A few times Gordon had reviewed the status screen, the only screen that his system made available to his. But besides his status information and the information on his pets there was absolutely nothing else.
He had read a lot of light novels in his old life and knew that in 99 out of a 100 books the system had a way to gain experience. Yet so far his system seemed to be lacking in this area.
'Upgrade System, is there a way to gain more vouchers?'
The system had seemed to interact with him before, he figured the only way to move forward might be to just ask? He didn't know why his system was being to recalcitrant.
[$@($#! ... voucher is easy ... ((@!!^&$]
And then the system provided some feed back. Unfortunately the answer was just so many symbols. A tease the system seemed to be saying that it was easy to gain vouchers, though.
Shrugging Gordon suddenly realized the similarity between the way the system was acting now and how it had acted right before the goblin attack.
Quickly looking around Gordon didn't notice any immediate threats and before anything could manifest Gareth strode inside the protection ring of the Philos family. Gordon hadn't been paying attention and evidently they had just entered a security check area, just outside an entrance to the ruins. Surrounded by the Philos family's guards and Jessica's even more powerful pets Gordon found it hard to worry about something as weak as a single Goblin. Even if it started to approach like before through some sort of portal jumping it would be caught.
Shrugging the thoughts and fears of another apocalypse attack off Gordon went to wake Ren up from a nap. The two or three year old looking toddler woke up easily and seeing him she smiled and cooed at him. This baby elemental was laying on the love pretty thick!
Looking out over the ruined city, Gordon helped Ren climb up to sit on his shoulder. She was also interested in this place that Gordon had taken her to. The buildings were a monotone red brown. They weren't made of bricks, but they weren't made of stone slabs either. What they reminded him most of was the elemental temple hidden within Renier's pocket space. While the material composition was slightly different the style of construction seemed to be similar. This place was probably built by earth elementals.
As soon as Gordon made the connection he started to look forward to seeing more of the city. It would be fun to show Ren around. Privately he was also thinking that this place would be a gold mine of food for the growing elemental as well. Already he started planning how to liberate a few stray stones or broken off sections on the way to where ever they were going. He didn't want to desecrate the Philos family ruins, but there was always a trash pile and ramshackle, dangerous, condemned buildings were always present in any city.
It was during this reverie that he saw that Jessica was stirring from her cultivation position.
"We are here!"
Brightly Jessica said and then stood up and looked around from the top of Gareth's back.
"Ho! Ho, the beast master!"
Suddenly they heard someone calling out to them from down on the ground and Jessica laughing jumped off her pet's back and hanging onto his mane she swung herself down to the ground. There she started conversing with the ruin's guard who was being extremely respectful to her.
"Yes, ma'am, right away."
Gordon only heard this last part as he had more carefully climbed down. And it was a good thing that he had chosen to come down, because Gareth suddenly transformed back to his divine beast form. Of course all the other behemoths who had already been in divine beast form on his back weren't harmed in the least from their fall to the ground. Behind Gordon there were several thuds as Jessica's other pets landed on the cobblestone pavement.
The two service men who had been guarding this entrance to the ruins spoke briefly together before the first serviceman ran ahead down the city street.
"Come on Gordon, let's head to the temple itself."
Motioning for him to come on Jessica called out the rest of the contracted pets. Now with all nine divine beasts pacing along Gordon found it awkward to walk by her side, but she deliberately stopped and waited for him to catch up and walk with her.
As they walked away, the only guard left drew his weapon and defended an attack from a rabid animal scurrying up to attack. Weak, it was a large rat. Not even awakened all it could use to attack was its large buck teeth. Killing it easily, the guard sent a message back to his commanding officer using his magic relay device.
[My position has been attacked. Just a rabid rat.]
Moments later a reply came back.
[Hold, it is probably just some crazy animal.]
Walking away with Jessica, Gordon didn't hear or see what happened at all.
Along the way to the actual ruined temple within this ruined city they chatted amiably about the ruins and a few things about how Jessica had been doing the past couple days. This was the first time they could talk in a while.
Surprised, Gordon hadn't realized just how important Jessica was to the Philos family. She came from one of the branch families and she was a little uncertain how to behave now that she had been promoted to the main family. Her talent that had received during her awakening ceremony was powerful. [Commander's Pride] allowed units within a certain distance to gain a 5% comprehensive increase and decrease depending on their affiliation. This was an unheard of talent and while five percent didn't sound like a lot Gordon immediately caught on that it was the comprehensiveness of the increase that really made her talent of the S rank. It was always on.
If a person in her vicinity could benefit from [Commander's Pride] over the course of even an hour the benefits could accrue like compound interest. She couldn't permanently increase base stats. The talent was only a buff or debuff, but when it came to skill acquisition for example her talent was broken, very broken. Five percent more of everything? This deserved more study. Could it apply to beast taming allotments? Could vision and other sensory organs be affected? The possibilities were endless and he really wanted to experiment a little.
Wanting to talk to her more about her talent Gordon was surprised when she changed the subject.
"You have really surprised me Gordon. I don't know how you were able to make such a powerful friend as Renier! I had no idea that the behemoths were rebelling and about to kill the mountain's earth elemental spirit!"
Having diverted the conversation Jessica she finally talked a little bit about what had happened with Renier. It sounded like she had already learned a lot about what had happened somehow. Well, the more Gordon thought about it the more he realized that she probably knew much more about everything that had led up to Renier's death than he did. Since the primary culprits were now her contracted beasts!
"Renier was someone important to you?"
Gordon asked interested in catching up with everything that she probably knew.
"Yes! This temple ruin was originally built for worshiping her and is or maybe I should say was dedicated to her. And now we know why it fell into ruin."
Jessica said.
"Uhmm?"
Not understanding Gordon signaled her that he didn't understand how the temple became a ruin.
"Oh! Rosy explained that three hundred years ago Renier suffered a cultivation deviation while trying to break through to the next rank after diamond. After her deviation she was attacked within her own temple and had to flee."
Explained Jessica and then asked another question.
"I didn't even know there was a rank above diamond?"
But before Gordon had to come up with some answer that didn't involve the upgrade system, ahead of them Jessica could see the erstwhile guard running back from where ever he had gone to.
"Lady Jessica, please follow me. The counsel wants to see you before the dinner starts tonight!"
Urgently the guard communicated his message and then stood back to humbly wait for Jessica's response.
"Alright, one moment."
She said while turning to Gordon.
"Go find my other two invitees. They already know where to go. So you shouldn't have to do more than find my private box."
Saying this Jessica held out her hand to the guard who grasped it and then performed some kind of action with his other hand. The two disappeared on the spot leaving Gordon to muse about the wealth displayed just now.
Using a teleport stone was luxury! He had never seen one used and to think they would waste such a precious artifact just to gain a few extra minutes before the program tonight. It was mind numbing.