13 Sword

One needs to be a citizen who have either stayed in the city for at least 2 years or have done something invaluable as contribution to the city to be granted permission to study and enrol in the Fledgling City Institute. The former category was quite common. However, the latter category was non-existent as figures who could contribute greatly to Fledgling City would generally be cultivators who were beyond the cultivation level of the students in the Fledgling Myriad Institute, hence a lack of need to enrol in the Institute itself.

Richard Duran was taken aback and was shocked for a good few seconds before he recovered.

"The Fledgling Myriad Institute? Firstly, you are not a citizen of the city for more than 2 years. In fact, you can be barely considered an acquaintance of the city. Therefore, you are ineligible based on the first criteria. Secondly, you haven't done something of great contribution to the city yet. True, you might have imparted spirit arts and increased the combat abilities of the city's cultivators to a new level, however, I'm afraid that is insufficient to constitute as a 'great contribution' to the city. So my answer, and what I think the Institute management's answer will be, is to say sorry to you, my friend."

Kael wasn't disappointed by the answer. In fact he kind of half-expected it.

"So this hunting mission wasn't enough to prove myself…"

"That's right my friend. However, you are free to come into my City Lord faction. We welcome a great talent like you anytime at any moment!" Seeing Kael's response, Richard Duran saw a bit of hope in recruiting him.

Kael understood the explicit intention of Richard Duran, however he had to refuse the City Lord, "I'm sorry City Lord. I want to enter the Fledgling Myriad Institute for its foundation resources, which are significantly deeper than the City Lord's faction. I am hoping to breakthrough into the Herald Rank before leaving this city in the shortest amount of time possible, and the Institute provides the platform for that. Therefore, since there is only one way to go about this whole issue, you can expect to hear news from me very soon."

The reason for the Fledgling Myriad City's admission requirements was because the city wanted to ensure that new blood trained through the Institute would give back to the city instead of emigrating to other cities upon graduation. For people who contributed greatly to the city, the Institute's enrolment would serve as a form of compensation and gratitude for the services rendered.

For Kael to enter into the Institute after blatantly saying that he would leave Fledgling City as soon as possible, the only possible way was to do something of great contribution to the city.

The City Lord was disappointed. However, he sensed something special in this young man intuitively, as if miracles would keep happening as long as this man was present. Thus, he didn't stop Kael, but instead said, "Alright then. If that is your wish, I look forward to seeing something special from you soon." Richard Duran grinned.

"You are jesting, my City Lord. If there's nothing else, I take my leave now."

"Mmm." Richard Duran saw the retreating figure of Kael and sighed. If only this talent could stay in Fledgling City for a long time, the city could even make a name for itself in the entire Myriad Domain.

In a private room in a common tavern.

Kael was playing around with the item bag. Nostalgia rushed into his mind as he remembered the item bag that was in his hands when he was still the Invoker. There were numerous Ancient Items in his item bag, and they were able to boost his power tremendously.

In this world, and in the secret realm of Defense of the Ancients, cultivators were extremely dependent on items. This was because items could be soul-bound to the cultivator and belong exclusively to him. If a cultivator with soul-bound items faced up against a cultivator who didn't have any items, if they were on the same cultivation level, the one without any items would suffer greatly.

This was why Richard Duran was willing to go great lengths just to source for raw materials to create a weapon/item which he could soul-bound to himself. It would prove to be a tremendous boost to his strength.

For higher ranked item bags, the items inside the bag could transmit its powers through the bag into the cultivator. If one had 6 items, the 6 items would concurrently provide a boost to the cultivator.

However, the item bag in Kael's possession now was only a Common item. It wouldn't have such miraculous properties. It merely served as a convenient inventory bag. As of now, Kael had nothing in the item bag, other than the 100 gold which he received as remuneration for the harvesting of the Whitemoon Stones in the mines.

Kael was not even a Commoner Rank cultivator now, so he couldn't soul-bound any item to himself. However, he could still wield normal weapons. Kael decided that he should spend some money on buying a weapon. As for what weapon, after dwelling on it for a good hour, he finally chose to purchase a sword.

A sword was the most standard weapon for cultivators at the beginner level for obvious reasons. It was one of the easiest weapon to master, and it had great offensive and defensive capabilities. Furthermore, Kael knew quite a few spirit arts that could be complemented by a sword. Sure enough, Kael had enough knowledge about spirit arts to pick any weapon to use, however it all boiled down to familiarity.

In the past, before Kael ascended to the Herald Rank, at the Commoner Rank, he was also wielding a sword. He once used a sword to hack through countless demonic beasts and enemies. His cultivation path was filled with bloodshed.

Now that he had revived, he intended to walk on the same path of sword, albeit a different way. Now he had a vast knowledge, with an arsenal of spirit arts and knowledge about the world, the road of a Commoner Rank cultivator wouldn't be as challenging for him anymore.