Regret

Once the negotiations were over, Alfred summoned his dimensional beast to floor 350.

The entire floor was several stories high and didn't have any rooms in particular. Since it was at the tip of the building, it wasn't as wide and humongous as the first floor.

Aside from the furniture and the large elevator that stuck out from the center, there was not much else here.

All the walls were actually made of reinforced glass that let in tons of natural light. These glass walls had a sound-proof barrier installed and were one-way mirrors. During the day, it wasn't possible to look inside even though people in the room could still look outside.

The place's appearance was like a giant and luxurious floating platform! It felt like an open-boat floating amongst the city skies!

[Name: ????] [Level: ????]

[Species: Dimensional Rhinoceros (Mutated)] [Grade: Transcendent, Mystical]

[Affinity:10/100 | Recent Changes: 10]

[Primary Skill: ????]

[Secondary Skill: ????]

'Two Grades?' Erin didn't know a double-graded monster was possible.

Because they were famous, Erin had heard of dimensional monsters. In his era, only Tamer's at the peak would have a dimensional creature under them!

Other than their incredible abilities, these creatures also had a natural dimensional space. The size and complexity of this space varied based on the creature's grade and level.

A higher level dimensional creature would have an exponentially larger dimensional space. There were some rumors too! Evolved dimensional creatures could supposedly store living creatures or dimensional treasures!

Dimensional monsters were extremely intelligent creatures. After its arrival, the rhino could sense that its master's wanted to be friendly with this young man. Thus, the monster was cordial to Erin.

Alfred took out the small device with the list of selected items. He had already modified it to match the final negotiations.

His beast then opened up a small dimensional portal. Alfred stared at the small device thoughtfully before throwing it inside the portal. This portal connected to the beast's personal dimensional space.

"Go to the clan's core treasury and redeem everything on that list." Alfred said as he gently gazed at his beast.

From Erin's eyes, the scene felt like a father giving his son their first errand. He wouldn't think this if he knew this beast was returning from capturing clan criminals.

The Dimensional Rhinoceros nodded before opening a large portal and leaving.

"Alright, it might take a few hours for little Rhin to return. Let's go down to the treasury and redeem your platinum." Alfred smiled. Alfred also transferred the 200 million Imperial Units to the account on Erin's orb.

"..sounds like Rin." Olivia muttered out of interest. "Is that the Dimensional Rhino's a female?"

"Of course, I raised her since she was a small baby." Alfred felt like a proud parent.

'That was a female?' Erin didn't say these rude thoughts out loud. His perspective earlier was completely wrong.

The group made their way to the elevator and headed down. The elevator did not stop until it reached B200. This was a total of 550 floors below their original location!

The treasury was deep underneath the auction house for obvious reasons.

If the auction house was ever under attack, it wouldn't matter much.

The most expensive items were not stored above-ground. The amount of protectionary measures in the underground floors was a different level. Also, only the headquarters had access to the security system underground. Nobody from this branch's staff or leadership had access to any part of the underground system!

It was extraordinarily rare for clients to be extremely near the treasure vault of an auction house. Even for high-grade transactions, they would bring the clients to floor B50 at best.

Thankfully, Alfred's status made this possible to be very close. Furthermore, this transaction involved a large amount of Dimensional Platinum. It was reasonable and, as such, headquarters did not intervene.

Ron handed the metallic contract plate to the treasury staff. Guards escorted the staff inside and out of the vault. The staff brought out 600 ingots of Dimensional Platinum on levitating trolleys.

Edward and Olivia walked up to these trolleys. They pulled out a locket that hidden underneath their torso clothes. Erin didn't even realize the both of them were wearing necklaces until they did that.

In that same instant, the two of them split the ingots into two groups of 300. They transferred the batches into their necklaces' dimensional spaces.

'Dimensional treasures?' Erin did not expect them to have this. Fortunately, he selected quite a few dimensional treasures from the list earlier. Otherwise, he would be incredibly envious right now.

The sight of their necklaces also reminded him of something.

He thoughtfully pulled out the necklace he had hidden as well.

When he first transferred to this new era, aside from his clothes, he only arrived with his metallic orb, his bag, and this amulet necklace.

With a push of a button, the amulet on his necklace opened. It was actually a thin locket.

It was a picture of Erin when he was a child. He was standing in-between his parents with a beaming smile.

In his hands, Erin was showing off his first crest.

It was old, and it looked worn, but it was his.

He remembered that his parent's saved a year's worth of their meager salary to get this crest. Even though they got it from the second-hand market, it wasn't easy for them.

