Hey, uh… Bodrick? What's going on?" Grayfire asked as he prepared his hammer for one more fight. He looked around, trying to figure out what was going on, but all he could see was the 3 men huddled together.
"Is this your doing?" Grayfire asked loudly as he pointed his explosive hammer at them.
Carlos flinched a bit, but the other two showed no reaction to the question at all. Ning had no answer to give, and Kepli only laughed maniacally, to the point that he was starting to lose consciousness from all the flaring pain in his lungs from the laughing.
Bodrick moved suddenly, but Grayfire was prepared for him. He swung his hammer and slammed onto Bodrick. The explosion tore his body apart, and what remained was a shadowy figure, half made up of human and half made up of shadow.
To his surprise, the body still moved, albeit not as well as before. It looked like the shadow wasn't very good at holding together parts that weren't connected to each other themselves.
Still, Bodrick's body moved with a single black eye still visible, slowly approaching Grayfire who had no plans to be attacked.
He swung his hammer again and this time managed to kill the other boss he had come to this place with. When the explosion vanished, he alone remained.
There were 3 of them when they entered, and now only a single one remained.
"You bastard! Where the fuck are you hiding from me?" he shouted at the open wall. He didn't even consider that it was one of the 3 men that were the ones behind it all.
There was just no way for that to be true.
"Fine, don't come out," Grayfire said. "Just sit back and watch me kill your men."
Kepli suddenly stopped laughing when he heard that, and both Ning and Carlos got tense as well. Carlos wasn't sure what he could do, but the boss was already walking towards them.
"Stand back," Ning said as he put himself in front of the two. If he fought the man directly, he was most definitely going to die. The difference in their Essence rank was just that much.
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"Brother Ning, stop!" Carlos reacted finally after Ning had stepped forward. He pulled out his daggers as well, but it was too late already.
Even Ning realized it was too late. He had been preparing his essence, but the man in front of him was too strong.
'Guess that's a reset for my adventure then,' he thought. He was going to go down, so he would go down fighting.
He used whatever little Essence he had managed and swung his sword at the incoming explosive hammer.
BANG!
An explosion rang in the room, sending dust falling from the open roof.
Grayfire looked in front of him with confused eyes before slowly moving his head to look at his arm. He should have been holding the Hammer with his two arms, but for some reason, his hammer wasn't completely there at all.
All he could see was part of the handle that suggested that his hammer had been forcefully destroyed.
Ning remained stunned as well. Everything happened so fast that he didn't even realize that his sword never touched anything as it swung in front of him. By the time it was going to hit the hammer, the upper half of the hammer had already disappeared.
He was a little happy learning that the man could not use the Explosive Essence anymore. As long as he avoided hand-to-hand combat, he should be fine.
So, he prepared his sword and got ready to attack.
Grayfire's eyes wandered around for a moment and finally noticed the top half of his weapon which seemed to be low on Essence.
'How did it lose so much durability at once?' he thought with a frightened look.
He quickly turned around toward Ning. Was it this man? It was most likely the boss, but Grayfire needed to be sure. He saw that Ning was ready to attack, so he prepared an attack of his own.
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Powerful wind gathered around him as it threatened to destroy everything around him. Ning felt the winds too and frowned.
'Essence Manifestation realm,' he thought. 'Damn, I forgot they were supposed to be this strong.'
It was the 4th rank in the Essence realms, one where people could manifest their Essence as a certain element or two.
Most people could only use 1, and it seemed like Grayfire's element was Air.
The wind became strong as it spun faster and faster around him. As it picked up speed, it picked up the debris in the ground as well. Soon enough, there was a cyclone forming underground that was going to send out the objects at an incredibly fast speed.
If they had any chance of survival before, it was all disappearing now.
"You people forgot that I am alone," Grayfire shouted from inside the cyclone which was completely stopping him from being seen. "So, I do not have to hold back at all."
The wind got faster and objects started slipping out of the wind, like bullets from a gun.
"You will all die toda—"
Suddenly the objects started flying out fast as the wind itself slowed down to a crawl. Ning couldn't create a rock barrier in time at all, but a shadow barrier appeared at the last minute, saving all 3 of them.
Ning and the others could hear the objects smashing walls and doors all around the room and only the 3 of them were safe thanks to the shadow wall.
The shadow wall slowly dissipated and the first thing all 3 of them saw was a lone Grayfire standing still with his lifeless eyes wide open.
A sharp shadow spike had gone through the back of his head and come out from the mouth, killing him instantly.
The body slowly slipped to the side, falling to the ground, and revealed the person that stood behind it.
Clara stepped over the dead Grayfire's head and stomped it so hard that his skull burst wide open.
"So, we're done here, right?"
Ning looked at the girl with a stunned look on his face.
Clara, the black-haired girl, had brought him and Carlos here before to talk with the boss. That same girl had now killed Grayfire.
'Where did she come from?' he wondered as he stared at her. There were only 3 of them here the entire time. Has she come from the open roof?
'No,' Ning thought of something. 'When did she get out?'
After she had brought the two of them here, she had just… vanished, and none of them had noticed. She had definitely not left by the door as Ning had been there the entire time. Then where had she disappeared to?
"What's going on?" Carlos asked as he was confused as well.
"Kepli, do you need treatment?" Clara asked.
"I… I'm fine. I will just need to absorb some Earth Essence," Kepli said.
"Absorb the pure one," Clara said. "Carlos, give the Essence crystal you brought to Kepli, he needs it. He will also test the purity of the Essence in it."
"Are… are you…" Carlos could barely believe what he was about to ask.
"She is the boss," Kepli said as he slowly got back up. "The boss of the Paradise Hunters."
Both Ning and Carlos looked back in shock and awe as not in a million years would they have expected a young girl to be the boss of one of the biggest gangs in the entire empire.
"But… but the boss is a man," Carlos said. "I've heard his voice."
"Yes, you've heard my voice," Clara spoke with her normal voice. However, layered on top of that voice was another deeper voice, a more distorted one that sounded like a male voice.
Carlos had no doubt that this was the boss's voice. "And the silhouette?" he asked.
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"A simple craft," Clara said as she created a humanoid shadow next to her, one that seemed to be filled with black fog that roiled around in itself. It was no different than the black shadow that was inside of Dale and Bodrick.
"Alright, give him the crystal now," Clara ordered.
"Y-yes, boss," Carlos said and quickly turned around to help Kepli.
Clara looked at the crystal that was brought out. She stared at it for a few seconds as the energy inside was taken in by Kepli.
Kepli's eyes went wide as he looked at the crystal in his hands and then back to his boss. "This… this is extremely pure, boss," Kepli said.
"How pure?" Clara asked.
"I… I will have to get the people to do some actual experimentation, but judging by the flow alone, I will say it's about 80% pure, if not more.
Clara's dark eyes seemed to shine when she heard that. "80%? That's quite unheard of in this section of the empire," she said. "You can only find it in big auctions on the southern side."
"If we can get the monopoly on the mine, we will definitely grow bigger," Kepli said.
"Alright, heal first. We will deal with it all later," Clara said. "Carlos, carry him. We will be leaving this place now."
"Yes, boss," Carlos said. He picked Kepli onto his back and walked out of the front door. They did not go up the stairs as they would be swarming with city guards at any time now. Instead, they followed a secret path to a secret exit that sent them out into an alleyway.
From there, they walked anonymously to another building on the other side of the city. By the time they were there, Kepli could already walk on his own, and his ribs didn't hurt as much anymore.
Clara sat on a chair at a large table and gestured for the others to sit as well. Kepli and Carlos sat on either side of the boss, but Ning sat opposite to her.
"What's your name?" the girl asked him.
"My name is Ning," Ning replied to her.
"Ning, huh? So, what's your story?" she asked.
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"I have none," Ning said. "He wanted my help, so I did."
"You decided to help him because he asked?" Clara asked.
"He said he would pay me 50 Earth coins," Ning said.
"And you jumped into a gang fight for 50 Earth coins?" Clara asked.
"I needed the money," he said.
Clara narrowed her eyes and stared at Ning for a few seconds. She tried to figure out what was going on here exactly. She turned around to Carlos as she looked for answers.
Carlos explained the situation how he found him and what they had done together.
"Boss, he is strong," Carlos said as he turned around as well. "Brother Ning killed Gerren and defeated Hanson all by himself."
"I find it hard to believe someone with such little Essence can do that," Clara said with her arms crossed in front of her. "Did he sneak attack?"
"No, he is just a very good fighter," Carlos said. "His swordsmanship is out of this world."
Clara raised an eyebrow. "If you don't mind answering, please tell us where you learned how to fight," she said.
"I don't know," Ning replied.
Clara frowned for a second, but Carlos was there to explain the situation. "Boss, he has lost his memories after an accident in the sea. He doesn't remember who he was or where he came from. I doubt he remembers how he learned to fight."
Clara looked at Carlos for a second before turning back to Ning. "You don't remember anything?" she asked.
"No, not really," Ning said.
"But you remember your name?" Clara asked.
"I think so," Ning said. "I'm not sure if that's my name or not, but that is the first word that comes to my mind when I think of what my name might be."
"So you remember your name and the fact that you can fight? What else do you remember?" she asked.
"Nothing, honestly," Ning said. "I'm trying to find where I came from, so I am roaming the cities for that."
Someone in the Physical Improvement realm with no memory of who he was and what he even was, can somehow beat someone like Gerrin and Hanson? Why do I find that hard to believe?" she asked.
"Oh, boss. That's not the only thing about Brother Ning," he said quickly. "His sword is incredible as well. It's a really good sword."
"A good sword?" she asked as she stared at the sword in Ning's hands. "It looks like a normal stone sword to me. It might even be a dirt sword."
"It's a rock sword," Carlos said. "A giant one at that. Nearly as large as this house, I would say."
"As big as this house?" Clara asked suspiciously. She found it hard to believe something that large could exist in the hands of a normal person. "Give me the sword."
Ning frowned a little. Did she want the sword to test it? What if she liked it? Would she kill him to take it from him?
Clara noticed him getting defensive and sighed. "I don't need your sword. I can't even use it because my shadow Essence is very impure," she said.
"Oh… uh, okay," Ning said and tossed the sword over the table. "Be careful. It's heavy."
The sword slid above the table and arrived next to Clara.
Clara grabbed the hilt of the sword as it moved. She tried to stop the sword right there, but it kept going. She used all of her physical strength to block it and even went as far as to use her Essence to enhance her body.
However, even then, when she the sword went past the table, it immediately fell to the ground.
Clara realized that if she continued holding, her hand would get crushed under the weight of the sword, so at the last minute, she let go of the sword, which lightly slammed on the floor.
Her eyes went wide in shock and she got down to pick the sword up once again. She tried with all her might, but she couldn't even budge the sword at all.
"How big did you say the rock was?" she asked as she huffed a little weakly.
"As big as this house? Maybe bigger?" Ning said.
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"That's not possible at all," Clara said as she got closer to check the sword's blade.
"No, the rock was definitely as big as we said, boss," Carlos said.
"No, I'm not saying you are lying," Clara said. "I'm saying that you are wrong. If the rock used to make this sword was as big as you said it was, I would've been able to budge it. However, given that I was not able to, it's definitely larger."
"The question now is… how large."
The group looked in awe at the sword on the ground. Ning walked over and picked it back up and looked at it closely. "How big can it be?" he asked.
