“This way young master!” The old woman in skimpy clothes guided Axel through the luxurious brothel’s corridors.

    “This place is very gaudy...” he couldn’t help but comment, noticing the expensive paintings on the walls.

    “Of course... The Golden Brothel is the best in the city,” the woman said proudly.

    Axel nodded. Thankfully Mike told him about his place telling him it was perfect to keep Victor’s ‘image’, if not he would have had to do it SOLO tonight.

    “We are finally here!” the old woman reached a certain door. “Young master, I hope the girl will be to your liking, as promised we got you a new one!” she said, opening the door and stepping back.

    Axel nodded as he stepped in feeling nervous. Although he had lived two lives, to tell the truth, he had never attended such a place before and didn’t know what to expect!

    That’s why he requested a virgin, afraid that he might expose his ignorance in front of a more experienced girl!

    “Welcome young master!” The girl inside who was dressed in some very skimpy maid clothes, shook a little as she bowed down as soon as he stepped in.

    He couldn’t help but swallow, noticing her ‘ample’ chest.

    “No need to be nervous...” he said, in truth talking to himself. “You may raise...”

    She stood up, revealing her beautiful face as she nervously bit her lip and then gasped as soon as she noticed his face, his reaction was the same!

    “GLORIA FLICK?”

    “VICTOR, FUCKING, WHITE?”

    "Impossible..." He stepped back in shock. Wasn’t this GLORIA FLICK. Although not a very famous journalist, she had a lot of fans in certain circles in his past life? She made thousands of people fall in love with her on TV, especially the way she exposed many of the dark secrets surrounding many of the world''s elites thanks to her daring and innovative investigation methods! Most didn’t watch her for that though...

    “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” he couldn’t help but ask as his eyes automatically focused on her barely covered breasts, could it be that Gloria Flick had some very dark history? No wonder she always went after the corrupt elites!

    “BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU ASK! ISN’T IT ALL BECAUSE OF YOU?” she exploded angrily pointing at him.

    “ME? What did I do?” he was taken aback before remembering that he was impersonating Victor.

    “WHAT DID YOU DO? PLAYING DUMB NOW? WEREN’T YOU THE ONE WHO ISSUED A BAN ON ME! THEN MADE ME LOSE MY LICENSE AND MADE NOT EVEN PORN WEBSITES DARE TO LET ME STREAM THERE? FORCING ME TO HAVE TO WORK HERE TO PAY MY DEBTS THAT YOU MADE ME INCUR THANKS TO ALL THE LAWSUITS YOU AND YOUR BITCH MARGRET FILED AGAINST ME?!” she replied angrily shaking as she bit her lip.

    “Ah.... I did?” He had no idea. That girl Margret was really scary! If not for Alice saving his life, he might have ended up like this girl. Just the thought of it sent shivers down his spine.

    “... BASTED! CAN YOU STOP MAKING FUN OF ME!” she spat, her eyes tearing up. Ever since she got in contact with this guy her life was in a downward spiral.

    “I....” he sighed.” I see... Look, I am sorry...” he said, realizing that he could say nothing else.

    “Like hell, I will forgive you!” she spat as she covered her chest with her hand.

    He sighed as his mind raced, remembering his father’s command that he must avoid trouble and keep his cover. “Well.... I am telling the truth... I... I was just angry back then and didn’t expect things to go this bad to you...” he said after some thinking. “How about this... As a form of apology I will pay all your debts and help you remove your ban...” he said. Gloria was one of his idols in the past, and he couldn’t bear the idea of her working in such a place.

    “You would really do that?” she asked with a frown, feeling a little taken aback. The Victor she knew was a very arrogant guy, but he also felt a little whimsical.

    “Yes!” he said.

    “What do you want in return?” she asked directly. Nothing was free in this world!

    “What do I want? Look, I am not that kind of a guy, I don’t....”

    “I know, I surrender!” she interrupted him, untying the ribbon that held her revealing maid dress together and letting it drop to the ground to reveal her voluptuous body. “Let’s fucking do it!”

    “Ah....” Axel was taken aback. The girl completely misunderstood him.

    “What? Do you want me to do all the work too?” she spat.

    “Ok... Let’s do it...” He finally said after he swallowed. He wouldn’t really be a man if he were to refuse her! No wait... He was going to be a real man tonight!

