466 Before Departure

Alex had arrived in the port town. Shelka was taking care of the pass and the ship for him. Alex told her that no matter what, they would have two rooms as he felt it would be dangerous if he stayed in the same room as her.

It was no because of her beauty or something as Alex never cared about that. He just felt she might do something to him at that time. It felt like he was playing with Anna as his enemy. He needed to be very careful if he did not want to be trapped by her.

This was the first time he felt this since Anya always thought about what would be the best in their current situation. To think she would be this troublesome when she was his enemy.

Alex took out her card and said. "Anya. It seems I have underestimated this princess. She reeks of you."

"What do you mean by that, Alex? I am a bit offended if you compare me with her." She pouted.

"Nah, I am just telling you. She is like you but as the opposite party. I need to be very careful against her. Since we are going to another continent, I doubt we will come back to this continent. So, erase all the arrays there and I will summon you later." He said.

"Ah, you must be bored in the boat. I can take care of all you needs like Anna if you want." She smiled.

"..." Alex paused a bit before telling her. "I need a bit more time… you are just like Anna, but I don't want to like you because you are similar to her. Wait a bit more as I gather my resolve, alright?"

"Yes." Anya closed her eyes as she sighed. She thought, 'Just a bit more… I have been waiting for a few thousand years… I can easily wait a year or two…'

Alex then took out Nano's card and said, "You are following me, right?"

A man suddenly appeared before him. "Yes. Since Young Master has resolved the problem with the Elven Kingdom, I deem it unnecessary to stay there."

"Well, observe that princess first to make sure she does not do anything suspicious. I want to open my Gacha first before we set out."

"Understood." Nano nodded and changed into his bat form before flying toward the sea.

Alex then searched for an inn where he could have some private place to open his gacha. They agreed to meet in the dock this evening to talk about the departure, so Alex still had time to open his gacha.

[Mission #1: Acquire Elven Teleportation Crystal (Complete)

Reward: 5 Premium Tickets

Description: This mission will continue until you acquire all the six crystals.]

[Mission #2: Acquire Phoenix Teleportation Crystal

Reward: 5 Premium Tickets

Description: This mission will continue until you acquire all the six crystals.]

Alex immediately claimed the reward. And as he had chosen to go toward the Phoenix Nest, the next mission was for that.

He then checked his Gacha Status.

[Gacha Ticket x438

Premium Ticket x5

Dart x0

Gacha Card x2

Summoning Ticket x0

Summoning Coin x0]

Alex took out Anna's card after seeing this. "Anna, how is the condition over there? Do you need help or something?"

"No. Nothing big is going on right now. But because we need to stay low and the monsters are stronger, we can't generate as much as tickets like when we are in Willow Continent. The monster also knows how to use the Soul after reaching the Martial King, which boosts their power. Even Leoz needs to be careful about this."

"Should I use the Gacha Tickets and boost someone's level?"

"You can use the Gacha Tickets, but I don't think we need to level up for the time being. After all, you need more and more EXP per level later, so I think we can hold it for the time being. If you have come back, then we can start a big movement depending on your decision." Anna said. "How is your progress, Alex?"

"Well, I have gotten the second crystal. So four more to go. Still, I feel I need to get stronger if I want to take the Dragon Race Teleportation Crystal since it seems I need to take on someone equal to Martial Emperor. So, if I think I will need to stay here for around two years considering my progress."

"I see. That is a bit unfortunate. I will be missing you here, but I wait."

"Thank you. Just wait for me, I will come back as soon as possible."

"Yeah."

Alex then sighed.

He thought he did not need to come to the Gacha Palace since he only used five Premium Tickets. He said, "System, use all my premium tickets."

[Processing]

The system girl appeared in front of him and gave him the box. But before she disappeared, she advised him. "I am sure you are anxious to come back. But the higher your power, the slower you can advance. If you don't have many lucky encounters when you are Martial Master, Martial Grandmaster, or even Martial Lord. You might need more than a year to advance a whole realm. The biggest help in your cultivation is your Undying Fire Body. Without it, you might need at least five years just to advance from Martial Master to Martial King."

"I know." Alex sighed. He remembered that in Martial Master, he found that blazing pond that was very helpful to his cultivation. In Martial Grandmaster, he got the Undying Fire Body and finished the first refinement. He also cultivated in Zwaka's place. When he was a Martial Lord, he completed the second refinement. If he did not have that, he would need around a year to cover all of the benefits coming from them.

"I will be assisting you as always to make sure you don't make a wrong choice because you are rushing. Alright, see you later." She waved her hand as she disappeared.

"Yeah." Alex nodded.

