Chapter 1291 Night Time
Ning gave the boy a book to read but was surprised as equally he was frustrated to learn that the boy could not read at all. He thought of making a simple artifact to teach him every and all language he ever came across. But it would be better if the boy learned to read the natural way. It wasn't like he would have much to do for a while. So, while he taught the young boy how to split one's core into two, he also taught him how to read.
They were in a tavern on the outer ring of the Ulharis city, staying there for a while before finding some permanent residence. Ning wanted to buy a house or a store and see what he could do.
Since Converting cost nothing to make for him, he wanted to do that. Open a weapons and armor store, items of which would all be made by him.
He sat on the plastered floor of the tavern, showing the young Hadden how to read a certain letter. "That's an E," he told him. "No, not I, that's this one. E ends up being pronounced A, and I E. Yeah I know, it's confusing."
As he taught, the door opened up and Emma walked in with the two Shadow Puma cubs in two beside her feet. Lyra walked next to Emma to the bed. while Lori jumped onto Ning's gut, crouching in his embrace, looking at what Hadden was doing."
"What do?" he asked.
"He's studying to read," Ning said. "Don't disturb him."
Hadden looked at his teacher with a confused look, wondering why he was responding to a beast's purrs. He couldn't understand the beast himself.
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"What is he learning? To split his core?" Emma asked, looking over.
"No, he's learning to read," Ning said. "He can't read."
"Oh," Emma said and then remembered where the boy came from. "I guess that makes sense."
"So, how did it go?" Ning asked Emma. Hadden stopped to look back, no longer focused on his studies.
"The entrance exam is in 6 days," she said. "I registered myself. In the next 6 days, I will need to find a beast to take the test with. They mistook me for a 15-year-old so easily. That was something."
"So everything is set?" Ning asked.
"Not really," Emma said. "I'm still concerned about the beast thing."
"Why?" Ning asked. "You already have Umbra and Lori and Lyra."
"Yeah, but I can only choose one," she said. "And there are rules and regulations. I can't take with me anything with more than the Essence Sense realm at the best. That cuts out Umbra from entering."
"So I only have Lori and Lyra, and I cannot decide which one to take with me. Whichever one I take will be away from their mother for most of their time there," she explained.
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Ning thought for a moment. "That's certainly troublesome," he said. "I would say take Lyra with you since she's so close, but Lori is the more⦠active one, so he would be a better fit." "That's the conundrum," she said. "I thought of asking Umbra too, but it doesn't feel right to ask a mother which child she wants to part with. It just doesn't sit right with me."
"Choosing without taking in her input will sit worse with you. Talk to her, tell her everything," Ning said. "Then take the ones that are more excited. They should have a say in this too."
Ning caressed the cub that was in his lap. Emma slumped back on the bed. "Well, I have a few days to choose. I'll do it by then."
Night fell soon enough. It had been late when they had arrived, and with Hadden so tired from the journey, as soon as he was done with his dinner, he went to sleep.
Emma slept too, although she wasn't fatigued. Ning on the other hand didn't sleep. Instead, he planned what he was going to do for the time he was in this city.
He found it better to plan after he knew the city well enough. So, late at night, he left the tavern room to go check the city.
Although it was night, the city was bustling with night merchants shouting all around the streets. There were more and more shops as he entered the inner city. The night city was bright with Essence lights that hung outside every building.
This reminded him of that night when he had gone to Whiteowl City with Kaleb and Tenn. He laughed a little when he remembered being taken to the pleasure district. The memory was endearing now.
He wondered what the two of them were doing at this time. It had been over a decade since he last saw them, so he grew curious. He could of course find it immediately if he wanted to, but he had found throughout the ages that not knowing, the mystery of it all added a flavor that knowing just couldn't produce.
He let go of the thought after a while and made his way to the shop he noticed. King's Gems, the shop was called. It was a shop that sold Essence weapons, armor, and shields. Exactly the sort of things Ning was looking forward to.
He needed to understand the market if he wanted to sell things. He entered the bright white hall with a chandelier in the ceiling glowing with white orbs of light. The shop was mostly white and gold, even the staff working in it dressed the same.
And they were dressed splendidly. This was a fancy shop, and he had come here dressed as he was. Dirty and poor were the only two things one could think of when someone saw them.
'I should've changed,' he thought. He hoped this didn't go where he thought it would go. He sighed for a moment and went on to watch everything that was shown in the shop.
Everything the shop had to sell was hung on the walls around him. Ning just had to observe and learn.
Chapter 1292 Darrel
Ning was surprised to find that the weapons that were sold in the King's Gem were all fancy-looking. They seemed to hold style, for something whose substance was the main point of owning it.
There were curved blades with ridged edges that made them look fancy. Spears with twisted handles. Axes that looked as if it had been an artifact taken straight out of a world full of Qi or Mana.
There was armor with faces of wolves and lions and other beasts on its front. There were shields with complex designs on the front that looked like sigils or insignia. Everything had a touch of art to it, that was completely unnecessary for the items to be used. 'So they decided to stand themselves out by using art to draw in customers, huh?' Ning thought to himself. But there was something else that concerned him.
Unless he was wrong, he could see that the prices of everything had been higher. Higher than what he was used to seeing back in Byron's store at least. By 20% or more at that.
"Can I help you with anything, sir?" a person came up to Ning. Ning looked to the side and saw a man in his early 20s standing next to him, wearing the white and gold of the King's Gem. He was a staff member.
"Hi," Ning said. "I'm just looking around. You don't have to bother with me."
"It's alright, I'm not bothered," the young man said. "Do you have in mind what you want? We have everything you could want. There are more in our warehouse if you're looking to buy some cheaper ones. Or we can customβ"
"No, I'm not here to buy," Ning said quickly. "I'm simply here for to see how much these weapons are sold for here."
