"Lord, Welcome back!"

Jack looks at the man kneeling before him with a smile creeping onto his face. The soldiers quickly follow suit and announce in an almost trained manner, "Welcome back, Lord". The man that was first yelling at Jack has lowered his head onto the ground in a kowtow as sweat visibly pools on the back of his head.

"Bane! I'm amazed to see you here. Weren't you meant to be handling that village we recently took over?"

The thin, almost sickly looking, Bane rises from the ground with a calm expression. The soldiers appear to be afraid to even make a noise as they wait for their superiors to finish speaking with one another.

"That's where we are. If I had known Lord could find a way inside this secure location I would have asked for assistance earlier. Please forgive this subordinate for his failings."

"It's fine Bane, I myself didn't know I would end up here after attending the Easter special event at the Jade Palace."

Jack pauses and looks at the crowd of soldiers who look slightly more relaxed, except for the kowtowing man who yelled out first. The red sky peeking through the collapsed roof of the hollowed out, burnt mansion littered with various digging tools and other pieces of primitive looking heavy machinery tell the tale of what was going on here prior to his arrival.

"I hope the event was a fruitful one, Lord"

"We can discuss the specifics later. I judge that from all the equipment lying around that you were trying to break into this section. Now that it's open, shall we enter?"

"Of course. Squads 1 through 3 shall follow us inside, or shall we have them lead the way?"

"It's safe so they can follow. Make sure there's at least one medic in the team too as I found someone hurt."

Jack turns around without even looking at the soldiers. Bane quickly follows as Jack re-enters the passageway followed by a group of soldiers, including several of the rabbit-humans who stick with Bane most of the time. The group quickly pass through the narrow passageway leading down towards the pool of blood.

The footsteps of the large group echoes in the lifeless cavern.

The torches of the large group cast them in a strange haze as they approach where Lunamarie is still tending to the scrawny man. Jack has a gentle smile on, but as he approaches Lunamarie, he can see the bunny girl looking at the group behind him suspiciously while keeping the dagger hidden.

"Sirs, I do not know what this young man has done but please do not include me. I am just a humble alchemist tending to a patient. I will be glad to assist you with any alchemy problems you have."

Jack's footsteps pause as he listens to Lunamarie sell him out almost instantly. Bane looks at her suspiciously while the soldiers do not make a single strange movement. Bane leans in to Jack and whispers to him.

"Lord, we do not know if there are any spies around and while this… girl is certainly very attractive. I have no doubts that a rabbit-human of similar beauty will appear soon. That will be a far safer option than taking this risk when we still do not know what groups are out there."

The bunny girl's ears twitch as they listen to Bane speak to Jack. Jack raises his hand up to Bane before speaking out.

"Lunamarie. You know that you are bound to me. The contract states that if I were to lose my life, you would too. Do you believe that you will fair better against a group of soldiers like this than I would?"

"I think I have a better chance as an alchemist than as your slave. I don't even know your name and you came back with a group of soldiers. How am I meant to know what's going on? Who are all these people?"

Jack lets out a lengthy sigh as he cannot really fault her for what she has done.

"I'll explain it later. Is that man ok for you to leave?"

"I don't know. Maybe? I can't do anything else for him."

"OK Good. Bane, you can handle everything and do not need me to tell you what to do. Right?"

"Yes, My Lord" Bane salutes Jack, the soldiers follow suit giving the feeling of unity.

"Ok I shall leave this place to you. The only thing that I know about it is; A pile of dead bodies in that direction and an orb on the platform in the middle of the pool."

Bane nods his head along with Jack as the young man is explaining everything. No sooner does Jack finish speaking does he set into action ordering the various squads of soldiers to take care of their respective jobs. The nameless soldiers start to survey the area for any information while the medics sit down next to the man and set about to work doing what they can.

Bane speaks a few quiet words to Jack before leaving about the current situation around the village. A group of soldiers will return to 'Dragon - Phoenix Village' soon, this will be the best chance for him to return before morning.

Jack watches this for a few minutes before walking back towards the passageway. Lunamarie hasn't moved as she's still crouching on the ground by the found man. The dagger has not left her palm as she watches the soldiers set about their work taking a few moments to notice Jack leaving but she stands up and almost yells.

"Ah, wait for me!"

The bunny girl chases after Jack down the now well-lit passageway. Jack chuckles to himself as he listens to her footsteps quickly catching up to him. He waits for her to ask anything but she doesn't. Taking a peek with his divine sense, her face is morphing between several different emotions.

They pass through the passageway, the various soldiers make way for Jack and the bunny girl causing her face to continue to scrunch up and as they come out of the passageway into the burnt-out remains of the mansion. Her face twists up even more.

"Ugh where is this? Why is it all destroyed?"

"It's just some village that thought they could pressure me into surrendering without a fight."

"Did you kill all the inhabitants?"

"What do you think? Am I some sort of blood-thirsty tyrant?"

"No… who are you? What's your name?"

"My name is Jack Hunt. Do you wish to know more, Selena?"

"Don't call me Selena. Yes, I want to know more about you, what sort of stuff do you do?

