Neil lay in the carriage asleep, his carefree attitude in this environment would be considered reckless and dangerous but an ordinary man wouldn’t be able to understand that he was amidst training in his Mental Nu. A [CINTH’S] energy is known as Nu; it’s described as what makes up a [CINTH]. What is a [CINTH] though?

A [CINTH] is someone who has grasped the ability to tap into the laws or concepts of the universe and then draw the power from these laws and concepts to enhance their physique, mind, sense, or soul simultaneously also allowing them to exert power far beyond a mortal.

 Compatibility with laws and concepts is also required because this will not only make the power the user exert more powerful but, on their conquest, to attain greater power it will be far easier because they will be able to sense or feel similar concepts they are compatible with therefore these laws and concepts will accumulate to synthesize greater and more powerful laws thus only increasing their power further to achieve greater realms.  

To awaken as a [CINTH] one must first awaken the ‘Sense’ which is the ability to sense the laws and concepts around them and therefore integrate them into their ‘Ethereal Aspect’. 

The ‘Ethereal Aspect’ is located in the subconscious and is connected to the ‘Mind’ and ‘Soul’. It acts as a bridge between the ‘Mind’ and Soul’, generated after the user awakens ‘Sense’. (It won't make sense now but as the story progresses you'll understand. WINK!!!)

 It’s a special space where a [CINTH] stores law fragments after successfully integrating them from the world and then absorbing them to enable synthetization. Through synthetization the [CINTH] can accumulate similar laws and fuse them to achieve higher complexity and proportionally greater power.

Then a [CINTH] needs to expand the ‘Ethereal Aspect’ which is a physique capable of handling and harboring more laws or concepts known as the ‘Corporal Aspect’. The 'Corporal Aspect' is the awakened physique one must obtain to harbor more complex laws and concepts because a weaker container can only do so much before it explodes or is overpowered by the laws that he/she wishes to attain. The Corporal Aspect is connected to the ‘Body’ and ‘Heart’ similar to a bridge as aforementioned by its counterpart. The Ethereal Aspect and Corporal Aspect are the first stages of being a [CINTH] and these Aspects are extremely mystifying which only leads to a 1 in 100000 people awakening as a [CINTH].  

Currently, Neil was attempting to awaken the Corporal Aspect since he was already attuned to the laws of Spacetime and Death. His eyes closed symbolized the interaction of the Ethereal Aspect deep within his subconscious. It was a dark space and many law fragments floated in the null, their appearance mimicked that of shattered glass with diameters ranging from 1-2mm whilst a hue of blackness beleaguered them indicating how much Death fragments Neil has.

In some locations of the Ethereal Aspect laid some fragments hued in some transparent ether indicating Space-time but what caught Neil’s attention the most was a single law fragment that stood in the center of the space, it was precisely concentric and peering into it left the young Neil baffled. It seemed like eternal nothingness, no reaction from it remedied his attitude towards it. He long knew about it but every time he saw it, it mystified him.

“Just what is it? I can’t seem to interact with it. This law fragment seems like it exists in its own independent space yet it also exists in this space, its time axis fluctuates to its own accord and gravity is similarly the same. The other law fragments seem rather afraid, no?”

Neil began an analysis of this mystifying law fragment to try to understand its workings as it felt like he was hindered by something to achieve Corporal Aspect.

“If I don’t achieve Corporal Aspect then I won’t be able to attain more laws and fragments, which is detrimental to any [CINTH] and my path will end here. I need to obtain that...”

Neil said to himself as he contemplated the situation but was brought awake by the heavy atmosphere of gore, death, and destruction as he got closer to the city. His azure glimmering eyes once more laid witness to carnage but that didn’t bother him as he finally saw the gates of [Shea City]. He diverted his gaze to find a white bird-like creature resting on his lap snoring in satisfaction. Neil flicked his index finger generating a wind pressure that blew the Pigeon off his lap. He looked at the creature which shot wide awake, its googly eyes gazed at Neil in anger and made terrible screeching noises but Neil looked at it calmly and uttered, “We’ve arrived.” 

The pigeon seemed to have understood Neil displaying a rare moment of intellect leading it to calm down and look outside to the carriage window to see the high walls of [Shea City]. 

Neil looked out as well to lay upon the walls of [Shea City] and sighed in amazement.

“I wonder what character could impose such an organized dictatorship in such a chaotic country. Interesting”, Neil stated as the carriage approached the gates of [Shea City].

[Rein Country – Shea City]

Approaching the gates, one would first see the Guards of Rein attired in greyish garments, with images of a swirling cloud imprinted on their clothing. Black armor, helmets, and a spear were their standard mechanisms for combat holding significance to being a guard of such an ‘illustrious’ country.

 The gates were at least 200m tall circumnavigated by 20 gigantic automated mechanical crossbows that would instantly shoot down a target upon sight something even Neil wouldn't want be at the end of. Five guards occupied the sides of the gate to scour for anything that was prohibited by the city through this they were able to control the amount of people entering the city therefore enabling a rare moment of order in a land where chaos is the norm. 

 At this time, the order was a priority due to the momentous occasion now donning onto the city. A guard named Crome witnessed Neil’s rather adequate-looking carriage approach the gates which surprised him momentarily. It was seldom to see such a carriage unless you were renowned, wealthy, or nobility and Crome knew from a single glance Neil was none of the above hence his surprise. That would mean….

 The carriage finally came to a halt when near the entry of the gates, Crome approached the side left door of the carriage to see who this person was, his curiosity unsatiated whatsoever.

