Death... and me

The city also had a trading center where you could exchange your merit points. Rean and Kentucky went there, arriving at the center of the city where a giant building was located. Thousands of cultivators, demon beasts, and a few spirits could be seen exchanging their own Merit Points for things they wanted.

Kentucky then transferred his Merti Points to Rean, which now gave Rean a total of 20000 Merti Points to spend. Rean needed 10000 Merits to buy enough for him and Roan, but he had 20000 with Kentucky's amount. Thanks to that, he decided to spend all 20000 Merit Points in Serene Gold Filaments. 

He got to the counter, passing his badge to the worker there. "I would like to exchange all my Merit Points for Serene Gold Filament."

The worker looked at Rean's... or Goku's information and immediately changed into a respectful expression. Elemental Space Realm was still a very high realm, after all. "Yes, sir. Please, wait a minute."

He then checked Rean's Merit Points and was even more shocked. People at Rean's level were rare, but he had seen a few during the duration of the war. Yet, most of them didn't have more than a few hundred points to exchange. Yet, Rean had 20000! The worker even wondered if it was a mistake.

After confirming it wasn't wrong, the worker quickly left to exchange the Merit Points. Yet, he returned a few minutes later with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, Senior Goku. Serene Gold Filament is quite rare, and we don't have the necessary amount to exchange all your Merit Points. I can order the other exchange centers around the Devils' Territory to send their stock of Serene Gold Filament here, but it might take a day or two."

Rean didn't really mind. "No problem. For now, let me have whatever you have in hand. Just make sure you have the rest brought here."

"Understood," the worker said. "Here is the Serene Gold Filament we have in this trading center, a total of 300 grams. I have debted 3000 Merit Points from your account now."

"Thank you," Rean nodded with a smile and then left with Kentucky. 

Outside, Rean and Kentucky didn't leave the city. Instead, they rented a room in one of the temporary hotels and activated the formations that prevented others from seeing inside with their Divine Senses. Right after, Kentucky and Rean went back to the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm.

Kentucky looked at the Serene Gold Filament in Rean's hand and couldn't help but ask. "Do you really need all 20000 Merit Points to be spent in these filaments? You only needed a single kilogram before, no?"

Rean did really say that before. "Yes, one kilogram was enough for me and Roan. However, that was considering no mistakes would be made during the forging process. Until now, I only managed to make an arm, which doesn't work well without the rest of the armor. With two kilograms, I'll be able to try a few different things and have some spare filaments in case the crafting goes wrong."

"Besides," Rean continued. "I also want to make one for Luan and give it to him when he is back. Luan is truly getting very strong, even without the system's support. He will be of great help in the future, especially if he also has my circuitry formation armor."

Kentucky still couldn't take his eyes from the filaments in Rean's hand, though. "Ahem... if there is some remaining, would you mind giving it to me?"

"For you?" Rean was puzzled. "What would you need Serene Gold Filaments for? They are very rare and hard to work with, you know?"

"Well..." Kentucky didn't have any intention of crafting anything. "They seem very delicious..."

Only then did Rean remember that Kentucky also increased his strength by eating rare metals. And as far as rare metals go, Serene Gold Filament is definitely ranked close to the top. The higher Kentucky's cultivation gets, the rarer the metal needs to be for it to have any effect on Kentucky's body. Recently, pretty much all ores they have in the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm, including some relatively rare ones, have already lost their effect on Kentucky's body. 

The ones that could still help Kentucky had a very small effect. Considering their quantity, both Rean and Kentucky preferred to leave those metals there to be used in forging later than wasting them in exchange for almost no power.

Rean looked at the filaments in his hand and how Kentucky looked very interested in them. "Would these filaments make any relevant difference in your body?"

Kentucky immediately nodded. "Yes! I can feel the metal resonating with my Minokawa Bloodline. It should help strengthen my bloodline quite a bit. It's just..." Kentucky's expression turned a little sad.

Rean understood why. "It can make a difference, but you would need a lot of it." Since young, Kentucky always had to eat a lot of rare metals for them to make any difference. Growing up and getting higher cultivation only increased that demand. "How much would you need to make a tangible difference?"

"Some thirty kilograms... more or less?" Kentucky answered with an embarrassed tone.

"Go to hell!" Rean immediately put the filaments in his hand away. "Thirty Kilograms? I might as well tell you this. Even if we gather all the Serene Gold Filaments available for exchange during this war, it definitely won't amount to 30 kilograms. Didn't you see the expression of that worker? He had to ask for several other trading centers to send their filaments before they didn't have enough to make up the two kilograms I asked for."

Rean continued. "No, that isn't even the main problem. The main problem is the price! We would need 300000 Merit Points to be able to buy 30 kilograms. Do you really think there is any mission in this war where you could amass this kind of reward? Keep dreaming!"

Kentucky sighed in response. "Then... Give me just a few hundred grams, two or three hundred. I also helped to gather these points, didn't I? I want to feel the difference."

Rean glanced at him but nodded in the end. "Fine, that much I can do. But you will need to wait until the trading center brings the rest. I'll use these filaments here to start forging the new armor."

Suddenly, Roan appeared were Rean and Kentucky were talking. "Meanwhile, I'm going out."

Rean could guess what he wanted to do. "Are things that bad?"

"Probably," Roan answered. "The army is completely gathered here. That doesn't make sense. I want to see why everyone is so apprehensive. Something must have happened while we were out."