"Wonderful! The end was tragic and bitter sweet too." An unnatural handsome man floats in the void, clapping his hand while praising Adam.
Adam shows a blank face while staring at the man. Unmistakably, the man was the cat he previously met and forced him into the unreasonable contract.
"I did what you wanted. Now grant me what you promised." Adam said, not afraid to offend the mysterious being as already grew numb to fear in his ten thousand years long battle against the Chaos.
Of course, of course. But, I think you are mistaken about something." The mysterious man said and the familiar contract appeared once again and floated in front of Adam. "You see, here it states missions. You forgot about the 's'. So, let's not be hasty. Think of the previous one to be a test. An internship of sorts and you finally become a full fledged member."
Perhaps seeing Adam's unamused and angered face. The man quickly stopped Adam from unleashing his anger and told him to listen to him first.
"Now, now. As I said, let's not be hasty to judge. I assure you, it is not what you assumed. Since you are a full fledged member, you will have a large degree of freedom. I promise you that. You simply need to continue to entert— *cough* continue to do as you wished and I will not restrict you in any sort of manner. Be a hero, villain, retire to be a farmer. You can do whatever you want."
Adam calmed down after hearing what the mysterious man had to say.
"So, what is the catch?" Adam asked because he doubted such a tempting offer was for free.
"Ah! I like the quick-witted ones. Well, nothing that you would need to worry too much about." The man smiled.
"I doubt." Adam voiced his opinion.
"Ahem. Anyway, it sounds exactly as it means. You are now a full-fledged member of the Interdimensional Mercenary, a special kind of mercenary which takes on jobs in exchange for special kinds of rewards." The man said and snapped his fingers.
A familiar screen immediately appeared in Adam's view although with additional icons and menus compared to before which is just a bare bone user status screen.
"You are given the ability to randomly travel to other universes and in those universes, you will encounter many situations. Depending on the situation, you will be given a task or quest. Completing them will provide you with points. Those points can be used on a myriad of things such as the System Shop, Gachas and many other functions. You get the gist of it." The mysterious man said with excitement.
"I told you, right? I am a man of my words. This is the reward I promised for fulfilling the previous task. Your freedom to travel the multiverse as you wish."
Hearing and seeing his promised reward. Adam could not refute. He indeed gets his wish fulfilled and there's nothing really that is restricting his freedom as far as he could see.
"Fine then, I apologize for my hasty judgment." Adam apologized.
"No worries. No worries. You are one of my favorites by far and your adventures have been entertaining so far. For someone as powerful as myself, boredom is something that is always constant. So, think of this as my investment for you. You provide me entertainment and I'll answer your wish. Easy right?"
Adam stared at the mysterious man, not even hiding his intention anymore. But true as he said and Adam is not naive anymore. He can't expect someone to fulfill his wish without giving anything in exchange and if this is this man's term then he is willing to accept.
Seeing that Adam had come to an agreement with him, the man continues, "Anyway, back to business. Before you go on to your next journey. Are you sure you are going to simply abandon your secret admirer just like that after she served you that loyally throughout your journey?"
"Alina? Unfortunately, she is much more needed within the Imperium than me." Adam shook his head.
"Ah! It's a trivial matter. I can easily provide another replacement. It's tragic to see such unrequited love to go unanswered like that." The mysterious man said and snapped his fingers again.
"Think of it as an additional reward for providing me a great entertainment."
"Wai—" Adam tried to stop the mysterious man but he was too late.
*Snap*
Alina appeared, still in her armor, looking disoriented and in a sorry state, both physically and mentally from witnessing Adam's death. But that didn't stop her from drawing her twin Nemesis Force Falchions, ready to cut down any threat. Onky to find none and instead reunited with the person she wanted to meet the most.
"Ah! Milord?" She asked with confused and uncertain look, still holding her weapon ready, thinking this might be a trick of the Daemon's attempt to truck her when her mind is vulnerable.
"Alina…" Adam responded to her call with a complicated expression.
"Hoho. I'll give you two some privacy. Goodbye!" The man smirks and waved at Adam before disappearing from this void-like space.
