“I know the way for us to quickly reach a wild forest populated with beasts weak enough for us to kill while also not making every injury a hassle to heal.” Randal while leading us between the servant housing with familiar ease, going through danky alleyways and over calm canals, surprisingly it was quite clean compared to what I experienced and heard mortal cities were like, no constant smell of shit and bad city planning, growing like a cancer in every direction, another book of mine had gone off in excruciating detail on how to build a city, how to manage it and what to expect, I wouldn’t have read it personally but since I didn’t have a library of books it was all I had to look after, maybe I should spend a couple of weeks reading.
My thoughts were brought to a standstill when we reached a gate opening in the circular wall surrounding the sect, multiple carts filled with goods entered over the blanket of loud conversation ensuing in front of me, it seemed like a whole world of its own, changing from quiet and calm residential buildings to a bustling overly loud marketplace, from merchants and peddlers selling their wares to families enjoying a picnic in the grass, the sheer prosperity here is unprecedented, the people where clean of filth, happy and satisfied faces on them all.
“We are a benevolent sect, we give those who serve us leadership and care, what better way to increase our own pleasure when you know that your servants will willingly help you as much as they can.” Randal commented while walking through the crowded street, not minding accidental shoves he experiences or the occasional kid pointing at Nog and Tog.
“But humans are greedy, they would get complacent if you give too much.” I stated, I’ve seen how rich people act when I occasionally went to the towns and cities, they became arrogant from their wealth, wanting more and giving less, how do you reign in core human behavior without a firm control over your subjects or the threat of death.
“You feed their children, you house their children, you protect their children, you educate their children, everyone of these mortals are children of servants, we teach them what is right and wrong, what to expect in life, its perfect system, a positive feedback loop as the Grand Elder would say, the same one who proposed it over 300 years ago, a prime example of nurture over nature.” Randal said with a bit of reverence at the end, this Grand Elder is quite a genius if he can make humans be satisfied with their stations, a master in human psychology and indoctrination if it is all true..
I looked at Foranda walking by my side, her posture may speak of indifference but her eyes betray the sheer awe, her blue eyes fluttering between gem sellers to bakers, as if she never suspected there would be a city like this, Foranda is not peasant born but city born my mind hinted, I myself have a fervent respect for this level of prosperity,
We approached the gates, we stopped just when Randal told us to wait for a friend of his, it didn’t take long before a young man wearing the standard leather armor and a huge backpack swinging crazily with his running, he put a badge on his chest armor made out of bronze, depicting various animals, bears, wolves and lions.
“Hello! My name is Joe, I’m an apprentice of the beast guild, I specialize in the knowledge of beast anatomy and beasts native to the Myriad Valley, I hope our partnership lasts.” Joe said with barely hidden enthusiasm, shaking our hands while we introduced ourselves.
“Is that all for preparing Randal?” The silent Foranda spoke, her feet twitched erratically in excitement? She really wants to hurt stuff.
“Yes, that's all we can do for preparation, I pity those who don’t research and go straight to the forest, mortality rates are high just for the sole reason they lacked a proper guide, and most of the time they don’t even get many blood cores since they don’t even know where the blood cores reside in a beast body.” Randal said, seeming to be encouraging the desperate need for thorough preparation.
The team moved outside sect walls, taking a dirt road towards the expansive forest, Randal and Joe talked extensively about their fathers while the two iron wearing men flanked them, if I heard right Joe’s father is also a member of the beast guild and he works for Randal’s family, the Sigmonds. Although he is only one of the many that exclusively serve the members of that particular house, how big is the Sigmond clan? It's as if they have hundreds of members.
Tearing myself away from their conversations, I looked at the only other silent cultivator in our group, red haired teenager in leather, her fingers on her sword handles, tapping furouisly, not the patient type, she caught my gaze and looked at me from top to bottom, raising an eyebrow at the bow, seeming to prompt me to explain.
“I’m good at archery, don’t worry about a random arrow in the back, how good are you with those swords if you don’t mind me asking.” I said.
“Pretty good….. Which place did you come from?” She said.
“Goldoak, on the foot of Tyrant Mountain right beside the North-South Catigen river. How about you, lived in a place more interesting than a random village in the middle nowhere?” I said back, trying very much not to make this conversation anymore embarrassing.
“Veridin City, Sunder Kingdom, did you know that every nation on the continent bows to the Myriad Formations Sect.” She said, seeming to be less tense once she heard my origins, doesn’t like nobles, doesn’t like people in control of her, she was going to marry a noble, forced to marry, marriage stopped because of the recruitment.
We continued to converse while walking the dirt road, the tree line seemed ever distant and our trek took hours.
Just before the sun set, we reached the end of the road which had an inn for sect cultivators, offering free lodging and a local vault for low quality blood cores, anything higher in quality would endanger the facility and would be wasted since medium to high quality cores degrade after a certain time according to Joe.
I once more noticed the incomprehensible runes, now circling the inn, written on marble slabs embedded into the ground, asking Randal, it turned out that these particular runes ward off all wildlife below a certain level and use a type of illusion that makes them very difficult to copy, when I asked him how I could learn these runes, he told me I had to wait till I become an inner court disciple, having 25 units in Qi flow would be the first requirement.
We all took a room for ourselves, the massive inn easily has over hundreds of rooms of all types, closing my eyes for some rest, for tomorrow will be stressful and filled with danger..
