Chapter 1241 Multiple Cores
"Oh!" Ning's eyes widened when he finally realized what this was. "Dual Cores?"
It was the same as Princess Alena. "Is this how the princess got her Dual cores too?" Ning asked.
No. She was simply lucky and was born with two cores. Unlike someone using this technique, she had to suffer from no pain.
"I see," Ning said. "How many Dual cores are there in this world?"
92. Of which only 35 are in the Essence Manifestation realm and above with a single core.
If counting both cores above the Essence Manifestation realm, then there are less than 15 in total.
"I see," Ning said. "That is very rare. And you're saying these little ones can learn that."
Yes."
Ning smiled. That wasn't a bad one at all. "Can it be used by humans as well?" he asked.
Not this exact skill, but there is another one that does the same thing but for humans.
"Great!" Ning said. "I want both of those."
Two books were created in front of Ning, one for the beasts and one for the human.
"Wait, so Umbra can't use this, right?" Ning asked. "I assume she has too much Essence to survive the pain of having the Essence core split in half."
Yes.
"Guess that's done too then," Ning said. "Although we will have to decide what Essence it is better for them to learn. If possible, I would want them to learn Pure Essence. As for the other one, it might be better for them to learn Shadow Essence, so that they can remain a Shadow Puma."
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Ning tossed the beast's book to Emma. "Again, your responsibilities," he said.
"I know," Emma said with a bit of a pout. "You don't have to keep reminding me."
Ning chuckled a bit and flipped through the book he received. He went through it for a bit before his eyes narrowed in confusion and curiosity.
"System, am I missing something with this book?" he asked. "Why does it mention nothing about the dual cores? It only says that you can split your cores. Nothing about how many times."
That is because there is no limit to how many times you can split it
of the human. One's body can only handle so much pain.
also, since you cannot choose the core you want to split, you have "What?" Ning was surprised. "No limit? You mean we can split our cores as much as we want?"
Yes. However, there is a limit, not because of the skill, but because of the human. One's body can only handle so much pain.
also, since you cannot choose the core you want to split, you have to split everything at once
Splitting 1 to 2 is already painful and time-consuming. Splitting 2 to 4 is absurdly difficult for a normal human being to attain. As for 4 to 8, there hasn't existed a human in this universe that could do so.
Ning thought for a moment. "I can probably do that," he said. "But you mentioned something about it being time consuming. Just how long does it take?"
Ning flipped through the book to find something, but there wasn't anything there for him to find.
It depends on the person and his ability to handle pain. Normally, it would take a person over 2 years to split a core to 2 different ones.
Then to split those into 4, it would need one nearly 20 more years.
"20 years? That long?" Ning asked. "Shouldn't it be 4 years?"
The more damaged the cores are, the faster the splitting becomes. Because two cores need a lot more to be damaged than just 2 cores, it ends up taking a long time.
It is not just the cores that needs to be cut and split either. The Sea of Essence needs to expand to handle four cores, and that takes some time as well.
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Adding onto the fact that you need to wait for the core to be healed before they are damaged again, it truly does take 20 years.
"I see," Ning said. "Well, that's done with then. Let's move onto the next topic."
What was the next topic going to be? Ning foudn himself stuck a bit. He had an idea previously, but now that he had learned about splitting cores, things changed quite a bit.
"Alright, so I need to decide just what sort of Essence I want to gather, huh?" Ning thought. "Emma, what Essences do you want?"
"Uhh⦠any good ones? Sounds like I can have 2," she said.
"You can have 4 if you work diligently," Ning said. "I'm sure it will take you no time to reach that level. It will certainly take some time though."
Emma thought for a bit and asked, "Was it really fun being a regular person, going around this world?"
"Yes, as fun as it can be," Ning said.
"Hmm, then I think I will get the four basic ones. Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth," she said. "How does that sound?"
"That⦠sounds fine," Ning said. "If that's what you want."
"I'm sure that's what I want," Emma said. "I don't need the other fancy Essence. You can keep them."
Ning shrugged. "Sure," he said. "I'll use the other ones then."
Ning now had to decide what Essence he wanted. He was certain that he could get to 8 Cores by the time Emma reached to 4, so he had nothing to worry about.
He knew for a fact that he was going to get 3 Essences, none of which were Pure Essence. With 8 different Essences available for him to use, using Pure Essence still would be rather stupid.
"System, give me a list of all the different Essences I can use and I can absorb to reach the Divine realm," Ning asked.
The system gave him a list of Essences, which surprised Ning. There were a few there that he wasn't aware existed at all.
"Are you serious? We can use these?" he asked the system.
On a small scale, yes.
"What counts as a small scale?" Ning asked.
Planetary.
"Huh! Not bad," Ning thought with a bit of a chuckle. "Guess I'm using only the best ones then."
Chapter 1242 Final Stretch
Now that Ning had decided to learn 8 completely unique essences, he came across another problem.
Not a single one of these were easy to get. Out of the 8 he settled upon, one could barely find Essences to 2 of them in Astoria naturally. As for the rest, there was no way to acquire any source to absorb it.
Given the situation, he couldn't help but frown. "Well, this isn't fun," he said. "System, do you have any idea what I can do?" he asked.
There is an easy way.
"Go on," Ning said, surprised that the system said it was easy. If it was so easy, why was he struggling to think of any method?
Instead of absorbing Essence directly, you will pass it through a conduit and then absorb it. Depending on the conduit, you can absorb any Essence you want.
"Oh," Ning thought. "That sort of thing is possible as well?"
He had never heard of it being possible to absorb something through a conduit, let alone all of these unique Essences. "I have the Continental Sword. How many of these can I absorb using it?"
All.
"All?" Ning frowned. "Are you sure?"
Absolutely
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Ning frowned even more. "I know I tried to use Void Essence with it, and it did not work at all," he said.
