Merchant Of Yliaster

After watching Gendor for a couple of hours, Maxwell was fascinated by the man's suırprising talent in alchemy. It was apparent that Gendor spent some time doing stuff like this in the past, and that was not really surprising when one considered his past.

Apart from his uncanny talent, Maxwell could also see the reason why the man's creations were so positive. Maxwell was not sure how affinities worked for sure, but he could see that Gendor's affinity for darkness was insane.

Even the usual affinityless mana the man used was similar to darkness mana, and it actually absorbed energies around it, as if it were darkness mana. Maxwell himself didn't really use affinities, as guiding was not limited by such a thing, but it was not hard to see that Gendor was a genius when it came to manipulating darkness mana.

The reason why everything came out positive was simple. Darkness mana was just too aligned with all the negative energy inside the poison, so it absorbed it without any restraint, leaving only the positive aspects. Maybe there could be a darkness-based healing ability? Maxwell theorized after seeing the strange situation.

Gendor was nowhere near the necessary level of control to prevent the phenomenon; actually, he couldn't even sense what was happening.

"Your darkness just consumes anything negative about the poison. You should probably work on your control," Maxwell said. Drawing a curious glance from Gendor.

"I thought there might be something wrong with my mana, but that actually makes a lot of sense. I guess I will be stuck buying my poison for a while. Or you can just help me ruin some of my creations?" Gendor replied, bottling up another bottle of disgustingly good medicine.

"Sure, just give me the-" As Maxwell was answering, suddenly something unexpected yet oddly familiar happened. In a moment, the world turned black and white, losing all color. Everything stopped moving as if someone had hit the stop button. Maxwell could feel the influence of the system similar to the time with Traveler, yet this time, it was much more subtle and bearable.

Continuation Of Awareness Detected.

Universe ? is placed in a temporal pause.

User Maxwell Aurelius will be transported to a pocket space with others. Please don't panic.

Before he could think about the implications, the world around Maxwell changed, immediately getting replaced by a gray room. He was on something like a small stage, and he could see others around him, too, standing on their own platforms.

What the fuck? Maxwell thought as his head spun as he stared at the room around him. The room they were in was mind-numbingly big, or at least, it gave that impression to Maxwell's senses. It made him feel small, as he felt like he was looking at the sky, just looking at the distant wall of the room. The height could probably be measured in thousands of kilometers, and it made one's sense of perspective fail.

Choosing to ignore the room, he glanced at the others beside him. Including him, there were 18 people in the room with wildly different appearances. Maxwell was surprised that one of them was even something like a cyborg, as half of his face was just metal.

Apart from Maxwell and one other man, there were no others in the room with casual attire, as all of them were probably in the middle of something quite violent. One woman was even covered with blood, making Maxwell remember the time Bob returned covered in blood.

The other man with casual attire was a middle-aged man with graying hair. There was nothing special about his looks, and he wore a scabbard on his belt. That was the only sign betraying that he was a fighter. As Maxwell examined the room, he realized something: everyone in this room was strong. Actually, he could see that every single one of them was level 50.

Gathering of the Anomalies is commenced for Universe 8274681920

In Phase 1, 18 users have reached level 50.

Sovereign Civilization: Galactic Federation.

Summoning The Leader of The Civilization.

Only 18 people reached level 50 in this universe? Maxwell was a bit surprised. He figured there were many people with unrestrained access to the rifts, so it was surprising to see that it was so rare to reach level 50. That, though, was still something insignificant, as his eyes were glued to the number of this universe.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The number was huge, and what it promised was even more so. It was ridiculous to a degree that even Maxwell was a bit overwhelmed. If there were this many universes, how many anomalies would there be? He was sure that there was a greater multiverse beyond the universe, but he certainly didn't expect this universe to be so insignificant.

As he thought, a man materialized at the center of their formation. He was a professional-looking middle-aged man, and his expression was calm, suggesting that he had received a proper introduction, unlike them. He glanced around the room, taking in the people around him, before starting to speak.

"I see many unknown faces around the room, suggesting that there are still outstanding people in the world we haven't yet reconnected with. In the coming time, we will count on you against the beasts." The man took a breath, letting the listeners digest his words before continuing.

"Some of you might or might not have known, but today is the end of Phase 1, as the system calls it. And it is the day when people are rewarded with nobility ranks according to their levels. In more feudal worlds, this ranking system usually correlates to a local system, yet we are a democracy, meaning that we have faced great difficulty in adopting this system," the man said, his face not showing any signs of belittling the feudal worlds.

