"Are you ready?"
Those three simple words held a deep meaning.
Was he ready for 5 years of slavery?
But his answer was just as succinct.
"Yes."
He had mentally prepared himself long ago, and he was waiting for this moment to come.
"Good. I've marked a location somewhere within your radius. Find it and reach it within three days. That's your first task."
Damien smiled wryly.
"No more information than that?"
"None at all. You need to be at least that good if you want to prove yourself."
Damien rolled his eyes.
"Understood. I'm still being underestimated, huh. Three days? That's laughable."
Damien cut the call there. He didn't need to pry more.
'When she says somewhere in my radius, that could mean I'm either already there or it could be a billion kilometers away. And when she says she marked it, am I looking for a structure or something mana-based?'
"Well, it doesn't matter either way."
If she wanted him to find it on his own, it had to be something he'd recognize.
He spread his awareness first. Hundreds of millions of kilometers were covered in an instant, and as he sifted through all the information coming into his head, he quickly learned that whatever he wanted to find wasn't there.
However, there were clues.
'She's toying with me.' He thought with a smile.
There were markers everywhere, some large and some small. They all stood out in his perception, and it was clear she wanted him to go to each and every one to see if that was the designated location.
However, he had no need to do so.
'Should I work a bit harder?'
He knelt down and put his hand on the ground, activating an ability he developed in the Ancient Battlefield.
'Absolute Perception.'
Back then, he only had Partial Existence Law. Even with that, he was able to search the entirety of the Ancient Battlefield and find traces of someone as elusive as the Ancient Sovereign.
So what about now?
That incomplete law had now become an Authority. It wasn't complete, but it was far greater than anything he could've imagined at that time.
When he entered the state of Absolute Perception, he was no longer just becoming one with the earth, but with the mana as well.
His spiritual body became one with the entire atmosphere, and his perception became that of the Heavenly Order.
Puff!
"Damn!"
His mind was instantly overloaded with information. Blood puffed out of his nose like a cloud of mist, and leaked down his ears and eyes.
There was too much.
Whether it be what was happening below the surface in various bestial societies, or what was happening in the skies where a few select races made their homes, he saw it all.
It was just too much.
The Heavenly World was massive. It had been mentioned to death already, but it seemed like Damien saw the true extent of that grandiosity every time he did something new.
He saw far more than he ever wanted to, because he forgot to limit the range of his perception.
From hundreds of millions, he instantly jumped to hundreds of billions of kilometers.
He practically had half the Eastern Region in his grasp.
'There's a lot of interesting stuff going on, but that's not my problem right now. I have to limit my search radius.'
He wasn't nearly equipped to deal with this level of perception yet, nor did he need it at the current moment.
'I should definitely get used to it, though. If I can see this much unregulated, I should be able to get a lot more out of the Sapientia Clan than I originally thought.'
Nevertheless, he enclosed his awareness in a 10 billion-kilometer radius. That was the greatest his mind could handle.
'Now, if I filter for just traces of Yulia's existence…'
Everywhere she'd left traces were revealed to him. He sifted through them one at a time. He could directly see what was there instead of receiving it as information, so it was easy for him to find what was a facade and what was true.
In the end, there were three locations that caught his attention.
'The first is a totem in the middle of nowhere, the second is an empty land that has an active underworld, and the last is a den of shady characters.'
Since he didn't know exactly what he was looking for, it really could have been any of those locations.
'But my gut tells me it's the third.'
It was a place perfect for a mercenary, a bar where only people who desired the freedom of such a job could stay.
'Let's beeline then.'
It was roughly 6 billion kilometers away, a completely random distance.
With ten million kilometers covered with every teleportation, and every teleportation taking roughly a second, it only took Damien 10 minutes to arrive at the door.
He opened it and walked in.
The atmosphere was rowdy. Those gathered were all crass individuals who didn't care to abide by social customs if it meant they could be themselves.
They were from all different races, with so many strange personalities and appearances that the word "strange" became irrelevant.
This was a place those with status like Yulia would usually avoid, calling it uncouth, but Damien quite appreciated this kind of environment where everyone could be in the same room regardless of differences because of their shared passion.
'Plus, I don't know what it's like for others, but Yulia would definitely fit in here.'
Damien walked past several tables full of mercenaries who eyed him as he passed and sat down at the bar.
The bartender glanced over, but didn't go out of his way to attend to him.
"Unwelcoming, aren't you?" Damien said sarcastically.
"I apologize, but you look a bit too pristine to be in a place like this."
Damien raised his brow and looked at himself.
'Is cleanliness a problem? Or maybe I look too much like a noble?'
He shrugged to himself.
"I don't think bartenders are supposed to care about shit like that? Just serve me some good liquor and be on your way."
"Hmm…"
The bartender scrutinized Damien with his gaze for a moment before sighing to himself and doing as he was told.
As the drink arrived as Damien ordered, someone sat down next to him and ordered their own drink.
"What do you think?" Damien said as he took a sip of the liquor.
It burned, and the taste was piss poor. It wasn't like the liquor he personally made, but it had its own charm like a barbarian warrior on a battlefield of blood.
"When you went on about underestimation, I got a bit curious, but ten minutes was beyond my expectation."
The person beside him spoke, taking a sip of her own drink.
"Didn't I tell you when we first met? This is normal for me."
"Arrogant brat."
"Isn't that why you picked me?"
"Touché."
Damien and Yulia sat in the bar and finished their drinks as if they were regular customers, but there was a silent war going on between them.
They had a contractor-contractee relationship that was close to a slave contract, but Damien refused to be treated like a slave.
Yulia respected it, but she also expected him to act like someone who was taking orders, because she couldn't put a wild card into a team of mercenaries who had their own hierarchical structure.
What Damien wanted to show her was that he didn't need something like a team, and while she didn't like it, she had no choice but to accept it.
He'd won this time.
"Haa, whatever. Welcome to The Den. This is where you'll be taking your missions from now on, and that guy…"
Yulia motioned towards the bartender with her eyes.
"...is the one who'll act as the middleman between the two of us."
Damien nodded.
"Alright, then, since you're here now, I'm assuming you're giving me the first one on your own?"
"Naturally," Yulia responded with a smile.
"It wouldn't be any fun if I wasn't present for the initiation."
"That…"
Damien frowned.
The air in the bar suddenly changed.
And all eyes were on him.
"It's simple," Yulia said.
She grinned as she stood up and started walking away.
"Either defeat everyone here and get your way, or lose and do things my way."
She opened the door to the bar and gave him one last look, her eyes slyer than ever:
"Well then, good luck."
Bang!
The door closed.
And murderous intent ran wild throughout the bar.
"Good," Damien said with a grin.
"You guys might not know this, but letting off steam like this is one of my favorite pastimes."
He stretched slightly and turned to face the crowd, raising his own aura to match theirs.
They wanted to fight?
Then he would give them a fight they'd never forget.
It was becoming his signature phrase at this point, so he felt the need to say it.
"Come at me, bitches!"