The Continental Sword is capable of creating Void Essence, but the process for it is not as simple as just wishing it. Void Essence by itself is a harmonious amalgamation of many different Essences that erases any Essence that is present in it.
As a result, you cannot just wish to use it, but have to force your sword to use it.
"Ah!" Ning finally realized. "So there must be some technique then. Actually, I will be absorbing it, so it must be wildly different."
Yes.
"Alright, go on. Give me the techniques," Ning said. "I will have to absorb it when I have the time.
The system created 8 different books for Ning to use. Alongside that, it also created 4 different books, each for the four Essences that Emma was going to learn.
Then, once it created the book for the Shadow Puma cubs to learn Pure Essence, it was done. There was nothing more the system could do to help them. They were all on their own.
Ning wondered for a moment if he should create a new body to learn this, but after thinking for a while, he decided not to.
His current body was more than enough.
Ning settled down a bit away from the Essence pool and started using the technique to split his core in half. Since he had a body that was the best at any and all types of Energy, he could easily pull in Essence to cut his core in half. ππΞ½π’πππ²π·.π£π’π
What the System had said would take 2 years, was going to take him no more than a month, if that.
Emma's time was more boring than anything as there wasn't much for her to do here at all. All she could do was wait for the Essence to open up her Sea of Essence where she could form her core and then split it.
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She helped Umbra and the cubs try and learn about the techniques, but unfortunately for the cubs they were too young to understand anything.
After a day or two, Ning had to create small devices that repelled Essence from around them. That way they would be able to remain here for a long time without their body being affected by the Essence that was already here.
In a few years, they would be smart enough to learn a thing or two. At that time, Ning could even force it into their brain for what exactly they should do to make it an instinctual thing than something they learned.
Everyone there was used to being alone for a long time, so no one really cared how time passed. It moved on in its own pace and none cared for it.
Ning managed to break his cores into two halves and then fully heal them in exactly 1 month and 4 days. Then, he started the next set of splitting.
It was only a month, so the cubs hadn't done anything, and Emma for certain had made even less progress. She was in a place where there was the most amount of Essence, so there wasn't anything else she could do.
All she could do for now was wait.
Umbra on the other hand was the one that made the most progress out of all of them. With a massive Shadow Essence crystal in front of her and a technique that was the peak in Shadow absorption, she was making progress the likes that she wouldn't have expected her to make in the next hundred years.
She had been alive for nearly 200 years, and this was the fastest she had every absorbed any Essence. She had never even considered the possibility of absorbing Essence so fast.
In just a month, her body had grown by 10% or so. It was impossible for her to say just how big she would be by the end, but Divine creatures were known to be massive, so she was ready to be massive.
Thankfully, she could also change her size so there wasn't much to worry about at all.
Time passed even more and soon years passed.
Ning now had 4 cores and was in the process of splitting it into 8. Emma had formed her Sea of Essence and was on the verge of splitting it into 2.
Umbra hadn't reached the Divine realm, but she was incredibly close to it. Just a few more years and she would certainly become one.
The two cubs had started splitting their cores as well. As soon as they were done with that, they could start on their Essence journey as well.
Then, more time passed and soon an entire decade passed since they entered the Origin.
Finally, it was time for them to leave this place and start their journey all over again
Chapter 1243 New Destination
All of Emma's and Ning's cores were in the Physical Improvement realm and thus were low on Essence when they walked out. Because of how strong their body was from the start, they couldn't even reap any benefits of having superior physical strength at all.
Umbra had now reached incredibly close to the Divine realm and her two cubs were both in the 5 Sense Improvement realm.
The male cub, which was now named Lory, was around the size of an adult white cat. He still had the body and face of a cub and was technically still one, but he had the intelligence of a 3-year-old human.
He had a playful personality and would run around a lot, jumping around everyone when he wasn't learning something.
His sister, the female cub that was named Lyra, was slightly smaller in size than him. She was leaner and less playful than her brother. She mostly spent time with her mother, or on Emma's shoulders. ππ°πβ―π‘πiπ«.π§π’π‘
Never did she like to come to Ning's body at all.
Lory on the other hand feared no one and would climb up on anyone if he got the chance to.
Both Lory and Lyra had 2 cores, which were Shadow Core and Pure Core. They were taught to keep their Shadow Core visible at all times and hide the Pure Core.
Because of the possibilities that Pure Core gave one, they did not wish for anyone else to learn about them having it.
Just like the two cubs, Ning and Emma also used one Essence at all times as was possible, and the ones they used were the ones that caused the most underestimation.
Emma forever had Wind Core in the front. As for Ning, his was weirder, but he had Sound Essence in the front.
Sound was one of the weirdest Essence to exist for sure, but it wasn't the weirdest or strongest he had, so it was the one he chose to show.
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Not that it made any sense right now. He was unfortunately not able to use any right now as he was still in the 5 Sense Improvement realm.
He wanted to stay in the Origin for a longer period, at least until he reached the Essence Manifestation realm, but his daughter wanted to enjoy the life of a weaker Essence ranker, so they had to leave.
They now flew over the island that held the Origin. Ning swiped his hand in front of him and created a small map showing the 3 massive continents.
"Where should we go next?" he asked his daughter.
Emma looked at the map for a while and said, "Show me weak regions. Ones where the highest rank is Low Essence Soul realm."
Ning nodded and asked the system. Suddenly the map darkened with a bunch of locations lighting up instead.
"So much still," Emma thought. "Include only places where the average strength of the ones that actively absorb Essence is Essence Sense realm and above."
A lot of the cities suddenly dimmed, but the ones remaining was still a lot.
"Hmm," Emma thought a bit more.
"What is there is consider?" Ning asked. "Just choose one so we can leave."
