"Sir, you are not possibly saying that.." the fat man began to ask, as a shiver went down his back.
"I am. The beast totems of the Tamer, the artificial essence spheres of the Elementalist, the token of immortality of the Deathbringer. If the Outcast is able to create such artifacts.. I don't even need to tell you what that would mean." responded the middle aged man with a serious tone, that was accompanied by a solemn expression.
Each of the items listed by the middle aged man were amongst the most precious treasures of the known universe. Their origin was not natural, but artificial, and they had been made by the children of Iewah who, by using their powers, were able to create objects that would help them thrive.
What no one but Iewah's children knew, was that these objects were nothing but items obtained through the use of their own systems, such as Daniel's very own planet, an item of which, at first, he only had a basic control over it, and if he wanted, he could have left it to somebody for safekeeping, but that after his ascension, had become a part of him.
The powers of these objects were always as mysterious as their creators, and would require intense study, and attentive observation during any instance in which they would appear to the public.
The most widely known examples of this were the beast totems, which were objects created by the taming system, and whose main purpose was to boost the connection between a beast and the tamer, and similarly to Daniel's position as a group leader, granted an increase in power and intelligence to these beasts. The artificial essence spheres of the Elementalist, which gave birth to mindless artificial elementals at an alarming rate, and finally, the token of immortality.
The token of immortality was an object created by one of the two most powerful children of Iewah. One of the only two that had fought their belligerent instincts by becoming explorers, and keeping their distance from everybody else. The owner of the system of death, also known as the Deathbringer. The token was an object passed down to the oldest and most powerful high judge, and stopped the process of constant corrosion of life essence inside his body, making him completely immune to death by natural causes.
Even the possibility that an object that increased the power of a cultivator to such an extent existed, was already too big of a matter to ignore.
"The others are waiting for me to take the academy from the Golden Karma company, and then they will probably use some other methods to take it from me. But if there really is such an object, and it ends in our hands.. It will be worth it." Said the middle aged man as the edges of his lips curved into a faint mile. "Is there anything else?" he then asked.
"Nothing. Just an odd event at the border of the system, but it has already been handled." Responded the fat man immediately after.
The middle aged man, still clearly distracted by the possibility of obtaining an artifact of one of Iewah's children, paid no mind to what the fat man said, and responded, "Good, make sure that our kid behaves properly in there. If he gets himself expelled, his mother's company will pay for it."
—–
Inside Daniel's pocket dimension, standing in front of a large black castle, was a young man with coppery blonde hair, and dark brown eyes. His linen shirt, cotton pants, and leather boots appeared much simpler when in comparison to those of the people that were standing around him, and it gave the impression that he valued comfort more than appearance.
This young man was mesmerized by the appearance of the black castle, which would not fit the architecture of the buildings of which Cato's cities were full of.
Merchants valued their space, and each building they built, was made so that it could be used for business purposes. Offices, restaurants, shops, and marketplaces were no odd sight in Cato, but for a kingless planet, a castle was a rarity.
This group of young cultivators were standing united, almost afraid of losing sight of each other. Nilo had just finished explaining the rules, and left them in front of the castle with none of their possessions, nor a direction they could follow in order to find the academy.
A pocket dimension was an area of which the creator would have full control of, and just being there, was a stressful situation. After all, if someone were to destroy the channel between the two dimensions, the pocket dimension would be bound to float in the void forever. However, since Daniel's pocket dimension had multiple entrance points, it was quite safe.
Nevertheless, it was the first time that these young cultivators had found each other without money, or their parent's name to keep them safe.
The rules of the academy were simple, and could be compressed into a single rule. That rule, was to not bother the elementals, or the mortal inhabitants of the pocket dimension. With that rule, they had been left to themselves.
"I knew from what that guy told us that there would be elementals, but I was not expecting so many, and so powerful at that. Ivan, did you see those four? They look just like humans." Said a girl dressed in a blue dress, who happened to be standing right next to the young blonde cultivator. She had never seen an elemental of that level alive, and at best, she had seen some remains that had turned into essence treasures at the moment of the elemental's death.
The young man named Ivan finally looked away from the black castle, and turned towards the direction the girl was pointing towards with interest, but before he could respond, his attention was taken by another voice that came from the edge of their little group.
"Hey, kid. Tell me where the academy is." Said one of these young cultivators to a young man in his early teens who had just walked out of the castle, and was wearing numerous spatial rings. In his hands was a sheet of paper, on which the names of numerous planets had been written on.
"Excuse me?" responded the young man while going through the list, and not paying too much mind to the young cultivator.
