Tools Are... So Important

'...So these are Supreme grade Powerful Stones?' After reading through some books, Ciemnosc took his own Covert Space bag and took all the 17 Supreme Powerful Stones. These were the most costly, useful, and powerful themselves of all the Powerful Stones that have been found so far, but since the grand event half a year ago, it has been now that there is one more grade above it, called the Star grade Powerful Stones.

Only that was known though, and it was only possible for Ciemnosc to know since the dude he stole these books from had just gotten these books because he had actually joined not that long ago, barely a few years, and had gotten so rich that he could buy this kind of information. As Ciemnosc looked through some more information within certain very specific catalog-like books, he now knew the price that a single one of these books cost.

Ten thousand Inferior grade Powerful Stones can be exchanged for 1 Supreme grade Powerful Stone, and 10,000 Supreme grade Powerful stones for 1 Start grade Powerful Stones. That is simple, and right now, in his Covert Space bag, Ciemnosc had 1,037 Inferior Powerful Stones and a total of 17 Supreme Powerful Stones.

Ciemnosc read about the Inferior Powerful Stones being mostly used for cultivation, as they were useful even for an Obsidiafying Realm cultivator at the 9th stage to cultivate at the 10th stage. But even then, the Supreme Powerful Stones weren’t used for cultivation, not even for the sake of trying to find a way to the next realm.

It could be explained in various ways, but one always remained king when it came to sticking to one’s mind when reading or hearing, such an explanation. It is that every time a 10th stage was at its utmost peak, using even just a fourth of a Supreme Powerful Stone meant death. Under no circumstances would a cultivator that could reach 2,500 years old ever try this method even if/when lying on one’s deathbed.

As such, Ciemnosc was now holding these 17 Supreme Powerful Stones piled up on his hand, weighing barely anything but with a slightly dull-gray, darker color than an Inferior Powerful Stone; in theory, then, he now had 17,000 Inferior Powerful Stones to cultivate with. But in truth, he had only about 1,037 Inferior Powerful Stones to cultivate with, and the other 17 were to be used for certain extreme trades.

For example, in the sect, though he hadn’t been given any information about it nor the official catalog, there were ‘Arts’ that one could exchange for 1 to 7 Supreme Powerful Stones instead of ‘merit’, or with the addition of such if the current merit in one’s name was lacking. As for merit, it was naturally obtained through going on missions and surviving.

One didn’t even need to complete it. As long as they could inform the Acting Elders of their doings and prove it, they would receive merit. Less than if the mission was indeed completed, but still, that was merit nonetheless, which was the most important and highest reward sought in the entire Self-Mutilating Honores Sect… Besides banging a few partners, or not even that.

Rustle~~, thud.

“...Sigh~.” Ciemnosc went under his blankets at once, his pee pee flying about as he moved his waist a bit upwards while laying on the right side of his body. Once under the blankets, his right arm under the pillow, and his left hand positioned everything so that he wouldn’t ‘wake up’ with a choked sausage and eggs. Ciemnosc then made a sigh before ‘closing his eyes’.

. . .

Creak~.

Very, very early in the morning, Ciemnosc opened the door of his bedroom. With his Covert Space bag in his left pocket, very well kept but not that cultivator-assassin-thieving scum proof; he kept his hand close to his pockets and even one top notch ordinary sword on his back, held by a strap that he made before in the Arielende Sect with the tendons of a few Spiritual Ligament Realm mix of small Creatures.

Taking a look outside, the deep blue invigorated him as he felt very glad of being out at these times in the dark. Without worrying about the weapon on his back, since all disciples of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect were completely able to move around with them unless they entered the elders’ residence, Sect’s Hall, and others such as Combat Hall, Herbs and Plants Hall and Hunting Hall…

In which case, they just had to either store it or let it be at the side where some guards will take care of it. Perhaps.

After having a look at the surroundings, the black early morning sky was ignored with Ciemnosc beginning to walk towards the exit of the Outer Sect Disciple’s enclave. Basically, nobody was walking around at these hours. He only managed to see some people at best. Some of them were girls, which were either on their own or seemingly walking back to their respective bedrooms with disheveled hair; others were in groups that smelled of either sweat or charm.

As for males, Ciemnosc had a rough time finding one walking at this hour, but he did see Taldes stretching and talking towards a few other weaker cultivators. He didn’t need him so they didn’t do much other than give each other a passing glare. But the weak cultivators also looked at Ciemnosc’s back once he went past them, with furrowed brows as they calmly assessed him. They looked ‘solid’ in their mental fortitude and resolve; somehow.

When arriving at the ‘striped’ metal-ish gate, Ciemnosc was met by the sight of it already being opened. He still didn’t know the specific rules of each place in the sect’s territory, so he could only shrug his shoulders, give not a fuck, and keep on moving towards the outside.

As soon as he went back to the streets, he was yet again reminded and amazed of being inside a huge and incredibly bustling mini-city treated as a whole sect’s territory. Now, that was amazing. He could naturally not take his time walking as it would take him weeks to just know most places by just walking from left to right up and down.