"Wait. I need to start from a place that isn't really that bad," Emma said. "Oh yes, a place that isn't lawless or has a low crime rate."
A bunch more cities were erased from the bright areas, most of which were on the edges of countries and empires where the empire's law wasn't followed very much.
"Are you worried about something?" Ning asked. "I can protect you. Heck, you can protect yourself."
Emma shook her head. "In lawless zones, I am afraid I would get into fight with serious criminals that deserve to die. Unfortunately, I can't really find the will to kill anyone. This Will in me stops me from having such thoughts, so it would cause some problems."
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"I see," Ning said. He sometimes forgot that Emma couldn't hurt another human back on Earth. All she could do was watch in silence and let people do what they wanted to.
Ning doubted that it was the same here as well given that this wasn't earth and she wasn't this planet's will, but given that she was never a violent person, he could understand that she didn't want to be violent starting now.
She would remain the pacifist that she always was.
"Okay, now we have some cities that we can go," Ning said. "Let's go."
"One last thing," Emma said. "Only show places where Essence Beasts are accepted. Better if they actively encourage you have have one."
"Oh," Ning looked at the beast that were flying behind him. He hadn't thought about them at all.
He would have come up with something if they weren't allowed to enter the city, but making sure such a problem never came up in the first place was definitely the better way.
The map dimmed a lot more with only a handful of cities in each continent lighting up. Finally, Emma chose one.
"This!" she pointed at a location that was on the western side of the Blueflame continent, a city in the empire known as the BrightFire Empire.
Inside the BrightFire Empire, she chose a city next to the ocean that was known as the Trobble City.
Ning looked at the location of the city and shrugged. It was relatively on the outskirts of the BrightFire Empire and was thus a less well known city.
"Are you sure this is the one you want to go to?" Ning asked his daughter.
Emma nodded. "This seems to be the best one," she said. "Let's go."
Ning nodded and looked back at Umbra and the two cubs. "Are you all ready?" he asked.
"Yes," Umbra said and the two cubs nodded.
Ning held onto his daughter's hand and then reached out to hold onto the beasts. Then, once everyone was in his grasp, he closed his eyes to choose a suitable place for teleportation.
Once he found it, he teleported.
Chapter 1244 Trobble City
Umbra had sized down to about what was acceptable for a normal beast to be. She was no bigger than a big horse and was even ridable if need be.
As a beast in the Stellar Harmony realm, she didn't need to worry about others sensing her Essence and could easily pass as a normal beast that wasn't very strong.
They had teleported onto the ship and that felt like the most normal way to enter the Trobble City.
Ning and Emma walked to the front of the passenger ship and saw that it was being dragged by giant aquatic beasts all the way to the city.
The Water Essence on top of the Ocean was simply very strong. There was not a single location here that wasn't filled to the brim with Water Essence.
Ning couldn't help but wonder if there was any other Essence possible to be found here at all. However, once he got close enough, Umbra let them know that there were other Essences there too.
Soon enough, they could properly see the land.
The port of Trobble City was filled with many boats, most of which were fishing boats. The western side of the city was known for its fish market after all.
This reminded Ning of a certain city he visited on the planet of passengers started leaving.
Nulwurn, but this seemed a lot better.
"Woah! Look at all those fishes," Emma said, pointing at a small boat that was so filled with fish that any more and it would capsize under its own weight.
After a while, they finally arrived at the port, and one by one, the passengers started leaving.
Most of the passengers had no beasts, but there were also enough there that did.
Ning and Emma were around the latter half of the people that left, and they walked down the platform with Umbra and the two cubs.
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Ning held onto Lory, while Lyra slept on Emma's shoulders.
"Tickets and license," a man said with absolutely no enthusiasm at all.
Ning nodded and pulled out a few pieces of paper from nowhere and gave it to the man.
The man yawned and looked at the papers for a bit before his eyes widened. Finally, he bothered to look up at all. When he did, his eyes fell on Umbra and the two cubs.
"Quite the rare beasts you have there," he said. "Where did you find them?"
"In the Springwind continent," Ning said simply.
"Seriously?" the man said. "You've got some luck, young man. You can leave."
He tore up the ticket and returned the license before letting Ning and the others go.
The license that the man had asked was one that denoted that the beasts that were with them were properly trained and harmless in general situation.
Because of how dangerous it was to let beasts roam around in the open, in the continent of Blueflame, one was required to own a piece of license at all times.
Ning and Emma walked past the man, walking into the city.
The bustling city showed its face as soon as they climbed up the stairs and got a full view of it.
Emma's eyes widened in surprise. "Woah!" she said. "This is amazing."
Ning looked at Emma's smile and smiled hismelf. He understood the feeling of seeing a new and unique city that you knew next to nothing about.
As a Will incarnate, she could never really get that feeling back on earth, so seeing her eyes widen in surprise at this outer world was something he was more than happy to see her do.
Emma turned around at a sound and saw a man carrying a lot of fish in basket. She turned to the other side to see a woman walking along with a deer that carried a flower basket on ist antlers.
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A little kid held his nose from the smell that was ever present in a fish market, and a woman that ran after him so he didn't get too far away.
Emma's face was full of grin and happiness as she got to witness what she had been missing for a long time.
She got to finally understand the feeling of being ignorant. The feeling of not knowing what was happening anywhere. The feeling of not knowing who a single one of these people were.
This was the feeling she had been missing. This was the feeling that she wanted to feel, which was why she was annoyed with her father all those years ago to make him make her feel these feelings.
This was exactly what she had been missing her entire life.
"Amazing!" Emma said, looking around.
Ning rubbed her head a little. "You having fun?" he asked.
Emma nodded.
"Very much," she said with a grin that showed all her teeth.
Ning smiled back. "I'm glad you're having fun," he said. "But we need to leave. If we stay any longer, we are going to start smelling like fish."