"There's only one way to know," Clara said. "You will have to use as much Essence as you can to bring out the rock from the sword."
"As much Essence? That was what I used last time and that massive rock came out," Ning said.
"Yes, but your Physical Improvement realm barely even has any Essence. You need to be at least in the Essence Sense realm to make good use of any Essence weapons," she said.
"So, I have to wait many years before I can figure out how big the sword really is, huh?" Clara said.
"Yes, that's the only way to have a definite answer," Clara said. "But, I can make a guess based on what information I have gathered."
"Ooh, what is your guess?" Ning asked excitedly.
"That sword is made from something very large, far larger than the rock you mentioned. It's either a single rock, or multiple ones, but they add up to become as large as the largest building in this city, maybe even larger."
"How can there be rocks larger than the largest building out there," Carlos asked.
"It doesn't have to be a rock, specifically," she said. "It just has to be something with the same composition as the rock."
"Meaning?" Ning asked.
"It can be pebbles, but a large amount of it. Imagine someone went to a river bank, collected all the small rocks there, and use it," Clara said. "But I believe it's made up of something big."
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"What's the biggest it can be in your opinion?" Ning asked.
Clara thought for a second. "Show me the sword again?" she asked.
Ning took the sword close to her. Kepli moved immediately, but Clara stopped him. "He's not trying to hurt me, relax," she said.
Ning smiled and let her watch it for a while.
"No, it's not what I thought it was," she said.
"What did you think it was?" Ning asked.
"There was once a rumor that something was made into a weapon some two dozen years ago. I was wondering if this sword was it, but it's not," Clara said.
"What was turned into a weapon?" Ning asked. The others waited impatiently for her answer as well.
"A mountain," Clara said. "A mountain vanished overnight in the Sernach Empire, and everyone believed it was turned into a weapon. Given the weight, I almost fooled myself into thinking that sword was it, but it's not."
"I see," Ning said. "Well, as long as it is large, it should be helpful in the future."
"Yes," Clara said. "Speaking of the future, what are your plans?"
"My plans?" Ning asked. "I don't know. I think I will just go from city to city and try to see if someone remembers me."
Clara looked at him for a second. "You know who I am and have seen my face. So I cannot let you leave just as you like," she said.
"What?" Ning asked with a frown on his face.
"So, I will give you two choices from here forward," she said. "First, you will be killed so that my secret never gets out into the world."
"Like hell!" Ning shouted back at her.
"Then you have no choice but to go with the second choice," She said.
"What's that?" Ning asked.
"You will join the Paradise Hunters."
So my choices are dying or joining you guys?" Ning asked as he narrowed his eyes at the 3 that sat before him.
"Yes," Clara spoke with not much emotion in her eyes.
"Hmm, that's a hard decision," Ning said as he slumped back on his chair. "Give me a moment."
Carlos and Kepli gave a weird look to each other. They couldn't imagine why he was not just simply accepting the deal.
Clara was surprised as well. "Do you really have to think to make a choice between life and death?" she asked.
"Others might fear death, but I don't," Ning said. "I only fear what I might have to do if I were to join the gang. Do you guys go around asking for protection fees from various stores in the empire?"
Clara looked around awkwardly. "What's a protection fee?" she asked.
The other two shrugged as they weren't aware of such a thing at all. Ning realized that he might have spoken about something they did know about, so he quickly changed the subject.
"Do you steal from innocent people?" he asked. "Hurt them to benefit yourself? How do you make money? What's the purpose of your gang?"
Clara narrowed her eyes as she watched Ning's expression, but found it difficult to get any information from them.
"We don't steal from anyone," she said. "We have people in the merchant and mercenary business that bring in money. We monopolize on getting those tasks and thus earn from them. Most people end up having to pay a little extra to get the services they want, but that's about it. We don't go around looting and pillaging people if that's what you are asking."
Ning nodded when he heard that. "And the purpose of the gang?" he asked.
"Primarily to make money," Clara said. "Although, there are other motives behind me forming a gang, but those motives are private to me, so I won't be answering."
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"Okay, so what will I have to do if I were to join?" Ning asked.
"Same thing as everyone. Mercenary or Merchant. Your choice," Clara said.
Ning smiled. "Very well, I'll join," he said.
"Good," the girl said with no change in expression. "Now, let's talk about what you are not allowed—"
"Yes, yes. I won't tell anyone, anything about you at all," Ning said. "I know how to keep a secret. Don't worry."
Clara paused for a second, then continued. "If so, the next thing I have to do is test you to see what you are better at," she said. "You are a courageous one, and Carlos had vetted for your fighting capabilities, so having you go into the mercenary line would be a good idea."
"But just to be safe, I want to check your other skills too. Maybe you are better for the merchant line than you appear to be," she said.
"Sure, do whatever you have to do," Ning said. "I'm ready for all of it."
"Alright, I'll test you personally," Clara said. "Carlos, look after Kepli for a while. Kepli, get that crystal tested."
"Yes, boss!" the two of them spoke at the same time.
Ning looked back at Clara and asked, "Do I have to call you boss from now on?"
"What else will you call me?" Clara asked.
"Can't I just call you by your name?" Ning asked.
Clara frowned a little when she heard that. "Is that how you plan on keeping my identity hidden? By calling out my name every time we speak?" she asked.
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"Oh shit! You're right. My bad, boss," Ning said and continued walking.
Clara stared at him with a weird look on her face before sighing finally. "Not that way. Why are you going on ahead like you know the place?"
"Hmm? I thought we were going outside to test my fighting skills," Ning said.
"No, I need to do something about your memory first," Clara said. "Follow me."
Ning got a little curious and followed the girl. They arrived at a room on the second floor that was full of books from ground to ceiling.
"Woah! That's a lot of books. You like reading books, boss?" he asked.
"This isn't our place," Clara said. "It used to belong to a moderately rich noble who died during a pirate attack on his way to the Glades Kingdom. He was apparently some sort of knowledge collector, so he has a lot of books. Although most of them are stories, there are a few with information that can help us."
Black fog rolled from Clara's fingers that flew to one of the books on the shelf. The book flew back down to a study table beside the window.
Clara gestured for Ning to sit down.
Ning curiously went up to the book and looked at it. "The many wonderful places of the Glacien Continent?" he read the words on the book.
"So you can read," Clara said. "I thought you lost your memories."
"I did," Ning said as he flipped through the book. "But I didn't lose everything. Just as I remember my name and how to speak or how to eat, I also remember how to read. Although, I don't remember most of these names in here. What is the Glacien Continent exactly?"
Clara sat down opposite him and explained. "In this world, there are 3 continents," she said as she flipped the book in Ning's hand until it reached a world map. "This is the Glacien Continent, the one we are on. This down here is the Springwind continent, and in the east here we have the Blueflame continent."
"What's this nonsense at the top? A smudge?" Ning asked.
"That's not a smudge. That's a cluster of islands, large enough to become a continent in its own right, but no one lives there at all," Clara said. "They say the waves get so high that most of these islands are underwater for multiple months at a time."
"The people around the world have unanimously named it the Sunken Lands."
Ning read the book for a while. He was told to ignore the 'wonderful places' on the map, and just focus on learning the names and places that would be beneficial for him.
As Ning read, he realized that he was on the westernmost edge of the Crowler empire. If he wanted to, he could go to the Frolane empire in just a short day, but if he wanted to go through the entire Crowler empire, it would take a week or two, maybe even more.
There were also the Oseger Empire and the Blackhawk Dominion on the Glacien continent, but he didn't seem to have to worry about that right now.
"That's too much to remember at once for sure," Ning said as he closed the map.
"How much do you remember?" Clara asked.
"I know the 5 empires and a few cities in the Crowler Empire. I think I can cough up a more if I think for a while, but I'll have to read it again to remember more," Ning said.
"Hmm, so not much of an intelligent person, are you?" Clara asked.
"Hey! Don't just go calling me dumb just because my talents lie elsewhere," Ning said.
Clara shook her head. "Take the book with you and try to remember the city names," she said. "You can also read any book you want in this study. For now, come with me. Since you won't be a merchant, you'll have to train to be a mercenary."
Ning nodded and walked out to the backyards of the building. The noble's backyard was quite spacious, despite being in the middle of the city. There was enough for a person to play or train.
There were a few people there, and Clara acted like she wasn't the boss at all. The other people didn't recognize her, so Ning didn't try to out her either.
"What's first?" he asked.
"I need to know how strong you are for now," she said. "Try punching that rock."
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Ning followed her gaze and saw an almost volcanic glass-like rock. The touched the flat side of the rock and looked back at her.
"What is this?" he asked.
"We call it the Training rock. It's a piece of rock that's forged around volcanoes, and it is known to have immense Essence hidden inside it that one cannot tap into," Clara explained. "The Essence moved away from the side of the glass that feels a strong force."
"Depending on how hard you hit, the glass will get clearer. Punch it with your fist so we can see how strong it is," she said.
Ning nodded and wasted no time as he punched the glass as hard as he could. As soon as his fist landed on the glass, it suddenly got clearer. However, it wasn't clear enough for Ning to see much difference.
"It barely got any clearer, huh?" Ning said. "Did I do something wrong? Do I try again?"
He turned around as he questioned his next actions when he suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked.
Clara looked at him with the most incredulous look she had seen yet. She hadn't even shown this much emotion when she had killed the 3 bosses all by herself.
"How did you do that?" she asked, with the shock still audible in her voice.
"How did I do what?" Ning asked.
"Your strength," Clara said. "It's over 15 times as strong as a normal person. Are you really not in the 5 Sense Improvement realm?"
"How can I be?" Ning asked. "I only just got on the Physical Improvement realm like a month and a half ago."
Clara's eyes went wider and she shook his head. "That's not possible," she said. "Try again."
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Ning shrugged and punched again, creating the same result once again. "Now what?" he asked.
Clara thought for a bit and walked up to him. "Give me your hand," she said.
Ning put forth his hand, and Clara grabbed it quickly. "Now, push your Essence into my hand." She said.
Ning didn't question her and did as he was told to do. He poured what little Essence into her hand and watched her reaction.
It was like watching a child see the ocean for the first time. Clara's eyes were wide open as if she had never seen something so great before in her life.
"Your Essence… it's… it's so pure," she said.
"Oh, is that so?" Ning asked. "Pure essence is good right? That's what they told me."
"It is," Clara said as he eyes ran around. "How did you come to have essence with such high purity?"
"Is it more pure than the 80% pure essence crystal by any chance?" Ning asked.
"Yes, it's… it's definitely way more pure. It maybe even cross the 90, no, 95% mark. Although, I've never seen pure essence, so I cannot judge exactly," she said. "Where did you find it? As you boss, I order you to answer."
Ning's eyes narrowed. "Don't go using your authority so needlessly. I would've told you even if you didn't order me to," he said.
"You would give such a valuable information without a command?" Clara was surprise.
"I mean, there's no point in me hiding the information since it won't help you at all," Ning said. "Have you heard of the Divine beasts?"
"Of course I've heard of the Divine Beasts. They are fables that are said to live on the ocean floor. Why do you ask?" she questioned.
"Well, the Essence in me came from a fruit on a tree, on an island, that was on top of a giant turtle, in the middle of the ocean."
Clara's eyes narrowed when she heard him. "Are you seriously suggesting that you got your Essence from a Divine beast?" she asked.