Inwardly, Adam cursed at the mysterious being. He had his reason to not bring Alina along. It wasn't because she is bad or anything. She had faithfully served him for ages, from the very start, he could say. Her faith in him is borderline unhealthy.
At first, when they first met. She treats him with disdain. However, as time passed he proved her worth again and again. Being the Champion the Emperor chose to lead humanity in his place through the bleakest age of the Imperium, he shows enough worth. Too much in fact that her loyalty turns into faith. Perhaps the Emperor had something to do with this. But regardless, he felt exhausted. Being venerated like a god in her eyes. Adam can already imagine how his future would look like when he tried to mingle with people in other universes that do not share the same faith and veneration that she and many others in the Imperium viewed him with.
But alas, the milk had been spilt and it's too late to bitch about it either.
With a heavy sigh, Adam projects his Psychic presence which is the easiest way for her to verify his identity. Although, Adam noticed his Psychic Power is weaker here compared to before.
"Milord! It truly is you." She resisted her urge to throw herself at his knee and promptly kneel down and apologized for her sin for failing to recognise her venerated lord.
Suppressing another sigh, Adam shook his head and lifted her up to her feets.
"It's alright. I do not fault you for anything. Please lift your head up." He said.
"No, we… the Imperium had failed you, Milord. It was because of our incompetence that you—"
"Enough!" Adam's stern voice startled her enough to swallow back her words and stood stunned.
Adam almost never showed any anger towards his fellow man. In fact, he is known to always wear an emotionless mask outside of battle. To hear the anger emanating from his voice shocked her stunned because it was something so alien that she couldn't process it.
"Enough, I said." Adam repeated again and sighed. But his voice was much calmer this time as he stared at her widened eyes filled with shock and regret.
"I fault no one with my own demise. It is designed by my own choice to sacrifice and that's final. Do you understand." He asked with a stern expression while staring at her.
"Y-Yes! Milord…" She replied while nodding her head blankly.
"Good."
After Adam dealt with her, Alina fell into a silence while Adam shifted his attention to his System Menu to calm his mind and figure out his next action.
First, he navigates the menus and familiarizes himself with the functions that were mentioned before.
First were his inventory, a separate screen that appeared along with his Status Screen. On the menu is an image of himself and several slots that have the image of the item he is wearing. Mainly, the Aegis Terminator Armor.
Although he calls it an Aegis Armor, in truth, it's an Artificer Armor. A master crafted power armor made with the best of the best material by the Emperor. The only reason why it was called Aegis Armor is because it was similarly blessed with Emperor's vast ritualistic alchemical knowledge and psychically-charged like Aegis Armor. Also it's bigger in size.
Then next is his most favored weapon, the Titansword along with a vast array of weapons from his personal armory. Most being relic weapons and weapons made with highly advanced technology which he took from the Emperor's collection.
Aside from weapons. There is an array of objects, trinkets, tools and even valuable relics. Like the Tesseract Labyrinth that he used to kidnap the comatose C'tan from Mars and Trazyn decided to let him keep it as a gift.
After checking out his inventory, his next curiosity is his own Status Screen itself that had a lot of new details and changes.
***
Name: Adam Black
Title: Reincarnator, Imperial Regent, Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights Legion, Bane of Daemon and Chaos, Champion of Humanity, Blessed Champion of Isha, …
STR: A+++
VIT: A ++(EX)
AGI: B++
INT: S
WIS: S
Ability:
[Formless Divine Art (Rank EX)]
[Indomitable Spirit, EX]
[Soul Brand, EX]
[Emperor's Gene-Seed (SSS)]
[Blank (A)]
[Alpha Plus Psyker (SSS)]
[The Victorious War God (SSS)]
[Daemon Slayer (EX)]
***
Those are the stats he had prior. His progress had stagnated for over two thousand years because he might have reached his limit. However…
***
STR: B++
VIT: B +(EX)
AGI: C+
INT: S
WIS: S
***
All other details did not change. Only his stats had fallen one rank.
If he had to guess, it could very likely be due to his connection to the Warp being severed.
