Hello my dear readers. sorry this took so long and is essentially 4 days late. I've been busy with work and i did not want to release the chapter prematurely before i could make certain of its quality. I've proof read it once, but im sure you will still be able to point out mistakes, so please do so and i will change them as and when i get the chance.

“Hahahah!” Kiefer laughed heartily at Sher’s excitement. “We’re not going right now Sher. I still have to figure out how to get there. It won’t be for at least another year at the very least.”

Sher did not seem fazed by what Kiefer had said; instead, she seemed more excited. “So you’ll stay with Sher some more? YAY!!” She exclaimed, before running to hug Kiefer.

Kiefer slept well that night, relieved and thankful for the supportive family that he had. They may not share the same blood as he did, but they are very much his family, as were his foster parents. He was sure they would be happy for him, if they knew that even after his death, he had found somewhere he could call home, and companions he could consider his family.

It had been 2 weeks since the metal requisition event from the undead at the outskirts of Mutatis. Word had spread around the continent and adventurers and merchants alike were swarming in to take a bite out of the cheap sale of equipment that was present in every corner of Mutatis. The clock tower was almost completed, with only another week of construction left in its schedule. Kiefer was now at Buffon’s guild building at the request of Mayor Alwin.

“Alluviate has sent a messenger over expressing their concern of the drop in demand for metals and equipment in their city. What do you want me to do? I know it is good and all that you can help the city acquire cheap materials but I’m against the idea of entering a detrimental relationship with our closest neighbour. Even if we are equipped for war, and I highly doubt it will come to that, our city is still new and it could use the peace for as long as it lasts.” Alwin expressed his concern, watching Kiefer slowly sip his tea, carefully embracing its aroma.

“It’s about time they raised their concerns with us. Would have been better about a week ago though. I was getting bored waiting for them.” Kiefer nonchalantly replied, putting his tea down and gazing out the window, watching the snow fall and wondering what the girls were going to cook him tonight. Their nightly meals were about the only thing Kiefer looked forward to each day, having no luck with exploring the possible avenues of connecting to the netherworld.

Alwin on the other hand, was stunned at Kiefer’s reply. “Wait. You mean you did that knowing that it would raise possible cause of conflicts with Alluviate? Why would you do that?”

“Well, I needed a bargaining chip. If they were going to be greedy and hog all the land that they were not using to themselves, I would hog all the merchants and patrons from them in return, which was surprisingly easy to do thanks to Buffon’s influence. Call it a childish tantrum on my part, but I will do whatever it takes to get what I need. Without the land, Mutatis would starve in a few years.” Kiefer explained, secretly glad that everything was going according to plan. Now all he needed was to find a way to go meet with the representative of Alluviate without anyone recognising him.

Alwin just sighed, and massaged his temple, hoping silently that Kiefer would inform him of his plans beforehand in the future, relieving him of any worries. He calmed the headache that had been bothering him since the letter arrived from Alluviate and then look to Kiefer before replying, “I take it you want to do the negotiations yourself? Should I prepare a convoy to send you to Alluviate on official business, or do you wish to do it incognito?”

“No need for any of that. Just give me the letter from the messenger. I’ll hitch a ride with one of the merchants moving towards Alluviate. There’s some other side business I want to take care of.” Kiefer sipped his tea again, thinking about the 5 hidden presences that had been loitering around him for the past 2 weeks. They were so bad that even Sher and Isana noticed them right off the bat, but just couldn’t be bothered to take any action.

Taking the letter from Alwin’s hands, Kiefer thanked him for keeping the city in check, and then made his way to the inn where Isana and Sher were busy cooking to meet them for lunch.

“Hello again Mister!” The Arachne receptionist greeted Kiefer cheerfully. “The girls are down the back as usual. Today’s special is Trenitt stuffed with mashed potatoes with creamy mushroom soup for sides.”

“Thank you once again.” Kiefer nodded as he made his way past the busy counter and the crowded restaurant, entering the Kitchen where there were chefs running around serving the lunch hour rush. No sooner had he stepped in, Isana rushed forwards and stuffed a spoonful of mushroom soup into his mouth.

