Chapter 684 - Negotiation

After dealing with Anna's Gacha request and finishing his job in that place, Alex finally had the chance to rest and recover his Spiritual Energy. 

However, there were still many disciples working around the area, especially those who took care of the flood. The Barrier had been restored, so Space Temple, Water Temple, Wind Temple, and Ice Temple could take a rest. Lightning Temple also finished their mission after killing a few thousand monsters. 

After they finished the illusion barrier, the Light Temple and Dark Temple finally finished their job, only leaving the Water Temple and some Space Element disciples to suck the water flooding their place. Meanwhile, Viola apologized on behalf of Fire Temple as they couldn't help them this time due to the eruption.

As soon as they settled everything, they could finally go back to rest. Ryuu said goodbye to Alex and told him to have a nice rest first before going to the Martial Arts Temple since that place must still be a mess.

After resting for a day, 

Alex opened his eyes and came out of his room, preparing himself to go to the Martial Arts Temple. Suddenly, he remembered another thing that needed to be addressed to Anna and the others.

He took out Anna's card and asked. "Anna, how is the situation over there?" 

"Ah, Alex. Thank you for helping us another day." Anna was startled and thanked him first. 

"It's fine. The jurisdiction is on me anyway, so you don't need to thank me. On the other hand, I want to ask you about the surface condition."

"Let me see… According to the testament of the N Squad, only fifty percent of the land on this continent experienced the Earthquake. Well, it's already big enough to be honest. Anyway, there are four influences hit by this Earthquake. Divine Kingdom, Blackwade Clan, Ancient Blue Family, and Phantasm Sect. The other three are relatively in the north of the continent, so their lands got little to no shake at all."

"I don't know about the Divine Kingdom and Phantasm Sect. But the Ancient Blue Family will suffer quite a big loss because of this, I guess. It might be possible to stop them from allying with the Fire God Clan. As for the Blackwade Clan, is this even a problem for them?" Alex thought for a moment and said.

"Yes. I will send the report of the damage later after confirming everything."

"Thank you."

"Onto the second matter, Fire God Clan has indeed sent their useless disciples to lure us out. They might want to learn our position first because it would take too much time to travel around the continents. Even Snow White Mountain and Drunken Pavilion can't participate in killing the monsters due to their distance.

"That's why Anya suggests we stay low for the time being to create a grand entrance for you." Anna chuckled, planning to tease him. 

"Grand entrance, huh… I might need it, but I will skip if it's embarrassing." 

"Don't worry. The Grand Entrance we are talking about is when you are going to sell the forty-five thousand monsters to them in your first meeting."

"Forty-five thousand?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. 

"Yeah. Our place didn't have many high-level monsters. According to our rough statistic, we killed around sixty thousand monsters, in which half of them were Martial Emperor monsters. On the other hand, we only got around twenty thousand Martial Monarchs with three thousand Martial Saint Monsters. The rest were Martial King or below. Still, this transaction should give us… Never mind, I don't know the market. Let's just wait for your meeting with that Song Jiaren."

Alex twitched his eyebrows before sighing. "What about the surface condition? Has the water gone yet?"

"No. It should be much longer, but it seems the sea level dropped slightly, so the process has somehow sped up."

"…" Alex was speechless. He almost forgot that they continued sucked the seawater inside their Spatial Gate for a day. If it was only a single person, it might not be possible to influence worldwide, but it was done by the joint efforts of hundreds of Space Element Users. They might even decrease the sea level by a few centimeters.

"It must be coming from you, right? What happened there?" 

"Let's just say there is a black hole in the ocean floor that sucks the seawater for a day due to some accidents. I'm alright, though. I will send the report to you later." Alex chuckled.

"Sure. I will be awaiting your news." Anna nodded before returning to the topic. "Anyway, the water level is only a third from their original height, so it should be clear after a day or two."

"Oh. It's good then. There is also something I want to ask you." Alex closed his eyes.

"What is it?"

"I want you to check the sea later. It's fine if you are searching up in the sky because I am sure you can find it." Alex paused for a moment. "Anyway, the earthquake disrupted the Ring of Fire and created a big eruption. The mountain must have spurted out many minerals, so I want you to check and grab all those minerals."

"Oh. So that's what you want. Undersea volcano eruption usually goes unnoticed, so I don't know. With your information just now, I think I will send Jean there and store all of them inside the Inventory. It's unlimited space anyway, so we can take everything from there. Meanwhile, Greg will be examining all those stones to check if there are any important materials. After all, it usually has many precious materials and other things." Anna nodded. 

"Yeah. I will leave it to you. We don't really need the metal, so we can sell those along with the monster parts later." 

"Sure. Do you want us to do another thing?"

"No. I am good for now. I will inform you if I need anything later."

"Then, I am going. I still need to count and organize the monsters we have hunted this time."

Alex nodded and threw her card inside the Inventory. 

He then waited until Ryuu came to pick him up.

"Alex, we are going to the Martial Arts Temple." The shout from outside came after another hour, and Alex quickly left his house.

