The boss quickly got up and erupted his level 3.2 cultivation. Orion, undaunted, simply threw back his hood and removed his mask, smiling broadly. He activated ‘All-Seeing Eyes’ and saw that his true name was Pebros and he was a light spirit, a level 4 race.
“Shei? What possible reason could you have for bursting into my quarters?”
“I’ve come to kill you.”
The boss scoffed. “You? Kill me? Sure. Did you buy some drugs from our little store? Orion exploded his slightly superior cultivation, suppressing the boss and draining the color from his face. “How, how is this possible?!” As Orion neared the boss, the man drew a dagger . “Wait, wait! What do you want? Whatever it is, I can give it to you.” Orion stopped for a moment and stroked his chin. Although the man had nothing of value, his cultivation talent was quite remarkable, he had a few skills and a pretty strong physique, the ‘Blinding Light’ physique. He was also extremely intelligent and ruthless. Orion realized he could use him to complete tasks by proxy, and maybe even rule Rane when he ascended.
“Very well, I will spare you on one condition: you become my subordinate.”
“Yes, yes, anything you want.”
“Great. Just give me one second.” He summoned the system. “Hey, system, is there actually a way to make my clansmen subordinates, so that they have to listen to what I tell them to do?”
[They already are. You are the clan’s head and they are your subjects. They’re yours to do with as you see fit.]
“For fucks’s sake, system, you have to stop letting key pieces of info slip!”
[My bad.] The avatar disappeared, leaving Orion fuming. “Pebros, slice open your palm.” He complied and Orion did the same. They shook hands and sealed the clansmanship. Orion’s cultivation talent shot up, and more importantly, he received the ‘Blinding Light’ physique, which gave him many light related powers. Although his mastery was only nascent for now, he already had access to the two main abilities: ‘Blinding Sun’ and ‘Light Ray’. The first let him release a bomb of light that would stun and briefly blind nearby opponents whilst the other was a ranged attack that could deal some pretty serious damage. The man also yielded the skills ‘Light Speed’ and ‘Stone Skin’. The first skill doubled his speed and the second let him briefly turn an area of his skin into a super durable stone. He turned towards the poor former boss. “Pebros, I’m going to assign you a very important task. Your cultivation talent has been dramatically increased when you became my subordinate, and you got a skill of mine. Which?”
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“Fireball.”
“Alright. Well, point is, with your new abilities, I want you to to reach level 3, and massively expand the black market. Good luck.”
“Yes, my lord. I won’t disappoint you.”
“Good.”
That meant that the black market and money parts of the quest were basically handled. Now, he only had cultivation and guard left. To get to level 4, he needed to kill about 33 mortals, 8 level 1s or 4 level 2s. He concentrated on Isylda and Leina to send them a mental messages. “You two, I have a task for you. You need to get as many clansmen as possible. To do this, you need to cut open both of your palms and shake hands, like you did with me. Tell them to pass it on too. Oh, and let me know if you get someone really good. Good luck.” Now, he summoned his sytem. “Is it possible to set some sort of rules for my clansmen?”
[What do you mean?]
“Well, I’d like to make it so that when a new clansman is integrated, they automatically are completely loyal to me and know that they should expand the clan.”
[Yeah, I guess I could do that. Gimme one sec. Okay, it’s done.]
“Oh, wait. Can you make it so that all the newcomers are in fodder by default.”
[Done.]
Orion was now faced with a new problem. He needed to cultivate to level 4 within the week, but killing was no longer a sustainable method. Therefore, he decided to try finding some artifacts or materials that would help him cultivate. He knew from Shei’s memories that there were some caves that contained many treasures a few dozen km north of the capital. The reason people didn’t go there was that they were filled with level 2 and 3 magical beasts, but to Orion that just made it even more of a treasure trove. It was now almost dawn, so Orion had to hurry if he did not want to be seen. He donned his mask, quickly left the headquarters and activated ‘Flight’. He shot out towards the caves, surprising even himself with the incredible speed. He must have reached at least 650 km per hour. Intelligence really was a useful stat. Thanks to this crazy speed, he reached the caves in a little under four minutes. The entrance was quite nondescript, it was just an opening in a little hill, but the inside was apparently massive. He took out his katana, activated ‘Light Speed’, summoned a fireball in his free hand and entered the cave.