Unedited chapter. It will be edited soon.

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Was it reasonable to think that the world was moving in his favor?

Finding a member of the village searching in this remote place was the best example of this. Although Louis was surprised, he stared at him suspiciously.

"That place is very far from here, and this world is not one where it is easy to travel. I'm afraid it's hard to believe what you're saying," he replied.

"I can show you the location of the village, as long as you don't intend to kill us there. We are friendly to tourists, although we haven't had one in many years. In return, I only want you to take me there, as it is not very safe for me to go right now. In recent weeks, the meteor showers have changed, as I'm sure you've noticed, and I'm not strong enough to stop them," he said, ignoring his previous suspicion.

"He doesn't seem to be lying," he thought. His intuition told him that this man was telling the truth, but it was still hard to believe.

"What brought you to town?" he asked.

"To buy supplies."

"Supplies?" Louis frowned. "I'd heard that you're a town with no contact with the outside world, which means you're self-sufficient."

"Heh, that's not true. We just never reveal when someone comes to buy. Besides, I only come to buy seeds for planting; with this, no one else will have to come for five years, until we run out."

Louis raised his eyebrows, curious that the seeds could last that long. "How big is the village?"

"I don't think you need to know that right now, do you? If you want to go, you'll find out when you get there. Anyway, what's with all these questions? You could kill me with one blow if I were lying to you, couldn't you? You're pretty strong." He asked, annoyed by so many unnecessary questions.

He was right. He could see that he was an Ascended, but he was probably only around level 30 and his stats should be more or less equal to his level.

There wasn't much he could do against his strength, especially since he had more than 2,000 points available in the store that he could use in no time.

Louis finally nodded. "Okay, I'll believe you for now. Let's meet up with my partner and then leave," he said.

"Wait, I still have to buy some seeds."

"Okay, I'll take you after I find her, so she doesn't worry."

"Um..." He had no choice but to accept his proposal and followed him. "You can call me Leon."

"Louis, my partner is Laura."

"Okay, then..."

They started walking and soon found Laura. After explaining the whole situation to her, they went back into the city, this time heading for the low-end and mid-range stores.

León went into different stores, found out the price, tried to haggle, and then left.

In the end, the three of them ended up in a room in the last of the stores they would visit, the one that sold a variety of seeds and plants wholesale.

"Sir, you're putting me in a difficult position..." The sales manager sighed as he spoke to Leon, who wanted to buy the seeds from him. "I understand that you're paying with blue power stones from meteorites; I appreciate that because they're very valuable, but how can you expect me to give you such a big discount?"

"They are high-quality blue power stones; you can see that, right? I know you are eagerly looking for them, which is why I want to pay with them. Ten blue power stones for that merchandise is a good deal. Anyway, you have a lot of seeds."

"But that's not enough," said the sales manager. "Ten blue power stones are worth about 15,000 Jens... If we get picky at auction, they could go for 20,000, but are you willing to pay that for something worth over 40,000 on the wholesale market?"

They had been having similar discussions for over 30 minutes.

Leon had raised his offer twice and had almost convinced the seller the last time.

"Clearly, those stones seem to be highly sought after. I wonder what they are," he thought.

Although each one didn't seem to be very expensive.

He looked at his system to check how much he was short.

[97%...]

He thought it would take less time, but after reaching 90%, it seemed to have slowed down noticeably, so it might take a while longer.

He turned his attention away from the system and looked again at the two men discussing a price. Leon didn't seem to be able to raise his offer any further, so the situation was at a standstill.

"I don't have time for nonsense," Louis thought, and approached them.

"What's the total price of the things you want to buy?" he asked.

León turned to look at him, confused. "About 40,000?" he replied.

"45,340," the seller replied quickly. "Your blue power stones are really good, but I can't accept only 10 for that amount. They're not that high on the market. So..."

Louis didn't want to hear any more, he just took out some money, 50,000 Jens in total, and put it on the table without batting an eyelid. "Take all that and keep the change," he said, before looking at Leon.

"Shall we go? I want those 10 stones you have in exchange."

León looked at him, stunned. Had he just paid 50,000 like that? What was this guy, a walking bank?

León had to force himself out of his stupor and gave him the stones... "Okay?"

"Grab everything and let's go," he said, then looked at the manager. "I hope this is enough."

The manager stammered before formulating a response. "It's enough. Thank you, gentlemen, for your purchase. Everything is ready in these devices for transport."

Louis grabbed the devices he was given; they were very basic storage devices, and he handed them to Leon.

After that, they wasted no more time and left.

"Are you going to buy anything else?" Louis asked, looking at Leon.

"No... thank you very much for your help earlier, although it wasn't necessary; I was almost convinced to sell it to me at that price."

"We don't have time for that nonsense, don't dwell on it. If you have nothing else to do, then we should go."

"Fine. Let's go, then. I've bought everything I need and I have to get back to town before the end of the month," he replied and started walking, but his answer left Louis stunned.

"Before the end of the month?" Louis almost choked on those words. "How far away is the town?" he asked, in shock.

"Hmm..." Leon thought about it first. "It usually takes me a month to get there, but that's because I have to make a lot of stops and detours because of the meteorites. If we could get a road that went in a straight line and traveled at a higher speed, it could take us a week."

What!

"A week? A fucking week?!"

Louis brought a hand to his eyes and closed them tightly. "Damn mission..."

He wanted to curse it all, but he swallowed his words, sighed, and looked at Laura. She felt the same way. At least they shared the sentiment.

He looked at Leon. "Do you have a map?" he asked.

The mission map in his head didn't show him much, so using it as a travel map was not feasible, at least not in this world with the meteorites.

"I have one." Leon took out the map he had and showed it to him. It was pretty shabby, but it clearly showed the roads to a village that...

"It's further away than where that boss is, but it's definitely the closest," thought Louis.

In his mind, he tried to measure the distances and their current location.

"Do you think this route is good?" he asked Laura, pointing to one of the routes on the map, although halfway through it deviated completely from it and traced through the middle of a region where many meteorites fell.

She frowned. "You want to go through the middle of that region? That's too crazy."

"Don't worry, we can do it. But it's a lot closer, right?"

"Um..." She nodded strangely. "Closer, yes. But the danger increases dramatically."

"Then we'll go that way." Louis approached Leon and showed him the map. "We'll take that route, in a straight line. We won't rest much. I'll give you some pills when you're too tired so you don't have to sleep, so be prepared," he said.

León looked at the route. At first, it seemed like a good idea, since it was the route he had planned to use this time, but suddenly, halfway through... it turned into a death route, and he trembled.

"Are you crazy?! How do you expect us to cross there?!" he replied.

"Crossing, obviously. We're going to destroy a lot of meteorites and cross at full speed."

"That's crazy and impossible! Do you know how many people have died crossing there?!"

"It doesn't matter. If we go around it, look at how far we have to travel. We even have to cross an entire mountain range. It could take us a week to cross it. Do you think we have all the time in the world?"

"I refuse!"

"Sigh, just do what I say. Nothing will happen, we're stronger than you think."

"Many strong men have died there."

"That's because they weren't strong enough. Besides, if we get there and I see that it's too dangerous, then we'll take the normal route. I'm not going to go and die in a place where I can't win."

León finally looked at him intently. "Are you serious, or is this just to get me to move?" he asked. He had been paralyzed since he saw the crazy route he had mapped out.

Louis nodded with a smile. "Of course I'm serious."