"No, no, from the fruit, not the beast," Ning said. "I ate a lot of those fruits while I was stuck on the island back then. I was only able to leave that place because the turtle came floating close to land, from where I swam. How much does this information help you?"
Ning described the fruit that he ate and made Clara think hard for a bit.
"I'm not sure," she said. "I've never heard of such a fruit in my life."
She gave it some more thought, but she truly couldn't think of any fruit that matched the description Ning said.
"I tried searching for that fruit in the city too, and I couldn't find it. It must've been a very rare plant, seeing as how it was on top of the turtle that roamed the ocean," he said.
"I'm actually surprised you saw a turtle at all. Most divine beasts are known to be very, very strong and hard to find. Just being around them can kill you because of how strong they are," Clara said.
"Oh! Then I must be lucky to not have died," Ning said.
Clara nodded. Suddenly, she created 3 shadow daggers in her hand that she threw at Ning.
Ning wasn't focused at all, so when that attack was launched, he barely had any time to dodge it. The three daggers flew at him in a horizontal line, and Ning managed to dodge two of them. But he got hit with the third one that was in the direction of where he had jumped.
He fell to the grassy ground with a thud and a sharp pain in his stomach. He quickly got back up and checked his body, but there was nothing. The daggers had disappeared and all that remained was a dull pain where it had hit him.
"What the hell was that?" he shouted back at Clara, who was walking towards him.
"Nothing," she said. "Just testing your reflexes. They aren't bad, but they could definitely use some work. I will send someone to train you in swords. You said you were strong with a sword, didn't you? It's time to test it."
"Sigh, sure," Ning said and sat back on the ground.
Clara turned around and left. He walked into the house, and as soon as she did, she spoke to the person that was waiting for her. "Send someone strong to test his sword skill and report to me on how strong he is."
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"As you say, boss," the man said.
"Also," Clara added. "Keep an eye out for what he does. He knows who I am, so he might try to give that information to the other gangs. If you find anything suspicious, report it to me immediately. If it is serious, however, you are authorized to kill him."
"Yes, boss."
Ning was oblivious to the conversation and simply waited around for someone to come to test him at sword fight.
Clara arrived in the room where Kepli was staying. It seemed he had used as much Essence from the crystal as he could and had left the rest to be tested.
"Is the test complete?" she asked.
"No, we only just started," he said. "It should take some time."
Clara nodded. "Where's Carlos?" she asked.
"He went to get me some herbs," Kepli said. "Boss, are you sure we can trust him?"
"He warned us and was suspicious of you when I didn't speak back then. I don't think he has any bad intentions at all. We can be careful just in case, but I believe the right thing to do is to believe him and work under the assumption that many of our members have given me up."
"What do we do?" Kepli asked. "I'm sure there are many that are trying to give you up in exchange for money or even less."
"We'll have to figure out who's with us and who's not," Clara said. "We will have to use me as bait to smoke them out."
Kepli nodded. "I'll work on it as soon as we're done with the crystal," he said. "You should leave the city for now boss. Go to Lambot city and stay hidden for a bit."
"Hmph! I don't have to hide from some little Essence Manifestation realm flies. The most I'll have to worry about is them being too loud," Clara said with clear disgust in her voice.
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"That might be true for you, boss, but it's not the same for us. Your presence killed Yana today, and even I nearly died. Please hide for a while so we can get this over with," Kepli said.
Clara frowned for a bit as she remembered the old woman from the tavern that had died because the bosses came looking for her.
"Tsk!" she didn't have a way around what he had said. "Fine, I'll leave the day after tomorrow once I get those crystals."
Kepli nodded. The two of them stayed and talked for a while when they heard a knock on the door.
Clara nodded and Kepli spoke. "Who's there?" he asked.
"It's me, Band," the man spoke.
"Come in," Kepli said and the man named Band quickly walked in.
"There you are, boss. I was looking for you," the man said with a worried look on his face.
Clara was surprised to see the man so flustered. "What's up?" she asked.
"Umm… it was you who asked me to test the young man in the backyard right?" he asked.
"Oh, you were the one that tested him?" Clara asked. "How's he? Is his sword skill any good?"
The man gave an awkward smile toward the boss. "Good?" he couldn't help but nervously laugh when he heard that. "If he was just good, then I won't even dare call myself mediocre."
Clara's eyes narrowed. "So, he's quite good?" she asked.
"I have no doubt that he's the best I've seen in a very long time, boss," the man said. "He doesn't seem to have that much Essence, but his skills definitely make up for it with his sword."
Clara's eyes went wide in surprise. "Are you saying that he's one of the best swordsmen you've seen, ever?" she asked.
"Not one of, boss," the man said. "He is the best."
Clara couldn't believe it at all. Was he really that good? If he was as good as they said, then she must definitely do whatever she could to keep the youth in the gang.
Ning went from room to room looking for Carlos, but couldn't find him at all. He ended up knocking on the room Kepli was in, who called him inside.
"Oh, hey. I didn't realize you were here as well," Ning said when he saw Clara on the couch. "What are you guys doing?"
"Waiting for our people to be done with testing the crystal. What about you?" Clara asked.
"I'm looking for Carlos, have you seen him?" Ning asked.
"He's out on a small errand," Kepli replied.
"Do you know when he will be back?" Ning asked.
"It should be an hour or two," Clara asked. "Why?"
"Damn," Ning spoke softly as he thought to himself.
Clara seemed a little annoyed that he wasn't answering her question. "Why?" she asked again, but louder.
"Huh? Oh, he still hasn't paid me for today, that's why," Ning said. "He was supposed to give me 50 Earth coins, but things got hectic and I ended up being unpaid."
Clara couldn't help but sigh when she heard that. "Why do you need the money? I'll pay you instead with whatever it is that you want," she said.
"Let's see," Ning thought. "I need money for 3 things. First for food, secondly to make a sheath for my sword, and finally to buy a decent technique so I can improve my Essence rank."
"Just eat what's in the kitchen for now," Clara said. "I'll send someone with you to get your sheath made. As for an absorption technique… I will find one for you by evening. Don't worry about it."
"I see, thanks boss," Ning said. "I'm going to the kitchen. Have the person who's taking me out meet me there."
Ning left the room, leaving the two by themselves again.
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"Do you trust him?" Kepli asked.
"Of course not," Clara said. "Someone happens to lose their memories just as they happen to meet Carlos in a bar to get brought over by him here on a happenstance. That's too many coincidences happening that I don't like."
"Then why not just get rid of him?" Kepli asked.
"Because there's a chance it's all true," she said. "If it is, I don't want to lose someone with so much talent and potential simply because I was a little paranoid."
"I see," Kepli said as he stood up. "I'll find someone to go with him."
Clara nodded.
Ning found some bread to eat in the kitchen. While he didn't necessarily need to eat for sustenance thanks to the fruit he had drank this morning, he still found the empty stomach annoying.
So, all he did was fill up his stomach with bread and water. By the time he was done, someone came to the kitchen looking for him.
"You're the new kid that brother Kepli wants me to help?" a blue-haired woman asked him.
Ning quickly downed the rest of the food and stood up as he wiped his face. "Yes, it's me," he said as he put his hands forward in greeting.
The woman stepped back in disgust. Ning looked at his hand and took it back while smiling awkwardly. "Sorry," he said. He quickly washed his hands and came back around.
"Hi, I'm Ning," he introduced himself to her.
"You can call me Sophie," the blue-haired woman said. "Come on, we don't have much time."
Ning nodded and walked along with the girl as they left the building. Sophie looked at the sword in Ning's hand and gestured at it. "That's the sword that needs a sheath?" she asked.
"Yes," Ning said. "You got the money right? Because I don't have any."
"We won't be needing any money," Sophie said.
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Ning wondered what she meant for a moment, but realized that it must have something to do with the gang. There were probably smithies that were under the gang.
He looked at the girl and saw two daggers by her left hip, and a long sword on her right. She was most likely a strong fighter in the gang.
Ning ignored his thoughts for the time being and looked around the city, enjoying the views. He looked left and right, looking at anything and everything that was in the city.
He saw the various shops, streets, houses, and even people. He saw Essence being used to creating stuff that was all over the place, from lamps to signposts.
After walking for about 10 minutes, they reached a smithy with quite a few people in it. Sophie took Ning and went deep inside until she found someone.
"Little Sophie, how can I help you today?" a man walked away from the sword he was working on and looked at Sophie.
"He needs a sheath for his sword," Sophie said as she pointed at Ning.
Ning pulled the sword out of the belt on his hip and held it flat in two hands to show it to the man. "This sword is incredibly sharp, so it needs a non-tight fitting sheath," he said.
"Very sharp? How sharp?" the man asked.
"I tested it before, and it can cut metal like paper," Ning said.
"Woah! That's certainly sharp. Mind if I test it first?" the man asked.
"Sure, go ahead," Ning said.
The man brought back a small piece of metal and laid it on top of two larger pieces of metal. "Can you try and cut this in two?" he asked.
"Yes," Ning said and placed the sword on top of the metal. Then, he simply pushed through softly, and the sword passed through.
"Wait, you didn't even swing it," the man said.
"Yeah, and it's still enough," Ning said. "You can see why I'm looking for a sheath now, can't you?"
"Yes," the man said. "Let me get some measurements for now. Give me the sword."
Ning shook his head. "You can't pick up the sword. You'll have to measure it like this."
The man nodded and brought out a measuring tape. "Alright, hold still," the man said as he measured everything. "You can leave now. I will have to think of how to make a sheath good enough to handle such a sharp sword. Come back tomorrow."
Ning walked back with Sophie, taking in the setting sun to the west. That was the direction he had come from, according to the map. He wondered how far west he must've been for no boats to even bother going there.
"How did you meet boss?" Sophie asked out of nowhere.
"I came with Carlos to… uh… well, I escorted Carlos basically," Ning said. He wasn't sure how much of the information on crystal was free for him to give to random people in the gang.
"You escorted Carlos?" Sophie looked at him weirdly. "Aren't you weaker than him?"
"In Essence," Ning said.
"Hm, I did hear your fighting capabilities were quite good," the blue-haired girl said. "I wonder if you are as good as Band."
Ning gave a curious look. 'Wasn't that the guy I beat in swordsmanship today?' he thought. He decided to not answer Sophie at all.
They finally returned back to the house. "Find me tomorrow around noon. We will go together to get your sword sheat," she said.
"Thank you, Sophie," Ning said with a gentle smile.
"I'm just doing what I was told to," the girl said and simply walked away.
Ning was about to go his own way too when someone told him that Kepli was looking for him.
He went to the room where Kepli was and found him alone. "The boss is not with you this time around? I assumed she would be with you," he said.
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"He can't be with us at all times," Kepli said before giving Ning a glare.
"Ah, he. Yes, he." Ning said before quickly nodding. He was supposed to hide the boss's gender too. After all, that was the most important piece of secret that was keeping the boss and enigma.
Everyone expected the boss of the Paradise Hunters to be a battle-hardened middle-aged man. No one would expect a young girl like Clara to be the boss.
'Young… I wonder if she is young,' Ning thought. Since a person goes through the physical improvement realm very early on, their body's rate of aging is slowed down by a lot. While he wasn't aware of just how much it slowed down, he was absolutely sure that the girl he had met was not in her 20s.
He wouldn't be surprised if she was somehow in her 80s.
"Here," Kepli said as he handed Ning something.
Ning curiously grabbed the object and found out it was a book. "What's this?" he asked as he looked at the cover with no name.