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The young man looked half confused and half surprised. "Can I ask what you are going to do with this?" he asked. π»πΌππππ―π¦π«.ππ’π
"Open my own business," Ning said with a smile. "This could be considered scouting my competition, I suppose. Is this not allowed here?"
"I⦠don't know," the boy said with a frown. "This sort of thing doesn't happen here." He considered if he should be sending Ning out or if he should be calling a higher-up. They would know what to do.
"Oh," Ning said. "Anyway, my daughter is entering the institute soon, so I needed something to do for the time being. I decided to open a store like this. Although I doubt mine will be this big."
"My best wishes to you daughter," the young man said without thinking before pausing. He looked at Ning again, his face full of youth. The young man thought for a moment as to what he had just heard.
'His daughter?' he thought. He wasn't sure how that could be possible. But that was not something he should be concerned about right now. "I assume you are a merchant," the man asked. He knew not to judge a man by the clothes they wore.
Besides, if he was here to scout, he would do so in clothes that didn't make him truly stand out.
"Merchant? No, not me," Ning said. "I'm a Converter. That's why I wanted to start my store."
"Oh!" the man said in surprise before quickly lowering his voice. He looked to the side and dragged Ning toward the side. After looking around to see if anyone was paying attention, he spoke in a low voice.
"You would be better off joining one of the four stores as their Converter then," the young man said. "The work is slightly harder, but the pay is not bad. Opening your own store⦠I'm afraid these four beasts will devour you."
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Ning looked at the young man with curious eyes. "Four beasts?" he asked. "Four stores I presume. Care to tell me what they are?"
"The King's Gem, the Sun's Love, Ember's Tear, and Knight's Gear," the young man said. "They have a monopoly on the market. I would suggest you don't try to open one since you'll never get better than them."
"Oh," Ning said with a surprise. He wasn't surprised that there was a monopoly. That sort of thing would be normal anywhere. He was surprised that the young man was helping him.
"What's your name, if I may ask?"
The young man looked surprised but spoke in the end. "Darrel Brown," he said.
"Darrel," Ning said, landing a hand on his shoulders. "If you ever find yourself in need of a better or less constricting job, find me. I'll give you one."
The man frowned. "Are you not listening to me?" the young man asked. "Many have tried what you have, and all have failed.
"All are not me," Ning said walking forward with the young man in tow. "Does your shop buy weapons? Or appraise them at least?"
"We have an appraiser in the back. Do you have a weapon to sell?" the young man asked.
Ning pulled out a blade he had been making on his way to the city, a blade of gold and white. A Light blade, one that shined brighter than most others. The young man wondered how much light he packed into this blade. He could tell Ning's Essence rank was still low, but this seemed better than what he should have been able to make.
The amount of light in the blade seemed nonsensical. And the young man would be correct. The amount of Essence Ning had put into the blade had not just come from a single core of an Essence sense rank individual, but one from 8 different such cores. That too while constantly absorbing Essence on top of it.
Even an Essence Manifestation realm Converter would have to force his all to make such a thing. That made the blade he made quite precious.
Ning moved the blade slowly in front of him, soft light trailing behind each stroke. "I want to find out what a blade like this would be worth," he said. "That's possible, isn't it?"
Chapter 1293 Around the City
A man walked out after Darrel asked for him and took the blade with him to the back. These sorts of things happened all the time, so the man didn't even think to look at Ning before returning to where he came from.
Ning looked around the room, waiting, and looked at the prices again. "Aren't these all pricey?" he asked. "Having a fire sword going for 200 Fire Coins. You would find something like that in a normal store at about 150."
"The price them what is normal," the young man next to him said. "It is not too pricey, especially given the design. Our converters work hard for that."
Ning couldn't disagree. Although it was just design, and he found that not necessary, he could understand how that could come to cost so much. But still, he couldn't understand how that went past 175 or 180. 200 was just too much. "That's what the price for such a thing is these days," the man said. "We can't do anything about it."
Ning frowned a little. In the end, he shook his head. He couldn't tell them how to run their business.
The man returned a moment later with a clearly surprised look on his face and finally looked at Ning, judging him closely. He even wondered if the man had stolen the blade, but that was not something he could say out loud. "May I ask where you acquired this sword?" he asked Ning.
Ning looked at the man, judging his expressions before answering truthfully. "I made it myself," he said. He watched the man's expression change from shock to confusion to doubt and back to shock.
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"You made this?" he asked.
"Yes," Ning said. "But⦠" the man looked at Ning. More especially, he looked at his core. He couldn't recognize the Essence in the core at all. Was that the next the man would ask him to join them, as the young man had?
"This is incredible, young sir," the man said. "Would you like to join us?" "No," Ning said. "I have no plans on joining any shop. Please give me your evaluation of the sword."
"It's incredible," the man repeated himself. "There's nothing else I can say about it. Its sharpness is flawless, and its durability is amazing. While there is something to say about the extent of its flexibility, it's still realms beyond what a regular converter could make."
"You sir are talented if you made this."
"That's a product of training," Ning said. Hundreds of thousands of years of training, but he didn't say that part.
The man thought of ways to get Ning to work for them, but Ning spoke before he could say anything else. π·π€Ξ½ππππ¦π£.π»πο½
"So?" he asked. "How much will I get for it?"
"1000 Earth Coins," the man said. "We can negotiate further if you wish to."
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Ning thought for a bit. Every place had its own conversion rate for its coins, but given that it was a regular location, he guessed that a 1000 Earth coin would be around 300 Fire coins. That wasn't so bad when he thought about it. "Sure, I'll take that," he said. It was a pitiful amount for what he already had, but not nothing.