Ryuu waved his hand and said. "Thank you for your hard work yesterday. Even though you were not obligated to help, you still helped us in that pinch, so Master will offer you a discount if she teaches you in the future." 

"Oh. I never thought of that, but I'll still gratefully accept it." Alex nodded.

"Good. Then follow me." Ryuu then raised his hand and created a Spatial Gate toward the Martial Arts Temple. 

Alex followed him and arrived around the grassland right in front of the temple. Unlike the previous temples, this temple had an orange color. 

The place was brimming with people even though they only just opened after the incident.

"I heard the elder was frustrated when the books were scattered on the ground." Ryuu grinned.

"Haha… I can see the frustration." Alex nodded while laughing. The temple itself was around the size of Space Temple, so he was sure there must be many books inside. With those thousands of books, it would be hard work to reorganize them.

"Anyway, don't mention anything about that and let me do the talking. Master also has given her a token, so we are clear." Ryuu nodded with a smile. 

Alex nodded and followed Ryuu to the inside, finding a very old elder with a huge bag under his eyes. He thought, 'This old man must be the one that Ryuu was talking about.'

"Elder. I and my friend want to go toward the top floor. This is my Master's token." Ryuu presented Aileen's token. Having her token meant Aileen had given her permission for the youngsters to go there, so the elder nodded his head. "Just remember. You can only take one book outside."

"Yes, Elder." Ryuu nodded and asked Alex to follow him. 

They went to the top floor as Alex mesmerized by the sight of the bookshelves along with how organized the books were. He wondered if he had time to make something like this in the future when he had settled down. 

While thinking of it, he had arrived as Ryuu said, "Welcome to the top floor. The Space Element section is over there, but I'm afraid you won't get anything other than the techniques I told you a few days ago. Because that's the mainstream but powerful book for us Space Element masters." 

"I will look around first." Alex nodded and went to the Space Element section, only to be disappointed. Just like he said, he didn't find a single book that fancied him. After going through the record in his head, he learned that there was a record for Space Bind, Space Mark, and Spatial Lock, in the inheritances. Hence, he decided not to take any and used the knowledge from there.

"Haha… It seems nothing catches your eyes."

"I will ask Great Elder Aileen to teach me the techniques. Can you bring me there?" Alex asked.

"Surely." Ryuu nodded before passing the elder once again to tell him that they didn't bring back anything. After that, he created a Spatial Gate, and the two went back.

…

After arriving at the Space Temple, they met Aileen first by Alex's request.

"So… What do you want to talk about with me?" Aileen asked while checking her doc.u.ment. These past days were tiring for her because she needed to check the doc.u.ment again and again.

"I want to learn a few Space Element Techniques, so I want to negotiate the price for you to help me understand the techniques," Alex asked bluntly. 

"Hmm… I am pretty busy at the moment." Aileen glanced at Alex with a sly glint.

"I know. That's why I say I want to negotiate the price." Alex nodded. 

"Well, you helped us a few days ago, and your information really saved many lives. So, I won't treat you badly. Still, I need to know the techniques you want to learn first."

Alex nodded. "I am planning to learn Space Bind, Space Mark, and Spatial Lock. Space Bind might be more useful to me currently, while Space Mark can let me escape from my enemies. As for Spatial Lock, I will see whether I can spare some time to learn the third one since I'm not confident enough." 

She blinked a few times and looked at Alex weirdly. "Are you sure? I know that you have a fast comprehension speed, but it is different from the Spatial Gate and Space Plates you have learned not long ago. This time, you need to learn from scratch, so it might take longer than you have expected…"

"Really? I am going to leave after another year…" Alex lifted his eyebrows in surprise. 

"Are you even serious?!" She raised her voice a little bit. "I know that you might use the standard of Fire Element Art, but Space Element Art is harder than those arts, alright? And you actually don't need to learn that long due to your Pure Fire. If normal people learn Martial Arts, they need years while some geniuses need months. That's why I am afraid you might only be able to learn one technique even with my help.

"Anyway, I will just take care of the first payment, and if you still want to learn the second technique, you can pay at that time." Aileen sighed while shaking her head. 

Alex contemplated for a moment and nodded his head. "Sure. I want to learn Space Bind."

"Space Bind, huh… I myself use Space Bind, so my understanding is deeper. I will blatantly say the price. It will be six million Spirit Gems or six thousand Spirit Crystals. Do you have that much money? I have discounted the price though. The price is high due to the speed of your growth and how many variants I can use with this technique." 

"I will take it." Alex waved his hand and took out a Space Ring, filling it with Spirit Gems. "This is the money." 

"Oh. You even pay in front. I'm impressed." Aileen widened her eyes in amazement. "I will handle my work today, so I will start teaching you tomorrow. Meanwhile, if I can't teach you on a particular day, Ryuu will take care of it. Is that alright, Ryuu? This money is for you too, so you need to work hard. Haha…" 

Ryuu could only scratch his head, embarrassed.