Rain's POV

Few knew the secrets hidden under the Cities, only the higher ups and the Empresses most trusted people.

The truth was that for the city and capsules to work, repairs and mentainance were a must.

All this was done under the city, who was the one doing the mentainance, that was a dark secret stat not many people knew.

Rain was walking the strange narrow corridors, there were other people going here and there, this place was the underground mentainance facility, the people going here and there were the ones doing all the work so that the other people could live their lives in luxury. These people in reality are not exactly normal people, they are just puppets, brain dead people who had lost the function of their brain through one or another reason are used to do the mentainance, since there was no reason to keep them otherwise.

The most however strange thing is that some of them had machines stuck in their bodies, these machines are what makes them the best mentainace drones.

Rain walked for a long time until she reached a door.

She knocked three times and an angry voice shouted.

"Who is it this time!"

"Merry you Idiot, it's me Rain"

Rain said, she had no respect for the one calling herself Empress.

"Oh, Rain, haven't seen you for a while"

Said Merry while teleporting Rain inside,

This wasn't really on the other side of the wall, this was a pocket dimension which Merry had created, it had entrances all over the world and anyone could visit her anytime.

"Merry I want to see Chris' corpse"

Said Rain somewhat anxious, Merry at the time was inside her capsule, but just hearing the name he mood went rock bottom.

"Why do you want to go all over it again, he is dead I killed him and although I cannot read his soul, he is as dead as a human can be"

Merry said, she herself was also somewhat afraid that he might somehow return from the dead, so she had gathered all the parts of his corpse, they were only random parts left from the explosion but it was enough to see whose they were.

"If you don't believe me that he has returned then ask your daughter Red, she has already met him, although for some reason he seems to have a daughter of his own called Galie"

Rain said with disdain, as if she hated him for some reason.

"It's impossible unless of course if he created a stand in while I was asleep, but even that would be impossible since he only had one pyramid which self destructed after his death"

Merry said, she remembered how if she was even a second late, she would have been engulfed in the explosion, but although the explosions weren't as strong as to hurt her, the whole pyramid was cleanly destroyed and non other than Chris himself knew how the pyramid was created and the theories behind it, of course if someone talented had Merry's psychic talent and memories he could have created another pyramind but she wasn't really into things like science and gadget making and no way into engineering, what she liked was entertainment and beautiful things, of course decause she found most of the memories she had gained from others as useless, after all she had all the memories of earth in her head, most of which were banal and common.

"Merry we have to take care of this problem diplomaticaly, if he is Chris then we just surrender, if not we either recruit him or kill him"

Rain said, she had no hope of defeating that monster of a man, his psychic powers were even stronger than Merry's, although they both passed through the same process of awakening.

"Never, I'm not returning to him, he's annoying and dull, he has no sense of humor and is a pervert"

Merry said with full disdain.

"It's not sure that he is Chris, most probably he's just someone who took the same name as his ingame character, the problem is that he is strong, if we can take him to our side we might gain access to terrifying technology, I heard that he came in a real spaceship"

Said Rain, she now sounded somewhat excited, after all their own scientists weren't given access to the minds of all the people and most people didn't care about making advancements in the real world, they just made things for the virtual world.

"Do you know how to reach him?"

Asked Merry, she was rather excited, after all if it was an alien life form anyone would be excited. Only problem was that he called himself Darknym, Chris' avatar name.

They spent the rest of the time planing their moves in advance, with the most basic concept that Darknym had no relationship with Chris at all, after all no one can return from the dead.

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Domina's POV

It took the Devil one whole week to summon what looked to be the intestines of some creature made into a salad.

"What is thiS?"

Asked Domina, he had no Idea what this was and calling it a creature would be an overstatement, after all it had nothing to show that it was a living being.

"This is what most demons call food in the Demon realm, you probably don't know it but this creature is not even demonic in nature, it's an undead"

The devil said but Domina didn't care, he could see that this creature had a ton of Hp.

The Devil was waiting for him to eat it but Domina didn't even move as he copied the constitution stat of the creature adding it to himself.

-System has detected signs of cheating, as a guardian you are warned to cease from doing another illegal activity under the threat of Deletion-

Domina could only frown as he read the system message but he didn't care after all he had already gained what he wanted.

