Kane ate ravenously as he was very hungry. His body needed a lot of energy especially because of all the changes happening in his body.
After eating, he sat down on a lazy chair and turned on the television with a remote control that was placed conveniently beside him.
He surfed the channels before finding something that grabbed his attention. After an hour of screen time, he fell asleep from exhaustion without even switching off the television.
"Kane, wake up, wake up" Kane was suddenly roused awake by the sound of his master's voice. He was groggy at first and was not fully awake.
"What time is it?" he asked when he noticed that his environment was somewhat dim, akin to nighttime. "Go outside, now," said Abel with a hint of desperation in his voice.
Kane was fully awake now, he did not waste any more time and got to the ground floor as fast as he could.
When he got to the lobby, it was strangely empty and it would seem like everyone was outside so he decided to step outside.
What he saw made his jaw drop.
Right up in the sky was what looked like another planet. To say it was in the sky was actually not accurate. On the horizon, the earth and the planet had already made contact.
The planet was so large that it almost blocked out sunlight and it was as if the light was hidden by a solar eclipse. No matter which direction you looked at, one would always see the planet.
Kane was so marveled by what he saw that his mouth was open the whole time. He had heard about this and seen videos of world merges before but this was the first time he was seeing it himself.
If he focused more he could see a continent and the ocean. The continent had patches of green here and there. That meant that it has life.
The crowd gawked at the spectacle for a few more minutes before they turned around and headed back into the hotel.
"Let's head back," said Abel, effectively snapping Kane back to reality. Kane nodded and walked back to his room.
Once inside, he could no longer hold back, "wow, that was intense. It made me look so small," he said as he sat down on a couch.
"It's called the world merge. It has been quite a while since the last one occurred. This planet looks like it has life, it means that we are now in a solar system. World merges would become a common occurrence for a while" said Abel.
"You said the planet had life on it. What would happen to its inhabitants?" asked Kane.
"Quite a lot would happen. I can't explain it all but I will try" said Abel. He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing, "what you are seeing now is just a sort of symbol. It's not really there.
No matter how far you move in the direction of the planet, you would never reach it. The planet had already been swallowed by the earth. What you are seeing is just an illusion cast by the earth to tell us its progress in, how do I put it, digesting or processing the planet it just ate.
It is done when the image of the planet is completely pulled into the earth. When that happens, it will do a couple of things. Firstly, it would divide the resources, plants, and animals, both intelligent and non-intelligent, and places them in pocket dimensions.
Every city can then purchase these pocket dimensions with hunter association contribution points. When it is purchased, a teleportation gate to those pocket dimensions would be installed in that city.
The city would now be able to raid these dimensions and plunder them for the resources held within.
These pocket dimensions are graded S, A, B, C, D, and E with S being the highest grade and E the lowest.
The higher the grade, the greater the size of the pocket dimension, the better the resources found within and the stronger the lifeforms found within".
Kane took a while to process what he just heard. His face changed a few times and he could not help saying "wait, something does not sound right. You said that everything within the planet would be divided and placed into pocket dimensions.
If intelligent lifeforms are inhabiting the planet doesn't that mean that the earth would most likely separate them from their families and serve them up to be slaughtered by us?
And then, you said that the grade of the pocket dimensions would determine how strong the lifeforms in it would be, does that not mean that E ranked pocket dimensions would be filled with babies".
Abel was shocked by his student's assumption so he was quick to correct him "hold on Kane. Because a pocket dimension is graded E does not mean it has no difficulty. Their young ones who have no combat abilities will be kept alongside stronger ones".
"But still, what we are doing, is genocide," said Kane in a somber tone.
"Look, it's the survival of the fittest Kane, the earth probably had a reason for doing this. There must be a reason why it's strengthening us up by all means. And besides, it's not as if there is no hope for them.
After every month, if there are still intelligent lifeforms of a particular planet still left in the pocket dimensions, they are offered missions by the earth whereby once successfully completed, they would gain autonomy and the entire race will be freed from the pocket dimensions and will be gifted land to form a new empire on earth"
Abel paused before continuing "but of course, none of the lifeforms have ever succeeded in doing this. It's either they are completely wiped out, or the remaining are taken out and sold as slaves, or inhabitants of the earth take up missions to counter their efforts.
There were even a few occasions where the gods took those missions themselves when there was no one who could complete them. But remember, it's the survival of the fittest, if you refuse to follow the trend, you will be left behind".
Abel waited for a response from his student, when he got none, he sighed and said "Kane, if Philimon purchases a pocket dimension as long as its grade is not more than D, I want you to do everything in your power to have the right to be the first to raid it. Do you understand what I am saying?"
"I understand. But I am not going to kill any of the inhabitants of those pocket dimensions" said Kane. He could not disobey instructions from his master and what Abel said was also true. The fact that he did not want to raid those pocket dimensions did not mean that they would all close down, so he decided to compromise.
He would not spill innocent blood unless he was attacked first.
"Suit yourself. What is most important is the minerals and plants that could be found there. These would definitely help improve your adamantine body and various resistances" said Abel. He was a little bit relieved by Kane's answer.
"Ok, rest up. You still have to fight tomorrow" said Abel.
"What! The examination would still continue? Even with all this?" asked Kane incredulously.
"Of course. The world merge does not change anything. To us, it's just a glorified progress bar. It would take about a week to complete. Till then everything carries on as usual.
Come to think about it, this might also affect the plans of the beasts in Sharphorn ruin. They may decide to wait and purchase a pocket dimension and raid it to a particular extent before setting off for Edan city.
Or, they might set off immediately in the hopes of catching us with our pants down while being distracted by the pocket dimension.
Either way, it all comes down to our luck and their way of reasoning" said Abel.
Kane spent the rest of the day lounging around and eating. He fell asleep when it was almost midnight much to his master's chagrin.
When he woke up the next day, it was already past seven. He cleaned himself up and had a rushed breakfast before leaving the hotel.
He flagged down a taxi and was soon on his way to the arena. When the car was still on the road, he could not help but look out the windscreen at the huge planet above him.
"Ain't that a beaut, don't you think? Asked the driver as he noticed how seriously Kane was looking at the planet.
"Yeah, it is" replied Kane almost absent-mindedly.
"It just means more raids. I hope the governor buys a pocket dimension that does not have a high grade. I plan on raiding it. I think I have saved enough mana crystals to purchase a permit" said the driver as he tried to strike up a conversation with Kane.
Kane did not respond this time and the driver had no other option than to shut his mouth.
After a few minutes, they had already arrived at the arena.