[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 500 badass points]

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 600 badass points]

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 300 badass points]

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 200 badass points]

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 700 badass points]

  …..

  He was surprised by numerous ding sounds in his mind. "Was that badass?" he questioned himself.

  Baston handed over the pill and a transparent stone to Michael with a thankful smile on his face. This stone was connected to the pill through Arch Energy, the one who took the pill had to keep the stone in his/her hand. Each lie that comes out of their mouth would make the stone glow red and greed for truth.

  Typically the pill's effect would last for 5-10 minutes, considering this was an 85% pure pill, the effect would at least last for 7 minutes.

  While holding the stone, he felt a strange sensation in his brain but soon, the sensation disappeared.

  "Let's start with an obvious lie, shall we?" Michael smiled,

  "I'm a five-legged scorpion with thousands of beauties in my harem," some of the disciples and the soldiers chuckled. The stone soon let out a bright red color indicates the obvious. For everyone witnessing the scene, they thought that the pill was working, but Michael was controlling the signals radiated from his brain, hence controlling the outcome. The pill he took before he met them gave him this ability.

  When the red light dimmed, he said "now the truth, I'm a 5-star Alchemist who won Heaven's gate competition" this time, the stone glowed in green.

  "Baston, Celina, the pill is working, now you can start asking the questions related to Jane"

  "Huhu" seeing the cam look on his face, the baby dragon's pupils returned to their usual circular shape, Michael nudged the baby dragon's chin, waiting for Baston to question him.

  "Where were you for the last couple of weeks?" Instead of Baston, the one who asked the question was Celina.

  "In the Nether Realm" the stone shined in green, no one among the disciples looked surprised because they knew he was there, where else could he have gotten a baby dragon?

  Celina frowned, "Did you wish to harm Jane in any way?" the old man and the baron's men locked their eyes with the stone, waiting for his answer.

  "No I did not, after Baron came to me and apologized for her actions, I dropped that matter" Again the stone shined in greed, somewhat calming the volcano of anger inside Celina but not completely.

  "Did you-"

  Soon, when the stone lost its color, she asked another question but only to get interjected by Michael,

  "Look, I didn't kill Jane and I don't know who did it, I had no fucking idea that she's going to get killed. All of you are looking in the wrong place, now I think this is enough proof for you" The stone kept emitting green light, making everyone around him sigh in relief. His face lost the smile, instead, a cold look could be seen on his face.

  "Thank you for your understanding, Young Master Ghost" Baston bowed, giving an apologetic smile

  "Now if you'll excuse me, I have places to be" he threw the stone towards Baston. Gaya also took the same pill as Michael to neutralize the truth extractor in case Celina asked her to take the pill, but she didn't even look at Gaya.

  "Young Miss, let's go," Baston said. As they were turning back to leave, Micahel sensed the powerful entities around him who stayed hidden also disappearing from his Environmental scanning one by one.

  "The Holy Guard" Michael mumbled, he already knew the church is investigating Jane's murder, hoping to find Lucifer. He had heard about these holy guards from Gaya, even she knew so little about them except the holy guards are the church's ultimate weapon.

  Apparently the church worships two gods, the Sun God and the Water God.

  He didn't care much about this religious institute until now as he tried to avoid mingling himself in the petty religious conflicts until he could get to a stage where they can't touch him.

  But this had changed now, he decided to get more information about this so-called Church as well as the Holy Guards. After all, it was only a matter of time before Lucifer had to face this holy army.

  "she should have asked me at least one question" she felt offended not to be noticed by Celina.

  "What are you all looking at?" she shouted at the customers who were gawking at them instead of buying the pills and potions.

  They immediately turned their gazes away from her, they all knew her temperament and did not want to piss off this bad-mouthed girl.

  "We'll add new products tomorrow, so don't forget to bring your pay cubes" instantly her words caused a commotion among the nobles and the rich.

  "Miss, what are the new pills and potions? " one of them from the crowd shouted excitedly,

  "There will be Wisdom potions, Mind control pills, Elemental resistance potions, Perception pills, Hallucination potions, Camouflage potions, Enhanced Healing potion, and the potion you all younglings are desperately waiting for" she paused for a moment, staring at those eyes filled with anticipation

  "The love potions"

  "YAY!"

  "FINALLY!"

  "Hooray!"

  Half of the crowd immediately threw their hands up and cheered. Most of them were single guys, obviously. However, Michal noticed some old grandpas grinning devilishly which was creepy.

  Michael and Gaya laughed inside seeing the expressions on their faces. Most of them were thinking love potions would make their crush love them. However, the love potions don't work like that, the love potions would only work on someone if she/he already has some feelings for the other. Using the love potions was fairly simple, one has to put a single drop of their blood and make their crush drink, after drinking, the love potion would intensify the feelings for the other if one has any. For an instance, Celina had no feelings whatsoever for Michael, so no matter how many love potions he makes her drink, she wouldn't fall in love with Michael.

  However, it was a different matter for Gaya. During the nights, she would debate with herself to find whether she holds any feelings for him or not. It had been almost half a year since she started to be with him, he first rescued her from her fellow Nagas, helped her stay hidden, fed her, and more than anything, by curing her crippled cultivation, he saved her life.

  She felt it's natural for her to develop feelings for him but still, she wanted to make sure of it. Hence she secretly planned to use the love potion on herself. Of course, she still has not completed her plot as the potion required Ghost's blood, by asking him directly, she might get into trouble.

  "After going home, spread the word" Finally, Gaya shouted before leaving for River town with Michael.

  ***************************

  After the battle with the Netherels, the rumor had spread across the River town that this town is protected by Ghost, hence many people began to address Ghost as Ghost of River town.

  Thanks to the rumors, more merchants and adventurers began to stop by River town. Plus, the construction of the new fancy building at the place where Lucky Cat tavern attracted travelers and such.

  For those native River town people, the building the dwarven engineer was building for Ghost was nothing but a wonder in their eyes. Even though the workers didn't finish the construction yet, people could tell that it's a marvelous building that would raise the River town's prestige by many folds.

  Because of the frequent merchant, adventurers, and travelers visit, the local business boomed. The River town people thanked Ghost for their prosperity though he practically did nothing for them, he killed those Netherels not from but for him.

  "Hey, it's Young master Ghost!"

  "Young master Ghost is back!"

  "Good morning Young master"

  "He's sooooooo handsome!"

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 500 badass points]

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 600 badass points]

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 300 badass points]

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 200 badass points]

  ….

  People on the streets of River town quickly greeted him and Gaya with a wide grin on their faces. Just by walking the streets, his reputation earned him badass points. This was why the system kept urging him to take risks, explore the world, and engage in battles.

  "If this small town could give me 5000 badass points just by walking through the streets, how much would I earn in the big cities?" Michael's eyes glistened in glee.

  "Master Ghost, you're back" just when he was nearing the Lucky Cat tavern, he heard a familiar voice and turned to see the golden-haired girl walking towards him, carrying a bunch of iron tools in her hands.

  "How're you, Gloria?"

  "Thanks to master Ghost, I have no worries. Good morning Miss Aelia" She answered Michael with a bright smile and then, she greeted Gaya with the same bright smile.

  "What are these?" asked Gaya.

  "These are tools of Lord Fovar, I just went to the smithy to get them fixed" Michael recognized none of these weird tools, he had never even seen them before. His curiosity peaked to see the 3-star builder and the restaurant he was building for them.