"I have a village that I founded a few weeks ago. These people are all from my village, I think there's about 500 people in the military so far. This is just a small portion of them"

"Only a village? 500 people in the military isn't anything to brag about. My personal guard when leaving the Palace ground when I was younger was over 1000. That was within the royal capital too, the safest place within the region."

"There's not much I can do about that. I was just a person working at a supermarket before starting this game."

"Supermarket? Game?"

"Those are just some things from my world."

"You're from a different world? Well I guess that makes sense out in the outer reaches…. What's that?"

Lunamarie stops walking as they're making their way to where the horses are stabled. A shift change of soldiers should occur soon so they'll hitch a ride with them as it'll become dangerous once nightfalls. Jack also stops to look where she is, upward towards the blood-moon.

Jack feels strange looking up at the blood-red moon for multiple reasons. It seems so far away yet he was there just a few hours ago. He was under the red clouds covering the surface while many gigantic creatures threatened his life in that black murkiness that isn't water.

"Where's the moon? What is that?"

"That's the blood moon, demon moon, I forget exactly what it is but the people of this region call it an omen of the demons. We were just up there."

She stops to look at it, squinting her eyes as all over her body the strange glowing geometric patterns appear on her skin. Jack can feel a steady flow of moon qi come into his body via the dantian. He uses his divine sense and can see that single drop of newly developed blood is emitting the qi.

Jack furrows his brows as he tries to do something with this moon qi as it flows around his body. His first attempt at pushing the qi out via his hands results in a strange grey barrier covering his skin. The flow almost stops just as the geometric patterns stop glowing on her body, forcing Jack to stop experimenting.

"There are no energies coming from there… Why isn't there a moon here?"

"The only person who will know is that kid…" Jack thinks back to that kid and everything that happened, unable to describe it in words. The only thought which comes to mind is, 'That kid will be an issue'.

"But without a moon… how will I grow all the herbs required for alchemy? What is going on in this place? How can anyone train here?"

"Weren't you bragging about winning some awards in training school? Shouldn't you be able to find the solution to the problem?"

Jack looks away from the blood-moon, back at Lunamarie. The red moon shimmers in her eyes as Jack looks at them, the reflection hiding the expression behind her eyes as she closes them. She takes a deep breath, opening her eyes and looking directly at Jack.

Jack almost feels entranced by her gaze. Their eyes hold steady for what feels like hours but is actually only a brief moment.

"There's so much about this world that I do not know yet. I will be in your care for some time so… please look after me well." Lunamarie softly says as she lowers her head, breaking their eye contact.

"Well, we are stuck together for quite some time so, of course, I'll look after you otherwise they might say I neglect my slaves." Jack laughs to disguise the awkwardness of the situation. Lunamarie's face blushes upon hearing him finish his sentence.

"Don't call this Princess a slave!"

"Well, what can you do then? I could always use a servant girl to feed me and do all the pesky chores that I don't like to do"

"Do you have an alchemist? I will only help you if you either give me the position of lead alchemist of your tiny village or some sort of position like… Princess where I can go around and greet all the orphans and visit all the stores."

"Err… I have no idea what sort of things you expect a Princess to do but I don't need one of them but an alchemist will always be helpful. The village has an apothecary and a source of herbs but that's about it. Are you sure that you can handle the alchemy needs of an entire village?"

"Ha, you doubt this Princess? Just you wait. You will be shocked at how well she can handle everything."

"Ok Princess. We shall see how well you perform when we get back. Don't worry if you fail because you can always go back to being a servant girl feeding me grapes or whatever it is they do."

Jack chuckles as he walks forward again. Lunamarie shakes her fist toward Jack before chasing after him.

The sun is quickly setting, leaving a slight chill in the air as many clouds hang over head revealing the red dusk. The young man and bunny girl walk towards the stable where 2 carriages and many individual horses have been prepared to set out soon.

Lunamarie looks at the carriages with a scrunched up nose. The 'carriages' or perhaps it's more accurate to describe them as repurposed wagons, covered with a protective cloth shell so shield against some wind and rain.

Jack leaves Lunamarie to her thoughts as he talks to the convoy leader, "Are you going to set out soon? Where shall we sit? Is there any way I can get some privacy during the trip?"

"Lord, Minister Revi sent word that you will be joining us. We have specially prepared the second wagon for you."

The convoy leader who looks no different to all the other soldiers points Jack to the slightly better looking carriage.

"Good work. Set out when you're ready."

Jack walks away from the soldiers as they run about doing their jobs. Lunamarie is standing by the entrance, still with her face scrunched up, not noticing that many of the soldiers are looking at her, including many of the rabbit-humans who are always hanging around Bane.

This leaves Jack with a question: how they are different?

Lunamarie is technically classified by the system as an 'Imperial Moon Royal Bloodline Rabbit' yet she doesn't look any different to the bunny people that have been spawned via the previous acquired village heart. The only obvious difference would be in their colourings.

Most of the bunny people, apart from Tahel, have multiple colours on their ears, hair or tail.

