No matter how excited you are about the chance to interact with the endless cosmos and take that first step, not seeing the whole staircase leads to the fear of the unknown. Yet, sometimes fear and anxiety show that one is moving outside of his safe and comfortable zone; Rhys might be taking a step towards his true purpose. Moreover, the fear of the unknown is born out of our ignorance. Once someone gets past ignorance and look beyond it, you will witness the true beauty of life.

After their "interesting" conversation in the conference hall, Chalia instructed Renzi to explain their operations and his responsibilities in detail to Rhys. However, Rhys had mixed feelings about this. He felt the hostility coming from Renzi.

'Well, it is too late to back out anyways,' Rhys thought.

"Follow me, Newbie. Don't touch things randomly and most importantly...," Renzi stared at him gravely.

Rhys gulped in anxiety.

"…Don't vomit on our precious materials!" Renzi continued.

Rhys stood there, stunned for a second.

"Stop standing there like an idiot. Follow me!"

'Endure it, Rhys, this is not home turf,' Rhys grumbled in his mind.

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While walking through the long hallway, Rhys noticed several murals on the walls. On his left, he saw a nine-legged creature fighting against a creature with a fishtail and a trident. Rhys noticed that all the murals portrayed war and bloodshed.

'An interesting thing to paint,' Rhys thought strangely.

As if she saw through his thoughts, Renzi said, "These murals depict the history of this planetary system. This system is home to 9 life-sustaining planets, and each one of them prospers because of war. This is common among all creatures; you need to shed blood to establish a civilization. I heard scholars from the capital say that war is nothing but a man's failure and to resolve conflict through dialogue. Hmph, nothing but a bunch of peace mongers trying to gain attention. They think people go to war to quench their thirst for blood or to sharpen their swords or to die in glory, No! They go to war to defend their people; they defend it like crazy animals until their last breath. War is inevitable when two civilizations survive on the same planet, we love to criticize them for their barbaric nature but forget we were the same once upon a time. The cosmos loath the weak and love the strong. Therefore Newbie, remember that war is inevitable. You may succeed in stopping it for a year or 10 years, and then? If the laws of the universe exist, war is inevitable! One needs to prove their worth to the cosmos for its blessing!" Renzi said in a cold tone. Rhys felt an extremely murderous breath coming out of her; it made him forget any of his thoughts about her being cute.

"So, remember, war is inevitable. Never try to stop and delay it. Try to minimize it as much as possible. Furthermore, never get involved in a planet's war for supremacy unless your client is one of the races. Do not forget that you are a merchant and your job to trade. Don't show any false sympathy, you are nothing, but a man with an opinion, you can't decide how an entire race is supposed to think," Renzi continued with the same cold tone.

Rhys fell into a long period of silence. He had his head held low, and he appeared to be thinking about something.

On the right side of his body, there was an enormous mural with many humans dressed in robes accompanied by modern spaceships fighting against some strange species. If you looked closer, you could see an endless sea of red behind the strange species that even the rain would have a hard time washing away.

Rhys had his head down the whole time, and he did not pay attention to any of the murals. He was still in deep thought about Renzi's words and the meanings that it contained.

'Sigh, this job seems more complicated than anticipated. Maybe, this is what attracted me to this,' Rhys thought, he was trying to sort out his emotions.

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After an agonizing walk of silence, they finally reached their destination.

"Alright. You will now get into a pod so that we can transfer the relevant important data into your head. Later, we will go to the cultivation department," Renzi said.

The door slowly opened on Renzi's command, and Rhys saw an enormous laboratory. There were all kinds of strange equipment with a myriad of creatures in white coats working on strange things.

When Renzi came in, everyone turned their heads in unison. Rhys could see them getting nervous all of a sudden.

"What are you looking at me for? Continue your work!" Renzi shouted with annoyance.

Everybody heaved a sigh of relief and continued working on their experiments.

'Crap. Never judge a book by its cover. Fortunately, I did not do anything after that incident to infuriate her,' Rhys thought with sweat on the back of his head.

"Orkos, stop hiding behind the table and come here. You shameless thing," Renzi shouted with frustration.

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Rhys saw a huge figure with two goat horns and a huge tail come out from behind the table. He had a pair of glasses on with an enormous white coat and a badge with his name written on it. He was the kind of person who would never come to your mind when you think of science.

Orkos slowly made his way to Renzi. She still had a cold expression when looking at him. It was hard to discern Orkos's expression, but judging by the way he is walking, he seemed to be under severe pressure and anxiety.

Once he came near them, Renzi went off…

"You blockhead, didn't I tell you to welcome me as soon as I bring the new merchant over. What were you doing behind the table instead of working? Do you want me to call your mother and tell her what happened? Last time I called her, she seemed to be yearning for a grandson…,"

Renzi went on and on for about 10 minutes.

Rhys found the whole situation funny, a little girl scolding a giant man with a scary appearance.

Orkos had an obedient expression all the while.

"Hmph. Take him to the data transfer pod. Later, bring him to the cultivation room."

After giving all the instructions, Renzi left the room.

"At last, she left. Hello, I am Orkos Alravas from the Northstar galaxy. Let us get started with the data transfer," Orkos said as he led Rhys to a room in the laboratory.

