After passing through the door of the bank what greeted her, was to her surprise, a bank with more of a 80's or 90's Earth's style, following a dark wood theme, with reception desks and waiting chairs at the front and what appeared to be cubicles for the bank personnel a little to the back.
Fortunately, the bank had little movement and Noit'e took this opportunity to walk to one of the free reception desks, and she greeted the receptionist who looked to be some kind of half dragon woman.
"Hi, I would like to trade some items for money"
The receptionist responded using soul speech professionally.
"It's your first time? Or are you registered?"
"First time" Noit'e answered also using soul speech
The receptionist took out a tablet, put it on top of the desk and spoke.
"To make trades with our bank is recommended to register in our system, and to register with us you only need to touch the tablet and it will be done in a instant. Do not worry, the registration does not require any payment and no damage or alterations are going to be made to your being."
Noit'e was a little hesitant to "register" with them, but after examining the tablet and the smiling receptionist through different means, she came to the conclusion that it wouldn't bring danger to her, not any lethal danger at least.
Upon placing her hand on the tablet, it started producing a line of light that moved from top to bottom as if scanning her hand, and after 3 seconds a system window similar to those described in novels appeared in front of her.
It was showing a message asking for her confirmation.
"Warning! Detected attempt of a connection being made by the om-system towards the user.
Does the user want to integrate om-system to the current one?
Yes/No"
She clicked yes and the window disappeared with another taking its place, this new one was just saying that she now could access functions of the om-system such as a specific status window that had a few useful informations such as the current om-credits on her "account", for the moment it displayed 0, and other things like her attributes that were represented in fashion similar to video games or tabletop games.
After she was finished looking at her new status window the receptionist said with her profissional smile on.
"Now that you are successfully registered, you only need to proceed to the desk number... 27, and have your items appraised to receive a appropriate amount of om-credits in return. She will guide you to the desk number 27, just follow her"
Noit'e noticed a being teleporting by her side but outside of a little tensing of her muscles she didn't react at all to it, the being who teleported to her side looked like a mini galaxy in a humanoid shape wearing formal woman's clothes, this woman remembered her of the bartender from that tavern, but she didn't say it out loud and just followed the woman to one of the cubicles close by.
Upon arriving at the cubicle entrance the woman waved goodbye to her and teleported away, and Noit'e found herself alone with the "man" that was sitting behind a large desk with something that looked like a computer and a monitor atop it.
The "man" at the desk had the appearance of a skeleton made entirely of gold, with withe flames for eyes and a skin made of half transparent grey energy, he was wearing some kind of uniform that resembled a white formal suit with a black coat above it.
The man gestured for her to sit at the chair in front off his desk, and she obliged, he surprisingly spoke to her in English with a Russian accent using a deep manly voice.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Kaizer Malg, i was informed that you wanted to sell some items, let's take a look at them?"
Noit'e brought 4 things that looked like giant maggot/worms from a hidden space and put them on top of the desk, one had 12 rings across its surface, one was curved in a semi circle and was emitting lights that looked like layers of illusory doors, one had various symbols that kept changing from time to time, and one seemed to be a combination of the three.
Kaizer put on a pair of glasses and started carefully examining each of the maggots/worms, while examining the first three he only said "hhmm" after seeing them, but on the last one that was a combination of the three his reaction was a "Oh", after he examined them, he spoke in honesty.
"These items are excellent in certain areas on their on, but the last one, is... rather special, to see these different aspects work so well together is quite rare, and from what i observed, they seem to be some rare species of insect, the latter one being a even rarer, maybe some kind of royal variant? do you know where to find more of them? If you do, not only we are willing to buy them from you again, at a nice price of course, but we would like that you sell them for us first if you can."
"To tell the truth, they are indeed rare and very annoying to get, specially the last one" Noit'e answered and pointed to the one that is a combination of the first three, she then continued "But, each of them are in fact a smaller piece from different beings, and the reason they are quite hard to get is because those beings are exceedingly hard to capture, and even harder to kill, and those being aren't willing to just give away a important piece of them. But i will probably sell them to you when i can"
Kaizer could not miss the opportunity to inquiry about the beings in question, so he asked about them, but this time with the excitement of a researcher discovering a new element of species.
