Karl heard the noise of a busy street and figured out that they arrived at a densely populated place. He was eagerly awaiting an opportunity to see his surroundings, but his new owner was too careful and had no intention to take him out of his pocket.
"Carrots, apples and other vegetable! Fresh and cheap!"
"The best pastry in all of Jinsheng, come and taste for yourselves!"
Karl heard shouts of stall owners who were not even trying to sound seriously or honestly, just aiming to shout on top of everyone else to have the greatest exposure. There were shouts of women, men, children and occasionally the noise of animals being sold or held in captivity. When Karl decided to try and analyze all the sounds some more, he had abruptly heard a whisper that was unusually loud, as if the source was not far from him.
"You have some guts to come here after the last time, do you think we are stupid?" A voice akin to a hiss startled Karl and a sudden unease signifying the coming motion sickness told him that his owner had just moved abruptly.
"From when is this your territory?! Let me go! I will shout!"
"I do not recommend that, you know that we provide certain services to the guards."
"Come, we will explain to you how to be a good boy." A third voice said and a series of rugged breaths followed, ended by Karl falling again, this time the world around him in his full view.
"The city!" It was his first thought before anything else. He had finally managed to see the city he had dreamed to infiltrate for so long. However, it was not the most pleasant sight. They were in a narrow alley where two men who were probably from a local gang had dragged his current possessor and were in the process of explaining to him how it worked in the local neighborhood. Obviously, Karl had fallen out of the pocket during the intense explanation and was now lying on the cobblestone, promptly stared at by all three actors that were alone in the dark alley.
"You are a rich boy! That should be enough to pay for our hard work explaining the rules to you." The gang member who looked more civilized smiled, surprised by the sudden riches that Tyrn possessed, as the rusted swords had fallen out from under Tyrn's clothes as well.
"The boy is a loaded collector, cool. Let's shake with him some more and maybe gold will fall out!" A more burly man snickered, he was a typical muscle head deliberately dressed in tight clothes to show others his bulging pride.
"That is mine!" Tyrn tried to shout, but was immediately silenced by a quick punch to his gut.
"I do not think so, it should be enough to pay for his burial." The slick gang member took out a long, narrow dagger and his expression changed, no longer playful.
"W-Wait! I am only a small thief! You can't do this!" The pitch of Tyrn's voice immediately jumped one octave higher and his struggle against the two men turned more frantic.
"We can and we will. You are a notorious trouble maker and the boss had enough. Ulthar, hold him tight, I do not want to cut myself." The armed man said and Karl watched how the one sided fight turned more desperate. Naturally, the teenager had no chance against the two men, it was clear how the whole scene would end.
"Fine, fine. It will be trouble, but I guess I should do this much for the old times." Karl sighed and the next second, the trio found out to their horror that they were encircled by a number of skeletons wielding rusted weapons. Haunting figures made of bone with their eyes shining with blue eerie light.
"What?" The gangster who seemed the smarter one of the pair looked again at all the loot that had fallen out of Tyrn on the ground and gulped, his knife shaking when facing the encirclement of the skeletons. "Where did you get those brat?!"
"It, It was this tomb we have. . ." Tyrn began to stammer, totally dumbfounded by the skeletons as well. None of them were seasoned fighters or soldiers and were not used to fighting anything from beyond the city wall. Especially not undead creatures that exerted a certain level of psychological pressure on inexperienced fighters,
"Tomb?! You dumb fucker raided a demonic tomb from beyond the wall?!" The gangsters had no time to say anything more, the skeletons attacked in unison, the movement of their bones producing unnerving sounds The skeletons were definitely not stronger than the men, but swords against a dagger was never a fair fight, especially with a numerical advantage.
The armed man was able to parry the first strike using his superior agility, but another two swords pierced though his chest from the sides. The man's loud moan was interrupted in the middle when a third sword joined the two and the thug crumbled to the ground, dead. The burly man followed shortly with almost no resistance, as the numerical advantage of Karl's minions was too great. It was also different from an ordinary encounter with weak skeletons, because Karl was coordinating the attack and the skeletons' tactic resembled more that of wolves than ordinary skeletons.
