Viers was sitting with his legs crossed. A globe of light was floating in front of him. Hundreds of little lights flowed from the globe into Viers’ head until the globe lost its luster and disappeared.

“Phew… It’s finally done.”

Viers put a hand on his head. Absorbing Aletro’s soul attainment always gave him a headache.

The giant sunflowers that acted as the replacement for the sun in the Biome were shining with the intensity of dusk and still gradually fading. That meant he had been doing this from morning to evening. There was just a little bit more so Viers pushed through to the finish.

The first thing Viers did when his consciousness was in tune with his body, was an emergency toilet visit. Unlike cultivators in cultivation stories that pretty much stopped having bodily needs after the first or second stage of cultivation, Pathseekers of this world still needed toilet breaks, food, and sleep.

Dia created a toilet stall in Viers’ treehouse. The matter of water and plumbing was taken care of with great care.

Viers came out of the treehouse with a mug of freshwater to heal his severely parched throat. He saw his three familiars bonding with each other.

The cloud elemental and fire elemental were babies who were just born. Everything was new to them and they lacked understanding of the world around them. They were a handful, such as the fire elemental burning a bush by simply flying too close.

A living fire was not an ideal addition to a plant-based Biome.

But Viers forgave them because they were so cute. Even Viers’ black heart softened from the power of their loveliness.

Both the tiny cloud and fire with faces would get better with time. Viers could communicate with them and they understood him to some extent, not by knowing his words but by empathy. They were born from pieces of Viers’ own soul, after all.

He didn't know if elementals had the concept of gender but he didn't like to call them ‘it’. Since they were offshoots of Viers' existence, Viers treated them as males.

Viers named the cloud elemental Futon and the fire elemental Faiya.

Futon was Japanese-style bedding. The cloud’s very comfy body earned him that name. Once Futon got bigger, Viers planned to sleep on top of him. That, and he dreamed of riding the cloud like Sun Wukong.

Faiya was how the Japanese said ‘fire’. Incidentally, it was also Moltres’ Japanese name. Considering the origin of the fire elemental was Anne’s phoenix fire, Viers felt the name was very fitting.

Faiya and Futon had grown a bit since they first opened their eyes. Not of their size but their power.

Their base materials were already top-notch and their birth was backed by a rare Level 3 Pathseeker with a Grand Soul. They would grow strong, Viers had no doubt about this.

Creating them was not without a price on Viers’ part. He was no longer a Grand Soul. Carving out his soul took a lot out of him.

Viers was currently at 500,000 Mortal Soul. He’d cut down half of his soul cultivation. He would need another 500,000 Soul Power to reach his Grand Soul state again.

He didn't find it too much of a loss. His soul cultivation was currently stuck. He could not improve upon his Grand Soul. Meanwhile, he could eat his fellow too-stupid-to-live human souls to recover. The trade-off of gaining two exceptional elemental familiars was more than worth it.

“Faiya, come here,” Viers called the adorable ball of fire while waving a fire flower that he took from his inventory.

Faiya flew closer and gobbled the flame up. The tennis ball-sized fireball then playfully rubbed his body on Viers’ cheek like a puppy.

“Hehe, that tickles,” Viers tickled him right back. Faiya let out sounds similar to a 'puff' of giggles as his body expanded and contracted.

The baby elementals couldn't fathom complex orders yet but Viers could communicate with them somewhat. The first thing he taught Faiya was to control his fire. No burning friends. It took a few days but Viers could touch the supposed plasma without feeling any heat. Faiya sometimes forgot to turn the heat down though. His light emission was the next lesson.

The main reason Viers created them was not to have cute mascots but for battle. Therefore making them stronger was imperative. Thankfully, what they needed was simple: food.

Viers made use of the overabundance of his blood money at his disposal. To prevent suspicions of procuring such materials, he manipulated his puppet trading company like a marionette.

Faiya was picky, he only ate fiery materials. Futon, on the other hand, was more liberal.

The cloud ate water, air, other clouds, and even lightning.