“How’s this Kii? Chef said today will be the first time I’m allowed to cook something for the customers.” Isana asked, watching Kiefer choke on the spoon with puppy eyes, waiting for his feedback.

“cough cough… Next time, warn me first Sana. I couldn’t even taste it. Bring me some more.” Kiefer regained his posture and looked at Isana, rubbing his throat where the spoon was lodged in just moments earlier.

At that, Sher came up from behind Isana with a bowl full of a creamy white soup with specks of black chunks in it. Kiefer spent the rest of lunch inside the kitchen, tasting various versions of the same soup over and over again. He had come to realise that once Sher and Isana learnt a new dish, they would only cook that dish until they perfected it, which meant he would probably be having mushroom soup for the foreseeable future.

As the lunch hour rush calmed down, Kiefer collected his family from the kitchen and left, holding hands with Sher who was in between Isana and Kiefer. To anyone who didn’t know better, they seemed like a family with the daughter holding the hands of the parents. As they turned into a secluded alleyway, the family seemed to vanish into thin air, not leaving a single trace of them having ever been there.

[[Somewhere in the adventurer’s guild building, 10 minutes later]]

“Boss, we’ve lost track of them again. It the same as always, they seem to just vanish. I can’t even trace their mana signature with my wind spell.” (Lackey#1)

“Fuck. That brat humiliated me the other day. It’s already been almost 20 days and we still can’t find out anything about him. All we know is that he is most likely a merchant. You said he visits the merchant’s guild often?” Tigre asked, clenching his fists in frustration.

“Yes. And we also know he has a family. The wife and daughter work in a restaurant near the docks. Shall we keep monitoring them?” (lackey #2)

“Yes, but keep your distance for the time being. At least they don’t know we are tracking them. I don’t want to cause too much of a ruckus in this city that it gets me thrown out. Once we are sure we won’t be traced, we can move in to kidnap them. The wife’s a beauty and the child seems innocent. They would go for quite a bit on the slave market.” Tigre continued, sneering at the thought of having his way with the 2 girls.

[[Back at home]]

Kiefer left the 2 girls at home after soaring back through the skies, and teleported his way to the outskirts once more. He had been spending his days repeating what he was about to do, and so far, he’s had no significant results. He sat on a tall tree branch, and began summoning the undead, one zombie at a time.

Each time the zombie materialised in Aioa, Kiefer could feel the link to the netherworld, but it was never long enough to trace and connect the 2 worlds together. The spell that Drigor taught him simply makes it possible for the soul to cross the barrier from the netherworld to Aioa, a one way trip. It was sort of like fishing, where the spell pulls the soul out in a one directional motion. The spell did not mention anything about putting the soul back into the netherworld, which meant so far, Kiefer only had one method of travelling to the netherworld – dying.

“AAArrgghh… this is so frustrating!” Kiefer complained, scratching his head furiously, trying to shake any ideas out. “This is exactly Einstein’s definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. I’ve summoned at least a few thousand undead over the last 2 weeks, but so far I still can’t maintain the connection long enough to form a link as the soul crosses over.”

Kiefer stopped once again, killing the zombie like the countless times he had done so far to think and examine his mistakes. The difficult thing was that he knew he was doing something wrong, and yet, he did not know what he was doing wrong, so he did not know how to change it. He opened his PD and took out a bowl of soup that he had pocketed while at the restaurant like a petty thief. Sipping on the steaming soup and letting out a warm breath of satisfaction, his breath formed a mist and dispersed into the cold winter air.

“FUCK! Why did I have to and kill Drigor off so quickly!?! I should’ve asked him more about the spell first. Guess I’m stuck breaking the spell into its components by myself.” Kiefer lamented, getting off the tree and heading back to Mutatis after burying the dead zombies.

Having no progress on the front of the netherworld research, Kiefer moved on, aiming to tackle the problem with Alluviate. As he stepped into the adventurer guild hall once again, he could hear the entire lounge area grow deadly silent, before being filled with mummers as people spied at him from the corners of their eye. He had grown famous overnight as the man who utterly defeated the newbie crusher.

