บท 19: Huang City Day 1
Kai was excited.
He had been confident in shoving the core into her but didn't expect it to be this easy.
This was done purely using his Qi manipulation which Kai was surprisingly good at. Now however; teaching her the manual would be tricky since Kai himself didn't fully understand them.
"Now that I have [Sub-Core Manual], I could just transfer the edited manual knowledge I want into her sub-core so I don't have to worry about teaching too much".
As for [Manual Customization], Kai was most excited about this. He could combine two F-Rank manuals and had a chance of getting an E-Rank. This was amazing news since Kai was struggling to find items with high Qi values. Kai figured anything good was probably already in the hands of the powerful and elite so this would help him progress.
Kai then decided to inspect Mina's changes.
[Human [F-Rank] [Sub-Core Qi: 0/10]
The entire process ended with relatively little fanfare. Kai was able to create the Sub-Core and successfully turned Mina into an Internal Cultivator. However, her Qi pool seemed quite low to Kai.
"Her Qi pool is dismal. If she stays like this, she won't ever be able to breakthrough. I'll probably need to upgrade her Qi pool soon". Kai remembered that the Second level of Qi Condensation for [Dragon Subduing Law] required [100 Qi] to breakthrough. If her cap stayed at only [10 Qi], then she would be stuck on the first level forever.
Kai knew what he had to do, but first, he needed to gather a lot of Qi for himself. Him having a higher Qi pool and Qi gathering rate was the quickest way to resolving both his and Mina's problems.
Kai turned to Ryu who was still by his sister's side.
"Watch over her. She has successfully become an Internal Cultivator but her body still needs time to acclimate to the changes. I also need to rest for a while so your 'procedure' will have to be put off until later".
Kai was proud of the profound nonsense he made up on the spot. It was working to make him look more and more like a mysterious cultivator.
Ryu started crying tears of joy as he bowed vigorously towards Kai.
"Thank you, Thank you!. Even if I don't get to become a cultivator, just knowing that my sister can live on is enough for me".
Kai smiled and walked out of the room. He headed to one of the communal washrooms and scrubbed himself clean.
Afterward, he changed into his nice new white robes and checked his equipment tab.
==[Equipment]==
[Headpiece]: Wanderer's Head-band (Grade1: External Defense 1)
[Necklace]: Wanderer's Cloak (Grade1: External Defense 2)
[Body]: Wanderer's Robes (Grade1: External Defense:3)
[Feet]: Wanderer's boots (Grade 1: External Defense : 2)
[Ring]: None
The Wanderer's gear looked a lot better than Kai had thought. These were only 3 copper. The clothing vendor had better clothes of a higher quality and design however Kai couldn't afford those. He settled for the average clothes. However, compared to his previous look homeless fisherman's look, Kai's new Wanderer's robes made him look impressive indeed.
Kai could feel that these clothes were better quality than the rags he had on despite them being the lowest quality offered by the vendor. While these would eventuality get destroyed in serious fights, at least they would survive longer and had better stats.
Kai walked back into the room and found that Mina had woken up. It seemed her pain had finally subsided and she could now stand on her own.
When Kai entered the room, both Mina and Ryu's jaws dropped to the ground.
"M...Master...is that you?"
Ryu was the first to speak. He couldn't believe the transformation that Kai had just had thanks to one bath and a simple change of clothes. He looked like a completely different person.
Kai's shoulder-length hair was now tied behind his head as well as a cool-looking forehead band.
On his body was a crisp white outfit with martial artist's white pants and martial arts style button-up shirt. Covered by the main piece being the cultivator-style white robes. The robes were plain, however, the way the loose sleeves and tail fluttered with the wind made Kai look quite cool and mysterious.
"Kai...ah no, Master. You look great!". Mina was the one to speak this time. She had no problem showing Kai respect despite him being younger than her. At this point, she would be willing to call him father if he so wished. That's how much she felt that she owed him.
Kai took the praise with a smile, he wouldn't try to be humble when even he knew he looked cool.
"Ok, it's almost evening so I want to go to a restaurant or something and see if I can get some information. You two feel free to rest up"
Kai left without waiting for their response. He would teach Mina about [Dragon Subduing Law] the next day when she had fully recovered.
Kai had already spent 10 of his 30 copper costs in just a few hours, so he desperately needed a way to make more money. Even if he spent nothing, he would still need 2 copper a day just to stay in the city and the Inn. His 20 coins would only last him 10 more days.
Kai walked back down to the reception area. He figured the receptionist would probably know where he could find a place to make a few coins.
The counter had a few customers in line and so he waited behind them. Kai finally took the time to admire the place as he had been in quite a hurry to get changed out his rags when he first arrived.
