[Ding! A mission has been issued. Mission: Become a four-star mage. Time limit: One month.]
[Mission Reward: Harem package.]
[Punishment upon failure: Lilly's death.]
[Note: The mission is mandatory. If not complete within specified time, punishment will take effect.]
As soon as he read the mission details, he let out an enraged roar, "HOW DARE YOU!"
Boom!
His mana surged out madly and destroyed the bed. Amara was caught off guard and was thrown away.
"Master… w-what happened? Did I do something wrong?" She landed on her feet and asked with a pale face.
Max, however, ignored her. His eyes were blazing with fury. So what if it was the seemingly almighty system? No one was allowed to threaten his loved one's safety.
Suddenly, he heard the system's mechanical voice.
[Host, you misunderstand. The system doesn't harm anyone on purpose. This is especially true for host and his loved ones. So, please calm down.]
'Then what does this punishment mean? You are really crossing the line here.' He shouted in his mind.
[Host, as mentioned previously, the system would never harm the host or host's loved ones. Host should trust the system. As for the punishment, it is what the system predicted would happen, and not what the system wants or would do. The only way to prevent that is for the host to achieve the four-star realm or higher.] System explained.
Max could somehow feel the system wasn't lying, which made him furrow his brows. He then asked, 'If you won't kill her, how would she die?'
[Apologies host. The system can only predict certain things related to you and don't know exact details.] System answered before falling silent.
Hearing this, Max fell into deep thought. Why would his Lilly die? Did she have enemies on the Ice Sovereign Mountain or would she participate in the war? He could only speculate.
'It seems I can't delay my return to the human continent.' He thought and decided not to waste more time here.
Although he had planned to go with Amara to fight some beasts for training, returning was more important now.
He needed to ensure that his women and his family were prepared for the demons' invasion that should happen in less than a week's time.
After that, he needed to go to the central continent to find Lilly. He can't let anything happen to his lovely wife. Moreover, he could always train his battle skills in the war.
He then remembered another important thing and asked the system, feeling a little awkward because of the small episode just now, 'Um… system, can you send me back to the human continent?'
Fortunately, the system didn't seem to mind it.
[No, host.] System answered in a somewhat cold voice.
'Did I just imagine it?' He thought and asked, 'System… are you perhaps angry?'
[No, host. The system isn't angry because the system understands why the host reacted the way he did.] System answered.
'That's good then.' He nodded before commanding it to open the shop interface and prompted, 'Find me something that can help me return to the human continent quickly.'
A moment later, the shop items were filtered out, leaving just a dozen or so.
1. Short Teleportation formation: Once installed, it only needs energy stones and the coordinates of the place. Maximum distance: 1 million miles. Maximum capacity: 10. Price: 10,000 SPs.
2. Long Teleportation formation: Once installed, it only needs energy stones and the coordinates of the place. Maximum distance: Can cover a medium-sized planet. Maximum capacity: 100. Price: 500,000 SPs.
Seeing the price of the first two items, Max stopped reading further down and said, 'Please show me the cheapest item that can fulfil my current need.'
Just as he said this, the screen flashed briefly, and all items vanished, leaving only one behind.
Max nodded and glanced at the item. It was a fist size white crystal.
Teleportation crystal: To use this item, the user needs to know his destination's coordinates. After setting the coordinates, the user needs to crush it to activate it. Maximum distance: 500,000 miles. Maximum capacity: 1. Price: 1000 SPs.
'Is this the cheapest item?' Max asked when he saw the price. Although it was a lot lower than the previous two, it was still 10,000 in LPs or KPs, since he didn't have any SPs currently.
[To not waste too much of the host's time, the system considered all factors such as the host's need to return quickly, low price, etc. Based on all that, it is the most suitable item.] System answered.
'I understand.' He nodded and closed the shop's interface. Now he needed to earn enough SPs to purchase the item and then return.
"Um… Master?" Just then, he heard Amara call out to him, her voice laced with concern, worry, anxiety and fear.
Noticing this, he felt apologetic toward her. Because he suddenly got angry and 'pushed' her away, she thought she did something wrong.
Walking up to her, he pulled her into a hug and softly said, "I'm sorry. I wasn't angry at you."
Hearing this, she felt a lot of pressure lift from her heart and tears started falling from her eyes. She hugged him tightly and sobbed silently.
Noticing this, Max felt even more apologetic. Gently caressing her back, he shushed her. "Shh! Don't cry. Everything's alright."
"Mm." Amara nodded, but her tears continued to stream down.
After an hour later, she finally calmed down and asked, "Master, was it that senior who you got angry at?"
"Yeah." Max nodded and before she could ask anything more, he asked her, "You have the demon cores, right?"
"Yes, master. However, I couldn't gather much. If my brother or aunt hadn't gone away, I could've gathered a lot more." She said, before handing him over a spatial ring.
Max sent his senses into the ring and saw three piles of red cores. One had over 10,000, the second had over 500 and the smallest pile had 30. They were two-star, three-star and four-star demon cores, respectively.
"They should be enough. You did a good job." He praised her even though he was a little disappointed since there wasn't any high-level core.
However, it was understandable since it wasn't easy to find them. Perhaps even her clan's treasury didn't have many five-star cores, not to mention six-star ones or higher.
'Okay. Let's see how many SPs I can get out of these.' He thought and shifted all the cores to the system inventory and asked,
'Alright system. Tell me how much they are worth?'