"An absorption technique. You wanted one, right?" he said.
"Oh, yeah," Ning said excitedly. "Thanks."
"Don't be too excited," Kepli said. "It's a bad book."
"It's a… what?" Ning looked back at the man.
Kepli nodded. "You should meet with the boss tomorrow and ask her to change the book for you. I have no idea why she would ever give you a book like this. Unless…"
"Can you tell me why this book is bad?" Ning asked as he flipped through the pages.
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"How much do you know about Absorption techniques?" Kepli asked.
"I would love it if you act like this is the first time I've heard of it," Ning said.
Kepli nodded. "As you may know, you cannot go through your various Essence ranks without first absorbing Essence," he said. "There are various ways to absorb the essence, but the most practical way is to use a technique."
"Using a technique, you can absorb all the Essence around you without having to look for it specifically. However, for the first 3 ranks, namely the Physical Improvement realm, the 5-Sense Improvement realm, and the Essence Sense realm, you cannot just absorb whatever Essence you want. It always has to be Pure Essence."
"Oh," Ning exclaimed in surprise. "Don't people absorb whatever Essence they can find? I thought that was what I heard."
"They do, but those essences simply turn into pure Essence," Kepli said.
"What about the elemental attribute of the Essence?" Ning asked. "Does it have no impact on absorption at all?"
"In some ways. After a while of absorbing the same Essence over and over, your body gets used to it and is better capable of turning it into Pure Essence," Kepli mentioned. "Not only that, it also becomes capable of holding the Impure Essence. While it doesn't help you improve ranks, it helps at just being able to quickly gather Essence."
"Its real effect comes at the Essence Manifestation realm where your body changes so that it is capable of improving through Impure Essence. Although that is too far for you right now to talk about," Kepli said.
Ning nodded as he heard and cocked his head a little. "So, why is this book bad?" he asked.
"Most techniques improve your Essence rank while you absorb the Essence," Kepli said. "That one, however, only does it when your core is entirely filled with pure Essence. That is to say without spending hours at a time collecting the Pure Essence, you can't even advance."
Ning thought for a bit and asked, "so, if I were in a place full of Water Essence, with that technique, I would first have to collect the Water Essence, turn that into what little Pure Essence it can become, and then do it over and over until there is nothing but Pure Essence in my core. Only then can I absorb more Essence and start improving my Essence realm?"
Kepli nodded. "That's exactly it," he said.
"That… is bad on paper," Ning said. "But there must be something good about it, or the boss would never give it to me, right?"
"I'm not sure," Kepli said. "This is a technique that has publicly existed for hundreds of years, and yet I'm not aware of anyone who has been able to make good use of it due to its strict requirement."
"Does it have a name?" Ning asked.
"It does," Kepli replied. "It's called the Twin Moon breathing technique."
Ning took the book and left the room. He went to a different room that was assigned to him and Carlos. Since Carlos wasn't around, the room was entirely his for the time being.
He closed the door and sat on his bed as he let the dimming sunlight fall onto the pages of his book as he started reading it.
The manual wasn't very long, barely 30 pages. The texts were even quite large too, so the overall time to read it all wouldn't take longer than half an hour.
As he read, he realized something that was more depressing about the manual that Kepli hadn't mentioned to him at all.
"This technique can only be used at nighttime, what the hell?" Ning thought with an annoyed look on his face. "Dammit, I should have known based on the name."
The sunset not long afterward, and while moonlight shined through the windows quite brightly, Ning still had to pull out a lantern from its cabinets on the side. He just didn't have as good a vision yet to use moonlight to read a book.
While only half-an-hour read, Ning still in a body where he didn't have an eidetic memory, so he had to read the book multiple times, learning the small details that he missed on his reads, so he could perfect the breathing technique entirely before actually starting it.
It took him late into the evening to be fully sure that he had learned it all. Once done, he closed his eyes and understood exactly what sort of breathing he had to do and what sort of movement his Essence had to make for his core to collect it.
"Seems easy enough," he thought and began.
Little by little, his breathing became irregular with no rhyme or rhythm to them. However, after breathing for a while longer, it fell into a peculiar pattern that no normal human being could do unconsciously.
As he did, he felt the coolness of the Essences around him slowly gather on his body. He felt a layer build around him as they gathered, but somehow only some of that got into his body.
Ning didn't think much of it as that was exactly how the book had said it would be. The book had things that Kepli didn't explain to him. Most importantly, it had another major flaw that had to do with it being usable at night.
That was the fact that the technique could mostly only absorb Moonlight Essence, discarding everything else. Because of how little Moonlight Essence was on a daily basis, that was another layer of difficulty in using this technique.
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Ning continued collecting the Essence, hoping something good would happen eventually.
Clara slumped on a couch after returning from somewhere.
"The results came back," Kepli reported. "82%."
"82?" Clara raised an eyebrow. "Not bad."
"It's better than expected," Kepli said. "Carlos and the rest should be bringing more tomorrow. Will you be leaving after you get them?"
"Yeah, I will need to head towards the capital," Clara said.
Kepli said nothing about it. "Oh right, why did you give the new guy the trash technique?" he asked. "We could've just let him find something on his own if you don't trust him."
"I don't trust him," Clara said. "That doesn't mean I don't want his trust. If there is a chance he's genuine, I'm willing to take it."
"Then why the technique?" Kepli asked.
"Because it's the best for him," Clara said.
"Best?" Kepli gave a weird look. "How is the Twin Moon breathing technique best for anyone?"
"It's the best for people who already have an incredibly pure core," Clara said. "Since they can directly start absorbing the Essence without having to go through the gathering process."
Kepli gave a weird look. "That still doesn't make it better than other techniques thought," he said. "The pure core only levels the playing field at best."
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"No, the pure core gives you momentum that other techniques won't," Clara said. "After all, since your body absorbs pure Essence to improve, this technique allows for all of it to be absorbed at once if one so desires."
Kepli said nothing.
"Also, the technique is exclusive to gathering Moonlight essence," Clara explained. "That is the closest you will ever get to having a Pure Essence in any other form after all. If the conditions are right, you can use that technique to blast through your Essence ranks faster than anyone else out there."
Ning felt a tempest of energy flow away from the core of his body as it was vehemently absorbed by his body. The moonlight essence entered his body too, but the input was nearly nowhere close to being what the output was.
His body drained the pure Essence in his core like nothing else. Ning started to panic a little that he would soon run out of Pure Essence and then this speed would slow down to a crawl.
'I need pure Essence,' he thought. He knew exactly where to get it.
A fruit flew out of his storage as the sword to his side moved at once, creating a small hole in the fruit. Ning paused his breathing technique momentarily to drown himself in the juices of the fruit.
After he was done, he began the technique once again.
The moonlight essence fell on his skin again, slowly being absorbed away. However, what surprised Ning was the amount of Essence his body was collecting from his stomach.
The pure energy in his stomach was being driven toward his core so fast that Ning couldn't help but wonder if he was doing something wrong.
He could feel his body improving at an incredible rate, becoming even stronger than it already was.
Then, at some point, he felt something happen to it.
Suddenly, the layer of Essence on his body felt thicker. The temperature in the room fluctuated even more. His heartbeat grew louder, and the lingering sweetness from the fruit in his mouth grew more intense.
He slowly opened his eyes and the night now seemed brighter than the day before.
"I've done it," Ning thought with an elated smile on his face. "I've reached the 5-Sense Improvement realm."
Ning woke up early in the morning and still found the improvement in his senses surprising.
He could now feel the faintest difference in every single one of his senses. The sense also didn't overwhelm him at all. Sounds didn't get too loud, lights didn't get too bright.
Or maybe they did, but his body also improved to accommodate the changes which were why he was having such an easy time sensing everything.
He snapped his finger in front of him. Not only could he hear the crisp snapping, but he could also hear the slight scratching sound before and after the snap.
He could feel the coarseness of his skin as they rubbed against each other and could feel the heat created by the friction of his skin.
"Thank god I can ignore it," Ning thought. "It would have been annoying if this was all I could feel and think about."
His stomach growled and he realized that he was hungry. "Huh, I haven't felt hunger in a while now," he thought. "Is it because I used up everything last night while collecting Essence?"
He left the room afterward to get refreshed and have some breakfast.
He had a little more than just bread and water this time around, adding some eggs into the mix as well. Once done, he went out to exercise a little.
The backyard was full of people already training, so he just had to find a small place for himself to train as well.
He started off with some exercises and found out that his body felt surprisingly light. "Huh? Did my body get stronger again?" he wondered.
There was definitely a difference, but Ning had a hard time judging if his body had gotten better or if his senses were playing a trick on him.
He looked toward the black crystal to the side and decided to test. However, before he could go there, he heard the faintest breathing from behind him and turned around.
A man was about to speak up to grab his attention, but his turning around made the man pause in his words.
"Hi," Ning said with a cheerful smile. "How's it going?"
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"Good," the man said. "You the new guy?"
"I joined yesterday, yes," Ning said. "Can I help you?"
"For a newcomer to directly be invited to a place like this, you must not be someone random. What's your secret?" the man asked.
"Nothing really," Ning said. "I joined through a recommendation."
"No wonder you did it wrong. You didn't think about greeting your seniors?" the man asked. "As a newcomer, you should work to impress your seniors. How about taking everyone here out to lunch?"
Ning looked at the man and smiled. "I would love to, but I have no money at all. If you can lend me some, I will definitely treat you all to lunch," he said.
The man frowned a little. "You don't have any money? How could that possibly be true?" he asked.
"I mean, I have some, but it's nearly not enough to take you all out on lunch," Ning said. "Maybe some other day then."
"If you're not going to treat us to a lunch, then at least entertain us with a fight," the man said. "I haven't had a good fight in a while and am already feeling rusty. How about that?"
"I would love to," Ning said. "But are you alright fighting with a newcomer?"
"I'm fine with that," the man said and turned around. "Everyone, please make some room. This newcomer has decided to fight with me, so be ready to be entertained."
"Oi Frank, why do you always go after a newcomer?" one person asked. "Is beating newbies that fun?"
"What do you mean fun? I'm simply trying to show them the difference in our capabilities so that they show us some respect," Frank said. He went over to a pile of weapons and dug through it to bring out a sword.
"What's your preferred weapon?" the man asked.
"Something long with a weight to it," Ning said. "Maybe a staff, preferably a spear."
The man paused and looked at Ning. "Are you sure?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
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"Of course," Ning said. "Why would I not be?"
"You aren't choosing a random weapon to act like you weren't fighting to your fullest potential when you lose against me, are you?" the man asked.
"That's exactly what I'm doing, brother Frank," Ning said. "How did you find out?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," the man clicked his tongue and brought out another sword. "You don't get to hold back, not against me."
Ning grabbed the sword and nodded. "Very well," he said as he weighed the wooden sword in his hand. 'So light.'
"Come, attack me whenever you are ready," the man said as he stood with a sword as well.
"Here I go then," Ning said and moved forward.
The man sneered after seeing Ning's slow dash that came his way. He could tell that Ning wasn't very strong, so he swung his own sword to attack Ning.
However, at the last moment, Ning's speed suddenly changed and so did the direction of his attack.
The attack landed on right next to where the man was holding the sword and was forced to let go in fear of hurting his hand.
The sword dropped to the ground and Ning stepped back.
"Would you like to continue?" he asked.
"You bastard! You made it look like you're bad with a sword," he said.
