57. Sultan

Miranda updates Jake on Haven’s projected D-grade lineup for the Treasure Hunt when an alert arrives: five D-grades have docked outside the Fort on a levitating wooden ship. Phillip boards to parley, confronting the guests’ overwhelming auras while awaiting Jake.

Jake arrives and meets the leader, a refined merchant calling himself Sultan, accompanied by four newly minted D-grade women. Identifying them, Jake notes Sultan’s far higher level and likely Perfect Evolution. Sultan publicly greets Jake, then raises a privacy barrier and implies he sought Jake specifically, citing divine gossip about the Malefic Viper’s Chosen and a Progenitor on Earth.

Over tea, Sultan offers his services and potential trade, including interest in accessing Jake’s System Store and coordinating for the Treasure Hunt. A poisoned teapot is presented—framed as a courtesy for an alchemist—yet Sultan compels one bodyguard, Gabi, to drink. She collapses in agony as the poison ravages her, while Sultan remains composed.

Sultan explains Gabi’s past as a talented healer-alchemist who murdered her parties, later sold from Sanctdomo into his service. He confirms she and the other three bodyguards are enslaved criminals, and openly admits to narcissistic sadism and tailored punishments. The meeting ends with Sultan maintaining his trade overture while exposing his ruthlessness, leaving Jake with a potential but ethically fraught partnership.