The man brought out the coins from his storage ring and placed them in front of Ning to do the transaction. After finishing, the man wanted to ask Ning to stay so that they could talk about some job opportunities, but Ning left before they could stop him.
Once he was out, he went on a tour of the city, to look through the rest of the things. After an hour or so, he came to understand a bit more about the city.
The city of Ulharis was divided into 3 sections.
The first area was the Core, which was where the Governmental buildings were situated, and the Star Beast Institute had its ground. It was a massive area that took over acres and acres of land.
The second section was the inner city. It was in a sense the commercial district, with an assortment of shops available there, but people lived there too, mostly the rich ones. The regular people lived in the outer city, the location where Ning was staying in a tavern currently. It was an amalgamation of all sorts of people and places. It was also the place where their food grew and cattle went to graze. None of the sections have physical walls separating them. If any, those would be large circular roads that went around the city. Even that wasn't a good enough distinction and what you found in one section could be found in the other ones.
Ning took his new money and went around buying food and clothes for himself and for the kids. After he bought what he wanted, he went looking for the other 3 shop names that he had heard.
To his surprise, he came across another King's Gem before he came across any of the other shops. "He wasn't lying when he said they have a monopoly. They have multiple shops in the city?"
Sure the city was big, but certainly not that big. Ning walked into that shop for a few minutes to check something. As expected, the prices here were the same as well.
He found the remaining shops a while later and went through them all. The prices were all the same here as well. Everything was overpriced, all for the sake of design.
'That's fine and all, but where are the regular shops, for regular people?' he wondered. He found some a while later, on the edge of the inner city, and not a single one had customers like the big shops.
The outer building was in shambles, the stairway up to the shop itself broken in parts. The colors were drab and there were no Light signs to let anyone know this was a shop.
Ning had nearly missed the shop because of that. As for the inside, he decided to check how that was as well. So, he walked up the stairs and went in.
Chapter 1294 Heeran's Love
Ning walked into the store with only the glow of the weapons and armor giving light to it. The store was narrow, ceilings barely a jump away from his arms when extended upwards, the walls not even 3 meters apart. There was a small bed at the end of the room where a woman lay, half asleep.
Her eyes widened a little at the sight of Ning and she got up slowly. "Are you looking for something?" she asked.
Ning looked at the old woman who seemed to be in her 50s. "Hi, I was just looking around. I'm sorry if I woke you up," he said.
"Looking around? If you're not here to buy anything then leave," she said, getting back on her bed.
Ning could only give an awkward smile at that. "Alright, I'll buy it," he said. "But I was also hoping you could answer a few questions of mine." He looked around the room as he said that. π·π€Ξ½πΙbπ¦π.ππ’π
The weapons and armor that covered the walls dazzled, but none as bright as he hoped to see them. Most were old and unbonded for a long time, losing their Essence slowly as the craftsmanship for them was lackluster. The design was normal, maybe even a bit too⦠monotone. Every sword seemed the same, every armor the same pattern. There was no diversity. It was the complete opposite of what he had seen from the other shops.
"What do you want to buy?" the woman put on her slippers and walked toward the wall. "Everything will cost you 100 Fire Coins here."
Ning looked at her in surprise. "Everything?" he asked. "The Fire sword costs the same as that Wind Dagger?"
"Yes, now choose," the woman said. There was no enthusiasm in her at all. She didn't care much at all.
Ning looked somewhat confused. He picked a fire sword and the woman brought it down from the wall. "May I ask why the prices are the same all around?" he asked.
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"Because I don't care enough to make an effort to know what each one should cost," the woman said. "I don't know much about these things. I only sell them."
She waited for Ning to bring out his money to hand over the sword. But Ning delayed it a bit. Instead, he spoke again. "Do you mind telling me how much you earn in this place? How many sales do you get?"
The woman frowned a little. "Why do you ask?" she questioned. "Are you buying or not?"
"I am, but I would like it if you answered it," he said, reaching into his storage to find the coins.
The woman simply shrugged. "I'm lucky if I sell 1 a month," she said. "Enough for old me when I do."
"That's enough for you?" he asked. "You run a business here. How do you go by with barely selling a single one?"
"I don't have anything else to do," the woman said. "And I can't exactly leave this place."
Ning looked around just as the woman did. He continued looking for a moment before coming to a conclusion. This wasn't a bad place to have.
"What would you say if I told you I wanted to buy this shop?" Ning asked.
The woman looked back at Ning with a slightly confused look on her face. "Buy this place?" she asked. "Why would you do that?"
"I was looking for places to open my own shops, andβ"
"You're not someone sent by those bastards, are you?" the woman asked. "I told you all already, I'm not selling this place. God, I thought you guys stopped the last time I made it clear."
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Ning paused for a second before continuing. "I believe there's been a mistake. I'm not who you think I am. I only came to the city today for my daughter who is entering the Institute, and I was looking for a job while I was here. I just wanted a shop to sell what I make in."
The woman was taken aback. "I see," she said softly. "You shouldn't bother with a shop. They will force you to close it anyway. If you know how to make this thing, go to their workshop. I hear the pay is not bad, and you'll have something to do."
"No, I went through them," Ning asked. "I don't like how they work."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"I just don't like the way they're doing things," Ning said. He looked at the walls. "I don't believe things need to look pretty for them to be usable, and those shops only seem to sell ones that look good."
He heard a chuckle and turned around. The woman was smiling this time around, her frown from before vanished. It was a beautiful smile.
"I don't think you are right," she said, smiling as if reminiscing something. "Human beings are greedy, possessive, competitive. They only want what's best for themselves, and at that beauty is one of the greatest."
"I do not believe that just because something has one purpose, its beauty cannot serve another purpose," the woman said. "Everything has its own place."
