"Oh right, I did not account Anya at all!" Alex muttered to himself as he saw the Queen Hoarder talking to the Apprentice excitedly. "Tsk, should I take off now?"

As he had this thought in his mind, Alex decided to leave the conference hall quietly.

But before Alex could even make a step, he heard the resounding reply of the Apprentice.

"So, the Queen Hoarder wants to obtain the information first… Very well, since I know that you keep your promises, I shall indulge you with what you want."

"Woosh~" To Alex's unbelieving eyes, he suddenly saw the Apprentice floating through the air, and from the way that he moved, he was obviously going towards Anya's direction.

The Apprentice seemed to have ignored the complaints and counter-offers from the other attendees as he approached Anya.

In no time at all, the Apprentice had landed in front of Anya, with the Celestial giving the Symbolist a large, beaming smile of her own.

"Tsk." As Alex tried to think of another way to discreetly avoid the Apprentice without using any of his 'extra abilities', he heard Eris speaking to him.

"Mister Sigmund, is there something wrong?" Eris seemed to have sense Alex's slight panic, as she was currently standing in front of the door, which in turn blocked Alex's only exit path. "You seem to be worried about something…"

"This b***h!" Alex thought to himself angrily as he saw what the butler was doing.

From the way that Eris has positioned herself, it was quite obvious that she was intent of preventing Alex from leaving.

"…."

This woman seems to be really intent on making Alex suffer here… In that case, Alex is not going to play nice anymore.

"Hmph, you really are suspicious of me huh. Well then, if you want to play with me, then I shall play with you happily! I hope you can keep up with me." Alex thought to himself as he looked at Eris' wary eyes.

"Oh, I'm actually not comfortable being near the Apprentice." Alex said to Eris as he adopted an uncomfortable expression on his face. "I'm a Hermit after all."

"A Hermit?" From the way that Eris' eyes dilated after hearing what Alex said, it seems like she had already realized what Alex was pertaining about. "A talented Symbolist like you is a Hermit? I find that hard to believe."

"Believe what you want to believe. What I told you is the truth." Alex replied as he shrugged his shoulders. "I do not like the restrictive rules in the Symbolist Society, so I decided to leave from all of that, and just wander all over the world. Doing that kind of thing makes me a Hermit, right?"

"Hmph, I only knew very few Symbolists who can stay as Hermits for long." Eris replied as she let out a scoff. "Seeing that you're still young, I'm sure that you will also give up your wanderlust. After all, most of you Symbolists are just shut-in nerds."

"…" Alex chose to not reply to that, as he only felt relief as he saw that Eris seemed to have believed his alibi.

"So, you're a Hermit? That tells a lot about your interesting behaviors." The one who said this sentence was Anya, who just went back to the room, with the Apprentice walking behind her. "No wonder I did not recognize you when I first saw you. It was because you were not tied to the Symbolist Society…"

"Well, I felt choked by their rules, just like what I said before." Alex replied as he adopted his frivolous attitude even when he was being scrutinized by the Apprentice, who was now sitting at one of the chairs in the room. "No offense, Sir Nero, but I'm not comfortable with authority figures…"

"…" The Apprentice, who was called by Alex as Sir Nero, did not say anything to Alex at all as he only stared at him intently.

"…" Seconds passed by as the stare by Nero continued to intensify.

"Show me one of your symbol abilities." Nero said before Alex could feel uncomfortable with his stare. "I'm… slightly curious on how a Hermit Symbolist's ability can compare to that of a normal Symbolist."

"Sir Nero, I'm just a normal Symbolist like you too. I just had a different preference on my way of life." Alex replied as his index finger began to glow. "But since you requested me to show my ability, then I shall oblige to it."

Alex then raised his index finger as he attempted to start writing, but he was stopped by Nero's sudden question.

"You use your finger as a stele?" Nero blurted out before Alex could start writing. "Don't you have any writing implements?"

"Sir Nero, when you wander the world by yourself, you're bound to face dangers that can attack you before you can even prepare your writing implements." Alex replied as he tilted his head. "In cases like that, using my finger as a stele is better, as I can respond to dangers more quickly than I can normally could."

"Your answer makes sense, although executing a finger-style symbol inscription it still difficult." Nero replied as he looked at Alex's finger more intently.

"Everyone had their own talents, Sir Nero." Alex replied as he started to inscript Symbols on the door of their private room.

"Hong~" Golden symbols started to cover the door as Alex's fingers danced on the door's surface.

The whole room was silent, as its occupants were solely focused on watching what Alex was doing right now.

As he continued on writing the Symbols, Alex could not help but grimace inwardly, as he looked at Sir Nero's intense stare.

Alex was 100% sure that right now, Sir Nero was definitely testing him.

Of course, with Alex's Symbolist ability only stolen from Artos, who was Sir Nero's relative, Alex cannot just write Symbols that Artos usually used.

If Alex did that, Sir Nero could get more suspicious of Alex, and once that happens, Alex will just be placed in more sticky situations!

