Chapter 26

Ben woke up early feeling nervous about properly meeting Silvana's mother. He wanted to make a good impression so he decided to walk over to the Hair Salon before heading over to the Varene Dynasty.

He had not done much with his hair since he had arrived on Planet Victus and in just over a year it had grown out. This being a primitive world people did not walk around with the latest hairstyles and women surly did not st in the salons spending absurds amount of money to get their "hair did".

His long and naturally messy hair wasn't that bad looking. This was the norm up until Ben introduced the Hair Salon to his people which was operated by level five beauticians who properly trained those who came to also work with them at the Hair Salon.

The Hair Salon is located in the secure part of Dragonshome which is only accessible to the original citizens of the fortress. All of the special system Facilities have been walled off from the people who arrived at later dates.

This did not stop the people who were trained in those facilities from opening their own establishments in the unsecured section of Dragonshome. Ben did not mind them doing this and he actually encouraged them to apprentice under others and move out to offer the services they learned to others and to also take on their own apprentices.

This allowed the people who lived in the unsecured part of Dragonshome to also have access to properly trained beauticians, dentists, doctors, and many other learned professions from apprenticing or attending college or the vocational school.

The people of Avalon Kingdom were becoming known for setting the new fashion trends and hair styles for the other kingdoms.

It was to the point now where Ben could no longer dismiss his appearance. How would it look for his subjects to be better groomed and dressed than their king who had introduced all of this to them?

The recently established Avalon Kingdom was going through an era of growth and enlightenment which was spreading into the outlying regions and kingdoms.

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Ben entered the Hair Salon as they were opening for the day and the women inside were ecstatic to find their king would be their first customer for the day!

Everyone who ran each station in the Hair Salon was a level five professional. If these people were to be sent to Earth each of them would be fought over by celebrities and the rich for an appointment.

Ben left himself into their hands letting them know he was meeting his girlfriends mother today and he wanted to look his best.

These women had heard the rumors of their king walking around in Dragonshome hand in hand with a kingdom-toppling beauty and now he was meeting her mother! Wasn't this the legendary asking for the daughter's hand in marriage visit!?

They were all so giddy that they were completely swept away in the moment. Ben was passed from one station professional to the next. His hair was cut, colored, and styled. Ben was also set over to have his nails trimmed and filed.

When he was done his hair had been lightened to a blonde color. The sides had been trimmed back and he had a ponytail starting from the top of his scalp that ran down the back of his head. He looked like a handsome movie actor ready to act in a fantasy movie or possibly a popular viking series.

Apparently while he was having his hair styled one of the women from the salon ran off to the unsecured section of Dragonshome to bring over an up and coming tailor who was making a name for himself.

Before Ben even had a chance to look at his new look in a mirror he was pulled along to his next unexpected location. The tailor led him through the busy streets back to his popular tailor shop that he had closed for the day to give Ben his full attention.

Ben had changed so many lives for the better in Dragonshome. These people all loved their king and when they began to hear rumors of a possible queen they felt this was their chance to pay him back even just a little for all he had done for them and their families.

The tailor went all out bringing out his best materials and began to make a formal outfit with hints of Earth and Victus fashion artistically intertwined. While the famous tailor skillfully created a magnificent outfit that would make any king want to wear it another professional entered the shop.

The excited person standing before Ben was the best shoemaker in Dragonshome. Without any further warning or explanations he began unlacing and removing Ben's boots to take proper measurements of his feet.

The Shoemaker made a quick color sketch of the outfit the Tailor was making and promised Ben he would deliver him a set of boots that would perfectly match his new outfit by tomorrow.

The Tailor also informed him he would also work throughout the night to finish his outfit and have it delivered to the castle.

Ben left the tailor's shop feeling like he just stepped off a roller coaster. He had been pulled, proded and measured for the past few hours. Now he stood on the street watching the people who were walking by and bow or curtsy to him while in he was in a daze.

