Blackotia Kingdom

In a closed room with multiple small windows and seats, enough for at least 50 people. Heian Ciemnosc was seated, and Antonio was checking some things with what seemed a person uniformed to be in charge.

"Please keep seated if you aren't a cultivator of the Spirit Rebirth realm. We'll be arriving at Gustav City in 3 hours." A voice spoke through some mechanism. Her voice reached everywhere in the shuttle. Heian Ciemnosc was seated somewhere in the middle. People in a specific section were checked by uniformed people, began to sit around him. He had just entered right away while Antonio went through the checking. He didn't know if they knew his status or because he was too charmingly handsome, the reason that female clerk let him in. First than anyone else.

With people taking the seats, they glanced at Heian Ciemnosc curiously but briefly, as if jumping the line interested them but was also pretty normal to see. One cute young girl sat 2 seats to his left, while his right had 3 seats empty. At that moment, heavy footsteps resounded from his left. Turning his head, Heian Ciemnosc saw Antonio come to him before sitting on his right.

“How is it?” Antonio asked. The seat under him trembled a little before readjusting itself on the wall and floor and stabilizing. Heian Ciemnosc looked to his right, then left, before asking. “Didn’t think this to be a shuttle.”

The shuttle they were now in was about 20 meters long, with a very long body and not much width, barely 4 meters, which was where they were now sitting. From the outside, it had a black and red appearance. Mostly black, with a small red stripe in the middle that hugged the shuttle’s head. It looked more like a speeding spacecraft than anything else, so it was no wonder for Heian Ciemnosc to be surprised to see the commodities within.

Synergized Equatrend Mobilizers were miraculous enough that having 2 of those could build a Frigate. The Frigate naturally had many more components, but it could be very damn fast and agile with them, and the space within could be stable, practically immune to high speeds. A Frigrate was capable enough to protect its crew from gravity to a certain degree.

“Mn, it’s fast and much better than any other shuttles. It’s not. It’s just that most organizations with these are focused on the military.” Antonio elaborated, looking at Heian Ciemnosc calmly and patiently, like a good teacher already, and not wanting to test or try Heian Ciemnosc’s knowledge.

Other shuttles Heian Ciemnosc had seen were pretty fat, slow, and could hold up 30 something people at most. While this shuttle promised to travel to the Kingdom’s city in just a few hours, other shuttles took even a couple days at worst. This one promised a 3-hour travel. All while having 50 people within the shuttle without problems.

“These are good and smoother than any other shuttle. But very, very costly. Only prestigious organizations in trade can make or buy these babies. Any other organization can treat them as luxury gifts and trading negotiations.” Antonio elaborated further, giving Heian Ciemnosc something to think of, and chatted for a bit more before both fell silent as the rest of the passengers.

Another 2 passengers sat to his left, a young man between him and the cute young girl, and a young boy sat 2 seats to the young girl’s left. Time passed like this, and with the sun-like lighting inside the shuttle, it felt like they were already under the natural array formations for sunlight within the Kingdom. But they were still in space, and no light would’ve come to them if they didn’t have any lighting.

“... The fight is still ongoing. Although it appears the Carreir has stopped attacking. Just 2 minutes earlier, it attacked another convoy trying to mediate, its message was ignored, and all tens of thousands within were blown up into space. I can no longer see their fleshy remains…”

The televisor was suddenly turned on, of which Heian Ciemnosc lifted his head to look at an, seeing a black Carrier with crimson shapeless limbs trying to hug it all over, cruising in space and shooting several dozens of missiles and shooting with some weapons, raining bullets everywhere, he smiled and showed his pearl white canines.

“...” The young girl to his left looked at him, her left eyebrow jumping at the prospect of the handsome kid’s smile. The other passengers also looked at him, showing concerned faces of traveling with a psycho, but they weren’t actually wrong.

