Chapter 153: Making Preparations (2)

"Master Kaelen, you’re back." Lysandra called out as she appeared before the door. "Where have you been?"

Kaelen shifted his gaze from the stunned Drakaris to look at Lysandra. "Oh, I’ve been busy."

"You didn’t even bother to tell me you’ve returned." She mumbled.

Kaelen smiled wearily. "That’s because I don’t plan on staying long, and I’m going to be away for much longer soon."

"Can I come with you?" She asked immediately.

Kaelen was about to refute when he paused. Lysandra wasn’t a player, but a beast. Somewhat a companion beast. If there was no spoken rule against having a companion beast in the tournament, then Kaelen could utilize the loophole to bring her along.

If the Tower was going to be as dangerous as Felix made it out to be, and if all his skills but one were going to be locked away, then bringing Lysandra along was the best move.

He was bound to not get along with his teammates because they obviously disliked him for his race as much as they disliked Emir. Coupled with the fact that their marriage plan had been exposed, Kaelen wasn’t expecting it to get any easier.

He was definitely going to bring Lysandra along if he could, to have someone watch his back.

He nodded at her. "I’ll see if I can."

She smiled and fell silent. She wasn’t one to talk too much, unlike the Drakaris before him.

"Is that settled? Can I trust you on this?" He asked Kenora.

"Y-Yes. I’ll try my best. I have a couple of places in mind where I can buy at wholesale prices, but you see..." She trailed off as she poked her index fingers against each other.

Kaelen’s face darkened. "What is it? Don’t tell me you owe them money."

"Haha, it’s not too much, though. Just a couple hundred thousands. But if I can pay them back in full, I can buy at good prices. I think it’s a good deal, don’t you think so, hmm?" She asked with a bright smile as she blinked at Kaelen.

Kaelen’s lips twitched. She was obviously using him to pay off her accumulated debts, but he didn’t have much of a choice unless he chose to come along with her, but that would affect his cultivation plans.

"Whatever. Just try to get everything you can, and if the money isn’t enough, write down how much you need on a piece of paper and transfer it to me, and I’ll wire the amount to you."

"Oh, isn’t that stressful, though? We can just add each other as friends and chat over there." She suggested in confusion.

Her words immediately rang a bell in Kaelen’s head. Not because his Evolution Online system didn’t possess such features—once again—but because Felix had also mentioned something about leaving his inbox open for Kaelen.

At the time, Kaelen hadn’t thought much about it, but now that he did, it stressed him out. If he eventually decided to partner with Felix to exchange information across lobbies, how would they even be able to communicate?

From the looks of it, humanity just might be the only race without an upgraded version of the system. But Felix somehow got his hands on one.

He sighed wearily.

"Don’t tell me you don’t have one either," Kenora commented in surprise at his silence.

"Tell me, does your system also have, like, a media feature for livestreams?" Kaelen asked sharply.

Since Felix also mentioned the tournament was going to be streamed live, there should be something like that, right?

"Not really. It’s just a forum for my world, but I think I got a notification some days back mentioning something about an update and an official page for some tournament. I don’t really know because I haven’t been in touch with my people."

"Why haven’t you been in touch when you can chat online?" Kaelen asked with a raised brow.

She smiled sheepishly. "They probably think I’m dead and have forgotten about me. I think it’s best to leave it that way."

"Don’t tell me this has something to do with the debts you mentioned." Kaelen narrowed his eyes at her.

"W-What? I think I’ve wasted enough time here. We’ll do as you say, and I’ll be sure to buy God-quality materials for you. See ya," she said and disappeared from the spot.

"Tch." Kaelen clicked his tongue before shifting his focus to the next thing, which was finding the best cultivation spot in Evolution Online.

But first, he had to make sure the strongholds wouldn’t cause trouble for his mother.

"Lysandra, I’ll have to ask you to stay here for the time being till I figure a few things out." He said to the woman.

"Oh, okay." She looked downcast but didn’t throw a tantrum and listened to him this time.

"Make yourself at home, okay?" Kaelen said and disappeared from the spot.

He reappeared back at the ruins of Akkad, surprising Aria and Naomi, who were still standing around. But before they could speak, he activated the Reaping Angels Wings and tore through the sound barrier, disappearing into the distance.

In just a few minutes, he was hovering about Stronghold 1 like a mini black hole. The Emperor’s estate, which had been blown to smithereens the last time he was there, was now fully rebuilt, with no signs of previous damage or battle aftermath anywhere around.

He activated Stealth Slime to turn invisible and moved closer to the estate, using his Sharp Senses to search the building for where Black Rose might be.

He was trying to be discreet in order to save the time he might spend fighting his way into the heavily guarded estate.

It didn’t take him long to spot the woman, but the moment he did, he instinctively withdrew his perception and coughed awkwardly before moving to the balcony of her room.

If it were any other person, he might’ve entered the room to wait, but because of the circumstances, he planned to wait just outside on the balcony to avoid explaining how he was able to find out without being detected by anyone while she was in the shower.