"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Asked Daniel while looking at Imblen.
Imblen couldn't help but giggle in response to Daniel's words. Only after a good minute was she able to regain her composure and explain "It's an Asum tradition. A warrior who saves their lives in battle, will become a 'warrior worth serving'.. Now, 'serving' might be a little bit of a stretch. It's not a master and slave, or owner and servant relationship. He simply respects you as a warrior and owes you his life, so he will fight for you."
Of course, Imblen was more than aware of the possibility of this happening. That was the reason why she had prevented the others from helping Daniel out during his one on one fight with the asum warrior.
Slightly annoyed, Daniel asked "Is it possible to refuse?"
"You wouldn't deprive a warrior of the possibility of repaying such a debt, would you?" Imblen asked back.
Daniel couldn't help but sigh and accept the situation. He then said "You will have to teach me the asum language.."
Surprisingly, the very next moment a book appeared in Imblen's hands.
Daniel took the book off of Imblen's hands and put it into his spatial ring. He then walked towards the children, and after calming them down, he and the rest of the group lead them to safety.
Only then did Daniel look back at the blond young man, and noticed that the red number had decreased by more than two hundred points.
—–
After a night spent roaming the streets and killing off dozens of raiding parties through the city, the sun rose once more in the sky.
It was now early in the morning, and the fighting noises had greatly reduced all around the city.
People had started to come out of their hiding, as most of the raiders seemed to have been killed. Thanks to Daniel's group support, the city guard had managed to gain the upper hand in the war that took place in the streets.
With less to worry about, the high ranking warriors within the city were finally able to focus on their respective fights. Most of which ended in draws, and forced the invading party to retreat from the city.
Despite the early hour, the city was extremely active. Thousands of people worked tirelessly to rescue those stuck underneath the debris of the collapsed houses, or tried to put the many fires out.
At almost every street corner, two guards and a city worker would coordinate the citizen's effort to rescue and repair the damage caused by the asum warriors.
Daniel and the rest were now resting and eating at a inn.
One of the people they had saved that night was this inn's owner, so they had been granted free lodging for as long as they wanted.
During the night, Daniel had learned that the blond young man had no name. According to Imblen, a Dirt Warrior's title was his name, and he would never be able to earn one for the entire duration of his life.
Of course, Daniel was in complete disagreement with this rule, but since he didn't know him long enough to try to argue against his belief, he decided to drop the subject for the moment.
It took Daniel only a few hours to perfectly learn the asum warrior's language, and become capable of speaking to the blonde young man without Imblen's help.
Thanks to the night spent killing asum warriors, the young man's karma had decreased to a slightly red 25.
Various high ranking cultivators came to visit the group during the day, including the city lord. They came to thank them for their support in time of crisis, and deliver small gifts of appreciation.
After an entire day spent by meeting powerful warriors and companies representatives, Daniel and the rest left the city and proceeded on their travel towards the empire's capital.
—–
Two additional weeks passed before Daniel and the rest were finally able to reach the next city.
This city was extremely large. Possibly larger than all the other cities Daniel had seen combined.
When they approached the immense city walls, he noticed that even the guards at the gates had a cultivation of at least the fifth rank.
They stood quietly near the enormous gate and controlled the impressive flux of merchants and carriages that tried to enter the city.
What surprised Daniel the most, was how often a rich looking merchant would be denied entry, and forced to step aside to allow the guards to inspect their inventory.
Their turn arrived only after two long hours of waiting. Fortunately, aside from a few weird looks directed at the blond young man, the guards found no good reason to deny entry to them and simply allowed them in.
When they entered the city, a badly dressed bunch of kids approached the group and assaulted them with questions.
"Welcome to Drester! Will sir be needing a tour of the city?"
"Guide service for the kind sir, only one silver per day."
"Best tour guide in Drester! only.."
Daniel immediately noticed how some of these kids were doing the same kind of games to train manual dexterity that he used to play when he was their age.
They weren't simple tour guides.. They were pickpockets.
Daniel couldn't help but smile, and look for the most badly dressed amongst them to hire.
At the back of the group, was a black haired ten year old girl dressed in tattered clothes. By her side, was an even younger boy which she held by his small hand.
This young girl didn't seem to be a pickpocket. She looked more like a beggar who had recently decided to attempt to become a tour guide.
She was shy and didn't talk. The only thing she did, was to stand in the crowd and brush the back of the little boy's hand with her small thumb.
Daniel approached the little girl and said "Are you a tour guide?"