As for using cars, were he to use normal ones like those at the Warmlord City, it would take a couple of days, and he would still not be able to see it all. Ignoring such thoughts any further though, Ciemnosc turned to his left and began walking on the streets, his sword being quite eye-catching, and though it felt…’eh’; Ciemnosc let it be as he at least got a bit of his ideas in the making - here.

After a couple of minutes, Ciemnosc arrived at the end of the seemingly longest sidewalk he had ever seen. Several hundreds of cars went past him at a high speed though before he could arrive at the end of the corner. He could see a bus on the other side of the street. It was empty, with a seemingly fat person leaning against it, ignoring anyone who spoke to him and also pointing towards the bus as if asking about it.

Walking after the semaphore allowed his little life to be intact, Ciemnosc confirmed three times that no brave speed racer would turn him into mushy meat, he arrived before the bus, and as soon as he came as close as 10 meters from the fat ‘person’, the latter looked up at him and gave him a glare before moving to the other side of the bus where its entrance was and boarded it.

“...” After tilting his head to the right and waiting a couple of seconds, Ciemnosc did the same. When he was in the middle of stepping on the little steps, the man with a really ‘fat’ but not actually obese figure looked at him from the driver’s seat and commented in a roughened up voice. “Are you half-Giant too?”

“...” Ciemnosc halted, his hands on the smallish banisters at his sides, lifted his handsome, charming face, and blankly stared at the bus driver. After a moment of silence, both of them looking at each other, Ciemnosc said while his mind was thinking ‘oh what’; “I don’t know, but ‘that’ is the only weird thing about me. I don’t even know other Races that well.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Mm,” the bus driver nodded upwards and returned his body to sit properly. Ciemnosc let his lower lip protrude out and shrugged his shoulders, stepped into the bus, and selected a nearby seat to the ‘exit’ at the back. The bus driver semi shouted at this moment, “Get a good grip, kid. This isn’t a normal bus, and we’ll be flying from time to time as well. Well, gliding through.”

‘Oh boy.’ Ciemnosc had a poker face with his lips pressed together and ‘posing’ a stronger defense for his teeth. Though he wasn’t worried about his great bodily strength, he didn’t want to fly around nonstop. As such, he grabbed the bar that was at the side of the frontal seats with his left hand and sat with his legs separated.

Vrrooom…pffsssssss- kssss… vrrrrrr~... vrrr~~... vrrrrr~~~~~... vbruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm~~!!

At first, Ciemnosc felt okay, it was just a normal starting speed, but then there were sounds like that of some kind of important ‘air’ coming out of the bus all around it. Only with his Spirit Sense could he see such ‘air’ floating away after giving the bus a good ‘lick’. And so, the bus became glowy and striking at the darkness of the early night.

The speed became a bit fast. Ciemnosc was still alright and had moved not a single millimeter from his position just now. Then, the speed went up another notch, it was now nearing the speed that the pelicans he saw before had in their course speed, but he was still unmoved. It sped up yet again, this time nearing the speed of the pelican from whom he was almost impaled by a spear from that Rasgagaga whatever elder, only to be saved by Jing Zhu.

And in the next few seconds, the bus suddenly sped up to half the speed Cloudless Eagle has as course speed, immediately becoming a rushing bout of light slowly zooming in the distance from where it was parked just a moment ago. Entering the more than 300 km large ‘0’ widest main road, the bus became one of the many fastest vehicles on it as Ciemnosc began to be forced to set his feet on the floor with some strength and the same with both his hands as his right one proceeded to grab directly at the seats’ back in front.

Flap flap flap flap.

Ciemnosc felt his tongue flapping around in and out of his tongue for a bit before he was able to use enough strength in his tongue to slowly calm it down. Like this, a couple of minutes went by with the bus driver even looking around his seat as if to check for any food, insects, or magazines containing wisdom, power, manliness, and huge boobs.

In just a few moments later, Ciemnosc felt the bus slow down ever so slowly, bit by bit until he could feel his cock against the seat, not being flattened by the pressure; it was a large enough piece of his body that could very well be affected by this gravity thingy he just read about, its weight was about 2 or 3 ‘him’ when he was a little shit crying for Mommy’s milk, not a small deal.

“We’re here, kiddo. You did well for a Spiritual Condensation Realm 2nd stage, but try not to advance too fast without stabilizing your cultivation base first. Alright, get on with it.” The bus driver looked back at Ciemnosc, who was still trying to accommodate his hair which had gone all airy and backwards, as well as his pants which he seemed uncomfortable with.

“Mn, thank you- er…” Ciemnosc stood up and grabbed his sword, which was naturally fine because of Ciemnosc had not even once slammed his back against his seat and was shielded from the direct pull of all things backwards. But he didn’t know the wide man, only that he was strong enough to not be affected by the pull.

“It doesn’t matter, just go on and try your best.” The bus driver offered no encouragement or extra words other than what he said before. He also didn’t look back at Ciemnosc this time and was just waiting for him to come down his bus to park it somewhere, perhaps.

Step, step step step…step.

