Ren

"Wahahahaha! Keep the drinks coming. Whoever stops before me tonight isn't my brother!" The beautiful man loudly proclaimed to great cheers.

The seven men sat around the round table near the edge of the bar, drinking and talking loudly in good cheer. Six of them were well acquainted and had many shared stories to reminisce over. As for the last one…

'How'd I get here?' Raul couldn't help looking over the six of them in wonder while sipping his drink and going over the events that brought him here.

He hadn't had a clue where anything was in this huge city when he ran out the hotel. Luckily he'd spotted some nearby kids playing a game and joined them for a while before getting directions to the market.

Originally he wanted to visit one of the river streams. Water would occasionally run down the mountain when it rained heavily, but it couldn't compare to a real naturally flowing river. He really wanted to see it up close, but decided on the market after finding out the river and streams was pretty far and would take over a day to reach the closest one.

He'd reached the market at late evening when the day shops were switching with the night shops. It was the type of market where people set up stalls instead of one with fixed shops.

These kinds of market spaces were common in most cities and towns that cultivators traveled through. The use of spatial rings meant a big store wasn't necessary to sell a large number of wares.

It was in the middle of the crowded street smelling many delicious scents that he realized he'd left the hotel with no cash. After a quick laugh at his own screw up he started helping some of the packing vendors.

The space may have been made with cultivators in mind, but it's not like they were the only ones who used it. His strength was a huge asset to the packing mortals, and he managed to get some recommendations for famous spots around the city and some tasty samples in return.

He figured he'd stop at a bar with a decent storyteller and just listen in for a couple hours before calling it a night, but he learned the big city really was different.

They wouldn't even let him be a wallflower without buying something. The foolish owner clearly didn't understand how much a face like his could draw in business.

Night already fell by then, and he knew if he returned to the hotel that hag wouldn't let him out again. Stuck with no other option but to gain some cash, he hit up a nearby casino.

Thankfully they had an exchange booth and he could exchange his sword as collateral for some starting funds, otherwise he would've had to beg strangers for mercy. It may just be a training sword, but it could still handle a Refining Realm cultivator's strength. That alone made it worth a decent sum cash.

Raul settled into the poker chai, where he spent the next hour. He'd always been pretty good at poker. While it wasn't to the extent that he could say he always came out richer, he had more good poker nights than bad.

Luckily today was a good night, otherwise he'd have to explain to Marina how he'd gotten jumped and lost the sword she'd given him in the ensuing chaos.

He started shaky since he felt nervous playing against cultivators for the first time, but he quickly calmed down after realizing it was the same as any other game of poker. The casino made sure cultivators couldn't use their spirit sense or other methods to cheat, supposedly.

It was in the middle of raking it in that he'd noted the beautiful blond lady in dire straits one table over. Her pretty face only grew more desperate as the night continued.

He didn't mean anything by it, honest. He'd just finished settling his romantic debts a couple weeks ago and had no intention of raking up new ones so soon. He had only the purest of intentions when he swooped in and took over the game for her and won big. And what kind of person would he be if he turned down her request to buy him a drink afterwards? He had to accept.

'Still, I never expected her to be a man though.' He glanced over at the ecstatic leader of the group and sighed over his cup. His name was Ren, and he had an average height, short blond hair, and incredibly beautiful facial features. He went beyond pretty boy and reached a class of his own.

Raul couldn't help looking longingly at the storyteller in the center of the room whose words he couldn't hear over the rabble. This wasn't the bar he aimed for, this one had more emphasis given to the drinks than the tales.

He usually wouldn't mind a good time with some new friends, especially when someone else is paying, but he'd already psyched himself up to hear some new legends and songs, and now he was missing them. He sighed again while moodily sipping his cup.

Still, even though it went against his original desires, his mood cheered as the night went on and the drinks kept flowing. Ren's good cheer was infectious, and the drinks truly were good. He also realized that the group's stories were actually pretty interesting once he stopped moping.

All of them were cultivators and had visited some Zones. Zones were areas where beasts reigned, like the Soil Tree Forests near Raul's home. He knew a bit about Zone rankings, but nothing concrete as his experiences with them pretty much boiled down to everyone telling him to stay away from them.

He felt a bit dumb asking some of the questions he did, but they followed Ren's lead and were nice enough to answer without making him feel like a dumbass. It made him feel welcomed.

Zones were ranked with Tiers and Fangs. The Tier referred to the maximum cultivation of the beasts in the zone, so a Tier three Zone had beast up to the True Pillar Realm.

Fangs were a little more complicated, they judged the level of danger of the Zone from one to five Fangs. Combat power wasn't as simple as Realm, the difference between the Fangs were immense. A Single Fang Zone would mostly have beasts at the bottom of their realm, while beasts of a Penta Fang Zone often killed cultivators above their realm entirely.

It's due to the potentially huge difference in power within a realm that it was necessary to further categorize the danger of Zones with Fangs in the first place.

Hearing their bragging about traversing a Tier One Triple Fang Zone quickly enthralled Raul. Despite his early doubts, he was really enjoying himself.

Just as he felt his first night in a new city would end on a high note, a serious looking man barged into the bar and slammed his hand on their table.