Death... and me

The twins had just recently finished a mission, so it would take quite some time for the next one to come. With that, they left Celis and the rest behind before traveling to the Demon Beast Continent. Since they already knew the way, it took only a week for them to arrive at the territory of the Demon Beast Alliance. Of course, the place where one could exchange merit points for rewards was inside one of the Demon Beast Cities.

However, the city looked a lot different from when Rean and Roan had last seen it. Before, there were many Zasfins flying around, trading or selling their things in exchange for the resources the demon beasts had. Now, one couldn't even find the soul of a single Zasfin in the area. All the shops that were managed by Zasfins back then were now empty. 

That was to be expected, though. Before the war had officially started, these Zasfins, where most of them were related to the Soul Rulers, were warned to leave the Demon Beast Continent. Otherwise, the Soul Rulers wouldn't take responsibility for whatever might happen to them. Unsurprisingly, with that warning, the Zasfins present in the five existing cities in the continent left straight away.

Currently, Rean and Roan could only see a bunch of high-level demon beasts, as well as humans. Humans were still quite rare compared to the demon beasts, with their numbers not even reaching a ratio of 1 to 100. Yet, it was a lot easier to notice their presence with the Zasfins gone. 

Rean then asked Kentucky to ask the demon beasts in the area regarding where they could trade their merit points earned during these past four years. "Alright, leave it to me."

Not too long after, Rean's group arrived at a giant building designed to hold almost any size of demon beast. Of course, there was a corner where one could find two humans behind a counter. They were the ones responsible dealing with other humans who got merit points in the war. Well, because of how many humans there were, they seemed to be very bored. "Oh, finally. There's someone. How can I help you two?"

Rean then passed the jade slip used to register their merit points to the attendant before saying, "I'm here to buy something with my points."

The guy nodded and quickly checked if Rean's jade slip was real. In order to prevent fake ones, each mission jade slip had the aura of a Stage Eight or Nine Demon Beast responsible for the war. Also, only the demon beasts with the necessary auras could make modifications to the information inside. The attendant quickly confirmed that it was the real deal and checked the points inside, only to curse soon after in surprise, "Holy shit!"

He quickly looked at Rean and Roan with a lot more respect as he said enthusiastically, "I wonder how many missions you've done and how many Zasfins you've killed." It wasn't strange since the reward for the humans really needed this level of participation. "You have a total of 1493 merit points. Say, what do you want to do with it?"

"Can I take a look at the rewards list?" Rean asked.

"Absolutely." The guy quickly took another jade slip and passed it to Rean. Roan also took the chance and sent his Spiritual Sense inside to check what could be obtained.

"Oh! They even have Spiritual Veins as rewards." Rean was quite surprised by that.

However, Roan shook his head, clarifying, "No. To be more exact, they have territories with Spiritual Veins available since moving Spiritual Veins shouldn't be possible for just any demon beast. Probably only those at Stage Eight and higher would be able to safely move it." Not everyone had a World Swallowing Cedar to help with this kind of task, after all.

Rean nodded before he went to the part where the airships could be found. Sure enough, it was, as Luti mentioned. The cheapest ones cost at least 300 merit points due to the rare materials used on them. Not to mention that those were only Earth High-level ones. Rean quickly ignored the Earth-level ones, though. They wouldn't be able to fly faster than the twins, much less Kentucky. Not to mention that they weren't big enough to fit everyone back in the valley.

"Hmm...this one seems pretty good." Rean's attention was quickly attracted to a Heaven High-level airship that cost 1800 merit points. An airship at the Heaven Initial-level would fly at the speed of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. As for whether it was at the Early of the Peak Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, that depended on the Spirit Stones used to feed it.

Following the same train of thought, a Heaven Middle-level airship would fly at the speed of a Soul Transformation Realm cultivator or a Stage Six Demon Beast. Finally, a Heaven High-level airship would move at the same speed as a Saint Realm expert or a Stage Seven Demon Beast. The one Rean was looking at was very big as well. 'It can use Rank Four Spirit Stones to reach the speed of an Initial Stage Saint Realm expert. If I manage to find Rank Five Spirit Stones, the ship can reach the speed of a Late Stage Saint Realm expert.'

Rean then looked at the human behind the counter before asking, "Is there a way to make up for the 307 merit points we're lacking to buy this airship?" Rean then showed which one he wanted on the list.

"This..." The attendant was taken aback by the question. He didn't expect a human to be so adamant about spending their points on an airship with there being so many better and more useful items to choose from. "Are you sure about this? There are many things that would help you a lot more during the war."

Rean nodded, saying in response, "I'm sure. My only problem is the merit points that I don't have."

In the end, the human attendant was there only to make the trades, so he didn't ask Rean anymore. "Alright. Usually, no one can buy anything if they don't have the necessary merit points. However, considering that you want to buy an airship, which demon beasts rarely use, perhaps the demon beasts will accept making an exception."

Following that, the guy asked Rean's group to wait for a moment as he left to ask his supervisor.