Before anyone could say anything a system message popped up.

You have received a communication request from Haruka.

Keynes accepted the request and a second later another system message came through.

Message from Haruka:

“No matter what she says, please, do not challenge her, Keynes.”

So this was spiritual communication. Very handy thing.

“What is the meaning of this, Haruka?” his sister asked, her voice imperious.

Vivena appeared in front of Keynes, protecting him with her body.

I don’t need protection…

Her fingers grasped the poison serum, ready to inject it.

Keynes stepped to the side and glanced at Vivena, seeing that her demeanour had undergone a complete shift. Her face was tense, her attention focused on the woman in front of them, she was ready to pounce on her. It lifted Keynes’s heart to know that Vivena cared about him this much. With his Will finally maxed out, he didn’t need to hide his feelings from her anymore.

“Pandora…” Haruka said, his voice strained. “What are you doing here?”

She snorted, narrowing her eyes.

“You asking me?” Her voice was full of disbelief. “You have disappeared for two months only to show up here with … this and … them.” She nodded at Keynes and Vivena.

It prompted Vivena to press the serum against her forearm. Keynes gently touched her shoulder and when she squinted at him, he shook his head. The last thing he wanted was a bloodbath. No matter what Levels were the others, Vivena with her poison serum would have rolled over them.

“Keynes and Vivena are my guests,” Haruka said, finding strength in his voice at last. “They are protected by the Pact.”

“So be it,” she said, her expression full of disdain. She turned to her people behind and added. “Catalogue everything.”

“Wait a second,” Vivena snapped, causing Bill’s eyes to bulge. Haruka opened his mouth but Vivena raised her hand, silencing him. “You won’t catalogue anything. All of this belongs to four of us.”

Keynes could see Pandora’s face twitch, her eyes shone with murder at Vivena. But to Pandora’s credit, the woman didn’t react to Vivena’s comment and instead prompted her people to start cataloguing. Haruka saw where this was going and stepped forward.

“Pandora, wait. Vivena is right. Everything here is ours. We are happy to share but first we must talk to our father.”

The people behind Pandora eyed the brother and the sister expectantly. It was clear that Haruka and Pandor were some kind of royalty in their village.

Keynes stayed silent, observing how this would unfold. While Vivena was right, their most valuable items were stored in their dimensional pouches. No need to turn it into a fight.

“Father will be here very soon.”

Haruka blinked.

“What? How?”

“You will see when he arrives.” She paused, then gave Vivena a stink eye which didn’t last long. “Now, brother, follow me. You have a lot to explain.”

Haruka nodded, looking defeated.

“Don’t worry, it will be fine.”

Then came a spiritual message.

Message from Haruka:

“Please, try to calm Vivena down.”

Keynes replied.

“I will do my best.”

***

Haruka and Pandora walked away from the camp. Judging by her body language, Haruka could tell that she was pissed off. As the firstborn daughter of the village chief, Pandora was proud and accustomed to being respected. Those who crossed her, regretted it. Her Talent – Numbing Touch – was very dangerous. It had to be the reason why Haruka had received [Evade]. It increased his chances against his sister, only a bit though. From the very early years, Pandora had trained in martial arts and recently gained her first martial art technique which made her far more formidable than her attributes suggested.

He could see that she was still Level 2 so either she hadn’t maxed out all her attributes or was on her way to Level 3. Haruka considered broaching the subject but knew it wouldn’t end well to point this out to her. She’d been grumpy about the maxing out attributes already before his departure.

Pandora stopped and turned to him, her eyes dangerous.

“Explain all of this to me.”

Haruka told her the truth with a few big exceptions – Keynes’s ability to open rifts and him being a Perfect State ascender and in the Elevated stage at the same time. These secrets were Keynes’s to reveal.

Pandora kept her face straight until Haruka told her about the hidden room. Her expression told him everything. He’d said too much.

