After finishing his tea with a bitter face, Zephyr then left the tea house and made his way back home.
...
Inside Glory, time continued to flow. After five straight hours of forging advanced whetstones, Kaito finally heard the sound he had been waiting for.
[Ding! Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level 20!]
Just beneath the message, another prompt followed immediately:
[You have reached the maximum level limit a town can hold. Please proceed to the nearest city as soon as possible to complete your class change and continue leveling.]
The crisp system sound broke Kaito's focus, pulling him out of the concentration state he had been maintaining for hours. He let out a long breath. His body felt stiff, his shoulders heavy, but the relief of finally hitting level 20 outweighed the exhaustion.
Looking at the scattered materials on the forging table, Kaito quickly swept all the leftover flint-steel core fragments and refined flint-steel cores into his inventory. He didn't want to even look at them anymore. After hours of endless hammering, just the sight of those cores made his stomach churn. He had forged so many whetstones that he felt he might vomit if he had to craft another one.
He also stored the completed batch of whetstones. The numbers had piled up astonishingly around five hundred forged whetstones sat neatly stacked in his inventory. This time, leveling up had required forging more than five hundred whetstones in total. He realized that previously, his level increase had not only come from forging but also from the large amount of experience gained after killing the Elder Faelion. Without that bonus, the grind had been brutal.
Still, the results were worth it. He had finally reached level 20.
Kaito then set the forging hammer aside and stepped out of the forging life guild. Outside, the sky of Glory was already cloaked in night. He didn't bother with anything else. Night in the game meant it was already morning in the real world around six o'clock, daybreak.
Before heading to Astralis City for his class change, he decided to log out. There were other matters to handle first.
In the next moment, Kaito's consciousness returned to reality. He climbed out of his gaming cabin in the RV, stretched his stiff arms, and headed toward his room.
As soon as he entered, his holotab lit up. A projection flickered to life, and Kia appeared in front of him.
"Young Master," Kia said, her voice calm but serious, "I believe there are two matters that need to be reported to you."
Kaito wiped sweat from his forehead and gave a small nod. "Go ahead. I'll listen. Just keep reporting while I take a shower."
He set the holotab nearby and headed into the bathroom. Warm water poured over him as Kia's clear voice continued.
"The first matter concerns the training plans you intended to submit to your second grandfather. That will no longer be possible."
Kaito raised a brow under the stream of water.
Kia continued, "Your eldest grandfather and second grandfather have already gone into secluded training. For now, the management of the family has been left in the hands of your uncles. When I contacted them about who would take responsibility for the training plans you created, they all refused. They said that since the plans were originally assigned to you, you must be the one to carry them out."
Hearing this, Kaito could only let out a bitter laugh. So much for the loophole he thought he had found earlier. It didn't matter anymore his uncles had simply dumped the responsibility back on him. In the end, he had no choice but to accept defeat.
He sighed, letting the hot water wash away his frustration.
Kia then spoke again. "The second piece of news, the Storm Life Guild has already chosen its new President. It is Derick Stroud."
The moment the name reached his ears, Kaito spat out a mouthful of foamy water onto the glass wall of the shower. Then, instead of anger, he burst into hearty laughter.
"Well done," he said between laughs. "A brilliant assist from Storm Life's old President. I'll remember this."
Kia blinked, visibly puzzled. Her expression shifted into slight confusion as she tilted her head. "Young Master… this development should be considered bad news. Based on my analysis, this decision could negatively impact you. Did you not plan to invest in the Storm Life Guild?"
Kaito chuckled again, shaking his head. Kia didn't understand she couldn't. After all, she didn't know about his past life, nor the reasons behind his true plans. Without that knowledge, her analysis only scratched the surface.
Deciding to tease her a little, he said, "Then tell me, Kia. What did I invest in?"
Although Kia was an advanced AI, even she couldn't read the exact thoughts in his mind. All she could do was use her data and analytical models to suggest directions. Sometimes, those guesses were right. Sometimes, they weren't.