"I am bad with a sword," Ning said. "But that's still miles better than any other person. So, another round?"
Frank picked the sword up and shouted as he swung again.
Ning saw the sword drop and simply moved his own sword, which sent the incoming sword in a slightly different direction, completely missing the target.
At the same time, Ning stabbed the wooden sword into the man's stomach lightly, but still strong enough to hurt.
The man fell back in pain and cried.
"Come on, senior," Ning taunted him. "I'm still waiting to see the difference between our capabilities."
I hear you humiliated Frank this morning," Clara spoke through a silhouette in the voice of a man that Ning knew to be her own, but simply distorted.
The silhouette looked like a man, so Sophie, the blue-haired girl that was with him was under the illusion that the boss was a man.
"He was the one that came after me first," Ning said without any hesitation.
Sophie looked at him weirdly, clearly unable to process how he could have possible beat Frank at all.
Clara remained quiet for a while. "Did you grow stronger?" she asked.
"I… think so," Ning said. "Due to Frank calling me to a duel, I couldn't really test myself. But I did enter the 5-Sense Improvement realm yesterday, so I must have."
"You entered the 5-Sense Improvement realm?" Clara asked with the tiniest hint of surprise in her voice, which was barely audible through the distortion.
"Yes," Ning said. "Thank you for the technique you recommended for me. I never expected it to be so good."
"Me neither," Clara couldn't help but say. "Anyway, that's not why I called you two here."
The two looked up waiting for more information.
"I am giving the two of you a mission," Clara said. "I will be on the carriage to Grandfort city tomorrow. I will need the two of you, along with others that I will ask to join you later on. Be ready."
"Yes, boss," the two answered at the same time.
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"You may leave now, but do not tell anyone else in the gang. I don't want people to know when I come and when I go," Clara said.
"Yes, boss."
The two of them left the room after that. Sophie was about to part ways with Ning immediately when Ning stopped her.
"When do you think my sheath will be ready?" he asked.
"Your sheath? Oh right," Sophie thought. "We can go around noon. Do whatever you want until then."
"Okay," Ning said and walked away. He went into the study room and looked for any book that would help him at all. There were a few people in the study, and Ning asked one of them for a particular type of book.
The person showed him a book that had what he wanted and Ning went on to read about it.
The book explained to him how to judge a person's strength using the Training rock. Each training rock was uniquely formed that couldn't be carved or chipped away at. They were way too strong to be able to do so as well.
Despite the difference in size or shape, each training rock had the same amount of Essence inside of it, allowing for its judgment of one's strength to be about the same despite each one being different from another.
Ning learned how to judge his strength based on the movement of Essence in the training rock. With what he knew now, he could judge his own strength without anyone having to tell him as well.
He didn't immediately leave the room, however, as the book had more to offer. After learning how to test physical strength, he went on to learn how to test the improvement in senses.
This was a more abstract testing method that required way too many different types of testing to get an accurate answer.
One would have to test all the various types of senses to see how much they have improved and then get an average of all the different improvements. The test could take up an entire day, or maybe even multiple ones, and the number of different tests you had to prepare was annoying, to say the least.
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"I'm not gonna bother with this one then," Ning thought. It wasn't like learning about the improvement was going to aid him in any way since he was going to continue improving as he cultivated more and more.
"If I'm really bothered about it, I'll just ask the system," Ning thought and turned the page over.
The Essence Sense realm was not something one could test since the sense itself only became possible at that rank.
As for the amount of Essence in one's body, it was always the same amount. The only difference would be the purity of Essence they would have. For that, Ning was sure he was one of the purer ones.
He left the room not long afterward and went to the backyard. There were very few people there now, so Ning got to try out the Training rock by himself.
He used all the power in his body and punched the rock as hard as he could. A loud, muffled sound spread throughout the yard, making a few people turn their heads to look at him.
However, after noticing that it was someone using the Training rock, they quickly turned away.
Ning watched the crystal become clear around when he had punched, and as the darkness moved away, he got a relatively accurate answer of 22 times.
His physical body was 22 times stronger than a normal human being.
"That's very strong," Ning thought. "I wonder how much it will slow down once I am in the higher ranks."
After learning what he wanted to learn, Ning left the yard and went over to find Sophie, and along with her, he went over to the smithy.
They arrived in the smithy not long afterward and met up with the person that had made the sheath for him.
"Here you go," the man said as he handed a metallic sheath to him.
Ning looked at the slightly oversized sheath with a surprised look. One size of the sheath had a small gap in it that didn't look normal at all.
"Your sword is too good," the man said. "Normal sheath won't help you at all. You will need someone to make a sheath with Essence. For now, I've made it so that instead of having to put the sword into a small opening, you simply have to place it in that gap and then push it into the sheath. That way there is less chance of damage to the sheath."
"I see," Ning said as he tried it out. The sword went in perfectly, without touching any side. "Thank you."
Ning stood outside a carriage with Sophie, and along with them were a few more people from the gang. From the group, he only recognized Frank, the guy he had defeated yesterday.
Frank seemed to hold some sort of grudge against him and continuously gave a sneering look at him whenever their eyes met. Ning tried to ignore it as much as possible and gave no attention to the man.
There were multiple carriages in a line that were all going toward Grandfort city. Since Clara was going to be with them, he looked around for her to come.
Time passed and it was about time for everyone to start getting on the carriage. However, Clara simply didn't come at all.
"Did you see the boss get into any carriage?" Ning asked Sophie softly.
The girl frowned as she turned to Ning. "How the hell am I supposed to know that when I don't even know what he looks like? For all I know, it could be one of these 4," she said, gesturing to the 6 people in front of her which consisted of 4 men and 2 women.
They were all from the same gang but there was somehow a divine between them. Not everyone knew everyone, so they didn't talk with each other just as much either.
"Let's go, the carriage is leaving," someone said and everyone walked into the carriage.
Ning sat on his seat and looked outside the window, wondering if Clara even got here at all. Should he stop the carriage for a little longer so she could get here in time?
However, he remembered her capabilities as a Shadow Essence user. There was absolutely no way he could've known that she had come here if she wanted to hide.
Since even the other bosses from the various gangs were unable to locate her while she was in the room, Ning didn't bother worrying about whether she got in or not.
The carriage moved on and the journey to Grandfort city began.
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The Grandfort city was located southeast of where they were, right by the border of the Crowler Empire and the Frolane Empire.
It was a large hub for the import and export of various goods to and from the two empires, thus making it one of the busiest cities of the Empire. At the same time, due to its geographical location of being on a plateau in the Jerlean Mountain range, it was also a fortress that was made to fend off invading armies in the past.
"How long does it usually take to get to Grandfort city?" Ning asked.
"Well… we will reach around noon tomorrow I believe," the blue-haired girl said.
"Really? The map didn't show that much of a distance between us and them," Ning said.
"It's less about the distance and more about the path leading there. Since we have to go to the mountaintop, the road leading there is long and winding to compensate for the steep incline once we pass the large forest."
"It's actually very quickly when going downhill, but when going uphill, the horses will have to rest multiple times, making the trip take longer than needed," Sophie explained.
"I see," Ning said. "Then I should probably just go to sleep now since there is nothing else to do."
Sophie knocked him on the head hard enough to hurt a bit.
"What was that for?" Ning asked angrily.
"Sleep?" Sophie asked with her hands on her hip. "Did you forget what we are here for?"
"Uhh…"
"We're on a mission," Sophie answered her own question. "We are not here to slack off, but to be on the guard for anyone that might come and attack the boss. You can't go to sleep just because you want to."
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"Geez, you don't have to hit me just to tell me that," Ning said as he rubbed his head.
"I'm just teaching you. I'm not hitting because I like it," she said.
Ning shook his head and slumped back in his seat with nothing else to do. He swayed with the carriage, looking at the vast grassland that turned to the forest not long after.
They also passed a massive river that followed them for the longest time before entering another forest.
As he watched the various scenarios, he noticed people fidgeting a bit. He didn't immediately turn around and instead looked at them using his Energy vision.
Frank and two other people rocked their legs or clasped their hands or moved their hair as they sneaked a glance out of the carriage.
'What's wrong with them?' he wondered. As he thought that, he heard a distinct rustle that only came from something moving in the forest haphazardly.
He was surprised he could hear it all with all the noise, but he did and he looked in the direction of the noise.
They tried to hide, but Ning saw the dark figures that moved in the shadows of the forest. His vision was just that good. He saw the figures holding different types of weapons.
Ning looked toward Sophie and it seemed that she had noticed it too. As his eyes glanced over the rest, almost all of them had noticed it.
"Be alert," Sophie said. "Bandits ahead."
Just as she said that the wild group of bandits jumped out of the forest with various weapons in hand.
"Stop the carriage!" one of them shouted and the entire group of carriages came to a halt.
The bandits started gathering around the carriages while Ning and the rest quickly walked out to fight them.
"Everyone, you better not think of doing anything stupid," the leader of the bandit said. "We are only here to steal your valuables, not your life. Don't try to protect one at the cost of another."
Ning looked around with a frown on his face. There were 8 of them along with 5 more guards that the carriage had paid for.
However, the bandits amounted to over 30 easily. If they had to fight, they had to be very careful not to get overwhelmed by them.
Ning looked around the 5 carriages at the 30 or so bandits that had surrounded them. He could hear the cries and whimpers of people inside the carriages, all of whom were very scared.
The main leader of the bandit moved towards the first carriage, and with him moved a small group of bandits.
Ning stayed his hand and watched what was happening. If they were here just to steal, he would let it all play out normally. However, the moment they tried to kill someone, he wouldn't bother keeping up with his own game.
People's lives mattered more to him than his entertainment.
"When do we attack?" he asked as quietly as he could to Sophie who simply shook her head slightly.
"Essence Manifestation realm," she said softly.
Ning's eyes went wide as he looked at the leader. This was somebody strong that they couldn't just go fight against.
The leader slammed the carriage with his left hand, making multiple people cry out in terror. "Everyone on this carriage, come out!" he shouted. "If you don't all come out in 10 seconds, I will kill you all."
One could hear the cries of the people inside without even having any improved senses. The door to the carriage opened and a bunch of men, women, and children came out.
The leader gestured and one of the bandits carefully walked into the carriage before coming out not long after.
"No one is in there, leader," he said.
"Good," the leader said. "Separate the men from the rest."
The bandits grabbed the men and dragged them to the side. The women cried out in terror and so did the men. Some of them were even ready to fight, but with weapons pointed at them and the others, the men couldn't do anything.
The leader walked in front of the men, looking at each and every one of them individually. He then turned to his men and shook his head.
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"Hand over all your valuables, and you will leave," he said and let his men handle the rest.
He walked over to the 2nd carriage and saw Ning and the rest outside the 3rd carriage.
He grinned at them with a horrible smile and turned. "Do you want to fight me?" he asked them, taunting them.
The group tightened their grip on their weapon, but they didn't move. The bandit leader only laughed and called the people in the 2nd carriage to come out.
Once everyone was out, he separated the men from the rest and stared at them once again.
'Does he like men?' Ning thought for a fleeting moment before realizing he was probably wrong. There was something else going on here.
The bandit leader frowned and angrily gestured at the bandits to loot these people as well. Then, he moved on to the 3rd carriage, which was Ning's.
Many other bandits gathered around them as well. The leader pulled out a fiery sword and pointed at them.
"Split!" he ordered.