Soon, there were two bodies lying on the cobblestone that was soaking in hot blood. The pool of blood soon reached the soles of shabby boots of the only person left standing, remaining still like rooted in the ground.
"Easy." Karl made one of his skeletons pick him up from the cobblestone and put him back into the filthy pocket. Honestly, he did not care as the level of cleanliness had no relation to his actual comfort as he was just a simple gem. A moment after, all the skeletons crumbled into dust, leaving there just a single stupefied teenager with a few bruises here and there.
"It will be a bit difficult with this brat, I doubt he has the Clarity Mojo as his father had." Karl tried to think aloud in the same way he had done with Riven, but there was no reaction from Tyrn.
"As I thought." Karl returned to his usual level of intensity. "Ah, this was a mistake, I do not see a thing again!"
Karl immediately materialized one of his servants again and its bony fingers took him out of the pocket, pinning him to the outer pocket of Tyrn's jacket in a way he would be able to see well. When he saw the stupefied expression of the teen through his servant's eyes, he could not help himself but give him a thumbs up before turning the skeleton back to dust. The teen had been unable to move for all this time, dumbfounded by the unusual experience.
"This. .. " Tyrn backed away, almost slipping on the blood that stained his soles until his back hit the wall. Breathing heavily, he looked at the two bodies in front of him and then fearfully at the black gem that was stuck onto his jacket, the thin steel spike that was all that was left from the circlet piercing his pocket like a pin.
"All, it all makes sense now. Father always talked about the circlet like it was his good luck charm, more than a mere item. This is it!" Karl watched the fearful expression of the youth turn into the smile of a lunatic.
"It is a demonic sect inheritance! With it, I will regain my noble title! No, it is more important than the title! It will be the source of my might!" His lunacy suddenly intensified and Karl watched warily as the teen's hand grabbed him and put him down into the pool of blood.
"Drink the human blood of my enemies and get stronger, Oh Great Demonic Eye of Death!" Tyrn began to wash him in the pool of blood, effectively preventing Karl from seeing anything else but the sticky red substance.
"What the hell man! I do not care about stinky blood! Yuck! Disgusting!" Karl protested, but the youth obviously could not hear him and proceeded to complete his just invented demonic ritual.
"Hm, my knowledge is lacking. The blood is probably low in quality, they were just thugs after all." Tyrn picked up Karl again and hurried away before more people showed up. Many had already seen the pool of blood, but the default reaction of an average citizen who dared to venture into dark alleys was not to call guards or make trouble for themselves.
"I need to learn writing and hope the dumb lunatic knows how to read." Karl mulled over the idea for a while, before giving up on it. "No, he certainly does not."
Shortly, he was again pinned to the jacket and thought about what to do next. The teenager's full name was almost certainly Tyrn Riven of Orlov, a grabby thieving murderer, aspiring cultist and an ambitious future demonic cultivator with little moral scruples to do anything to advance his status. He had an urge to send him down a well with a sword in his back, but there was a great guilt brewing inside him. He had left the old generation to their devices and the only way to redeem himself at least a little was to put Tyrn on the right path.
While Karl was thinking, Tyrn had managed to steal a piece of bread from a man, not even trying to be stealthy. His new status had clearly gone into his head and Karl could see trouble were about to find them if the teenager continued his power trip. His intuition proved to be right much sooner than he had expected when a loud shout made them turn around.
"There he is! He killed them both!" Tyrn's swagger through the streets have been interrupted by a band of people armed to the teeth who were out for blood. The group immediately rushed towards Tyrn who simply stood against them haughtily and pointed his finger on the leading man.
"Great Demonic Eye of Death, destroy my enemies!" He said with arrogance and a wide smile on his face, but the smile began to fade when nothing happened.
