"Check this out! My uncle kept these freshly made chicken strips in this storage ring he said for three weeks now and it is almost as if we just made them today! Is that cool or what?!" Greg upon seeing Ace and pulling him into his room quickly showed Ace the storage type artifact. Needless to say, Ace was of course very impressed and intrigued!
"How much do you think this could sell for on the open market? I bet your uncle would be swarmed with offers!" After chatting about the storage type artifact, Ace and Greg began talking to each other about their training. Greg was of course more focused on the spear given his innate talents thanks to his family's lineage while Ace was excited to share his small gains for his swordsmanship.
The two spoke for many hours about their dreams and ambitions and hoped that once they were old enough and strong enough, they could go out adventuring together. Ace understood that unless he took on missions for the sect itself or he took on a job for one of the merchants in the township, it would be very difficult for him to match up with Greg eventually.
There was just too big of a gap between what the Petal sect could offer him in the short term while he was in his growth phase compared to what the Flying Spear clan could offer Greg. It would not be long for these differences to become extremely apparent and noticeable and this would of course impact what the two could do both together and separate one day on their paths.
"Do not worry about anything, man! When my father gets back from his trip, I will ask him to put in an order to the Golden Goose Merchants here in town to get you some sword techniques that not even the Petal sect has in their stock. This way, you will not fall behind and can just do your thing as we both get stronger."
This was one of the main reasons that Ace felt that Greg and him were best friends and would remain so for the rest of their lives. Not even Ace was able to receive a small monthly allowance while Greg of course was due to his family. This of course in the long term did not matter very much, but given all of the differences between the two's current situations, Greg treated Ace as an equal when he simply did not have to.
By the same reasoning, Ace had a high level of hatred for the Boulder sect! The Boulder sect was known to bully those that had much less than they did and they continuously made life a living hell for many commoners within the town. The reason for this was that apparently an outer disciple of a much larger clan than even the Flying Spear clan once settled in this township and created the sect. And so with several legacies and techniques passed down by the founder and leader of the sect, the Boulder sect's foundation was much too strong and ranked them the number two organization within the town.
Luckily for the Petal sect, they were still in the top five even though they were of course ranked last on the top five organizations list of the town. However, the Flying Spear clan was in the top three just behind the Boulder sect so the Boulder sect while Greg was present with Ace would not try to bully him too much.
And so the two best friends chose to head out into the main square in the town to do some sight seeing. Recently a new restaurant opened up that served some highly rated honey rolls and the two wanted to test them out for themselves. However, before officially setting out, the two were stopped by Greg's uncle who had a strange expression on his face.
"Greg, you are going to have to come with me. I am sorry Ace, come by in a few days and I will even give you something for the troubles." Greg's uncle said while placing a hand on Greg's shoulder. For his uncle to have a strange expression on his face and to act in this manner was very out of the ordinary and this worried the two children. But, Ace could only nod and head back to his own residence in disappointment.
-Flying Spear clan; Patriarch Estate-
"Ah, Thomas it is good that you were able to get Greg here on such short notice. Please, have a seat and bring Greg with you over there." The Patriarch of the Flying Spear clan was a very humble man that focused on the future pupils of the clan and would pour all of his blood sweat and tears into every member whether disciple or normal clan member to make sure that their potential would be reached.
This allowed the Patriarch to keep hold of his seat and to easily avoid any inner politics of the clan that would impact his position within it. Sure, there would always be inner political struggles with clans, especially one of the Flying Spear clan's size, but if the face of the clan did not suppress anyone within it, there was no reason for anyone to try and shake their position. This was a testament of the amount of respect each clan member had for the Patriarch!
"Now, back to the issue at hand. Greg's father Mike as you all know took on a mission specifically for our clan and headed out to Star Forest City which is fairly far from our Maplewood Township location. The main mission given was for him to begin the process of negotiating with the Flower Maze Estate there."
Everyone within the room simply nodded their heads while Greg was trying to suppress his eagerness. It was very rare for missions that were still in the process of being either completed or failed to be made public within the clan itself. For a young child like Greg to have the opportunity to hear such news along with all of the leaders of the Flying Spear clan was especially alarming and something which was almost never done.
"Where there is bad luck, one can still come across a treasure trove of fortune! Although the Flower Maze Estate were quick to decline anything in the immediate and even gave the impression of no future prospects with him, Mike was able to find himself in a negotiation deal with the Sword Palace's Vice Palace Master Fred. And not only do they wish to more than likely accept our clan as a subsidiary under their banner, but the Vice Palace Master even offered Greg's father a teaching role for a new Spear Tower!"
"And so Mike of course quickly accepted the role as a teacher and will be bringing most of our elites to the city to secure the Spear Tower which is absolutely excellent for our clan's future. Sword Palace is considered to be in the top ten of Star Forest City's forces and up until now they only had three towers, the Sword Tower, Saber Tower, and the Axe Tower. But with our clan being able to be almost entirely in charge of a fourth tower means that our influence will be widespread almost immediately and our resources will skyrocket."
"However, the only caveat of this negotiation, is that not only are we to hand over all of our secret spear arts of the clan, but we are to send the majority of our forces there rather immediately so that the Spear Tower could be built as soon as possible. It seems like the Sword Palace is trying to compete with several other top ten organizations within the city and we are only one force that they have accepted negotiations with currently. And the only reason why we are being accepted is due to our secret spear arts which can be considered the lifeblood of our entire clan!"
The Patriarch's face went from excited, to immediately having a complicated look in his eyes. Sure, this deal could skyrocket their clan into the sphere of a city instead of a simple small township. But, it would cost them everything and if something went wrong, it was almost guaranteed that they would be the first to fall on their spears to protect this other organization.
"Patriarch, is there not another way in which we could join the Sword Palace besides giving up so much in the process? Recently, many of our disciples have come to surpass the previous generation and so we can still figure things out here in Maplewood Township." This was a very built muscular man who was the first to speak out. He was the second elder of the Flying Spear clan.
"Second Elder is correct. Why don't we wait for Mike to head back officially and make a report before making such a dire decision?" The fourth elder of the Flying Spear clan spoke out in response, clearly supporting the second Elder. Yes, the two were actually in separate camps when it came to the internal politics of the clan, but it could be said that everyone here still wanted the best for the current organization in which they resided in.