The group hesitated for a bit, but one of the men moved to the side, and then another. In the end, everyone split off.
The leader looked at them very carefully, searching for something.
'But what?' Ning wondered. What could he find amongst the men that he couldn't amongst the women and children?
As Ning thought that, the answer came to him.
'Could it be..?' he thought. 'Are they looking for Clara?'
That was the only answer he could think of as to why they looking at the men. Unless there was supposed to be someone else that was a man and was more important than Clara, then it was most likely her.
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Except, these bandits didn't know that the Boss of the Paradise Hunters was a girl.
The next question Ning had to think of was why would a group of bandits be looking after the boss of a massive gang.
'They're not a bandit group,' Ning thought. That was the only answer he could come up with.
If they were a bandit group, they would focus more on stealing and looting, than looking through people. Most of the bandits hadn't even taken anything of value from the carriages, just the people.
They wanted to make it seem like a bandit attack, when in fact this was a predetermined attack on the boss.
The only question that remained now was why did they know that the boss was here? Had someone leaked it before they were leaving? How could they have known otherwise?
'She should be fine,' Ning thought. 'Not only are they not even expecting the boss to be a female, but Clara herself could also hide very well.'
Ning wondered if she was going to come out and fight at all, or if she was just going to hide throughout the journey.
The leader of the bandits moved away to the 4th carriage after looking through the 5 men that were in the 3rd carriage. Then, once he was done looking at the 4th carriage, he moved to the 5th.
Ning started feeling tense as he saw the frowning face of the man that had not found the thing he was looking for.
'This is about to get nasty,' he thought as he held onto his sword. At any moment, he would have to use his sword if the situation called for it.
The leader himself walked into the 5th carriage after checking the men there and slammed the door on the way out.
"Search through all the carriages again," he ordered. "Search under the seats, over the carriage, over the carriage. Search the boxes and other items too."
"Yes, leader," the remaining bandits nodded and checked through everything, but they couldn't find what they were looking for at all.
As time went on, the leader got angrier and angrier at everyone. Finally, he couldn't keep the anger hidden and flipped out.
"Where is he?!" he shouted as he pointed the sword at Ning and the others.
"What are you talking about?" one of them asked.
"You know damn well who I am talking about," the leader said. "Where is he?"
What are you talking about?" someone from the group asked, as it seemed they hadn't caught up to what was happening.
"You know damn well who I am talking about," the man shouted. "Where is your boss?"
The leader of the bandit didn't hide behind a facade of looting anymore and started outright asking where the boss was.
Ning also realized that the leader was getting increasingly aggressive. If it went on like this, he was going to attack anytime now.
He frowned a bit. He looked at everyone in the area, all of whom were tense as well. 'Essence Manifestation realm,' he thought. Could he beat someone like that?
Maybe he had a chance in a one-on-one fight if he could catch the leader off guard, but with so many people at the mercy of the bandit, Ning didn't believe he could beat them.
'I need to protect those people first,' he thought. His hands gripped the hilt of his sword tightly as he formulated a new plan.
The leader swung his sword, releasing a fiery slash that nearly hit one of the gang members. If the person hadn't dodged at the last moment, he would have been burned.
"Come out, you bastard or your men will get it," the leader shouted.
However, there was no response.
Ning looked around silently, wondering if the boss would continue hiding much longer. 'Is she really not planning to come out?' he thought.
As he wondered, another thought came to his mind. 'Or perhaps… she never came in the first place.'
Had she known that she was going to be attacked? Did she realize that someone in the gang had leaked their journey today and that was why she had skipped out on it?
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Whatever the reason was, if the boss was not here to help them fight, Ning had to quickly do something.
The people cried in terror, so Ning took the opportunity to softly whisper to Sophie. "On the count of 3, attack."
The blue-haired girl's eyes went wide, but before she could say anything, Ning moved. Essence flowed through his body, moving into his sword as he willed what he wanted to do next.
At the same time, the leader turned his head towards Ning as he sensed the movement of Essence in the air.
"Shit!" Ning thought, but it was too late to stop. "Attack!"
The moment he dashed forward, countless rock spikes grew from all around the place, hitting many of the bandits, while entrapping the rest of the people and carriages in it.
The leader stumbled back as well and came face to face with Ning who had rushed for him. "You bastard!" he shouted as he swung his sword at Ning.
At the same time, Ning pulled out his sword from the sheath.
The sword came out in a single motion and hit the fire sword that was coming down. Ning expected the clash to push him back, but to his surprise, his sword easily cut through the fiery sword, turning the sword into a bunch of useless tongues of flames that disappeared.
The leader was surprised by the sudden turn of events, as was Ning. Neither of them had expected the result of their clash to be in the favor of the one that was clearly weaker.
"Kill!" Sophie shouted and a burst of water attacks landed on the various bandits that were surrounding them. At the same time, the others started their attacks as well.
These gang members were used to fighting, so the weaker bandits wouldn't stand much chance at all.
That was if their leader didn't return in time to help them.
Ning realized as well that he had to be the to keep the leader in check. He had to keep an Essence Manifestation realm fighter in check.
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The leader clapped his palms together and slowly moved them apart. As he did, fire trailed in between his palms as it extended to the size of a large arrow.
The leader then grabbed the arrow and sent it flying in Ning's direction.
Ning didn't have the time to use his Essence to block the arrow, so he instead put his sword in front of him.
The fire arrow struck his sword and sent both of them flying backward. Ning hit the rock that protected the carriage and fell to the ground.
He sprawled on the ground with his sword a meter away from him.
However, before he could reach for his sword, he saw the leader arrive on top of him. He slammed his foot down on his face, intending to crack open his skull.
Ning put both his arms on top of him to block the attack. The leg struck his arm and the force shook the ground. However, to both of their surprise, Ning wasn't hurt at all.
"Haha!" Ning laughed out loud while the leader moved backward in confusion.
Ning quickly rolled to the side and grabbed his sword. He flipped back as soon as he grabbed the sword and dodged the incoming sword attack.
At the same time, he swung with his sword, killing the bandit that had come after him.
The leader didn't even show any emotion when he saw his man die. Instead, he only looked at Ning, trying to figure out if he was hiding something.
"You… how are you so strong?" the leader asked.
Ning gave a massive grin. "How about you die and I will tell the answer to your soul," he said.
The man clapped his palms again and created another fire arrow. "If you don't want to answer, then you can just die," he uttered and threw the arrow at Ning once again.
Ning dodged to the side, but the arrow struck the ground and created an explosion that sent rocks flying everywhere.
While he was fine, the others' fights seemed to have been affected by it.
Ning quickly turned around to continue the fight and saw that the leader had created another fire arrow and got ready to attack once again.
Ning tapped into his core and pulled some pure Essence from it. He drove the Essence into his sword and quickly created a spike out of the ground that shot in the leader's direction.
The leader dodged and shot the arrow at Ning. Ning dodged as well, but the spray of rock from the fire arrow still hit him in the back.
Fortunately, his body was so strong that he didn't even feel any pain at all.
He saw the leader create another fire arrow and shoot it.
Ning couldn't help but wonder why he only kept on making fire arrows. There had to be a reason for it, but he couldn't figure it out right now.
He ran up to the leader and swung at him. Rock sprayed from his sword, but the leader was ready for it.
A pillar of fire erupted from the ground, creating a barrier of sorts that protected the leader. Before the fire pillar could even disappear, another fire arrow came flying out from inside.
It struck Ning's sword once again and both of them were sent flying back.
'Dammit,' Ning thought as he got back up. The leader's physical strength was about the same as his, maybe even less for some reason, but his Essence was for sure way better than his own.
If he was hit by the arrow directly, instead of the aftershock of the explosion, he would most likely have multiple gaping holes in his chest right now.
The fire pillar disappeared and the leader walked out with another arrow. "You damn brat!" he shouted. "I will kill—"
His words stuck to his mouth as a slash of water flew in his direction. The leader quickly threw his arrow at the water slash and destroyed it.
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Sophie quickly caught up to Ning and helped him up. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine," Ning said as he got back up. "How do we win?"
"Don't worry, we can win," Sophie said. "You destroyed his sword already, so we have a very high chance of winning, especially once the rest are done with their fights."
Ning looked to the side and saw that the majority of the bandits had been killed. Some of the people on his side had been hurt too, but none were mortally injured.
"We can win because I destroyed his sword?" Ning asked with a confused look. He couldn't understand why that mattered at all. After all, they were fighting an Essence Manifestation realm fighter. Why would having or not having a conduit affect the outcome of the battle?
As he wondered, Sophie launched another attack. A stream of high-speed water shot at the leader. The leader created a fire pillar within which he hid. He kept the fire pillar and shot a fire arrow from inside.
Ning jumped in front of Sophie and took the attack with his sword. He was sent flying into the woods this time around, but he got back up and came back running.
Sophie was knocked back too and was in no position to dodge the next attack.
Ning quickly used his essence to create an earthen pillar that sent Sophie into the air. Another fire arrow flew out from inside and hit where Sophie was initially.
The earth pillar was destroyed, but Sophie was fine. He caught Sophie as she fell to the ground.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Sophie looked around with wide eyes. "How… how did you do that?" she asked.
Ning couldn't wait to answer. He needed to kill the leader. Since he wasn't coming out of the Fire pillar at all, he decided to destroy the pillar itself.
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He felt his core drain as almost all of the Pure Essence in his body was dragged into his sword.
Then, he pointed the sword in the sky and imagined a massive rock that would crush the leader.
His Essence disappeared and he opened his eyes to look at the rock that should have appeared in the sky. When he did, he saw nothing.
Or more accurately, he saw darkness. He saw the shadow down beneath the rock that had appeared.
Only, could this even be considered a rock anymore?
It was round in shape and about 50 meters in width. With such a size, it crushed the fire pillar as it came down, and crushed whatever was inside.
The wind from the giant rock falling alone was enough to send most of the people falling backward.
To their luck, the round rock didn't touch them at all. Had it been a cube instead of a sphere, they would have most likely been crushed along with the leader in the fire pillar.
The spherical rock rolled away on the other side of the forest before coming to a stop a hundred meters or so away where it was stopped by the many trees it crushed in its way.
Ning's eyes slowly turned toward the ground where it had landed, and he could see the mangled corpse of the man he had just crushed.
"I… did that?" he spoke in a shocked voice. His was the only voice that was present at all. Every other person was way too shocked to even speak at all.
"How did you do that?" one of the men finally managed to speak.
"I… just did," Ning said, not knowing what else to say at all. They all stared at the rock in the distance for a solid 20 seconds. Their focus only wavered when they heard the shouts and cries of the people and horses now that the rock spikes Ning had created had disappeared.
'2 minutes?' Ning thought as he turned around to look at the people. That was the amount of time his current creation lasted before turning to Essence.
The rest of them quickly finished off the bandits and started checking on the people. As soon as they were done, they all surrounded Ning.
"What the hell was that?" Sophie was the one to ask.
"I… don't know myself," Ning said. "This is my first time seeing that as well."
Everyone sat in the carriage, unsure what to even say. They had never expected a newbie like Ning to create something so massive and strong that he could defeat an Essence Manifestation realm fighter all by himself.
Ning himself sat there remembering the size of the rock he had created. He grabbed the sword on his waist as he wondered, 'is this really made from a mountain?'
If not, how else could there be something so large?
"What are you doing?" Sophie quickly asked as she took out her own water blade.
