13 C13 - Without mercy

"Sir grandmaster, you are here!"

The manager immediately let go of the documents he had on his desk and quickly got up to welcome Maren. Of course, he hoped to strike future deals with him, so he still sucked up to the young man.

Maren guessed his intentions and was rather pleased. If there were people willing to work together with him, his sect's expansion could be greatly enhanced in the future.

"No need to stand on ceremony."

He waved his hands to stop the manager's cascade of flatteries and instead looked at the manager with an expectant expression. The latter immediately got the hint and took out a translucent, golden card, from a drawer in his desk.

"Sir grandmaster, here is your money!"

He reached out and put the card in Maren's hands. The latter though showed a confused expression. Didn't that thing look a little bit too much like a credit card?

The manager misinterpreted his look, thinking Maren didn't know about storing items like the card. They were quite uncommon after all and mostly restricted to the upper classes of the Cultivation world. He then explained hurriedly.

"Sir grandmaster, this is our Golden-Prism's VIP membership card! You can get a 20% discount on certain resources when showing it, and it also doubles as a spatial storage item. All your money is inside, just try extending your Qi into it!"

Maren did what the manager told him and instantly felt as a tiny part of his consciousness split of, entering a different dimension entirely.

This dimension looked like a little grey cube, with a heap of silver laying inside. Maren tried pulling some coins with his sliver of consciousness, and they instantly appeared in his hands.

"En, good stuff!"

He was very satisfied, with the service the manager provided, as well as with the storage card he received. Before, he thought he had to hide the system's inventory in public, but knowing that spatial items indeed existed gave him the perfect cover.

The manager was quite glad that Maren liked the card and didn't reject it, as that meant that he would probably visit their stores in the future and maybe would even make more big deals with them. In any case, it was good news.

"Could you get me four more cards maybe?"

Maren sounded quite troubled, but his words made the manager's pupils constrict in shock.

"M-may I ask sir grandmaster, for what purpose do you need more cards?"

"Hm, my sect leader and the core disciples would probably need them."

The manager gasped in shock. Sect leader? Core disciples? Where did that come from?

"Sir, what do you mean by 'sect'?"

A big question mark appeared on the manager's face.

"Ah right, I forgot there weren't any sects on this island."

Maren gave a chuckle.

"I'm too lazy to explain, you just need to know that we are one of the biggest forces on the mainland..."

He didn't exactly lie, as a sect with a Divinity-realm leader was considered a peak tier force on the main continent.

"DID YOU JUST SAY MAINLAND?"

All the colour drained from the manager's face. A big force of the mainland? It was quite understandable for him to show such a reaction, as the mainland was basically a myth on this island! Many people didn't even believe it was real at all!

Suspicion instantly appeared on the manager's face. He wasn't dumb, and an actual person from the legend appearing right in front of him was highly unreasonable! Just too bad, that although he was right, it didn't even matter.

"Then, sir expert, might I know what Cultivation-realm your sect leader reached?"

"Divinity."

Maren answered with a single word, but his reply only managed to earn disdain from the manager. Divinity-realm? Stop bragging kiddo!

"And sir, what realm would you have reached, if your 'mighty' sect leader is already this strong?"

The Golden-Prism prided itself in being one of the strongest forces between the three cities and obviously, couldn't stand people showing off, right in their faces even! Thus his tone got several degrees colder.

"Me? Hah."

The manager couldn't possibly have known that the Divinity-realm sect leader was standing right in front of him, and Maren thought it'd be more convenient to hide the fact. Therefore he decided to temporarily assume the role of an elder.

"I'm an Ascension-realm sect elder."

He brightly smiled into the manager's face. The latter nearly vomited blood. Kiddo, your aura is obviously at Execution-Mortal only! Stop bragging this badly!

"Heh, Ascension-realm. So you are stronger than our city lord then?"