Technically, they absorbed those mana materials into their body but Viers didn't bother to differentiate it from eating.

In truth, Futon was closer to an air elemental than a water one. The cloud was closely related to weather aspects.

Meanwhile, Futon was startled by a bunny that jumped from tall grass and involuntarily gave off rain. Was he crying? Viers was concerned that the little cloud’s volume would decrease even further but it seemed there was no need for concern. It was a magical world and things.

Dia calmed the crying child down by hugging him. Rain and sunshine would also be beneficial for the dryad.

For fulfilling the empty night bodyguard position, Viers didn't want more slaves, so he thought of golems at first. But, once gained the skill to imbue objects with his soul from Aletro’s gift, Viers went with the Pokémon route instead.

The golem option is still on the table though. One can never be too safe. I haven't encountered the agency but I’ll keep an eye out. I’ve pretty much accomplished what I require. The bulk of the gains from the Book World have been turned into reinforcing my foundation. A few more days of getting familiar with it all and I should be good. Arsène should be finishing up the matter in the city… It’s time to go to Valkut. Gotta keep the cultivation momentum going.

***

Star Ducks.

It was a tavern in Regidana. The pub’s emblem was a duck under three stars. Adventurers frequented this place because of its strategic position, pretty waitresses, and good food.

It was evening and smack dab in a rush hour but there was a table for ten occupied by four people. These four drank and laughed boisterously, disturbing the other customers and the waitresses with their advances. The owner was sweating and made a difficult face.

A man walked in, a knight helmet covered his face. A kid followed him shortly after. The man saw the situation and approached the rowdy gang.

“You there. I have a reservation so I believe you four are on my seat.”

“Aaaah?” The adventurer put down his glass of ale. He seemed drunk already. “Look pal, if we want to sit here, we damn well can! Who do you think-”

The man got punched in the face. Not by the knight helmeted man but by his teammate.

“Josh, what the fuc-”

“Forgive us, SIR!” The man who was doing the punching apologized in a loud voice. “We didn't know this was your table. We’ve overstepped. Guys, move on the double!”

The punched man was confused but his other teammate spoke something that made him thank Josh who punched him.

“Slayer, Sir! W-we’ll leave. Spare our heads!”

The rest of the group was paling from fear. They quickly grabbed their stuff before running to the exit.

“Oi you lot,” Arsène said.

The four were frozen in their tracks like frogs in the gaze of a snake. The rest of the tavern bated their breaths. Would they witness a few murders in the city? If there was someone daring enough, it would be the knight helmeted man in front of them.

“You forgot to pay.”

“O-o-of course. My mistake!” Josh put out a hefty amount to the owner behind the bar and ran away using an Arte.

“Ladies,” Arsène spoke to the nearby waitresses. “Might I trouble you to clean the table up? My friends will be coming soon.”

The waitresses gladly put the messy table in order. Meanwhile, Avel talked to the owner.

“Owner, I have to leave for some time on a business trip but I can't leave without eating your chef’s cooking one last time.”

“Hahaha! She’ll give it her best if she knows it's for you!”

The name of the eatery was what made Arsène visit the place but he came back because of the food. Arsène’s super ears picked up some of the other quests' conversations.

“Isn't he the menace of the arena? Everyone that loses to him got their Victa absorbed!”

“Not only that. He’d once defeated a hundred Level 2s using Level 1 cultivation!”

“I heard he turns into a man-eating beast every new moon.”

“Remember Salyett the Slayer of Slayers? The guy that rose to prominence a month ago but suddenly disappeared? Not many know this but rumors in the underworld are that Avel heard about him and took offense to the upstart using that title. He hunted him like a dog for five days and five nights. In the end, Salyett took his own life because he couldn't bear the Slayer’s terror.”

“He has cleared, and unraveled many difficult quests. He can even go toe to toe with veteran Iron-ranked adventurers!”

“...Can I get his autograph?”

Hmm, the fruits of my labor, I would say, Arsène hummed in satisfaction.