Ning looked at her and gave a thoughtful expression. "You're right," he said. "Maybe I'm being a little hateful on their business strategy for no reason."
The woman nodded. "That being said, my husband would have absolutely slapped you on the shoulder right now, calling you a kindred spirit like him," she said. "He believed exactly what you believe."
"Your husband?" Ning asked.
The woman nodded. "He's been dead for a decade now," she said. "This used to be his shop. We never had any children, so he called this shop his only child. I've been looking after his child since he passed away."
"Even when the big shops came knocking on our door, giving silent threats to make us stop one way or another, he didn't buckle. After his death, I am now the sole person that keeps it going. His child is my child now."
Ning couldn't help but smile. "What is this shop's name?" he asked.
"It's named after my husband," she said. "It's called Heeran's Love."
Chapter 1295 Plunge
Ning felt a little conflicted about buying this woman's shop now. He couldn't take away from her what she considered a child.
"It's a nice name," he said. "Although, it would seem that I now have to go look for a place for my shop elsewhere. You wouldn't happen to know where one would be, would you?"
The woman shook her head.
"I see," Ning said. "Thank you though. Thank you for the sword and the story. Good night."
He turned away. As he walked down the steps, he heard the woman call him.
"Young man, stop!" Ning paused his steps and turned around. "Yes?" he asked. "Did you need something? I didn't forget to pay, right?"
"No, you've paid," the woman said. "I wanted to ask something."
"Sure, ask away," Ning said.
"Do you want a job?" the old woman asked.
Ning was taken aback for a second. "I'm sorry?"
"A job," the woman asked again. "In my shop."
"I am hoping to open a shop so I don't exactly have to listen to others," Ning said. "So I'm not interested in a job."
"It's less of a job, and I won't be your boss," the woman said. "I employ you to take care of my shop. You do everything you want the way you want. You sell what you want. You keep what you earn."
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"I only ask for 150 Fire Coins a month as rent, and that the name of the shop not be changed at all. How is that?"
Ning thought for a moment. "Can I employ other people too?" he asked.
"Yes," the woman said. "Any and all staff will be yours to handle."
Ning still rubbed his chin as if considering the proposition. "Why me?" he asked.
The woman shrugged. "I'm too old for this, and the shop barely sells anything. But I can't just let go of my husband's dream and rarely do I find something that has the same philosophy as him. So, I'm taking my chances," she said. "Plus you seem to know what you're doing with the weapons. So, do you accept or not?"
"I accept," Ning said. "I don't see any point why I shouldn't." π·πΌΞ½ππ‘πΓ¬π.π·ππ
"Good," the woman said. "You can start in the morning."
Ning smiled back. "I thought I could choose when to start?" he asked.
The woman smiled again. "Cheeky little bastard! Fine, come when you want to during the day. I will have the papers ready to employ you," she said. "Don't forget to come."
"I won't," Ning said. "I will come as soon as I can."
Having found a shop for himself this early, he left back for his tavern. Everything else, he could find in the coming days.
Hadden walked in a field of white, surrounded by hazy faces that walked past him. He looked at the faces and thought he recognized them, but each time he tried to focus on who exactly it was, the face changed.
He couldn't remember what the previous face was. This was normal. A cat walked past him, barking as it did so. He moved past and felt the heat from a fire to the side that snuffed when he looked at it. He couldn't remember why it was so cold.
He floated, legless, as he hovered through the field. Up front, he saw a set of stairs that he needed to go up the tavern.
He stepped on the stairs, one leg at a time, making sure to place all 4 legs on the steps properly. He walked up the mountain cliff, walking past the trees surrounding him.
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As he went up, he saw someone holding a sword in his hand. He felt scared. The man was going to shoot a bow.
Then the ground beneath him vanished as he plunged from the sky, directly into a river below.
The cold splash of water woke up Hadden and he realized he truly was in the water. His head filled with confusion and terror before the will to survive took over.
He swam upward, trying to surface. He was only used to swimming in rivers, and the river near his village was never this deep. This was terrifying.
He came upward and found the water undulating, waves crashing on him before he could even surface. Even when he did surface, he couldn't stay above water for more than a second as another wave pushed him down.
The waves seemed to be coming from all directions. His breath was running and he had swallowed some salty water. If this continued, he was going to die.
Die. The same as his family.
Was he not going to live on? Was he going to die too? Was his destiny to die, drowning somewhere?
Something grabbed him from outside, pulling him up. As he left the water, he took a deep, long breath, taking in as much air as he could. When he did, the water in his lungs agitated him and he coughed.
He coughed out a mouthful of water before the rest came as spits. As he gasped for breaths, a voice spoke from in front of him.
"Tell me all the alphabet!" Ning's voice came to Hadden.
"What?" Hadden asked before he finally saw Ning in front of him. He held him by his shirt, his legs dangling on top of raging waters that didn't seem to calm. The splashes from below could reach him all the way up here.
"Teacher! What are you doing?" he shouted at Ning. "You're trying to kill me!"
"No," Ning said. "I'm trying to teach you how to read."
"No! Take me away! I don't want to die!" Hadden shouted.
"You won't," Ning said. "As long as you tell me the alphabet."
"Theβ¦ the alphabets?" he asked. "Uhhβ¦"
His mind worked to remember the thing he remembered yesterday. He struggled and finally remembered some of it. He started reciting the alphabet to Ning, but unfortunately, he couldn't remember it all.
"Try again!" Ning said. And then he let him drop into the ocean once more.
Chapter 1296 First Day of Training
Hadden thought he would drown and die on 3 separate occasions when he was tossed into the ocean time and time after not being able to remember the alphabet. He couldn't imagine just why his teacher was trying to kill him. Was he trying to get rid of him? He didn't even question why they were in the ocean. That never even crossed his mind. All he did was desperately try to save himself from the crashing waves that threatened to slam him onto the cliff wall multiple times.
