After he got inside the cave, Alex summoned Anna and Leoz while Sherry also came out. All of them let out a sigh of relief. Their plan was successful.
Alex didn't activate Charya's token because she wasn't needed for the monsters. As for the Martial King, calling her there was the same as killing her.
Alex had confidence in his plan too. Even if the plan failed, Alex had prepared a backup plan. Alex had his Master's token.
According to his Master, the token held his will. He can summon his Master to this world once. After summoning him once, the world had recognized his Master's presence.
This world can't contain God, so after remembering his Master's presence. Even if he tried to summon him again, it was useless. He was relieved when his plan succeeded. That means he can still hold the token for another use.
He suddenly remembered Leoz's report. He turned to Leoz, "Leoz, is that person the one you mentioned back then?"
"I didn't see the Martial King back then. But, judging from the pressure I felt from him and the one we saw just now. I feel they are different people." Leoz said.
Alex closed his eyes. He was weighing something in his mind. If what Leoz said was true, then the Zhou Kingdom would have two Martial King. It was unprecedented. Even each sect only had one Martial King.
If the Zhou Kingdom tried to make war... It would be troublesome unless the sect united with each other. But the matter that troubling him the most was the blood red colored energy inside the Martial King's body.
It was precisely the energy that came from the evil cult as well as the Bell family. He remembered the matter about the Bell family. After that extermination, he asked Putri about the power level in that town.
According to Putri, the town had a Martial Lord as a City Lord. It was pretty similar to Limewatch Town. She also said it was bothering her. The power of the Bell Family was strange. They should not have that much Martial Grandmaster.
They both agreed that the problem must be the red colored energy that Alex had seen. It might have the function of boosting their cultivation. But, since the family had been exterminated. They thought it was over after doing the report.
Because of that, this matter became a headache for him. To think that the Zhou Kingdom had at least two Martial Kings, it was a big problem. He might need to report it to Charya. This matter of the evil cult had escalated to an unprecedented height.
It involved multiple Martial Kings and the entire Zhou Kingdom. Alex took a deep breath. Thinking about a problem like this needed a cool head. He can't lose his cool at this moment.
He opened his eyes and looked at the Blazing Pond in front of him. Sherry's mouth had been watering this whole time. Alex can see her intention while Leoz and Anna were pondering something.
Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw a few traces of energy. From the shape of the energy, it was human. Luckily, they didn't find this entrance as Anna and Leoz had covered it perfectly. From the outside, it was only a natural wall at the bottom of the cliff. With that, he decided.
"Anna, Leoz, I will absorb the energy from Blazing Pond first. After that, we will go out." Alex said. If they got outside at this time, they might find out about him.
"Yes!" Anna and Leoz nodded.
When Alex was just about to absorb the pond, Sherry immediately leaped toward him, "Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu!"
Sherry also wanted to absorb the energy inside the pond. Alex hesitated a bit. He remembered the system said that only Martial Lord or above could absorb this pond. He was fine because he had a Pure Fire Element. But Sherry...
[It's fine, Host. Sherry has reached the Pure Fire Element level after continuously taking your Pure Fire. She has evolved]
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHis system immediately answered it for him. He then nodded. "Good. You can absorb it too."
"Wuu." Sherry's eyes brightened. She immediately opened her mouth, trying to suck the energy.
Seeing Sherry had started. He also started absorbing energy. If Alex hadn't refined his heart, absorbing this energy might take a long time. But, he also noticed how great Sherry's sucking force was.
Even though he had refined his heart, he felt that Sherry's sucking force was even higher than him. But he also felt that their absorption speed difference wasn't that far.
He was very comfortable when absorbing energy. After around three days, Sherry had a breakthrough. Alex also managed to advance to 2-Star Martial Grandmaster a few hours later.
They were going to suck this pond dry. The fire that was blazing on the pond surface started becoming smaller.
After another three days, Sherry had another breakthrough to 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. Feeling it, Alex also didn't want to lose. He also felt the pond energy that was abundant at the start had been decreasing at breakneck speed.
But, he felt that the energy was enough for him to breakthrough. Yeah, it was enough for him to breakthrough... Only if Sherry didn't continue sucking the energy.
Alex continued absorbing the energy. He felt that at this pace, he would be able to breakthrough in a few hours. Yeah...in a few hours.
When he felt that his energy started to pile up, preparing for a breakthrough, he had this comfortable feeling in his heart as the sign for a breakthrough. Suddenly the comfortable feeling disappeared, as Alex immediately noticed that the energy from the Blazing Pond was no more.
He immediately opened his eyes. It was certainly annoying when you felt like you were in the zone, and something stopped you from continuing. It stopped your momentum and broke your concentration.
Next to him, he saw Sherry suddenly laid down while scrubbing her stomach with her paw. "Wuu!"
Her face was full of bliss. Alex twitched his eyebrows. He knew that the reason he couldn't breakthrough was because of Sherry. It was the same case when Sherry absorbed the energy inside the Battle Tower and prevented him from advancing to 9-Star Martial Master.
Looking at this blissful face, Alex can't hold himself back. At the side, Anna and Leoz also saw him waking up. They kept track of Alex's progress. He was on the verge of a breakthrough. If he continued absorbing the energy for a few hours, he would be able to advance.
Sadly, the pond had dried up and became an ordinary pond. Alex missed his chance to breakthrough. The reason was obvious. It was Sherry. Sherry had a higher absorption rate from Alex.