Lunamarie from what Jack saw, when she was without clothing, has an almost purely white body as if it has been unblemished by the sun ever. Tahel's body has a short dark fur covering it which Lunamarie and the rest of the bunnies don't seem to have it.

Jack looks at the rabbit-humans who are staring at Lunamarie with a stern expression, causing them to realise what they are doing and get back to work.

"We are almost ready to set out. We will both be taking that carriage there." Jack walks up to Lunamarie and points out the covered wagon.

"Why do we have to take those things? Where's the royal carriage? The pegasus winged horses? The golden carriage filled with soft seats and fresh clothing so I don't have to keep wearing your stinky robe"

"Winged horses? That sounds like a dumb thing to attach to a carriage. The... well there's not many of them here but I take pride in our Lightning Scaled Horses, they have Qilin bloodline in them you know." Jack motions to the side, horses are being saddled and brushed while two large purple Lightning Scaled Horses stand at the helm, smaller than Sleipner but much larger than the standard horses.

"They look ugly. The winged horses are so beautiful and everyone just stops and stares at their majesty when they walk around. You better find some of them for this Princess, otherwise she will never ride with you somewhere again."

Jack shrugs at this threat, leaving her alone as he approaches the carriage. Lunamarie's mouth twitches a few times but as she feels the eyes of the surrounding soldiers on her, she runs after Jack again as he's just about to mount the carriage.

"Wait, help your new village alchemist up!"

"Oh, I thought the Princess didn't want to ride on a carriage like this." Jack holds his hand out allowing her to grab it.

"She will make an exception."

Lunamarie holds Jack's hand as she attempts to step into the carriage but she's not willing to lift her leg up very high. Jack getting frustrated at her pathetic attempts at stepping into the vehicle places his hand on her butt and pushes her up into the carriage.

The young woman tries to fight off Jack's hand from her butt instead of focusing on what's happening causing her to fall over as she enters the rear of the carriage giving Jack an eye full of her naked body under the robe. Jack can feel the blood rush to various parts of his body upon getting an eye full of this young woman's body but he quickly turns around.

Lunamarie quickly looks behind her and upon seeing no one looking at her breathes a quiet sigh of relief. Jack is also practising some calm breathing techniques as he waits for her to settle down in the carriage before leaping up himself, settling into one of the bench seats opposite the bunny girl.

It doesn't take long for the other carriage to get ready and the small group to set out. It will take a few hours to travel back to the village, giving them time to discuss a few sensitive topics. The sun is quickly setting and just as the convoy sets out; the sun disappears leaving the only light source the blood-red moon high above.

"We will be at my... our... your new village shortly so I have a few questions, you said something about Myriad something being the strongest human cultivation technique? How does fiendgod relate to it all?"

Jack is cultivating as he speaks to Lunamarie. The bunny girl puts on a smug smile as she explains to him.

"Myriad Arts... umm, well one professor at the training school was really obsessed over finding it. So many rumours saying he wasted funds trying to find the creator or where he left his legacy. I didn't really pay attention to it because my school was primarily beast race people."

"Why would he want to find it instead of perfecting the Fiendgod cultivation methods?"

"That's because Fiendgod cultivation is about making your body larger. Either in appearance or physically becoming a giant. All the race cultivation methods follow that method but that professor would always ask, 'Is larger truly better?'. Beast Races, God Races, Demon Races, Nether Races and so on, all of them becoming larger as you become stronger."

Jack nods as he has seen this to be true so far, all of the visions and powerful have involved some giant form or creature so far.

"The Myriad Arts has been rumoured to exist and incorporate all the best aspects of all the other race's cultivation techniques but the strangest part is that it won't cause the body to appear larger."

"Why does that matter? Aren't there countless other cultivation techniques that don't force the body to become larger?"

"There are countless types out there but that professor was adamant the 'Myriad Arts' would be much stronger thus after thousands of years of his ramblings, no one really paid attention to him."

"You said it was the strongest technique though. How do you know?"

"No one actually knows because no one has the Myriad Arts!"

"So no one knows anything about the Myriad Arts, how do they know it even exists?"

"It has been recorded in the history books. Ugh, why are you making me talk about such ancient history? The simplest way to explain it is that the first human emperor had 2 sons. The first son made or found the Myriad Arts whereas the second son cultivated their family's Fiendgod technique."

Jack listens with furrowed brows as the clopping of horse hooves fills his ear. Luckily, no demons have been sighted yet.

"It was written that the first son could incorporate any type of qi into his attacks while being able to battle against the second brother. He did this without making his body become larger or anything else typical of human cultivation techniques. The first son disappeared or got killed and the second son lived until... I think he's still alive? But don't ask me anymore about that ancient human history because I don't really know much more than that."

"What will happen if someone is discovered to be using the Myriad Arts cultivation technique?"

Jack is curious about this but not looking forward to the answer.

"They'll most likely be hunted down and forced to expose the secrets. Even people with two types of qi have been killed over suspicions they have the Myriad Arts. Hey, now that I think about it... you also have two types of qi... you need to be careful in the future otherwise if you die, I will too"

Lunamarie giggles to herself as though she made a funny joke, but Jack is sitting there with his heart pounding over the stress these few words have induced.