"The academy. I want to know where it is, are you deaf?" asked the young cultivator that had spoken before, now much more irritated than he already was a few moments before.
"Oh.." said the teenager in realization. He had been so busy that he had forgotten that, some times, a group of young students would be left in front of the castle with no hint on what to do next. "If I told you, it would defeat the purpose. Good luck." he then added before walking away.
"What?! Come back here, you damn brat." Said the young cultivator angrily, while walking in the teenager's direction with an aggressive attitude.
However, before the cultivator could reach him, the teenager turned to look back at him, and with clear fear, he said, "Alright! I am sorry.. Look, just follow that road out of the city, and then take a left when you start seeing the forest at the bottom of the metal mountain. There is a large building there, you can't miss it."
"That's more like it. You stinking brat." Said the young cultivator with disdain before turning to look at the other members of the group, and saying with an autoritative tone, "I don't know why our parents sent us here, but I don't like this place. Let's finish learning whatever we have been sent here to learn, so that we can get back to our lives. Follow me."
This little speech was exactly what this small group of confused, rich, and young cultivators were hoping for. They hadn't been told what they were there for, nor what they were supposed to learn in this academy. They had simply been sent there by their parents without a single motive, and now that someone had decided to step up and promise them to get back to their luxurious lives as soon as possible, they started to feel more at ease.
Amongst this group, only Ivan was ignoring the speech and praises of his peers. What he looking at instead, was the expression of the teenager, which instead of turning from a fearful expression to a relieved one, had turned into a satisfied smile just before he walked away.
Ivan was the spy that had been sent to the academy in order to observe Daniel's company, and therefore, had been instructed in the reason why the other merchants would send their children in that particular academy. From the very moment the cultivator had been rude and aggressive to that young man, he had expected for something to happen. However, being a spy, he was forced to play along, and not stand out, so instead of saying something, he remained quiet, and followed the rest of the group as they headed south.
A few hours later, the group of cultivators found themselves at a crossroad. In the distance, they could see a massive metallic mountain, and at its feet, a thick forest. Down the road to their left, was a building of impressive dimensions, from which the sound of chattering voices could be heard coming out from.
"Did you see that?" asked the girl that was sticking to Ivan's side.
"See what?" Asked Ivan, who was stopped from entering the building along with the rest.
"I think I saw a massive shiny wolf poke his head from the other side of the mountain.." responded the young girl with confusion.
"Odd." said Ivan, unaware of the fact that elemental of metal essence would be born as wolves.
"Come on, if there is someone waiting for us inside, I don't want to be late." Said the girl while walking past him, and dashing into the slowly closing door of the massive building. Ivan followed right after, and as soon as he entered the door, before he could even hear the door close behind him, he found himself back in the square outside of the black castle, surrounded by his irritated peers.
"We are back here! Damn it." said one of the cultivators in anger.
As the newly appointed leader of this group was about to speak, the teenager from before happened to, once again, walk in front of them, and towards the castle's entrance. The planet's names on the sheet of paper he was holding were crossed out, and on his fingers, were no rings.
"Brat, we have followed your directions, and we are back here, care to explain yourself?!" asked the cultivator that acted as leader, while on the verge of becoming violent.
Instead of showing fear like he had a few minutes ago, the teenager burst out laughing, and walked into the castle as if he was in no danger whatsoever.
The young cultivator could not possibly be angrier, as shown by the veins that came out of the sides of his head like green worms ready to pop out of his skin.
Ivan was already suspecting that something would happen, and now that he had seen it happen, it did not take long for him to place the pieces together. He knew that this part would inevitably last very long due to the unruly behaviour of his peers, so in an attempt to avoid wasting any more time, he took a step closer to his friend, and muttered casually, "Maybe we should ask him nicely.. We don't even know who he is. He might be the son of the owner of this place."
Nobody paid too much attention to him, except for his friend, who appeared lost in her thoughts for a moment. After only a few seconds, she hurriedly walked towards the teenager, and said with politeness, "Excuse me, can you point us towards the academy? please.."
"How peculiar, it is never the prettiest girl in the group, the one who gets it first." responded the teenager with a smile, before pointing at the third of the seven portals placed around the square, and added, "Go through that portal, and try to be respectful." He then turned around, and entered the castle.
As soon as he entered the large double door, the teenager found himself in front of Emelnie, who was waiting for him with a big smile on her face. "Did you finish delivering the surplus food to the planets in crisis?"
"Yes mom, it is done. And I got to pull a prank on the new students. Hehe." Said the teenager with satisfaction while showing her the sheet of paper.