The Devil didn't seem to understand why Domina wasn't absorbing the demon but suddenly he saw Domina frown.

"Master, you should eat to get enough energy to create your Doom knight legion"

The Devil persisted, after all the whole deal was for him to use his Doom knight skill on the lesser Demons.

"I will now begin bestowing the powers"

Domina said and the first person to gain the Doom demon power was the creature all demons called Food and of course he failed, after all the creature was not a demon, you have to understand that only creatures that have demonic energy can be turned into Doom knights.

"Master If you want to turn it into a doom knight you should first bestow it with a piece of your flesh"

The Devil said, after all he didn't really understand why Domina would cast the Doom knight spell on this weak creature.

"How do I do that?"

Asked Domina, somewhat puzzled, if the Devil told him to cut an arm and give it to the creature, like hell he would do that.

"I might have overstated it, for a puny creature like this, all you need is but a hair from your fur to grant it the Demonic attribute"

The Devil said, after all he didn't put this creature into his eyes, it was just food for the demons.

To his surprise the moment Domina took one hair from his body, he begun growing larger and larger. surprising both the lesser demons and the Devil.

You have to understand that for the changes to be applied he first had to lose or gain a little health and for all creatures the more his Hp increased, he gained a small boost in size, but for demons the boost was incredible.

If he had eaten and absorbed the creature he would have at most gained a small part of it's almost infinite Hp.

It was only after some time had passed that Domina saw that the planet was too small for him, so he begun drifting in space, it wasn't that he was too big for the planet, but he didn't want to kill his subordinates.

"Master I had really underestimated your might"

The demon said, but what made him gasp and close his mouth was when Domina begun to shrink.

This was the Innate ability of all Demons to condense their own body to become more compact, they could also on will regain their original true form.

"This hair is for the little guy, let's see how it will become"

Domina said as he threw the now large piece of hair towards the strange creature. If he had seen the lesser Denoms' eyes right now, he could have seen eyes full of envy. you have to understand that every piece of a demon's body, even a hair was a part of them. After all a demon needed to absorb other demons to raise in power, if he gave the same piece of hair to any of the lesser demons they would no doubt evolve on the spot.

"Master, the mutation of this creature might take a few days to be completed but you can still grant your power to your faithfull servants"

The devil said excited, Domina might not have known it but the Devil's legions were at most lesser demons, even his strongest elites were somewhat lacking, if Domina could upgrate even one of the lesser demons in his weakened form it would be a great help for the Devil to go on with the Invasion of Allastar, although he had plenty of other plans for Domina but as an Npc Domina was far beyond his understanding.

"Is there a way for me to gain a soul?"

Domina asked as he was turning one lesser Demon after the other into a Doom knight, they didn't change much, they just gained a set of strange really thick glowing red full plate armor and a strange weapon of the same material, some even had diferent weapons from others.

"Master, gaining souls is the easiest, but why would you a Doom Demon need souls?"

Asked the Devil somewhat puzzled, after all demons only needed souls for some rather complicated rituals, but all the rituals that existed were rather out of place for their current situation.

"Can I use soul power with those souls?"

Asked Domina, but it was more like he was interogating him at the moment since his tone was strict and dominating.

"Master, if you want to use soul powers you need to create a soulstone, only with the help of a soulstone can demons use soul powers, but soulstones are the domain of gods and even if you had one you would still need to find some skills to be able to use soul powers, it's just too much of a waste"

The Devil said, seemingly trying to disuade him from seeking a soulstone.

"Can you find one for me?"

Domina asked with a smirk on his face, after all the Devil just took out anything he asked for out of thin air, it wouldn't be impossible for him to take out a soulstone just like it was nothing.

"Master is wise, but unless we go to Allastar this useless servant cannot find a soulstone, on Allastar we can find a few soulstones if we are lucky, but in my opinion it will still take at least a month to locate even one"

The Devil said, still smiling but he could tell that he was disatisfied with Domina's will.

"Is it impossible to gain a soulstone before we go to Allastar?"

Domina asked, the real reason was because he knew that almost everyone on Allastar had psychic powers, how could normal npc monsters compete with them, but if he regained his psychic powers he could dominate the whole world.

