CHAPTER 21

Title: My First Trading Partner is An Awaken

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"You meant to say that an awakened being can really see ghosts?" Henry asked Tyler.

It took him another two days to have a reply from Tyler. His trading partner excuses himself as they were on a tight schedule as they need to make bombs for their retaking of the Kailan region which were now infested with magical beasts.

"That's a positive, Henry. It seems that your world has not yet established the boundary between the spiritual world and the physical world if even an F-rank like you can feel these things," Tyler explains.

"Wasn't that bad for us or even for me?" Henry asked.

He had already done some readings about his feelings and he can only relate it to ghosts or souls roaming around. Some readings speculate that these kinds of entities will always give off cold feelings to people who are sensitive to their surroundings.

"I am not quite sure. However, ghosts or souls, whenever they are around, you would feel coldness. Since you said that you did, this would verify that even though there is a boundary between the physical and spiritual world, it was so thin."

"Furthermore, you also said that there are accounts that even common people can see. If this is also true, they might be people in your world who can possibly have the talent to be awakened. They just need some training and guidance." Tyler explains.

"Ah what? There is something like that too?!" Henry was stunned.

"Yes, of course. However, without resources as abundant as you, they can only be that - unnurtured talent." Tyler explains.

Henry can only nod and absorb what Tyler had explained to him. He wanted to ask about how they separated the spiritual world from the physical world and Tyler had lectured him about it in brief detail.

"Just like you, we also have a thin boundary between these two worlds. However, we have runes created by the legendary rank awakened just a hundred years ago which could talk directly to the souls and help them with their concern."

"You could do that?! So you are to do their bidding, like request and ask for justice?!" Henry interjected.

"Yes, it seems to me that you are familiar with such. However, these runes were used to attract any souls or ghost within a certain area and it holds them down there until their concern will be addressed."

"This will make any city or town safe from these beings. They will be held down to one place and their request will be addressed there."

"There are many requests like talking to their family, asking for justice, doing their unfinished business, and many other more. However, Most of these are the concern of the church." Tyler replied. "These runes are etched in one of the many structures of the church."

"Oh, it's my first time to learn that you do have churches too, and you said that the business of the lost souls is for the churches?" Henry asked.

"It was. They have recruited talents around the Segia Continent to be nurtured with their outstanding breathing technique. I'm not privy to it since I am just a normal awakened being." Tyler said his concern.

"These are new to me, Tyler. I apologize for the inconveniences." Henry said.

"No worries. Since you can sense them and maybe if you increase your rank and can communicate with those souls, it's up to you to help them or not. However, I am more concerned with the other one. You said that you can smell foulness to some individual, right?" Tyler asked.

"Yes. Was it really a concern?" Henry asked.

"You're naivety really surprised me, Henry. In my world, people with foul smells can literally make themselves sick by just smelling it, which would mean that we have shapeshifters in our midst."

"Shapeshifters? Are they human?" Henry asked.

"They are a race. A demi-human. They evolve just like you. You are no longer a human but an awakened being separated from the common people in your world," Tyler explains.

"As for demi-humans, those that are not shapeshifters include the dwarves, elves, goblins, orcs, centaurs and zombies. There are some others but I am not familiar with."

"However, any shapeshifters, whether they are in their human form or not, can be specially recognized through their smell; these include werewolves, vampires, harpies, mermaids. Most of them had a foul smell but vampires are more of that smell of blood." Tyler said.

"Are you for real? Those kinds of creatures are truly living in your world?" Henry asked. He thought that those are myths and stories from legends but the platform had translated it that those are really the thing that he could think of.

"Yes, they are. Anyways, these beings, the shapeshifters races and other demi-humans except for dwarves, elves and centaurs, could literally eat any kind of blooded animal including human beings," Tyler explains.

"That's why you are concerned about it." Henry commented casually.

"You don't understand, Henry. In my world, these shapeshifters are demi-humans with a natural talent for deception. They had reached the height of manipulating the senses of anyone. However, they can only deceive people with lower mental powers," Tyler explains.

"They really spell danger. I didn't know that there are such things in my world." Henry thought.

"Hey, don't be surprised by this. I am more surprised to see those superhuman beings in your world. I still remember when I saw one of your superhuman beings you mostly called superman who can fly, had speed that of a B-rank awakened and can see through anything. It's like that superman of yours has trained many kinds of breathing techniques in my world."

Tyler had pointed out, and yes, Henry still remembers that he posted a video of superman, hulk and even Thor just to convince Tyler that his world too, has awakened, which explains the abundance is salt in his world.

"Yeah, but as you also can see, our superman has this vulnerability of some crystals which could reduce his power to the extreme." Henry also pointed out.

"I was wondering about that and I can still find it normal. Every breathing technique we have had some vulnerabilities and maybe, your superman had this special physique that is literally vulnerable with those crystals even with the breathing techniques he trains," Tyler explains.

"I definitely agree with it." Henry said as he finds that Tyler had vast knowledge about being awakened. He can still point out such a conclusion by just observing the video he sent in their first encounter.

"Although it was just a movie, it was still commendable for Tyler to arrive at such a conclusion," Henry thought.

"Anyways, how do you deal with those shapeshifters?" Henry asked. He wanted to know to be prepared. If what Tyler said is true, he had some counters.

"It's easy. Most of those shapeshifters had rooted from humanity. If they want help, you can use the F-rank healing potion indiscriminately until they become normal."

"Most of these shapeshifters, as I said, had some special diet and love to eat beasts or their fellow humans raw. They love the blood of human and beast, especially newborns," Tyler explains.