The interior of the Inn looked quite mystical from Kai's perspective. The entire place was made out of a strong-looking brown wood with intricate designs carved into the doorways and window frames.
This first floor was made up of a large dining room with the reception area being only a small portion located at the front.
Behind the reception area, numerous people were eating and drinking merrily. Kai also noticed a second level with relatively fewer people there. The entire upper floor was covered in expensive-looking silk drapes, so Kai could only see the silhouettes of the people above.
While Kai was admiring the simple yet elegant architecture, he heard the sweet and impatient voice of the receptionist.
"Excuse me patron, is there something I can help you with?"
Kai got back to his senses and quickly turned his head to the receptionist. The woman was neither beautiful nor ugly. Kai assumed that she would perfectly personify the definition of the word 'regular' which Kai somehow liked.
"Yes, I am new to town and would like to know if there is any place you could recommend where I can make a few extra coins?"
The receptionist eyed Kai curiously.
From her perspective, this boy couldn't be older than 15, yet he seemed mature for his age. Truth be told, she wasn't too interested in him when he first came in.
She initially thought he and his friends were just poor vagabonds, however, her experience with people taught her to never judge a book by its cover.
"Indeed. If I may ask dear patron, what skills do you have so I can recommend an appropriate place?".
She said this both to not disrespect Kai by suggesting a job below his expertise but to also satiate her curiosity.
"hmm..."
Kai gave it some thought. He didn't have any skills other than punching things with Qi-covered fists but he wanted to keep his identity as a cultivator hidden at least until he had enough power to protect himself or escape from those who meant him harm.
Also, jobs that involved fighting would likely be dangerous so he wanted to avoid those if he could.
"I've lived in the outdoors for a long time so I am quite handy when it comes to survival and crafting miscellaneous stuff out of anything"
Kai pointed towards his self-made, single strapped, hare-fur, backpack that he had strapped across his chest under the wanderer's cloak.
The backpack was something Kai fiddled around with a lot during his recent travels. He made slight adjustments here and there to make it more reliable. The last thing he wanted was for the strap to break off while he was running away.
The receptionist looked at the backpack and nodded. It seemed to be made out of some sort of white animal fur and looked quite luxurious. She was curious about what beast it had come from however she did not pry into his privacy any further.
"In that case, I would recommend that you go to the Hunter's lodge as they are always looking for freelance workers to help skin the beasts".
"Do you know how much the pay at the Hunter's lodge would be?"
Kai didn't care too much about what he did to earn money, but he couldn't waste too much of his time on low-paying work. After all, Kai didn't want to spend his time in a fantasy world working a minimum wage job.
"Well that I cannot say for certain. However, I believe the pay can increase depending on the speed and quality of the work done"
Kai got the directions to the Hunter's lodge and decided to go in the morning. It was quite late now and he was also tired so he figured he could always go early in the morning.
Kai had also found that he could extend his Huang City 'entry token' by paying 1 copper at the Inn. They were authorized by the city officials to extend the normal entry tokens. Kai extended his Token by another day with 1 copper.
Mina and Ryu had 30 copper between themselves so they would have to make a plan on their own. Kai felt he was already being generous as a Master by paying 2 copper for them both to have beds to sleep in tonight. With this, Kai had paid back the 1 copper Mina had used to get him into the city, plus an entire extra copper as interest.
Kai was quite stingy when it came to money. Part in thanks to the harsh, poverty-filled life he had lived in his previous world.
Kai had quickly learned from the receptionist that money was quite important in this world. The Twin-Lions Sect that controlled Huang City imposed a 1 copper per day tax. This was not a money-making scheme as Kai had originally thought, but more as a way to easily rid their city of the poor and undesirables while preserving up the Twin Lion Sect's image of righteousness.
Larger cities had similar taxes with some of the most affluent and exclusive cities having daily charges of 1 Gold per day. Of course, these taxes are only imposed on mortals and not Internal Cultivators, despite each cultivator in this world being unimaginably rich when compared to the average mortal.
Kai went back to his room thinking about how this world and his old-world were quite similar yet very different. When he reached the room, he saw Mina and Ryu were already fast asleep. They had both been through a lot trying to get Kai to the city, despite being only mortals.
Kai was grateful to them both for their help. This is also why he did not hesitate when it came to teaching the two of them as he felt this was the least he could do.
Without them, he would probably still be running around in the dark wilderness, or perhaps even be dead by now.
"I should also go to sleep,tomorrow I'll look for work then find some information about places where weak beasts gather so I can do some power-leveling"
Kai figured that anyone at the Hunters lodge would know where the beasts came from, and if he knew where they were, he could hunt them himself.
This would not only allow him to collect enough Qi to increase his power, but also let him earn money by selling and skinning the beasts. It was a win-win for Kai.
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