Once Ben calmed down, he thought, 'I guess seeing Silvana today is out of the question. If everyone finds out I ran off to see her without wearing what they worked so hard on it will make me look like an ungrateful ass.'

With a long sigh he opened his map to head off and find Mythia. He found her training at the Wizardly School and brought her over to the Restaurant to have lunch together. He was able to explain he wanted to bring Silvana over to live with them and that things may end becoming serious between them.

He was glad that Mythia did not seem to mind and she was actually excited over the possibility. Ben had worried her being young she might feel like he was leaving her behind and would no longer pay attention to her.

Mythia was surprisingly mature about it and looked at it like she was gaining a big sister. The two of them had got along great while they were together so things should only improve between the two with time.

Ben actually after thinking about began to feel a little jealous. As busy as he always was Mythia would get to spend more time with Silvana than he would. He couldn't feel bad though at least the two of them would be able to keep one another company.

He also planned to have Silvana become a cultivator and a mage just like Mythia. This would bring the two of them together even more and also occupy most of their free time. With how fast his kingdom was growing and also factoring in the enemies he was making Ben could not allow his loved ones to remain as simple mortals who could not protect themselves.

Once it was known that he had a queen it would be a possibility someone might send someone to try and harm or even kill Silvana to get back at him. Not only that he wanted her to also increase her life span as well. If it were possible for him to live for hundreds of years he did not want to deal with seeing other loved ones dying around him and experience what he had gone through with his parents once again.

After lunch Mythia returned to work on her spells and Ben decided to Zoom to travel to the place he had discovered the Origin Crystals. This was the area that occasionally spawned out the snow beasts who had spread across the northern highlands of this continent.

This valley of Origin Crystals and the higher levels of Qi on this continent produced so much Qi you could almost see it with the naked eye. Even if this area was behind enemy lines and inhabited by the savage snow beasts he had plans to make an immortals cave here like he had as read about in his web novels.

He climbed up from the valley and walked over to the mountains not far from there. Ben climbed up the nearest mountain halfway before he stopped and brought out a steel pickaxe from his Warehouse.

Without delay he began to throw the pickaxe over his shoulder with two hands to chip away at stone. Ben ruined the first couple of picks he used from using to much of his strength. He was slamming them so hard into the stone that the steel began to bend and warp.

He was used to manual labor from working construction so once he tamed his strength he began to make decent progress. It wasn't long before he received a notice.

[Notice] You have learned a new skill! Mining Level 1!

With the help of his new Mining skill Ben began picking out soccer ball sized chunks of stone and was soon inside of a dark tunnel cut out with his own two hands. When he made his way inside the dark tunnel Ben activated his Night Vision and began to open up a large room.

Sometime around dinnertime he stopped to check his notices.

[Notice] You have learned a new skill! Mining Level 3!

He now had a room approximately 10 ft x 10 ft x 10 ft. He placed the the pick into his inventory and brought out his hammer, nails, and lumber. Ben framed in floor joists and nailed wood planks over the top of them. He also put studs and nailed wood planks to them for the walls.

When he was done he had a cozy wood paneled room cut into the mountainside. Ben removed cement from the Warehouse and used a scrap piece of plank to smoothly trowel it onto the ceiling. This filled in all the chips and bumps he created from mining out the room and made a flat ceiling surface to work with.

Ben cultivated until the thin layer cement dried and brought out his sculpting tools. He skillfully chipped out a Qi gathering formation in the ceiling and a socket to snugly hold a interlinked Origin Crystal.

Once Ben slid a cut Origin Crystal into the formation socket the small cave room began to mist up from the excessive amounts of QI in the air!

He sat down and opened his pours to draw in the QI. Ben's Dantain was instantly filled and shot out the abundant amount of Qi entering it through his meridians creating a raging river.

With his eyes closed a smile began to appear on Ben's face from ear to ear.

'This is it! Finally I can begin to advance my cultivation to the upper stages!'