In the middle of one of Drester's squares, the middle aged man who had teached spatial essence to Daniel, stood quietly behind his stand.
On the stand a few dozen jewels were placed orderly. Each of them were pocket dimensions of different kind and size.
The line in front of his stall was extremely long, but unfortunately, he wasn't able to be happy about it. He had been showing up at the square for two weeks now, but unfortunately, he hadn't had any luck in finding a replacement for Daniel.
A young man approached the stand and said "I would like to buy one of these.. How much are you selling them for?"
"They are not for sale.." Responded the middle aged man with an annoyed tone.
The face of the young man twisted in confusion. He then said "If they are not for sale, why are you displaying them?"
"The fact that you don't know says it all.. Now leave." Responded the middle aged man, now slightly irritated.
For the past ten months, the middle aged man had bet it all on Daniel's honesty, and proceeded with his research. But now.. only one month and a half was left before the gathering of experts, and he hadn't heard a word from Daniel ever since he had joined the legion.
At two months from the event, he had started to consider that, maybe, Daniel wouldn't have showed up. So he stopped with his research, and used his old method to look for another person to train in spatial essence, and to bring to the gathering of experts.
He had such an urgency to find somebody else, that he didn't even have time to shave or fix himself.
It was now a well dressed old man's turn to approach the stall, but just as he was about to talk, the middle aged man stood up and looked east. Then, he disappeared taking the stall with him.
When he appeared again, he was standing right in front of a young man.
With a face filled with enthusiasm, he said "I thought you would't come back in time.."
"A deal is a deal.. And even if you haven't finished teaching me all you know about spatial essence, there is still time for that." Responded the young man with a matter-of-fact tone.
"There is something different about you.." Muttered the middle aged man..
On the outside the young man was smiling, but within his mind, he was looking at a window that he had purposely made appear.
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Dan Hiel - Karmic system's wielder.
Age - 15
Rank
- Peak rank 6 of Martial cultivation (Perfect Body)
- Peak rank 6 of Spiritual cultivation (Perfect Connection)
Karma - 0
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Weapons Masteries (Details)
Martial Arts (Details)
Skills (Details)
Spells (Details)
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Reap What You've Sown
Time Is Precious Lv.5
Reduced Cost Lv.4
Second Chance Lv.1
Karma X Luck
System Upgrades (Details)
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"Where are your friends?" Asked the middle aged man while looking around.
Daniel gently tapped on his pocket dimension with his index finger. He then said "Mind if I leave the ring with you? I'd like to see them."
"Sure, go ahead." Responded the middle aged man.
Daniel tossed the ring to the middle aged man, and before it could even reach his hand, Daniel disappeared inside it.
The middle aged man grabbed the ring in mid air, and after looking at it with a smile on his face, he teleported back in Drester.
-----
During the ten months spent cultivating, Daniel had seen his friends only twice. The last time being five months ago.
He teleported inside the castle, and once again, he found that its furnishing had changed. The castle now looked lively, and closer to the living space of a royal family.
The first person he saw was Imblen, which was standing in the hall and giving lessons about cultivation to the two kids . From what Daniel could see, she had reached the peak of the fifth rank of martial cultivation.
"Daniel!" Said Imblen while walking towards him. She immediately hugged him and said "I've missed you! Why didn't you come more often??"
"You could have come out as well.." Responded Daniel with a faint smile on his face.
"Sure.. if you hadn't hidden in a tiny hole underground every single time we came out.. The one time we came out, it was so crowded that I've ended up flat against Ligart!"
"Well, I'm here now. How are you and the kids?" Asked Daniel kindly.
Imblen smiled at him and said "We are good.. I've basically read every single book in the martial wing of the library.. don't ask me how many martial arts I've learned though.. About the kids.." She then turned to look at the two kids, that now were almost one year older, and with a sweet smile she said "They are learning."
"That's good.." Said Daniel before disappearing once again. When he reappeared, he was in a martial training room. Inside it, Jerigh was practicing a martial art he had found within the martial wing of the library.
The moment Daniel appeared, he stopped. He then turned to look at Daniel, and he said in the human language "Greeting warrior.. Good see you."
"Hi Jerigh." Responded Daniel kindly.
Jerigh was slightly taller than before. Not enough for the others to notice, but enough for him, since he hadn't seen him even once since he had started to cultivate. On his chin, a hint of dark blond unshaven beard could be noticed.
When Daniel noticed Jerigh's cultivation at the peak of the sixth rank, he felt impressed by his talent in cultivation.
Having finished his karma points after only four months, Daniel's maximum speed of cultivation had slowed down by eighty-three percent.
At that speed, the absolute prodigious talent of Jerigh had allowed him to reach his same rank of cultivation.
Daniel recognized the two martial arts that Jerigh was practicing immediately. The first one was a martial art called 'Tornado Slash', and it teached how to overwhelm one's opponent with attacks thrown during a constant rotation of the body. The second martial art was called 'From Part to Part', and it teached how to efficiently use piercing attacks.
