After a failed assassination attempt.

Oh. I mean, after venting her anger on a wooden training dummy. The water elemental set off after receiving her payments and two notices.

The first notice was expected, the notice detailed the rise in difficulty of the dungeon they have royalties to and the decrease in royalty percentages. It came along with a bunch of detailed data relayed from the parties before their eventual demise. At the end of it there was text stating the mercenary outpost will be forwarding this information to the nearest branch headquarters.

The second notice is what caught the trio's attention. A note inscribed using shiny black ink on a white paper. Nothing too fancy or outrageous, but a hidden elegance nonetheless. As for the words written, although not many...the implications were large.

(To the founders of the fox dungeon, we would like to extend our gratitude for giving us a place to vent our anger upon. It truly hurts the hearts of us to see our own young delivered to deaths embrace. Leaving but the memories of where they once stood and interacted in the minds of who knew them best. As such, present this note to those standing guard besides the teleporter. They should be expecting you... as I too look forward to meeting you on the other side.)

"So... Some higher-ups are paying attention to us... And expecting our arrival. At least they're a bit grateful to us."

"..."

'so we're taking the teleporter anyways whether we like it or not.'

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[Indeed, but wait a moment before heading out.]

"..."

'oh? Gem feels like you're up to something fishy again.'

[No, just curious. The information sent by the mercenary outpost must have reached the nearest branch headquarters long before we return back. Otherwise it would have been impossible to have all this data organized and complete after first receiving it. So if we stick around for a few minutes we should see some real powerhouses appearing.]

"..."

'... Is that a good idea? Don't forget gem is not the only one with a system. Although gem won't die, they could trap me for as long as they live if they put their minds to it.'

[Although 10 billion other systems out there is terrifying. You have advantages that they can possibly have to make up for it. First you're in destructible, I proved it...]

[Second, you're immortal. Nothing can truly trap you forever.]

[Third, there's 10 billion of us here.]

[Even if you lose, you would never die. So why not take a risk and see those high level mercenaries?]

"..."

'Gem sees your tricks. Gem is not what gem was before. First off, being immortal and indestructible sounds good. But gem is also immobile and blind to the world if suppressed. Unless gem gives you more right to your power then gem is comfortable with. In the end gem will not gain anything out of this.'

[...How about I throw in mind control to go together with body control. Mind control allows you to control others emotion, attention, and vague thoughts without them even realizing it. Unfortunately you can't use their mana or magic spells with mind control.]

"..."

'Now gem is really curious, what do you get out of this. You and gem still don't like each other even if we somewhat cooperate, what do you gain from giving gem such powerful power.'

[First off, this is not a lot of power. You have no idea how much potential you have with us.]

"..."

'I guess that's true, out of 10 billion systems...No matter how many failures gem has. There's got to be if you good ones in the mix.'

[You have no idea the potential power you restricted yourself by. Your space base floating in the solar system is a good example.]

"..."

'Again...why do you care, what's in it for you to see these mercenaries.'