Looking through the notice board once more, Kiefer instantly picked out one request that seemed the most appealing. It was a simple escort mission for a merchant moving a weapons cart from Mutatis to Alluviate. Such trips were often the primary target of bandit attacks since it would provide them with weapons and a small amount of daily necessities. Trying to kill 2 birds with one stone, Kiefer read through the request thoroughly, and proceeded to the inn across the guild building as instructed by the quest, ignoring the presence hiding amongst the wooden beams of the ceiling and tailing him.

The request form instructed the adventurer to meet the merchant at the bar in the inn across the road every evening before sun down. Kiefer instantly located the client. She was an Arachne lady dress smartly in a brown formal attire with a small red bow below her neck. She was the only one sitting at the bar drinking beer while everyone else was sitting at the tables, since there was no space left at the bar given her huge spider body.

“Hello. Are you the one who put up the request for an escort team to move a weapons cart from here to Alluviate?” Kiefer asked, looking up towards the 2.5m tall lady. She was shorter than usual, but only because she was sitting down with her 8 legs bent below her body.

“Yes. My name is Listin. Are you applying for the position?” Listin asked, turning around and inspecting the human male who approached her.

“Actually, I’m not here to apply to be part of the escort team. I was wondering if my family and I could tag along with you for the trip to Alluviate. We are on our way to meet some friends in Alluviate and could use some security. Of course, we will make it worth your time.” Kiefer explained, taking out a single platinum coin from the drawstring pouch around his waist.

“Done!” Listin agreed almost instantly after she saw the coin, snatching it straight from Kiefer’s hands and stashing it away in a pocket hidden under her jacket. She could earn maybe 10 or 15 gold coins per trip and having been shown one platinum coin, it was worth 9 to 10 trips in total, which would take her up to a year to earn. Even if she splurges a little more on security this trip, she would still walk away with quite the hefty profit.

“Thank you. When and where should we meet to head out?” Kiefer asked, thanking her for allowing him to join her.

“Meet me 3 days from now outside the adventurer’s guild. With this influx of capital, I can raise the price I’m paying for the escort and we should be able to find a decent team by the end of the week. Otherwise, I’ll just extend the request by another week, but I’ll keep you informed.

Kiefer was satisfied with his plan, and headed home where he informed Sher and Sana about the trip to Alluviate. Eager to have an adventure once in a while, the 2 girls agreed almost instantly, all while forcing more soup down Kiefer’s throat.

The Trio arrived outside the guild building at the appointed time while Feir was left guarding the house. They each carried on their backs a large sack filled with daily necessities such as blankets, towels and extra clothing. It was to be a 10 day trip to Alluviate and another 10 back by carriage. While they could have used their PD, Kiefer chose instead to carry his load manually to avoid raising suspicion.

“Hello again Listin. Meet my wife Sana, and my adopted daughter Sher.” Kiefer greeted, introducing his family to the weapons merchant. He had to say that Sher was adopted since she was clearly a demi human from a reptilian family while Kiefer and Isana looked like normal humans.

“My my… Kiefer you are one lucky guy. To have such a beautiful wife and such a cute daughter.” Listin praised, making Isana blush a little. “Why don’t you load up your stuff into the back of my carriage and then I’ll introduce you to the escort crew. I assure you I only hired the most skilled one so you can rest assured you will be safe for the journey.” Listin continued, lifting up the canvas that draped down the back of the carriage.

Kiefer arranged all their bags neatly along the back and turned to face the adventurer crew, only to be greeted by a familiar face, making him sneer in an ugly grin. Clearly pissed off by Kiefer’s sneer but trying to control himself, Tigre stepped up in front of his crew of 15 adventurers and extended his hand. “We meet again young man.”

“Indeed.” Kiefer replied, shaking Tigre’s extended hand, smiling at Tigre’s failed attempt to crush his hand in the handshake. “Have you gotten better at fighting yet?” Kiefer continued to provoke the giant man that seemed like he could squish Kiefer under his thumb.

“OH! Do you 2 know each other already?” Listin asked in surprise, watching the exchange between Kiefer and the leader of her guard escort.

“Not really.” Kiefer interjected before Tigre could speak. “I only watched him get his ass handed to him in a sparring match not long ago.”