“Sigh, ayayay…” Meanwhile, Antonio lowered his back onto his lap, supported his arms with elbows on his thighs, and covered his face slightly. He shook his head as he rubbed his forehead. It happened in the end, though it wasn’t because the teenager beside him was ‘troubled’ but because she was annoyed. So it should be fine after a couple months.

He then looked at Heian Ciemnosc, his eyes saying ‘told you so’ as his face said ‘see what I meant?’ in a very annoyed manner. Heian Ciemnosc simply looked back at Antonio and smiled a bit more. He was in a good mood now and then asked the Sub-Teacher without any qualms.

“What is Gusvat City?” Hearing his question, Antonio sat straight and answered. “It’s a military-focused city, actually. The Wrath Nihility Academy might be beloved by all. But its internal problems within the Blackotia Kingdom is only the Academy’s to be attended to. Nonetheless, the Academy adopts the doctrine some Empires and Nations do and allied themselves to the powers of the Kingdom instead of eating them up.”

“The Academy is really a place of neutrality and peacefulness. It does not look to form its own military vassals. Only upgrading its Students into capable cultivators for a possible defense is what we do. We seek no problems, and we even help the entire Blackotia Kingdom any time we can to corroborate peace and commodities are balanced.”

“Like missions?” Heian Ciemnosc interjected. Antonio nodded and said nothing more, then continued elaborating on Gustav City. “This one is a large city, so we’ll stay there for a week and then go to the Wrath Nihility Academy. It is military-focused, but it did have incredible fertile lands. A great variety and quantity of settlements surrounding it, and a lot of water and fauna around. There’s a mild lack of flora, so alchemy isn’t developed as much as any other profession of Craftsmaking, but it is also a good place to buy alchemy tools.”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc nodded sideways a few times. With those specifications, it was no wonder one would decide to make the city focused on a military prospect. It had land, nature, and life on its side. That alone made it easy to defend with adequate manpower and self-sustainable for its civilians, which were for both cultivators and citizens.

Afterwards, only silence remained. The shuttle moved at a not-too-fast speed towards the Blackotia Kingdom. It looked as if it was nosediving but was not, as it dived into the Kingdom’s aerial territory after 2 hours. Then, the shuttle began to truly nosedive for 10 minutes before changing its direction and opting for a movement forward. The shuttle took just a couple minutes to stabilize as it sped up into the distance.

“We will be arriving in 5 minutes at Gustav City,” the female voice spoke again, making everyone look through the windows in search of land. There was already sunlight falling upon the shuttle and within. But they were still too high up in the sky. Yet, when the shuttle was nosediving, and Heian Ciemnosc instinctively let his Spirit Sense out to check any possible errors and a deathly outcome, everyone else was looking at something on their phones, staring at their wrists, or reading a book.

Only Heian Ciemnosc and Antonio casually looked around while the shuttle nosedived before it then sped up. Now that the voice spoke again through the communications and the passengers were distracted, some even twisting their waists to look back. It was then that trees, hills, and faraway mountains could finally be seen from the sides. There were no windows at the front or the back, but everyone could already see the city walls and the thousands of guards on them.

“... In 1 minute, this shuttle will land,” The female voice spoke again. The doors to the cabin were opened, and from there, 2 women and a man came out, uniformed, and with the shuttle showcasing that it was now in autopilot by the regulations that Heian Ciemnosc was unaware of. But it eased everyone as those 3 appeared and showered them with smiles.

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Especially to Heian Ciemnosc, the man looked at him with glazed eyes…

“Welcome to the Blackotia Kingdom and Gustav City…” Another female voice sounded while the female clerk, who didn’t speak before, smiled and winked at Heian Ciemnosc, then made gestures that told him where she stayed. There were many details. She wasn’t looking to merely hook up with this fine ‘young man’ but to treat him gently as a lover until he left. She ‘told’ him her schedule, where she goes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and even asked him if he was into threesomes. All in just a few seconds’ worth of time and gestures.