"Woah! Woah!" Ning exclaimed the moment he saw the weapon being pointed at him. "What are you doing?"
"What are YOU doing?" she asked, sneaking a glance to his left hand that was holding his sword's hilt.
"Hmm? Oh, sorry," Ning quickly let go of the blade. "I wasn't trying to do anything. I was just wondering about what happened back then."
"We all are," she said. "Do you really not know or are you not telling us?"
"I told you, I don't know. This sword is something I found randomly. I don't know what it is made up of or what it can do. The only reason I even used it at the start was that it was sharp."
Sophie lowered her weapon and put it back into its sheath. "I see," she said. "It must have been a really massive rock that was turned into a sword. I wonder how strong the person who turned that into a sword was."
Ning badly wanted to ask his system about the information on the sword, but the mystery was just too enticing by itself. 'I will find out the size of the mountain by myself when I get more Essence,' he thought.
"Anyway, thank you for saving us," Sophie said. "Not only did you destroy his sword immediately, you also killed him."
Ning turned toward her. "You mentioned that before," he said. "About me destroying his sword. Why does that matter? He was an Essence Manifestation realm fighter either way."
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Sophie slightly frowned when she heard that. "Why do you mean why does that matter? How could making him lose a conduit not matter?" she asked.
"But… he doesn't need a conduit, does he?" Ning asked. "He is in the Essence Manifestation realm after all."
Sophie gave his words some careful consideration and finally understood what was happening. "Ah! You don't know much about the Essence Manifestation realm, do you?" she asked.
"I suppose…" Ning said. "I was told one could use their Essence without a conduit once they reach the Essence Manifestation realm."
"They can, but it's not so simple," the blue-haired girl said. "While they won't need a conduit anymore, they need a technique. Just like you need a technique to absorb Essence, you need a technique to use your Essence in a meaningful way as well."
"You can use your Essence without a technique of course, but it would never come close to being as effective as a technique," she said. "When you destroyed his sword today, you left him with just his physical strength and his two techniques to fight us."
"From what I saw, his physical strength was about as strong as your own, so the battle devolved into one of Essence. However, because you had a conduit and he didn't, there weren't many different ways he could use his Essence, and in the end, died to you."
"I see," Ning said as he finally understood it. "If he had learned some more techniques than just the arrow and pillar, we would've most likely lost, huh?"
"It's not that easy to learn different techniques," the girl said. "Not only is it very hard, it is also extremely expensive to find such techniques. I'm sure that man spent half a fortune to buy those two techniques."
"Also, very useful techniques are hardly sold on the market. If you want to get a proper one, you have to join a school for Essence users."
"I see," Ning said. "Thank you for explaining it all to me."
"Don't be so cordial. You saved us, so it is only obvious that I repay the favor somehow. I will find another way to fully repay you for saving my life," Sophie said.
"Me too, brother," another person said.
"And me."
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"I will find a way too."
The people in the carriage spoke afterward and all of them agreed to repay Ning somehow. Ning simply smiled and said nothing.
He wouldn't be so kind as to tell them to forget about it all. If nothing, he wanted some money from them at the very least.
The sun went down a while later, and the carriage stopped for a while so people could make some food and sleep.
The horses needed some rest too, so everyone set up camp in the forest. They all sat by the campfire, talking to themselves, enjoying their time. They prayed to whatever god was out there for letting them live today.
Ning found it weird that most of these people didn't even thank him and instead thanked their gods.
Not that he wanted people to thank him for saving them.
Most people went to sleep with a few taking turns. Ning decided to use the time to improve his Essence, so he sat in the moonlight, absorbing Essences for the rest of the night.
Early morning, everyone got back on their carriages and the journey began once again.
It was the mountain that they had to climb up this time around, so they let the horses take it slow.
The carriages arrived at their destination late noon and everyone finally got off the carriage.
"Where do we go now?" Ning asked.
"Someone should be coming for us," one of the men said.
As they spoke, a group of people did come out from the walls around the fortress.
"Have you all finally arrived?" the man at the lead asked.
"Yes," Sophie answered. "You are brother Erman, right?"
"I am," the man said. "Now that you have arrived, we can begin."
Begin? Begin what?" Sophie asked. Just as she did, she noticed that they had all been surrounded by many men.
Ning noticed that as well and slowly reached for his sword on his waist.
"What is this?" one of the men asked. Everyone else prepared for a fight as well.
"Please stay your hand," Erman said. "Our intention here is not to hurt you."
"Then what is it?" Frank asked while holding onto an air sword of his own.
"Our intentions will make sense to you all once we reach our destination. Please come with us," the man said.
He started walking in the opposite direction of the fortress behind him.
Ning couldn't help but look toward Sophie for some sort of answer. She was the one that had been helping him with understanding stuff for a while now, so he couldn't help but rely on her.
"Are we being attacked?" he asked.
"I don't think so," she said. "As far as I know, that Erman guy is a high-ranking member of the gang that is said to have regular connection with the boss himself. I doubt he is doing anything that goes against the gang. Still, be ready to save us."
Ning nodded and looked around. 'So she really didn't come after all,' he thought.
The 8 of them were led by nearly 20 different people toward an open space in the mountain. The trees there were cleared out, and Ning could see tents being prepared.
"Are we staying here?" someone asked.
"I'm afraid that is the only choice you have," Erman said. "Or rather, that is the only choice we have. After all, as it has turned out, one or more of you have betrayed the gang."
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"What?"
"Nonsense!"
The men and women in the group started shouting at Erman who simply stood there and listened to it all. Even Sophie started shouting at Erman.
Ning on the other hand looked at everything with a silent voice.
"Why aren't you speaking?" Sophie shouted at Ning. "He is accusing us of having betrayed the gang. They are looking to kill you."
"I mean, he's not wrong," Ning said as he shrugged.
The others in the group stopped and looked at him. "What?" they asked.
"It was obvious we were betrayed," Ning said and turned towards Erman. "Only, can you tell us why you assume one of us is the betrayer? And not someone else?"
Erman nodded. "The reason is simple," he said. "That is because only you 8 are supposed to have the information that the boss was coming to Grandfort city."
"Only he didn't come, did he?" Ning asked. "So sending us here, was… he trying to figure out who the traitor amongst us is? I'm curious why us 8 were being chosen."
"You weren't," Erman said. "Everyone in Grayfire city was told that the boss would be moving with them. If their group was attacked, there are others that are holding them captive too."
"Ah! that's smart," Ning said. "So the question is, how do you intend to figure out who the traitors are amongst us?"
"Please let us figure that out on our own," Erman said. "For now, hand over your weapons."
Two people walked by with a stretcher behind them. Ning wondered why they were using a stretcher and only then realized that if these people didn't touch the weapon directly, they wouldn't be harmed at all.
'Damn, have to be careful about that one,' Ning thought. Everyone reluctantly started handing over their weapons, so Ning handed them over too. He didn't want to fight with someone that was on the same team as him after all.
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"We will have tents prepared for you in a bit. You can rest after that," Erman said and walked away.
Ning slumped down on the grass and sat freely.
"What is wrong with you?" Sophie asked. "You don't seem worried at all."
"Why would I be worried?" Ning asked. "I did nothing wrong."
"Even so, you're being treated as a prisoner. What if what they said was false and they are trying to kill us to hide evidence," Sophie asked.
"That is possible," Ning said. "But look at the number of people here. Do you really think that there are 20 people out there that have betrayed the gang? If that was the case, the gang wouldn't even exist anymore."
Sophie looked around and nodded. "You're right. I need to stop being so pessimistic," she said.
"No, you should be pessimistic," Ning said. "You are unfortunately in a line of work where being too trusting can get you killed. I can afford to be optimistic because I can afford to be killed."
Sophie looked at him weirdly. "Are you… suicidal by any chance?" she asked.
Ning really chuckled out loud. "No," he said and looked around. He saw the rest of them, and amongst them, he saw Frank.
'It's him, isn't it?' he thought. He remembered all the fidgeting the man had done right before the bandits had shown up. It was him and the other 2.
'They are most definitely the traitors,' Ning thought to himself. However, he didn't find any reason to tell the others the truth.
On one hand, he had no evidence other than his word, which could never be trusted at all. On the other hand, he wanted to see exactly how it was that they were planning on finding the traitors.
Since torture wasn't an option, did they have stuff like truth serum? It would be fun to see.
"Agh, I'm tired," he said and laid on his back as he waited for the tents to be prepared.
The others were confused and even reviled his actions under their breath. However, in the end, they couldn't do anything other than that.
The tents were prepared not long after and were stationed far away from each other that the people in them couldn't communicate at all.
Erman came back and issued a tent for each of them by himself. After learning where he was supposed to go, Ning walked into the tent and disappeared.
With nothing better to do, Ning used his absorption technique to absorb some Essence while he was free. He tried to use eat one of the fruit, but even with as much strength as he had managed to gain, he still couldn't tear it open.
"I should find a way to get back to that turtle somehow," he thought. "Damn if it isn't one of the best ways to improve my rank."
He continued absorbing Essence but quickly found it rather useless. Not only was there no fruit for him to absorb Pure Essence from, but there also wasn't even any moonlight in the tent, to begin with.
Without those two, it was impossible for him to cultivate at all.
Ning sighed and decided to sleep.
He lay on the bed that was prepared for him and went to sleep. It was probably not the best idea to sleep in the current situation, but there was nothing else he could do.
There wasn't even much noise around him to keep him awake, and the carriage ride had left him very fatigued. So, he quickly fell asleep.
He was suddenly woken up by some noise in the area. He quickly got up and out of his bed. He heard some sounds as if something heavy hit the ground with a soft thud.
'What's going on?' he thought. Had a fight broken out by any chance? How were they even fighting without making some noise?
The eerie silence didn't sit right with Ning. A forest would usually have trees rustling, animals crying in the night, or even just some bugs that made some noise.
However, there was absolutely no sound from anywhere other than Ning himself. Even the soft noise from outside had completely disappeared.
As Ning thought that, the tent opened up and a masked man walked in. He tossed a fire sword next to Ning's feet. "Quick, we need to leave," he said.
Ning was a little surprised. "Who are you?" he asked.
"Stop asking stupid questions," the man said. "They sent me to get you out of this situation. I've knocked your guards out, but others will come here soon. We need to leave before they find out."
He turned around and walked out. Ning looked at the sword and picked it up before walking out of the tent.
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After he was out, he looked around him, seeing the nearly 10 knocked-out individuals.
"You did this?" Ning asked the man in the mask.
"This way," the man said and walked towards the forest. However, halfway after going in that direction, he turned around to see that Ning hadn't followed him at all.
"What are you doing? We need to leave," the man said.
Ning instead squatted in front of one of the unconscious men. He smiled a bit and poked the man's cheeks. "Unconscious people don't have such tense faces, you know," he said. "Your acting needs work."
The masked man walked back towards him. "What are you doing? We need to leave," he said.
"Relax, I'm not the traitor here. Besides, your plan isn't really working. Anyone with half a brain would realize that you are faking it," Ning said. "Here, have your sword back."
He tossed away the sword and returned back to his tent. Without waiting for anyone else to say anything, he got into his bed and went to sleep.
The unconscious people around the tent started getting up one by one and looked in Ning's direction with inquisitive looks.
"I guess that failed," one of them said softly.
"Is he innocent then?" another one asked.