    Hooray!

    ***

    At the same time in a very gloomy cauldron, Victor was having a problem.

    The bookcases looked very tempting, but unfortunately upon inspecting the books, Victor discovered a big problem.

    He couldn’t read most of them. Each one of them was written in a totally different language that he couldn’t tell anything about.

    It was like whoever collected those things knew how important they were, but couldn’t understand them either.

    Finally, after reaching the 9th bookcase, Victor found a few documents and books that he could read. The first few were about the history of this world containing a huge rolled-up map.

    In it, he could see 3 continents surrounded by a sea, completely different from the current one. How old was this?

    Grabbing a few documents he set them on the desk and began to flip through them.

    Those papers were written long ago when a few foreign races entered this world after their own world was destroyed. Each of the races was led by their own lord who guided them to safety in a new world.

    The Humans were guided by the Storm Lord, Nimera.

    The Elves were guided by the Sun Lord, Tarosa

    The Beastkin were guided by the Thorns Lord, Rosa

    The Dragonkin were guided by the Dragon Lord, Orjicastricalmocos

    The Goblins And Ogres were guided by the Poison Lord, Yazal

    Victor paused at this ... The Sunlord he knew was called Zendo, not Tarosa? Wait... Where did he hear that name before? Ah right, it was when he used his Akashic skill on the Slave of the Sun Bloodline Restriction that all sun elves had... It was its creator''s name!

    So... Zendo was not the original Sun lord after all? This was very intriguing.

    Victor paused for a moment, then returned to reading the paper in hand.

    The five lords together, seemed to have fought this world''s original barbaric inhabitants who refused to let them settle here, then after winning and ‘Liberating’ this world, they united creating the Worlds Kings’ Council!

    Could it be that of the original 5, only the storm lord remeind? Was that why she had the table and the books?

    Victor pondered as he read the next few pages that contained the condition of the agreement between the lords. It was the standard stuff about not stepping into each other’s areas and maintaining the peace.

    ; ;

    He quickly dispelled the curse using a talisman that he already had in hand before flipping the page to finally reach the juicy stuff describing what lords were!

    It was mostly very similar to what Rosette told him.

    Lords were higher sentient creatures that could utilize the Images and Concepts to display supernatural powers. The more the said lord understood this concept, the more powerful he or she would become.

    The rest was completely different from the shallow knowledge that Rosette knew. The book had a deeper explanation of many things.

    First was how one could become a lord!

    This got Victor very interested!

    There were simply Three known methods!

    The first was to become an embodiment of a concept. Just become the spark itself!

    The book’s example was of a man sleeping all the time, making himself slowly become the concept of sleeping itself then growing to be a spark before finally becoming the Lord of Sleep.

    This method was 100% theoretical as no one ever managed to do it according to the author!

    The second method was to NATURALLY integrate a spark into his own body.

    According to the book, this was a very dangerous thing, as the one who was to integrate the Spark had to be at least 50% compatible with it or have a way to allow it to change his body to be compatible using a suitable technique.

    If one were to force it, it would lead to either the destruction of the Spark or to the death of the attempt!

    According to the author, only 4 people in the entire elven history managed to do this as it had many drawbacks including being affected by the bad aspects of the concept and becoming a target to other lords!

    Victor frowned, not sure what that meant.

    The Last method was to use supernatural power as a medium to force the integration with a spark!

    This was what 99% of the people who became lords used.

    And according to all known records, all of them were using the same Supernatural power called The System!

    By offering the Spark to the system, the system would naturally grant the player a LORD designation, allowing him to virtually be a lord while handling the containment of the said Spark.

    This method also had the benefit of allowing the Lord to quantify his status and level using the system interface. Else it was a very hard progress that depended on the lord’s understanding of himself!

    Victor squinted his eyes, this was a little different from what that Storm lord told Rosette. Maybe that woman was not a good thing after all...

    Thinking back to what he knew, Victor also remembered the Eternal Spark that integrated with Alpha.

    It was not a system thing as the system displayed nothing, so his guess was that it must have been the second method.

    So the reason it didn’t work on him and only responded to Alpha was this Compatibility thing?