"Oh, yes," Emma said and walked away with Ning. "Where do we go next?"
"That depends," Ning said. "What do you want to do here?"
"What do you want to do?" she asked back. ππΌΞ½β―ππiπ―.π«π’π
"I⦠let's see⦠I think I want to learn to be a Converter," Ning said. "Either that, or I want to learn to make various arrays with Essence. I have barely any idea how either works, so I want to learn those from scratch."
"Oh," Emma said. "That's not what I want. For now, I just want to go around and visit the various locations. Find the various places to eat, shop and stuff."
"I see," Ning said. "Then I'm afraid we will have to find a way to earn money."
"Can't you just create money?" Emma asked.
"Nope," Ning said. "Not when it involves something created through Essence itself. I can do nothing about those."
"Then what do we do?" Emma asked.
"There is only one thing we can do now," Ning said. "Let's go find a shop. I might have a few things to sell."
Chapter 1245 Beast Repository
While they wanted to find a good shop, Ning and Emma did nothing but walk around the city with barely any destination in mind.
If they found a shop in the process, that would be good. If they didn't, they would continue walking until they did without actively searching for it.
Going around the city in such a way quickly let them know about the situation of the city and what they needed to know about it.
The Trobble city allowed humans and beasts to roam the city as they wished. There were very few vehicles in the city and most of it was pulled by the beasts as well.
There were people that liked riding their beasts as well, but it wasn't as common.
There was an extreme rule on how strong one beast could be and at what point they had to leave the city as soon as possible.
As soon as a beast crossed the threshold of the Essence Manifestation realm and entered the next realm, they had to leave the city as soon as possible.
The general public would be in a lot of danger if such a beast were to ever go astray. Since there weren't many people in the Low Essence Soul realm, they were forced to not take the risk in the first place.
Anyone known to be purposefully violating this rule would be publicly executed.
Ning and Emma were surprised when they saw this rule painted on the side of many houses around the streets, ones that were the busiest.
"It's not a very well-managed city, is it?" Emma asked. "There is no planning at all."
"It is possible that the town existed and was prosperous before it was ever a city, so when it did become one, they were forced to keep the road the same way," Ning said. "I agree though. They should have planned it way better."
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Emma nodded as well.
Umbra had no input at all, and she was focused on letting Lyra rest, who had grown tired sometimes in the past.
Lory on the other hand was excitedly taking in the new location. For the first time in his life, he had seen more humans than 2 and he was more than excited.
After walking for more than an hour, Ning noticed a fancy building with a large sign that said that they sold anything and everything in there.
Interested, he showed Emma the building as well, and together they went up to it.
"No beast allowed inside," the young man that stood as security guard for the building said.
"No beast?" Ning asked. "Not even this little guy?"
"None," the young man said.
"What am I supposed to do with her then?" Ning asked, pointing to Umbra.
"Is this your first time in the city of what?" the young man asked. "Leave them in the beast repository. You can take them after you are done."
"Beast repository?" Ning thought for a moment. He had seen one before coming here. "Thanks."
He left the area and made his way to the Beast repository. "I'm afraid you will have to stay here," Ning said. "At least until I am done with my business back in that building.
"It's alright," Umbra said. "Go, I don't want to burden you."
Ning nodded. "Thank you," he said and brought Umbra and the kids inside the repository.
The Repository was bright and full of separate sections that were each designed to hold a bast. It wasn't like a prison or anything. If anything, Ning thought it looked similar to the car parking he remembered from so many years ago.
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There were many different types of beasts, all ranging from Physical Improvement to the Essence Manifestation realm.
There were various human figures that stood outside the sections to look after the beasts that were kept there.
He quickly analyzed the humans and saw that each and every one of them were in the Essence Manifestation relam, with one being in the Low Essence real.
Ning looked around at the varous other humans and none came close to strength as the single man in the Low Essence realm.
Emma pointed to an empty section and Ning brought Umbra and the kids there.
"Hey, brother," he spoke up. "My apologies but this is my first time using the repository. Would you mind telling me what I'm supposed to do and how much it will cost me?"
The man ignored Ning and Emma for a second and leaned to the left to see Umbra and the cubs.
"3 beasts in total?" he ased just to confirm.
"Yes," Ning said.
"Since the cubs are in the 4 Sense Improvement realm and the large beast is in the Essence sense realm, it will cost minimum 5 Water coins, with 5 water coins every subsequent hours."
"5 Water coins, huh?" Ning thought. It had been so long since he last used coins that he had nearly forgotten they existed even.
He had gone from the Paradise hunters to the blackhawk Academy in a matter of no time at all, and once in the Blackhawk Academy, they didn't use coins as all.
So, even when he thought he was going to be making coins once he hit the Essence Manifestation realm, he couldn't get to. After that, there had been the competition, and then his death.
It had been such a long time since he got to use it again.
"Do I have to pay it now or later?" he asked.
"Your choice," the guard said. "You will have to pay it depending on how long the beasts remain in our care anyway. If they need something more than just rest, you will have to pay more."
"That's fine," Ning said. "Umbra, you guys stay here for a while. I will go with Emma and try to set something to make some money. Once I've gotten the money I'll come back."
Umbra nodded and walked into one of the sections with her two kids. Once she was settled, Ning and Emma took a chit from the guards and left.
Chapter 1246 Selling Crystal
Ning arrived back at the store with Emma and this time the young man let them in without any hassle.
They walked in and were immediately awed by the size of the building.
They knew that it was tall from the outside, and maybe even quite a bit wide. But they weren't expecting it to go as far as it did.
This was no different than a supermall at all.
Various types of goods and services seemed to be sold here, all of which seemed premium from what Ning could tell.
"Does this sort of place even buy things, papa?" Emma asked.
