Nitya
Nitya had been wrong. This trip of theirs was incredibly dangerous, just not for the two of them.
Getting the low grade wood and the Miasmic Soul Gems had been easy. She and Epecteos had just gone and talked with the relevant local organizations, told them what they wanted, and then bought it all for a reasonable price. They hadn’t even had to leave the E rank planets they’d originally arrived on. And the entire process had only taken two days.
When they arrived on the E rank planet where their goal was to buy Netherwater, however, things didn’t go as smoothly.
Epecteos, the same as in both other locations, was wearing a full set of plate armor Aalam had made him out of a material called Antimagic Tin. It wasn’t that powerful of an artifact, Legendary grade yet only E rank, but it did what it was designed to do. Epecteos’s aura couldn’t leave his armor except through the effects of a specially designed telepathic ring he was wearing, meaning his Swordsman’s Senses skill was pretty much useless, but no one could sense Epecteos’s aura either, so, as he was following Nitya around like a bodyguard, everyone assumed he was E rank like her.
This led one of the three powerful E ranks under the local D rank force Netherwater’s Chosen Sect, a black haired human with a type of dark reddish brown skin not found on Earth, to make a really bad mistake. When Nitya was negotiating with him inside his estate, he suddenly activated a formation and he, along with two other E ranks, all surrounded her with weapons drawn, threatening her to hand over all her money if she didn’t want to die.
“Ask them if they are initiating a war against the Consortium of the Red and Blue Flower,” Epecteos instructed through the complementary telepathic ring artifact she was wearing on her right hand, his voice completely calm.
And Nitya then did so, word for word, fully allowing the fear she was feeling to leak through into her aura, but understanding Epecteos wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen to her. She was, however, extremely thankful to Aalam for ensuring Epecteos would come along, as otherwise she likely would have died.
“Not a war little girl, just thievery. Who cares if you have a power behind you? They’re far away. Here—” The man stopped talking as Epecteos made his move, summoning out his sword from his spatial storage ring and then stepping on the wind.
Nitya could barely follow his movements in the enclosed space, and the next thing she knew all three men were cut in half at the waist and Epecteos was behind her again.
“You can deal the finishing blows, Nitya. I have no need for more primal energy at the moment.”
Nitya noticed an icon pop up to the lower left side of her vision, a system she’d set up to show when new System messages were available while she was in combat, and she took a closer look.
A System Approved War has begun between the F rank force Consortium of the Red and Blue Flower and the D rank force Netherwater’s Chosen Sect.
War Initialization Conditions: Attempted thievery by Netherwater’s Chosen Sect
Beginning force comparison.
Consortium of the Red and Blue Flower
President: E rank
Vice Presidents: 2 E ranks
Members: 2 E ranks, 1 D rank
Netherwater’s Chosen Sect
Master: D rank
Elders: 4 D ranks
Disciples: 37 E ranks, 874 F ranks
Due to the aggression of the Netherwater’s Chosen Sect, rewards increased to 50% of any killed cultivator’s credits in the case of victory for the Consortium of the Red and Blue Flower or 100% in the case of a complete victory
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Nitya sent as she released six wind blades to attack the three nearly dead cultivators, killing all three and allowing her to gain 2 whole levels, “but a System approved war requires the sign off of a force’s leader, right? In our case Mila.”
“Yes.” Epecteos swung out his sword once, breaking through the formation designed to entrap them. Then he collected the three corpses into one of his spatial storage rings, along with their own spatial storage artifacts, and began walking toward where Nitya and he had assumed the estate’s vault was located. “We can’t contact her from here, but she has already given me permission to request for System approved wars, only requiring her approval for the war to actually begin. This one, as it was somewhat expected, she approved almost instantly.”
“Somewhat expected?”
They moved quite fast and Epecteos was quickly at the vault, swinging his sword once to break all the protections around it. Then he started the process of putting the artifacts and natural treasures inside into a few of the several dozen spatial storage rings they’d brought along.
“D rank inter-cluster teleportations are expensive. Do you really think Mila would ask me to come along just to act as a bodyguard? Getting the wood at least involved pretty much no danger.”
“But Aalam—” Nitya cut herself off, realizing what had actually happened. It wasn’t that Aalam himself was worried about her. Mila had been. He was just the mouthpiece.
For a second she felt disappointed. Then she realized her friend was looking out for her and that felt pretty good.