"Shit, it must have exhausted its power!" Shortly, Tyrn was sprinting though the streets with a band of thugs chasing him. Due to the coming winter, there was not enough people he could use as living shields and the group was slowly falling apart, the ones in good physical condition quickly catching up to Tyrn. He realized that there had to be cultivators among the thugs.
"Guards! Murderers are chasing me!" Tyrn shouted like a true hypocrite in an attempt to attract the attention of guards, but his fruitless attempt was met with ignorance. In seconds, the first gang member caught him and immediately grabbed him into a hold, almost completely immobilizing him.
"You will all die! I will unleash my rage upon you!" Tyrn shouted like mad while struggling against the powerful man who was soon encircled by the rest of the band.
"Beat the fucker to death!" One of the thugs spoke, but was silenced by a mere eye contact of the person who held Tyrn immobilized like a child.
"No one will touch him, the boss will want to investigate. You know why." He gave some of the gang members a meaningful look and all the demands for blood suddenly ceased.
"Boss will show him." A passing murmur ran though the group before they encircled the no longer struggling Tyrn and led him deeper into the Wolves' territory.
"We should at least take the thing away from him." A tentative proposal sounded from one of the group, but was immediately shot down by the leading man.
"Do not touch it, it is dangerous. Let the boss handle this."
Karl though about his next course of action, but it was clear that if he chose to go all out he would end up fighting half the city in no time. He should use the fact that the gang members would certainly want to keep his existence a secret, actively hiding him from truly dangerous people that might pose a serious threat to him.
"Besides, my arrogant cultist can use some schooling." Karl needed Tyrn to be taught a lesson and become more careful. "I should be able to manipulate the situation into some sort of a favorable outcome."
Karl thought while observing the streets around them. It was nothing much and he was disappointed by the state of the houses and their residents. He was used to the environment of a modern city and the two were incomparable. Part of the reason for the bleak surroundings was certainly the place they were walking through. it was not exactly a street full of wealthy businessmen. The faces of the few people they met were grim and it was obviously not caused by the presence of the thugs. The more Karl looked, the more it seemed that coming to the city was a mistake. Before, the city looked glamorous and full of prosperity, it was begging all visitors to enter and marvel at all the goods and services it had to offer. That time had clearly passed and it was no longer a hub of commerce and activity, only a mass of surviving people trying not to starve another day.
Jinsheng must have been through tough times during his long absence. There was just bleak stone all around, no bright robes of cultivators, no flashy clothes of the wealthy or merry making of the lower classes. There were beggars all around and thieves looking for their prey without success, as most of the pedestrians were already poor.
The group walked the uniform streets until they reached a large manor. The men at its front let them in without an issue and Karl watched as the picture suddenly changed when they entered the vast building. The opulence of the place jumped suddenly by two level, beautiful paintings and gilded statues everywhere. Karl looked at the expensive red carpets and intricate arming swords hanging on the walls and had not noticed that all the thugs had left except for the one from before and a new pair of men was now following them who looked more like the military than a pair of thugs.
They passed a heavy steel reinforced door and stood before a man that was dressed like a noble, but his pose betrayed that he definitely did not belong to the city's hereditary nobility. He had long red hair with no beard and his eyes looked sharp. Without a word, he waved the men away and sat down on a luxurious chair and Tyrn was quickly seated on a similar one against it before their escorts left.
All except the two men who had joined them in the manor, those remained standing close behind Tyrn's chair without a word.
"Tell me brat, what have you used to kill my men? It was not an ordinary cultivation method. There were even reports of undead assisting you." The boss looked at the teenager sitting in front of him, studying his every muscle. Karl was surprised by the speed the information about his deed traveled.
"You should release me before you find yourself at the mercy of my demons!" Tyrn answered with a grin. He seemed to have embraced his new identity of a cultist and behaved as if he was some cult leader on par with the gang leader.
"You do realize how quickly can this kind of talk get you in trouble? Especially a snotty brat like yourself." The boss chuckled and folded his arms on his chest, amused by the youth's boldness.
