A setting sun grazed the horizon as dusk was arriving. The ground consisted of arid red dirt with sparse patches of grass, it was just starting to cool down from the blazing dry heat during the day. While rain did occur in this open region of the Southern continent, it wasn't often enough to support decent vegetation.
'This is a great spot.' Jest was looking outward from the starboard, into the seemingly endless bare landscape of the Southern continent. E-027 was currently located in what was called a "Defiled Sector", where human activity was rarely ever seen. As a research facility, E-027 didn't have the right amount of firepower to stick around in a defiled sector. Typically speaking, that term was used to label a certain region highly dangerous, completely uninhabitable.
Defiled sectors varied in terms of danger, and were categorized by the World Government into different types, depending on what made them perilous. They were also given id numbers within the World Government's catalogs, and sometimes even special names. It really came down to the level of Wyrd creatures that were found in these areas, or the environment. The current defiled sector they were in had above average Wyrd creatures in terms of power and ranking, but the real killer was the lack of resources and the pure size of the region, in combination.
Two factors went into the categorization system for the defiled sectors. Defiled sectors were measured, by the amount of diamonds, and the color of those diamonds.
Diamonds indicated how resource rich the defiled sector was, the more diamonds, the less resources that could be used for survival, whether that be vegetation, water, building material, and more. It also indicated how extreme the conditions were.
Five diamonds were the worst environment to be in, this could be labeled to an environment like a black hole. Four diamonds would be something like the deepest part of the ocean, three diamonds would be in between like an expansive, arid desert with winds hot enough to cook human flesh. Two diamonds could be used to categorize an environment that had little vegetation or water even with frequent hurricanes, one diamond could simply fit into an environment with limited vegetation or water.
Black diamonds indicated weaker Wyrd creatures, but usually abundant. Recommended Traverser grades to venture into these defiled sectors were Grade 2, while the minimum was Grade 1.
Red diamonds indicated strong Wyrd creatures, and the recommended Traverser grade was Grade 3, with the minimum being Grade 2.
Blue diamonds indicated that the defiled sector had special types of Wyrd creatures. High intelligence, illusion magic, non-physical bodies, they could have many different, bizarre abilities and or properties to them. Minimum Traverser grade was 2, but recommended grade could vary all the way up to even Grade 4 Traversers.
Purple diamonds indicated that you had to be at least the level of a demigod, or a grade 5 Traverser. Wyrd creatures in these defiled sectors were practically demigods themselves, only the most powerful Traversers could deal with them.
The defiled sector E-027 was in, is currently categorized as one blue diamond.
"I'm sure you know why I'm here." A man in a full black suit was a couple meters away from Jest, also looking out into the distance. He was extremely tall and skinny, at a height of 2.4 meters. No one noticed him except Jest, as he seemingly fazed in and out of existence.
"Tsk. No need to be formal with me, descendant of Bellinor! To send someone like you here to tell me, it must be important." Jest maintained a lackadaisical attitude, he raised his cupped hand to his left ear.
"Please don't remind me of my blood ties, and quit whatever it is you're doing right now….like I said, you know exactly why I'm here." The gloomy tall man rubbed his eyes.
Jest didn't break, he stood frozen with his hand cupped to his ear, waiting for the man to speak.
"Estelle's matriarch." The gloomy man sneered at Jest.
"Well you're no fun, you should try to smile and laugh more. It'll do good for your health." Jest lowered his cupped hand from his ear down to his side, then disappeared, and the tall gloomy man did as well shortly after.
On an island, located in the hot waters of the Ardentia Sea, was the main manor belonging to the Estelle family. The Estelles were one of the most well known Travaser families, especially because it was matriarchal, which was quite uncommon in paragon culture.
Most of the Ardentia Sea was under their control, as its waters were boiling due to a long range of volcanoes that lay across the seabed. Many creatures weren't capable of living in the high temperature waters, the ones that could were problematic. Ardentia Sea was therefore labeled a defiled sector, and was categorized as being 2 blue diamonds.
Of course, vessels made from materials that could withstand the temperatures of the water existed, but most people were not Traversers, and ones that could handle the Wyrd creatures that exist in the waters.
As for the Estelle family, they had a natural, extreme tolerance to high temperatures due to inheriting the Sun God's blood, so they took dominion over the sea rather smoothly. Technically speaking, they didn't inherit the actual Sun God's blood, but a vassal deity Sirius, also known as the Dog Star. This provided them great advantages.
The Ardentia Sea sat awkwardly between the Southern continent, the Western continent and the Baltor Archipelago.
The placement of the Ardentia Sea and its size forced the Western and Southern continent to make more roundabout sea routes to reach the Baltor Archipelago. The Central, Eastern and Northern continents despised the Ardentia Sea the most due to it making their sea routes even more arduous. The reason these continents even had important sea routes directly affected by the Ardentia Sea, was simply because they wanted access to the Baltor Archipelago.
Baltor Archipelago was a very valuable nation, one that fought and successfully managed to maintain their independence from the World Government. On the group of islands existed a special tree native only to them, it strangely could grow nowhere else. Its fruit were the core ingredient in a very powerful drug, which could be ingested to enhance normal humans to superhumans temporarily.
