It was late afternoon in Night Town, and the sun had started to settle.
At the foot of the mountain, in the territory of the Navi family, Serf was standing in front of a large double door. His face was restless, and he appeared to be anxious. Next to him, was his sister Alana along with two heavily armored guards.
"I like that look.." Said Alana, as a nasty grin appeared on her face. She was gently brushing her soft-looking hair while enjoying her brother's sufferings. "I can't wait to see how it will look, after she'll refuse.."
For a moment, anger appeared on Serf's chubby face, but after he noticed the two guards that were standing behind him and Alana, he breathed out in an attempt to calm himself down, then turned to look back at the large door.
Less than a minute later, the double door opened, and from behind it, a middle aged woman appeared.
This woman was composed, and brought herself pridefully. From looking at her face, people could notice a striking resemblance to Alana, while her eyes, were identical to Serf's.
"Your grandmother is ready to see you. Go in." She said with an indifferent tone. If somebody had to make a guess about this woman's relationship with the two young siblings, they would be inclined to believe that she was their mother, but that would change instantly due to the indifference that she showed towards them.
This, was slightly different for Alana, who she at least considered as one of the future successors of the Navi family, while on the other hand, she lacked any sort of consideration for her son Serf.
Before this middle aged woman went back into the hall, Serf took two steps forward, approaching her. He then said with a tone filled with desperation "Mother.. Please, I need your help.." His voice was threatening to break at any given moment, and it was clear that he was desperate.
Unfortunately, his mother couldn't care less about Serf's problems, and instead, walked back into the hall. From next to him came the voice of his sister Alana, who said while giggling "Haha.. did you really think that it would have worked? You know that our mother hates you.."
After listening to the dissing words of his sister, Serf walked into the hall, and straight towards the old lady who was waiting for the two siblings in silence.
"Talk." Said the old woman with a croaky voice.
"Grandmother, I was not allowed to retrieve any poison calming pills from our supply.. I came to see if it was a mistake.." Said Serf respectfully and directly. It was normal to think that a grandmother would want to be greeted by their grandchildren whenever they came to see her, but the head of the Navi family was a practical person, and would often be angered by the slightest action that would cause her to waste time.
"Why are you in need of them?" Asked the old woman with a serious tone.
Serf took a step forward, and with a worried voice, he said "I need them to treat my friend. He was poisoned by our family's poison, and he will die soon.. I just want to give him some time. Please.." Serf was tempted to say that he was in need of the pills for an academic reason, but he was in the presence of his sister, and he had no doubt that if he dared to spew the smallest of lies, she would immediately denounce him. Therefore, he had decide to take the pitiful path, even at the cost of appearing weak of pathetic to his entire family.
"The Hiel kid.. Of the Golden Karma company.. A talented young man.." Muttered the old lady before turning towards her daughter, who was currently standing to the side, and added "The third rule of the Navi family."
Serf's mother quickly nodded in the direction of her mother, and said "Anyone found experimenting with our family products will be killed with no exception."
After hearing his mother's words, Serf looked back up at his grandmother and said with anxiousness "Grandmother! It was me who told him to gather the ingredients.. I was trying to make the pills for him by myself, but.. I've failed.."
"That is not a surprise.." said the old lady before waving her leathery hand with a faint motion, and saying "Denied.. Leave now."
Serf's expression was one of devastation. He was about to keep talking, but he was stopped by his sister, who said "What did you expect.. Someone like you, who has never made any contribution towards his family." Serf's face fell, and with a dispirited attitude, he slowly walked out of the hall, covering his head in desperation as he stepped out.
Hidden by his two bent arms, was a faint smile.
—–
Back within the pocket dimension.
Daniel had spent the next few hours creating various structures, and placing them in different spots within the the pocket dimension. Specifically, in the areas near the various perfect essence spheres.
He was now creating a massive building which contained large lodgings for at least five hundred people, as well as numerous sets of high quality smithing materials. This building, had been placed in a massive underground cave, right next to a large lake of lava, which was also the place where the perfect fire sphere had been placed. Connected to this large underground cave, was a corridor which expanded into an enormous and complex metallic den, where Wolfie lived along with a second small metallic wolf pup which had been born born out of the large clumps of metals which Daniel had left around the perfect metallic sphere.
A similarly big structure had been created in the area of the pocket dimension in which Daniel had moved the perfect wood sphere, and the earth sphere. This had been allowed by Leffe and Buriath due to the fact that their two races, naturally close to each other, had agreed on merging their two territories. This building was identical to the one created in the underground cave, with the only difference being that instead of smithing material, this building was filled with alchemical instruments.
Water essence, wind essence and lightning essence were no exception, but unfortunately, the highest level of comprehension that Daniel could offer for those three essences, was slightly below the level of the previous four.
Along with specialized rooms, Daniel had also replicated the weapon mastery testing room that was present within his castle, and had placed an exact copy in each of these structures. The reason for it, was that the cultivators of this planet attributed martial arts with combat, and masteries of natural essences as a support to their martial abilities.