Looking around the unfamiliar environment, Rhys was nervous and excited. Even though he prepared himself mentally for everything, he was still shocked by everything he witnessed the whole journey.

Rhys changed into white robes and made his way to the pod.

"Alright. All you must do is get into the pod and do not resist the mental transfer of the data. At first, you will feel slightly uncomfortable, but it will fade away as long you do not resist it," Orkos said while working on the control desk.

Rhys laid down in the pod and closed his eyes. He gradually relaxed his body and spirit to prepare himself.

The pod closed its door, and Rhys gradually felt tremors in his nerves. As instructed, he did not try to resist and accepted the data transfer.

After a few seconds, he entered a semi-conscious state, and he was gradually accepting an enormous amount of data about how Eternal merchant organization works and its various division.

The sheer scale of the organization and the power of the Eternal domain astounded Rhys. As his clearance was limited, he only received the data concerning the Eternal merchant organization in the August system. Nonetheless, after living a simple life for the past 10 years, it was an unusual experience.

The Eternal merchant organization operates with five main branches. The merchants make up one of the branches, and the technical and research staff make up another. Moreover, there is the logistics division that takes care of the transport and shipment of various treasures and materials. As you can imagine, for an organization of this scale, the protection of its goods and services is paramount. Hence, an entires division is dedicated to security. After all, even though the Eternal domain induces fear everywhere, greed is embedded everywhere into every species. Finally, the last division is the intelligence division. Rhys only knew its name, but all its operations were classified.

This process lasted for about 5 minutes, and Rhys slowly regained his consciousness. After accepting all the information, Rhys found it odd that there was no information regarding the August system in the data he received.

"Mr. Orkos, I didn't receive any information about the August system and its history. Is it normal, or did something go wrong," Rhys expressed his doubts to Orkos.

Orkos had a mysterious smile on his face.

"You don't seem to completely understand a merchant's role. A merchant's main role is business, but to touch upon the laws of the universe, you need to explore its mysteries by yourself. Do not bother yourself with this as your cultivation is still low. However, one of the merchant's main missions is to explore the countless mysteries of the cosmos," Orkos said with a smile on his face.

For Rhys, the concept of a merchant was rather obscure from the beginning. Orkos's explanation made it even more intriguing. Nevertheless, he understood the basics of a merchant's job; it is exploration and discovery.

Rhys is aware that he is just beginning his journey as a merchant. Therefore, he did not concern himself with the deeper aspects.

"Alright. It is all done. Let us go to the cultivation room to meet the Captain. She'll scold me again if we are late," Orkos said with a bit of anxiety.

'Poor guy. He seemed to be traumatized by her,' Rhys cast a sympathetic look towards Orkos.

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Rhys finally saw the cultivation "room". It was more of a palace than a room, and it was enormous in terms of the area. Rhys felt an extremely ancient pressure coming from it, and he was dumbstruck by its height that seems to pierce the heavens.

'Woah. The academy of justice's cultivation room is nothing, but a peanut compared to this. No, it's more like an atom compared to this,' Rhys was in a trance looking at the gigantic structure.

"You just have to enter, and the Captain will sense you," Orkos said hurriedly and made his way back. Rhys could see that he was just trying to escape.

As Rhys made his way to the front door, he saw many people leaving and entering the palace. The four corners of the corridor had enormous statues of humanoid creatures with lion faces on them. For some reason, Rhys felt like the lion statues were alive. As he entered the corridor in front of the entrance, he saw a colossal statue with its face veiled by darkness. He felt an enormous pressure coming from the statue, and he found it hard to stop himself from looking at it.

"Hmmm, it's amazing that you can look at the statue for a long time without kneeling or vomiting blood,"

A lazy voice broke Rhys's trance. Rhys looked in the direction of the voice and cast a grateful glance at the person. He knew that the person who spoke helped him escape the statue's influence.

After he turned his head, Rhys saw a handsome humanoid creature with dark skin and pointed ears like the Major. However, his disheveled appearance and lazy demeanor overshadowed his handsomeness. He had a wine gourd attached to his sides, and he reeked of some strange smell.

"Thank you. My name is Rhys Adler. Hmmm, I do not know my race," Rhys said in an embarrassed tone.

Rhys found that everyone introduces themselves with their name and their race. He thought that it was a tradition of some sort.

"Haha. You are an interesting little fella. My name is Dakath Trafir. I am from the dark elf clan in the Eternal domain," Dakath introduced himself with a smile on his face.

"Nice to meet you, Mr.Dakath,"

Rhys used a respectful way to address him as he knew that anyone coming from the Eternal domain is not a simple character.

"Drop the honorifics. Do I look a formal person to you?"

"Ok, Dakath. I am sorry, but I have to hurry up and meet someone,"

Rhys was in a hurry to meet Renzi. He knew that the little demon might blow up if he was late.

"Haha. Do not wait for me. Go on. Moreover, we'll meet again pretty soon."

Rhys did not quite understand the last part, but he ran to the entrance after saying his goodbyes.

Dakath was looking at his back with a lazy smile on his face. He opened his wine gourd and drank two mouthfuls of wine.

'For me to meet him as soon as I entered the base. Sigh, I guess its fate. Accepting this appointment might just be a little interesting,' Dakath thought as he burped while drinking his wine.

For someone with his cultivation, there are very few things that interest him.