They gave it to him before he entered high school. Mostly in hopes that he wouldn't get bullied for not having a crest at his age. Unfortunately, he was still marked as an outcast because of the poor quality of his crest.

Luckily, he still made a few honest friends during his time there. Not everybody was superficial.

Even though Erin was very careful with his crest, it still broke when he graduated high school. Its age could not withstand the passage of time.

Afraid of telling his parent's the bad news, he learned from his few friends that the Imperial Academy was having preliminaries on his home planet.

The most important piece of this information was that he could receive an identification object by simply attending! Even if he failed the preliminaries, he would still get to keep this object.

The preliminaries had rules to prevent people from taking advantage of this. Only recent high school graduates could join. This wasn't a problem for Erin since he recently graduated!

Although Erin participated with no expectations, he actually passed the preliminaries! This event was a big deal.

As such, it was broadcasted throughout the entire planet!

Unfortunately, his parents were working extra shifts. Otherwise they could have seen Erin's success live. Due to his very high ranking, he received the option to select his rewards. This is how he managed to fill his bag with supplies.

When his parents got home for dinnertime, their astonishment was endless. This revelation was simply too big for them to fully absorb! They had no idea their son was so capable! It was enough for them if he managed to enter a small college.

That evening, their small family celebrated until midnight.

The next day, Erin was bidding his parent's farewell as he boarded the Imperial Academy starship. The capital planet was very far, thus the starship was leaving immediately.

Before he was about board, his parent's tried to hand him their meager life savings. They knew that the expenses at such a prestigious university would be a heavy burden on their son. Although Erin wanted to deny it, his parents finally convinced him in the end. He thanked them a lot before finally saying goodbye.

He did not realize that this would be their final farewell.

Warp-drive technology was not yet perfect. The starship spent several months traversing space before that fateful day.

The ship was only three weeks away from the capital planet on that day.

When Erin thought back, he felt like it was just yesterday.

Because it was yesterday.

This entire moment felt like a short lifetime to Erin, but only a few seconds passed in reality.

Alice's saw the uniquely shaped locket that Erin was holding. It looked rather lovely to her. She also unintentionally saw the picture in this locket when Erin opened it.

"Are those your parents?" She asked softly. She could finally speak again after recovering from all those shocking events earlier.

"Yes. This is my only keepsake from them." Erin's voice cracked a little. He caressed the locket gently. They gave him this on the same day they got the picture professionally taken. His parent's splurged a lot on printing this tiny, high-quality picture.

Money was tight, so a high-quality camera was a luxury to his small family. In an era where technology reigned supreme, this showed how underprivileged they were.

Back then, the currency in his hands was known as the cheapest in the entire universe.

It wasn't always like that though. In the far past, the intergalactic conglomerate that created this currency was famous. It wasn't until it faced troubled times that things turned for the worse.

The conglomerate actually tried reducing its debt by creating more of its currency! This broke many intergalactic rules. When they were finally caught, the currency hyperinflated to a ridiculous extent.

Two million credits used to be valuable before this scandal. After hyperinflation, a persona needed that much just to get a small cup of coffee. The number was ridiculously large, but the value was extraordinarily small.

In the end, during this new time-line, this value changed once more.

Now, the life-savings his parents had given him have made him an indescribable fortune.

It was a pity that his parents weren't there to celebrate this lucky outcome.

"You look rather adorable in this picture." Alice said softly. It was her honest opinion.

Erin was too deep in his thoughts. He didn't hear Alice's words because his mind was somewhere else.

When he first arrived in this time-line, he wasn't willing to admit it. The thoughts lingering in the depths of his mind were constantly pushed back and hidden.

Though when he looked down at this picture, these thoughts couldn't stay hidden anymore.

His parents were dead now.

Everyone he knew before was dead too.

After all this time, it was impossible for them not to be.

Without him even realizing it, there were streams of tears flowing down his face.

He clenched the locket lightly. He carefully closed it before tucking the necklace under the collar of his shirt.

Alice felt horrible. 'Did I hurt his feelings?! I didn't realize he was so concerned about his masculinity.. I was just trying to compliment him..'

From a different view, Alfred noticed Erin's tears and got very worried.

"F*ck. Is he regretting our contract?" Alfred panicked.

This transaction would upgrade the status of his entire clan! They controlled many life planets. Thus, the total amount of people in the clan was over seven hundred billion people!

Seven hundred billion angry gazes. That's what Alfred would face if they knew he failed an opportunity to raise everyone's status.

He was hoping his dimensional beast, little Rhin, would return faster!