On the Assegai Exodus II, the elderly beastman and Erin were currently in a private, sound-proof room. The two guards were standing outside this private room as a mere formality. Unknown to them, the highly intelligent AI was monitoring their every movement. Even a drop of sweat couldn’t escape from the AI’s sights!

Inside the sound-proof room were two large and comfortable couches. There was a long table at the center with tea and small pre-packaged snacks.

The dragon hatchling was impolitely lying on the side of the table and munching on some snacks. Although these things couldn’t provide it any real energy, after trying the kettle popcorn earlier, the hatchling realized that it enjoyed the taste of these human foods. Both Erin and the beastman didn’t mind this sight at all.

Rather than minding anything, the elderly beastman was really amazed. The language on these snacks were completely unrecognizable to him. Even rare or ancient beastman languages would give him a tiny sense of familiarity. This basically confirmed his thoughts that the Dragon Rider was not from the Beastman Universe!

Erin intentionally placed those snacks there and nodded understandingly at the beastman’s reaction. Erin was hoping to make the discussions smoother and more straightforward.

The green aura from the elderly beastman became several shades darker. Erin raised his eyebrows in surprise. Although he didn’t understand why this beastman trusted him more, he didn’t mind. Dark green basically meant that the beastman only had good intentions!

From the elderly beastman’s perspective, if the Dragon Rider tried hiding his origins, then he would have been less trustworthy. Erin being open was a lot more reassuring.

“I will formally introduce myself.” The elderly beastman spoke first. He took out a small trinket carved from an unusual stone and activated it. A misty display appeared in front of the stone trinket. The letters and numbers that appeared were in a different language.

Fortunately, just like how Erin spoke earlier, his brain instantly processed these letters and numbers. Erin could understand them almost instantaneously now.

[Winslow Ursidae] [Age: 192]

[Level: 4,164] [Family: Ursidae Tribe]

[Profession: Priest] [Status: Outer Branch Elder]

[Officiator: Guardian Elder Council of the Ursidae Tribe]

It seems like this display didn’t have the same security measures that a normal identification device had. All of it’s stats were visible.

‘Level 6,564? 192 years old?!’ These stats shocked Erin. It seems like the beastmen had different lifespans compared to humans. Before he could ask anything though, he grabbed his orb and activated it first. It would be impolite for him not to introduce himself promptly.

The orb floated in front of Erin and displayed a holographic display. The sight amazed Winslow.

‘Such a strange identification device.’ Winslow kept this thought to himself.

[Erin Dawn] [Age: 18]

[Level: 789] [Family: Household of Dawn]

[Profession: Student] [Status: ????]

[Officiator: Intergalactic Imperial Academy]

[Additional Notes: ????]

Although Erin focused on studying most of the time, he didn’t neglect his training. His moderate level increase was mostly due to the high-level consumable resources he had access too. Since he rarely checked, Erin was pleasantly surprised to see that he was near level 800. This was on the cusp of breaking through the second barrier!

“Erm, I apologize for my lack of knowledge. Unfortunately, I cannot read your natural language.” Winslow bowed his head awkwardly.

Erin felt a little stupid. He forgot about that this beastman couldn’t auto-translate everything too.

Erin glanced at his orb and wondered if there was a function to change the text-language. It’s just that he didn’t know what the name of their language was.

“Oh, my apologies. I was inconsiderate.” Erin softened the situation quickly. He turned off the display but left his orb activated.

From Winslow’s point of view, Erin’s tone was far too clear and polite. It made Winslow feel a little embarrassed.

A young man from outside the Ursidae Tribe could speak their language even better than him!

“My name is Erin Dawn. You are probably aware that I am not from this area.” Erin got straight to the main point. “In fact, to be perfectly honest, I arrived in this space by accident.”

“By pure chance, I finally found a life-planet after searching for quite some time. I did not expect to witness it being attacked. Since I couldn’t tolerate this, I dealt with these attackers. I do not require any money or thanks. However, I would be most glad if you could provide me with some information and a star-map!”