"If they retaliate, I believe your strength can subdue them. If not, you can use salt to temporarily incapacitate them and have the chance to kill them. It's one of the reasons why salt is a highly valued item in our world," Tyler finally explained.

"Hey, weren't those creatures basically called Aswang?" Henry said his thoughts out loud. However, since the platform doesn't have a translation of this word, it was still heard by Tyler.

"What's Aswang?" Tyler asked.

"I seem to have heard stories about it. What you have just described is basically Aswang in our terms. Some people said that they exist but most of the people believe it's not. However, Aswang too are shapeshifters and afraid of not only salt but weapons made out of coppers and some bamboos." Henry explains his side.

"Interesting! These are also some weapons we used to kill these shapeshifters!" Tyler exclaimed. "I assure you, there may be some of these creatures in your world. Although it's a myth, shouldn't our interaction also be impossible?" Tyler pointed out the most basic thing.

The platform alone is considered impossible. Yet, here they are, using it as they please. Albeit,even the most powerful S-rank awakened can't detect his substation platform with all their enhanced senses.

He was already in front of an A-rank awakened like the Lady of Rocca, the most powerful awakened he had personally encountered but even the count is oblivious to the existence of his substation platform.

"I believe so. If its really true, I need to have time to uncover it and maybe prove to myself that these beings are truly living among us," Henry said.

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"Hey enough, with this, I still wanted to trade the salt you have for my accumulations here." Tyler brought back his first intention, that is to trade F-rank crystals, and its derivatives.

"Thank you for such information, Tyler. It really opened my mind to some extent. As for our trade, how much do you need?" Henry asked.

"Let me see, I had accumulated a lot of wastewater from purifying a lot of energy crystals. I'm not pretty sure how much but it seems the platform can be helpful with it," Tyler smirks.

It was too tiring to account for the wastewater that had accumulated in the four Chambers in the basement of the castle in Blackwood City where he was located.

Based on the letter, he had this privilege to deal with the waste products as long as they met the standard quota of their bomb making and potion making.

He instructed the servants and the potioneers to stockpile the wastewater and its powder to the basement chamber and he would deal with it.

"Alright, the platform truly has this default function so you can use it the way you prefer," Henry said.

Tyler made his way to the chamber and stored everything in the platform ready for trade.

[There are 2,300,000 liters of wastewater and 53,300 kg of powder of crystals and 1,400 F-rank crystals in your inventory, would you want to trade it]

It was the substation platform inquiry to Tyler. He said yes and the trade had begun.

"Then, based on our new agreement, 50 liters of wastewater is for 1kg of salt. For your wastewater, I needed to pay you for 46,000 kilograms of salt."

"As for your F-rank crystals and its powdered form, it's 30,665 kilograms of salt. That's 76,665 salt." Henry recited.

After consuming the F-rank healing potion, his mental ability had become powerful. Along with the different techniques and methods of calculation, he has more edge as compared to the more simple methods in Tyler's world.

Unbeknownst to Henry, Tyler's world had only achieve small steps in these kind of things as their focus is to get stronger and survive the onslaught from their fellow aborigines in the Segia Continent.

"You are right. It just amazes me how you come up with the sum faster than me." Tyler said. He knew that Henry world had this free education offered by their so called government.

Still, he was envious that education is free as he had only touched the books when he was blessed with the master who provided his breathing technique.

"One of the perks in my world, Tyler. I am more interested with your adventure in your world though," Henry honestly commented.

"Don't! It was rather chaotic here. However, it seems that if my guest is right, your adventure starts if those shapeshifters truly existed." Tyler reminded Henry.

"I know." Henry agreed.

With the addition of the wastewater that was still in his inventory, he had accumulated 3.12 million liters of this liquid. He too has the undisturbed kilos of the F-rank powdered crystals of 64 tons.

He already has two more cubic meters standby in their hydroponic set-up being managed by his father. So, he keeps the rest for himself even with the tax of five percent.

He believes that this powder will find its maximum benefits as he had only used it to strengthen the bones and muscles of his family.

His cautiousness had the best of him so although this can literally provide him with a lot of profits, he chose to stay rather low key and simple.

"You said earlier that you already reached about 75 percent completion with the aid of Ezio's Breathing technique, right?" Tyler inquires.

"Yes Tyler. Based on the results, I truly achieved 75 percent to E-rank awakening."

"How much did you consume in your first 10 percent completion?" Tyler asked Henry again, wanting to determine his consumption.

"That's about 5 F-rank crystals," Henry answered.

"Then you should have known that for every 10 percent increase of your rank, the crystal needed for the same rank is doubled. Thus, for 20 percent, it should be around 10 crystals." Tyler pointed out.

'He consumed 5 F-rank crystals while I had consumed three. It seems the talent of this brother is worse than my own.' Tyler thought.

"Yeah, I didn't recognize that. So by calculation, I needed a total of 5,115 F-rank crystals to break through to E-rank!" Henry was stunned.

"Yep, you're still lucky that I can provide you that, as compared to me that it took me a long time," Tyler also pointed out to motivate his trade partner from the other world.

"Then I want to order 4,640 F-rank crystals for my training and 360 more for making the healing potion ," Henry didn't hesitate with it since the exchange value to his side is about 92.8 tons of salt only.

He doesn't want to think about the value in the gold exchange as he will only stress himself out.

"No worries, although I only have accumulated 1400 crystals, this will be enough for you for the time being." Tyler said.