He wasn't sure how long he had been in the water or when he was pulled out and placed on the beach. His eyes opened blearily, and his vision was filled by sunlight the moment he opened it.
He tried to move both his arms to block the sunlight, but only his right arm listened to his command. He heard footsteps and quickly turned his head toward the figure.
"How do you feel?" Ning asked, towering over him, shading him from the sun.
"I⦠I feel like I'm dying," Hadden said. "You tried to kill me."
"Nonsense," Ning said and reached for him before pulling him up straight. He dusted the sand off his back and smiled. "So, how was it?" he asked.
Hadden looked confused. "How wasβ¦ what?" he asked. ππΌππππ―π¦π«.π―β―π
"Your first day of training of course," Ning said.
Hadden looked confused. "You were trying to kill me," he shouted at Ning. Ning took one swipe at his leg, and the boy fell back into the sand. "Don't raise your voice at me," he said seriously. "And I never said your training was ever going to be easy."
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"Urgh!" the boy grunted in pain. He hadn't realized just how much pain his body was in. Just how much the water had hurt him.
"Anyway, that is enough for today," Ning said. "We will continue the same tomorrow until you can improve your resistance to pain. I'm hoping to do it in the next few months. Then, you split your core."
Ning took the grunting Hadden to a nearby creek on the island he had teleported to and dunked him there a few times until sand hand left every part of his body. Then, he handed him a fresh pair of clothes to change into.
"Get changed and wash the old ones. Then come find me."
Hadden stripped near the flowing creek, the rustle of water bringing him memories of his village. His body aches even as he stands there, the child from the midday breeze bringing pain along with it.
His left arm felt numb with pain. Was his life going to be this forever now? To be beaten at every turn, by bandits first, and now his master.
He grabbed onto the necklace on his chest. He couldn't use it right now, but he knew this was the storage artifact where his parents and his brother's ashes were kept. It gave him strength in trying times.
He held onto it, searching for that right now. Then, he remembered what he told Ning.
"I want to be strong," he said softly. "Strong enough to protect anyone and everyone. Even if it means I have to get beat up every day, I will get strong."
He kissed the necklace and let go of it. He changed into fresh new clothes, ignoring the pain his body felt, and went back to where Ning was.
"I'm done, teacher," he said seriously.
Ning turned around. "Good," he said. "Let's return."
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Legacy Fate: SacredFearless
Hadden backed away from Ning the moment they appeared inside the room at the tavern. "Woah⦠wait, huh? What? What was that? How are we here?" he asked, surprised.
This was his first time being teleported around, or more exactly this was the first time he was conscious while he was teleported from one location to another.
"That is teleportation," Ning said. "Get used to it. You'll be doing that a lot many times from today."
Hadden looked at Ning as if he was seeing someone else now. He knew his master was strong, but this⦠this was something else.
"Where were we just now?" he asked, looking outside the tavern. It was morning here. But it had been noon back on that island.
"It was an island, east of the Azurage country," Ning said and brought out something from somewhere that Hadden couldn't see. "Eat this."
The boy looked at the small ball of powder. "What's this?" he asked. "It's called a pill," Ning explained. "It can heal you very quickly. All the pain in your body would be gone at once."
"What?" the boy looked with wonder at the pill in Ning's hand. He took it and ate it, chewing it before swallowing. Ning looked at him eat, knowing what he just gave the boy wasn't a healing pill at all. It was just a placebo, to make the boy he would heal. He had to let the boy sit in pain for a while to get used to it. Ning planned to heal him half a day later so the boy would think the pill worked.
The boy showed signs of relief on his face, not knowing what he had eaten. Ning almost wanted to smile.
He looked around for a second and then asked the system where Emma was.
"Stay here, and learn your alphabet," Ning said. "Emma should be back soon and she will help you with food. I need to go somewhere for now."
"Okay, teacher," Hadden said blankly. Ning nodded and turned around to leave. When he was at the door, Hadden called him again.
"Teacher!" he shouted. Ning turned back around to look at the young boy.
"What is it?" he asked. "Thank you for teaching me," he said. "I will not let you down. I will definitely become stronger."
Ning smiled at the strong face the boy had put on, despite all the pain he should be feeling right now. He couldn't help but feel happy about that. "I have no doubts," he said and left with a face full of a bright smile.
Chapter 1297 The Contract
Ning arrived at Heeran's love, the shop he was supposed to take over today. The front of the shop looked worse in the day than it did in the night.
The gray, colorless wall, the broken bits of wood at the front, and the steps that seemed hazardous to even climb up to the shop. Everything told people just one thing.
Don't Come!
He sighed. He would have to do renovation very soon and a lot of it.
"You came!" the woman shouted from the dark inside of the room. The store faced west, so it would remain in the darkness for the majority of the day.
Ning walked in and looked around. It truly was worse in a day than it was at night. He sighed internally and showed none of his thoughts outside.
"Greetings, boss," he said as he walked up to her next to the bed. The woman lifted the wide of the sheets and brought out some paper. "Here, I had Juna prepare the legal papers," the woman said. "Sit and read."
Ning nodded and sat on the bed, the wood creaking as he did so. How many years had this thing been in here?
He looked through the pages and was surprised to see just how legitimate the paper was. "Does this Juna fellow work in the government or something?" Ning asked.
"Oh yes, she's a legal⦠I forget the word. She works in the court to bring justice to the men who have been wronged. She's the daughter of the couple next door."
"The general store?" Ning asked. He had seen it coming in. The store was in a much better state than this store. "I see. I will read this then."
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It didn't take him long to get through the pages of text. In fact, he didn't even bother reading it at all and simply asked the System to do it for him and tell him the appropriate actions that needed to be taken if necessary.
