Chapter 23 - Monster Attack

The days that followed the transaction and deal with the headmaster of the third explorer's school of the town went well. With no danger except for the tower that had stopped spewing out monsters after the clearing team had entered, the celestial body behind the portal was getting less and less attractive as the days went by.

Despite this problem, however, a new type of clientele appeared, the civilians, those that entered the gate to expand their own knowledge and increase their own boasting list. After all, for civilians, saying that you once entered a gate was not only surprising but also something to be jealous of.

With this new clientele also came bodyguarding tasks for the explorers and with it finally came the adventurer's system he had been planning on introducing as soon as possible. This system, while not anything extraordinary, allowed the explorers to take jobs more easily and gain the trust of the clients faster.

However, just as Lux was revelling in his improvement of the shop and was ready to go deep into another meditation session to find new coordinates, a rush of steps echoed in the corridor leading to his room which was hurriedly knocked.

"Master, come out, fast!" Exclaimed Viola, some panting in her voice.

"What happened?" He asked after rapidly opening the door, knowing that she would never make him come out hurriedly if nothing major had happened.

"A beast tide! Everyone is heading to the center of the town to protect themselves and bounties have been issued to have explorers head to the walls and defend the town!" She exclaimed, taking a deep breath to calm herself, knowing that her master could always simply open a portal to the other world temporarily before coming back once the battle had ended. Of course, it was at the condition that the portal frame wasn't destroyed which would cause him to lose the coordinates of their home planet.

Thankfully for Lux, he had no such problems. For as long as he was the system owner, he would know the location of his shop and as such know the coordinates to come back to Earth. Of course, such a situation was the least favorable for it meant that the monsters were strong enough to destroy a large part if not all of the town.

With a frown on his face, he thought of the ramifications of the battle. Not only would it lead to a massive loss of life but it would also reduce the already low number of explorers in the town consequently reducing his clientele base. Moreover, not only would it drastically reduce his customers' amount for the time until the end of the battle as they would most likely head to the battlefield but it would also cause a great drop in the economy of the town which would also stop many customers from coming just for fun.

Shaking his head as there was no point thinking of the losses he could sustain due to the attack, he thoughts went to the town.

'I can't do anything, I myself isn't very strong.' Thought the man who had focused solely on his space wanderer's energy and the coordinate research spell to find new coordinates to spread his shop further and attract more clients.

"Alright, I have previously improved the shop's defenses so stay inside the shop and everything will go well. Have the six come to the shop and guard it, abandon the rest of our properties." Said Lux as he couldn't be bothered by most buildings which were in dire need of repairs anyway and the only building which had barely been renovated.

With this order, the shop effectively became as defensive as it currently could. With his savings of only a few million Byms, he couldn't afford to increase the defensive level of the shop and could only hope that no monsters that much stronger would attack.

Climbing to the second floor, Lux looked into the distance. Thanks to the dilapidated surroundings after the previous beast tide, he could see through various gaps in the buildings.

Seeing the majority of the city's guards, all of whom were combat-type professionalists, heading for the city walls, Lux's eyebrows frowned. Unfortunately, he couldn't see beyond the walls, none of his spells having this ability.

'I wonder how many beasts there are.' Thought Lux as he looked at the distance before shaking his head, closing his eyes and readying himself to continue training. There wouldn't be much happening for the next few days, at least until the beast tide ended. According to the memories of the previous body's owner, the city guards didn't have the ability to repel anything more than the smallest scale beast tide. All they could do was block their way and hope for the reinforcement to arrive as soon as possible. According to the past tide, it would take at least a couple of days for the town to receive reinforcement by the baron's professional army.

Entering the portal as there was more energy on the other side, he went straight to the previous house he lived in. After a series of reinforcement and defensive measures, Lux could now stay in the otherworld for a few days without a problem. While it wasn't protected well enough in the past, now that it had been upgraded and a few guards were there at all times to protect the residence, he could train in peace. After all, in the celestial bodies, the amount of energy in the air was certainly higher allowing the professionalists to train at a higher efficiency.

As always, time went by fast when one trained and did something they loved and as such, two days rapidly went by amongst which he only did energy training for his space wanderer's profession and searched for coordinates.

'Hum, what's that?' He wondered as he was deep in the void of space, searching for anything in his surroundings.

Increasing the speed of his consciousness, burning his energy in this way, Lux's eyes went wide as he saw what was a small but certainly a celestial body in space.

Wasting no time as he knew that the longer he hesitated and waited, the more energy it would cost him to follow and mark its coordinates, he approached it and with a deep sense of jubilance started to engrave the coordinates, linking himself with the celestial body.

Returning to his senses when he finished the marking job, a grin spread across his face. This was the first actual celestial body that he had found by himself without the help of the system.

Wasting no time, he opened the system's Star Map function and noticed the second star that seemingly flickered in the void.

Focusing on it, the details of the danger and resources of his new discovery appeared in front of his eyes.

"Once again tier one in size." Said Lux as he looked at the freely revealed information in the system with a bit of disappointment.

"Hum, three stars monster danger, two stars environmental danger and two stars ressources." He continued with a frown as he hadn't expected such danger on such a small celestial body. While it was pretty good as it would allow his customers to explore a new planet and get stronger faster as there was obviously more energy in a celestial body that housed such strong monsters, it also meant that his weaker customers couldn't enter it as it would be too dangerous for them.

"Not bad but not ideal either. Well, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth." He commented once again to himself and didn't dare to be ungrateful for the luck he had just received. After all, it was either this or nothing and he certainly preferred having a second gate.

"Now, what's the unlocking price?" He wondered once more as he looked straight into the Star Map once more and looked at the original price which was of 12,500 credits but was now halved due to having found the coordinates himself. "So only a price of 6250 credits or 6,250,000 Bym." He finished as he looked at his current credit and free money. "I'll unlock it properly tonight." He decided as he had enough money and would just need to transform it into credits at midnight.

Looking at the dark and perpetually cloudy sky on this medium-sized asteroid named Proteus, he sighed. Even if it was safer and he could become stronger faster while staying here, the depressing atmosphere was indeed a thing. Despite everything, he didn't mind it as he knew that to become stronger, some sacrifices had to be made for you couldn't gain anything by sacrificing nothing.