This made the fruit extremely important, and the World Government, the biggest buyer of the fruit, as they needed the enhancement drug to maintain the fragile power balance between non-sanctioned traversers and the mundane people. The Estelle family had the advantage of attaining a large quantity of the fruit per harvest easily in comparison to other parties, meaning they could sell the fruit in bulk, at higher rates, especially to the World Government.
The majority of the population, around 90%, stayed normal humans, while the remaining 10% were chosen, in which only about a quarter of the chosen actually survived their Chain Trial. This power balance was even more important to maintain as long as the current paragon culture stayed the way it was.
Eating the fruit raw also acted as a performance enhancer in bed, it became very popular amongst rich, obscene men.
Travel to Baltor Archipelago normally wouldn't be an issue as airplanes were an old thing of the past, and aircraft developed nicely, but sky travel was strictly prohibited. It was only acceptable for the World Government, and the skies weren't exactly safe either. Specific reasons for why sky travel had been so strict weren't made public either, humanity had to acquiesce to the World Government's laws on sky travel with only the reasoning of "The skies are too dangerous". Very few exceptions were ever made.
People from the Central, Northern and Eastern continents had a difficult time acquiring the fruit, unless they had good connections and plentiful money. Rich men, sometimes women as well, were the primary buyers after the World Government and legacy families got their share. After acquisition, they would either ingest it raw for their own adultery, or distribute it at a higher price to secret brothels and underground sex trafficking rings. Even some paragon families entered this same dark business.
At one point, the supplementary ingredients to the enhancement drugs were leaked to the criminal underworld, allowing the powerful crime boss and their families to not only make increases to the price rates, but to also have domineering power when running their crime syndicates. Ultimately, this meant that it went through the World Government, the shady paragon families who had ties with the criminal underworld, then the rich elites, then the notorious crime families who didn't have a business relationship with the rich elites or legacy families.
Jest was now standing in a bedroom, a few feet away from the foot of the bed, which had a lavish gold, red and purple canopy. To the right was an expensive vanity with the same gold, red and purple color scheme. Above the vanity, on the wall it was against was an insignia, a spear with the brightest star Sirius shining so brightly at its tip, this was the Estelle family's insignia.
"That was quite rude of you." A woman in a gold night dress, who sat at the edge of her bed, smiled at the sight of Jest. She was at a height of about 1.8 meters, and had straight purple hair with gold highlights.
Jest didn't answer back, as he put his hands into pockets, continuing to stare at the woman.
"Will you accept my offer?" The woman went straight to the point.
"I'm not sure how many times I'll have to tell you that I won't be taking sides. Your character in particular is highly detestable as well. Here I am, thinking that you may have something new for me, but you don't." Jest said coldly.
"What about me makes me so detestable to you?" The woman with star earrings raised her hand to start playing with her hair.
Jest took his right hand out of his pocket and simply pointed at her. "You're quite literally sitting on a throne."
The lavish bedroom faded away into a grandiose throne room, distance growing between Jest and Estelle family's matriarch growing as the illusion was lifted.
The throne room kept the same gold and purple color scheme. The bed had transformed into a gilded throne. A long, red and gold carpet led the way to the throne, and Jest was standing at the very beginning of it. Purple, red and gold drapes were assorted on each side, attached to thick marble columns. Large, stained glass windows held the picture of previous important figures of the Estelle family.
"Of course you wouldn't understand. There are people who aren't fit to wield that kind of power and status, and there are people who are." The woman was no longer hiding her frustration.
"I agree with you on that, but not despots like you. As soon as an honorable paragon tries to rise in the power struggle, despots like you team up to suppress them because they don't fit your self agendas. Once the good, honorable ones are out of play, the despots go back to fighting each other like dogs for total rule. I have no interest in your political wars, nor do I have interest in participating in any of your secret battles. Please, tell me something new that would make me actually want to change my mind." Jest was losing his patience. This was not the 1st unworthy paragon that tried to recruit him, to support their family in the struggle for rule over the others.
"I'll lower the price rates for the fruits from Baltor Archipelago, I'll also-" The woman was cut off.
"I'm not interested in material gain from you, offering me the same deal as before? Really? The offer really is quite pissant. An insult. You lack a grand goal, and preferably if you did, I would've liked it to not be one solely focused on the Estelle family's gain." Jest spoke his mind.
The room went silent, then the woman stood up from her throne.
"You are a strange man, do you know that? Most people nowadays, when they are behind closed doors, will drop the mask they wear. You however…always seem to be wearing it all the time. You claim to have righteous intentions, yet you tie yourself with the World Government, a covert organization in of itself. If you were to ask some people, they might think that having the right paragons to be a better fit compared to you."
"YOU…do not know me, Maria."
"I think I do." The Estelle matriarch, Maria Estelle looked him up and down, her white pupils erupting with a bright glow, a couple seconds later she blinked, her eyes returned to normal, no longer effulgent.
The grandiose throne room went silent once more.
"Hahaha. I really do not like you!" Jest burst out into laughter again, then he briefly scrutinized the woman with star earrings, not with lewdness at the physically attractive woman, but with disgust.
'Insolence!' He waved goodbye with a fake smile on his face as he disappeared.