"Just so i get a better idea about those beings, how strong are they? Can you tell me a little about their origin? If you know it. But I am not trying to insult you or anything, it's that sometimes some people come here with items they found by chance and they normally come across with these items only once or twice, but you seem to be familiar with those being, based on how you talk about them"
Noit'e took in a even more straight posture in her chair and answered with a pride and excitement that she couldn't hide quite well, it was if she was talking about her beloved hometown and family.
"Since you insist. These beings are humans that turned into creatures with magical powers, they are divided into ten levels, from 9 to 0, but a peculiarity of them is that the higher their level, the lesser of them there are, there can only be one of level 0 during any given time, 3 of the level 1 and nine of level 2, but if there is an active level 0 then there will be no one of level 1, because to become a level 0 they need the essence of the ones of level 1, and the number of essences do no change, as they cannot be created or destroyed" She made a slight pause and with a smile on her face, she seem satisfied that Kaizer was dying to know more and continued her explanation.
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"But! The most interesting thing about those beings is that there is different groups of them, they are called "pathways"!
"Each having their own set of characteristics and powers! And there's two more things you need to know about them, one is that the higher their level, the more they can control those of the same group as them, that have a lower level than them, and there is a level even higher that that of the level 0!"
"They are called pillars, and remember those pathways? Each pathway belong to a group that corresponds to a pillar, for example: The worm with the rings belongs to a being of level 1 of the Error pathway, the one with the layers of doors belong to a level one of the Door pathway, and the one with the symbols belong to a level one of the Fool pathway. But the most interesting one, the last one, belongs to the pillar of these three, it belongs to me!"
If this was a cartoon them Kaizer jaw would have dropped on the floor making a silly sound effect by how much surprised he was, but despite wanting to laugh her ass off because of the face he was making, she continued explaining, almost producing liquid pride by how much she was proud of herself.
"I am the pillar of these three pathways, my pillar title is "Lord of mysteries". Remember when i said that those beings are very hard to capture, and even harder to kill? Well, i know from experience, the set of abilities of my group of pathways specialize in things like teleportation in different ways, space manipulation, ability stealing and copying, exploitation of errors and loopholes, illusions, and the ability to make perfect puppets that acts as body doubles, making impossible identify the real from a puppet! And is that is without considering their offensive capabilities with those abilities and those i didn't mention!"
Kaizer forgot his professionalism for a moment and was like a child hearing about a magical story for a few moments while listening to her talking, but he quickly recomposed himself and returned to being the businessman he was supposed to be.
"Ah, pardon me, i can't control myself well when the subject is exotic beings... Getting back to the selling of the items, for the simpler ones i can give... 45 thousand om-credits for each, and for the pillar one, i can buy it for... 355 thousand om-credits, are those prices satisfactory for you?"
While Kaizer was trying to mask his nervousness, he still let some of be shown through his behavior, not that he wasn't capable of acting well based on his experience as a well known appraiser, but he was acting nervous on purpose for Noit'e to see, as he was not only expecting that she asks for more, but he was hoping that she would do so, so that he could show his goodwill and form a long term partnership with her.
He was not lying when he said this type of item is quite rare, so he was sure he would get a nice bonus on his salary if he successfully bought these items, and who wouldn't want a bonus? But to both Kaizer surprise and joy, Noit'e took out two more of each maggot/worm and asked Kaizer "Can you also buy these?", Kaizer took a moment and then put a finger on his ear as if he was listening to some device on his ear and said "Yes?...Affirmative. Yes we can buy them, and we even are willing to give you a extra bonus! Those material will be quite useful so my superiors just called me to confirm the purchase. We are going to give a bonus of 35 thousands for of the simpler one and 75 thousands for the pillar one, just confirm the selling of the items and the money will go to your account", the things about his superior was a lie, but it was that his sense of honor and pride as a veteran appraiser didn't allow him to scam what was essentially a naive adolescent, and after he spoke, Noit'e system asked her to confirm the selling of the worms, she was quite happy and accepted it, which made Kaier give her a "Thank you for making business with us, hope to see you soon"
Noit'e got up, waved goodbye to Kaizer once leaving the cubicle and leaved the bank, taking in the surprisingly fresh air from the city, the looking for a moment at the white ball of flames that was the sun and the pearly white clouds in the sky, she looked back down to the buildings at the city, she was looking for a hotel, inn or the equivalent, but she only saw buildings with various names and styles, which difficulted to identify their functions, but luckily for her there quite a few group of humans around the plaza, so she approached one of them to ask about a hotel/inn.