Erin’s words were a little too blunt. The room was actually silent after he finished speaking.

Seconds passed and Erin quickly realized that his words sounded like he was treating Winslow’s people rather cheaply. It felt like he only rescued them cause he was lost and needed a map. Which was partially true.

On the other hand, Winslow thought Erin was being extremely considerate. His people already lost so much. They had some damaged civilian ships left, but compared to Erin’s starship it was like comparing trash to gold. They didn’t have anything else to give.

Erin’s words were basically saying that he didn’t want any material rewards. This was kindness!

To Winslow, as an Outer Branch Elder of his tribe, map information about the many galaxies were far too cheap!

“If that is your wish, I actually have a couple star-maps with me.” Winslow took out a very tiny stone trinket. “Of the two, this one is more recently updated. I shall give it to you.” He didn’t hesitate and handed Erin the tiny stone trinket.

‘Do they just transcribe everything into stone?’ Erin was intrigued. The trinket literally just felt like a small, smooth stone.

“How do I activate this?” Erin had no idea how this thing worked.

Winslow was surprised that a Dragon Rider actually didn’t know such a simple function. Dragons literally breathed in spiritual energy. In spite of this, he didn’t dare to say anything rude.

“Use your spiritual energy to awaken the map.” Winslow explained it in the simplest way possible.

However, to Erin, this concept was a whole new world.

‘Spiritual energy?’

Erin really didn’t know what that was. Let alone how to use it!

The tiny dragon hatchling was amused by its master's slight confusion. It casually flicked its claws and a hint of energy hit the tiny stone trinket in Erin’s hands. The star-map automatically activated!

Erin witnessed this and made a mental note. Later on, he was going to convince his dragon hatchling to teach him how to do that as well.

Winslow was amazed by this scene. Other than being noble and proud, dragon’s were quite arrogant too. They normally would never lower themselves to do such a simple task. This meant that Erin was quite a powerful Dragon Rider! Even if it was a mere hatchling, a dragon was still a dragon to most beastmen. They dare not to belittle them.

Erin looked at the star-map. It was very detailed. Aside from the misty borders, it was almost identical to most other star-maps.

Although the holographic display was off, Erin’s orb was still activated. It detected the trinket and sent out a notification that was only visible to Erin.

[Unknown Star Map Detected.]

[Scan completed. No harmful contents detected. Download?]

‘Download.’ Erin was quite happy at this outcome. Using the orb, he could easily transfer the star-maps information to the starship’s AI.

Even though he downloaded a copy of the star-map, he still kept the tiny stone trinket. It’s composition greatly interested Erin. Especially the concept of spiritual energy.

“Great. Now that this is settled, I have a few more questions for you.” Erin gratefully glanced at Winslow.

“Of course. I am more than happy to answer.” Winslow anticipated this.

“Earlier, I heard the term Beastman Universe. Is that the name of this territory?” Erin’s first question was simply a matter of where. Even though he had a starmap now, he had no knowledge related to it.

“This area is indeed part of the Beastman Universe. We are on the edges of the outer realm. The more powerful and important beastmen live in the inner realm. The leaders of this universe reside in the core realm. There are a total of three realms in our universe.”

“We also share the borders with two other universes: the Elfen Universe and the Terren Universe. The hostile forces earlier were from the Terren Universe. Judging by the design of their starships, I am confident that they were from the Planetoid race. It is a major faction there.”

“It is quite sad that a small scouting party was more than enough to overwhelm our poor planet.”

Winslow said the last sentence slowly and with a disappointing sigh. They were simply too poor and weak to defend themselves.

‘There are other universes?’ Erin took in a deep breath. There were two realistic possibilities. The first was that mankind was actually blind and didn’t know about these other territories and humanoid races. The second was that this knowledge was actually kept hidden from the general public. Since he wasn’t familiar with the leadership in his universe, Erin was leaning to the latter.