Alex then opened the gacha one by one.

[Aloe Herb (C) x1]

[Rank 6 Monster Blood (SR) x1]

[Fire Element Orb (UR) x1]

[500x500 meter Array Paper (R) x1]

[Rank 6 Alchemist Furnace (SR) x1]

He did not need the Aloe Herb since its rank was too low. As for the monster blood, he gratefully accepted. It seemed the bottle was comparable to the biggest bottle that the Rune Palace sold.

The biggest haul was this Fire Element Orb. However, he was wondering if he should buy it or not, considering he could use it with rank 7 or rank 8 if he used it later. It was just the thought he might get Elemental Weapon later made him hesitant.

"System, will I get something like that in the future?" Alex asked.

[No spoiler for you.]

"..." Alex sighed. He thought it might be rare for Rank 5 or Rank 6 weapons, but it should not be that rare for rank 7 or rank 8 weapons. He could just buy it in the future. Because of that, he decided to fuse this with the most powerful sword he had at the moment, a rank 6 sword.

He took out a blood red sword from his space ring and fused it with his Fire Element Orb. Not long after, the orb vanished and fire started covering the sword. This was not his fire.

Alex was a bit curious about this. He then tried channeling his fire inside the sword. Surprisingly the fire was submitting to his fire and boosted his fire's strength.

He felt that he would create a stronger attack with this flame. This was very fascinating. The red fire complemented the color of the blade, making it look like a fierce sword.

He stored the sword inside his Space Ring first and made this his trump card at the moment. He also did not slack in his training for his Sword and Spear either as he managed to expand his domain to 200 meters.

Surprisingly, after he destroyed his intents' consciousness, his domains immediately increased by fifty meters. And he could even expand his domain faster after fusing both of his intent. This was because no matter if he trained his sword or spear, he would still train the intent and domain as they were fused now.

He was wondering about the Twin Blade Emperor Realm. After a few months, he finally came up with another name for his intent. Since it was a fusion between Sword and Spear, he decided to name it Blade as both Sword and Spear had blades. People often confused Blade as Sword, so Alex decided to add the "Twin" in its name, thus resulting in Twin Blade Intent.

After this, he wanted to know about the requirement for the Emperor Realm. But when he asked the system, she did not give him an answer. And in this world, he could not ask someone since it was weird to cultivate Sword and Spear.

He could only wait until he came back to the Northern Continent and asked someone about it.

"Young Master. It seems she has finished the conversation. There is nothing strange from their conversation and she has reserved two rooms according to your request. The journey will take a month, since the Phoenix Race is the farthest we can travel right now. It is on the other side of the world."

"Alright. Keep following her. We have already agreed with the schedule, so it would be weird if I show up right now." Alex said.

"Understood."

"Anya, take care of the house first. I will summon you after I board the boat." He said.

"Alright. There is one more thing. It seems there is no movement yet from the Empyrean Guild after your incident. We can be assured that they are not going to prevent you or anything. So, as long as you are on another continent, they or the royal family should not be able to reach you. Of course, we still need to be careful of their forces on another continent. Still, it should not be as powerful as in this continent."

"Thank you." Alex nodded and waited for the time.

...

Alex then came to the port a few hours later and met with Shelka.

"We can start the journey in two days. What are you going to do? Do you want to walk around the town with me?" Shelka asked with a smile.

He looked at her for a while before asking. "What do I need to know about the Phoenix Continent? I don't have any information about them."

Shelka was surprised by his question and pondered for a while. "There might be a few things you need to keep in mind. First, you can't show your Pure Fire right off the bat since we won't know their reaction. It would be best to keep it secret until you challenge their trial.

"The landscape of the continent is not that different from us. It is just that most of the mountains you can see in this continent are volcanoes in that continent. They love to bath there, especially female phoenixes. You might not want to get around there and be accused as a pervert.

"Well, you might see many phoenixes roaming around the sky, so just ignore them as they won't attack you for no reason.

"Lastly, it is about their trial. According to the record, the phoenix trial is the weirdest and time-consuming. So, I feel like I need to tell you this. I will wait for you until you finish the trial." Shelka said, trying to earn a point in Alex's heart.

Alex ignored it and nodded his head. It was time-consuming, so it might be good to send Nano to the Flying continent that was supposed to be the third trial after the phoenix trial.

"Alright. I will just stay inside the ship. It should not be a problem, right?" Alex asked.

"No." Shelka shook her head. She was burning with fire inside as she failed to take an opportunity. Even so, she could only put on a smile as she handed the room card. "You can show this to one of the crews and they will take you to your room."

"Thank you." Alex nodded.