“Sir, Welcome to Shea City. May you identify yourself? “, Crome was brief and straightforward. His rare display of respect was a sign only to the strong if it was anyone else he may have already forced the carriage to a stop and threatened the passenger.

“Hm”, a voice resounded from the carriage accompanied by the squeak of hinges as the door opened revealing the young Neil stepping out of the carriage and taking a moment to look at Crome.

“Neil.”, Neil stated his name.

Crome took a moment to look at Neil and was once more surprised, rather stunned. The young man in front of him looked 20 years old, with black cascading hair and black garments that strode past his body attuned with another black robe that had a circular collar long enough to screen his nose hence making his azure gaze extremely striking. His feet were slightly visible but were bare. Neil exuded an aura of coldness yet was subtle and calm which Crome also took note of.

“Sir Neil, I assume you have come for the CloudEye Auction?”, Crome remained unchanged which left Neil lifting an eyebrow.

“Indeed, how could I miss such an illustrious event?” Neil stated sincerely looking at Crome and then averting his gaze from him to look at the remaining guards who were quite surprised by Neil’s appearance.

“Of course, such a character as yourself couldn't miss such an event. I will proceed to allow you into the city but because you are not a denizen of Shea City you will be charged with 3 Nu Matrixes.” Crome relayed this to Neil.

“Very Well.”, Neil responded but was inwardly laughing loudly. The feeling that the prices were quite lax was quite refreshing bringing even a slight smirk on his face. This already showed the immaturity Neil had and was deemed to be so, after all, he was only 19 years old. Neil extended his left hand and suddenly the 3 Nu Matrixes required for entry spawned onto that palm. Appearance-wise they had many geometric sides and angles making them look like heavily complex shapes, moreover, they were the size of an ordinary round coin but were all identical. This type of currency was universal and spanned across all the continents for better trade and better exchange rates. Neil proceeded to hand the coins to Crome.

Crome saw nothing of Neil’s current state and took the Matrixes then allowed him back into his carriage and onwards into Shea City.

“Do enjoy your visit, Sir Neil."

Crome stated as Neil’s carriage slowly entered the city and what he saw broadened his perspective of the world once more. It was extremely busy with many vendors, merchants, and just ordinary folk flocking the streets which seemingly spanned forever. It could be described as a CBD in a third-world country.

"Who was that kid?", a guard asked as looked at Neil's carriage move in the depths of the city.

"Nobility?", another asked.

"Hmm, I doubt it. His clothes look nothing like a noble would wear", he retorted.

"He is neither but one thing I do know is that for his carriage to still be that clean means he has the strength to protect himself in this 'place'. He is young but he is strong.", Crome interrupted the chatter before going back to his duties with the other guards following suit.

 Neil was peeking through his window observing everything around him while the carriage made its way through the CBD on a roughly constructed pathway. Nell continued to look around before arriving at the city hall. He exited his carriage and approached the doors of the town hall which were made of some alloy he couldn’t recognize. They were greyly shaded with many inscriptions on them but were ordinary in size and length. Neil approached the door and knocked once.

The door opened revealing a teenager just like Neil, it was a woman with striking red hair, her visage ordinary yet delicate indeed. She wore a grey dress with the same swirling clouds engraved on it like Crome. Her red eyes were glued on Neil and she asked in a smooth yet cooling tone.

“Ohh, what do we have here?”, she grinned at him.

Neil looked at her for a moment and responded casually.

“I’ve heard of the CloudEye auction and I wish to attend it but I am not aware of the directions to the site.”

She took another look at him and squinted her eyes which glowed with a shade of icy blue peering into him to uncover more about him.

'This interference...Is he a big shot as well? But why would someone like that be here? Maybe he is a vagabond? Although one thing is for sure, he is strong, she thought.

She turned around and walked to a bookshelf before taking out an A5 book and handing it to him.

"You'll find everything you need in here", she said.

“Hmm… I see.", Neil muttered under his breath.

"I can tell you aren't from around here, in case you didn't know, you need a recommendation to attend the Auction. Although it's said to be an Auction in actuality it is a Conference between all powers within the city. , she said.

“That Is what I've heard.”, Neil responded in a monotonous voice

The teenage female chuckled, leaned on the counter, and proceeded to open a book to read.

Neil quickly skimmed through the book and immediately understood that this contained information about the current powers in the city, the figureheads, well-known guilds, mercenaries, and yes even the map

"How much?", Neil asked her.

"It's on the house", she said with a smile.

 

"Oh and one more thing The CloudEye Auction is at the famous CloudEye Monarchy. The greatest and richest enterprise in the whole of Shea City located in the center of Shea City, so twinkle toes If you get what I mean" " she winked at him.

Neil looked at her and shook his head from side to side.

She then looked at him and she revealed a very mischievous smile.

“You know that's where the Sovereigness of Rein dwells. The sole Queen of this city”, she commented.

Neil lifted an eyebrow and sighed lightly.

‘I will need to plan carefully on how to approach this situation because running blindly into the site could potentially get me killed. I'll assume the worst, perhaps I will meet someone who has reached the Corporal aspect, no, maybe even on that ‘level’. The Sovereigness may be on that ‘level’ and there will be characters similar to her. Someone on the Ethereal Aspect is simply asking for the Grim Reaper to appear. To enter this event will be difficult.’

Neil was contemplating for a few seconds and turned to leave.

“Good luck.", she said in a sarcastically cheerful voice.

Neil didn't say anything else and understood the undertone in her words. She was blatantly telling him that it was suicidal to try and enter the Auction. 

“Seems I’ll need to be thorough this time”, he reminded himself as he headed back to his carriage and the book once again reading its contents even more carefully as he made his way toward CloudEye Monarchy.