18 Unplanned Surprise
Kai made a deal with the man and they sold the entire contents of the backpack at the agreed-upon price of 1 Copper per pound with an additional 1 copper for every 10 pounds sold.
Kai came out with 60 copper for all the goods that Mina said had a market value of 100 copper. The man could easily make 40 copper in profit from selling these which was good as far as Kai was concerned, so it was a win-win.
"If you ever have any more good quality meat, come to me first Ok?. " The man said as he rubbed his large belly.
Kai simply waved and said, "we'll see, I'm still not quite happy with this deal since I wanted to see if Mrs. Jiang would go higher than your offer...."
"Hehe, little brother, no need to be like that," The man said with a defeated smile.
Kai waived at the man and the trio quickly left the area.
Kai suddenly stopped then turned to Mina and gave her 30 copper coins.
"As promised, here is your 40% cut plus a little extra for getting me here," Kai said with a smile.
Mina looked at the coins and didn't know what to say. She was happy that Kai remembered his promise.
"Thank you..." she said in a small voice.
"So will you guys be buying the food for your village now?"
Mina nodded. She felt a pang of pain within her heart when she remembered the suffering that their village was likely going through at this moment. The more time they spent away, the longer the starvation and suffering would go on.
"20 copper will be enough to buy grain that should last the village for a month if rationed correctly. By then, the beasts will be back, and hopefully, things can go back to normal."
Kai was surprised. 20 copper could feed an entire village for a month?.
"How much is 1 copper worth?. Like... how much food can I get for that?"
The siblings were surprised by the question but were now used to Kai's lack of common knowledge.
Ryu shrugged and said, "it depends where you are, but on average you can feed a family of three the most basic meals with 1 copper a day. a decent meal will cost around 2-3 copper. And a delicious meal starts from 5 copper upwards.
"I see, so what about staying at Inns then?".
"Inns in this city will charge about 1 copper per night for the basic shared rooms. 5 copper for private rooms and over 10 copper per night for higher-end rooms. I hear there are even rooms dedicated and designed specifically for Internal Cultivators that start at 10 silver per room!"
"10 silver?... how many coppers do I need to get 1 silver?."
"100 coppers exchange for 1 silver, and 100 silver exchange for 1 gold".
Kai sucked in air. Wouldn't that mean cultivators would be paying 10,000 copper per night to stay in such rooms?.
"That's insane, Internal cultivators must be rich".
Kai said with glowing eyes since he was technically a cultivator, wouldn't that mean he had a chance to also get that rich?.
"Internal cultivators can take on high-level monster extermination missions that normal Body cultivators can't do. They can also work for high-profile nobles and groups where they earn unimaginable amounts of money. I hear they even have their own special currency however I have never seen it before." Ryu said
Kai felt enlightened and was raring to go, however his methods of making money would be limited seeing as he wasn't willing to join noble houses or work for groups. he would probably have to do monster exterminations or some sort of crafting to get money.
"But before all that, I need to take a bath and gather information. Which Inn do you guys usually stay at?".
For the first time, the two went deathly silent and looked at each other with awkward smiles.
"We've never stayed in the inns. Jurgen would say it's too expensive. After we sold our goods, we would immediately head back out into the wild and set up camp. This area is relatively safe thanks to the Twin-Lions sect.
Kai immediately dismissed the idea of camping.
"No ways, I'm done camping, I need a bed to sleep in. Plus you said a shared room is only 1 copper so we're staying there".
Kai lead them back to the meat vendor and promised he would get him even higher quality meat if he recommends them a good yet affordable Inn which the man immediately advised.
Once they knew where the Inn was located, Kai decided to spend some of his money on upgrading his clothing.
He had been wearing these rags and walking around barefoot for a long time now and he was starting to notice the looks of disgust that the local people were giving him.
Kai inspected his equipment with dread.
==[Equipment]==
[Headpiece]: Old Fisherman's hat (Damaged Grade1: External Defense 0)
[Necklace]: Old Fisherman's Cloak (Damaged Grade1: External Defense 0)
[Body]: Old Course Cloth Outfit (Damaged Grade1: External Defense 0)
[Feet]: None
[Ring]: None
"The defensive stats are actually gone now. Probably because of all the holes and rips. These are as good as rags now "
Kai walked over to the clothing vendor and looked through her selections. The styles were all Eastern designs which looked very appealing. The woman said the full outfit costs 3 copper so Kai got two outfits in the same style in black and white. The main piece was a cultivator's robe that came with a pair of pants and a button-up shirt. The sleeves of the robe and were open which gave it a cool mysterious look despite its cheap materials.
Kai didn't put the clothes on, he simply leads the group according to the directions the man gave and they arrived at a somewhat rundown-looking building, however, the interior was quite clean and well decorated.
Kai walked up to the counter and paid 3 copper for a shared room, so they could all have a bed to stay the night. The receptionist didn't even react to Kai's "homeless" look and simply took the coins and presented them with the room key and rules of the inn.