    Wait, now that he remembered, the Spark itself was hidden in Alpha’s heart, to begin with, maybe throughout the years it changed Alpha’s body, allowing it to be more compatible with it somehow! Maybe it’s something else...

    He frowned. At least this gave him an idea why Alpha had no system indication about the said Spark.

    He quickly flipped the page.

    LORDS GROTH

    Lords grew stronger by collecting sparks and then connecting them through their understanding!

    The sparks should contain compatible images of the same Concept or build up to a grand image called an Affinity.

    For example, A Sun Lord would be able to collect additional Sparks of Light, and Heat to empower himself instead of collecting other Sun sparks that are usually very rare!

    The book also warned us to be extremely careful of collecting conflicting Sparks, it might cause an explosion!

    Wow, that example was very specific! Victor raised one eyebrow. Could this Sun thing be a thing common to the Elves?

    Maybe...

    After that was Sparks Types.

    TOTAL SPARKS, MAJOR SPARKS, MINOR SPARKS, PARTIAL SPARKS

    Sparks naturally grow from Partial sparks to Total sparks the more perfect their concepts and images become.

    There was also an explanation of another type called a Faded spark That caught Victor''s attention. He had that Demon-Faded spark after all!

    According to the book, this faded spark, was a spark that had its concept extracted by some method or technique, leaving it only a shell that needed to be filled in and fixed by making it collect its concepts.

    Fixing a Faded spark was far easier than creating a spark from scratch as it would do most of the work and it was only needed to leave it in a suitable environment for a long time!

    "So... That''s why that guy left it to be buried by demons..." Victor said. He finally realized that the Faded spark he got from the sun temple was left there to be filled in!

    He slowly flipped the page.

    Next was LORDS RANKS

    A lord with one or more disjointed sparks is called a Singularity Lord, they are very weak, barely able to display the concept he has, and mostly using his powers like system skills.

    Many of them might not even realize their own powers!

    A lord with at least two connected sparks is called a TRUE Lord. At this level the lord is in the level of a very high system Class holder, being able to utilize his concept using many different skills and connect them to create more powerful versions. A lord with at least three connected Sparks is called a TRIANGLE Lord. They are very powerful and comparable to legendary creatures. They are able to display their concept to create a domain that traps others with it, they can also allow their concept to engulf and weaken other concepts. A lord with at least four Connected Spark connected is called a SOVEREIGN. They can rule an entire world using their power alone! A lord with at least five Connected sparks is called an EMPEROR. They can control multiple worlds with ease.

    Victor felt his mouth go dry as he read this.

    All the lords he encountered until now were Triangle lords. Third rank... If Alpha was really a lord, she would be a Singularity Lord, the weakest kind!

    He flipped the page.

    ATTAINING SPARKS

    FIND A PLACE WHERE A CONCEPT IS CONCENTRATED. THERE IS A TINY CHANCE A SPARK MIGHT BE BORN KILL PEOPLE WHO HOLD A SPECIFIC CONCEPT, IF THEY HAVE A SYSTEM SEARCH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE AN AVATAR, DESCENDANT, OR DISCIPLE. YOU WILL NEED ABOUT 10~20 OF THEM TO COLLECT ONE SPARK. DEPENDS ON COMPATIBILITY. KILL A NATURAL LORD, HE WOULD DROP ALL OF HIS SPARKS (THIS WILL NOT WORK ON SYSTEM LORDS AS THEIR SPARK ARE VIRTUAL) THE COLLECTION METHOD: FIND A FEW DISCIPLES, GIVE THEM A PART OF YOUR POWER, AND MAKE THEM MEDITATE TO GROW IT UP THINKING THAT THEY MIGHT BECOME LORDS SOMEDAY THEN SACRIFICE THEM ALL TO THE SYSTEM THAT WILL RETURN PART OF THE CONCEPTS TO YOU AS YOU ARE THEIR MASTER! ( THE BENEFIT OF THIS METHOD IS THAT YOU WOULD BE USING YOUR OWN SPARK AS A SEED FOR THE NEW SPARK, ALLOWING MAXIMUM COMPATIBILITY!)

    “Hsss....” Victor gasped reading this. Rosette was in danger! That bitch storm lord was only using her!

    This changed everything about what he planned to do.

    It seemed like he needed to make a new backup plan to smuggle his family out of this place!