Chapter 19 - Childrens

'Now, hopefully, with the Hatch group clearing the tower, the only threat that will remain will be the level four gate.' Thought Lux as he left the shop, heading straight to the refurbished apartment building next door.

'However, the current Proteus is also starting to lack in resources and monsters. With only 55% in monster danger and the ressources having reached tier 0 at 100%, the attraction of the celestial body behind the gate and worth of the entry ticket will continue dropping.' He continued as he went back to his space wanderer skills.

'I'll have to continue research for new coordinates to unlock another portal soon enough. After all, there are about twenty days until I need to close that portal. The energy price is already restarting to increase.

Otherwise, I'll have to directly spend the full amount of credits in the system to unlock coordinates.' He finished with a shake of his head as it would be extremely wasteful to spend his credits fully on a new planet when he could get it for half the price once he found it.

Arriving in the apartment building, he wasted no time as he reached the shared common room of his group of subordinates, finding four out of six of his guards as the other two were working. It was diner time and as such, were taking a break from training.

"Good afternoon. How is your training?" Asked Lux as he greeted them, heading straight to the point.

"We've all reached level three warriors except Frank who reached level four." Reported Bob who got up from his chair as he saw his boss enter the room.

"You have the pattern until level five, yes?" Confirmed Lux who knew that the warrior pattern was freely accessible until this level.

"Yes. While we only had access to the first four patterns back on Houvis, we got the level five pattern after going through the books you handed us." He replied positively as they had all felt pretty great knowing that there was another level they could reach before having to find the next pattern.

"How about skills, do you guys have any?" Asked Lux once again as none were freely given out to the public. Each of them were prizely kept by various groups and organizations, being the development effort of their respective group.

Skills were what made a profession extraordinary. While the increase in energy by improving the profession level was important, to make good use of that energy required specific skills.

"From the Armbane guild, we were only given skills based on our contributions and amongst all of us, only Frank managed to get one. He shared it with the rest of us once we started training." He explained before showing a piece of paper with the skill information.

{Warrior Skill - Taunt}

Looking at the information, Lux was surprised by its simplicity but was pretty happy that they had at least brought a single skill with them.

The skill, once used, forced the target to turn towards them for five seconds. The skill would affect stronger people and increase its effects on weaker people by levelling it up.

"This skill was especially given so that we could become the meat shield for the actual members of the guild." He explained. As former slaves, their worth was next to nothing and would be used to the very end.

With a nod of his head as while he sympathized with them, they were at least proper employees now. There was nothing more he could do for their pasts and instead, for both himself and them, he'd make sure they became stronger.

"Alright. Once you reach level five, come to me and I'll get you a new warrior skill. After that, we'll use contribution points for the new skills." He said as their eyes lit up in excitement. After all, they were going to receive a new skill free of charge once they reached level five.

Leaving the apartment building, he headed straight back to the shop. Unfortunately, he didn't have any friends in this world and he neither had any family. As such, taking care of the shop and making himself stronger was currently all that he had in his life.

Looking at the profits made during the past few days, Lux nodded his head confidently. While the profits were slowly but surely lowering since the ticket prices were lowering as well, he still had made quite a bit of money.

With the Hatch's group entering the tower, they directly spent 2.1M Bym to guarantee their entrances for 18 days, the time they believed it would take them to clear the tower.

While it was a high cost on his part for those who technically cleared a threat for him, there were even more abundant rewards in the tower which made those funds look banal in comparison. Indeed, the resources in towers were always abundant and the boss monster loot was even better.

Finally, once those who explored and cleared a tower exited, the tower would disintegrate, disappearing while leaving behind everything else. If monsters had survived in the tower after the passage of the explorers, the monsters would be freed from the tower's shackles. The same was for the remaining resources which would be sent out of the tower and into the nearby region.

Any tower presented both danger and opportunity and the opportunities were incredibly interesting. Not only the herbs and other ordinary ressources. Weapons, armours, recipes, skills or even professional patterns could appear in the tower. No one knew of the reason for their appearance, all they knew was that the boss monsters were oftentimes the lords of a small area in their previous location and it was believed that loot they gained were mostly the loot the boss himself had collected prior to entering the tower.

Of course, some conspiracy theorists believed that it was some kind of manipulation, trying to change the world into a game and that the loot was generated instead of collected. However, those were merely the conspirationists and instead, science and researchers had long noticed some traces in the bodies of monsters about a prior life entering the tower. Old wounds, diverse combat instincts or even customs.

Shaking his head as once again thoughts started spiralling in his head, the information dump he had done prior to his professional awakening proved to be useful.

Looking at his current money which stood at 5.6M Bym, an incredible sum compared to his original 50,000, he couldn't believe how easy it was to make money as a space wanderer.

While all professionals made a lot of money as they had the job of gathering rare resources, fighting monsters and protecting the population, space wanderers were another breed altogether.

However, despite everything, as he looked at the price of everything in the system, he knew that he was still far from truly being rich. Perhaps if he were to stop there and not use the system anymore he would be exceedingly rich. However, as long as he used this aid to push him further, he would have to constantly use up the money he brought back.

Closing the door and deciding to transform a large part of it into credits for the system later that night, he went for lunch, relaxing upstairs before eventually restarting his training.

However, his plan was once again blocked as he noticed quite a few dozen children appearing near the shop.

While it didn't bother him, it startled the explorers who were not expecting to see children in this location of the city. After all, not only was it mostly destroyed and abandoned, the shop was only hosting work for professionals and as such, children shouldn't be appearing around.

As they stopped near the door of the shop, they looked and hesitated as a few adults finally arrived at the door.

"Excuse me, is M. Lux Arden present?" Asked the lady in her early thirties.

"Yes, it's me. What can I do for you?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. The conversation attracted the attention of the surrounding explorers who had the expression of watching a show.

"My name is Andrea, I'm the one who takes care of these little ones." She started as everyone only had a more confused look on their faces.

"We are here to thank you for the contribution you made to our orphanage." She finally added as she bowed her head, the childrens mirroring her before quickly getting back up and looking around with curiosity.

"Oh, it's nothing." He finally replied after a moment of silence finally understanding what had happened.

He had previously decided to send the money spent in the system in the orphanages and it seems that he even received the gratitude that should have honestly gone to the system since he had exchanged items for his credits.