"Boss." Said John as he went through the gate, a nervous expression on his face.
"What is it?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"One of our guys fell into a crack on the other side of the gate. Do you have a rescue team?" Replied the young leader as he knew he couldn't easily get back there.
"I don't have anyone. However, there's a large team that entered the gate a few hours ago. They should be back soon." Replied the shopkeeper while negatively shaking his head.
Dangers often occurred on the other side of portals and as such, some teams were specially created to deal with the problems that might occur. Their jobs could range from defending a certain position to rescue operations and even assassination of certain beasts.
"Alright." He nodded his head as he sat on one of the few chairs of the shop, the remaining team members leaving to bring a few of their companions to the hospital for treatment.
"What exactly happened?" Asked Lux as he believed that this team was relatively stable.
"The beginning of the expedition went well. However, as there were many groups of people appearing, we decided to go further away. Everything was going well but then we started to meet various monsters. We saw the same wind ants but it seemed to be a complete tribe. Following that, we met kobolds and finally a small group of orcs.
While they are technically tier one, it depends on their overall strength and we were no match for them. We escaped but one of ours fell into a weird crack that we hadn't seen beforehand.
With the orcs following us close-by, we couldn't stop to investigate as the crack mysteriously disappeared right after. So, we made our way back to the gate and here we are." He said with a frown as he showed the map he had bought and made a few modifications to.
"Here's the updated map." He said handing it over.
With a silent nod of his head, Lux walked to the counter and looked into the system panel which would do all the calculations for him.
Tier 1 monster race - Orc = 700 Bym
Tier 1 monster race - Kobold = 700 Bym
Tier 1 environment danger - Cave of Illusions = 3000 Bym
Map Development of 9% = 18,000 Bym
Having the system calculate the price, he brought him the grand total of 22,400 Bym which was already better than nothing. However, Lux could tell that due to the loss of one of his members in the gate, he couldn't stand still and couldn't wait for the group to get out to request their help.
With the new update of information, Lux who had nothing else to do for the moment opened the system panel to look at the celestial body status.
Name: Proteus
Size: Tier 1
Gate level: 1 (198/1000)
Activation cost: 9 energy/hour
Time Remaining: 28d, 15h, 2m, 11s
Environment level: 1 star (55%)
--> Tier 1 - Cave of Illusions 32%
Monster Danger level: 1 star (93%)
--> Tier 1 - Plague Frogs: 19%
--> Tier 1 - Shade Snakes: 8%
--> Tier 1 - Wind Ants: 15%
--> Tier 1 - Goblin: 25%
--> Tier 1 - Bone Monkey: 16%
--> Tier 1 - Kobold: 5%
--> Tier 1 - Orc: 5%
Ressource level: 1 star (87%)
--> Tier 0 - Iron Ore: 23%
--> Tier 0 - Oak Tree: 8%
--> Tier 1 - Epnola Wood: 12%
--> Tier 1 - Pygmy Leaf: 11%
Map: 22.5% explored
Gates: 3
--> Lv.1 gate - Lux Arden
Tower: 1
Cost per hour: 50 Bym
'It seems that all the monsters in the gate have been identified. All that remains are the two other gates locations, the tower location plus its conditions, the ressources, environment dangers and finally the completion of the map.' He thought as he saw that the monsters reached a total of 93% which was the same number next to the monster danger level.
With nothing else to look at, he closed the information window and waited.
It was only an hour later that the group finally left the gate.
As if finding water in the desert, John rushed straight to Nellya, the leader of the thirty man group.
"I need your help, one of my friends got stuck in the gate and I can't get him out of there alone." He said, his face pale as he looked at her as if looking at his last hope.
"And why should we help you?" She asked coldly but logically. After all, she would put her and her subordinates' lives in danger for a random person.
"I have some money." He said as he handed over twenty thousand Bym.
Ignoring the money as she wasn't short of it and was more interested in increasing her strength by being in the gates themselves as the atmosphere in the gates had a lot more natural energy and helped train faster, she looked at the Lux.
"Boss, you should have learned what happened to his friend, what is the danger?" She asked as she wouldn't throw her subordinates' lives away for someone else.
"200 Bym." He replied as while someone's life was on the balance, he had to adhere to certain principles if he didn't want to get taken advantage of in the future.
With the money placed by the one who asked for help, Lux replied. "From what he said, he should have fallen into a cave of illusions. Technically he should be safe in there but if there are monsters or he badly fell, I can't guarantee anything." He explained once paid.
"Oh in that case it's easy." Said Nellya as she turned to the small leader. "You owe us a favor." She then waved at one of her subordinates.
"Lydia, take a couple of the guys and follow his lead to get to the cave. Bring the kid out." She said as her subordinate, one of the three girls nodded her head as she immediately turned back into the gate. They still had some time left and she would make the most of it.
As they left, Nellya came to the counter.
"Boss, I came with information." She said with a smile as she handed over one of the maps she had bought.
"We found two new monsters, kobolds and orcs, one new type of resource and we explored a large part of the celestial body. It allowed us to find one of the gates you told us about." She explained with a smile.
Looking at the map, Lux was surprised by the information brought back.
Tier 1 ressource - Nightweed = 2000
Map Development of 17% = 34,000
Tier 1 Gate location = 1000
"We already had the monsters you found in the database. However we didn't have the remaining information. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I'm short of money to buy everything." Started Lux as he wasn't afraid to tell the truth.
"Either you can keep your information or you can sell it to me and I'll either pay you tomorrow or I can give you a credit to enter the gate. If you choose the credit, I'll give you an extra 20% as compensation." He said straightly.
"I'll take the credit." She said with a smile as Lux nodded and took out a contract paper much to her surprise.
"Are you gonna write it in a contract?" She asked, as she was expecting him to write it on a piece of paper for her.
"Yes, it was my fault for not being able to properly buy everything when I said I would, so I at least won't go back on my promises." He replied as he wrote down the details of the contract.
{Party A being the owner of StarGate store, Lux Arden.
Party B being the customer Nellya Hatch.
Party A grants 44,400 Bym worth of credit in the store to Party B.
Party B may choose to use her credits whenever she wishes and Party A has the obligation of allowing her to pay with credits whenever she wishes.}
Handing her over the contract after signing it, she nodded her head and signed her name as well.
"We'll come back tomorrow and use those credits." She said with a smile as she was relieved of seeing the integrity of the shop owner.
Many oftentimes, those who awakened as space wanderers gained both the power and arrogance that came with being one in a hundred thousand. Most of them would then join some sort of organization and would be treated exceptionally well which would further said arrogance. Unfortunately, she herself didn't manage to recruit any space wanderers in the past and it made her lacking compared to many other associations with one.
Thankfully, while the boss wasn't her subordinate as she would have hoped, being a free space wanderer was quite rare and could certainly fill the void for her group.
Seeing that the shop owner kept to his principles and treated himself with severity as he truly didn't leave himself a way out in the contract, she understood his character as he followed the rules he set for himself and didn't derogate from them for any circumstances.
Such a space wanderer shop owner who kept to his word was rare as they would normally follow the will of their organization and they as free awakeners or those from small organizations would suffer from their temperament.