with the press conference ended, the Specter family finally went back home, despite being cultivators most of them were now tired, mentally tired, for some, it was a while since the last time they had to speak publicly, and for others it simply never became easy
but there were exceptions like Vincent but even he had something on his mind, when he felt that powerful predator aura, he hadn't made the connection, but back at home where they could speak freely, Sophia and Phoebe obviously shared what they knew with the rest of the family
of course, most of the reactions were of surprise, but not Vincent, he was confused
how was it possible for Daniel to generate such an aura, that should be honed in thousands of battles, and not even realize it, this time it wasn't a matter of having quirks, it was completely and utterly impossible that he was directing it so specifically without intent, he was already a blue soul cultivator, hi senses should be much sharper now
so Vincent had to ask Daniel "do you really not realize that you emit the aura of an apex predator every time you get angry with someone"
Daniel replied "of course, I'm doing it on purpose, but I keep it mild so that the source can't be tracked, and I don't have to bother about hiding it, I learned from sister chaos's bloodthirsty aura but her's is too powerful, I can imitate just less than 5% of it and mix it with my own I learned while fighting the giant snake in SLB"
Vincent didn't reply to him, he completely unleashed his own and then asked Daniel "this is the maximum extent of mine, do you realize what's wrong now?"
Daniel wasn't even fazed, it was a little weaker than the one he had been using, he was thinking that in the end, Vincent was a politician, not a warrior, even if he had some experience he didn't have much, and without knowing how wrong he was Daniel said "grandpa you have to apply yourself more and learn better, if you want to call sister chaos for advice her contact it's in the itchy network"
and after that Daniel calmly went back to the lab section of the cloudtrain leaving Vincent completely speechless
another week passed and Daniel was still working on batteries, he stubbornly pursued this one project even if he couldn't even see a hint of a direction to follow, basically starting from scratch with different materials every time, there were simply too many methods to use, but each one he tried to take ended up being disappointing
at this point, he had created 5 different batteries, the previous one included, but none were better than what he was already using, a moment of luck seemed to be more valuable than months of hard work, souring his mood even further
in the meantime, the rest of the family managed to go back to their usual rhythm now that the questions were answered, but of course, there were still many hidden in the dark around the specter dimension hoping Daniel would go out so they would have a chance to follow and take pictures, finding something new to write about him, alas Daniel was always in the lab living like a hermit in seclusion after all, he just had to do whatever he wanted, it's not like he was on a schedule, or had any obligations, he had all the time in the universe
the only exception was Alexander that was really bored, since he didn't have anything to do in specter castle and spent his days in the Immortal Club with Sophia's brother White, and in the Dimension Masters club catching up with old friends
in fact, there were many exclusive clubs in the Sun Federation, the Immortal club was more concentrated around cultivation and fighting, and the Alchemy masters club was concentrated around medicine, poison, and diagnosis, Sophia is a member of course, and there were also the refining masters, the dimension masters of which Vincent, Alexander and many other in the Specter family are members, these clubs have the single objective to gathering the cream of the crop in a specific field so that they could exchange information and elevate each other
one, in particular, was the most exclusive with only 6 members in the entire federation, not only because the minimum requirements were sky high, but also because very few were willing to put in the effort to study all that was necessary, the Creation Master club, which is concentrated on the terraformation of planets, the equilibrium of habitat flora and fauna, only one person in the Specter family managed to enter this club, and not for lack of trying
the last guest of the Specter castle was Almony, even after being abandoned by Daniel, she was still in the castle as a guest waiting for contact to be established with Skuria II, and in such an energy-rich environment she was cultivating faster than ever before, sadly her method was subpar to say the least, slowing her progress more than she could have imagined
and was this afternoon that Vincent finally received news that they had managed to open a communication channel with the Herion planet, a civilization of humans that had mixed technology and cultivation without mastering any of the two, and through them opened a channel with the newly elected president of the skurian alliance
of course, through itchy, Daniel got wind of it and decided to participate, after all, Almony told him next to nothing about biotechnology and he wanted to know more
at 15 o'clock Daniel, Vincent, and Almony gathered in front of the tv in the living room of the specter Castle, on the screen usually used to watch the news, there was a woman with the vibe of a warm and gentle big sister that was smiling but was visibly trying to hide her nervousness, what was rare was that the only detail betraying that she wasn't a human were her silver colored eyes a typical genetic trait of skurians that kept appearing even if they were at this point a hodgepodge of mixed races
she cleared her voice and said "it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance sir, I'm Alaine Dumont president of the new skurian government, the Herions informed me that the president of the Sun federation was looking to talk to me, I'm sorry but we don't have the technology to reach Verulus or communicate easily on long distances so it took a long time to arrange"
Vincent went forward and said "don't worry nothing grave happened, it's just that during an exercise in hive territory, we found one of your citizens buried under the sand but still alive as she was kept in a suspended animation state, here she is"
vincent indicated Almony, and she walked forward and said "good afternoon madam president, I'm Almony Valmont, I was wondering if you knew anything about my mother Alice Valmont she was the leader of the Valmont pirate tribe"
Alaine was very surprised after all Almony's story wasn't a secret. for her to appear after all these years, Alaine wasn't even born yet when Almony disappeared, Alaine cleared her voice and said "I do know her, she took the role of a consultant after she retired and left the Valmont pirate crew to Annabelle Valmont she should be your little sister but you look very young"
Almony at this point was also surprised "I have a sister? well he did say that I have been sleeping for more than 500 years, guess I shouldn't be surprised life went forward without me" she was happy that her mother was still alive but still felt bad somehow, Almony had trained all her life to take over the Valmont pirate, now that her little sister had already taken over, what could she do with her life?
Alaine said "if you want I can call your mother, have her escorted here so you can talk"
Almony said "thanks, I would love that" trying to hide those feelings of jealousness and loneliness that took root deep within her
soon Alaine called Alice and while they were waiting for her to arrive, Vincent said "we wanted to arrange transportation for Almony, a cargo ship of the teragon enterprises will visit the Herion home planet to stock on technological products, and agreed to drop Almony off on Skuria II while on their way there, it should take three months for the trip, but if you want to make different arrangements we can keep her here as a guest until you come to pick her up"
Alaine responded "we appreciate the effort but will have to wait and see, the Skurian ships are biocoded to the owner so Alice still retains one of the more powerful ships in our fleet she could make her way there in half that time"
Almony asked "since when are ships biocoded, I remember giving orders to the Alahambra"
Alaine responded "as time passes new technologies are discovered, after some of our ships were stolen during the civil unrest we worked toward this objective, in any case, the original Alahambra was destroyed, and the new one is less than 200 years old but the biocoding it's familiar so you and your sister can still use it, it's just that she grew her own ship"
Almony once again got depressed and said "I guess everything changed"
at this point, Daniel, that like usual had a very limited amount of patience said "hi, I'm Daniel, Vincent's grandson, I wanted to ask for some information about biotechnology, Almony tried to tell me what she knew but it was next to nothing, I just managed to culture some cells and nothing more"
Alaine said "normally I would be more than happy to share our technology with you, but we are on a communication channel that probably many different civilizations are watching right now, I hope you understand I can't go into detail, if you want you can come with Almony we will be happy to share whatever you want to know"
just as Daniel was about to accept Vincent said "I'm afraid it's not possible in the near future, maybe in a couple more years, but right now Daniel has other commitments here at home"
Daniel wanted to discuss but remembering the channel was being spied on, he just stayed silent and walked away, one thing was certain this wasn't the end of this discussion but just a very temporary pause