“Halt! Who goes there?” One of the guards stationed on the wall shouts. My sudden apparition clearly startled him and his colleagues, who were just chatting a moment ago. Now, they have drawn their bows while aiming at my head.

Oh boy, I wonder what will happen if they fire.

My tactic this time around is pretty sophisticated.

I just need to ScAre tHeM.

The first step of scaring a bunch of superstitious savages is to appear as threatening as possible. And I think covering myself with golden flames and paralyzing them with my aura should do the trick.

I activate my robes, and the guards stationed at the wall fall on their back. The archers let loose their arrows in the panic, but they just bounce off.

“My name is Prometheus!” I shout while deepening my voice as much as possible. I’m glad that I regenerate or my throat would be very sore right now. “Take me to your leader! Or prepare to face my wrath!”

And with that the second step, showing that they can’t hurt you, is complete!

The soldiers look like they are about to faint. But one who has red pauldrons and is covered is scars steps forward.

“W-We don’t know you! And threatening us will achieve nothing! So-”

Oh yeah, I can see that you’re totally not about to shit your pants.

The third step is to show overwhelming might, so I light up the sticks of dynamite and throw it against their wooden gate. The resulting explosion doesn't even put a scratch on me, but it completely obliterates the wooden construct.

Alarm bells echo in the village as I casually step forward with my hands behind my back, completely unfazed by the arrows bouncing off my shield. A wall of soldiers carrying spears form in front of me so I stop walking. I can see my target, with his pieces of Starmetal strapped to his equipment, in the back.

He raises a hand, “How dare you! Your petty tricks won't work at-”

Now, I could just teleport next to him and slam his face into the mud, but he might die in the process. So instead I start the fourth step.

Show even more force.

I walk towards the soldiers, who can barely endure the pressure that my robes create, and raise a fist before slamming it into the face of the nearest infantryman as hard as I can.

Of course, this shouldn’t do anything because my strength is nowhere near the level required to damage them.

But I’m not punching with my fist. Instead, I'm striking with my shield!

The barrier appears just as I was about to hit his face, and the sudden apparition of the magical construct sends him flying into a stone wall.

Somehow, this interrupts the panda on the spot.

I turn towards the next soldier who gulps and strikes with his spear, thus doing absolutely fuck all despite breaking the shaft of his weapon.

This guy is now well-acquainted with the internal structure of the nearest piece of masonry.

At this point most of the thirty or so soldiers flee, reducing the number of opponents to a measly ten.

“C-Cowards! Get back here!” the panda shouts, but nobody listens to him. The villagers are rushing to the inside of their homes and barricading every opening.

The panda clicks his tongue, “Fine, then I’ll unleash the wrath of the Celestial God!” he shakes his hands in the air before unrolling a large piece of paper on the ground.

I’m speechless for a moment.

Is-Is this guy seriously trying to use something with a long casting time while I’m so close to him?!

But I kind of want to see what he has in store for me, so I turn towards the remaining soldiers blocking my path and crack my knuckles.

The smell of ammonia fills the air, and a goat-headed man runs away with wet trousers. This is the last straw that breaks the morale of the troops and they all scatter, thus leaving the panda gesticulating above his piece of paper like his life depended on it.

To be fair, he must think that his life truly depends on this attack.

He slams his long wand onto the thick sheet of paper and stands up while pointing a finger at my chest. “You’re finished, intruder! Taste the wrath of the Celestial God!” Four fist-sized comets appear above the paper and they slam into me… before bouncing off like a tennis ball against a wall.

The emotions on the panda’s face are completely unreadable at the moment, but it’s still hilarious to watch his entire world crumble before his eyes.

I walk towards him and kick the piece of paper away, but he doesn’t react since his eyes are fixated on me.

“W-What are you?” he mumbles, and I grab him by the throat. Of course, this would be better if I could actually lift the bastard, but he’s at least twice my weight.

“I told you already, My name’s Prometheus. And I have several questions.” he gulps and I tighten my grip, “I think you should answer them, otherwise things might happen to this village of yours.”

Natural disasters like a wild machine gun appearing out of nowhere and gunning down an entire village are more common than you think.

“A-All right, I’ll do anything you ask for. J-Just don’t kill me!” he finally gives up, so I deactivate my robes and release him.

"See, this wasn't that hard," I say while patting the panda on the back.

I’m glad that we got to act like civilized people.

“Now, is there somewhere we can talk in private?” I ask the scared panda. He orders his soldiers, who regrouped, to stand down with a flick of the wrist before lowering his head.

“O-Of course, please follow me.” He says with a trembling voice before indicating a large stone mansion half-carved into the mountain. “I hope my humble residence will be to your taste.”

I nod and follow the panda, who keeps glancing at me every few steps until we arrive in front of the ornate wooden door. The unknown creatures carved into the large block of wood are almost life-like, and I can't help but be impressed since it must've been carved by hand.

