Chapter 287: Fool.

"Where are you going?!" Osrick shouted the moment Lee turned around and left, but only received a gesture of middle finger raised high above his head.At that moment Lee already didn’t care about Myrios or the Southeastern Central District. He decided to go for a swim one more time, then have dinner and figure out what to do with the mission he didn’t know anything about the following morning. Clearly the two people he met belonged in a mental institution, and there was no reason to waste his time.

Apparently Lee’s new squad members thought differently. It’s possible the damn drone told them something, but the two followed Lee to his new residence.

"Nice shack! I bet ladies will love it here!" Lee heard Osrick’s shout when they arrived, but ignored him and dived into the dark waves. The sun had already set, but the water was as warm as during the day, and even more calming.

Lee spent the night at the beach, meditating in his underwear, facing the ocean.

The shorty’s non-stop blabbing about ladies was annoying, but constantly reminded him of Lisa. Seris threw him out of Droskar Dominion, but it didn’t mean Lee couldn’t peak at Marie and Joel.

Well, technically he couldn’t, at least not yet, but the spatial particles on his consciousness were enough proof of him having a chance. Watching them float around, Lee finally understood why no one could teach complicated elemental techniques – it wasn’t a mechanical exercise like reading or writing.

He had to sense the elemental flow and understand its characteristics on another, unexplainable level. Creating a flame or a drop of water wasn’t that hard, at least not anymore – he only needed to condense enough specific elemental particles. The problem arose the moment he wanted to apply the element for more complicated tasks, like healing or opening a rift.

Lee played with the elemental particles the whole night, trying to experiment by creating different forms and objects from them. He wasn’t sure if it was a plausible method of training, but he felt his comprehension grow along with the ability to focus. It wasn’t much, but in the morning he did manage to create a thin line of particles a couple of inches long.

Unfortunately, Sery disturbed his concentration.

"Let’s go! It’s time for you to leave!" She said, waking Lee up.

He slowly opened his eyes and said to the floating drone next to him, "What’s the rush? The mission is only tomorrow."

"This is tomorrow! It’s normal for newcomers to lose the sense of time in Myrios. The atmosphere here is much richer compared to other worlds." Sery said.

"Alright!" Lee said, walking towards to ocean, "Give me a moment!"

He didn’t try to piss the machine off, nor he felt dirty. After manipulating the spatial particles for a day and a half, he felt physically heated up, almost burning, and dived into waves to cool down.

After getting dressed, he intended to take a look what exactly his residence was like, but was stopped by a small crowd at the entrance of the pyramid.

"You’ll have to wait in line like the rest, buddy!" A tall and burly young man said, blocking Lee’s way, "There’s a list – write down your name and wait until the prefect calls for you. I suggest you prepare your presentation well, its not every day when a new faction is established. We all will be brothers in the future, so don’t cause trouble!"

"Sure, sure!" Lee happily nodded, and before Sery could say anything, with a quick step walked away.

"What are you doing? Those people are waiting for you!" The drone nagged.

Lee ignored it, and asked, "Is there some kind of Mission Pavilion or Department I have to report to?"

"Mission Center!" Sery replied, "What about the applicants?"

"Lead the way!" Lee said, "Will the two nutcases join me there?"

"Yes! What about the applicants?" Sery said.

"How did everyone know that a new faction was created?" Lee asked.

"All the information regarding factions is public. Members, rules – everything." Sery said.

"Rules? Factions can have their own rules?" Lee grew curious.

"Of course! They represent overlords – the mightiest beings in existence! Obviously each can create a set of rules for their followers." Sery said.

"And they’re public ... nice!" Lee said, "What information is available about me?"

"Your name, race, gender and the fact that you have average looks." Sery said.

"Hurtful." Lee mumbled, but then grinned, and said, "Let’s do it like this – I’ll dictate you the rules of our faction and you can make them public ... let’s call them – Tenets. This will be fun!"

***

Neither Osrick nor Vhul greeted Lee when he arrived to the Mission Center. Lee had no clue for the reasons for their foul mood, but the start of the mission wasn’t looking good.

The briefing was done by Sery.

It informed that the task was to locate two individuals, ruthless elemental masters who had slaughtered thousands of people over the past decades. They had fled to a large, moderately advanced world that didn’t have any spatial cultivators, and were now trapped.

Even if they knew what their targets looked like, it was worse than looking for a needle in a hay stack. They couldn’t burn the place down – the two main continents were populated by millions of commoners, and ruled by local elites – all at the level of elemental master. Thus finding the criminals was a challenging task, supposedly very well tailored for the trio.

Lee didn’t think so, though. He asked, "Isn’t this a waste of time? It would be easier and quicker for a spatial elemental lord to scout the place and directly kill them. We might waste years looking for them – that is if we find them in the first place."

Osrick and Vhul glanced at him in ridicule, but Sery patiently explained, "These and other basic things are compiled in few manuals you should’ve read during the two days you had. Why do you think you were given time to prepare? Answering your question, obviously the task can easily be done by an expert elemental lord, and even more easier by an overlord. But what exactly is your purpose here if they do all the work?"

"You mean we ... advance our expertise by ... doing jobs?" Lee tried to formulate the question politely.

"The experience of countless cultivators through countless millennia have proved that it’s the most effective path for your progress at the point you are currently at." Sery said, "Trust the Overlord of Knowledge and his education system. The powers of the whole Universe are trying to send their representatives to Myrios, do you think everyone’s a fool?"

Maybe Lee was, but he had hard time accepting the reasoning of a blind trust. He didn’t know Luminarch and had no clue what the guy was doing here. Seris was kind of alright, but the other overlord he had to deal with, Trexian, managed to put a strange seal on his soul. To blindly trust an omnipotent being was kind of too much, at least according to Lee’s understanding.

***

"Alright, you two!" Lee said to his companions after they stepped through the rift, "Now there’s no one who can overhear, so would you mind sharing what’s going on? I understand you, Vhul, have a hangover, but it’s not the reason for the undisguised hate. Do you intend to kill me during the mission or something?"

Vhul snorted, and began to inspect their surroundings. They had landed in the middle of a pine forest, with nothing really noteworthy to see. But for some reason he much more preferred staring at the distant trees than looking at Lee.

His towering stature was intimidating as were the four black swords on his back, but Lee guessed it was much better to settle things now rather than getting backstabbed later. The shorty didn’t blink before blaming him for own blunder two days ago, and Lee would choose to go alone than trust his back to someone like that.

Osrick intended to copy Vhul, but realized him posturing wasn’t as effective. He snorted, and said, "You’re the greediest motherfucker I’ve ever seen! And that’s coming from guy from the krellin race!"

"Greediest? You don’t even know me!" All Lee could do was to helplessly spread his hands, but then thought he realized something, and said, "So you’re a couple of scammers. You do realize I’ve just arrived and have no credits?"

"Scammers?! How dare you! With you and your tenets!" Osrick snorted again, but Lee blanked out for a moment, and began to laugh.