"I don't know," Ning said. "Let's go find out."
He walked through the mall, going deeper into it before realizing he couldn't find a store that sold what he was trying to sell back.
Emma looked around with him but she didn't find any either. "Maybe we have to go to the upper floors," she said.
"Maybe," Ning said. "Let's go up and check."
The two of them made their way up the mall until they arrived at the shop they had been looking for.
An Essence Crystal shop.
Ning finally sighed. "Here it is," he said. "Let's go in."
Neither Ning nor Emma felt any different in the atmosphere around them, but they knew that if they had been in the Essence Sense realm, they would've felt it so easily.
A female attendant quickly greeted them. "Welcome, may I know what you might be looking for?" she asked.
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Ning didn't speak immediately and looked around to see what he could find there. Emma took his place and greeted the young woman.
"I'm sorry, we are not here to buy something," she said. "Instead we are here to sell something. Does your store buy Essence crystals?"
The female attendant hesitated a bit. "I'm sorry. You are here to sell?" she asked.
Emma nodded.
He tried to see if they were joking or not for a second. However, seeing the seriousness in either of their faces, the girl knew that they were serious and were here to sell.
"I'm sorry, miss. Our store doesn't buy Essence crystals from customers. We have our own suppliers and we only buy from them," she said.
"Is⦠that so?" Emma said and looked toward her father who was still looking around. "Papa, she says we can't sell here. Let's go find another store."
Ning finally stopped looking around and turned toward his daughter with a bit of chuckle in him. "Just because they are saying no right now doesn't mean we can't try and persuade them a little more," he said and turned toward the lady.
"Missβ¦"
"Dana," the girl said, showing the name badge on her chest.
"Miss Dana," Ning said. "I understand that you do not want to purchase something from two random strangers. I do not know whether it is because you think we are thieves that are trying to sell something, or you want to protect the reputation of your company."
"But let me ask you something. If by chance your higher ups find out that you refused us, and that we instead sold something very precious to the other stores. Would they let you be, or would they fire you?" he asked.
The girl wasn't sure what to say at all. This wasn't the sort of situation she was prepared to handle at all.
"Iβ¦" she tried to form some words to drive away the silence.
"How about you tell your higher up that there is a customer that is willing to sell something very precious and that if he comes to meet me within the next 2 minutes, I will sell it to him," Ning said. "If not, I will go to the other store."
"Uhhβ¦" the girl paused for a moment before bowing a little. "Please wait a minute. I will go talk to my manager."
Ning smiled at his daughter. "See, that's how you do it," he said.
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Emma frowned a bit. "Why are you showing off to a little girl like her? She practically went away because she was too confused to do anything else," she said. ππΞ½πΙπiπ«.π·β―π΅
"Eh? No, but I used my words to convince her to go find her manager," Ning said.
"I'm pretty sure she just doesn't want to deal with you," Emma said. "Besides, whats the point of lowering yourself just to sell something. There are so many stores. We didn't have to sell it here at all."
Ning pouted after hearing all that. "Why are you being so mean?" he asked.
Emma shook her head and sighed. "Is this what you do when you are out on adventure?" she asked.
"No," Ning said. "Maybe."
The girl quickly returned, and behind her was a middle aged woman with a stern face.
"Is this him?" she asked.
"This is the guest that wanted to meet you," the girl said and stepped back.
"I hear you want to sell something," the woman said. "Could you please not harass my staff just because you don't like their answer? We are not in the business of buying from someone we don't know about."
Ning was so taken aback for a few seconds that he didn't even know what to say at all.
"See? Can we leave?" Emma said.
"No," Ning said and looked at the woman. "You can reject me if you want, but the thing that I'm selling is something that your shop isn't selling at all."
The manager's footsteps paused and she turned around. "We sell everything."
"Do you?" Ning asked with a doubtful look and then turned toward the display.
"Light, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Sand, Mud, Steam, Explosion, Ice, Magma, Crystal, Moonlight, and Shadow," Ning said. "You truly have a lot of crystals here, but you do not have everything."
The manager frowned a little. "That is everything that can be found and sold," she said.
"If that is so, then what is this?" Ning asked, bringing out a glowing white crystal.
The woman looked at it for a second before her eyes went wide in shock.
"Lightning!"
Chapter 1247 Quality Check
"Lightning!" the manager shouted in surprise, catching the attention of everyone in the room.
"Lighting?"
"Where?"
"Is it Lighting Crystal? Hey, I want it!"
A horde of people quickly surrounded Ning and the manager, pushing even Emma to the side.
"Hey young man, are you selling that?"
"Let me buy it. How much do you want for it?"
"3000 Fire Essence coins. Please," another man shouted.
Ning's eyes never left the manager who started feeling overwhelmed by the people around her. "What do you say, manager? If you don't want to buy it, I'll leave your shop."
The manager realized that if she refused here, the customers that wanted it would be angry and most likely follow him to the other shop.
"Yes, I'll buy it. Please come with me to the side," she said before turning toward the customers. "My apologies. We can't sell the Essence crystal just yet without properly grading it and fixing up a price fit for something so rare."
The manager turned around and left with Ning to a corner of the shop where she took the lightning crystal and looked at it with closed eyes.
"Wow," she couldn't help but say. "This really is lightning crystal. Just where did you find it?"
"Somewhere," Ning said. "It shouldn't matter where I go it from right?"
"That's true," she said.
"And you can stop that poor girl from trying to learn about me and see if I have a criminal record. You won't find any," Ning said.
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The managers eyes narrowed. She wasn't aware how Ning had seen through what the other girl was doing. Surely their secret signal had not been deciphered, had it?"
"I'm sorry, but we have to check it," the manager said.
"Sure, go ahead if you feel like you have to," Ning said. "I'm just trying to stop you from being disappointed as there really isn't anything that you can find there."
