,'' Rachel said, and explained after savoring Ethan's expression, ''You see, growing a tooth is a bit complicated. Only some of the high-tier healers are capable of this, and naturally, they are hard to reach and expensive.

I saw my senior sister doing an implant before. She said that it's much cheaper and could last for a century without any issues. Also, once you make a breakthrough for tier-9, you can regrow your teeth yourself, but make sure to remove the implants beforehand.'''' Huh… How about missing limbs? Is regrowing an arm difficult as well?'''' No, it's actually simpler. Depending on their skills, most of the high-tier healers could do that, and it's much easier if you still have the limb undamaged.'' Ethan pursed his lips.

''If only I knew.''''But forget about going all foolhardy,'' Rachel warned.

''Master said that there are some rare skills mixed with soul attacks which make the healing very difficult, if not impossible.''''Actually, we made a small library for ourselves,'' Pete said.

''You should check that out. There are many books that are not available to the public. Not in the free cities, anyway.'''' Oh, nice! Just what I need. I'll definitely visit.'' They arrived at master Ruth's place shortly. The ground floor was a potion shop, the second floor was a warehouse, and the third floor was the workshops of her disciples. It turned out Rachel had two senior sisters and one senior brother in total. Ethan greeted them all with exaggerated bows, and they all seemed pleased.

So much so that senior sister Hailey didn't even ask for money for the three dental implants. It was hardly a surgery, though. She first gave him an anesthetic potion which numbed his mouth but didn't hinder his speech. Then, with the help of three different artifacts, she finished the job in five minutes. Since he was already here, he also restocked his potions. He bought 40 mid-grade potions of all kinds and 2 high-grade health potions for emergencies, planning to give half of them to Beet.

I need to train the little terror with his spatial necklace; he has to store the potion with an open lid and summon it to his mouth. Otherwise, there is no way he could drink potions with those scythes, and it'll still be me who has to help him drink them. After that, they went to master Ruth and took Ethan's two bottles of elixirs. She only charged him twenty mana stones in total and didn't even ask where he got the Aether Blooms or what he was planning to do with the elixirs.

Indeed, the kind lady, who looked about 30 years old, was exactly as Rachel had described. He had been counting on these Aether Blooms for months now. The moment they left the building, he took out one of the bottles and chugged it down right away. Like an ice-cold lemonade on a hot day, it refreshed his very being and sent chills throughout his body. With pressure building in his chest, he had to take some deep breaths to adjust to it.

'DING! You have gained 50 INT stats.' Only after hearing Ani did he give a satisfied smile. Man, I feel like I'm turning into one of Pavlov's dogs. How could this DING sound make me so happy? he thought as he checked his new resources. Health: 1500/1500 Mana: 2200/2200 Stamina: 868/1000 Awesome! Maybe I should've just gritted my teeth and killed some more birds in the Wish Well, just enough to get me tier-4. I really didn't feel like it at that time, though.'' So? How much essence did you get?''

Pete asked from the side, tilting his head.'' A whole 50 stats!'' he announced proudly.'' Stats?'' Rachel repeated with a frown.

''Like in the games?''''You… you didn't make a status panel?'' Ethan asked in disbelief and shook his head after seeing their confusion.

''You don't know what you're missing. What's the point of cultivation if numbers don't go up?'''' What's he talking about?'' Pete asked Rachel.'' I think Ani converts his gains into a game-like dashboard for him.'''' Oh, the status screen, right? I heard a few in our group do that as well. Honestly, I don't see any point,'' Pete said with a shrug.'' Not just that, I have a health bar, experience bar, and mini map.

I'm even considering getting quests from Ani for the things I'm going to do anyway, but it does feel a little meaningless without actual rewards or penalties,'' Ethan said with a smile. His eyes lit up a moment later. Fetching a spatial pouch from his cloak's inner pocket, he threw it to Pete.

''Right, speaking about gains, you should take this.'' Pete caught the pouch and sent his mana to inspect the inside of it. His confused expression turned serious pretty quickly.

''This is Leo's spatial bag. I can't take this, Ethan. I didn't even help you kill him.'''' Pete, I just killed your group's captain along with some of the strongest people you have. I'm not robbing you guys as well. Use it as a fund or something,'' he said and added after seeing Pete's troubled face, ''I already took the 100 mana stones the bastard received for my bounty. Travis's money ending up in my pockets gives me a dark sense of satisfaction, you see.