What concerned Erin more was Winslow’s last sentence.

‘That was only a scouting party? And the small one too?’ Erin didn’t like this feeling. He decided to speed things up and leave the planet quickly.

“I see. Then my next question pertains more to your level. I hope you don’t take any offense.” Erin continued. “I noticed that your level is 4,164. Have you already broken through the first tier?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, I am probably one of the poorest elders in my tribe’s branch. My resources were simply too limited.” Winslow sounded embarrassed.

“Even though I am in the later middle-stages of my life, I’m nowhere near the second tier. It’s truly a shame.” He sighed in regret.

Erin confirmed a couple important things from his answer. It seems that the power-rankings of this Beastman Universe were similar to his own universe. The first tier is achieved after breaking the 9th barrier. There was a barrier every 400 levels.

The second piece of information is the lifespan of these beastmen. Erin wasn’t sure if it was different for every tribe, but it sounded like Winslow was considered an older middle-aged beastman. If 192 years was considered that, then Erin started to question how old some of the younger-looking beastmen actually were.

Although these questions were a little unusual, Winslow answered earnestly.

“Although I’d be glad to answer more, I’m afraid that we don’t have much time left.” There were hints of dread surfacing from the depths of Winslow’s eyes.

“Not enough time?” Erin frowned. He literally just arrived on the planet. Surely the hostile forces wouldn’t be that quick?

“The moment those ships were destroyed, their connection to the mothership was eliminated.”

“Now that the scouting party is gone, the mothership will definitely send forces to investigate. My people and I will be finished when those forces arrive.” Winslow said. His remaining hopes lied in this young Dragon Rider. Their only dimensional gate was already broken beyond repair.

This was a possibility that Erin considered earlier. It’s just that, by eliminating all the forces at once, he was hoping that they weren’t able to send out any emergency messages. It seems he was too careless in this regard. Winslow’s words woke up Erin’s cautious side.

“I understand. You have my gratitude for this warning.” Erin was no longer in a mood to ask questions.

“In regards to escape, do your people have any means?” Erin was probing their situation.

“Our last hope was the dimensional gate. The damage sustained by the gate is beyond repair. Even if we did somehow make it work, I am certain that the passageway would be unstable.” Winslow was blunt with his sorrows.

“This..”

Erin’s eyebrows furrowed and his frown deepened. The context from Winslow’s words were simple. ‘We have no way out. But you are here. Therefore, you are now our only way out.’

He wasn’t stupid enough to simply allow all these people onto his starship. It would add too many unknown factors into his travels.

The dragon hatchling could sense the basis of Erin’s plight. It sighed before sending out three orbs of light before Erin’s face. From Winslow’s perspective, all of these orbs were glowing white.

On the contrary, in front of Erin, these orbs were green, yellow, and red respectively.

This sight gave him an idea!

“AI, does the starship have any protocols for refugees?” Erin spoke in his natural tongue. Winslow had no idea what he was saying.

[All military grade starships have built-in protocols for rescuing refugees. Normally, this has to be activated manually by the crew and approved by the starship’s commander. However, since you installed me onto this starship, I can manage all these protocols if given your approval.]

The AI’s response was heaven-sent for Erin.

“Fantastic. Is it possible to separate the grades of the refugees?” Even if they were all restricted, Erin wanted additional precautions on the people with neutral and ill-intent. Those were bigger risk factors that Erin wanted controlled.

[At the discretion of the commander, the restrictions can be tightened accordingly. Do you have a format in mind?]

The AI would implement it based on Erin’s preference.

Erin smiled and looked down at his dragon hatchling. The tiny creature didn’t like the look that its master was giving it.

Since Erin had no way of connecting this mystical aura system to the starship’s AI, he decided on the next best thing. Using his dragon to provide all the information to the AI instead! Erin wasn’t going to personally process thousands of people himself.