"Master, there might be another possibility, you might not know but on this planet there lives a demon called the Wind Merchant, he's a tricky demon who exchanges things with other demons, he has a large collection, he just might have a soulstone but we have nothing he might want, if only we controlled the portal then maybe he will wish to negotiate"

The Devil said.

Domina didn't know it but soulstones were far more valuable than he thought, in reality soulstones could only be produced by gods or other godlike beings, the spell itself that produced a soulstone was a forbidden spell and soulstones were also called "currency of the gods". Of course how could Domina know something like that and even if he knew he would probably not care about it.

"Master you should rest in between doom power bestowal, I will be summoning some food for you"

The devil said somewhat panicked, after all Domina had been going on for some time now, but unknown to him Domina was slowly mastering the skill, each later Doom knight was more powerful than the one before, some even wanted to go again to gain a better more powerful set of armor.

Of course if Domina wanted to he could simply turn everyone into a puppet and sent them to fight but he was not really a tyrant at heart.

"You don't need to bother, after I gain a soulstone, not just these few demons, I could turn even you into a doom knight"

Domina said, hearing these words the Devil was left speachless, after all only lesser and weak demons could be turned into doom knights and even if he did grant the Devil some power, it wouldn't be beneficial to him since it was rather weak to him anyway, it would be like a drop in a boundless sea. Only the Devil probably knew how powerful he himself was.

"Master, are soul powers as strong as you say, you do understand that soul powers are powerless against a noble demon like yourself"

The Devil said, this was probably the first time Domina heard something like that and it was true.

Demons due to the lack of a soul were impervious to psychic powers, for them soul power was like air, all they had to do was pass through it, as if it was an illusion, of course self improving psychic powers could still be a headache.

"Do you know what soul power I can gain with a single soul stone?"

Domina asked him, of course he wouldn't tell him his own power but he wanted to make this stupid Devil to shut up for once.

"Does master already possess a soul power?"

The Devil asked while a glint of expectation appeared in his eyes.

"You will see when I get my hands on a soulstone"

Of course even if Domina did get his hands on a soulstone he still wouldn't know how to use it.

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Red's POV

Red for once was happy, if not because of shopping, it was because Rain had told Max to stay away from Lidie and Max could do nothing but obey.

"Max don't be so sad, I'm sure that once you become stronger you will be able to have any girl you like"

Red whispered to him as he was carrying their shopping for them, after all he didn't know what else to do, Lidie was just zealeouly training her skills and was right at the moment nearing her merchant mastery. You might think that mastering a profession is hard but in reality if you find a good teacher it's quite easy and non fighting professions were even easier to master if you had enough gold.

Max to apologize to her gave her a good sum of money, he told her what had happened and even promised her that he would change his mother's mind.

Galie on the other side was like a lost kitten, she moved from store to store and asked Red to try out stuff, most of which however they didn't buy, just didn't like how it looked on them.

Max just answered great, it suits you and any other complimenting answers he could come with, he was well trained by his mother after all.

"Do you think that Lidie will master her merchant profession before the end of the month?"

Asked Galie who knowing that Lidie wasn't too fond of the city was somewhat nervous.

"Don't mind, all we will have to do is give her more gold to go training, that mad girl will probably master all the professions in the world in a weekend if she is given enough gold, didn't you see that she payed four teachers to master her merchant skill"

Red said sarcastically as they were waiting for Max to come, who was overencoumbered right now and had difficulty even walking.

Teachers were people of the same profession who had greater mastery of the profession. All a teacher has to do is aknowledge you as a student of his and see you use your skills. A higher profeciency teacher gave more skillpoints, but finding a master to sit and look at you using skills was rather hard and they would probably ask for too much, so many people went and asked multiple people of lower mastery to oversee their progress. The effect depends on how many teachers you find, some people who gathered ten people gained even more than hiring a master but the difference in hiring a master or someone of lower rank was that at some points they couldn't train you any more, thus people hired different people for each profession rank.

The profession Ranks are...