Tigre ignored Kiefer and turned his attention to the woman and child standing behind Kiefer. Isana stared at Tigre in disgust as he licked her all over with his eyes, not hiding his lust and perverseness even a little. This led to an awkward silence which Listin immediately broke up.

“Well then! Shall we start heading out? Kiefer, you and your family can ride in the front carriage with me. The guards will spread out to protect our carriage and the cargo carts that will be following behind. The guard’s own carriage will be the last in our convoy. We will head out now and set up for camp just within the forest belt.” Listin announced, climbing on top of her specially made carriage on her 8 spiny legs. Holding the reins that were attached to 6 horses, she started the convoy moving, with the guards and the drivers for her cargo carts following closely behind.

“Hey boss. That woman is a real piece of work. Mind if I enjoyed her before we sell her to the slave company?” One of the guards whispered quietly to Tigre in the back of the guards carriage.

“Don’t be too hasty Gary. The attack isn’t until we enter the Agrean forest. You can do whatever you like, but I get first dibs. Leave the child though. She will fetch a higher price if she remains a virgin.” Tigre whispered back, an evil smile growing on his face.

“That can I at least do her in the back? She’ll still have her virginity and it’s not like the slavers can tell.” Another more perverse guard chimed in, tearing a piece of meat jerky and chewing on it.

“No. Like I said, leave the child alone. We can’t have her breaking before we sell her. It is crucial that the slavers do the breaking, so they can train her the right way. The woman though, she’ll be sturdier so we can do whatever we like.” Tigre barked back again, shutting the lolicon down.

The convoy soon slowed to a stop not long after entering a sparse forest. The forest belt around Mutatis was relatively thin thanks to Kiefer clearing the lands out to make way for farmland. They reached the outskirts of Mutatis and were now at their first stop, letting the horses graze and rehydrate while the guards set up a rotational shift to keep watch.

Kiefer and Isana were enjoying a warm sip of fragrant tea that Kiefer had brought along inside his PD. They sat on the back of their carriage, Isana leaning against Kiefer, and letting their legs dangle while they took slow sips from the red orihalcom thermos that Kiefer had made to bring the tea in. While they garnered the envious stares of all the guards and even Listin, Sher was running around the clearing chasing some snow white draeries that had come from within the forest to investigate the convoy.

The guards had become considerably relaxed, since they had yet to meet a single wild animal since the start of their journey. Even though the forests around Alluviate and Mutatis were notorious for Fientral and Seraplor attacks, they had yet see even a shadow that might belong to a wild animal. Of course, no one knew that all the animals were instinctively avoiding the 2 fearsome titans that were tagging along with the convoy. Only the draeries who were confident in their speed dared come close to the convoy.

After an hour’s rest, Listin ordered the convoy to start moving again, finally reaching the edges of the Eastern Alluvian plains by nightfall. Kiefer and his family laid out their thick warm sleeping bags and slept peacefully inside their carriage while Listin chose a tall tree to hang from as she wove a cocoon around herself and fell asleep while dangling from a sturdy branch. The guards took turns to watch the perimeter, changing shifts every 2 hours. With 16 guards, and 4 guards per shift, each person got about 6 hours of sleep, doing a total of 2 shifts per person.

Kiefer and his family slept soundly, without any worries. While they may seem to be too relaxed to any other outsider, Kiefer knew that there was literally nothing on this continent that could even come close to giving him or his family even a scratch. This however, only raised the hopes of Tigre, seeing how defenceless the snobby man and his delicious family were. He endured with all his might to not crush the man’s windpipe, knowing that his planned trap would spring in just a few more hours.

Naturally, morning came around and the convoy started moving quickly across the still pockmarked plains. Sher was weak against the cold and was still snoozing under 4 layers of blankets while Isana and Kiefer were already up and about. Kiefer looked across the endless plans and smiled, remembering how he was the cause of all these craters within the field.

It had taken a full year and finally, grass had started to cover the plains once again. Over the uneven landscape covered in a thin blanket of snow, Kiefer could see specks of green poking out of the whiteness, reaching for the sun. There were places where the snow formed deep pits, as if marking out the plains at points where Kiefer had used as a target board.