He believed that he read about such lore before in the Emperor's study, the text named 'Blessing & Curse of Warp'. On one hand, the Warp being interconnected to the inhabitants of the reality grants them boons such as Psychic Power and Strength. On the other hand, it also carries the Corruption of Chaos.
Because just like the Orks able to harness their imagination to do wonderous things, humans can harness warp through faith. Simply having people believing him to be a godlike figure would in turn transform him into a godlike figure. But now that he is outside of the reach of the Warp, his boon was also severed.
Still, even with his boon severed. Adam is still quite strong with his physical strength alone because in comparison, D Rank strength is strong enough to cave concrete walls with his bare fist or topple a truck with one hand. He believes that a B Rank strength with two modifiers, each increases his strength by another multiplier and with two multipliers, he can use his Psychic power to reinforce his strength by a multiplier of 3.
With this kind of stats, he didn't think he would need to worry about his safety much, especially when including the array of weaponry he carries. It's enough to conquer a few systems alone by the Imperium's standard. Not that he wanted to.
Adam had spent ten thousand years constantly leading the Imperium and fighting for it. Ten thousand years! He want to rest, retire and build a home somewhere secluded and be a hermit or something. But his intuition tells that he wouldn't have any of those especially when the mysterious man emphasized him being his entertainment.
"Fuck." Adam cursed and sighed.
Moving on, he glances through the Shop and Gacha because he can already imagine what those functions are. His focus was on the 'Companion' menu.
As he expected, there is an image of Alina on there with few basic details such as her stats and skills without much explanation. Not that he needs them because they are self-explanatory. No. What surprised him is another one on the list, grey Fenrisian Wolf he received when he was offered one by a Great Wolf or Chapter Master of the Space Wolf Chapter in his early days.
They had cooperation for a certain war and Adam was acquainted with the Great Wolf. During a victory celebration, he on the whim asked if he could get one because they look cool. In response, the Great Wolf said if he could tame one, why not? So, Adam went to Fenris and happened to encounter a majestic lone Fenrisian Wolf with gray fur roaming its tundra landscape that looked exactly like the one he had in mind.
So, he went ahead tamed after wrestling with it on the ice and snow covered ground. Once he tame it, he affectionately named her the Great Grey Wolf, Sif and taught her how to wield a sword for the fun of it. But unfortunately, her time came in a blink of an eye and Adam rather not forcefully extend her time with a painful surgery to implant cybernetics. He laid her to rest himself on the Grey Knights homeworld, Titan. In his own residence where he spends his time whenever he isn't staying in the Inner Palace or fighting.
To once again see his canine companion made him excited and summoned it. Immediately, his furry companion pounced on him and licked the face of his helmet with her happy growls.
"Nice to see you too, Sif." Adam scratched her favorite spot under her jaw and her neck while Adam's helmet is slathered with wet saliva.
"Sif?" Alina was also shocked that the once dead wolf companion of Adam was alive when she was there when Sif was buried.
Seeing other familiar faces, Sif changed her target and pinned Alina next and licked her to her heart's content.
After she was content, Sif howled to express her joy and return among the ranks of living and sat with good manners, looking at Adam obediently waiting for her order next to Alina.
He had finished exploring the function of his System and was ready to depart to another world. However, he feels there's a need to address something. He need ro explain to them his situation and his plan for the future.
Adam did just that and emphasized on the commonsense of the world outside of theirs. He rather not have either of them accidentally murder someone because of misunderstanding. Or worse, starting a cult to worship him or something.
It happened to the Emperor due to the strong faith the population of Imperium had on him. It didn't help that many of his achievements in the eyes of the people are godlike and he had to curb them more than a dozen times, the emergence of the Imperial Cults that still lurk under the surface of Imperium even before he departed that universe since the Emperor never wanted his legacy to be tainted with him becoming what he once sought to destroy.
So, there he is. In the void, spending hours lecturing a human and a giant wolf about the commonsense and etiquette of the universe outside of their own.
After Adam is satisfied, he opens his System Menu and initiates the Random World Travel function.
—————