Seeing the enthusiasm of their friend, all the members of the Shameless sect were quite surprised.
What had gotten into Travis today?
The fatty, being the one closest to Travis, asked.
"We really admire your drive, but do you think we were just sitting around twiddling our thumbs in all the time you were gone? All the side businesses are already taken!"
Hearing the fatty say this, Daneel came back to his senses.
He couldn"t help it; for the first time, he had a very strong craving to eat that meat.
Of course, he kept telling himself that this was because he wanted to see if it would help in him training as a Warrior faster.
Before, when he had been training as a Human, both the blood of the mosquitoes and the Ker Gems had accelerated his training greatly, as they were Energy materials used by the next level usually. When used by someone below the requisite level, even though some of their efficacy would be wasted, they provided a considerable boost in training speed.
Now, having become a Warrior, Daneel no longer had that advantage. His progress had slowed down by quite a lot, so one of his other objectives had also been to find out what the next, higher grade of Energy was.
After all, there were no Champions in the Central Continent unless one counted the Watcher, so there was no need at all for information about this Energy resource to be present here.
Of course, just like the bread which was only a secondary item to increase training speed, the fish, which was miraculously from the endless sea which Daneel had thought to be uninhabited except by the corpses of those who had tried to cross, was definitely also a secondary item for Champions.
Sadly, none of the others in the Shameless sect knew the resource for Champions, as they had no reason to know about it. They only needed to concern themselves with knowledge on their level.
The other members of the Shameless sect were Clyde, Henry, and Jarred.
Clyde was a lanky youth with short hair, while Henry was of a normal height with bushy eyebrows.
As for Jarred, he had black hair and a short nose coupled with a double chin.
These three were also from simple background just like the Fatty and Travis, so they were all united in the fact that they had clawed their way up the ladder.
Clyde was a timid youth, but according to Travis, he was the first to become a Warrior among them, and he was also known to be ferocious when fighting.
Jarred and Henry were both the only remaining Exalted Humans in the group, and they were apparently brothers who loved to do almost everything together.
Seeing Daneel just sit and observe them weirdly after giving a statement like that, the fatty continued.
"From the most profitable side business of reselling parts of Energy food given to stronger members of the sect, to the most despicable one of always interrupting youths during…ahem…special activities and demanding money, all of them are taken. We are called Hedons for a reason. We take pleasure in obtaining stuff, no matter what the route to obtain it was. We are the Shameless sect, but even the shameless side jobs aren"t left for us."
Hearing this, Daneel felt like gagging.
Such a ridiculous side business existed?
Daneel knew for a fact that the Sect of Hedon only accepted male disciples for some reason. As such, there were a large community of physical help, forest caretakers and maidservants which had sprung up around the sect.
Some of the favorite past times of the active youth of the sect were to travel to these sections to partake in "special" activities, as the fatty put it, but someone"s side business was to interrupt even these moments of sacred pleasure?
Despicable, indeed.
Of course, on seeing this form of arrangement, Daneel had gotten the doubt whether the sect members might use force to solicit the services of the normal humans.
However, apparently, such things were strictly forbidden, which made Daneel understand why the Mad Doctor"s son must have been admonished when he engaged with the maids in unwanted advances, from what Percy had told him.
All this was fascinating about the sect, but Daneel decided to get back to the topic at hand.
Now, he had four goals:
1) Find a way to access more information restricted to Amateur Warriors to find out the history of the continent.
2) Find out Ashah.e.l.l"s plans to deliver something to have the Church come early, and find a plan to thwart them.
3) Find where the Mad Doctor was training his son and the others, and kill them(this had to be done last, as a chase would definitely follow)
4) Finally, find the resource that was a higher grade than Ker Gems, and find out the taste of the meat of the fish from the endless sea.
Whew. Listing it like this, it felt daunting, but it all came back to utilizing the atmosphere of corruption to obtain resources and contribution points to be noticed by the higher echelons.
So, coming back to his senses, Daneel banged on the table again.
According to Travis, he was a spirited lad who rarely controlled his emotions.
Daneel acted the part.
"Shameless sect! How could you give up on such an important matter so easily? This concerns our future! Because we have given ourselves this name, then we must adhere to it faithfully! Tomorrow, we will take a complete tour of the entire sect and the sect rules to figure out whether my plan will work. I will only tell it to you after I confirm it. So, have a good night"s rest, because we have our work cut out for tomorrow! Get out!"
This was his room, so Daneel threw them all out with magic before they could respond.
Banging the door on their faces, the King of Lanthanor smiled to himself, feeling happy that this was a day well spent.
Meanwhile, outside, his fellow sect members grumbled that their friend had gotten even more insufferably dramatic after his breakthrough.
….
The next morning, just like he had told them, the 4 gathered at the entrance of the dormitory before setting off on the walkways.
They walked to each and every important part of the sect, and as the sect spanned over a hundred kilometers in area with a lot of empty s.p.a.ce in between, they would all have dropped dead if they weren"t at least Exalted Humans.
Still, the Warriors in the group started to feel slight fatigue, while the Humans had already given up halfway through their quest.
Of course, the most energy-filled one was Daneel, who actively led them everywhere.
Each and every side business was a.n.a.lyzed and listed, along with the prices and the power levels of the individuals manning those side businesses.
In some cases, even "official" corruption was seen, like in the case of the sect member a.s.signed to handing out tasks who reserved the easiest ones to those who paid the most.
Before the real Travis had set out, he had apparently paid all of his savings to get that task.
Finally, as the day neared evening, Daneel bade the tired fatty and Clyde off before heading to the library.
Even though his heart hurt again, he paid the eight of the Ker Gem and covered another zone in the library.
Finally, going back to his room, he a.s.sembled his thoughts for a few minutes, taking his time.
When he was done, he called the four to his room using their communication trinkets.
With an expression complete seriousness, Daneel began.
"I have a series of plans for side businesses laid out, but they are in the increasing order of difficulty. In fact, if you hear the one on the top of the list, I guarantee that you will faint with shock. Anyway, we will start at the lowest and work our way up-"
…..
The next day, Percy was walking around the sect as usual when he saw many sect members whispering amongst each other.
He had a weird habit of walking the entire length of the sect at a blazing speed each day, as he claimed that this helped him to increase his control over his power of a Fighter along with regular sparring.
So, when he saw these murmuring sect members in a remote corner of the sect, Percy followed them silently without alerting anyone.
On the way, he caught snippets of conversation.
"Imagine it! If it"s true, I can soar into the heavens at once!"
"Exactly! And it"s just 5 Ker Gems. It"s not like we can"t earn that back by working hard."
"You heard him. It has all the right signs! Besides, he even guaranteed a refund! Even if there ends up being nothing there, we can just get our money back!"
Getting more and more puzzled by the second, Percy noticed that the students were now coming out from somewhere inside the forest, off the walkway.
Knowing that he had to satiate his curiosity, he covered his face and made his way inside, following the clues left behind by the excitedly chattering sect members.
Finally, he came across a clearing where 5 sect members were sitting underneath words written in flames, answering questions from the crowd that had gathered.
"Secret expedition to a place where I observed a phenomenon and got hints about a (possible)core inheritance! To follow, pay 5 Ker Gems! Refund if there"s nothing there, but don"t blame me if you aren"t talented enough to comprehend the intricacies! Only for Amateur Warriors!"
As Percy gasped on seeing this, Daneel, who was sitting below the words, smiled at the box in front of him which was filling up with Ker Gems.
If there was one thing he had learned from the corruption he had seen on Earth, then it was that "scams" were the most lucrative methods to earn money!