While Heian Ciemnosc kept strong, Antonio also had to remain strong. It was too much for his old and wise self to witness such fickleness between the younger generation. Sigh, at least they weren’t forced into relationships as is sometimes the case between high-end families, both for cultivators and citizens.

The professional woman spoke of the city’s little places to visit. There wasn’t much to tour around, much less sightseeing. But the city at least had a lot of great restaurants famed even in the other Sixth Step organizational territories. Their delicacies majored in Creatures, Monsters, and Preternaturals. While their street food stalls were known for their original and ‘homely’ taste, having any piece of flesh and even non-sexual or distasteful organs of any Race.

Now, that was interesting. It was a pity that the twinkle in Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes wasn’t for the horny clerk, who would become disappointed later on. But life was like that. He still wasn’t married yet. Once things changed, Heian Ciemnosc could start knowing a life any man would kill gods and slay devils just to experience. Let alone Heian Ciemnosc, who had the ultimate wifey of all times.

After the introduction, Heian Ciemnosc exited the shuttle with Antonio on his back, seemingly still worried he might find more trouble or trouble find him. But while he was going through the gate before the stairs, he received a little paper. In it, there was what looked like a piece of contact information. When he asked Antonio about this, Antonio explained that Heian Ciemnosc would be able to know once he was incorporated into the world’s system. Antonio said so begrudgingly.

Leaving a clerk who will be disappointed soon, Heian Ciemnosc then walked out of the landing zone with Antonio leading the way. Before, Heian Ciemnosc could already tell the city was huge, but now that he was in it, he felt like he was in a whole Region! Of course. He was not, but he indeed felt like He could see the topmost of every wall, but not even their middle was visible to him. He was already deep within the city and couldn’t see those terrifyingly tall walls.

Without elaborating on any questions, Heian Ciemnosc followed Antonio into a nice-looking inn that looked like an oversized hotel. He wasn’t dumb enough to try sensing around. Antonio’s energy fluctuations were nothing compared to Alyona's or similar, but Antonio’s was way above what he could imagine for sure. He silently waited at the lounge while Antonio checked them in again before climbing up the stairs and entering his room on the second floor.

Antonio kept going up, not telling him where he stayed, but Heian Ciemnosc didn’t mind and entered his new room. Once in, he could tell this was an inn by its appearance. But unlike even the most extraordinary enclosures in the Sinvonnia Kingdom, his ordinary room had a meditation little compartment, a small cultivation sub-room, a strange machine that looked like a panel with a tube supporting it from the floor that went through the walls, and many ‘items’ useful for ‘stress-relieving’ activities.

The latter was the strangest one. Even Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t ready for that. But now he understood, and it did make sense. This wasn’t an inn for cultivators only, nor was there any such building in the whole world. If anything, only organizations had such a building for their members and nothing more. It could be for staying some time at places, for eating, for specialized or centralized cultivation, or for hooking up, such as bars and the like.

Heian Ciemnosc lifted his eyebrows, kept them up, and undressed. He had to use the room for the first time as it is habitual with him, so he quickly got bare and went to the small cultivation room. In it, he sat on the circular praying mat denuded and in a cross-legged position. Placing his ring finger and pinky intertwined and his index and middle fingers semi intertwined, he hugged his thumbs as he started drawing in pure energy.

After about an hour, Heian Ciemnosc was still cultivating, drawing in pure energy to fill his body and bones, well, everything, and refine it into his dark Power Energy.

He now had a 1,600 meters range of Spirit Sense. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, nothing else could. The only ‘bad’ thing about his breakthrough into the Obsidiafying realm was that his dark Power Energy had become too robust, thick, and impenetrable. From what he saw in the Carrier, for so many First Step cultivators telling him many things, feeling somehow intimate towards him, Heian Ciemnosc understood that crossing through the stages of the Obsidiafying realm only needed time to store enough pure energy. Besides stabilization and solidifying their foundations, of course.