"Do not underestimate my power! I can smite. . ." Tyrn did not finish, as he was grabbed by his head and two skeletal fingers picked up the black gem pinned to his jacket. What followed was a measured throw of his person to the side and the skeleton who had just took care of him sat on his chair instead. It pinned the gem into the wooden table and propped its chin by its skeletal fingers, its elbows resting against the table.
Karl could not stand the young Riven anymore, he was obviously too far gone to be taken seriously.
No one moved a muscle during the commotion, but Karl could tell the boos and his escort were extremely tense, ready to take action at any second.
"Sentient?" The big man sitting opposite Karl asked, not fully able to hide his surprise. Karl made the skeleton lean back against the chair and its chin bobbed up and down.
"It is a Soul Vessel of a demonic cultivator!"
"No way! We must destroy it boss!" The bodyguards shouted, breaking their professional act, as what had they just witnessed was too far from ordinary dealings of a local gang leader.
"No one moves or leaves this room until I say so." The boss said coldly and continued to stare at the skeleton. Karl did not know what theories the people around him arrived at, but it was still better than if they knew the truth.
"To be able to exercise this level of control with just the Soul Vessel, you must be at the end of the Soul Binding Stage or the beginning of the Soul Transformation Stage. You will obviously not die, but you cannot yet form an immortal body either." The boss said while a bead of sweat appeared on his forehead. "I do not presume you can speak."
Karl made the skeleton shake its head in response and a quick barrage of questions followed when the boss realized Karl was unable to answer in a more detailed manner.
"What is with the brat? Is it a nobody?" Karl lightly shook his head.
"Don't tell me he is someone important to you." The skeleton tilted its head from side to side in an indecisive answer.
"I get it, a baggage you need to babysit." There was a loud shout of protest from the side, but after Karl nodded his head, the two thugs proceeded to take care of the noisy troublemaker, being careful not to overdo their care. Karl made the skeleton watch the process carefully, and when he saw that the thugs were obviously careful not to harm Tyrn, he gave the boss a thumbs up.
Stolen story; please report.
"I get it, I have a few of those myself." The boss laughed and relaxed a little, when he saw that the entity possessed some level of intelligence and was willing to cooperate.
"You know that you are not in a favorable position, yes? With your body missing, you will be powerless against the local high level cultivators and I can even blackmail you by using the brat." The large man tried to push a little harder and observed Karl's reaction. Karl made the skeleton's jaw move to imitate laughter and waved his hand. In a second, another nineteen skeletons popped into the existence and the people in the room involuntarily sucked in a deep breath.
"What is the guy's Mojo? This is nuts!"
"Definitely the Soul Transformation Stage."
"Alright, alright! We do not need to jump to negative conclusions. Let's cooperate." The boss was shocked as well as everyone else, no one expected the mysterious expert to be able to control twenty skeletons even without his body. Karl had no intention to initiate a conflict either and gave the leader a deep nod, apparently pleased with the continued negotiations.
"What do you need? We can make some limited arrangements as a token of good faith." The boss proposed and Karl made the skeleton engrave some text into the table with its sharp bony finger. The big man from across the table leaned over in an attempt to read the text, but was surprised when he was unable to figure out anything from the foreign text.
"You need to write to someone?" The man asked, having no clue what Karl wanted to say. The skeleton shook its head and painted at the man and then at the writing on the table. The man guessed again and after several attempts, they had finally arrived at what Karl had in mind.
"So you do not know our writing and want to learn it!" The boss was happy that he had finally guessed what his guest had in mind, when the skeletons vigorous nodding rewarded his persistent questioning.
"That can be arranged. I think it will be for the best to talk when we can understand each other better." The man concluded the debate that turned very civil after Tyrn had left them, accompanied by a few Wolves.
Karl thought if the gang planned to sell him to a bigger power, but he could see the greed and curiosity in the eyes of their leader. He was surely one of the few that had enough money, people like him did not pay much attention to bounties and other trinkets money could buy. Karl was considered to be a high level demonic cultivator and could provide them with secrets no amount of money could buy.
