When the sovereigns all arrived at the King's chambers a few minutes later, they found the man who was revered throughout the continent for his regal manner bending over something with an almost evil smile on his face which was visible even though they were looking at him from behind. They didn't know whether it was their imagination or not, but they could almost swear they had also heard a low laugh that was interspersed with a different sound, but there was no way to make sure as the king immediately whirled around and saw that they had arrived, before hiding what he had been looking at with so much focus and concentration.
A mischievous smile came on his face as he saw their questioning expressions, and he said, "Oh, it's nothing that you need to know about right now. Just a small hobby that I'm getting back to. Anyway, what are you here for?"
Daneel had embarked on the whim that he had gotten, and he had come up with so many ideas that he had wondered just how he had ignored that topic for so long. However, in the middle of it, he had received a message from his sovereigns saying that they had been contacted by a few people in the Order, which had led to him telling them to come over while still being completely engrossed in what he had been doing.
That had led to this situation, and he had made the sudden decision that he would only reveal his 'hobby' when the time came. His excitement was mainly due to the potential of the ideas that had come to him, but his smile melted away when he remembered the entire thing regarding the matter of his meeting with Ashahell.
Still, there was really nothing he could do until his master made the necessary inquiries, so he tried to put that aside one more time before asking, "So, who has been contacting you?"
Looking at each other before nodding, Faxul, Eloise, Aran, Cassandra and Elanev said, "Listen for yourself."
With that, they each took out the trinkets from the Order that they had been given, and as they activated them, a cacophony of voices engulfed the King's chambers, even completely blanketing the beating of the Dragon heart in the room.
"Your talents are wasted with him!"
"You have a place in our group! If you want, you can join this 4-star mission we have!"
"So, what are his powers anyway? If you're ever interested in defecting, contact me, and I can give you a hefty price…"
"He has attracted too much attention! If you stay with him, you'll just find yourselves burnt!"
"It is always the trees that stand tall that are blown over when a storm comes, and one is apparently brewing in the top echelons among those who are not really happy that he's getting so much attention. It is wise for you to jump ship now!"
Daneel raised a hand as he heard all these, following which each of the sovereigns deactivated the trinkets and looked at him, as they all wondered how he would react.
Would he be angry that they were being contacted by so many people? Would he find their honor besmirched, which meant that they should go and take up a fight with them all? Or would he want to ignore it, and just continue on their mission of finishing as many 5-star missions as possible in as short a time frame as they could?
The reaction that the king did give… startled them all, making them understand that he would never be a man that they could really predict.
The King of Lanthanor started laughing out loud, and tears even appeared in his eyes.
While laughing, itself, he took out his own trinket.
As a different set of voices were heard in the room, the sovereigns understood exactly why he had acted in that way.
"Those are weaklings! You're much better off with us!"
"We have four 4-star missions that you can take part in! They'll just slow you down!"
"You're so much more powerful than all of them! They will be leeching on your fame and accomplishments! Dump them when you can!"
"Hey, if you need help, we can make it seem as if we forced you! Please join us, and you'll never regret it!"
Bristling expressions appeared on all of the sovereigns as they heard so many people talking about them in this manner, and this anger was even were exacerbated by the fact that there was a lot of truth in what they were saying. Their power levels were still too far away when compared to the King's, and although there were exceptions such as Faxul and Elanev, the rest of them still had a long way to go.
Daneel noticed this, and right away, he understood that there needed to be certain changes to their plans.
During the war that had happened in the matter with the golden lightning, he had already seen just how effective each of their Champion Paths and Bloodlines were. If he had to be frank, he would say that they had even surpassed his expectations, and that if they were even a little bit stronger, they might not even have needed him to undergo that excruciating experience.
It was always so with high tier Paths and Bloodlines- even a little bit of progress down the Path of Power would enable one to grow leaps and bounds in regards to just what kinds of powers and abilities that they could use, and that was why individuals such as seeds were always locked up and made to train as much as possible instead of wasting time on other things. The younger one was, the faster they could train, so it was always wise to use every moment of time to their advantage.