"Y-yes sir.. I know the hotels in the area and.." She said with a shy expression. She clearly wasn't used to being a tour guide, causing the sudden interaction with an unknown person to make her blush uncontrollably.
Before she could finish, Daniel interrupted her by saying "Great! I was really eager to find a room to stay in. Let's go."
The little girl immediately nodded back at him, and started the tour she had prepared.
—–
Despite the impressive number of people walking around, the streets were large enough to prevent them from creating a human blockade.
Daniel and the rest strolled the city while observing the lively scenery.
In the twenty minutes they had followed the little girl, they had seen dozens of hotels and at least ten marketplaces. The little girl's preparation had left Daniel impressed.
She had clearly prepared a very efficient route to guide her customers in. The only problem, was the little boy.. which because of his young ager, had some difficulties in keeping up with his sister's pace.
It was only half an hour later that the group had decided to take a pause for the sole purpose of letting the young boy rest. In order to avoid making the little girl worry, they had pretended to be interested in visiting one of the shops in her route.
When they were about to resume their travel, Imblen approached the little girl with a gentle smile, and asked her if she could carry her little brother herself.
The little girl looked very scared at first, but after hearing the gentle tone of the teenage girl and noticing the tired state her little brother was in, she accepted.
The group resumed their tour which now proceeded at a faster speed.
A few minutes after resuming their tour, Daniel and the group found themselves in the borders of a large square.
This sq uare was tightly packed with people which crowded around a small arena. In this arena, a shop had been set by an odd-looking middle aged man.
What classified this man's appearance as odd, was the fact that he looked like a beggar. His dirty and greasy hair were unkept, and his face was covered by a thick beard. His clothes were of high quality, but they had been worn so much that they had lost their original luster.
Despite the crude appearance, he was sitting behind a very elegant stall, on which a large amount of rings and jewels were being neatly exposed one next to the other.
The man's stall occupied the middle of the square, and yet nobody dared to complain or yell at him. Instead, they quietly observed from afar or approached the stall politely.
Daniel and the rest of the group wouldn't be able to know who that middle aged man was, but for spiritual cultivators capable of sensing the surrounding essence, it would be extremely clear that each of the exposed items were spatial containers.
From the politeness Daniel could see coming from the surrounding crowd behaviour, he guessed that that man was the creator of those items, and therefore, a spiritual cultivator which had comprehended spatial essence.
Spatial essence was one of the hardest essences to comprehend, and the reason for that was simple. Space, like sound and time, were omnipresent.
People were born into a world of space, time and sound.
They were born and lived inside space, their lives were dominated by time, and they communicated through sound.
Being these three essences integral part of being a human, humans had never had the ability to feel them to begin with. Unlike other kinds of essences to which humans had to get used to in time.
The only ones who were able to comprehend those three types of essences, were those who had found an anomaly in which they were particularly strong, or had comprehended them from an essence sphere created by another spiritual cultivator.
Needless to say, each of these cultivators were highly valued by the kingdom or empire in which they resided in.
Seeing how large the crowd around this stall was, Daniel could guess that this middle aged man was no common spatial enchanter. So he decided to stop at the square, and take a look at the rings the man was selling.
The moment he joined the line, his luck kicked in and people started to leave one after the other.
"This Karma X Luck is amazing.." Thought Daniel as he watched the noticeable effects of his most expensive system skill yet.
In just a moment, the time they needed to wait in line was halved.
Of course, luck could only do so much. It couldn't exactly force people to work in Daniel's favor, but it could make slight changes.
For example, the reason why half of the people in line had left, was because at the head of the line, the first customer had shouted "What do you mean by pass on your knowledge? Why can't you just sell me one?!"
Apparently, the middle aged man didn't put his items for sale. Instead, he was looking for a spiritual cultivator to whom he could pass on his knowledge of spatial essence.
Daniel wasn't really sure if this could be attributed to his system's passive skill, but he was definitely not going to let this chance go. He was either going to leave with a good spatial ring, or even better, a comprehension of spatial essence.
Despite the extremely high offers the middle aged man received, people were rejected one after the other.
It didn't take long for Daniel's turn to arrive.
With a serious look on his face, Daniel approached the stall and said to the man "Can I take a look at one of those rings?"
The middle aged man looked back at him and said "If you want to buy one, then just leave"
"I want to check if you have what it takes to teach me something about spatial essence." Said Daniel with a casual tone.
In front of the shocked looks of the surrounding crowd, the middle aged man didn't get offended and instead said while grinning "Suit yourself then.."
