CHAPTER 114: STARTING

The group went to the meeting room. Along the way, branch leader Clint properly introduced the representative from the Union Core Center to Alex. The man’s name was William and he was a sub-elder at the Union Core Center in the capital.

This had stunned Alex. A Master mage was only a sub-elder? As expected of a force in the capital.

Reaching the meeting room, branch leader Clint went to the point. He first used a moment to express his gratitude for Mr Chen’s decision to help them find the missing children and his willingness to offend the Dark Union.

Branch leader Clint had been informed of the dark beasts and the kidnapper that Mr Chen had brought by Owen and the others, this news had stunned him because they had not been able to find anything about the Dark Union even after weeks.

After that, he proceeded to tell Mr Chen about the upcoming auction and requested for Mr Chen to be present. Due to the upcoming tournament, lots of people were coming into Balon City from outside and the City would soon be filled with visitors.

This was why the Union branch decided to host the auction just before the tournament to get more participants and many items would be submitted as well.

Branch leader Clint suspected that the Dark Union might try to cause trouble during the auction so he wanted Mr Chen to be there.

Alex informed him that he had already been invited as a guest appraiser by Lance, so he was going to be there.

Branch leader Clint was happy with this response and secretly praised Lance in his mind. While they conversed, William was silently observing Mr Chen with an unreadable expression.

Alex noticed this and turned to him.

"Is there a problem?" He asked.

William’s expression didn’t change and he calmly said that he was curious about Mr Chen’s identity and why he always wore the white mask. Clint had come to the Union Core Center because he was worried about Mr Chen’s real identity and why an expert like him was in a small place like Balon City.

After searching through the data of various experts with their center, they didn’t find any information about anyone called Mr Chen.

Therefore, William had been sent back along with Clint to take a look.

But after meeting Mr Chen, he didn’t find him that suspicious. The other party had even assisted this Union branch and had even offended the Dark Union.

William came to the conclusion that Mr Chen was a powerful mage who had learned of the Dark Union’s activities somehow and had come to stop them without exposing himself.

If that was the case, then he would definitely not want to reveal his true identity. Still, it was normal to be wary of a powerful person suddenly helping you for no reason so he still tried to ask.

As expected, Mr Chen didn’t respond after William showed curiosity towards his true identity and the matter was dropped.

After chatting for a bit more, Alex revealed that he was originally here to sell beast corpses.

Usually, only Owen would follow him to the room where he took out his goods but William and Clint decided to tag along this time.

Alex didn’t mind this. They reached the room not long after and Alex went in alone. Clint and William wanted to follow him but were informed by Owen that Mr Chen didn’t like others being inside with him.

The two didn’t have any problem with this and waited outside. Some minutes later, Alex came out and informed them that he was done, and the trio went in.

The moment they entered the room and their eyes saw what was inside, they were petrified on the spot from shock and didn’t know how to react for some time.

In front of them was a large pill of beast corpses; their numbers exceeded two thousand!

"What in the world?!" Branch leader Clint exclaimed with wide eyes.

More than an hour later.

Branch leader Clint walked into an office where William and Alex were already waiting, a black Union card in his hand which he stretched toward Alex.

"Here’s your card, Mr Chen. A total of 150 million Zen has been added to your card." Branch leader Clint said with a smile as he handed the card to Alex.

Alex took the card and kept it under his robe before putting it inside his storage ring.

Now with the 60 million Zen that he had previously, he now had over 200 million Zen!

200 million Zen...the amount sounded so unbelievable, but it was real; everything was inside this card.

Alex left soon after. Before leaving, he had asked for a way to contact the Union branch in case of a situation where he couldn’t come personally.

Although Clint was confused by this, he still gave Alex a contact card with the union’s emergency line on it.

Alex kept the card before returning to the lowest floor of the building, he used Void Walk to return to the outskirts in the presence of everyone.

After Alex left, branch leader Clint looked at William.

"What do you think?"

William glanced at him before disclosing the conclusion that he had reached. He speculated that the Dark Union might be up to something bigger than just kidnapping people which was why an expert like Mr Chen had come personally under disguise.

Clint nodded with a serious expression, William’s words made sense.

"Still, we have to remain vigilant. I’ll relay everything back to the center and ask them to send support in case anything happens."

"Understood."

By now, Alex had reached the outskirts. He came out of the gateway in a dark corner before returning the robe and mask to the system; after that, he started to walk home. Union officers still patrolled the place even after days of nothing happening, the people sent by the principal didn’t leave as well.

Alex considered this enough protection while he was away, he would take over the duty of protecting his family when he was around.

Luckily, the Dark Union hadn’t made any moves during the past few days and everywhere had been peaceful. Alex naturally found this to be strange but there was nothing he could do then.

However, things were about to change; he was going to attack those scumbags tonight!

Alex reached home late; he had spent some time at the Union building, and it was already dark when he got home.

His mother complained a bit before allowing him to go wash up and come down for dinner.

Time passed slowly as Alex patiently waited.

Soon, it was midnight. Alex stood up from his bed and stretched.

He took out the robe and mask from the system and they appeared on his body. Alex checked and was certain that his family was asleep; he then used the void walk skill, and a gateway appeared in front of him, which led to a white space.

A small grin formed on Alex’s face as he entered the white space and left his room.

When Alex came out from the other gateway, he had moved out from the outskirts and was on top of a very tall building in the center of Balon City.

The gateway closed behind him as he deactivated the skill and took a moment to observe the view from here.

This building was almost as tall as the Union building in the commercial district, and Alex could see half of the city at a glance; street lamps lit up nearly every corner, but the top of the building where he stood was dark.

Alex decided that this place was fine, if he cast "warden of the rift" here, people would probably not notice the glow from the star constellations. Only powerful mages who were sensitive to mana would feel the powerful mana function from this place.

Without wasting time, Alex’s eyes glowed with a silver-white glow that was as dazzling as the pale moon in the sky above Balon City as countless stars appeared around him before quickly forming four star constellations.

"Warden of the rift!" Alex voiced out.

Everything happened so quickly, from when the star appeared till when the star constellations disappeared after he called out the spell did not take more than a second. Naturally, it was nearly impossible for anyone to notice.

However, what Alex didn’t expect was that someone had actually sensed it when he had cast the spell.

In a different part of the city, a little kid who seemed to be around 12 to 13 years old could be seen sitting on a couch with a large lollipop which he slowly sucked on.

A few figures surrounded this kid, all of them had their heads lowered, and they didn’t dare to make any sound.

Suddenly, the kid suddenly stopped sucking on the candy in his hand. As he glanced in a direction, a childish smile appeared on his face.

"Hehe, seems like you really picked a troublesome enemy this time. Let’s go out for a walk."