There was another factor that Karl did not consider. A lot of demonic cultivators used shortcuts and crippled their future cultivation base in pursuit of immediate power. Demonic cultivators had many strong people, but they were unstable and the number of top level demonic cultivators was very low due to their numerous accidents due to their unregulated experimental methods of cultivation. It was almost unheard of to see a high level demonic cultivator that was stable, calm and was able to sit with someone at one table for almost an hour.
In the minds of the gang, the methods that Karl used were very precious and obviously yielded similar results to the regular celestial cultivation path. There were none of them that had no greed for such methods that might enable them to relatively quickly gain great power with little side effects.
Karl began taking lessons in writing without delay, his stalled progress during his stay in the tomb bothering him. The gang took it seriously and there were multiple teachers rotating around a clock to teach him how to write. It was much easier due to his knowledge of the spoken word, but it still took him considerable time to learn to write on a decent enough level. Meanwhile, he had sent his Earth Elemental to hunt outside the city using pitfall traps in hopes that he would make a dent towards the next level.
He considered reaching the next level quite important as it would make him ten times more powerful if the levels followed the pattern from before. He dreamed of being able to summon two hundred skeletons with a wave of his hand, a level of power that would finally somewhat satisfy him.
The days passed and before he knew it, he was sitting in the same room as before with the gang leader at the opposite side. He was again fastened to Tyrn's jacket and the youth behaved quite differently from before. The teenager had suffered no visible harm or other damage to his body and was still much more rational than the last time. Karl wondered what methods the gang had used to put him in his place.
"I guess the Wolves are much better nanny than I am if they put they all into it." With their money and influence, Karl did not doubt that the means of the gang were not to be laughed at. Especially when the boss was personally interested in the result.
A thug pulled a third chair carefully next to the table and prepared a piece of paper in front of it, the purpose of the seat obvious. Karl did not keep others waiting and summoned one of his skellies to be his messenger. When the undead appeared, the people around were no longer surprised and the boss began their discussion.
"I hope you have enjoyed your stay. We can finally have a proper discussion now that we possess the means to communicate." He began and Karl felt as if they were nobles meeting at their secret base, not a band of thieves.
"I have been away for decades, what happened to the city?" Karl started by asking about the overall poor condition of the city and a sad smile appeared on the mafia boss' face.
"Out beloved Jinsheng seen better days for sure." The boss sighed heavily and started a story that clearly disturbed the present Tyrn greatly, as he kept fidgeting the whole time.
"The city had numerous farms and the two sects that now are just pitiful remnants used to be strong as well. The outskirts of the city stretched far and wide with numerous farms, lumber camps, mines, you name it. But the border was very wide and the protection relied on patrols that rushed to emergencies when they happened. It worked for a time, but then everything changed. The frequency and severity of attacks increased for some unknown reason and the patrols were no longer able to cope with the attacks. "
"No one really knows what caused it, but the demonic influence grew more powerful. Some say that demonic cultivators were no longer subjected to Heavenly Tribulations as before, which left them to grow unfettered. Their numbers grew and the results of their experiments could be found everywhere. The border regions that did not possess exceptional fortifications fell one by one, until only the city remained with its mighty wall. But even it will not last forever and many predict that Jinsheng will not last past this century." The big man ran his right hand thought his hair and his eyes unfocused, looking into the distance.
"The wall is crumbling to pieces and we have no longer any access to farms or other resources. Famine is the city's permanent state now. " His gaze returned to look at the table longingly where the piece of paper rested, as if expecting to see the solution for all the problems written on it.
"City's finances are in a terrible state after surviving on imported food by the river. The imports are naturally extremely expensive due to the danger for the merchants and the costs of their escorts. The only reason the city is still able to exist is the remaining foundation of the Thunder God Sect and the Purple Lotus Sect that slowly sell their knowledge and services to other cities. "
"What about using demonic sects for protection?" Karl wrote, stunned by the seriousness of the situation.
