Thirty minutes later...
"Why are people so sweaty?"
A curse escaped his mouth.
His expression was filled with disbelief.
What was supposed to be a casual gaming session had somehow transformed into a miserable experience.
Every match felt like a championship final.
The people he encountered played as though their lives depended on winning.
Kael wasn’t even sure if they were having fun anymore.
Eventually, he gave up.
There were more important things to think about anyway.
Turning off his PC, Kael returned to his bed and lay on his back, quietly staring at the ceiling.
His thoughts gradually drifted toward a certain number.
One hundred billion Tower Coins.
Even now, saying it in his head felt unreal.
The amount was so enormous that his brain struggled to properly comprehend it.
It wasn’t simply wealth.
It was something beyond that.
The question was how to turn that wealth into something truly useful.
His first thought was naturally the Hunter Association.
With his current strength, exchanging Tower Coins openly was no longer impossible.
He could afford some attention now.
After all, compared to before, he finally possessed enough power to protect himself.
But after thinking about it carefully, Kael quickly dismissed the idea.
He was stronger.
Far stronger.
Yet he still had weaknesses.
His mother.
Lyra.
They were vulnerabilities that couldn’t simply be ignored.
If powerful enemies decided they couldn’t target him directly, they could easily go after the people around him.
Until he possessed enough strength to completely eliminate that possibility, exposing himself too early would be foolish.
There was another reason as well.
Simply exchanging his wealth wasn’t efficient.
For ordinary hunter, the exchange rate between Tower Coins and real-world currency wasn’t particularly favorable.
Hunter Association members enjoyed significantly better rates and additional privileges depending on their rank and status.
Of course, Kael didn’t care much about those benefits.
At his current level of wealth, a slightly better exchange rate was practically meaningless.
Money itself wasn’t what he wanted.
Influence was.
Real influence.
The kind that couldn’t be measured by levels or combat power.
The kind that came from controlling resources.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
The Hunter Association wasn’t the strongest organization because it possessed the strongest Hunters.
It was powerful because it controlled resources.
Resources attracted talent.
Resources attracted loyalty.
Resources attracted strength.
Even the most powerful guilds eventually found themselves operating within the framework established by the Hunter Association.
Not because they wanted to.
Because they had to.
The Association controlled too much.
And that was exactly the kind of influence Kael wanted.
Of course, resources alone weren’t enough.
Without strength, wealth simply made you a target.
The Association understood this.
That was why the Hunter Association gathered so many powerful Awakeners under its command.
Resources attracted strength, and strength secured resources. Together, they formed an authority that few could challenge.
Kael already possessed the foundation for both.
His strength was increasing at an absurd pace.
And his wealth...
His wealth was ridiculous.
One hundred billion Tower Coins wasn’t the sort of fortune someone used to buy luxury cars and expensive villas.
No.
This was the type of wealth capable of influencing entire markets.
Entire industries.
Even an entire nations.
A slow smile formed on his face.
He already knew what he wanted to do.
A guild.
Not a traditional combat guild.
Not one focused solely on instance raids, rift exploration, and monster hunting.
A merchant guild.
An organization dedicated to commerce, resources, trade networks, and economic influence.
A guild capable of reaching every Hunter on the planet.
Of course, building something like that wouldn’t be easy.
The biggest obstacle would be trust.
Hunters already had established organizations they relied upon.
Many merchant groups were backed by powerful guilds.
Breaking into that market would normally take years.
Maybe decades.
For someone else, it would be difficult.
For Kael, however, the answer was simple.
Money.
If other organizations bought resources at a certain price, he would offer more.
Much more.
His financial reserves were large enough to sustain losses that would bankrupt entire corporations.
Eventually, Hunters would begin paying attention.
But that alone wasn’t enough.
Offering better prices could just as easily make people suspicious.
They would wonder what hidden agenda he had.
What he needed was a catalyst.
Something capable of drawing attention naturally.
Something that would make people want to come to him.
A moment later, his eyes brightened.
"Dun’s potion."
The alchemical breakthrough.
Once released to the public, the impact would be enormous.
If his future guild became the exclusive distributor, its name would spread throughout the entire Hunter community almost overnight.
Popularity.
Trust.
Recognition.
The potion could provide all three.
Once his foothold was established, he could gradually expand.
Acquire resources.
Acquire influence.
Acquire talent.
That final thought caused his gaze to deepen.
Talents.
Powerful young Awakeners.
Exceptional individuals.
People worth investing in.
His ambitions had changed.
Before obtaining Varek’s memories, becoming stronger than Earth’s strongest Hunters had seemed like the ultimate goal.
Now?
Now it felt small.
The memories he had witnessed showed him just how vast reality truly was.
Endless worlds.
Countless civilizations.
Ancient races.
Powerful entities capable of destroying planets and reshaping stars.
Compared to that, Earth’s strongest experts seemed almost insignificant.
His destination no longer ended with Earth.
The cosmos itself awaited him.
The countless opportunities and dangers hidden within the stars.
That was where he intended to go.
Of course, before leaving, there were things he needed to do first.
His thoughts drifted toward Lyra.
The universe wasn’t a safe place.
Not from what he had seen.
If he intended to venture into that vast unknown one day, he couldn’t leave her unprepared.
He still remembered the hidden power sleeping inside her.
Whatever it was, he intended to awaken it.
Resources.
Treasures.
Bloodlines.
Artifacts.
Whatever was necessary.
He would find it.
That was another reason he needed influence.
Another reason he needed wealth.
Another reason he needed his merchant guild.
Because when the time came to leave Earth behind, he wanted to do so knowing his family would be safe.
With that final thought, he closed his eyes, a clear roadmap for the future was beginning to taking shape in his mind.