With further thought, Daneel decided that this was the way to go. Looking up, he said, "Let's do things differently from now on. It is true that our priority should still be to finish the 5-star missions so that we can gain access to information that we can use to find out the real identity of the Overseer, but for that, it is probable that all of us are not needed. I, Faxul and Elanev will mainly be the ones pursuing this, and the rest of you should focus on doing missions that will give rewards that will allow you to directly break through to become Peak Warriors. After that… You can leave the matter regarding your subsequent breakthroughs to me. But until then, you'll have to work hard. Eloise, as for you - take a little bit of time, and focus on getting to the Peak Human level first. When you get there, we will help you break through, and then you can join Aran and Cassandra to obtain the necessary rewards. If we had random Ker Roots lying around, I would have made the concoction that one can use to speed through the ranks of the Warrior Realm myself, but sadly, that's not the case. It's pretty weird that even the Order does not directly give Ker Roots, and it actually shows just how rare these materials are. If it's taking too long, we can then consider whether we should break down the Natural Energised Training Chamber, but that is a resource that we should use for a different purpose, unless there is no choice whatsoever. The rewards that you have already obtained should already place you quite close to achieving your goal, so try and make sure to reach the finish line as quickly as possible."
As Daneel spoke, he saw that he was actually stating many of the points that his sovereigns had already thought of. In Eloise's case, she nodded with determination, and Aran and Cassandra also did the same thing when he was done.
The way rewards worked was that there were different sets of them to choose from whose access depended on just what realm an individual was present in. Usually, this would make sense, because the 5-star mission that only needed Warrior realm individuals would not be the same as a 5-star mission for Champions, and so, there was a need for segregation of rewards according to realms. In their case, though, they had already transcended levels, but sadly, there was no way to change this rule of how they were given.
Hence, even though they had a bunch of 5-star rewards, they would only be able to choose from certain items that related to their power level. And in that list, there was no way to obtain Ambrosia directly.
This was the magical substance that Daneel had had to go through so many difficulties to obtain, so it made sense that it was heavily regulated here. So, if they wanted to accumulate enough rewards to get it, they still had quite a lot of work cut out for them.
"Eloise, start training in the Chamber of Golden Lightning. The best option would actually be that you directly train in the Natural Energised Training Chamber, but you are not able to handle that level of Energy. In the former, you can regulate the intensity of Energy that you wish to absorb, so you can choose a level that you can withstand before training and giving it all. Remember - do not over exert yourself too much, as that will place you at risk of losing yourself. Go."
Daneel had been observing them all, and when he said that part about 'losing herself', Elanev's eyes had flashed with worry.
Of course, he had been expecting this due to the confession he had heard before, but after that, the man quickly hid it, which meant that he did not want Daneel to see.
Daneel hadn't made the decision yet whether he should confront them, but for the moment, Eloise teleported away after ensuring them all that she would be careful. Even though these were her words, they could see the excitement in her eyes which was definitely due to the fact that she was looking forward to finally being in the same level as the others in regards to power, and in the moment before she left, there had even been a smile on her face.
"You two- do solo missions for now, and ignore all attempts from people who might want to pull you into their team. If someone is troubling you too much, call for me, and I will be there. Get going."
Aran and Cassandra nodded, and as both of them disappeared, too, Daneel found himself alone with his friend and his elder brother.
"Shall we go and select the next 5-star mission waiting for us directly, Daneel?", asked Faxul, referring to the special reward that had been given to them by the Overseer.
The King of Lanthanor did not respond, and as he slipped into a reverie, the other two looked at each other and shrugged before waiting.
Daneel had also been thinking about what their next step should be during the time when he had idly relaxed and reminisced before, and at that moment, something had become clear to him.
As he thought about it again, now, it gave him an idea, which led him to say "No, leave that for later. First, we should endeavor to get into as many as possible using our own efforts, and we can keep that one for a dire situation if we find ourselves without anything to do for a bit of time."
It sounded logical, so Elanev asked, "Okay, but 5-star missions are hard to find. What do you propose we do?"
As soon as his elder brother said this, Daneel got an almost diabolical smile on his face that made both men in the room take a step back.
Daneel tried to hastily hide it, but after that, he let it be, because that was exactly what his present plan was like.
When he opened his mouth and explained it, the expressions on both Elanev and Faxul's faces were priceless, and Daneel even wished that he had a camera so that he could take a picture and memorialize this occasion.
"Have you two noticed something? Ever since we entered the Order, it's been dumb people who have been serving themselves up to us on a silver platter that have allowed us to have so much success. First, it was those guys who targeted you, and then, it was the ones who targeted poor Skrr. This leads me to believe that the best way to go about things in the Order is to be targeted, so that is exactly what we are going to do. Get ready, gentlemen. We… Are going to become the enemies of the entire Order, and after that, we will have more 5-star missions on our laps than we can dream of. I call this…Mission Airdrop. Haha, you'll understand why soon."