"It is not a long term solution. The demonic sects are outcasts for a reason. Their power is too unstable and causes more harm than good to society. Small demonic sects can somewhat work, but it does not work in big cities. Demonic sects consume vast numbers of people and every sacrificed person is a potential lost forever. It had been proven time and time again that demonic cities do not work." The boss made a considerable pause while staring at Karl with burning gaze,
"Unless the quality of their methods is comparable to the celestial path." He continued to stare at Karl and he realized that he should clear the misunderstanding that was unfolding without delay, before a disaster happened.
"Understandable, I do not possess such methods, as the path I cultivate is specifically possible only for my rare Mojo." He scribbled on the piece of paper hastily, hoping to prevent future trouble.
"How unfortunate." The mafia boss sighed, but it was obvious that he was not fully convinced of Karl's sincerity.
"That is the situation we are in. What was left of the outskirts moved into the city and the city is now overpopulated, starving and broke. Welcome to the present, sir. . .?"
"K . . " He had almost wrote his true name down, but quickly finished it with the end of his surname when he realized there might be some special means if someone knew his full name. " . . en."
"Ken." Karl looked at his creation and the head of his skeleton almost fell off.
"I need to save my life quickly! I cannot possibly name myself Ken!" A quick thought flashed though his mind and he thoughtlessly squeezed next two letters of his name into the gap that remained between the K and en.
"Oh, sorry. Lady Karen." The mafia boss apologized immediately, even before Karl was able to remedy the situation. He did not know whether to laugh or cry, as it was debatable if the alternative was better than Ken.
"I can help the city after I regain a part of my power." Karl wrote his honest opinion. He was not against helping out if it meant that the city helped him first and to be honest, there was still this hidden feeling of guilt that kept nibbling on his nerves. He might have been able to save the Riven family if he stayed behind that day, not continuing in the direction of the pesky tomb that cost him many years of time. He was almost sure they had become the victims of the demonic sects' rampage, because he naturally presumed that Tyrn Riven's state came to be due to the complete absence and decline of his family. His father must have been dead and even if he was not, he did not plan to search for him using a mafia boss.
No, he had to be dead. His father would have never allowed his son to turn into the murderous creature that carried him pinned on a jacket.
"That would be much appreciated, what do you need in return?" The boss asked in a happy tone and Karl wondered why the boss had not made any requests. The most probable explanation was that the man was trying to play a game of multiple steps and they were in the bait phase.
"Just turn this brat Tyrn into a honest man and leave my minions operate unrestrained." He wrote and loved the expression Tyrn made when he saw the text.
"Of course, your skeletons can operate unrestrained in the base and the other one is just a small matter." The large man responded with a bright smile. He had probably expected a more costly cooperation.
"Not just skeletons." Karl wrote and the eyes of all who read the short line bulged in shock.
"Certainly, Lady Karen. Just inform us in advance, so we can make preparations." Karl could hear a hint of fear in the boss' voice, as he had probably thought that they knew the full extent of Karl's powers. Karl did not dare to reveal any more, as he might very well become a threat if he was too powerful.
"Let's hope that this mighty Lady Karen will be able to level up without distractions." Karl thought and the skeleton disappeared in a cloud of dust.
* * * *
The black gem that contained the esteemed expert, Lady Karen, was pinned on a jacket of a big muscular man, Karl's personal gorilla that moved according to his wishes transferred through writing. Tyrn was busy with his education program and Karl was left to his devices. The muscular man was named Krax and Karl kept unceasingly mistaking it with crack that well fit to the man's background, but not to his habits, as the man did not even smoke or drink. He could not believe such a man even existed in a street gang, but it obviously needed some level of decorum to become one of the higher level members.
Karl was sure that the man liked his job, because Karl had not yet ventured outside the base and the man could simply laze around the base, doing more or less what he wanted. For that reason, he was at this moment resting on a comfortable couch with a broad smile, watching the other thugs doing something reminiscent of work on the manor's premises. Once, he even waved at the men through the window and Karl could hear a flood of curses, muffled by the great distance.