From what the system told him, there weren't any sort of underhanded actions being taken through the words. Everything was written clearly.
Ning would own the shop, and unless he was going to make physical changes to the shop that cost over 1000 Fire coins, he would not need to let the woman know about any of what he wanted.
The shop's name would remain Heeran's Love, and every time a sale of the items in the shop that had been made by Heeran, her husband, was made, she would receive 75% of that earnings. Lastly, Ning had to pay 150 Fire Coins each month as rent.
Other than that, he had every freedom to do anything else.
He took a pen that was off to the side and signed it. "Thank you, Miss Layla," he said, handing back the signed contract.
The woman took it and looked through it. Nothing seemed off, but what would she know? "I will let Juna look through it once she comes from her job. Do you want to start today, or will you start tomorrow?"
"I willβ¦" Ning looked around. "I want to start today, but I don't know if I can. I have to go look for a place to stay. Can't stay in the tavern forever."
"You're staying in a tavern?" the woman asked with a surprised look.
"Yes," Ning said. "We just came to the city yesterday, and I decided to settle down here for a while."
"Right, right, your sister is joining the institute," the woman said.
"My daughter," Ning corrected her. "And yes, that's why I'm doing this."
"Daughter, eh? You don't look that old yourself," the woman said.
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"Yeah, but I am," Ning said. "Anyway, I'll try to look around for a place to stay today. I'll come tomorrow around this time and open the shopβ" ππΌΞ½πππΓ¬π.π«ππ‘
"How many people are you?" the old woman asked. "Just you and your daughter?"
"No, it's me, my daughter, a young boy we saved from bandits, a beast, and her two children," Ning said.
"That's a lot," the woman said. "But I can fix you a place. My place is mostly empty, so if you guys promise to not be much trouble, I will let you stay here."
"Here?" Ning asked.
"My house is above the shop," the woman said. "If you want to live there, I will let you."
"Uhh⦠will it fit us all?" Ning asked.
"It's large, don't worry," the woman said. "You can come check. I'll have to make up another contract if you decide to stay."
She pushed on the wall at the corner of the room that was clad in shadows. A door opened, leading to another room. Ning arrived there and was surprised to see wooden crates, some filled, some empty, most glowing from the inside in the darkness.
"More artifacts?" he asked.
"My husband liked making them a lot," she said. "He left me quite a few to sell."
She continued walking through the dark room and arrived outside a door to a backyard. To Ning's surprise, the backyard was huge, beyond his imagination.
"What⦠how is this place so large?" he asked. It had to extend for at least 100 meters on each side.
"This is a collective courtyard," the woman explained. "It's not my background as much as it is everyone else's. We didn't want to live surrounded by our small backyard, so we decided to let it be free. So the children can play when they want in safety, or people could work when they wanted to."
"My husband worked right here all day long, while I watched the shop for him." She pointed at a spot on the ground that was now covered with grass that hadn't been cut in a while. Not a single person was back there.
"Everyone is so busy with their life now," the woman shook her head. She walked up a wooden set of stairs, going to the 2nd floor of the building.
"Here's my place," she said, going in herself. "Come on and check. See if it fits you."
Chapter 1298 To The Arena
Ning checked the place that was available in the woman's house for him to stay. It wasn't a very large place, only as wide as the tavern they were staying at. But that was good enough for him. It wasn't like he needed a place. It was just Hadden who needed a place to stay in.
He agreed to pay the woman 50 Fire coins to allow them to stay here, and they would have to buy the ingredients for a meal each night, which the woman would make for them and herself. Ning found that a fine deal.
Since he found a place to stay, he had nothing to worry about at all. So, he started working on the renovations. He could do it instantly with his system, saving himself time, but he had nothing if not time, so he bought the materials himself and started working on it.
All he did for today was make some cement and plaster the places on and around the shop that had holes in them. That was the first step. Once he was done, he placed some warning signs around the shop and left to go heal Hadden.
Hadden was fast asleep when he arrived in the tavern. Emma was next to him, reading the book that Ning had created for her.
"What are you doing?" Ning asked.
She showed her empty finger. "Reading," she said. "Trying to understand the language of this world."
Ning nodded. "Is it easy?" he asked.
"Pretty easy," she said. "I would've probably taken a month or two to understand it and speak it even if I started from nothing."
Ning didn't doubt it. As a Will, who was one of the strongest cultivators and Mage in the universe, she was talented at a level that shouldn't exist in the normal world. Not to mention, she had been born of a Ning that held bloodlines that would be the strongest as well.
In essence, Emma was someone who could only have been born out of a host of the Energy system.
"Did he eat?" Ning asked, moving close to Hadden and healing him with a simple touch. The wounds around his body disappeared and his breathing turned less haggard too.
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"Yes, and I ate as well. Where were you?" she asked.
"Did I not tell you?" he asked. "I got a new shop."
Emma's eyes narrowed. "When did you get a shop?" she asked. πππ―πΙπΓ¬π£.π―π’π
"Yesterday, after you two went to sleep," Ning said. "Not that you would know about that."
"Yeah, you never told me. I have no idea where you disappeared to," Emma said.
"Hehe, I signed the contract today and I found ourselves a place to stay," Ning said. "We move out tomorrow morning."
"Is it a good place?" Emma asked.
"It won't matter to you since you'll be staying in the institute anyway," Ning said.
Emma thought for a bit and shrugged. "Have you eaten anything?" she asked.
"No," Ning said. "I don't really need to."
"Good," Emma said, standing up, and dropping the book to the ground. "Let's go eat."
Ning had no say in her decision. He shrugged and walked out with her daughter to go eat. Emma brought Lory and Lyra from the repository but not Umbra. "Why did you leave their mother behind?" he asked.
