Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 723

Chapter 723: Lodge in the Sky
Ethan finished composing the notice and clicked ‘Publish’.

[Ding… Would you like to hide the publisher’s character name?]

Seeing this prompt, Ethan considered for a moment before making his choice.

“Do not hide.”

He knew that after the recent clash with the Reynolds Trading Company, the connection between him and the All-You-Need Chain Stores, while not yet publicly confirmed, wouldn’t stay secret for long. Specialized information brokers would be digging into it soon enough. Besides, Ethan was done hiding. Now that he was back, he was ready to operate out in the open.

[Ding… Club notice published successfully.]

“Hey, a new notice… from the All-You-Need shops!”

Someone spotted it almost immediately.

“Whoa, a five percent discount? This isn’t a quest, it’s a handout!”

“Look at the publisher!”

“NotADruid…?!”

“It’s the Druid God!”

“The Druid God is in the club?”

“I told you I saw him join earlier! You didn’t believe me!”

“What’s the Druid God’s connection to the All-You-Need shops?”

“I’d advise against guessing. This is the Druid God throwing us a lifeline. What does the connection matter?”

“Right, right, no connection at all. Who’s the publisher? I can’t see a thing!”

The club’s chat channel exploded into a frenzy. Players in the Northern Frontier Region felt a wave of euphoria. The Druid God had not only joined their club but was also handing out benefits. He hadn’t forgotten his fellow, struggling Druids.

Druid players from other regions, even other national servers, looked on with sheer envy, clamoring in the global club chat for Ethan to expand his chain stores into their territories. A five percent discount meant a clear half-a-percent profit margin for them on every resold item. Coupled with the express service window, which saved them hours of queue time, they could effectively run more orders per day. It was a game-changer.

Watching the flood of grateful messages, Ethan smiled. He knew his All-You-Need Chain Stores had relatively few locations per city. While they were in all three major hubs, each city only had one potion shop and one engineering shop. While their reputation was excellent, many players opted for convenience over quality, avoiding the trip to the city center. And Free Teleport Stones had a 12-hour cooldown. Ethan had his eyes on this reseller market all along. These Druids were his perfect courier network. Not only that, they would also be acting as an unpaid marketing army for his stores. The discount he offered would be easily offset by a massive surge in sales volume.

His next step was to recruit more labor and ramp up production. Otherwise, demand would quickly outstrip supply.

With this in mind, Ethan typed another message directly into the club channel, again with his name visible.

NotADruid: “Thank you for the warm welcome. All-You-Need shops are currently only in the three main cities of the Northern Frontier, but we will expand across the nation and the world in the future! Rest assured, I’ll have more projects for everyone down the line.”

His message sent the chat into another uproar. Looking at the scrolling text, Ethan knew he had just built a massive logistics network without spending a single gold piece, leveraging only his reputation. It was… an absolutely legendary deal.

He left the registry office with Lyla in tow, heading for the city’s Teleportation Circle. Lyla, seeing the pleased grin on his face, knew something good had happened. As an Archer, she couldn’t join the Druid club and had no idea what he’d just set in motion.

Whoosh…

The teleportation magic flared, and the two of them materialized in a small town. It was less of a town and more of an outpost, surrounded by wooden palisades.

“Ethan, why did we teleport here?” Lyla asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. This place was still a significant distance from the coordinates he’d given to Victor and the others. They should have teleported to the settlement nearest that point. Victor’s team had left a while ago and were likely almost at the rendezvous.

“Taking you somewhere. Come on, get on!”

With a shing of shifting form, Ethan activated Travel Form, transforming into a massive Warhawk.

Lyla gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide with excitement. “Ethan, you can fly?”

As she spoke, she leaped nimbly onto his back.

“I don’t just fly, I give rides,” Ethan said, the words rumbling through his avian form. With a powerful beat of his wings that kicked up a gust of wind, he shot skyward, carrying Lyla with him.

“Ah! Wow! So this is what flying feels like in Ethereal! It’s even more thrilling than being in a mech in real life!” Lyla’s hair streamed behind her as she shouted, squinting against the rushing air.

Hearing her exhilarated cries and watching the landscape blur past, Ethan’s mind drifted to his previous life. The same place, the same scenery. But back then, he had been the one shouting with joy. In that life, he couldn’t even afford a basic ground mount until much later, one that only offered a 40% speed increase, bought after scrimping and saving for ages after covering his basic living expenses.

It was in this very outpost, in that other timeline, that Lyla—though he didn’t know it was her then—had somehow gotten her hands on a two-person flying mount. She had taken him into the skies for the first time. He had been just as ecstatic as Lyla was now.

Ethan continued to climb, carrying Lyla higher and higher. After about ten minutes, a colossal, shadowy silhouette began to take shape in the distance through the haze.

“Ethan… what is that?” Lyla pointed at the looming shadow. From afar, shrouded in mist, the massive form looked almost like a storm cloud, impossibly vast.

“You’ll see when we get there!”

Ethan leveled out once they reached the shadow’s altitude and flew straight toward it. Slowly, the shape resolved into clarity. Lush, emerald-green leaves filled Lyla’s vision.

“A tree? That big? It’s beautiful! And those huge flowers on it… what are they?”

Ethan didn’t answer. He soon reached one of the tree’s upper branches—a “branch” that was easily over thirty feet thick, though it was merely a twig in proportion to the tree itself. As he landed, Lyla was left speechless by the sight before her.

“Ethan… how did you find this place?”

There, nestled upon the enormous branch, stood a small, intricately crafted wooden lodge. Its roof and walls were draped in vibrant, unknown blossoms.

“I didn’t find it,” Ethan said, his gaze fixed on the lodge, a distant, hazy look in his eyes. “You did.”

“I found it?” Lyla was taken aback. She studied his face, seeing him get lost in a memory. Her eyes widened with realization. “Ethan… is this a place I brought you to… before? In your other life?”

Lyla was the only one in this world who knew about his rebirth.

Snapped from his reverie, Ethan nodded slowly. “We made a lot of memories here,” he said, a strangely tender yet mischievous smile playing on his lips. He reached out, took her hand, and led her toward the lodge’s entrance.