But taking anything more from Goldie feels like fucking over my fellow earthlings. I'm not lacking money at the moment anyway. Just keep it.'' With some struggle, Pete gave a curt nod. Ethan's wealth climbed up to 120 mana stones. He was itching to go for another skill but decided to hold himself back until he sold the Aether Bloom's elixir in Mirasatra and took a look at their famous auctions. They returned to the mansion slowly as Ethan explained everything they needed to know about Wish Well.

He also made Pete drink some alcohol on the way, by any means necessary. As they got close, he sent Rachel away to talk with Pete alone.'' Come on. That's the last one. Drink it up.'''' You said that for the third one before this already! I'm already reeking of booze.'''' So what? Drink it up. I know your limit.'' Pete murmured some curses and gulped another mouthful. Then, he received a powerful slap in the face, almost falling down.

''What the–''''Take deep breaths. Focus.''''What?'' Ethan helped him stand straight by holding his shoulders and looked into his eyes with a serious gaze.

''Remember, this is not about you. Everything you will or won't do will affect your people. From now on, there are two Petes. One is who you are personally, and another is the collective will of your group. Make the distinction between them clear, and don't let them influence each other.'' Pete gave a dazed nod.'' Now, first send away the bad apples. You don't need people who only look for profit or the ones who will follow you half-heartedly. Then, show the rest who the second Pete is. The will.

Show its desire to do anything to protect the tribe and let it thrive. Show how determined it is, and how solid its foundations are. Only after that, give them the good news about Wish Well, but as we spoke before, don't get into details. Just mention the good opportunity waiting for them all.'''' Okay. I think I got it,'' Pete said, looking pumped up.

Ethan patted his arm with encouragement and watched Pete stride inside the mansion's ballroom, where around 100 people were sitting on chairs and chatting in low voices. Following his friend, Ethan found an empty seat and sat on it. The guy sitting next to Rafael jumped to his feet and pointed at Ethan in rage.

''What is he doing here? We didn't even bury Leo's body yet. Are we really going to welcome his killer among us? Did you all forget about the things Leo did for us already? What about our sisters and brothers who passed away?'''' Get the fuck out,'' Pete stated calmly.'' W-What did you say?'''' I said, get the fuck out.'''' Who the hell do you think you–''''I'm the captain of the Earth Mercenaries! No. Actually, I'm changing that bullshit name. We're now called Stardust.

If anyone has a problem with that, get the fuck out of here, now!'' Pete shouted with an ironclad authority. Everyone was stunned. Michelle turned to look at Ethan with a weird look, to which Ethan replied with his own weird look. Well… I was expecting more of an 'I have a dream!' speech. I guess that'll do as well. The wonders of alcohol on this guy… In the end, only 15 people left with complaints, 2 of them even being biochip users.

From their furtive glances and stiff postures, Ethan had a feeling that his presence ensured that no one tried anything funny. He did seem to leave an impression last night. As Pete spoke about their future, sharing fortunes and disasters, becoming a single entity, and building trust with each other, the people who stayed began to look at him differently. When he announced the good opportunity for skills and artifacts, they didn't even react strongly, because he'd already managed to kindle hope in their eyes.

Ethan was genuinely impressed. He expected Pete to become a good leader eventually, but certainly not this fast. Who would've thought the guy already had a talent for it? And who cared if he needed a bottle of wine to loosen up? With their long lifespans and ridiculous regenerative abilities, he doubted that alcohol was even harmful anymore. Shaking his head with an amused smile, he [Blink]ed to the basement to check out Beet before leaving for the Olsens. What he found was a battlefield.

Abraham was in the middle of the room, surrounded by rune shields, and controlling five flying knives to attack Beet. Beet hovered in the air, fighting against poorly controlled knives with an excited gleam in his eyes, while all his shades were attacking the rune barrier with passion. Ethan slowly closed the door and left the two psychos to themselves. He [Blink]ed outside of the mansion and arrived at his destination with a long-range teleportation gate and some more [Blink]s.

The giant manor had a simple-looking design, pristine walls with plain but aesthetically pleasing colors, and a welcoming aura. It was like a small reflection of Ehrendil itself. With anticipation in his eyes and an easygoing smile on his face, Ethan approached the guards while giving Ani an order.

'Record everything, and the moment your assumption goes above 50%, let me know.'