Daniel had just finished setting up the underground structure, when suddenly, a portal opened next to him. From it, Imblen, along with a muscular old man, a middle aged man, and a young man, walked out of it. Daniel immediately recognized these three people as the head of the Tigg family, and the father and son duo, Lith and Fyro.
The moment the old man saw Daniel, he said "Kid! You better have something interesting to show me.. Or you'll have to… Hold on…" He suddenly interrupted his own train of thoughts, and after looking around for a few moments, he started to feel something strange.
A master would be able to differentiate the levels of comprehension of an essence between two people purely thanks to their composition. There were hundreds of details which composed a perfect comprehension, and the combinations were so many, that it was very unlikely to find two people with an identical comprehension of the same essence. Still, it is important to understand that the closer to perfection a person gets, the more his comprehension will start to feel similar to that on another person at the same level.
The head of the Tigg family had felt a perfect comprehension of fire essence from Daniel, which was identical to his, that's why he knew that Daniel had become a master of fire after their meeting. Now, he could feel the same level of comprehension, but it was not caused by Daniel.. It was more of a natural emanation.
Being the expert that he was, he immediately realize what was happening. He turned to look at the lake, and after a moment.. "HAHAHAHA! That's why you did not care to sell that perfect treasure! Two fire treasures.. What kind of luck is that!"
The father and son couple looked at the underground cave and the lava pool, and found themselves comfortable with the heat which was emanated from it, as it was something they were used to.
"What can I say.. I must have a good karma.." Said Daniel with a faint smile. He then started to converse with the old man and his son about what he intended to do, while Fyro was brought to take a tour of the structure by Imblen.
The two listened to Daniel's words carefully, and after he was done, the old man said "I can teach fire essence to my son and grandson personally, why would they need a school for that?"
Daniel nodded in agreement, then smiled and said "Of course you could, but that would take a tremendous amount of your time, as well as having to limit your relatives experiences to your secondhand personal experiences.. Here, they will interact with other students, the elementals which will soon spawn, and become independent and highly specialized cultivators."
"What if I want to teach them personally?" Asked the old man while narrowing his eyes, but the next moment, they opened wide as he looked at the suddenly changed surroundings with shock. They now were standing inside of a metallic den, and right in the middle, was a metallic perfect sphere which emanated the cold and sharp comprehension of metal essence.
The old man, just like his son, were both part of a company which traded in smithing, fire enchantments and fire treasures, therefore, more than anybody else they knew the importance that the comprehension of metallic essence had to people like them.
Slowly, the old man approached the perfect metallic sphere to observe it up close, but after he came to about two meters of distance, a blur of reflected lights and sparks dashed in front of him, blocking its path. With renewed surprise, the old man looked at the now big Wolfie, and muttered "So young.. How is he so powerful?.."
Daniel ignored the old man's mutters, and said "In time, I hope to create a large number of highly specialized cultivators with good morale." While one could think that this was a bad move on Daniel's part, it was in fact quite the opposite. He was allowing powerful and rich cultivators to bring their money to the city within his pocket dimension, as people would inevitably have to live in the pocket dimension if they intended to spend years of studying in there.
Allies for his group and company, turning his isolated world into a place in which rich people could spend money, and an additional layer of defence for his company, as in the end, attacking his group could also be viewed as attacking the groups to whom the students belonged.
The only negative effect would be that the number of experts in sphere making would increase, but that would only be a problem for fifty years later, and hopefully, a problem that they would not need to worry about, as they didn't plan on sticking around for that long.
The old man was about to say something to Daniel, when suddenly, a familiar window appeared inside the head of the latter.
____________________________
*Primary Quest started: Karmic Exactor (Repeatable)*
-Description: Enforce the payments of a karmic debt.
Current objective completed.
Reward: 1,000,000 Karma Points / Scorching Anvil Reputation 100%
____________________________
Without a single thought, Daniel forced a thought to form into his mind, which in turn, forced a second window to appear the very next moment.
____________________________
*Primary Quest started: Karmic Exactor (Repeatable)*
-Description: Enforce the payments of a karmic debt.
Objective set: Support the Helvha family in exacting their revenge.
Optional: Kill the Young mistress of the Gath family.
Optional: Kill the Killshot Brothers.
Optional: Kill the broker.
Reward: 1,000,000 Karma Points (250,000/1,000,000/100,000) / Helvha family Reputation 100%
____________________________
This all happened in a moment, and yet, it was enough for the old man to notice that Daniel had been distracted, so, he decided to be quiet, and wait for a few seconds.
Just like the old man had guessed, Daniel waved his hand, causing a human-sized portal to open right next to him. On the other side of this portal, was a training room inside which a grey-skinned beautiful girl was training with her sword and shield.
As soon as she saw the portal open, Gai'ha looked through it, and towards Daniel, who said to her "Do it now." then, after she nodded, he let the portal close.
