Alexia

Once we make it back to the base, I immediately turn around to teleport back to my home, only to be stopped by Alara as she exclaims, “Wait!” So I turn back to her with a frown and a raised brow.

She takes in a few deep breaths to calm down after the teleporting before saying, “I have a request, if you would listen to me.”

I just keep my brow raised without saying anything.

“If it’s not too much trouble for you, could you bring anyone you meet back here with you as you’re traveling?” she asks with a frown. “The base needs more people if it wants to keep running smoothly, and we need experts in various fields we don’t currently have.”

Hmm. And I’m sure a lot of the people on the islands will want to move here too since it’ll be safer.

But that’s a lot of extra work for me since it’ll be very taxing on my soul reserves.

In which case, I ask, “What will I be getting in return?”

She blinks for a second before smiling and answering, “You can have free access to whatever dungeons you like regardless of if there’s a line there or not, the craftsmen we find can build you a better home and craft you better gear or simply improve or fix your current gear for no charge, and having more people at the base will make more time for you in the future.”

I frown at that, crossing my arms slightly as I ask, “And why is that?”

“If there are more people at the base, there will be more fighters capable of defending it, which means less need for you to be our main line of defense against enemies,” she explains with a slight smirk on her face. “All we’ll need you to do for defense is protect us against the stronger enemies like people at Ethan’s level.”

That gives me pause for a few seconds before I eventually nod my head, “Alright. I’ll ask whoever I meet if they want to come back and live here. Whether they want to or not is up to them, and I won’t waste any time trying to convince them to move.”

This’ll be a good thing in the long run, and while it does drain my soul reserves, it also trains Quantum Displacement. A skill that is honestly starting to very much out level my other skills.

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At this rate I might even get the skill to Tier 3 before I reach Tier 3 myself.

“That’s all I ask!” Alara says with a smile. “And we’ll be sure to try recruiting people from the islands that attach to our own.”

“Sure,” I mutter, not really caring about that. Although I do add, “Just make sure they won’t betray you, and that they stay away from my clearing.”

“Of course,” Alara replies as if that wasn’t something that needed being said.

I teleport away from her, heading straight inside of my portable home before I lie back on my bed with a sigh.

There’s one other thing she didn’t point out that I’ll be getting from this deal.

New people to train my adaptations.

I grin at that thought before closing my eyes and going to sleep.

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The Base

Alara walks through the center of the base feeling satisfied with the work she got done today. Including both the agreements with the dragon and the agreement she received from Lexi.

Over the past week and a half, the interior of the base has been improved by a large margin. Mostly because one of the latest people to join the base from an island they connected to last had knowledge in construction, speeding up the process and significantly improving the result.

She looks around at the base, finding a couple kids – who were found with a group on the same island as the construction specialist, proving that kids were sent to their parents if they chose that after the Tutorial – running around and playing through the various stone buildings around them. Meanwhile the adults are all still at work building more stone buildings, with some working on expanding the walls to the sides to accommodate more people in the future.

Everything’s running smoothly. And the few troublemakers that have tried coming to our island left as soon as they realized Lexi was here.

Alara glances back in the direction of The Reaper’s Clearing. A name that the people of the base have started calling it due to the girl who lives there.

We really owe a lot to her. Everything would’ve gone entirely different without her help.

The girl thinks back to when her group were originally being attacked by William and his cohorts, making her glance at William who is now working diligently with the other people of the base. Something she never thought she’d see when they were originally being attacked back then.

If it weren’t for Lexi, we’d likely be dead by now instead of his cohorts. That or worse.

She ponders over The Reaper for a few seconds before smiling and continuing into her small house, her mind returning to the hellfrost dragon.

That guy seems oddly interested in Lexi. I wonder why? It’s almost like he has some sort of romantic interest in her, but that can’t be possible. He’s a dragon after all.

Alara frowns at that, only to lie down on her bed – something she bought from the Tutorial Shop with a single point – and stares up at the stone ceiling of the small house.

If that is the case though, I can’t help but pity him. Because it’s obvious she has no interest.

She still can’t bring herself to believe that a dragon would ever develop any sort of interest along those lines for a non-dragon. Even if they’re a quantum being.

Several seconds pass in silence before Alara closes her eyes.

I should make use of Lexi while she’s still here. Before she heads into a Tier 2 dungeon.