“P-Please come inside.” The terrified leader says as a servant opens the door. The panda leads me into a well-lit room with large windows covered by wooden blinds.

He shows me a chair and waits for me to sit down before doing the same at the opposite side of the table.

“Would you like to drink anything?” he asks, but I shake my head to decline.

"All right, then… I'll answer your questions to the best of my abilities," he says while trying to hide the tremors coursing through his body.

Great, now I just hope he has what I need.

“Do you have a map, preferably one that also includes the capital and its surrounding area?” I ask.

The panda shift in his chair and looks uncomfortable, but taking a deep breath is enough to remind him of the situation he’s in.

“O-Of course! But it’s in a secure room where my servants can’t enter, so I’ll have to fetch it myself. Is there anything else I can do for you?” he declares while lowering his head.

To be honest, I don't want anything else from him. I already robbed him blind and got a map, so what could I-

I know, maybe this guy knows how Formations are made. If I can extract some information from him then it’ll help the Fabricators in their research.

“Do you know anything about the Formation creation process?” My question causes a brief flash of surprise on the crowned panda’s face, but he quickly hides it.

“I don’t know much, aside from the fact that it requires Power Stones. You might want to ask our blacksmith, but I doubt you would want to waste your time here by learning the basics for months.”

Well, I guess I can’t win every time. I think the influx of artifacts from their vaults might help the Fabricators unlock the secret of using the Power Stones, but only time will tell.

“All right, then one last question. Where is your blacksmith?” Of course, their blacksmith might have some more useful resources, but what I'm really after is the Distillery and the Infusion Altar. Having spares can’t hurt, and this will allow the Fabricators to do more in-depth experiments without worrying about destroying the constructs.

“It’s the large dome-shaped building near the center of the village. You can’t really miss it, but if you’d like to I can dispatch a servant to guide you to-”

“No, I’ll be fine.” I interrupt the panda. “Now, shall we go get that map?”

He nods and I follow him to a large stone door in the back of the mansion, which seems to lead directly into the mountain. Interestingly enough, the door looks almost identical to the ones in the vault.

The panda grabs a small pendant hanging on his neck and press it in the middle of the door. The pieces of coral-like material start to pulse for a brief moment before a loud clicking noise echoes. The door is now slightly ajar, and the chief struggles to open the thick stone door.

The revealed room looks almost identical to the vaults I robbed earlier.

“This is one of our secure rooms,” the panda says as he steps inside. “We have similar ones for our treasury… Those rooms are very secure and are the pride of our Clan. They can contain even the more powerful World Energy fluctuations. In fact, our treasures got particularly active earlier in the day, with enough power to completely destroy this mountain! Yet we still stand.”

I see what he’s trying to do. He’s boasting about the quality of his vaults to make me want to buy one, so he can curry favors with me.

But it’s not working.

And I'm pretty sure that the fluctuation he's talking about was caused by my arrival. But if this is a common occurrence here then that would explain why guards didn't come rushing into the vaults.

From what I saw, those fluctuations weren’t caused by their ‘treasures’, but rather by the improperly stored Starmetal. It’s only a question of time before the entire area is turned into a smoldering crater.

“Okay… Then can I see this map?” My question causes the panda to deflate, but he hurries towards a large drawer before opening it, revealing a very large piece of relatively thick rubbery paper-like material.

“This map took a lot of efforts and time to complete, so please be careful.” He says as he lay down the massive map on a nearby stone table.

I imagine that mapping places without the help of modern technology or a good mapping spell might be a hard endeavor, especially considering that your neighbors probably don't like to see anyone from another Clan in their territory.

The map is a bit crude but quite detailed. Villages are clearly marked, and there are even certain hunting grounds for dangerous creatures marked as well. But what interest me is near the bottom of the map, where a big red triangle with the word ‘CAPITAL' written over it is located.

Perfect! And the mountains are even marked, so finding the Roses might be easier than expected.

Now, I pull out my Portal Gun and memorize the coordinates displayed on the corner of the screen before Rewinding.

I’m back to after I sent the artifacts back to Earth, so this time I enter the coordinates into the Gun and directly arrive into what I assume is the personal vault of the panda. Terrorizing the village and the panda was fun, but it was too time-consuming since it took a bit more than ten minutes in total. Furthermore, I had no plan to leave the panda’s personal vault intact.

I immediately grab the map and take a panoramic photo of it with my Interdimensional Phone. I then check the other drawers lining up the walls, and I’m a bit disappointed.

They mostly contain jewelry and coins, something that doesn't really interest me. But I take them anyway since I might briefly explore the capital to buy some information. I empty all the drawers before teleporting their content into an isolated area where I disinfect them before sending them back home.