"Because I'm afraid they won't let her into the arena," Emma said. "We would have to leave her outside."
"Hmm," Ning thought. "Arena? What's that?"
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Emma turned to look at him. "You don't know about the arena? Didn't you say you went out last night?"
"I did," Ning said. "I didn't tour a whole lot. I was looking mostly for the weapons shop."
"Well, there is an arena on the other side of the Inner City, and there are duels there that happen every day," she said.
Ning looked at her with a suspicious look on his face. "And you want to enter this duel? You're too strong for this, you know?" he asked.
"Did you never enter a duel when you were strong?" Emma asked him.
Ning couldn't answer. He scratched his head, remembering the time back in Nulwurn when he fought in Duels despite his strength. He would be a hypocrite to stop her from entering.
"I'm not dueling," Emma answered. "I'm letting Lory fight."
"Why Lory?" Ning asked.
"Because he'll need to have something to do to pass his time while he's here with you. Take him to duels when you can, let him have some fun," Emma said. Ning looked at her with narrowed eyes. "You decided to take Lyra to the Institute?" he asked.
Emma nodded. "I discussed it with Umbra and she said it's better if I take Lyra with me. She's too shy on her own and needs to learn to deal with the environment on her own. Tough love I suppose."
Ning didn't argue. This was probably for the best. "I'm sad the twins will be separated for a while," Ning said.
"Just for a decade, I believe," Emma said. "I can't believe you have to go to a school for 10 years. What sort of school do you have to go to for 10 years?"
"We had 12 years of school back on Earth when I hadn't died," Ning said. "No wait, I stopped after 12 years. There was actually more after that. Like many more years more."
"Wow, you must have been glad to not have to go through it all," Emma said.
Ning grimaced a little. "I had to stop school to work and feed myself," he said. "I was 18 and couldn't stay in the orphanage anymore. If I had some sort of scholarship, I would've probably taken it."
"But then your future wouldn't have been so bad," Emma said. "And you wouldn't have received the Energy System."
"Uhh⦠yeah, pretty much," Ning said. "I was lucky to have been unlucky then."
They went to a restaurant close by and ate themselves full before making their way to the arena that was on the other side of the city.
Chapter 1299 Arena
Ning looked at the arena in front of him that was actually dug out to make space, instead of built on top of the ground. Ning was surprised to see such a site and could only imagine how much work must have gone into digging out this much land. And he couldn't help but wonder what they did with all the things that they took out from under here.
The Arena was nearly 300 meters wide and had around 50 meters of total vertical depth, although slanted down through 100 meters of horizontal distance to reach the bottom. Aside from a simple yellow wall surrounding where the arena was, everything else was built in the hole they had dug.
Ning had expected a drab nature to this place from the outside, but once entering, he could see just how extravagant it was.
Shooting geysers, water flowing from all sides of the arena, and massive screens of light in the sky, run solely using formations. He could hear cheers from all around, the sounds of the crowd barely broken through by the sounds of the fights in the arena.
From where Ning stood, he could see everything. Every person fighting. Every man, woman, and child cheering for something. He could also see beasts in the distance, fighting amongst themselves, a lion trying to leap for a vulture that flew around, sending down fire.
At a single glance, it was chaos. ππΌπ·ππ₯ππ¦π».π»β―π
His eyes flashed to the side, seeing a small indentation on the hole where rooms were created. One of the rooms had people standing out and from the sound he heard, he could tell that it was a betting house. And there weren't just one, but many. All around the place, there were multiple betting houses etched into the walls that were the ground.
Ning walked down the flight of stairs with Emma, looking for a spot to sit in. They didn't have to pay to enter here, so he didn't have a seat dedicated to him either.
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A waft of food smells drifted from the side as Ning saw someone selling fried potatoes. He had just eaten but he still wanted some.
"What are you doing?" Emma asked, watching him walk away.
"Look for a place to sit. I'll get us some snacks," Ning said.
"But we justβ¦" Emma sighed seeing that her father had no intention of stopping. She turned around and looked for an empty spot for two. Once she found one, she walked down the steps until she came close.
As she came down, she realized that the lower levels were not filled as much as the ones above. She looked back toward the upper half of the arena and understood that people liked to see everything from far away.
They had good vision thanks to the Physical improvement realm, so it didn't matter to them that they were far away. They could see very well.
She sat on the seat she found on the higher end of the lower half of the seating arena. She placed Lory right next to her and had him save the seat for her father.
She watched the battles that were happening on the stages down below.
Although they were considered stages, it was in fact a single large slab of some sort of white stone that was divided via barriers and arrays, separated into 4 groups.
From what Emma had heard, and could now see. The stage that was closer to her on the left was where humans fought each other, one duel at a time.
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The one to its right on her end was the same as well, humans fighting one another. Except, she realized that the ones fighting there were just kids, barely at the age of 20, while the first one didn't seem to have the restriction.
Adjacent to the stage of the left, on the other side, was a place where two beasts fought each other. The stage was currently empty, but it was where she had seen the lion and vulture fighting each other earlier as she walked down.
Then, adjacent to that stage, and the ones where the teens fought, there was a man fighting a large boar who shot water from its snout.
Her eyes moved up to the sky where she could see the same fight but enlarged for a larger screen so everyone could watch it without any sort of obstacle.
She wondered how it was made. Her father told her there were things like arrays, but he had never told her how it worked. She was curious about that. "Watch carefully, Lory," Emma said softly. "This is where you will be fighting in a few days."
"Me?" Lory asked.
"Yes, you," Emma said. "See that? Look. That snake is going to fight that octopus soon. You will have to fight just like that too."
"Fight!" Lory shouted. "I Fight."
