06 - A Cliché Encounter

It was now Fang Lin's 7th month in this world and their trip to the nearby settlement proved to be a fruitful endeavor. As a frontier settlement, aptly called 'Frontier Settlement', there were all sorts of professions settled there. More than 50% of the people living there worked as an 'Adventurer' for the 'Adventurer's Guild'. Fang Lin had to pause a bit for that knowledge... I mean really? How unoriginal but then again this also gave at least one option for earning whatever pass as a currency in this world and with also the added benefit of providing he and his party an identity.

After enduring the looks of pities others threw at him for asking basic knowledge that even toddlers should know, he learned that the place they're currently at is on the 'Desolate' continent. This continent is actually one of 5 and the other 4 are called 'Dragonblood', 'Frozen Tundra', 'Darknorth', and 'Blue Haven' respectively. The world, or rather planet, they were on is called 'Blue Haven' which Fang Lin thought he misheard until he heard the explanation of why that is. Apparently the 'Frozen Tundra' and 'Darknorth' continents are two of the forbidden zones, at least to normal cultivators, where only the strongest and most vicious of magical beasts reside.

Right, he also found out the combatants of this world are called 'Cultivators' and there are two paths for cultivation and also the three Tiers there were including the realms in each. The first type are called simply as 'Warrior' that converts life force energy into 'Battle Qi' and store them into the 'Dantian'. Oh, and they use 'Martial Skills' in battle. The second type are called 'Mage' that cultivate 'Mana'. Mages cultivate by using the world's energy to form a 'Mana Core' in the space between the brows although they are pretty rare as it takes talents and loads of money to be a mage. This also explained why there was only 'Mage' amongst the bandits his party encountered some time ago and of course 'Mage' uses 'Magic' as logic dictates.

The reason why 'Mage' are very sought after is their ability for support using 'buffs', 'healing', and more importantly their ability for wide range destruction. Apparently their close combat abilities are pretty crappy though as there would always be at least one or two 'Warrior' dedicated to protecting the 'Mage' in combat.

As for currency, there are actually two types that are typically used. The first one is used by the non-cultivators is 'Gold' or simply 'G' as they aren't actually gold and is just called as such. No one knew why that is though. The second type of currency is the one used by the 'Cultivators' which are actually the cores of magical beasts. They are split into 'Mortal Core', and 'Spirit Core'. Each core is split into different ranks; 1st rank to 9th rank for 'Mortal', and 1st rank to 6th rank for 'Spirit'. A '1st rank Mortal Core' for example is worth 100G and each subsequent rank is worth 100 of the previous one for example; a '5th rank Mortal Core' is worth 100 of the 4th rank. For '1st rank Spirit Core' on the other hand is worth 1000 '9th rank Mortal Core' and each subsequent rank is worth 1000 of the previous. As for the 'Divine Core'... those are priceless treasures that factions are willing to go war for.

As for why the cores are so valuable, they can be used for a myriad of things such as raising one's cultivation, energy fuel for tools made by 'Artifact Masters', and even fuels for 'Barriers', or 'Formations' made by 'Inscription Masters'. One such example of an 'Artifact' is a 'Spatial Ring'. Those are created through in depth studying of a 'Divine' Tier expert's innate 'Pocket Dimension' ability and are extremely valuable (overpriced as fuck is what I say...). Owning one of those is a sign that one is from an influential family/factions or is an incredible expert themself.

The next most valuable thing Fang Lin had learned was the fact that eating magical beast meat can actually helped increase a cultivator's realm a little. That explained why 'Xiao Bai' was able to grow so fast before the contract. Although, it seemed that is no longer true thanks to the system. Guess that's one downside of the system but it is a minor issue given the other benefits provided. One can't have everything in life I guess...

Oh! Almost forgot one of the most important thing that Fang Lin learned. It seems that the experts in this world can roughly estimate a person's realm by the pressure emitted by either one's 'Dantian' or 'Mana Core' provided the one they're sensing are at a similar or lower realm than they are. Fang Lin and Ning Er however have neither of those as they were not natives of this world. In Xiao Bai's case, her realm couldn't be sensed by those bandits before because she was using a skill in her inherited 'bloodline memories' to hide her realm. Unless one was in a completely different 'Tier', they wouldn't be able to sense Xiao Bai's realm at all. This is important information because not having a dantian or a core essentially made him and Ning Er invisible to the senses of other experts.

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All of these recaps aside... Fang Lin is currently in a great pinch right now! Why? It's because in front of him right now, are two girls in mid of undressing. One could say that were he to make just one wrong move, he could instantly lose his life! One of the girls, seeming to be around 13 years of age had shoulder length black hair, big round eyes with midnight black pupils, and a slim figure with a modest chest size. She stood at around 1.62m, around Ning Er's height (ok so I don't know ning er's actual height so I just used girls average height at 14 y/o). Above her head was the [Lv34] which only Fang Lin's party could see, was harmlessly floating.

The other was about a head taller, around the same height as Fang Lin who stood at around 1.72m and looked to be around 16 years of age. She had pointy ears (most likely an elf), long blonde hair at waist length, big emerald green pupils, and a slim figure with an above average bust size for one around her age. All in all she was very sexy and was definitely Fang Lin's type. The thing that almost scared Fang Lin shitless though was the thing floating above her head, a [Lv71] box. Right! Judging by the sword around her waist, she's actually a 16 year old 'Battle King' expert! As for how Fang Lin came to be in this perilous situation... let's go back to around 30 minutes prior.