My next task is robbing the blacksmith, so I chain my teleports until I get reasonably high on the peak, that way I can easily locate the smith’s workshop. The windowless dome is larger than most of its surrounding buildings and the two large chimneys spewing black smoke add to its uniqueness.

I take a deep breath and aim my Gun near the building before pressing the trigger. The sudden appearance of a portal in the ground startles a nearby villager. Stepping through the portal causes him to flee in terror while screaming his lungs out.

I check my Portal Gun, and now the mapping device has fully scanned the building’s interior, allowing me to directly arrive into the Altar room.

This is a lot bigger than the Altar room of Hisako's village!

I smirk when I see a large number of jars lined up against the walls and teleport them into an isolated clearing.

However, robbing the place in broad daylight with the discretion of a bulldozer has its downsides. Mainly the fact that I can hear a multitude of bells ringing in the village. This can only mean those guards will soon arrive, and they might make the process more difficult than it should be.

I push my Gun to its limit as the Altar soon sink into the ground, and it’s quickly followed by the Distillery. I look around for any potentially useful materials, but that’s when a large cow-headed man wielding a massive hammer burst into the room.

He looks quite dumbfounded when his eyes wander on the empty space that was previously occupied by the Altar and the Distillery.

“You goddamn thief!” he says as he takes a swing at me. I completely ignore him and start to look around while the angry blacksmith winces when his hammer bounces off my shield. He keeps wailing on me while I casually walk around with my hands behind my back, and I finally find what I’m looking for after a few minutes of research.

A small room used as a warehouse, filled with various minerals and ingots. I teleport the contents of the warehouse back to the clearing, causing the already enraged blacksmith to attack me with even more reckless abandon.

I think this man is a bit blinded by rage, if he was reasonable he would have fled once he saw that his attacks didn’t hurt me in the slightest.

I could even take a nap here, at least if I could still sleep. His attacks aren't strong enough to trigger My Shield Glove. Instead, they are all stopped by the regular shield bracelet welded to the Glove.

But I need to get rid of him. Otherwise, he might accidentally travel with me in my portal. I punch him, sending him crashing through a door. The timing was somehow impeccable since his massive body knocked down the group of soldiers rushing into the area.

Oh well, I’m sure they’ll be fine.

I wave them goodbye before sinking into the floor. I then spend the next half an hour cleaning everything and sending it back to Earth. I also warned Alan about the new shipment and he was ecstatic about the news. According to the Fabricator, no one has yet to attack the compound again, so that’s a good thing.

Or not, for all I know a massive army is getting ready to purge us. Knowing my actual bounty would be nice since I could gauge the level of danger we’re in.

The bounty probably isn’t easily accessible, so I-

Maybe I was wrong.

I typed my name in the HiddenNet out of curiosity, and the bounty appears on the first search result. The website prides itself as the greatest bounty repository and guarantees the anonymity of their clients.

Of course, why would it be so simple?

My bounty has been online since a few days ago. Apparently, it's the first one to use the latest feature of the website, a community financing system.

From the explanation displayed on a side banner, the client can activate this feature when creating a bounty. Then, other people can add Credits to the bounty as an incentive for the mercenaries to hunt down the target.

So far, twenty-four people have added to the bounty, and the amount is… eight hundred and fifty millions Credits.

That is a lot of Credits, but the prices in the Hidden World are horribly inflated. So I wonder if it’ll be enough to push the more competent teams to try their luck. The description is sparse: There's a link to an archived stream of my battle against Beelzebub, as well as the coordinates of my home. Interestingly enough, the bounty states that I’m operating alone, so that means the client doesn’t know about the Order.

Which is a good thing, I won’t complain if the mercenaries who want me dead are wholly unprepared.

Sadly, the description doesn't contain anything else besides my basic physical description, so I can’t get any clues about whoever sent this.

Now, what should I do?

The website would probably never disclose the name of the client, and the list of people who wants me dead is too big to check with every single one of them. I could try hacking the website, but who knows how these magical websites operate. Learning everything I need to hack a HiddenNet website would take me months, or even years, and I doubt breaching their security would be an easy job.

Storming their headquarters could be a way to solve this problem, but they could be operating from anywhere in any universe, so that option is out.

I could hire someone to do it, but the risk of them betraying me is high, not to mention that I may not have enough Credits to hire the people competent enough to hack this site.

Putting the Fabricators on this task is an attractive option, but they already have their plate full with all the projects I dumped on them. And those projects are essential if we want to have an advantage over the tide of mercenaries who will attack us.

And what I'm doing here is also essential. Having a functional spell jammer would render even the most fearsome Enforcers nearly powerless against our arsenal.

I take a deep breath and review the map. I need to find those Roses as soon as possible, so I check the landmarks one last time before configuring my Portal Gun. The map is inconsistent and imprecise, so my best bet is to eyeball the distances and navigate using the numerous landmarks marked on the map.

I just hope nothing bad will happen while I’m gone.