“We must—”

“No,” he cut her off like he’d never done before. “Keynes and Vivena are my guests. Besides, they are extremely strong.”

Pandora half-turned toward the camp, even though they were too far to see anything. Pandora wasn’t a cruel person by any stretch of imagination but for a moment Haruka hesitated.

The look in her eye … it spelt trouble.

***

Despite the initial impressions, the villagers brought by Pandora turned out to be a bunch of nice fellows. They joked with Bill and after exchanging a few words with Keynes, they showed congeniality. It baffled Keynes how different these people were from anyone outside the World Reserve.

Bill started a fire and then boiled tea in a cauldron. The group of fourteen warriors from Haruka’s and Bill’s village gathered around and questioned Bill about his whereabouts.

Keynes and Vivena took seats on the opposite side of the fire. Keynes could feel Vivena’s tension. She still held the serum in her hand.

“We’re okay,” Keynes whispered to her. Most of these warriors were Level 2 and on the verge of the Medium stage. Even without the serum, Vivena and Keynes would have defeated them.

Keynes didn’t think that Pandora would be an issue either. She still was Level 2 and Keynes had the advantage of being in the higher spiritual stage.

Speaking of a devil…

She’s coming straight for you, master, Alice warned him.

Vivena must have been warned by her spiritual companion as well because she jumped to her feet, standing in Pandora’s way.

Pandora ground to halt and eyed Vivena with … something akin to a challenge? It wasn’t easy to recognise what Pandora’s facial expression meant.

“I need to talk to your friend.”

Keynes got up, then placed his hand on Vivena’s arm.

“I will be fine.”

Vivena didn’t say anything but he knew that he made a mistake. He glanced at Pandora then at her brother. Clearly, Haruka had told her things.

Keynes asked through Alice.

“What should I expect?”

Message from Haruka:

“She doesn’t know about your Talent but she knows you can open the hidden door. Also she doesn’t know about you being a Perfect State ascender or in the Elevated stage.”

Keynes messaged back.

“You couldn’t have given her a bigger hint, could you?.”

Message from Haruka:

“I am sorry.”

One last look at Vivena told him that he shouldn’t go alone with Pandora. It would mean she wasn’t important to him and that was a lie because she was. He could pretend all he wanted but the truth was indisputable.

It was time to make a decision…

“Vivena must be the part of this conversation,” Keynes said after a moment.

“Not a friend then,” Pandora snorted. “Fine. Come with me.”

Keynes kept his eyes on Pandora, unable to look into Vivena’s eyes after Pandora’s comment.

They stopped a hundred metres from the camp and Pandora immediately began speaking.

“My brother may be young and naïve but I am not. I can see that you are using him and I won’t accept that.”

“And how are we using him exactly?” Vivena asked, her voice unnaturally cold.

“You shouldn’t be here in the first place. You endanger everything we value. You call yourself civilised but you’re anything but. You’re murderers… And now you came here to spread your sickness among my people. We don’t want you here!”

Vivena opened her mouth but Keynes replied faster.

“But if we do as you’re suggesting. Someone will ask where we found all these Level 3 items.”

It caught both women off guard.

Pandora clenched her fists and eyed Keynes angrily. He struck at the core of the problem. From Keynes’s understanding, the natives banned violence against other humans. Haruka had said very little on the topic but what he’d shared made total sense. Before the outbreaks, the only way to level up was to kill other ascenders. Before the World Government, levelling worldwide was unregulated and it led to genocide where entire villages and towns had been wiped out by power crazy ascenders. The World Government had put a stop to this by banning levelling up with the exception of the military and the richest people who stood above the law.

The natives from the World Reserve went a step further and didn’t level up at all.

Every single person brought by Pandora was a rift essence ascender.

“You are right,” Pandora said, grinding each word with painful difficulty. “We cannot let you leave.”

“I don’t think you’re in a position to stop us,” Vivena said.

Vivena unfurled some of her spiritual aura, at Level 4 and in the Medium stage, her aura was almost as strong as his. And that meant a lot.

