Standing in his shop, knowing that battles raged all over Proteus was a different kind of feeling altogether. It was especially impactful when you knew that you could stop that battle whenever you wished by simply calling back everyone and closing the gate forever.
Feeling a bit bothered as all kinds of thoughts swirled in his mind, good news, however, started to come up as his latest information granted an extreme advantage over the enemies.
"Boss, we got two heads here." Said Harris, John's follower and the man who talked too much.
"Here's 30,000 Bym." Said Lux as he handed over the money in exchange for the heads which he would have to get rid of at some point in time.
"Thanks boss, I knew that coming here originally was the best decision." He said with a grin as he waved and rushed back in the portal.
"But… Weren't you the one who tried to convince John not to trust me, saying that I would lock you up on the other side of the portal?" Muttered Lux as he watched the duo rush back inside of the portal, no doubt to go and find other enemies.
Pushing this thought out of his head, he continued to deal with the heads that were slowly being brought back. Battles, especially amongst professionalists of the same level, weren't always easy to conclude. Things such as the environment, timing, teammates, professions and levels played a large role in the battle and as such, it wasn't surprising that some battles could last half an hour or even more if their abilities were truly equal.
"Boss, I captured two people!" Shouted a man who was known in his small circle for exploring alone and dealing with things as simply and lucratively as possible. Despite being a paladin, he wasn't open about his skills and instead fought in a way similar to assassins as he dealt with enemies through sneak attacks.
"You can leave them in the makeshift prison." Said Lux as the man nodded his head, heading back in the gate to go and place them in security. After all, since the gate was still functioning, they couldn't bring people back through his own portal and would thus have to be temporarily arrested.
It was worth noting that while slaves weren't really used in the territory of the baron of Nielty, it wasn't uncommon to find them in other parts of the kingdom.
Also known as space slaves, people who had been captured during war on a celestial body and where the war had ended would be sold for profit afterwards.
As for the buyers, depending on the race, there were many. From what Lux heard, nobles were especially fond of beastmans and elves while humans were more often than not used as scouts in new planets.
This time, the enemies they were faced with were humans.
Entering the gate every few hours in order to locate the enemies as they obviously moved as the battles raged on, the explorers finally took care of the common enemies.
"All that remains are 22 people guarding the gate." Said Lux who had just completed the investigation through the Cosmic Insight spell.
"Alright, let's go!" Shouted John as the customers were pumped, seemingly seeing the money waving at them. With multiple groups of more than forty people against only twenty-two of them, they were certain of victory.
Seeing the group leave the make-shift base with a calm smile on his face, happy that this battle hadn't been as difficult as he had originally thought it to be, he walked back in his shop, waiting for the good news.
Many things could have gone wrong but everything seemed to have gone well instead. Even his remaining preparations of 754 credits hadn't been used for supplies as they hadn't been necessary. Indeed, the war that he thought would have lasted for a couple of days at the minimum or a week at the latest had been over in a little under two days.
"All that remains will be to destroy that gate and we will only have the tower and the level four gate remaining as obvious power on this celestial body." Grinned Lux as the tower shouldn't be a problem with the strength of his customers, especially since they had a reason to attack it while the level four gate had yet to open.
Clearing a tower was especially useful to become an official and known force in any territory. Without the ability to clear a tower, the possibilities of rising to eventually become a noble or even a large group was non-existent. Only by clearing a tower, proving their strength could they become the protectors of a part of the land granting them more benefits.
Of course, in the small town of Dryfalls, there were currently four such groups with Nellya's having a chance at becoming the fifth of their town and the protection money was shared amongst those four. Should Nellya manage to reach that level, she would surely be faced with difficulties. After all, no one liked when they lost a part of the cake that belonged to them.
While deep in thought, time seemed to pass by rapidly as news of the battle finally reached his ears.
"We won, a few of them escaped through the portal but we took care of everyone else. We are currently attacking the portal from our side and it should be done in a couple of hours." Said Nellya's subordinate, dressed in a proper uniform with the Hatch family insignia at the top left of the uniform right above their heart.
"Perfect, the money will be readied when you all come back." Said Lux as a smile spread on the man's face.
It was rare to find a business so lucrative. However from ancient times to now, it was well known that war was the best way to make money.
With the shop gradually coming back to silence as everyone was attacking the gate, wanting a certain percentage of the million Bym reward.
——
"Finally done." Muttered Lux to himself as he saw that the Proteus status had changed with one gate having simply disappeared from its information.
Preparing the money, knowing that they would all rush back to get both their money and to relax for a while after such a battle, Lux didn't hesitate to bring out all his money despite knowing that it would still take them a couple of hours to come back from the other side of the planet.
"Boss, here are the captured enemies." Said one of the man who had been guarding the camp, immediately bringing them out once he noticed that they could now pass, meaning that they had won this small-scale war.
"Thanks." He replied, handing over 120,000 Bym for the eight captures.
"No problem." He replied with a grin, picking the money which he would share with his teammates who had captured them.
Looking at the chained up humans who didn't show much panic nor anger on their faces, Lux's eyebrow shot up, surprised that they didn't seem too angry at being captured and being exiled from their original kingdom. After all, who knew how far they now were from their original kingdom.
"So, where do you guys come from?" Asked the shop owner as he looked at the bound men and women in front of him.
"We are from the Houvis kingdom of the Houvis planet." Replied one man who seemed like the leader of this small group. With bright-red hair which was shared by a few of them and his muscular stature, he was obviously someone who fought a lot in the past, his scars a testament of the battles he had gone through.
"Houvis planet?" Repeated Lux to himself in a small voice.
Seemingly hearing a question from his tone, the man continued. "The Houvis planet is a tier 3 planet on the verge of being a tier four planet. After countless wars, the planet has been united under the now Houvis kingdom." He explained before continuing in their origin as he figured that was what he was most interested in.
"The pioneers of the Houvis planet were actually explorers who escaped their own kingdom on Earth into a portal and stayed there for the rest of their lives, building and slowly thriving on the planet. Following the death of the space wanderer who had linked both Houvis and Earth, they were officially stranded on the other planet where a new civilization was built. Finally, after countless centuries, new space wanderers appeared, allowing us to restart exploring the universe." He concluded, giving out their relatively small but interesting history.
"Now what do you expect to do?" Asked Lux once again, having fully understood that they had no way back at all and knowing that they were also technically his slaves from that point on.
"We'd like to work for you." He simply stated, knowing and understanding full well their current circumstances.