During his month of bounty hunting, Xeno had gained a good deal of coins. As such he greatly augmented the space that his apartment possessed.

It reached a total of six hundred square meters, taking almost all of the third floor of the building. He divided the space in three different areas, by implanting two Pristine walls between them.

The first and most spacious area was Dock's laboratory, piles of books and strange pieces of machinery were all over the place. In the middle of all this, stood a big and oval shaped metallic structure supported by sturdy looking scaffolding. The metal that composed it was probably an alloy probably containing pristine, since its color was gray with shades of light blue. Many metallic wires were connecting it to various nano-cubes, making the blue veins like carvings present on its surface, randomly pulsating.

Dock had indeed started to build the exoskeleton of the ship. It was just the beginning, but with Xeno's steady financing the project, Dock was rapidly progressing.

The other section was rather pitiful, as it was the living space of the team. Xeno had assigned it only about a hundred square meters, even if it may not seem such a low amount, considering he team necessities it was rather narrow.

As all their things were placed here, three beds, a bathroom, two wardrobes and a big wooden table.

Even with the constant complains of Vix, Xeno had been adamant on the subject. It didn't matter how much she nagged him, Xeno just monotonously answered in the same may.

Since he needed the remaining space for his personal space. He even slept here, since he could cultivate at night, at least when he wasn't off on doing a quest.

This special area of his had been transformed in a rather peculiar way. He painted all the walls, the floor and roof completely black. With the windows covered too, the place was constantly pitch black. If not for the artificial light that he every so often turned on, one without a nocturnal vision couldn't see a thing. However Xeno didn't have proper eyes, but relied only on his senses. As such the artificial light had another purpose.

In addition Xeno had utilized some new tools he bought in the shop. He installed a lot of metallic discs onto the walls, as they made the walls of the room soundproof to a decent degree. In fact from his activities only low muffled sounds reverberated in the nearby rooms.

He even bought a new pair of [Melanir black sponge], as he placed one in front of the metallic door connecting this space to the rest of the apartment, and the other one near the cages.

Indeed, half of his room had been occupied to an imprisonment function.

In there Xeno had reclused some of the criminals that could be caught either dead or alive. He mainly used them either to gather some information or to test his ability to 'create' servants. He needed more dispensable pawns at his disposition, more numbers that could directly obey his orders. Thus he couldn't wait or go in search for special people like Vix or Zaha all day.

On the contrary, the other part of the area was a lot more clean, as it didn't have any torturous purpose. He just tossed in there some objects that piqued his curiosity, they often appeared as strange and were worth only a few coins if sold to in the shop. He didn't want to fill his spatial objects with useless items, but at the same time he couldn't just throw them away for a few coins.

Now, it was time test what he learned so far on a particular new prisoner. As Xeno suddenly switched on his torch, inside a metallic cage, wet with piss, blood and visceral fluids, stood a rather familiar figure.

He had yet to start, but the screams of the other prisoners already had him wet his pants. The pitiful soul was naturally the smuggler who had plotted against Xeno in the past.

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His complexion that was initially quite fit, even if beat up all over the place, now had turned rather famished. As Xeno had made him starve, and only drink some water every so often. The celidre had his hands and feet tied up, as well as his eyes and mouth covered with drenched rags.

Suddenly a raspy and deep voice resounded into the ears of the smuggler.

[Stodran wasn't it? Look, you are the next specimen in line.

We can make it quick or slow, painful or less painful. But you cannot evade this situation at all, nod with your head if you understand]

Without much waiting Stodran vigorously nodded, after what he had heard in this place he didn't have any doubts about his decision.

Then Xeno proceeded to take off the rags covering the prisoner's eyes and ears.

Seeing the creepy appearance of his kidnapper, Stodran started to remember the ferocious ambush that these aliens had made on him.

He was as usual concluding a business with a brothel owner, he had his two most trusted guards with him. However in a matter of seconds before his vision would turn dark, he had seen the grotesque presence of his assailants.

[Tell me, who do you serve? Which one is the little gremlin you refer as master?]

Xeno directly prompted the smuggler what he needed to know. His revenge on the infamous smuggler would be executed nonetheless.

In fact, he wouldn't feel any pleasure by torturing him more anyway. He would execute such acts only if necessary, in the pursuit of obtaining information.

[I-I cannot reveal this, the contract I have with him would kill me the moment I pill the beans. Although I can give you other intelligence regarding brothels, criminal gangs, rats and so on.]

Unfortunately for him, Xeno was already full of this kind of info after a month of bounty hunting.

Furthermore he was now sure that the smuggler was surely lying. He already got to know that only the slaves of high rankers could posses such contract. This kind of ranker had to be at least of the fifth rank, they were the military backbone of the union. In all the empire were present only five of such individuals, they had the role of its overseers. In this case the emperor was none other than a pawn of theirs, furthermore this wasn't such secret information. Even more when Xeno did not have this many problems in making the prisoners talk. As the next scene was always the last one they saw.

Without replying him back, Xeno took a plain looking transparent glass of water from his spatial object.

At this scene the smuggler appeared rather puzzled, he waited for Xeno to either try to convince him with words or with torture.

'Wow! He actually believed what told him, he might look fierce be this monster is quite naive.

Yes please! Give it to me, I'm quite thirsty.'

Thinking this, the celidre tried to mask his wild grin as much as possible.

However what happened next completely petrified him, shuttering his hopes completely.

In fact Xeno had discovered a quite effective method to produce the warriors he needed in a decent quantity. He had to add a simple variant to the process he had used with Vix and Zaha. Since just trying it to normal subjects, which his body didn't recognize as valid, would just lead to their death. Their internal organs would simply start to fail, and the specimen will die in a slow agony.

The new methods consisted in infuse with a drop of clear purple energy the mix of his reproductive fluids and water. The substance would rapidly start to absorb the energy and augment its potency. It would start to become visibly black in color, vigorously moving on its own, as if it really was a living being.

The sight of this scared to death all of the prisoners, as the purpose of the terrifying concoction was evident.

Until now, Xeno had made four of his specimens drink it down. Successfully turning them into four new servants, their aspect was basically identical to Zaha. However their minds were very limited, as they were able only to do simple tasks.

This greatly pleased Xeno, as he understood that the weight his servants posed on his mind was based on their intelligence. As such, he could posses a good number of this type of slave.

Thus, he planned to make Stodran as the fifth of this kind of lesser.

Seeing Xeno slowly approaching him, still holding the macabre substance into the glass, the smuggler panicked and spurted out the information he had been asked with.

[D-Dacid Almar! I swear, he is my master! Spare me please, I beg you!]

After obtaining the information he wanted, the utility of the smuggler remained only in him being turned.

The name that had been confessed out loud did turn a bell inside of Xeno's mind. However he would think more about it later, as this revelation didn't bring any kind of emotion in him.

He quickly approached the still tied thug and quickly coiled his tendrils around him, immobilizing him without problems.

As he opened the smuggler mouth with his claws, the black substance entered him mouth almost on his own.

In the next seconds pained screams of pure terror and agony reverberated inside the room.