Pandora seemed unmoved by Vivena’s threat. There was a certain quality to Pandora’s unyielding attitude.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

Message from Haruka:

“What’s going on over there?”

He must have picked up Vivena’s aura. Keynes had to calm him down. Vivena and Pandora were just showing off.

Message from Haruka

“Showing off? Keynes… Pandora has no sense of humour. You must take her seriously.”

Okay.

This might get out of control pretty easily then. Keynes placed his hand on Vivena's shoulder, she glanced at him.

“Can you cut to the chase?” he asked Pandora. “This isn’t why you wished to talk to me.”

He saw Pandora’s emotional struggle, it lasted a moment.

“The hidden door,” she said eventually. “Haruka told me you can open them. We have seven rifts around our village. We can share our essence with you as the payment for opening the hidden doors.”

Vivena was going to say something but once more Keynes stopped her.

“I want whatever you use to max out Mind attribute.”

Pandora grew confused then her eyes widened in shock.

“Why? What Level are you?”

“Level 2,” he replied.

“But—”

“I am a Perfect State ascender like you,” he interrupted her, feeling that he should press his point. “And like Haruka, I am in the Elevated stage.”

Pandora shook her head.

“That’s impossible.”

Keynes ignored her.

“Mind attribute stuff. That’s my payment,” he repeated to her.

Vivena added, “and our share of items and resources from the rifts we delve with you.”

“You’re in our territory,” Pandora countered.

“Then we leave and you can open the hidden doors by your own means,” Keynes replied, trying to sound unbothered. He really wanted to stay and learn how to train his Mind attribute. But Vivena was right. If they wanted his help, they needed to be fair with him.

Pandora raised her hand, looking annoyed.

“Just wait until my father arrives here. He must approve this.”

***

Wagner stood in one of his secret laboratories set up on the other side of Geneva. His current mansion was under insane surveillance. Everyone’s attention was now centred on him. Meetings like the one he was about to attend were off the table.

The lab held only several vivariums with plants that sustained themselves. Because of that, this particular place was only visited by Wagner and rarely at that.

He waited for the system to quietly alert him that his guest arrived. Wagner didn’t need to wait long for her.

Persephone found her way to the lab without an issue. She didn’t wear her mask. Wagner was taken aback by the act. At their last meeting, she’d kept her face hidden.

What changed?

And there was more; she also swapped her black robe for an ankle-length dress and high heels.

Wagner’s heart sped up. He liked what he saw. She was pretty.

Sneaky woman. I won’t fall for your blatant trick.

“I know what you are doing,” Wagner told her. Cursing himself for looking inappropriate. He had very little time to dress himself up. “It won’t work.”

Persephone smiled.

“It’s working already.”

“This is a business meeting,” he assured her, hoping his expression remained neutral.

She stopped near him. In terms of height, she was only slightly taller than him. The cut in her dress showed a long slender leg. Damn her, this is working!

“Let’s talk then.”

Wagner took out a sheet of paper from his dimensional pouch and handed it to her.

“I need you to level up those four to at least Level 3.”

Persephone frowned.

“I think you’re under the false impression that I work for you, Zimmermann.” She handed the note back to him. “Ask someone else to level them up.”

She turned to go.

“Please wait. You’re the only one who can do it. Those four don’t want to level up. And there is nothing I can do to sway them. They are very stubborn people. If you could use your Talent…” His voice softened uncharacteristically. He cursed himself.

But she is pretty!

“This isn’t how my Talent works.” Even though she sounded annoyed she turned back to Wagner. “But why them? I can understand the first two but the other ones?”

Wagner considered a lie then changed his mind and told her a half-truth. Or more precisely, he hid the bigger truth.

“They are friends and I would hate to see them dead in a few decades.”

And one of them has a Talent I badly need now.

“Okay,” she smiled a cruel smile. “But it will cost you.”

“I will pay,” he said without hesitation.