Nodding once, Ciemnosc walked down the little steps and came to face a totally unexpected sight to behold. Meanwhile, the ‘exit’ from the bus closed, also beginning to drive at a completely normal speed, which Ciemnosc looked back to see but still thought that the speedy way was much better, ah.

He looked back at the unexpected sight, which was, to say the least; comical.

A huge mountain rock was more than 50 meters in front of the sidewalk he was now in, a small, thin set of boulders and bricks making a little path towards a little wooden door that was at least well done and assembled altogether well without one little millimeter missing. But the mountain rock didn’t seem to have been there for a long time, as if it was born there. There were some leftovers of the streets that used to be there before. Coming out from the sides under the mountain rock.

After gazing around for a few seconds, Ciemnosc looked with his darkest eyes at the mountain rock before moving towards the little door at the bottom. It wasn’t a huge mountain, nor a large hill. It literally appeared to be a mountain-sized rock that was brought from far away or just anywhere by any means possible and dropped right here.

Step, step…knock, knock. Creak.

“Who is it?” A very low, humming-like voice questioned as soon as Ciemnosc stepped at the last few boulders and bricks on the thin path and knocked against the door. Revealing a very old man; with an eyepatch on his right eye, white electrified hair that was naturally combed upwards and to the left and was very short.

He was in a wheelchair, not only that, he also seemed to have some difficulties walking from what Ciemnosc observed and didn’t even need to use his Spirit Sense to probe. The wheelchair he was on was quite…unique, an improvised one for sure, and for the looks of it, made by the very same man that was seated on it.

“Hello sir, I…may I be allowed to be tested so that I can be taught about tools here?” Ciemnosc faked an obvious respectful attitude, bowing his back barely a single degree. The old man heard him out. Alright, and he grinned as he said to the boy in front of him. “Straight to the important stuff, uh? Alright, kid.”

But the old man then extended his neck forward and to the left, his eyepatch facing Ciemnosc directly as his tone became blunt. “What the hell do I care whether you are taught something or not? What do you matter to me?! Just go looking for beauties to ask them if they’d like to taste you to see if they would like sleeping with you from then on, psagh.”

After saying such, the old man grabbed the door with his left hand and impulsed himself backwards on his wheelchair, closing it soon after. But Ciemnosc used his left index finger to stop it, his head then popped into the old man’s…house— ? —and his lovable darkest eyes asked him without caring. “Because I’m that good~. Sir, isn’t it normal for a teacher to teach a good student?”

Fwip!

Ciemnosc then went back outside, right after making that question that baffled the innocent old man on the other side of the minuscule door, and the man even heard little footsteps fading away into the distance…

“Wait!” The door opened right away, the old man’s eye becoming big and shining for a moment, but when he opened the door, he saw Ciemnosc sitting cross legged with a sword on his back and with little pebbles being thrown backwards as he faced the door; all so naïvely. The old man, however, was shocked silly as he realized that all those pebbles were Supreme Powerful Stones!

Old man one-eye: ( Д゜*)

“What are you doing? Get those back, right now! Do you think there are no thieves in this sect?! Don’t you geniuses have a brain other than at their balls or uterus? Seriously…” The old man yelled out twice before turning around and continuing yelling, his voice disappearing into the mountain-rock ‘building’ as the door left open let Ciemnosc hear it still.

“Heheh,” smiling widely with a mischievous grin, Ciemnosc went back to pick those pebbles, not missing a single one like an idiot and going into the mountain rock without wasting any other second and without forgetting to politely close the neat and decent wooden door.

‘Hmmm~... wooow.’ Ciemnosc, barely entering the building through the door, immediately felt amazed, for he didn’t expect to be met with such a fine decoration, ample and clean space with yet several different worktables here and there that had a ton of stuff on top of them and under each of their tables below the topmost surface table.

Some with ordinary-like tools that were used in any part of the world by ordinary people, and others that reminded Ciemnosc of the gauntlets from that little rat that gave him his Identification Token validity. As well as the use and how arrays themselves would start to function.

The light was coming from just one corner of the entire room, which was right at the front, opposite from where the door was and on the right corner of the room. The room itself seemed like a neat and tidied place for even a thousand people to work, in teams, all across the 250 square meters large room with a distance of 11 meters between the floor and the ceiling.

“It’s…really big. Is it only just you, old man?” Ciemnosc asked out loud, his face all the way up like the good country bumpkin he is and his steps skillfully avoiding all the worktables where several people could get to work on the same project and in different stages for that matter; from what Ciemnosc could tell with his little experience.

PAM!

“First of all, this ‘old man’s’ name is Elder Apegos for you, kid.” Something slapping against the ground was heard, and a large book could be seen lifting dust from not the floor but from itself which was already 3 meters above the floor, which Ciemnosc coincidentally saw an old man Apegos who didn’t have a nice countenance in that wrinkled and eyepatched face of his.

“You will not be leaving this place unless you show me some good worth, you hobbledehoys always come wasting my old man’s time, and you won’t be coming out of here even if someone high up sent you here.” Old man Apegos lifted his left index finger to aim at Ciemnosc’s face, probably because he wouldn’t be able to see if he was doing it right with his right index finger.

…