The rules were fairly simple. Respect the privacy of the other guests and do not cause any trouble.
The three walked into the room and found that there were five beds. Three of these belonged to them and it seemed the other two were vacant so they technically had the place to themselves.
"Staying in this city is quite expensive. Even at the minimum, we'd have to pay 2 copper per day each just to live here. 1 copper to renew the talisman and another to keep staying at the Inn."
Mina and Ryu looked around the Inn room curiously. They had never lived in a place other than the hut they stayed at in their village. Kai on the other hand was a modern-day man who had grown up quite luxuriously despite his later life being wrapped in poverty and suffering. For him, this room was barely passable.
"I'll stay here for a few days and investigate. I still remember the promise I made to teach you two internal cultivation if you're willing?."
Kai asked them honestly. He still remembered his promise and had every intention to keep it.
Ryu was the first to speak up. "Thank you Master!, We are ready to learn!". He gave a weird and awkward bow to Kai.
Mina was next. With a slight blush, she also gave him a bow. "Yes, I am grateful to be able to learn from you and call you Master"
Kai nodded his head and tried to remain composed. "As I mentioned before, I have a few conditions. First, you can never disclose what I teach you to anyone. Second, you must always follow my instructions, and finally, once you accept my teachings, you will fall under my sect and can never leave unless I dismiss you. Do you agree?."
"Yes, Master!"
"Yes, Master!"
The two agreed in unison.
Kai knew that verbal agreements weren't binding but he had no better methods anyway. For now, he would just regulate how much he taught them so he kept control of what he exposed.
Kai walked over to Mina and inspected her once again.
[Human [Mortal Grade-3] [Qi 0]
Kai told her to lie down on the bed and expose her stomach. Kai had gone through it countless times in his head so he was pretty sure that it should be possible...probably.
Kai put his hand on her stomach and started to circulate his [Dragon Subduing Law] manual. Kai had figured out how the passive cultivation part of the manual worked, however, he still didn't know how it was able to create a core or how it was able to absorb Qi from the creatures he defeated.
Kai simply thought about creating a core and his manual started circulating the Qi within his body while following a mysterious pattern. This time, instead of the Qi concentrating at his navel, he directed the Qi up into his arm and out of his palm.
Mina was shocked at the sudden pain she felt on her stomach and almost screamed out loud. She quickly blocked her mouth while enduring the pain. Kai didn't know if it was working, however, he could feel that his Qi had left his body and entered Mina.
Kai's arm started bulging and he could feel his veins getting pressurized painfully, however, the Qi was still flowing into Mina's body.
Since it was his Qi, Kai was still able to direct it using his [Dragon Subduing Law], however now that it was outside of his body, controlling it with the same previous precision was proving to be difficult.
Kai was still only at the Second Level of Qi Condensation so he didn't have an unlimited amount of Qi.
Before he started this, he only had [10 Qi] and at this point, he was already down to [5 Qi]
Kai painfully kept the Qi flowing out of his body while trying to keep it under control.
He was using the same Qi control method he used when using his self-made "Qi Enhance" skill. This allowed Kai to manage the flow of Qi outside his body better, thus allowing his [Dragon Subduing Law] to freely form the core without the Qi going out of control.
Kai's Qi within Mina's body finally settled down and compacted together into a tiny core less than half the size of Kai's own core.
Kai was surprised that he had actually done it on his first try. He took his hand off Mina's stomach and saw that the Qi had actually left a serious scorch mark on her stomach in the shape of his palm. This would probably leave a permanent scar.
Just as Kai was thinking this, he got a sudden system message.
==[Congratulations, host has created his first sub-core]==
==[Hidden Task "Cultivation is teaching and all teaching begins with the core" completed.]==
==[Create a sub-core within a living creature. Unlocks System Ability: [Sub-Core Manual]==
==[Hidden Task "Manuals are meant to be taught" completed; Pass manual knowledge in any form to a living creature. Unlocks New Function: [Manual Customization]==
Kai stared at the announcements in wonder. He had unknowingly unlocked another system function as well as a passive skill with one action.
This meant that Kai now had three Manual functions!.
[Create Manual], [Sub-Core Manual] and [Manual Customization]
Mina had passed out from the pain and Ryu was tending to her with a worried look on his face, so Kai told him that she was just drained from enduring the changes, however, it had been successful.
Kai then discretely opened his new function and ability to read the descriptions.
==[Sub-Core Manual]==>
[Grants host ability to transfer manuals to Sub-Cores]
[Grants host ability to enhance or destroy Sub-Cores at the cost of Qi]
[Sub-Cores cannot be enhanced past the level of the Main-Core]
[Current Sub-Core Limit]: 1/5
==[Manual customization]==>
[Manuals can be combined with a chance to create Manuals of a higher Rank depending on the Qi spent]