"As the sovereign civilization of this universe, we have granted a right that no other civilization here had, and that was the right to choose our nobility ranks. We had many discussions, and in the end, we decided to choose the most extreme option when it came to the quality of our nobles. As you might guess, the concept of nobility is not seen very favorably in the federation, so we decided to limit them to the very best if we had to have them. Consequently, you now stand here as the only nobles of the Federation," the man said, looking everyone around him with an indiscernible look.

He is surprisingly sincere. Maxwell thought. It was different compared to the old politicians of Zephyr who spoke but said very little. The man's words were clear, and he didn't dawdle around the subject like they were idiots. He knew that might be the case because they were soon to be nobles, and thus inside the gears of government, but still, it was a refreshing sight to see something similar to Zephyr in this universe. The leader of the Galactic Federation started to speak once more, and he focused on the man again.

"The nobility system we have will be unique, as the system will be used to re-establish some control over the lost sectors. Right now, of the 13 sectors, we managed to reach six, and control five, yet seven sectors still remain out of reach due to incredible distance. Teleportation is the new medium of transportation for now, but it is highly hazardous due to the distance between sectors. Among you, there are people from six of the seven sectors we are yet to reach, so I hope we will have a great partnership," the leader said, his voice getting more excited as he started to talk about important matters.

How did they even reach six sectors? Maxwell summoned the information Gendor gave him millions of years ago. There were 13 sectors in the federation, and considering the time Radam's ship took to reach here, there was also considerable distance between all of them.

The fact that the federation could reach at least six sectors meant that they could actually teleport interplanetary, and Maxwell couldn't help but really be curious about how they managed that. Just the amount of mana needed to do such a thing would be immense, and considering his experiments with space mana, the things could go very explosive if they did anything wrong.

"So we will just be dogs of the Federation?" the woman covered with blood shouted from the side, making Maxwell realize that they could actually speak. The woman was not actually covered with blood anymore, and Maxwell watched with a fascinated look as blood slowly drained into the woman's skin, getting absorbed.

The leader took the rude comment without a change of expression and glanced at the woman with a soft smile. "Federation has no dogs. We are not the tyrannical government of old, and we had our revolutions a long, long time ago. The system made it so that any governing class's power is tied directly to the thing they governed, and that means there is no need for corruption anymore, even on a personal level. " he waved his hand, and a window appeared before them.

Polaris Kurt - Leader - Level 50

"As you see, my level is the same as yours, yet I'm directly tied to the Federation. If it weakens, I weaken too, and if I take resources from it, causing it to weaken, I hurt myself. My stats drop, my mind slows down, and my health deteriorates. You will have no official class for governing, yet what we want is for the good of the civilization. Thanks to the system, we are the first generation that could say such a thing without it being a political lie. You, as the only nobles, will hold great power, and you will have the right to abstain from any responsibility as long as you drop your rank. You will not take strict orders, but only requests. You will have full authority as long as no absolute rule of the Federation is broken." The man stopped, looking at them as if he challenged them to speak, before calming down, sighing.

"This is a great gamble we took; we are limiting the slots for nobility greatly, yet your authority is equally limitless. In the sector you belong to, you can basically create your own territories, and we will allow this unless you violate the laws. We realize that in this new order, individual power will be the ultimate deciding factor. We hope that you will be the framework that will hold this civilization together," he said, showing a moment of weakness.

Maxwell considered the man's words. The road the federation followed wasn't exactly illogical, but it showed something Maxwell didn't expect to see from the ruling class. Their acts actually showed that they were not glued to their positions like many leaders, but could leave them for the betterment of the federation. Maxwell had no illusions, though. The governing class wouldn't make a decision like this if they had any other choice. This was probably the only way they could actually still have some power in the new age without being warriors themselves.

The woman who asked the question before seemed thoughtful, but she was calm. Others among the anomalies had warying expressions from curiosity and ambition to complete apathy. The man with the sword just stood there, not looking like he was listening. The leader's voice once more echoed.

"While the standing of the positions will be more or less the same. The system actually wants a proper ranking, so we will hold a little contest before the ranks are dealt as usual. You will get them at the same time as others in the universe. The contest will be in the form of a tournament. I wish you all luck," the man said, a strange glint in his eyes.