"Please let us be the judge of that," the manager said.
Ning shrugged and looked at his daughter who gave him a weird face.
Emma gave him a weird face before looking at the manager who simply waited. "May I ask what you are waiting for?" she asked.
"Our analyzer," the manager said. "He should be here any minute."
A few minutes later, a man walked in with a scruffy beard and a haggard clothes. Anyone that didn't know him thought that he was a homeless man taht didn't know where he was.
However, seeing at the staff of the store weren't doing anything, they didn't say anything.
"What?" the man asked in an annoyed tone. "Today isn't shipment day, is it?"
"No, but we have a new crystal. I need you to check the quality."
"On my off day? Are you mad woman?" the man said.
The manager sighed. "Please just check it," she said.
"I don't want to," the man said. "Man I was having such a nice sleep and then they knock on my door. Do you not know how delicate my senses are. I can sense aβ"
The man's words paused before his eyes slowly widened to look at the crystal in front of him.
"Is thatβ¦"
"Yes," the woman said. "Now get your ass here already and analyze the quality for me."
The man no longer bickered and quickly came up to her and started looking at the crystal. He touched the crystal and a little and did something to it that Ning didn't understand.
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Ning looked at the process and was a little confused. 'What is he doing exactly?' he asked.
He is using a technique to absorb the pure Essence inside of that crystal. The lesser the pure Essence, the higher the quality of the crystal itself.
'Can these crystals not have other Essence in them?' Ning asked.
No. They form through years of coagulation of the same type of Essence and as a result they push away any and all Essence that aren't the same type. Only Pure Essence gets left behind along with it due to the Pure Essence having no attribute at all.
If there ever was a another type of Essence in them, it would have to be significant enough to fight off the force that the other Essence creates to reject it.
At that moment, it ends up becoming two different Essence Crystals that grow side by side.
Those sorts of crystals are extremely rare, to the point that there is currently none of it in the planet Astoria
"I see," Ning said thoughtfully. He looked around the room at the various Essence crystals that were on display.
"Whats the average purity of the crystals here?" Ning asked.
They range from 70% to 80% on average. The highest one is an Ice Essence Crystal that is around 87%.
Ning's eyes widened. "That's quite a lot," he thought. "I wonder what mine is."
The man focused on it for a few seconds more before he looked up with eyes wide as if he had seen a ghost.
"93%" he said softly.
"What?" the woman asked. She didn't believe him and quickly took the crystal from him and looked at it. However, unlike the man, she didn't know how check for quality of a crystal.
She could only turn back to him and ask, "are you serious?"
"Absolutely," the man said. "Do you think I am lying?"
"No, but⦠93%? That's very high, isn't it?" the manager asked. "Thats one of the highest quality Essence crystal we have received."
"Yes," the man said. "Now go sell it."
"Oh, we haven't purchased it yet," the woman said and quickly turned around. "Dear guest, would you come with me so we can talk about the price."
"Sure," Ning said and walked with her while taking the crystal from her hand. "Let's go."
Emma walked in with her father as well. The back room was for the staff, but Ning and Emma were allowed in and made to sit.
"Bring us some refreshments," the manager told a girl and then turned toward Ning. "Now, let us talk about the price of crystal and if possible where you acquired it from."
Chapter 1248 Selling
"I am not sure I can tell you where I acquired it from," Ning said. "There is no point after all since I took away all that was there."
The woman's eyes narrowed. "You took all? What do you mean by all? The entire mine?" she asked.
"Yep," Ning said. "Of course, I've used it all in one way or another. That is all that is remaining."
"Of Lightning Essence crystal," the woman inquired.
Ning smiled. "Maybe," he said.
"If you have anything else of the same quality, our establishment will be happy to buy it from you," the woman said.
"I would be happy to sell it too," Ning said. "If I had any."
The woman sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to give away if he had more of these or not. Instead, she focused her attention on the crystal at hand.
"For this, I can give you 4000 Fire Essence coins," she said. "Would you accept that?"
Ning thought for a bit. "May I ask what the conversion rate that is in this town?" he asked.
"Oh, you're not from here?" the woman realized. "Let's see. 1 Fire Essence coin is 3 Earth Essence Coin, which is 5 Water or Wind coin."
"Hmm? That is quite a conversion rate. Sure, I will take it then," Ning said.
"Papa," Emma quickly called out to him. She narrowed her eyes.
Ning chuckled. "Do you want to bargain?" he asked his daughter. "If you want, you can try it."
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Emma looked at the woman whose smile slowly lowered. She looked back at her father and said, "But don't we need more money?" she asked.
"Eh, we can earn more elsewhere," Ning said.
Emma thought for a moment and nodded. "If that is so then fine," she said. "Let us continue."
The woman finally smiled again. "Do you have any preference on which coins you want to get paid in?" she asked.
"Give me an assortment of it. I might have used for all of it," Ning said.
"Let me get the coins ready then," she said and left the room for a few minutes.
The refreshments were there and Ning enjoyed its taste for the time they were to wait. Emma drank the drink she was brought as well.
It wasn't as good as the juices from the divine fruits she was so used to drinking back at home, but it wasn't so bad either.
The woman returned a bit later and then pulled out a large plate on which she dropped the various different coins.
There were about 1500 Fire coins, 3000 Earth coins, 7500 Water coins, and 5000 Wind Coins.
Emma calculated quickly and nodded. "We have it all," she said.
"We do," Ning said and took away half of all the coins. "You keep the rest. Use it on what you want."
"Really?" Emma's face widened into a smile. "Thank you, Papa."
Ning nodded and looked back at the woman. "I assume our work here is done," he said to the woman.
The woman could only sigh and nod. "Yes, it is all done. Please don't hesitate to come back to us if you have more of such unique crystals or such quality crystals," she said.
