16 Aidonia

After settling in, a month flew by in the blink of an eye. Hartley had collected three new red robes adorned with the black rose insignia of the Lou clan.

For his weapon assigned by the clan, he chose a short red sword, it was half the length of his black sword, and was a genuine rank 1 spirit weapon.

Lou Chingham had given him the run down on spirit weapons, they went from rank 1 to rank 9 and above that were divine weapons, he told Hartley to not neglect his weapons because weapons and access to weapons, were also apart of one's strength.

Hartley also got a dozen high grade medicinal dans, used primarily for circulation and opening up blocked veins during cultivation.

Only to find that these were essentially useless to him, he took 3 of them and they basically had no effect whatsoever, he threw them in a corner of his space ring and forgot about them.

Hartley had stepped into the 3rd layer of xanthian realm, consolidating his cultivation after a few sessions of meditation, but still he could only control 120 meters around him.

His gravity manipulation had improved a lot, he could now apply gravitational forces to a single pebble within that radius of 120 meters.

He was practicing his star sword technique with dual blades now, and could apply gravity to each blade, zero gravity applied to one of his blades would make it as light as a feather and with minimal wind resistance, the sword would move as fast as lightning mimicking a person with affinity to the wind element.

Alternately he could apply 10x gravity to the blade during a slash or a chop, making the blade come down with the pressure of a mountain dropping from the sky.

In his experiments, when he chopped a boulder with 10x gravity applied to his blade, it would literally turn the boulder to powder, the recoil from such a blow would often cause pain to strum up his shoulder, but he was slowly getting used to it.

With zero gravity applied to the blade, it would slice through the boulder like a knife through tofu, leaving a smooth cut like a mirror with him hardly feeling any resistance.

He was still experimenting and coming up news ways to apply his powers.

He also did some research into the way the elements were used in battle.

The fire element massively enhanced one's attack power, whether on a blade or through the air as a projectile.

The wind element gave an advantage in speed, it could be applied to movement speed or the speed of attack, giving it's user an overwhelming advantage in close quarters combat.

The earth element offered massive defense, Hartley's zero gravity would not affect experts with the earth element, because once they used it as an armor, they were like trees planted in the ground, but that stout defense comes at the cost of sacrificing some of their movement speed.

Water elemental experts were a mix of speed and precision, experts with the water affinity could flawlessly integrate different skills into their battle, flowing from move to move with deadly precision, generating power through sheer speed in their deadly onslaught.

The only down side was that they usually had low defense, people with water affinity would always try and get their hands on the most powerful armor.

The final element is the wood element, people with this affinity were more attuned to the healing arts. They could be capable warriors as well, but their main advantage on a battlefield was that they could cure themselves and others.

Hartley realized that cultivating the blue star energy had none of the down sides of the other elements, he himself didn't know the true characteristics of the blue star energy, the blue star fragment in his chest would provide infinite energy until it was fully integrated with his body, so he had no need for beast cores or medicinal dans.

All he had to do was cultivate and try to gain enlightenment. One has to know that many heroes of the past had to be an expert in forging weapons, refining medicinal dans, forging their bodies, making talismans, all while mastering a soul spell....

All Hartley had to do was cultivate and find creative ways to aplly his skills, he was truly lucky.

Hartley also developed a habit of going to the library every afternoon and reading books, gathering information in his memory. Through reading these books, he learned that he was currently living in the country of Aidonia.

This country was situated on the continent of Aldora. The continent of Aldora had many small countries and 3 prominent large countries. Aidonia in the south, Sasko in the west and Buju in the north were the prominent countries.

The smaller countries were affiliate countries which were attached to one of the prominent countries. There were advantages and disadvantages to being an affiliate country, affiliates had to pay a certain amount of their natural resources as tax to the prominent country, and in turn get protection from invasion of other armies, fierce beasts and the beastmen tribes of the barren lands in the east.

The Barren lands in the east were lands devoid of natural resources, it was made up of mostly deserts. The beastmen tribes are a humanoid species, a cross between man and animal, they have survived in the barrens lands for centuries sometimes raiding other small countries on the outer periphery of the barren lands.

Due to this reason the Prominent countries have experts stationed in affiliate countries close to the barren lands all year round. The prominent countries also has the right to appoint kings and queens of the affiliate countries if they so wished but mostly it was incumbent on the affiliate countries to govern themselves.

In the country of Aidonia the Waltham province was situated in the mountainous western region of the country, it was a relatively big province neighbored by the Calabar province..The Capital of Aidonia is Dauncehall which is the home base of the king of Aidonia King Yulan.

Not much is known publicly about King Yulan rumors say that he is a Saint realm expert but that couldn't be confirmed especially by the books of the library in the Lou clan....

Hartley had collected his martial scripture as well, he chose a kicking technique called typhoon kick, it was only a rank 3 technique but Hartley was lacking a good kicking technique so he chose it.

When Hartley received the martial scripture he noticed it looked similar to something he had in his space ring, upon further inspection, he discovered it was the aura conceal stealth technique that was in the robed assassin space ring.

He quickly started to cultivate it, and because he had a neutral aura, he could now pretty much hide his whole aura and appear as a normal mortal.

He also had some small success in cultivating his typhoon kick, it was a technique based on using the legs to dish out offensive kicks at maximum velocity.

***

Hartley stood up, gazing at the greenery outside his new home, his slim powerful body made a series of creaking sounds. He had been cultivating in the lotus position this whole month. It was now time to head back into town.