Chapter 1153: Plotting A Route

As Jason looked through that map, he realised just how much work Valeria must’ve put into her plan for the past few years. While living as a mercenary, Valeria had done her best to master everything she could about the Zeroth Domain and the world of mercenaries so she would be able to find Gregory easily, and now Valeria was using all of those skills to help him.

Jason realised that he needed to put in just as much work if they were all going to end this mission as quickly as possible. The two main reasons why Jason was doing this were for him to gain more power and for Valeria to find and kill Gregory. And Jason wanted to accomplish that as quickly as possible.

Jason put his hand on the silver orbs beside him, and the ship came to life.

[Welcome, Captain Jason Marc. What can I do for you?]

"I need a layout of the Zeroth Domain. Focus on areas with a high concentration of Primordial Rank Mana."

[Certainly.]

The screen in front of Jason suddenly became translucent as a large map appeared on it. The map had millions of dots spread out across the entire surface, and Jason immediately knew that those were all worlds in this domain. There were various parts of the map which were circled, and Jason narrowed his eyes as he studied them closely. Jason glanced down at the map Valeria had created and saw that the world she marked out as their first destination was inside one of the circles that the ship had drawn.

"Focus on that sector there. Around the world of Bal’ina."

The ship zoomed in on the sector Jason had pointed out, and Jason spoke to the system.

’Tell me everything you know about the worlds in that region.’

A tab immediately opened in front of Jason as the system began explaining the information stored in its database, and Jason listened calmly as he studied as much as he possibly could.

....

Later that night, Jason stood under the shower and enjoyed the hot water pouring down his skin. The ship was currently on autopilot in a very safe region, so Jason didn’t need to worry about them being attacked, and he decided to take a break and get some sleep for about one or two hours before getting back to flying again.

Jason let out a long breath as the water just fell over his body, and he stayed this way for a very long time before finally stepping out of the bathroom. The room Jason was staying in used to belong to Malovena. It was very clean, with a large king-sized bed and a window that had been magically manipulated with a rune to show a moonlit landscape outside. Jason put on a pair of trousers, and he was about to go work on the map for a little more time before finally going to sleep when he suddenly felt a magic signature coming towards his room.

Jason raised a brow as he realised who was approaching, and he turned towards the door as the person knocked twice.

Knock! Knock!

Jason told the person on the other side to enter, and the door opened slowly to reveal Stella. Stella had changed out of her regular maid’s outfit, and now she wore a black sleeping gown made from silk that hugged her body very comfortably. Stella had a ball of light shining in her right hand, and she slowly turned off the skill as she entered the room and bowed to Jason.

"Hello, Master."

Jason hummed at Stella’s greeting, and he asked her what she wanted.

"I thought you already went to bed."

Jason said this with a raised brow, and Stella shook her head.

"No, master. I’ve been trying to put the two children to bed for a while. They were still very tense from what must’ve been done to them in the past, but I managed to calm them down enough until they dozed off."

Jason hummed, and he gave Stella a small smile.

"Great job, Stella. Thanks for your hard work."

Stella felt a surge of emotions shoot through her body when she saw the smile on Jason’s face, and she had to quickly look away from Jason’s shirtless figure to make sure she wasn’t overwhelmed by her emotions. Stella cleared her throat, and she stepped into the room while asking.

"So, what is the plan, master? Do you have a destination in mind yet?"

Jason hummed as he leaned back against the table and reached for the map. Jason held it out for Stella to take a look, and Stella walked forward and looked through the various circles and lines that Jason had drawn over the map. It looked like an absolute mess, but Stella could see that there was a structure to the mess. Each line and circle had been put there intentionally, and Stella listened attentively as Jason spoke up.

"Valeria told me about a rumour she heard from a distant world called Bal’ina. Apparently, Gregory might have been there sometime recently. We’ll be going over there to try and find any information on Gregory’s whereabouts."

Stella nodded as she looked at the map again and Stella saw that Jason had drawn a pathway across five worlds before they would finally get to Bal’ina. Stella asked about those worlds, and Jason folded his hands across his chest as he answered.

"We need to refuel and also get some supplies before we get to Bal’ina. Three of those worlds are popular stop zones for travellers. We’ll go there to get what we need for the trip and continue on our way. The other two worlds are for training. There are powerful monsters in there, and I plan to use the Legion to get some more subordinates. From what I’ve heard, there are multiple Primordial Ranks in the sector around Bal’ina. I can’t fight against them using my current army."

Stella accepted Jason’s words easily, and she told him that it was a very good plan. Although Jason’s army was exceptionally strong, Stella knew that against Primordial-level beings, they would seriously struggle. So Jason would obviously need to get stronger subordinates. But then Stella asked about the two children.

"What are we going to do about them? They were taken from their world, and it’s all the way back in the third domain. We won’t be heading back in that direction anytime soon, will we? If you want, maybe we can find a mercenary group to smuggle them back home?"

Jason let out a calming breath before saying that he had already been thinking about this.

"It won’t be easy to take them back when we’ve already come this far, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to give a mercenary group responsibility for them either. There’s too many things that can go wrong with the sort of power the kids have. It’s best to just bring them with us until we can get back to the third domain later. They’ll be safe on the ship, so it’ll be fine."

Jason knew that the safest place right now for those kids was on this ship. If Jason took them to a mercenary group to try and send them back, Jason was sure that somebody would try to do something horrible to the little girl, and the little boy might get himself in trouble by saying something he shouldn’t. Jason would just keep them with him until he could return them safely.