"Sure," Ning said. "I will remember you if I ever need to sell something. Since I have nothing else, we will leave for now."
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The girl nodded and watched as Ning and Emma left the room.
Ning arrived outside and tried to walk away, but the man from before quickly stepped in.
"Did you sell the crystal?" the man asked.
Ning looked at the man that had just analyzed his crystal earlier. "I did sell it," he said.
"Do you have more?" he asked.
Ning paused for a bit. "I already let your manager know what I have. You can ask her," he said.
"She's not my manager," the man said. "I only offer my service here when I can. It's a strictly professional exchange of my ability."
"Oh," Ning said. "I assumed you were a worker of this shop. Still, I don't really have anything to sell anymore."
"Are you sure?" the man asked. "I wanted to know so that I could have some crystals to create a lightning weapon or something like that."
Ning paused for a bit and turned to look at the man with a confused face. "Create a⦠lightning weapon?" he asked. "Are you a Converter by any chance?"
"One of the city's best," the man said. "Well, I used to be."
The man's haggard look was enough to tell Ning that he wasn't very popular. He wasn't even that well kept after all.
Ning thought for a moment and asked, "As far as I am aware, which isn't a lot mind you, you need to have an Essence that is the same as the object you are trying to convert. If not, you end up losing a lot of it when it becomes a conduit."
"Surely you don't have a lightning core, so how are you going to convert the Lightning Crystal into a Lightning Essence weapon. In the first place, can you even do that?" Ning asked.
"No, no, I'm not going to convert the crystal into a weapon. That is simply impossible," the man said. "And it is also impossible for me to normally make a Lightning weapon, or at least one that is anywhere close to being useful."
"However, with the help of the crystal, I can do a lot more," the man said.
Ning thought for a moment. "I want to learn how to convert something. Would you mind teaching me that?" he asked.
"What? No, I'm not in the business of teaching stuff," the man said. "I hate that sort of thing."
"Hmm, that's a shame. I was hoping to pay you for your time with something that you definitely like," Ning said. "I guess we can go our normal way then."
"Alright, wait wait wait," the man said. "If you can give me something I want, then I will⦠teach you how to convert objects into weapons."
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Chapter 1249 Suspicion
Ning smiled. "Its a deal then," he said. "I'm a little tired today and want to go find a hotel to rest in. Why don't I meet you tomorrow so we can talk things over?"
"Okay," the man said and looked around his body, but couldn't find anything on his body. "I wanted to give you a card from my shop, but it seems that I don't have it on me."
"Just tell me what the name is," Ning said. "I will find it tomorrow."
"Okay," the man said. "Come to the Trobble Conversion shop."
"Okay, I will," Ning said and was about to turn away when he paused. "Wait, Trobble? As in the name of the city?"
"Yes," the man said. "The mayor is my uncle. Ah, I never introduced myself, did I? I am Byron Trobble."
Ning held his hands out for a handshake. "I am Ning Ruogong," he said. "This is my daughter Emma."
"Daughter?" the man looked to the side in shock. "But you look so young."
"Thanks," Ning said with a smile. "Now, if you will allow us to leave, we have a hotel to find to stay in."
"Why don't I show you one?" the man said. "There is one that is close to my own place."
"Does it allow beasts to stay too?" Ning asked. "I need one where I can keep my beasts."
"There is," the man said. "Come with me."
He hurriedly walked out Ning and Emma and soon left the mall. "This way," the man was about to walk away but Ning stopped him.
"We have to get our beasts from the repository in that direction," Ning said.
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"Oh, okay," the man said and followed them to the repository.
They walked to the beast repository and all entered the place.
Byron looked around inside the beast repository, cringing a little when the soldiers recognized him. He looked away and toward Ning.
"Can you get your beast quickly so we can leave?" he asked.
"Sure, she's right this way," Ning said and walked up to one of the guard with a chit and a few coins in his hands. "This is enough right?"
The man looked at the chit and the coins in his hands. He looked up at Ning, but his eyes saw Byron as well. He was surely curious why the man was there, but he said nothing.
"Yes, this is enough. You can leave with these beasts," the man said and let Umbra and the kids walk out.
Lory quickly ran up to them and jumped onto Ning's shoulders, while Umbra slowly walked out with the sleeping Lori on her back.
Byron looked at the beasts and his eyes widened in shock.
"Let's leave," Ning said and walked out with the rest of them.
Everyone else kept pace, but Byron very far back. His eyes were wide the entire time he was behind while occasionally a look of suspicion came onto his face.
He looked at Umbra for a bit longer before Ning turned around. "It seems you have a lot in your mind," he said. "Why don't you come out and say it?"
The man looked at Umbra and then at Ning before back to Umbra. "N-no, I have nothing to say," he said, but his voice gave away what he was thinking.
"If it helps, what you are thinking is correct," Ning said. "Are you going to complain to your Uncle?"
"Thatβ¦" Byron didn't know what to say. What he was thinking was something so impossible that he assumed that he was most likely wrong.
However, in Ning's words, one thing was for certain. The beast in front of him was in a realm that was higher than the Essence Manifestation realm.
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He was made curious about her because of her black fur and the fact that she was a beast he had never seen before. However, when trying to sense the Essence that she had formed a core with, he couldn't sense anything.
He could sense the shadow core of the two cubs that were of hers, but nothing from her at all.
There was no way that she wasn't an Essence beast, so the fact that he couldn't sense her meant a single thing.
Her Essence realm was one that he couldn't sense at all.
And given that he was already in the Essence Soul realm, she was most definitely in a realm higher than that.
He feared that it was most likely even the Stellar Harmony realm. However, he feared speaking up on it for this was a realm that would be treated with respect by even the Emperor himself.
And somehow, the beast was following Ning.
'Who are you?' the man couldn't help but wonder.