{POV change}
It's been two months since i arrived here.
When i finally reached the peak of all the major realms and somehow ascended one step further by luck, i had the revelation that there was still many things above the peak i achieved through thousands of years of hard work and cultivation.
It was very hard to accept that what i once believed to be the peak of everything was only one step in a bigger journey.
It was even harder to realize that we humans were basically a insignificant portion of those that inhabits this level of power, but luckily i found quite the amount of humans of different origens in basically the same situation as me, which helped in quickly create a bond between us, but despite the language barrier, on the first day i arrived here i was guided to a stall by a kind creature, i could somehow understand the creature at the stall and they were giving away some kind of pill that allowed someone to learn any language, and the creature recommend that i choose a language called "English" as it is quite popular between humans, so i ate the pill and immediately learned this so called "English", this type of pill wasn't uncommon where i came from, but it was mostly used to transfer complex scriptures and cultivation manuals between master and disciples.
After i learned english i quickly started interacting with other humans and helped those that are new to also learn english as well, as time passed i started learning how this place worked more and more, i even sold some of my treasures and items for some money, and today was just like any other day where i spend some time talking with my human friends at the city center before going to a work i got in, some of us even earned a work in quite good positions such as mechanics, chefs, teachers and the like.
But today, when i was talking with my friend, i heard a voice i could only describe as divine coming from behind me, it sounded as if there was two different women talking at the same time, but both sounded divine in nature, as if two real goddesses were giving me a holy revelation, and i am saying this taking in consideration the untold amount of immortals, "gods", mystical creatures, "deities" and demons i seen in my life.
"Excuse me, sir?"
I turned around half expecting to see a massive pair of goddesses clad in divine garments, the other half wasn't expecting anything, at the time i was thinking that maybe they were some kind of disembodied gods, and a little miniscule portion of me was expecting some kind of monstrosity, because if living in this place taught me anything, its that in this place the appearances can be quite misleading as i have met beings that would give nightmares even to old immortals but were in fact nice beings, and i also have met less nightmarish beings who were quite arrogant and rude.
When i turned around what i saw made me confused, so confused in fact, that i hadn't been this confused since the time i became a immortal.
The goddess behind me looked like a normal human woman, well, she was wearing strange clothes, but that was normal for humans here as we came from vastly different origins, and yes, she was very beautiful, even for immortal and divine standards, she spoke again with that beautiful voice, but strangely she was was speaking without opening her mouth.
"Can you help me with something? Do you know where i can find a hotel/inn?"
I was very curious about her origens, and i decided to take a peek at her using my heavenly dao eyes. When i first made some friends with a few nice creatures, some of them advised me to never attempt to do this as is very likely to become dangerous for me, however, i forgot that advice on that day, so i proceeded to take a very small peek at her with my eyes activated.
However something unexpected happened, all of it took a 01/100000000000 of a second to the instincts of my body, mind and soul to warn me about something and to automatically deactivate my eyes, but it was to late.
Even before i could comprehend well what i saw in that brief moment my mind and was instantaneously assaulted by an immense headache and i grabbed my temples in pain, falling to my knees on the floor i noticed something that filled me with dread.
This woman did nothing to attack me, and between the pulses of pain coursing through my head i was able to feel her immediate worry for me. But something made me worry even more, it was that i noticed that not only my mind, but my body and soul was starting to become unstable and deteriorate at a rapid pace, i only was able to scream in my mind.