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After the week long round-trip, 3 days to, 1 day info gathering, and 3 days back, the trio returned back to their 'base' of operation where Fang Lin first woke up. The three weeks afterwards, they spent grinding for exp and system points. At the end of the long grinding sessions, Fang Lin finally had enough points to buy 2 'Spatial Rings' for him and Ning Er at 100,000 IP each. He also spent 50,000 AP to get Ning Er the C rank [C-Shinigami] bloodline which almost bankrupted him bringing his points down to [AP: 2,800] and [IP: 35,000].

It might seem like a waste of a 'Bloodline' slot at first as it is only C-rank, but as an owner of a soon to be 'Zanpakuto' and as a soul force cultivator, the benefits she would receive later had enormous potential. As for the 'Spatial Rings' he bought, Those were for storing the magical beast corpse and cores they plan to sell for money in the future as they couldn't store things with the system inventory unless they're system bought. The other reason was to camouflage the 'Inventory' itself as it is too similar to 'Divine' Tier experts' pocket dimension ability.

Now, at around 30 minutes before Fang Lin fell into that deadly situations, the party was splitting up for awhile. Today happened to be Ning Er's turn to hunt for dinner 'ingredients' while Fang Lin was taking this chance to take a dip in the lake. Around 15 minutes later as he was relaxing in the water, his focus was actually in the system, browsing through everything he might need later whether or not he has enough points to spend.

There were a couple things Fang Lin planned on getting in the near future. The few items he had his eyes on were such things as [A-rank: Fenex Physique - 500,000], a phoenix bloodline that would give him a limited form of 'immortality'. Perhaps he was influenced by the near-death experience due to the ball of exploding lava, but he was strangely attracted to this. Another one is the [EX-rank: Dragon God Ascension - 7,500,000], a body refining method that if trained to the peak, would make his hair, bones, muscles, organs, and skin even stronger than even the toughest materials in the known multiverse. The added bonus is that even though his skin would turn into a nigh unbreakable armor, it would still stay supple to the touch and he wouldn't lose any sensitivity to the touch. Why that was... is a mystery that even the system couldn't provide an explanation for. Eh who cares, it's a beneficial effect so it doesn't matter.

Finally there were the [A-rank: Hito-Hito no Mi (perfect) - 500,000] that he planned to get for Xiao Bai, and the [Discount Token (90%) - 1,000,000]. The perfect hito-hito no mi actually allowed any 'beast' type being to be able to assume a perfect human form without any of the negative effect that comes with the 'flawed' version. As for the flawed version [D-rank: Hito-Hito no Mi (flawed) - 10,000] is incredibly cheap but with that, Xiao Bai would only be able to become a half beast half human form. Not to mention she would gain that weakness that everyone get for consuming a 'devil fruit'.

The discount token on the other hand is exactly what it says. When used, the next thing purchased, ability or equipment, would cost at a discounted price. Other tokens are [Discount Token (10%) - 10,000], [Discount Token (30%) - 100,000], and [Discount Token (60%) - 500,000].

As Fang Lin was too focused on his browsing, he didn't notice when 2 intruders had suddenly appeared. Looking a bit stunned at the discovery of the lake, the younger of the two figure excitedly shouted "Wow big sis! There was actually a place like this around here? Let's take this chance to wash ourselves. It's been almost a week now and I can't stand being this dirty anymore!" Hearing this, the older girl just gave a slight chuckle and as she couldn't 'sense' anyone nearby, the elf nodded in assent. Getting the 'OK' from the older elven girl, she excitedly shouted "YES!" and began to disrobe along with the elf.

Fang Lin who was still chest deep in the water, of course noticed them as soon as the little girl started talking earlier, but was stunned silly from this development. Coming back to his senses, he wanted to say something, but before he could, they already began disrobing! Whatever he was going to say earlier is now stuck in his throat as his internal panic was escalating when he finally noticed one of their 'level'... (CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!! If I don't do something soon, I would definitely be killed! And it wouldn't even be my fault!!!)

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stats update;

***************************Status***************************

Name: Fang Lin

Title: "Pig Slayer"

Lv: 42 (88%)

Tier: "Mortal"

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Physical Level: 4 Stars Mortal

Soul Level: 4 Stars Mortal

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Traits: "Serene Mind", "Pain Tolerance"

Skills: "D-Sword Mastery", "D-Cooking Mastery"

Bloodlines: "None", "None"

Equipments: "Black Dao (Mainstream)"

Items: "Basic Camping Set", "C-Spatial Ring (small)"

Summons: "Xiao Ning Er", "Xiao Bai"

AP: 2,800

EP: 200

IP: 35,000

UP: 15,000

***************************Status***************************

Name: Xiao Ning Er

Title: "Shinigami in Training"

Lv: 42 (84%)

Tier: "Mortal"

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Physical Level: 4 Stars Mortal

Soul Level: 5 Stars Mortal

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Traits: "Loyal", "Pain Tolerance", "Determined"

Skills: "D-Sword Mastery", "Inner World"

Bloodlines: "C-Shinigami", "None"

Equipments: "Asauchi (Mainstream)"

Items: "C-Spatial Ring (small)"

***************************Status***************************

Name: Xiao Bai

Title: "Sacred Beast Descendant"

Lv: 42 (90%)

Tier: "Mortal"

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Physical Level: 6 Stars Mortal

Soul Level: 6 Stars Mortal

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Traits: "Lightning Rod"

Skills: "Bone Hardening", "Lightning Manipulation"

Bloodlines: "Thundercloud Warcat", "Celestial White Tiger(Sealed-70%)"

Equipments: "None"

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