"This gang looks too peaceful from the inside, it is not normal." Karl could not believe it and shifted his mind to his plans. Requesting peace and quiet for his meditation, he was able to send two elementals to build traps outside and it finally began to show, his numbers going up again. He lovingly called for his status screen and admired the new numbers.
Karl Gulden
Level 2 Dungeon Core
Mana Regeneration - 100/s
Spells- [Dig], [Build]
Summons- [Skeleton(Blood) 5/s], [Rat(Decay) 50/s], [Elemental(Carpet) 50/s]
[Experience 102/1000]
He planned to keep both of his minions to work on the traps for some time before assigning them a different task. The most peculiar fact was that most dungeons possessed some sort of a border, their tunnels and structure were their body and they needed to act within its perimeter. This restriction did not seem to apply much for Karl, as he could be farming kills with his minions far away while being pinned onto the jacket of Krax.
"It seems too overpowered, there must be some reason behind it." Karl thought, but the only two reasons that he was able to think of was the fact that he was still operating inside the borders of Jinsheng, or the reason had to do with the unrestrained activity of the demonic cults. He was sure that Heavens in this world counted him as a demonic entity no different from ordinary demonic cultivators.
"What should I do with the city's economy?" Due to his sentimentality, or simply his new greedy dungeon instincts, he caught himself thinking of Jinsheng as his city, especially the Orlov region beyond the gates. It was only natural that the region was his, when the rightful heir of the region was in a sorry state and his inability to govern the region could not be questioned. It made sense that he was the de facto regent of the region at this point in time.
Right?
Right!
"That means I have to improve the financial situation of my city." He immediately thought of exploiting his Elemental(Earth) summon to mine in the nearby stone quarry. It was outside of the walls, but if he had managed to hit the next level, he should be able to launch vast operations underground with the maximum of twenty Earth Elementals in action.
"With plenty of stone, I might be able to strengthen and expand the walls, reintroducing farming before my city goes bankrupt." Karl continued in his plans when a strange thought started to bother him.
"Crack, why don't they build new walls using cultivators? There must be plenty people with Earth Mojo out there. " He wrote using his skeleton and his assigned servant only slightly jumped up when a skeleton suddenly appeared near him.
"There is not enough of them and those left are strategic resource needed for the constant repairs of the main wall. People with valuable attributes simply move away in a time of crisis, unless they are thoroughly bound to a city with family, blackmailed or other means of persuasion are used on them. Try to stop a high level Earth cultivator, he will just laugh at you while submerging into the ground." Krax patiently explained, completely ignoring his butchered name.
"What, what is the weather usually like?" Karl asked a silly question, because half way through his thinking process, there was something really disturbing that he had seen through the window. There was a figure he would rather never see again and she looked exactly the same as the last time he saw her.
"The weather is actually really nice, we might go take a look. There is a balcony nearby." Krax stood up swiftly, pretending to be captivated by the weather more than was normal and turned his back to the window, quickly barring the view with his back. Unfortunately for him, it just made Karl more cautious.
"What the hell is Purple Flash doing at this house?" His mind raced and it did not take long for him to realize that the Wolves had sold him out. That kind of person appearing near the manor of a local gang shortly after Karl had made the place his base of operations could not be a coincidence.
"I have picked the wrong people, or my display was too disturbing and the boss chickened out. There might be also some spy among them who informed other factions." No matter the real reason, Karl did not want to be within the same building with the dangerous cultivator, especially when there was a high chance that she had arrived because of him. His beautiful plans of rosy future slowly burned with every step of the high level cultivator. He wanted to flee, but hesitated for a moment when he thought about Tyrn. It was crystal clear that they would try to blackmail him if he fled, using the boy to trap him.
In the meantime, the mafia thug had reached the balcony and slowly opened its door, trying to time it in a way Karl would be unable to see The Purple Flash who was already standing at the main door below. It only solidified Karl's theory.
"That is irrelevant, they will not dare to kill him. It is their only lead." Karl made his decision and miles and miles away, one of his summons turned into a pile of rocks, replaced by a multitude of skeletons that surrounded Krax. Three of them quickly grabbed the black gem pinned to Krax' jacket and one of them managed to snatch it away and throw it high, on top of the manor's roof.
