Are in trouble

While the onlookers talked among themselves, two people appeared at the entrance of the bank. One was Miss. Klein, while the other was an elderly man. The two of them were chatting happily with each other.

When they stepped out of the bank, the elderly man looked around as if searching for something. His eyes fell on the corpse of the young man that had just died and that nobody had yet gotten rid of. Upon this sight, he shook his head in amusement. "That girl...", although his tone was scolding, from his smile as well as his eyes it was clear that he didn't mean it.

He then waved his hand towards the corpse and to the surprise of all onlookers, in a shocking display it vanished, only to be replaced by a broken wooden puppet. The puppet, that then flew towards him, while shrinking in size until it was only about ten cm high.

He then grabbed it and stored it away, before continuing to chat with Miss. Klein.

"So it was only a puppet.", one of the onlookers spoke out what everyone was thinking.

"I think that these guys are in trouble.", another commented.

"For sure. Did you see how unconcerned he was about the girl being abducted?"

"Serves them right."

While the onlookers were discussing animatedly what had happened and were speculating about the fate of those kidnappers, Miss. Klein led the elderly man towards Serge and Ivan.

"These are my disciples Serge and Ivan.", she introduced them before introducing the elderly man, "And this is Elder Lin of my sect."

"Greetings, Elder Lin.", both Serge and Ivan greeted at the same time. Their master had told them that there was a huge emphasis on seniority, so it was only right to greet him first.

"No need for any formalities.", Elder Lin told them in a relaxed manner. It seemed like he didn't put much emphasis on formalities. "So those are her first disciples?"

"Yes. I thought it was about time to find some and they appeared, so I thought it was fate and accepted them."

"That's good. It would be a shame if your skills in pill refining would be lost.", Elder Lin nodded in agreement.

"Hah. I'm not that old yet.", Miss. Klein retorted.

"Well, since my granddaughter has run away to have some fun, there is no need to wait for her.

Do you want to go back to the sect together?"

"Sure. It will be more comfortable to take your ship."

Having gotten her agreement, Elder Lin pulled out something from his storage. It then enlarged to a large ship, that hovered in the sky. It looked just like one of the wooden ships used to sail the sea, before the development of magic-powered steel ships.

Miss. Klein grabbed onto Serge and Ivan and jumped up onto the, more than 10 meters long, ship. As soon as they landed Elder Lin appeared beside them as well.

"It will only be a short flight, so let's stay on deck.", he commented before taking a seat in one of the comfortable armchairs placed in a seating area on top of the deck.

"You can sit down or stay at the railing and take a look around.", he then told the two guys.

"You two can look around later, for now sit down.", Miss. Klein on the other hand ordered them to sit down. They followed her order and sat down on the couch.

"Here.", Miss. Klein then threw a ring towards each of them.

After catching it, they looked at it in confusion.

"Use your mind to connect to it.", their master told them.

As soon as they did so, a space appeared in front of their minds eyes. The ring contained a space, similar to the inventory. The space wasn't large with only about one cubic meter and there wasn't much in it either. It contained a robe as well as a small box, which was filled with around 20 crystals. These crystals should contain about 20 EU and should be a form of currency for them to use.

"These rings are storage rings, which can be used similar to an inventory.", Miss. Klein explained. "Many find them more useful since it is easier to get more space with them, than improving the inventory space. Usually the inventory will only be used for the truly valuable stuff."

That was something that made sense to them. The price for increasing inventory space would get large soon. On the other hand it was possible to have ten such storage rings on the fingers and thus get a large storage space this way. They could also be given to others, when it was necessary to transfer large amount of goods at the same time. And it seemed like it was possible for them to get much bigger than the ones they had as well. All of this combined made them the premier tool for storage.

"Its good that Elder Lin is here, this way we can make it official and not just have you become disciples in name only.", she then continued, while indicating to them to take out the robes.

These robes were white with the only color being the red rose that was on the back as well as smaller over their heart in the front.

"The sect I'm in is the Red Rose Sect and these robes are the robes for the outer disciples of the sect.", she explained, "Since you are my disciples you are entitled to wear them since you are technically in-name outer disciples of the sect."

"Oh, so you are planning to make them disciples of the sect?", Elder Lin injected curiously. He had checked on their cultivation before and it was as low as it could be. But he knew that if that girl would take them as their disciple then they would have something going for them.

"Yes. Although they meet the requirements yet, I'm sure they will do so in the future.", it seemed like she had once again changed her mind about Serge.

"But I don't really plan to stay in this realm.", Serge directly replied.

"You don't need to. But you should at least get to the Nascent Soul Forming Stage, since the nascent soul can help you refine pill even in the lower realm.", Miss. Klein told him. "And since the requirement only to reach Formation Building Stage, entering the sect will be good for your speed of progress."

Besides her Elder Lin nodded. Although reaching Formation Building Stage wasn't hard to do, with some talent it was the threshold for entering the sect as long as someone endorsed them. It would then be much easier to reach Nascent Soul Forming Stage then cultivating on yourself.

"Alright. Thank you, master.", Serge accepted her suggestion and nodded thankfully. He knew that without his master, he most likely wouldn't have gotten this opportunity anytime soon, if at all. He then pulled out the robe and put it on. It made him look more elegant than before, since it partially hid his thin frame.

"You wear your robe as well.", Miss. Klein told Ivan.

"Isn't there a ritual that we have to take before?", Ivan asked curiously.

"No. For an outer in-name disciple the ritual when you took me as your teacher is enough.", she answered his question.

"Oh."

Ivan too took out the robe and put it on. It didn't seem to change his disposition in any way. But he felt a bit more uncomfortable. He was more a fan of the tighter fitting shirt and trousers he had wore before.

Seeing his discomfort, Miss. Klein smiled. "If you don't like the robe, you can wear something else if you are outside the sect. But you will have to understand that you will also lose the protection provided by the sect if you do so."

"Protection by the sect?"

"Yes. You saw what happened to his mischievous granddaughter, right?"

They both nodded.

"That is how the world is. It is cruel and everything is oriented towards benefits. Everything is done in order to get stronger. If you wear a sects robe, this means that you are a member of the sect and it also means that someone acting against you has to weight the risk of potentially angering the sect.", she continued to explain to them. "Although the sect would normally not interfere into matters of the same generation, which means people of similar strength, it would also not allow its members to be bullied by people who are much stronger. This ensures fairness, while allowing the members of the sect to experience dangers and grow up."

It was a cruel but realistic system. It stopped mighty people from just wiping out their carefully groomed disciples but would allow them to experience danger and the threat of death, thus allowing them to truly grow.