Yet, because of his dark Power Energy’s evolution, he now had to amass even more pure energy than he already needed and might’ve needed in case there wasn’t such a stupid improvement and growth. Nevertheless, it wasn’t like Heian Ciemnosc needed to eat another failed Kingdom to stage up. What that did was to solidify and stabilize Heian Ciemnosc’s cultivation base and foundation. And he might not even need to do any of that for the rest of the Obsidiafying realm… but Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t like that, so he still worked hard to repeat the processes.

All in all, he wasn’t allowed to cultivate within the Carrier or in these 6 months in general. Now that he was 14 years old, barely, literally on his first day as a teenager, and came to his first Kingdom without a mission but the intention to learn and cultivate - he was allowed.

“ Ding! Recalculating… The subject does not count with any status… No cultivation realm privilege… No military ranking privilege… Please deposit Powerful Stones for your daily quota of cultivation array formations to recontinue. Otherwise, please wait until 25:00 for your next refill.” A voice, systematic and robotic but lively, was heard within the small cultivation room.

Heian Ciemnosc was slightly momentarily dumbfounded as he looked around, noticing a little microphone at the top left corner from the door’s point of view. From there, the voice reminded him twice more before asking out loud if the room owner wanted to decline the chance to have his quota filled, which Heian Ciemnosc nodded his head to, that was actually accepted by the voice.

“We hope you have a pleasant and comfortable stay at our inn, sir.” The voice bid farewell and no longer spoke to him. Heian Ciemnosc realized this thin and technology was owned by the inn, but perhaps by the city owner or even the Wrath Nihility Academy, for that matter. Heian Ciemnosc came out of the small cultivation room to check his bed, bathroom, and closet before moving on to the little meditation room.

The small cultivation room was about 10 square meters, while the small one was just about 2 square meters, hence the ‘little’ on the label on the right side on the wall to the door. The small cultivation room was darky but had a few light bulbs and a couple of windows which were actually array formations that transmitted some light. It was recommended, by a few signs here and there, to use it only in regular cultivation, not in breaking through a stage, much less a realm.

It wasn’t in the case of spying purposes. But even this bit of light might be distracting for any living being when breaking through stages or realms, one sole distraction is capable of that, and cultivators in the First Step weren’t different.

Heian Ciemnosc sat on the little comfy chair without feet in the middle of the little meditation room and closed the thick raw-rock door. A few hours later, when it was afternoon, Heian Ciemnosc came out and felt quite refreshed. He wasn’t nervous before, but he had feelings in his stomach. He was seeing another Kingdom for the first time, and one that wasn’t failed. It was also of a size that was around the second largest he observed during the past half a year.

From being a true country bumpkin from a small village, getting into a city, then a fake organization. Only to be picked up by the ‘strongest’ organization and betrayed left and right. That place was gone, and he had gone through space for who knew what distances, and was now in the midst of becoming a student at the best Academy in the world. Wasn’t that crazy enough? And that was with quite a few things were omitted…

Now that he was just a few days from entering that Academy, he felt the pressure. He felt his calmness fighting his doubt. Heian Ciemnosc next moved to his bed, where his dangling dangler flew about as he let his body heavily fall on it. The bed sheets were thick and super soft. They hugged him as he forced his way into the middle. And the pillows were okay, not as good as waking up or going to sleep on Alyona’s tatas or Hong Mei’s soft tummy.

After a few more or hours of remembering sleeping with both beauties on the same bed for a trimester, Heian Ciemnosc woke up and dressed himself. He wasn’t married yet, so Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t visit brothels or bars to hook up. But he had to see this seemingly terror-inducing Gustav City and what it had to offer so that country bumpkin in him understands more about what a ‘large’ city is.

Once Heian Ciemnosc was fully clothed, his new, ‘galactic’ humble-styled clothes did nothing to tarnish his image but enunciated it instead. He opened the door to his room and went out into the world.

…