A disdainful smile hung in the manager's face. He just judged Maren as an egocentric and narcissistic brat, that was too full of himself. Regardless of the fact that he might be a grandmaster forger, which he doubted now, rather assuming that Maren was only a messenger for the actual master, he just couldn't take him seriously.

Maren, already inspecting that, released the seal on his Cultivation nonchalantly and changed the limitation from Mortal- to Ascension-realm.

He then amusedly watched the changing expressions of the manager.

From a mocking smile, it turned to apprehension, then wariness and finally fear. Full-blown fear! The aura Maren released just turned from on-par with the city leader to something even deeper, even more profound.

A chill went down the manager's back and sweat started to form on his whole body as his entire being, even his soul, slowly began to tremble in terror.

He instantly realized he made a mistake, a really, really big mistake.

"Stronger than the city lord, was it? I guess I am indeed stronger."

A mocking gaze sent the manager's knees into a state of complete softness. The manager hated himself for his short sights, why, just why did he have to offend this monster?

"P-please, p-p-please have mercy on this lowly one!"

He rushed down to kowtow, trying his best to make his voice audible and stable.

"Pah, I don't really care about your attitude and my sect leader won't either. I'm just here to sell those weapons. Now, will you get me more cards or not?

Maren directly copied the manager's earlier disdain, making the latter slightly shiver.

"O-of course, I'm on it."

He then instantly called an assistant, whispered some orders in his ear and then sat down on his chair, still slightly trembling.

Maren smiled inwardly. The manager seemed to believe that he defused the dangerous situation, but he was thinking otherwise. Nobody had ever mocked him before. Never.

'this guy still has some uses, but when those clan elders of his come out from seclusion... hehehe... who would still need him.'

He inwardly sneered at the manager's naivety.

Said manager was currently wiping the last drops of sweat from his forehead.

"Sir expert, in four days time our Golden-Prism will hold the auction for your items... will you be there?"

"Auction?"

Maren's eyes gleamed. He always liked to search for treasures during auctions on earth and an auction in a fantasy world would certainly have more and exciting stuff, wouldn't it?

"Yes, I'll be there..."

He just casually confirmed his appearance there.

At this moment, the assistant came back, with a pouch containing the demanded 4 cards.

The manager received and inspected them in a short breath, then gave them to Maren carefully. He moved like a badly scared animal, much to Maren's amusement.

"Sir expert... "

He gave the cards to Maren, who just accepted them, nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait, sir expert... "

The manager had a pleading, troubled expression on his face. Fumbling with his hands he tried to keep a calm appearance.

"Sir expert, can we forget about what happened earlier? I'll be under your full command, but please!"

Maren stopped, turned around and gave the manager a glance, concealing the mockery and amusement he felt deeply in his eyes.

"Sure, whatever."

He sounded like he didn't really care, casually waving his hand.

"Thanks... "

The manager gave a deep and solemn bow while watching Maren leave the room.

When Maren turned his back towards the man, a dangerous glimmer in his eyes.

'Do you really believe it would be this easy, tenno? Hehe, see what will come to you.'

He inwardly sneered mocked the manager greatly, already planning on how to kill him off.

Niita glanced over the manager absent-mindedly. She then followed behind Maren hurriedly.

Back on the street again, Maren suddenly embraced Niita, and then took her hand. When he did this, her entire body turned stiff and a glimpse of disgust glimmered in her eyes. It instantly faded away though.

"I'll kill that manager later."

Maren whispered that sentence in her ear, making it hard for Niita to understand, but when she got it's meaning her eyes went oping with a mix of fear and shock. She hurriedly turned her head to look at Maren, only to see him stare into the air, with a cruel and devilish flame in his eyes.

Noticing her stare, he quickly focused again and the light in his eyes went dim. He then pulled her hand in a playful way.

"Come on, I'm basically a reach tycoon now. Let's go eat somewhere!"

Niita couldn't do anything against him, she didn't even dare to, so he could pull her behind himself pretty easily. To outsiders, they might have even looked like a couple.

If Niita knew that, she would probably feel a burning wave of humiliation.