Epecteos nodded toward her, likely knowing what she’d been thinking. Then he swung his sword out using his Law Pupa of Gust and blasted a hole out of the estate which they both flew out of, moving towards a mountain several hundred kilometers away from the city the estate had been located in. “Both getting the Miasmic Soul Gems and here had the possibility of the local force trying to rob you. And I came along with the hope one of them would.
“First, I could keep you from dying. Second, we could make up for our losses by stealing from them in turn. And, third, winning a System approved war is the quickest way to rank up our force so we could have more than just six members.” They landed on the mountain and both turned toward the south, where five individuals could be seen flying toward them, the D rank forces of the Netherwater’s Chosen Sect moving very quickly. “Also, my apprentice was wrong about leveling up being difficult. Watch how the wind can be used in D rank, Nitya, and then take the finishing blows for all five of these men.”
Three warriors and two mages flew toward them, all human, the warriors running through the air and the mages flying on streams of water. “How dare you—” their leader, the warrior whose aura made it seem like he had the highest level, began.
But Epecteos didn’t give him time to finish. With one step, he zoomed through the air and appeared next to one of the mages, his sword covered by an aura of wind. Then the next instant that mage was cut in half and falling from the sky.
Before any of the other D ranks could fully put up their defenses, Epecteos was already behind the other mage, having silently moved by riding on the wind. Then that mage was falling from the sky as well, also bisected at the waist.
Nitya sent out wind blades using all her mana and the full power of her sixth level cultivation technique, aiming toward the heads of both falling mages, but she didn’t take her eyes off of Epecteos. Even as primal energy began to flow into her soul from her attacks killing both mages, she just watched as he stood there in the air, looking like a knight from myth or fantasy.
The three warriors did the smart thing and tried to flee, but they all seemed to have Laws of the elements of water or metal, not helping with speed much at all, and Epecteos cut them down as they tried, Nitya sending wind blades to kill everyone who fell.
It was all over in just a matter of seconds and Epecteos gathered the spoils of war and walked back to her. “What level have you reached?”
Nitya checked and her eyes nearly fell out of her head from shock. “103.”
“So, that still wasn’t enough?” Epecteos laughed out loud. “You’re a monster as well, Nitya. You all require so much more primal energy than I did.”
“Will you be doing the same for the others?” Nitya asked, fully aware just how powerful Diana, Isaiah, and Aalam could grow if they maxed out their levels at E rank.
Having gone through Earth’s integration and seen how even relatively weak local powers had misused their strength, she’d long lost her sympathy for such people, no longer having any qualms about killing them. And she’d seen the looks in the eyes of those E ranks from the estate, so she knew they’d planned more than just killing her.
“No.” Epecteos shook his head. “We had other goals to achieve here which made it worth the risk, but we have no way of getting a full sense of any force in the universe, let alone local powers in other galaxy clusters. Even the Netherwater's Chosen Sect could have had a C rank behind them, and still might.
“The purpose of the War of the Chosen is also to allow young E rank cultivators the chance to practice in a war environment where their own power can’t allow them to just smash through all obstacles, but that wouldn’t be their experience if Aalam, Diana, or Isaiah reached max level. Unlike you, they don’t have much experience facing people on their own level of power or higher, and they need that experience if they want to survive in the future.”
“But the resources…” Nitya began.
“Secondary to the experience.” She could imagine Epecteos was likely smiling. “Still, the deadline to when Aalam’s secondary planet will be exposed to the wider galaxy is less than 63 years away. The quicker you all grow the better. Why do you think I helped you level up so much?”
The argument made sense. And it likely came from the Yin Yang Sage through Mila, someone who had far more experience than even Epecteos.
Nitya took a couple seconds to calm herself down. Then Epecteos tossed her three spatial storage rings. “Take those filled rings back home through the teleportation platform. They alone should have everything we need. But I need to stay here for a bit and clean up so we won’t leave too many trails behind.”
“Yes, sir.” Nitya saluted to him, it just feeling like the right thing to do. Then she flew east toward the planet’s main city and its teleportation platforms while he flew south to where the Netherwater's Chosen Sect’s main base was located.
They had everything they needed for Diana and Aalam to start strengthening themselves, and Nitya herself was now at a high enough level she was actually stronger than either of them, though of course that wouldn’t last.