Chapter 319: Sugar Daddy (1/2)

Zac was a still bit muddled from getting the news that Salvation had managed to kill so many people as a final act of lunacy that he didn’t quite understand what Emily was getting at.

“Who found what?” he asked while looking around.

“Mr. Trang and his squad finally managed to set up a base camp. It took some time because they needed to finish a quest, but they succeeded because of his Kraken. When they bought the teleporter there was already a public teleporter in range that we can't see here. It's probably the underworld,” Emily explained, the words tumbling out of her mouth.

The eyes of both Ogras and Zac lit up at the news. Getting to the underworld before the fire golems destroyed the whole thing was of the highest priority. For Ogras it was about resources, while Zac also considered the humanitarian component. But the exciting news were suddenly eclipsed by a snippet of information from Emily's report.

“His WHAT?” Zac exclaimed, looking at Emily with some horror.

“His pet Kraken,” Emily said with a wide grin. “He’s named it Little Bau, which apparently means treasure in Vietnamese? I heard it’s crazy strong.”

Zac didn’t know how to react. He was reminded that the old fisherman’s class was something like a maritime beast tamer, but he didn’t expect him to snag such a scary thing. It also made him a bit leery about having an island kingdom if Kraken were swimming about in the depths. Would they start getting harassed by Lovecraftian nightmares in the near future?

“Anyway, how’s their situation?” Zac asked.

“We still don’t know, we’ve been waiting for you,” Emily explained. “Our teleporter is hidden because of your settings, so they shouldn't know about us. And all the strong people here were occupied so we didn’t dare open it.”

“That’s good,” Zac said with a nod. “We can’t go right now though. My arm is broken in multiple places and Ogras is wounded as well. Salvation was even stronger than expected.”

“Wounded? That guy was that strong? He was only level 61 right?” Emily said with some confusion.

“Girl, he had an army of half a million puppets that exploded in our faces,” Ogras snorted. “It’s a miracle we’re even still alive. The underworld will still be there in a few days. Go punch some barghest or something.”

Emily looked disappointed at the news, but she soon nodded. Zac knew she wanted to get down there as quickly as possible as the underworld was the last hope she had of reuniting with her siblings. Unfortunately, he simply wasn’t in any condition to battle a supposed high- or even top-tier Incursion at the moment. So, for now, it was best to keep their presence hidden in case some unexpected dangers lurked on the other side of the teleporter.

“I’ll go train then,” she said as she hurried away.

“I need money, I’m flat broke,” Ogras suddenly said from the side.

“What?” Zac asked with some skepticism as he threw the demon a glance. “I’m not your sugar daddy.”

“My what? Anyway, between the Origin Array and the temporary gate to the Mystic Realm I barely have enough resources to even support myself,” the demon said. “Remember, we couldn’t bring Nexus Coins here either.”

“What do you need?” Zac finally said after a brief pause. “And isn’t your income from Calrin’s enough? The revenue should have exploded recently.”

Truthfully, Ogras had provided a lot of assistance not only in battle but also in management and setting a course for the force as a whole. If he needed some Nexus Coins it wasn’t the end of the world since Zac had hundreds of millions to his name, and even more in the form of treasures and Nexus Crystals.

“That money won’t arrive for a while yet,” Ogras said with a shake of his head. “To begin with I need a hundred million to upgrade the temporary array into a permanent one. It’s especially important if we want to set up the hidden outpost to research Salvation.”

Zac sighed and transferred the money to Ogras, not bothering to investigate how much was actually needed. It truly felt like a worthy investment. They still didn’t know how The Great Redeemer tracked his targeted planets. Perhaps even killing his people wasn’t enough. Throwing anything with a connection to him into the Mystic Realm felt like the best solution for the moment.

“It’ll take a day or two to get the needed components from the blue one,” Ogras nodded. “What do you want to do afterward?”

“How long until you are back to fighting condition?” Zac asked.

“Three days at the maximum. That golden light tried to drag my soul out of my body, but it didn’t cause any real lasting damage,” the demon said after thinking it over.

“We’ll head down to the Underworld immediately after,” Zac said. “The other incursions aren’t critical, and it should take a while to whittle down the zombies to a manageable number.”

“Great,” Ogras said with naked greed on his face. “Can’t let those people below us wait for too long, and they can incidentally help me with my financial situation. I’ll handle the gate immediately.”

Zac snorted as he watched the demon get swallowed by shadows before he stepped into the teleporter again to head to his cultivation cave. As he expected he found his sister sitting with closed eyes on one of the mats he acquired in the hunt. She opened her eyes and smiled at him when he approached, before her eyes suddenly widened at the sight of his arm limply dangling to the side.

“You’re hurt?” she said as she hurried over to him.

“My ultimate skill is pretty taxing to my body, I need to get a bit stronger,” Zac shrugged.

“At least that lunatic is dealt with. But don’t take on more than you can handle,” she said and looked relieved when she realized he was in decent shape at least.

“I’m fine,” Zac smiled. “How are things on your end?”

“I’m making amazing progress in this cave!” she said, her eyes brightening up again. “I think I will enter the level ladder soon. And the other one I have already entered.”

“What?” Zac said with confusion as he opened up his ladder system.