After reaching 3-Star Grandmaster, Sherry didn't stop. She continued absorbing the energy. Because of that, Alex failed to breakthrough. If Sherry stopped after she reached 3-Star Grandmaster, Alex would be able to breakthrough too.
Sadly, he can't. Alex reached out his hand to Sherry. Seeing this hand, Sherry thought that Alex wanted to pat her head. So, she happily accepted it.
Suddenly, she felt something wrong. When Alex's hand was on her head, he didn't do anything. Instead, his grip slowly tightened. At that time, she felt Alex was not like himself.
"Wuu!" Alex's action startled her.
Alex gripped her head tightly as Sherry tried to break free from it. Alex then stood up.
"Young Master." Anna and Leoz greeted Alex. Anna said, "We have been compiling the report from Leoz this whole time."
"Yeah, I will read it later. But first, I need to do something for this fox. I failed to have a breakthrough again because of her. So, I need to tease her a bit." Alex said while smiling. Yeah, his mouth was smiling, but his eyes were not.
"!!!" After hearing that, Sherry immediately realized why Alex became like this. She gulped down as she tried harder on breaking free from his grip. Unfortunately, she can't do it. Alex's strength was a dragon strength that came from many things. Even though Sherry was a Spirit Beast that should have a higher strength from a normal cultivator. Alex was not normal, so Sherry can only accept her fate.
She tried to look at Anna and Leoz for help, but they looked away. Alex brought her to somewhere a bit far inside the cave.
(After a few minutes of tor- Ahem, technical problem)
Alex came back with Sherry on his hand. Anna and Leoz looked at Sherry's state... Alex must have vented all his problems on her, starting from her lazy behavior to this problem. Pitiful Sherry.
When Sherry saw Anna and Leoz, she immediately raised her head and saluted with her paw. "Wuu Wuu (Master Personal Bodyguard, reporting)!"
Anna and Leoz can imagine what kind of punishment Alex gave. They shook their head and chose to ignore it. Anna asked, "Will Young Master check the report first or open the gacha first?"
"Gacha?" Alex was startled when Anna suddenly mentioned Gacha. He suddenly remembered that he had broken through to Martial Grandmaster. If his memory served him right, the reward should be 5 Premium Gacha Tickets and optimizing the Mission System. He opened the mission panel.
[Mission: Reach Martial Grandmaster Realm (Complete)
Reward: Premium Gacha Tickets 5x & Optimizing The Mission System]
Alex pumped his fist. He was dying to get Premium Gacha Tickets. He checked his Ticket status.
[Gacha Ticket x352]
[Premium Ticket x5]
[Dart x0]
[Summoning Ticket x5]
[Summoning Coin x1]
Before using the gacha, he checked his mission. Now that it had been optimized, he wanted to see the new appearance.
[Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Master Stage Monster (Repeatable)
Reward: Gacha Ticket x5]
[Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Master Stage Monster (Repeatable)
Reward: Gacha Ticket x5]
[Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Grandmaster Stage Monster (Repeatable)
Reward: Gacha Ticket x10]
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm[Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Grandmaster Stage Monster (Repeatable)
Reward: Gacha Ticket x10]
[Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Lord Stage Monster (Repeatable)
Reward: Gacha Ticket x25]
...
The normal mission had been optimized. There were two missions for each stage of cultivation, starting from Master Stage Monster to Martial Saint Monster. Alex was dumbfounded.
...
[Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Monarch Stage Monster (Repeatable)
Reward: Gacha Ticket x1000]
[Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Saint Stage Monster (Repeatable)
Reward: Gacha Ticket x5000]
[Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Saint Stage Monster (Repeatable)
Reward: Gacha Ticket x5000]
Was he supposed to kill 100 Saint Stage Monster? Alex couldn't believe it. The reward was five thousand Gacha Tickets, or in other words, it was twenty five Premium Tickets.
[Host, If you become a Martial Lord. The mission will update the mission once again. But the update will only be the reward. For two whole realm below your cultivation, the mission will only give you one gacha ticket. For one realm below your cultivation, it will give you five tickets.
For the same realm, Host can get ten tickets. One above you will give you twenty tickets and so on. Of course, if you made a breakthrough to Martial Lord. The reward for the Saint Stage monster will be replaced with the reward for the Monarch Stage monster, which is 1000 tickets. The same applies to Monarch Stage mission, and it will be replaced by Emperor Stage Reward and so on]
Alex pondered for a moment. He thought about a possible loophole. "System, can the spirits help with the mission?"
[Of course]
"Then, if I didn't cultivate for a while and had my spirits level up to Martial Saint. Then I can reap the best benefit." Alex said. What he thought was indeed tempting. If he stopped his cultivation at Martial Grandmaster while his Spirits had become Martial Saints. Alex could get a high reward.
[I'm your power, Host. How you want to use me is up to you. I give you missions and many others to help you in your path. Even if there is a suicide mission, you are the one who will choose whether to accept it or not.
There won't be any time limit or any other conditions that will force you to complete the mission. All of it comes from your will. You can get the reward like that, but the longer you stay, the longer you will meet with your loved one]
"No no no, I'm just kidding." Alex didn't know why, but he sweatdropped. He felt that the system reprimanded him. Of course, Alex didn't forget about Alicia and Firia.
The system was definitely angry at him, with different intentions, though. After all, the one behind it was already dying to see him again.