The masked man took off his mask to reveal that it was Erman behind it. "The culprits usually are happy that they are saved, and the innocent try to make a scene since you killed their people. This one did neither," he said. "It's hard to tell if he's innocent or not."
"So, what do we do now?" another person asked.
"Move onto the other one," Erman said. "Remove the Sound Restricting barrier from around him. We'll go for the next one."
Ning fell asleep in just a few more minutes. He was woken up by the loud sound of someone entering his tent.
The person had intentionally made some noise to wake him up.
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"Urgh, what is it now?" Ning asked while rubbing his sleepy eyes. "Another person here to save me?"
"No," Erman spoke out loud. "You're free."
Ning stopped rubbing his eyes and looked up. "Oh, yesterday's tests worked?" he asked.
"For almost everyone," the man said. "You, on the other hand, we will have to watch for a little longer."
Ning gave a slightly confused look. "Why me?" he asked. "Was last night's test not enough?"
"Not yet," the man said.
"And killing the bandits doesn't get me off either?" Ning asked.
"Everyone killed the bandits, didn't they?" Erman said. "You aren't that different."
"But… I killed their leader," Ning said.
Erman paused for a moment. "You killed their leader?" he asked. "But that doesn't get you off the hook, does it?"
"I mean, I didn't just kill him. I was the one that launched the attack. I distracted the leader, destroyed his sword, and in the end killed him. The only one that even remotely helped me was Sophie, but I did everything else."
Erman didn't know what to say.
"Also, I hear you've seen the boss. Is that true?" Ning asked.
"I have," Erman said. "What about it?"
"I have too," Ning said. "Given that, do you not think it would be strange if I watched them look through all the men and say nothing?"
Ermna's eyes narrowed this time around.
"You make some good arguments, but you're still not off the hook," the man said. "But, we won't treat you like prisoners, so don't worry. We already caught 3 of the traitors, so you will remain free for now."
"I see," Ning said. "Well, do whatever you want then. Although, since I've completed a mission now, who do I go see to get paid?"
Ning was finally allowed into the fortress, although with a few people following him discreetly. They were there to watch over him just in case he came into contact with someone else.
He had been handed back his sword, so he definitely wasn't a prisoner for sure.
He entered the fortress with Sophie and the rest. The massive stone fortress was nearly a kilometer wide, housing many streets and buildings within it, no different from a regular city.
However, since everything was built in the fort, it all felt like one large building that they had to navigate.
The streets were narrower than most cities, but not so much that it was too crowded to walk. Two carriages could pass side by side on most paths with enough space for people to walk through as well.
"Did you sleep well?" Sophie asked as she walked next to him.
"Like a baby," Ning said with a wide smile. "What about you? You don't look so good."
"I didn't get a wink of sleep," she said. "I was so worried that I was going to be killed, and then that stunt they pulled. I nearly killed that damn masked man."
"You mean Erman?" Ning asked.
"That man was brother Erman?" Sophie asked with a shocked look.
"Did you not realize?" Ning asked. "I thought it was obvious from the silhouette and the way he walked."
"I didn't realize," she said. "Gosh, I was so worried too."
"Well, you're not worried anymore, right? Just enjoy your freedom," Ning said, sneakily looking at the man that was following him from afar.
"Sigh, I think I'll just go to the safehouse and sleep. I don't see what else I can do," she said.
"Right, where's the safehouse?" Ning asked.
"There are a few taverns and houses," Sophie said. "I don't know exactly which one it is, but we can figure out if we go to the Mercenary station."
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"Mercenary station?" Ning asked. "They belong to the gang?"
"No," Sophie said. "They are their own independent thing, but they form alliances with the gang members so that they get the better-paying jobs."
"What do they get in return?" Ning asked.
"It's not what they get, but rather what they don't get," Sophie said.
Ning looked at her curious. "What do they not get?" he asked.
"Destroyed."
"Ah! As expected of a gang."
Ning felt the slightest jingle of Essence coins in his pouch that hung by his waist and wondered what he should do with it.
"Do you want to go get something to eat? I'm super hungry since I got to eat nothing," Ning said.
"Hmm, me too," Sophie said. "Let's stop by a restaurant or shop then."
Ning nodded. He looked around the fortress, wondering if there was something he wanted from the shops that he passed by.
Just then, his ears picked up some noise from the front. It wasn't just him either. Many others by his side noticed that something was happening up ahead.
The crowd and curved pathways didn't let them see what exactly it was though.
"Why are people gasping so much? Did they see a dead body or what?" Ning asked.
"I don't think that's the case," Sophie said before her eyes narrowed in a frown. "So much Essence. If I'm not wrong, it must be the Fort lord's tamed beast. I did hear that he likes to go on a walk with his beast from time to time."
"Beast?" Ning asked curiously. "You mean a pet?"
"No, a beast," Sophie said. "An Essence beast. Do you not know about them?"
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"No," Ning said. 'So there are beasts that can cultivate Essence? I suppose that makes sense given the existence of Divine beasts. So normal beasts can cultivate Essence too, huh?'
"How do you not know about Essence Beas— oh wait, you don't have any memories, sorry," Sophie said quickly. "I mean, there's nothing special about these beasts other than the fact that they can use Essence like humans. They are usually wild and found only in the southern regions. People here aren't used to it."
"Only in the south? Why?" Ning asked.
"No one knows," Sophie said. "But people do think it's because there is more Essence in the south. Maybe the beasts migrated there to get stronger."
"More like the beasts that were there improved and survived, and the ones that weren't, went extinct," Ning said. "Then I guess the Origin is in the south."
"Origin? What's that?" Sophie asked.
"Nothing, I'm just talking to myself," Ning said.
The commotion up front got louder and the group realized that the beast was most likely coming in their direction.
"Although it is a tamed beast, it is still a wild beast. If you agitate it or cause it to get aggressive, it will most likely kill you. So be careful," Sophie said.
"Why would I cause it to do anything?" Ning asked. "It will just pass by, won't it?"
"I'm just speaking in general. I wasn't talking about you specifically," Sophie said. "The beast is in a higher realm than the Essence Manifestation realm, so you need to be careful. No one is that strong here, so if it goes wild, we will die."
"What a load of… if there's so much danger, then why isn't it being kept locked up?" Ning asked.
"Quieter or the lord will hear us," Sophie said.
Ning sighed. As the group parted, he too parted with it, moving to the side, hugging the building he was next to. Sophie stepped next to him as well and hid as much as she could.
Finally, the open road led to him seeing what the beast actually was.
It was a red dog the size of an elephant. Not only that, it had a long crimson mane that made it look quite ferocious. It strolled with obvious pride its steps that a beast usually wouldn't have.
'Is that really a dog or is it actually a lion?' Ning thought.
Suddenly, the beast's head jerked to the side and stopped as it stared at something.
It was staring directly at Ning.
The beast stared at him, even though Ning wasn't turning towards it at all. He was huddled to the side of the building and was only looking at the beast through his omnidirectional vision.
'What the hell? Does it somehow know that I'm looking at it?' he wondered. He tried not to move, but the beast was staring at him with a furious look on its face. Its breathing was rough, causing everyone in the street to start to get scared.
"Bong? Bong, look this way," the man next to the beast shouted at the lion-dog beast.
He wore expensive-looking clothes, so it was obviously the lord, but he didn't seem capable of controlling the beast at all.
'Damn man, if you can't control the beast, then why did you bring it out?' Ning thought. He was surprised how young the lord was too. From what he could tell, the man was barely 20 years old.
Even if having an improved body slowed his aging, he could be no more than 30 years old. He couldn't imagine how someone like that was handed a beast that was in a higher realm than the Essence Manifestation realm.
Ning reached for his sword and held it. Pulling it out might make the beast more aggressive, so he stayed his hand for now.
The young lord continued to try and calm his beast, but the lion-dog wasn't listening to him at all. It continued glaring at Ning for a moment and then started walking toward him.
Ning didn't know what to do, but he could hear the fear in the way the people around him breathed. He had to do something for sure.
The lion-dog jumped at him suddenly.
Ning saw it coming and pulled out his sword, ready to strike.
However, at the last second, his sword stopped right on top of the beast as he noticed something strange.
The beast stopped right next to him and didn't attack him at all. Instead, it sniffed him and started wagging its tail.
It barked, letting Ning know that it was really a dog. But he couldn't understand why it was barking at all.
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Ning quickly put the sword back in his sheath. "What's… going on?" he asked as he looked around for some answer. However, no one could tell exactly what was happening.
"I… think it likes you," Sophie whispered in his ears.
Ning gave an annoyed look before turning back toward the beast. 'Of course, I can tell that it likes me,' he thought. 'But why?'
"Bong! Bong, come back. Bong listen to me," the young lord said. He tried to pull the collar on the beast's neck, but the beast wouldn't budge at all.
It hopped around Ning, sniffing him out.
By now, the people had already moved away, leaving him alone with the beast moving around him.
"You! What did you do to my little Bong?!" the young lord shouted.
"I don't know," Ning shouted back. "Can you pull it back, please? I have somewhere to go."
"You! You must have done something," the young lord said. "Guards! Guards! Capture this man immediately."
"What?" Ning looked at the young man in disbelief. "Why the hell am I being captured?"
"You came here to make trouble, I know it. You must have been here because you know I was going to bring Bong around. You bastard, you were about to hit my Bong with your sword, weren't you?" the young man said to him. "Guards! I called for you."
"Yes lord!" a few guards came by and grabbed Ning on either side before pulling him away.
However, before they could take him anywhere far away, the dog leaped to follow him, pulling the lord who was holding onto his leash.
The young lord fell to the floor, while the guards moved away in fear.
Ning was now alone on the road, with the beast moving around him while sniffing him. 'Just what are you sniffing? What do I smell like?' he asked himself.
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He sniffed himself too, trying to understand the dog's behavior. However, there wasn't anything that stood out to him.
His body didn't stink, but it didn't smell amazing either. He hadn't put on any sort of perfume either. He did smell somewhat of the sleeping bag he was given yesterday, but that definitely wasn't it.
Aside from that… there was just one more smell he could think of.
"Maybe…" he thought.
He quickly grabbed his sword and pulled it out.
"YOU BASTARD!" the young lord shouted when he saw the sword come out. The other guards also moved close with their own weapons.
"I'm not attacking," Ning said quickly and raised his other hand. He then slowly moved the sword, and as he thought, the dog followed the sword as well.
As he expected, the dog seemed to like the Sword's scent.
However, it wasn't just any scent either. Rather, it was the scent that was ingrained into the sword after months of cutting open that precious fruit.
It was the scent of the fruit that had made the dog come after him.
Ning laid the sword on the ground and let the beast sniff at it as much as it wanted. He himself had the scent on him too, but it was nowhere near as strong as the scent on the sword.
"What's that sword?" the young lord questioned. "I order you to answer me."
"What do you mean what?" Ning asked. "It's my sword I carry around."
The young lord was angry, but he realized that he was causing a ruckus. "Whatever, my little Bong likes the sword, so it is mine now. I will pay you for it later. Now leave."
Ning's eyes narrowed. "I won't sell my sword," he said.
"You don't get a say in it," the young lord said. "Guards, pick that sword up, we're leaving."
Ning crossed his arms and waited. The idiot was going to learn soon enough.
The guards came and tried, but no matter what they couldn't pick the sword up at all. The young man himself tried, but there was nothing he could do either.
"What now?" Ning asked.
:)