At this moment, she looked at him with something resembling grievance in her expression, as if hurt by his teasing. The look of faint resentment almost made her seem human.
Kaito clicked his tongue. "Tsk. What a high-level AI… even capable of showing emotions like that."
Still smiling, he shifted the topic. "Go through the terms of the contract I signed with Zephyr and Velena."
Kia immediately complied, pulling up the digital copy.
The cooperation agreement between Kaito and Zephyr had been straightforward:
First, Kaito would provide some basic resources such as minor regeneration potions and Lumina Sight potions. These were not free they were sold to the guild at a profit.
Second, Kaito was to inform Zephyr about the coordinates of elite monsters once they were discovered. This was valuable, since guilds relied heavily on such coordinates for steady sources of income. However, Kaito lagged the time and even because he knew about the resources a city would provide, he totally found these elite monster resources worthless, as for him the king level difficulty in the dungeons were the best resource during the time in a Town for his guild and because selling the coordinates would be worthless, rending them completely useless, so Kaito had decided to tell them to Zephyr and Velena.
Third, he would sometimes lead the Storm Life Guild to kill bosses. This part had already been fulfilled once before when he led them through the king level Echoing Deep dungeon.
In addition, beyond the three terms in the agreement, Kaito had also given Storm Life and Crimson Rose the guides for clearing the Horror and Nightmare levels of both the Echoing Deep and Misty Palace dungeons. This hadn't even been written in the contract. It was something extra, something he had provided on his own initiative.
But when Kaito looked at all this, he couldn't help but feel it was all essentially worthless. The resources he had handed over aside from things like the Minor Regeneration Potions and the Lumina Sight Potions were things he didn't really need. Most of it was knowledge and experience he carried from his past life. For him, it was free, and it was useless to keep for himself. That was why he had simply passed it on to Zephyr and Velena.
From Kaito's perspective, the so-called partnership had been nothing more than Zephyr and Velena investing in him. His own contributions had been minimal, at least in his eyes. Of course, this was only his point of view. From Zephyr and Velena's perspective, the gains they had made since partnering with Kaito were immense. With his guides and his support, they had leapt ahead of their rivals.
Even so, when Kaito thought about it carefully, the only things he truly considered valuable from the arrangement were the first-kill announcements when, he had let them claim the Elite and Hard-level first clears of the Misty Palace dungeon before him, but for Kaito now, it no longer mattered, their usefulness had faded.
Listening to his explanation, Kia responded seriously. "Even if we haven't gained much directly, if Zephyr doesn't become the guild leader of Storm Life Guild, then we will lose the shares he promised you."
She was referring to the 10% stake that Zephyr had agreed to give Kaito. Storm Life might only be a guild focused mostly on virtual games, but in reality, it was still recognized as a Bronze-ranked power. That status meant it was useful and had weight. Unlike many guilds, Storm Life hadn't sold much of its equity to raise funds. That 10% stake, if sold, could easily fetch ten million credits in the market. And if it was sold to the right buyer such as a rival guild it could be worth even more.
But Kaito only smiled faintly and shook his head. "It's just a few shares. I don't mind losing them. The Genesis I'm going to build will be at least a hundred times stronger than Storm Life Guild."
His lips curled slightly as he spoke, his tone full of quiet confidence.
Even if a Bronze-ranked guild boasted tens of thousands of members, it was still just numbers. Kaito had no intention of being impressed by that. His real goal was far beyond such a level.
"My aim," he thought to himself, "is to raise my family's rank to Silver level in just one month."
Compared to that, a Bronze-ranked guild like Storm Life was insignificant. He wouldn't even bow before a Silver-ranked power like the Kaelas family, let alone a bronze force such as Storm Life.
Turning back to Kia, he said firmly, "My investment was never in Zephyr's guild. It was in Zephyr himself."
Speaking this, Kaito had stepped out after finishing his shower and was drying his hair with a towel, then began to change into his training uniform. His thoughts were calm but focused, already moving toward the next step. He had to figure out the best way to convince Zephyr to join him.
That, after all, had been his plan from the very beginning.