Luckily for Alex, he already had a remedy for this.

"Since I should not use any of the Symbols that Artos usually use, then I will just show my own Symbols!" Alex thought to himself as he continued on inscripting symbols on the door.

With the nature of Greed's Pillage Skill, Alex would not be able to raise the power of the Symbolist power that he pillaged from Artos.

This means that until the end of time, Alex's Symbolist Power will only stay at the Heaven Rank, unable to advance any further.

But even if its power level will be stagnated, there will be no problem for it to improve on aspects not related to power.

One of these aspects was versatility.

During the last 3 weeks, Alex has tried on researching if he can use Symbols that Artos did not use before.

After all, this aspect only requires Alex to be knowledgeable about other Symbols, which does not require an increase on the Symbolist ability's power.

To Alex's relief at that time, he found out that he can still use Symbols that Artos did not use, as long as its power requirement was around the Heaven Rank.

After making this discovery at that time, Alex already set off to create his own unique Symbol Reservoir which will contain symbols that are Alex's 'original property'.

Some of the symbols in this Symbol Reservoir came from esoteric Symbols that Alex saw on the books that he collected from the other kidnapped Symbolists.

This Symbol Reservoir also had Alex's 'Original Symbols', which was actually surprisingly easy to create for Alex.

Alex only needed to understand the concept of the basic Symbols, and from there, he could hybridize or even merge some of the Symbols to create his Original Symbols with their own unique and special effects.

This combination of esoteric and Original Symbols gave Alex a set of Symbols which nobody can associate with Artos or the other captured Symbolists!

"Hong~" After a minute of concentrated writing, Alex finally stopped what he was doing.

He stepped back by two paces as he and the others in the room observed his creation.

What could be seen on the door right now was a Triple-Layered Symbol Matrix, which contained around 150 squiggly-looking Golden Symbols.

They looked messy and dirty and Alex's opinion, but he was not discouraged by that as he personally knew how useful they were.

"This is a Fortification Symbol Matrix which can withstand around 10 tons of force." Alex said as he wiped the sweat of his forehead. "I used my knowledge of Inertia Cancellation and Momentum Arrest in order to create the symbols needed for this Symbol Matrix."

"Interesting, interesting." The one who said these words was Nero, who peered at Alex's creation with great interest. "Did you also place symbols that will allow this Symbol Matrix to identify forces from the x, y, and z directions?"

"Oh, Sir Nero, I did not just place Axial Symbols here. I also made sure to account for the Cylindrical and Spherical coordinates." Alex replied as he pointed to the symbols near the corner of the door. "I also placed some Heat Flux Cancellers and Gravitational Dispersers so that this Symbols Matrix can also withstand attacks related to heat and gravity."

"…" After Alex said these words, Sir Nero suddenly pulled back his right fist, before sending it hurtling towards the inscripted door.

"Bloop!"

The door did not even look shaken at all, as the symbols on it only glowed a little in response to Nero's punch.

"Now, this is interesting." Nero muttered as he pulled back his fist. "Your Symbol Matrix actually works…"

"…" Alex could not help but grin as he saw what happened.

After all, Alex knew that Nero's punches were strong enough to split rocks on their own!

For the door to withstand his punch just meant that his Symbol Matrix did work!

Of course Alex knew that the punch that Nero sent out now was not really a serious punch, but for now, this should be already enough to convince Nero about Alex's 'legitimate skills'.

"You said that your name was Sigmund, right?" After seeing that his punch did not affect the door at all, Sir Nero stared at Alex intently as he gave him a hungry look. "I liked the way that you used this kind of coordinate symbol system to prevent sneak attacks from any direction. This is actually innovative!"

"I had to do what I had to do, or else, my life could be in jeopardy." Alex replied as he shook his head. "Consider this Symbol Matrix as one of the products my solitary Symbolist Life."

"I see, I see." Sir Nero, who still seemed to be only focused on Alex's Symbol Matrix, continued on observing the matrix for another minute.

Sir Nero was only forced to stop his observation when one of the residents in the room started to rebuke him.

"Sir Nero, didn't we have a transaction that we should do right now?" Anya, the Queen Hoarder said as she glared at Sir Nero. "If you want to geek out with Sir Sigmund, I suggest that you should do it after our transaction."

"Oh right, let's do that first." Sir Nero replied as he looked back at Anya.

Alex could not help but smirk as he saw that Sir Nero looked slightly regretful from being forced to look away from his Symbol Matrix.

Not only that, but Alex also felt relief as he saw that his stunt with the Symbol Matrix did not trigger anything negative from Sir Nero himself.

"Yosh, now that the suspicions on me were cleared, it will be easier for me to stay here." Alex thought to himself as he sat on one of the nearby chairs, with his ears focused on listening on Anya and Sir Nero.

With his 'closeness' to Anya and him impressing Sir Nero with his Symbol Matrix, Alex was sure that they will allow him to listen in on their conversation.

Now, all that Alex had to do was to behave and not screw everything up.