Chapter 27 - Battle

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

With the resounding words, the cut flesh and the iron scent that gradually spread out due to the flowing blood, chaos erupted as battles and the constant clanking sound of iron colliding against each other filled the air.

As the battle spread out, the sound and scent of blood attracted the wild predators all around, bringing them into the battle willingly or not as they seemingly didn't fear the explorers nor the current deadly battle.

As Viola came out of the Proteus portal, she handed news that delighted Lux. "There were a few members of the Hatch family and Desrub guild. They have called their own members to battle and should be coming soon."

Right as her words fell, some scattered explorers, all who were relatively close to the shop, arrived in a hurry and without even as much as saying a word to Lux, they dove right into the new portal.

Just like when he released an urgent task, the entree fee was completely waived and they could enter and exit at will. It was something they were now used to.

"Boss, what is the situation?" Asked Nellya as she arrived at the same time as some other guild leaders.

"I unlocked a new portal and sent in my people to get a basic understanding of this world, confirming it was indeed suitable to open for explorers and how much strength was required to enter it without wasting their lives." He started as they nodded their heads. It was a common way for space wanderers and their related force to set up an hourly price for the gate and at the same time to collect the more accessible resources. However, they held no doubt of what the shop owner was saying, having already proven himself through his generosity and strict requirements towards himself.

"Two hours later, one of my men passed through the portal, heavily injured and on the brink of death. I gave him an intermediate healing potion to save him and sent support requests since the others are certainly in battle on the other side." He finished as they nodded their heads, making a small note to remember that the shop owner had some way to get some relatively rare and powerful supplies. Basic healing potions were fine but intermediate and higher were quite pricey and hard to get on the market.

"I see, we will head there in support." She said as she waved her hand, the others following her lead as their currently growing group of subordinates stepped through the portal, ready to bring hell upon their enemies safety to their allies.

'Well, it was a waste of time.' Thought Lux who had planned on getting some information on the gate beforehand to sell his customers. Unfortunately, his plans didn't follow up due to the large-scale attack by his enemies.

Taking a deep breath as at least it hadn't gotten worse, he stretched a bit, trying to calm his tensed nerves before finally sitting down at the counter. He would be waiting for further news.

'I really need to start improving my own strength.' Thought Lux as he looked at his second core which was almost at 30% filled with energy. 'Simply getting some spells and improving myself can change a lot for me in the future.' He continued as he decided that he would switch his attention to improving his own combat power for a while even if simply to be able to defend himself without relying on other people.

Waiting anxiously, the battle soon showed some results as one body after another was carried back. While most of them were from the enemies, a few unfortunate ones from smaller guilds had been brought back, killed in the conflict.

Lowering his eyes, knowing that they would still be alive and chatting with their friends if he hadn't opened the gate, Lux couldn't help but think of their families. They would be devastated hearing the news and while it wasn't anything special in such a world filled with conflict and chaos, such news was never received happily.

That day, a mother had lost her child, a sister had lost her brother, a woman became a widow and a child lost his father forever.

Tightening his fist, his knuckles as white as the snow, anger slowly appeared on Lux's otherwise always calm face.

With deep killing intent in his lowered eyes, what the young man hated the most was that he couldn't tell if this hatred he felt with his entire being was directed at his enemies or at himself.

He had been a large part of the reason why the battle started. Had he not opened a gate, had he not sent his guards inside, had he not offered a reward for their heads, basically a mercenary contract to them, perhaps they would be better off. The families of the victim didn't care for his reasons, they had lost someone dear to them, perhaps their only remaining family, in a battlefield that didn't belong to them, in a battlefields light years away form their cities for riches that they would never even see.

They had thrown their lives in vain, all attracted by their greed and the reward he had offered. He was just as much their killer as the others were. Just like kings sent their army to fight and kill each other, he had essentially taken advantage of explorer's greed in order to save his own subordinates.

With a face hard, he got up from his seat, turning away and heading upstairs, leaving Viola and Miranda the task of paying the rewards for the battle. The gate itself was now temporarily closed with a few of his guards staying on the other side to protect the portal frame. While the portal was closed, the attractiveness to monsters was almost non-existent and the light radiating from the portal completely non-existent, greatly helping in hiding the portal frame.

Sitting on his bed, eyes filled with a coldness that could freeze the coldest place on Earth, Lux opened his system.

"Buy the Space Disruption spell, Nebula Veil spell, Verdant Growth spell and the Fog Cloud spell." Said Lux as the system answered in its same monotone voice.

{2 space wanderer and 2 druid spells bought. Cost: 3187 credits. Balance: 1129.}

Receiving four books, Lux didn't rush himself and went straight for the space disruption spell first.

He was lucky, after all, as long as he had enough credits, he could buy any spells in existence and spells that didn't even exist yet. This benefit was something that no other groups had access to and something that he intended to use as much as possible. After all, with everyone having a spell or two of their own, perhaps developed by themselves or their predecessors, there were all kinds of spells out there and who knew what their enemies might throw out.

Reading the book slowly and methodically, he concentrated on understanding the various uses of the spell, how exactly one could use the spell to disrupt the space. This specific spell was especially useful against other gates. Using this spell on a gate would not only make the space extremely unstable, but it would increase the amount of energy required to keep the gate active. The most important was that simply by using the spell, some damage would be created to the portal frame, gradually lowering its remaining durability and hopefully slowly destroying it.

Turning to the last and most important page, the spell pattern appeared before his eyes.

Quickly evaluating it, Lux nodded. While not easy, it didn't surpass the difficulty of the second level space wanderer pattern but was close to it. 'I should be able to complete it within a few days of work.' He thought with a frown as despite everything, he felt like it was still too slow. After all, some more people could die because of him and improving his power was the minimum he had to do.

Thinking for a moment, he looked through his system and saw the various pills that could boost his comprehension and learning abilities temporarily to help him master the spell pattern faster. However, despite everything, he wasn't rich enough and with the amount of pills he believed he'll need, he wouldn't be able to master the spell with it either way. 'Better to save those credits for some healing or stamina potion.' He decided as this method would truly support his shop and himself at the same time.