1.Novice

2.Apprentice

3.Trainee

4.Graduate

5.Qualified

6.Journeyman

7.Professional

8.Specialist

9.Master

10.Archon

Meaning that to quickly reach master rank you have to first hire a trainee or a Qualified rank to teach since they could quickly help you reach Graduate, from there you could hire professionals to run you to Qualified and lastly from there they needed at least a master to help them reach Specialist rank.

Lidie was at Journeyman before and within this week she had become a Specialist but even with four masters to teach her it was still too difficult to reach the Master Level, after all Masters only give the minimum 1skillpoint each to the student.

In truth being a teach doesn't meen that you only give them an additional skill point, the teacher in charge gained experience points for each point he gave, meaning that the teaching player also gained something, aside from the gold they were payed per hour.

In the Imperial city there might not be a market for the poor but there were hundreds of master rank professionals who did this job, there was even a guild called teachers guild, they had branches everywhere and their members took an extra cut from the guild for every new teacher they enlisted to the guild. Sounds like a pyramid no, in reality it was just that and to enter the guild you had to be invited by someone from the guild.

The president of the teachers guild was probably one of the wealthiest people in Allastar but he was not evil, or hid it too well, the teachers guild helped its members and once a member you couldn't leave the guild unless you deleted your character of course.

The teachers guild however wasn't as good as it sounded, after all they weren't a charity organization, they would find you costumers and you ahd to give them a fee from your earnings, the fee was then divided between the president and your inviter. Of course you lost nothing big, after all the prices for teachers weren't really so high and there were dozens of them in the large cities.

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Lidie's POV

Lidie was siting there still training her most basic trading skills, she focused on the practical skills and disregarded those that simply raised stats or gave her more space, after all she had Max to carry her extra laguage. she might not have noticed it herself but she had become somewhat dependant on him.

Well he could carry more things than her and wouldn't even make a sound even if the things he was carrying were too heavy.

Red and the others had just arrived there and Lidie was already about to end today's training.

She felt somewhat lonely all of a sudden as she saw the others smiling and goshiping about what they had done and seen in the city, only Max gave her a quick glance as he was walking behind the two girls.

Red had also found some other girls at the Market with whom they became friendly and begun talking about all sort of stuff, they were now still with them talking about the latest fashion show that will be held in a few days in the city.

Lidie however stood strong as she continued to hone her skills, even after the teachers had left she went to her poor quality room and honed her merchant skills, she could have decided to hone her fighter skills instead but she gave greater gravity to gold than power, after all if you had enough gold you could easily reach master rank in all professions.

A tear suddenly fell from her eyes, as she could hear the laughing voices from outside. In reality it wasn't the others who had left her, it was she who after Rain's attack decided to close up and train.

If she could she would have Galie train as well but she had long understood that Galie needed no profession. Galie's psychic power was enough to even be used inside the imperial city which had a psychic ban, how could any profession even challenge her.

As for Red she was even more outside her influence, in truth she still wasn't too sure who Red was but she knew that she wasn't someone with whom she could fight. She had seen how much stronger Red's explosions became after she trained her soul power and was freaked out, after all creating a spark in a psychic banned place was enough to create an uproar.

Of course each time they used psychic powers they got a warning from the system but since they didn't use it for long they were let off with just the warning.

Lidie was sad, it was the feeling of poverty that ate her whole. In the virtual world she would probably not be considered poor but in Allastar there were the rich and powerful and the pook and weak. She was in the second category and although she could ask her "friends" for support, she still had a sense of dignity. It was like playing with a lend toy, whatever you think it is not yours and you will always fear of breaking it.

She had no money and using other people's money at some point would just end in them ending up penniless as well, she wanted to avoid a situation like that, after all she didn't know how deep Red and Max's pockets were. In truth Lidie knew very little about them, at most she knew a little about their character and personality.

Suddenly a strange system message appeared before her.

=Achievement unlocked: losing the things in life for a piece of bread=

=unlock unlimited profession slots=

This was probably another of Darknym's stupid achievements but in her situation if what it stated was true then she would at least save a little gold.

You have to understand that having only two profession slots means that you have to master one to gain another, but with this she could simulateneously learn multiple crafting and fighting professions.

Lidie was in a daze, if only she knew that Galie and Red had already gained multiple such notices maybe her mood would fall again but she didn't know about it.