"Yes, you fight," she said, watching the new fight unfold. The Snake was a Light Essence Snake, its name unknown to her. The octopus was the same and instead of being a Water Essence beast as she would have assumed it to be, it was instead a Fire Essence beast.
The battle commenced and the Snake slithered forward, looping around the octopus, looking for an opportunity to strike. However, the eight tentacles of the octopus made it hard for the snake to fight an opening.
The octopus started the attacks, hitting the snake on its body, but the snake's body arched upward, letting the octopus's tentacle move beneath it. The Snake then straightened its body in a snap, striking the octopus's arm with its body, and started wrapping around the octopus.
Emma watched with an intrigued look on her face, but there was some disappointment too. She hadn't realized that neither of the beasts was in the Essence Manifestation realm at all.
They were going to be useless when it came to using Essence toβ
The Snake suddenly opened its mouth, revealing two fangs that glowed bright yellow. And through its fangs, it shot the first and last Essence attack of the match, winning it easily.
Chapter 1300 Betty
"Woah!" Emma cried out, nearly getting out of her seat to clap. That had been an incredibly short but entertaining duel in her opinion. "That was amazing, right?" she asked Lory. π»πΌππππ―π¦π«.ππ’π
"Amazing!" Lory answered, repeating her words.
Emma nodded. "Wow. I thought it was going to drag on forever and then the snake just⦠I did not see that coming at all," she said.
"Is this your first time watching beasts fight or what?" a voice called to her from behind. Emma turned around and met the sapphire blue eyes of a girl with curly brown hair and some freckles on her face.
She was a little chubby, but nowhere near fat. And from what Emma could see, she was right around 14 or 15 years old.
"I've seen beasts fight before," Emma said. "Come on," the girl said. "No one who has seen beasts fight would be this excited about a single battle between a Firestamped Octopur and a Brightlord Snake. One would know that the snake was going to win from the start."
Emma looked at the girl with not a very favorable expression. "I've seen a lot of beasts fight in my life," she answered. "Just not in this place. These beasts specifically I have never seen fight."
"Ah," the girl nodded. "Understandable. My bad. I've been studying beasts for 2 years now and I forget not all know about them."
"No, they don't," Emma said. Now that she was looking at the girl carefully, she was holding a pen and notebook to herself, that blended in the blue and white pattern of her dress.
"You like beasts?" Emma asked.
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"Yes, but I'm not a fanatic if that is what you mean," the girl said. "I'm just studying so I can be accepted into the Star Beast Institute."
Emma looked at the girl, her mind thinking of a million things until she came to a conclusion a fraction of a second later. "You need to know about the beasts to enter the Star Beast Institute?" she asked.
"Dear," the girl said. "It's an institute with the words BEAST in it. What do you think?"
"Hmm?" Emma thought to herself. "Good to know. Thank you. I was planning on learning more about the entrance exam tomorrow, but this helps."
The girl looked at Emma with a suspicious look on her face. "You want to enter the Star Beast Institute?" she asked.
"Yes," Emma said. "That is why I came here to this city in the first place. To take part in the institute. I can't believe they didn't tell us we would need knowledge of beasts to enter."
"They don't announce it, but if you go read up what they teach and what the previous entrance tests have been, it becomes pretty evident that it is necessary," the girl said.
"I see," Emma said. "Thank you for telling me." She extended her arm with a smile. "My name is Emma. May I ask what your name is?"
The girl looked at her for a few seconds before shaking her hand. "Betty," she said. "Word of advice, Emma. Give up. Go for next year."
"I'm not quitting," Emma said.
"You didn't even know that a Brightlord Snake had a Natural Light Conduit in the form of its fangs and was surprised by the attack. This sort of knowledge is considered basic, even among just the entrants."
"I'm telling this for your own good," the girl said. "They consider anyone who fails in previous year's tests to not be worth it and deduct your mark from the start. I can tell that you are not ready for this test and will most likely have to take it next year. So you need toβ"
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Emma gestured for the girl to stop talking. "Thank you, Betty, but I'm good. If I fail, I'll just go to another school. There are hundreds on this continent. Besides, I won't fail. I can promise you that."
Betty looked at Emma for a bit, her temper rising slowly at the fact that Emma didn't believe her. In the end, she could only let that temper go with a sigh as she closed her notebook and stood.
"You seem determined so I won't stop you," she said. "Good luck. You'll need it."
"Okay," Emma said and watched the girl leave. "See you at the institute Betty."
The girl stopped one last time to look back at Emma, then shook her head and walked up the stairs, leaving the arena.
Emma turned back and sat on her seat. "Okay?" Lory asked.
"I'm okay," Emma said. "That was a rude girl, wasn't she?" Lory looked puzzled as to what she meant but nodded his head nonetheless to agree with her.
"That doesn't matter though I guess," Emma said. "She does have a good heart in there anyway. She helped me in the end."
"Who did?" Ning asked.
"Just a girl," Emma answered. "What took you soβ " Her words paused in her mouth when she saw her father. Ning stood there, holding 3 boxes of fries, some strips of chicken, a sandwich of some sort, and some drinks provided in steel cups, meant to be handed back.
"What are you doing?" Emma asked, shocked to see her father with so much food. "We just ate."
"I know," Ning said. "But I couldn't stop myself after seeing such good food. I wanted to try what they had."
"Still, this is too much," Emma said.
"No it's not," Ning said as he fed a potato chip to Lory. "It's barely any if you ask me. The two of us can chow this food down in no time. And your body constitution won't let you get bloated either."
Emma sighed. "I suppose," she said, grabbing a box of chips herself and eating one before feeding another to Lory. "Still, you were quite late."
"Oh, that's because I went to bet on the matches for the next hour," Ning said. "I've bet it all on the underdogs, so if even one of them wins, we'll hit it big."
:)