After arriving at a large hotel, Byron quickly spoke up. "My shop is there," he pointed at the corner of a road where Ning could clearly see the Troblle shop. "Come visit me when you can."
After saying that, he left.
Ning turned around walked up the stairs to meet with a guard again and asked him about what he could do with Umbra.
"A beast of that size cannot be taken to the room in the hotel. They must be kept over there," the man pointed at the side where a beast repository set up by the hotel was. "Those smaller ones, however, can be taken in."
"Thank you," Ning said and walked there with Umbra.
"Do you want to keep the kids here or in the room with us?" Ning asked.
"I can keep Lyra," Umbra said. "But Lory will want to run around, so it might be better if you take him."
"Sure," Ning said and held onto Lory. "You're okay with staying with us, right Lory?"
The young Shadow Puma nodded furiously. "Yis!" he spoke, butchering the only word he could speak right now.
Ning quickly filled up a few things, including his license before finally going up to the hotel.
There, he got themselves a simple room and went to rest for the day.
Chapter 1250 Hotel Room
The hotel room they received wasn't as fancy as they could've hoped it would be. In a world that lacked electricity and machines, this was the best they could have gotten.
The walls were plastered with something cement-like, covered in a layer of colorful plaster that wasn't exactly paint.
The room was not as tall as one could've wanted it to be, but Ning couldn't reach the ceiling even with his feet lifted, so that was fine.
There were 2 beds in the room, a table with a simple mirror. A place to keep your luggage and two chairs for people to sit in.
The size of the room wasn't big, but for 30 Water coins a night, this was enough. It went on to cost him around 50 Water coins a night if he were to include Umbra's price as well to keep her in the repository over night.
Ning and Emma laid down on their beds while Lory jumping around the room in excitement.
"Lory, don't break anything, okay?" Emma said as she stayed in the room.
Her eyes moved to window when she saw it start to rain. "Wow, the rain came out of nowhere," she said.
Ning closed his eyes and decided to rest for a while.
"What should we do next, papa?" Emma asked.
"That's for you to decide, isn't it?" Ning asked.
"But I don't know what I can do at all," Emma said. "I want to do something to push myself in using Essence, but I don't know what is even available."
Ning shrugged. "I don't really know either," he said. "We will have to find out tomorrow what we can do. Let's rest for today."
He had some idea on what his daughter could most likely do, as he had seen more than she hd, just because he was able to see everything.
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There was something there that he he thought she would like. But he wanted her to find it herself. He wanted her to have the fun of discovering it.
After resting for a bit, Ning got up. "You wanna go try out some cuisines here?" he asked.
"Uhh⦠they don't taste as good," Emma said. "I'm way too used to Earth's cuisine. It's fine. I don't have to eat at all after all."
"Nonsense. I'll check with my system if I can erase your understanding of taste. That way you can enjβ"
Someone knocked on the door.
Ning paused. "Who?" he asked.
"I'm a staff of the hotel. Would you like some treat from the hotel?" the man called out.
"Oh?" Ning's eyes narrowed. "They do that here huh?"
He got up and opened the door.
Suddenly, a group of people barged in two of whom quickly grabbed onto Ning and the rest gathered around them.
One quickly closed the door and one spoke to the two of them. "Either of you two shout and I will gut you like a fish."
"Papa!" Emma panicked a little.
Ning shook his head slightly to let her know it was alright.
'Did the Trobble guy find goons to try and rob us?' Ning wondered. 'Or was it the mall?'
'It could also be other people that saw what I sold or how much I earned,' Ning thought. There were many people in the store when he brought out the lightning crystal. Had someone followed him after that?
Because of his lack of Essence sense, he couldn't tell if anyone followed him or not just yet, so it could be possible that he was indeed followed.
"What can I help you guys with?" Ning asked. "You guys after my money?"
Someone knocked him on the side of his head. "Don't talk," he said. The man looked at this hand weirdly after hitting Ning. He hadn't expected Ning's head to be so stiff.
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He shook his hand a little and looked around.
"There's only one. I can't find the other one," another man said.
Ning frowned. Only 1?
"What are you guys looking for?" he asked with a confused look.
The same man knocked him on the head. "Stop talking!" he said, shaking his hand once more.
Ning glared at him and said nothing.
"Papa?" Emma called out, not sure what she was supposed to do. Should she fight? Should she use her powers? But her inner feelings stopped her from wanting to hurt anyone.
"Don't worry, it will be fine," Ning said.
"I told you to stop talking!" the man attacked Ning once again. But this time around Ning didn't sit there.
He went in for a headbutt himself, breaking the man fist in a single hit.
"Aagh!" the man cried out his pain as his fingers bent were completely broken and his knickles bled from the pierced bones.
"Wha-what happened?" Someone called.
"Stop moving!" another one said, holding tightly onto Ning, but Ning didn't stop anymore.
He kicked back at the man that was behind him, crashing him onto the wall behind him. He grabbed the other man that held onto him and tossed him across the room, making him crash onto the guy that on the other side.
Two men tried to pulled out their weapons and pointed it at Ning, but before they could attack, Ning pulled out the Continental sword and cut ther weapons in half. ππΌΞ½πππΓ¬π.π«ππ‘
The fire sword burst into a blaze, burning the man instantly. The earth sword turned into a large rock that crushed the man underneath it.
Ning created a barrier underneath the man so that the room didn't suddenly collapse on itself.
He then turned around and used his sword to create a strong gust of wind that sent everyone flying aas they were knocked back against the room hard and fell down to the ground.
Within moments they were all hurt and unable to move.
Ning then crouched in front of the man with the broken fist and held him up by the hair.
"I would like to ask you a few questions, so please consider not crying for a minute or two, okay?" Ning said. "I promise it will take a very short time."
:)