"Lady Karen, what are you doing?!" Krax shouted in panic, Karl's actions making little sense to him.
However, everything clicked in place in the thug's head when a falcon appeared next to the black stone and grabbed it, carrying it high into the sky. Karl was glad that he was no longer a part of any trinket and the falcon would not end the same as his poor hawk.
"Boss! He escaped!" The thug kept shouting in panic as he had failed to accomplish his job, but the shouts already grew distant as Karl soared above the city. Despite the gang picking up their most competent man to watch over Karl, no one could have anticipated that their guest was able to simply fly away on the wings of his feathered pet.
"Finally, I should have seen this view much earlier instead of the main wall. This time, there will be no accidents." Karl had an urge to laugh when he finally accomplished his idea from many years before.
"Let's have a good look at you, Jinsheng." He started observing the streets below that grew smaller and smaller, bleak and covered in soot. Ordinary people had no extraordinary means to keep themselves warm and had to burn whatever came under their hands. When Karl wanted to peer further, beyond the premises of the dirty slum, he saw that a cloud of purple smoke began amassing behind him.
"So annoying! It seems that a sneak peak is all I will get." Karl urged his bird of prey to speed up instead of circling higher to get the full view, there was no telling what means The Purple Flash possessed to chase him down, as she must have realized that he had escaped.
A moment later, Karl could really see a slender person in purple garments to take up to the skies and move in his direction, trying to chase him down. He panicked when he saw the cultivator moving towards him, leaving clouds of purple smoke behind her. Urging the falcon to fly with its maximum speed, Karl's nerves calmed down soon, coming to a conclusion that his speed was significantly higher that the speed of the cultivator.
"Stupid cultivators! Nothing beats my Bird Force One!" Karl was thrilled by winning his race, so much so that he completely forgot to look onto the richer parts of the city, remembering his original intent of observing the city only after his bird had already moved past the high wall.
He had not seen the city again, at this point it had to really be a cruse of sorts.
"No, I have seen a little bit." He looked back where above the high wall he saw the very few buildings that were higher than the enormous defensive structure.
There was a high keep glued to the side of the city wall and a distant, but not truly too far away from it, there were a few spires that seemed to be a part of the wealthier district, probably even the Immortal's palace, because they did not share the dreary, bleak visage of the keep, instead being colorful, their architects obviously caring more about their looks than function. There were even three building that were still barely visible above the wall, but bore no special attributes, looking plain and simple.
Karl could not be bothered about the details and was forced to look back directly in front of them, where far in the distance there were some other winged creatures that although still very far were making Karl uneasy.
"Land boy, land, land, land! We are too visible up here." He quickly reminded himself that the wilderness seemed to be in war with the human civilization and the human side was not exactly winning the struggle. It was wise to be very cautious. Starting to descend, Karl stared for a time in disbelief when he saw where they were about to land. He had not recognized the structure at first, because it was in a bad shape and overgrown with vegetation, at the same time the airborne view was quite different from the perspective he had been used to see.
Yet, there was no doubt about it, it was the old fort of the Orlov region. He had never known the official name, but decided to call it Fort Orlov, its real name could not be much different considering it stood guard of the once prosperous farming region.
Looking quickly around before the falcon's talons touched the grey, crumbling stones of the fort, Karl overlooked the land conquered by the forest. There were signs of destruction covered by leaves and bushes everywhere, the land quickly claiming what humans once had. The bird carefully touched down on the main tower of the fort, its wings still spread wide, as if the bird had the intent to claim the territory for himself.
Karl very much agreed with the sentiment.
"It will be only proper to claim the land as my own. I am it's rightful regent after all! Lat's build here the first proper dungeon in this chaotic cultivation world and grow it far and wide, deep and high!" Karl Gulden glittered in the cold, winter rays of the Sun in the beak of his falcon, dreaming of the structures he would unleash upon the world.