Jerigh not only was using these two martial arts at a near perfect level, but he was also using them at the same time. In fact, one could say that these two arts were merged to such a perfection, that Jerigh had created a new martial art from them.
If Daniel were to name this new martial art based simply on how Jerigh's movements looked, he would call it 'Confusing Cuts'.
After seeing that Jerigh was fine, Daniel teleported once again.
He appeared in another martial training room, inside which, Ligart and Heimart were sparring, while Alis was spectating.
Before any of the three could noticed him, Daniel checked them up one by one.
Alis and Heimart were both at the early sixth rank, while to Daniel's shock, Ligart had passed both of them in rank, and had reached the mid sixth rank first.
Daniel knew perfectly that Ligart's talent wasn't any better than his cousin. Not to talk about Alis.
The only reason why something like this might have possibly happened, could only because they hadn't focused on cultivation like they were supposed to.
"I see you guys have been slacking off.." Said Daniel with teasing tone.
The three immediately turned to look at the direction from which the familiar voice came from. Right after, they noticed Daniel standing quietly, with his usual neutral expression and cheeky smile on his face.
"I haven't slacked off.. Want to spar with me?" Said Ligart with a challenging tone.
Heimart and Alis looked at one another, and in embarrassment, they said at the same time "We have focused more on.." but right after reaching this point, Heimart proceeded to say "..practicing martial arts" while instead, Alis said "..renovating the castle"
"Sure.." Said Daniel while throwing a cheeky smile at them. "I still have to say hi to Roley.. See you guys back in a bit." He then said before suddenly disappearing.
When he
, he was standing above water, and right in front of a small island made out of ice. On it, Roley was sitting quietly while meditating.
Roley had inherited Daniel's comprehension of water essence. So, He was completely capable of verifying Roley's stage of comprehension by simply looking at the ice construct Roley had summoned to keep himself floating.
Currently, Roley was showing a comprehension of eighty-five percent of water essence, and a cultivation at the peak of the fifth stage.
Overall, Roley, along with Jerigh, was the one who had made the most progress.
Unwilling to disturb him, Daniel decided to leave. It wouldn't take long before Roley would reach the full capacity of the water sphere's comprehension, which was ninety percent. They would have all the time in the world to talk after that.
Currently, Daniel had an adequate spiritual essence to produce a perfect earth sphere, but since he didn't have a single karma point, he decided to avoid the earth elementals and leave the ring instead.
When Daniel reappeared in the outside space, he found himself inside a very elegant living room. Next to him, the middle aged man was talking to a beautiful platinum blonde woman which, to Daniel, seemed familiar.
When he appeared, the woman stopped her conversation with the middle aged man and said "You must be Daniel.. We meet again."
Daniel tried to remember where he and this woman could possibly have met, but failed. "My most sincere apologies ma'am, but have we ever met before?" Asked Daniel with a curious yet apologetic tone.
The woman turned back towards the middle aged man and glared at him for a few seconds, then she turned back towards Daniel and said in a gentle tone. "We did not meet. I recognized you from the silent auction at the warehouse. I assume you are not used to seeing my husband not looking like a tramp.."
"Indeed, I am not." Said Daniel while looking sideways at the middle aged man. He then continued "I actually don't know much about him.. Or about his family."
"That doesn't surprise me. Come, let's talk." Said the woman with a polite tone. She then pointed at a chair, and sat on the one next to it.
The middle aged man ignored the woman's action, and Instead, he walked into another room and disappeared.
"First of all, presentations. My husband's name is Edmund Saullet, and I am Emelnie Saullet. You have already met our daughter Alesia. We are the Saullet family." Said the platinum blonde woman in an extremely polite tone, as if she was presenting herself to someone worthy of her respect.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Dan, of the Hiel family." Responded Daniel just as respectfully.
"The pleasure is all mine, Dan of the Hiels. Excuse the poor manners of my husband. He isn't used to having people around. He is usually very focused on his projects and studies.. You must have made a real good impression to manage making him pick you for the gathering.." Said the woman while looking at Daniel with interest.
Daniel suddenly smiled and said "It seems that the key to your husband's heart is a genuine interest for spatial essence.. I was just lucky.. I have plenty of those kind of keys in store."
The woman's interest towards Daniel deepened even further. She then asked "The gathering will be in a month and a half.. Are you prepared?"
"Prepared? Wasn't it a gathering to discuss a strange event regarding time essence?" Asked Daniel with an extremely confused tone.
"No wonder you looked so calm.." Muttered the woman in a low voice. She then said "The gathering of experts is not only a discussion between experts. Students will be examined and tested before their teacher will be deemed worthy of joining the gathering of experts." She then paused for a moment before continuing "You will have to face the most talented disciples of the most powerful experts of the Krehan empire. I really hope that you are ready for it."