“Soldiers of fortune, the first round of beer is on me!” Arsène shouted.

People cheered and loved him for it. Everyone liked free stuff.

Arsène restored Avel the Slayer’s reputation using a straightforward method, by channeling his inner Paragon Commander Shepard. He just needed to be polite and offer help to everyone in his responses. Which did wonders to his reputation.

His lethal action against his enemies was concerning at first, but since his targets were pieces of shit anyway, Avel became celebrated as a hero despite the frequentness of corpse making.

The invitees began to arrive. When people take the ‘light side’ course of action, they make friends. Arsène was not an exception to this universal law.

There was Peanut the guild girl and Forss the adventurer. They were dating. There was a bit of a side quest involving the girl but since Viers decided to not pursue it, he helped a little bit from the shadows. One thing led to another, and they were an item now.

Arsène and his other-self were happy for the couple.

There was Khalmar and his group. Arsène and Khalmar took on a quest, it went wrong, they fought side by side. It resulted in the Level 3 tiger beastfolk correcting his opinion of ‘Avel’. They forged a rivalry friendship of sorts.

If only he knew that Avel and Tanael were personas of a single person…

The Rising Fortune also came. The five had been steadily accomplishing quests and improving constantly. Although there was no sudden gold raining down from the sky for them, they got lucky in small things quite often. They somehow were able to evade fatal dangers that would otherwise have wiped them out.

Irene, who was with them, had resolved the mystery about her revenge quest. She poked around about the three-eyed wolves too deeply until the Governor-King’s men started to notice. Irene got into a scuffle and got caught. In captivity, the Governor-King himself explained the matter to her. That the method of raising the wolves was obtained from the devil cult of Teorph, Green Scorpion Fajrin’s organization. The result was, in addition to being an adventurer, she also joined the shadow force of the Governor-King. She was doing work in the shadows for the city’s ruler while hunting the one truly responsible for the death of her family.

Meanwhile, Arsène didn't dip so much as a toe into her sidequest. His time and energy were limited. Unlike in many video games, the world didn't stop spinning to wait until he could join in the quest. Not that Arsène wanted to. Still, all was well even without his meddling.

The not Harry Potter trio also came accompanied by a chaperone to say their goodbyes. The tavern did not only serve alcohol. The kids weren't really out of place here since there were fifteen-year-old adventurers and child soldiers that underwent Forceful Early Awakening like Boram.

They were envious of Boram, who was the same age as them but already seeing so much action. Arsène got a message from the Governor-King given by the chaperone to not push his son in that direction. Arsène agreed wholeheartedly. He didn't want to get blamed if something happened to Harry.

Arsène basically put Harry at an arm's length. He didn't want to deal with people stronger than him because it was dangerous and his family was full of dangerous people.

Arsène didn't care about Oscar. The small fry was but a blip in his mind. He would probably die again in a few years, at the hands of a budding MC.

However, he and Viers did not forget.

And they were vindictive.

There were other people too that he helped during his quest for fame. Firemane Torha that would have died if not for his expensive healing potion was one such example.

While the farewell party was in full swing, Arsène raised his mug of wine. “Everyone raise your mug. Toast! to our future!”

“Toast!”

***

Adventurer Avel of Javia along with his slave Boram Rockboa went on a ship to the south the next day. The Rushton Trading Company’s employee with a debt was tasked to deliver cargoes of goods to a southern city on a business trip.

A week after setting sail, because of a storm, the ship sank.

The crew and the passengers got marooned on a deserted island. They managed to send an SOS. Out of 46 crew and passengers of the ship, half were still missing.

The rescue party arrived and searched the surrounding waters and islands. They found the rest of the scattered ship passengers except for two people, Avel and Boram.

These people said that an orca monster helped them from the sea and put them on land. Most Pathseeker speculated that Avel and Boram got eaten by the orca and these people got pushed to the island during the battle.

Iron-ranked adventurer Avel of Javia was MIA, presumed dead.