The convoy did not stop for lunch this time, since they were vulnerable out in the open. Choosing to rush ahead after only a 5 minute break for the horses to regain their stamina, Listin pushed the convoy forwards once again, quickly reaching the Agrean forest just before the last speck of sunlight disappeared beyond the horizon.

Moving for another good hour into the Agrean forest, Listin came upon a widely used road with a clearing large enough for the party. Finally settling down and heaving a sigh of relief and exhaustion, Listin began making preparations for dinner, getting a camp fire going and setting a pot over the fire, collecting snow to melt and boil within the pot.

“Sana, Sher. Remember the plan. It’s about to go down soon.” Kiefer whispered into the comms device attached to their ears as he heard the unnatural rustling of the forest floor around them.

[[elsewhere, deep in space]]

“Captain Palmer. There is an asteroid belt coming up. I suggest we alter our trajectory to stop for a mining operation. We could use the metals and ice.” Vladlena reported, swiping her hand across her holographic screen to send the map onto Palmer’s terminal.

“No. we are travelling at 0.5 times the speed of light. It will take too long to get back up to such speeds and we will waste more resources than we can get.” Palmer replied while he twirled the holographic image of the asteroid belt in his hands. “Rowanda, see if you can alter the trajectory of the colony craft to run alongside the asteroid belt, parallel to the direction of the asteroid’s travel. We will eject our carbon nanotube grapples and reel in as much as we can into our cargo hold and then we will return to our original course towards the target.” Palmer calmly ordered, awaiting the Ship’s AI to show him the new trajectory and information on his screen.

[Sir, I calculated that it will throw us off by about a year if we take this detour. Scans show the asteroids are rich in iron, carbon and ice. Estimated possible harvest currently stands at 20kiloton of iron, 5 kilotons of carbon and 15 kilotons of ice. Shall I proceed with the course alteration?]

“Vladlena, didn’t you say the ship’s hull needed repairs and drones need maintenance?” Plamer asked his head mechanic who was seated a level below him and about 5 metres diagonally left of him.

“Yes, but sir, iron? It would be better if it was titanium or tungsten. Even lead would be better, at least I could repair the radiation shields. We might as well just carry on our course and save a year of our lives.” Vladlena gave her assessment of the situation.

“Iman, how much water and oxygen does the ship have left?” Palmer asked another crew member.

“Sir, we still have 78% full capacity for water and 46% oxygen stores. I’ve been electrolysing water to replenish our oxygen stocks. We will be at 75% oxygen capacity in another 300 hours, with a final water level of 65%.” Iman gave his report, similarly swiping his hand across the screen to show the data to Palmer.

“Very well then, we will not be stopping to mine the asteroids. Rowanda, continue with the original course. Deviate a little to avoid as much physical collisions with space debris. How much nukes do we have left in store?” Palmer made his decision, choosing to ignore the asteroid belt altogether.

[My analysis shows we still have 8 cargo bays full of nukes. Calculations indicate using the rest of the nukes will bring us up to 70% the speed of light. Shall I begin the acceleration process?]

“Use 3 bays of nukes. Leave the rest for a later date. We should try to arrive as early as we can. Even if the planet turns out to be inhospitable, we can still mine the planet dry and replenish our stocks for the next trip.” Palmer explained, ordering the AI to accelerate the ship forwards.

[Beginning acceleration protocols. Radiation shields at 88%. Prioritising key instruments and equipment for radiation protection. Predicted final velocity, 0.575c. Releasing timed nuclear fission device.]

At the far rear end of the colony ship, a small spherical device was released from the middle of a huge concave plate spanning over 10km in diameter. The nuclear charge then detonated within seconds, sending out a blast of thermal radiation and a kinetic shockwave that hit the concaved plate at full force.

The plate took the brunt of the force, as titanic springs on its back creaked. The plate was pushed away by the blast, compressing the huge springs like a wheel would to a suspension system. The springs in turn dampered the force from the explosion, slowly accelerating the ship forwards. More nuclear charges were detonated in a chain as the entire colony ship slowly began picking up speed.