Chapter 146 - To Each His Starting Point
Only a few hours after their strategy meeting on how to obtain a starting capital, Daniel, Der, Zack, Alesia, and Jerigh, were standing at the entrance of an immense looking indoor marketplace.
This enormous marketplace was filled with evenly separated stalls, and thousands of people walked in the streets in between them. Behind the counter of each booth, at least two people stood in wait for clients to arrive, while on the front, an additional one that advertised the stall with showy and colored banners.
The place was so densely packed, that one would not be able to see five meters past his nose due to the sheer number of people.
"Remind me why we can't simply go to an auction house.." Daniel said while looking at the impressive crowd with a hint of irritation.
Zack sighed slightly, and responded "Because you need a certain level of contribution to participate in one of those.. It's made so that people won't simply acquire large quantities of wealth from a single city, and leave right away. That would destabilize the planet's economy."
"Is there something that doesn't require contribution or a permission here!? Can I even go to a bathroom without one?" Asked Daniel with a slightly angrier tone than intended. He then took a deep breath, and said "Fine.. how do we open a stall here?"
This time, it was Der that responded by saying "There is a government office in that building. It deals with setting up the market, cleaning it up at the end of the day, and keeping it safe. We have to.. Well.. ask for their permission.."
"You've got to be kidding me.." Muttered Daniel nervously before starting to walk towards the building that Der had pointed out.
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"Good morning, we would like to have the permission to open a stall in the marketplace." Daniel politely said to the government employee after waiting for his turn in line for two full hours.
"What is it that you wish to sell?" Asked the government employee without even turning to look at him.
Daniel cleared his throat loudly, then said "Cultivation resources."
"What kind?" Added the government employee. Still keen on finishing what seemed to be a crossword puzzle hidden behind his desk.
"Corrupted monster meat." Responded Daniel plainly.
For the first time, the government employee turned to look at Daniel, and asked "What do you mean by 'corrupted'?"
"It means that it belongs to a beast, that after coming in contact with essence of corruption, was corrupted to a monstrous state. It is filled with assimilable energy of a high quality."
"I can't allow for that type of meat to be sold in the marketplace. It is not allowed to sell or trade in items infected with essence of corruption. As you know, that's an infectious kind of power." Said the government employee with a stern face, and clear voice.
Zack took a step forward from behind Daniel, and said "We don't need a permit to sell meat. We need a permit to sell cultivation resources. We will specify the side effects which consuming that kind of meat might cause, and sell it only to people who have a cultivation powerful enough to counter the corruption."
After a few moments of silence, the government employee turned to look at Zack and said "Be sure to do that.." He then handed a form out to Daniel, and said "Fill this in with your name, product you wish to trade in, quantity. Oh, and don't forget to leave a wisp of immortal essence in the sheet."
Daniel looked at Zack from the corner of his eyes with a satisfied expression. Then, he took care of the permit form.
-----
It was now early in the morning, and Daniel and the rest had found a relatively empty place in which they could place their stall.
Behind the counter, Daniel and Alesia were sitting, while Der was walking around in search of cheap essence treasures. Zack and Jerigh, on the other hand, were trying to advertise the stall by walking around with a couple of signs.
After more than two hours of waiting, Daniel realized something. He and the others had greatly underestimated Zack's infamy in the city.
Of course, to Daniel, this was a simple set back. He was sure that once people started to buy their product, or commissioned some essence spheres to him, the voice would spread, and their business would rapidly grow.
This was all thanks to the fact that people didn't study essences in such depth in this world. The majority of essence spheres he had seen around were of the mid-level, and only a few were high-level.
While strolling in the market, he had also seen a high level earth treasure, which nobody seemed to be interested in buying except for sects and schools which handed down earth-related skills to their disciples.
"It's nice what you're doing for that kid.." Alesia said while looking at Daniel from the corner of her eyes.
He was currently installing a water sphere which contained the concept of freezing under the stall, right underneath the orderly placed meat. "You don't seem to think that it's possible that he did what he is accused of.." Daniel responded casually while placing the large pieces of meat above a few slabs of ice.
"We've all noticed that the reason why we are becoming increasingly stronger, is connected to the fact that we help good people.. So no, I do not believe that you would help someone in that situation if they were guilty." Responded Alesia confidently.
"Well, not everyone thinks like you do.. Let's just hope that nobody will come and bother us today.."
Unfortunately, Daniel's hopes were misplaced.
Halfway through the marketplace, more that a couple hundred meters from where the stall was, Jerigh and Zack had just been stopped by a group of dark green robed cultivators.
This group was composed of the young man whose karma rapidly declined whenever Zack was hit, and a few other older cultivators.
Right before Daniel and the rest had set up the stall, he had let Der explain to him the power levels of this world.
Apparently, there was a time in which this world, and Daniel's world of origin were connected by an spatial passage, which had long since been forgotten.
This spatial passage was situated underground the borders of the Karalis kingdom, and Der had happened to find it during the military campaign in which he had disappeared.
Oblivious to what it was, he had activated it by mistake.
Only after ending up in this world did he learn that that, was actually a one way ticket for outside of the proverbial well.
When he head reached this new world, he had immediately found out that the majority of the people were the same kind of humans he was. What differed, was their method of cultivation.
Of course, the connection to the spiritual plain had come much later than humanity, so, the stage of an immortal cultivator had inherited the majority of their ancient methods of cultivation that spiritual and martial cultivators used.
Each stage of an immortal cultivator was generally more powerful than both spiritual and martial cultivators, and yet, they were separated in a similar way. The reason for that, was that a fifth immortal cultivator still wasn't powerful enough to kill a sixth martial cultivator, and at best, he would be able to fight on par with it.
The fourth and fifth major stages of immortal cultivation could be compared to the chief and king levels of power of the wasteland world, and were called the three mid-stage of the immortal path.
There were no barrier between stages, and the only thing that indicated to which stage one belonged, was the sheer amount and purity of one's immortal essence.
As of now, Daniel was at the mid fourth stage of immortal cultivation, while Der, was at the late fifth stage.
The people which Jerigh and Zack were facing, were all at the peak of the third major stage of cultivation.
"Hey blondie.. Mind if we take your friend away for a few minutes?" Said the young man who had called the dark green-dressed woman the last time he and Daniel had met.
"I do." Jerigh Responded plainly while keeping his eyes glued on the young man's.
Irritated by Jerigh's lack of consideration for him, or the sect he represented, the young man's face became stern as he said "Stay out of this.."
Ever since he and Kyla had accused Zack of being a rapist, this young man had always thought about getting rid of him the people would have forgotten about him. That was the reason why he hadn't pushed others into torturing him.. He wanted him to become a distant memory, and kill him so that the story could be concluded once and for all.
His plans had been ruined by Daniel's apparition.
At first, he had thought that Daniel was only the classical good samaritan that would help Zack in the spur of the moment, and then leave. But then, just as he was minding his own business around the city, he had heard the rumor that Zack was wandering in the marketplace, along with various other cultivators.
After a bit of consideration, he decided to simply find a way to get rid of him as soon as possible. His sect was important enough in the city to get him out of trouble even if he made a mess in the marketplace, unfortunately, he didn't know that, by trying something with Jerigh present, meant sticking his own head into a hornet's nest.
After hearing the young man's threatening words, Zack cowered in fear at the thought of what those people wanted to do to him.
Meanwhile, a couple of single-edged swords had appeared by Jerigh's sides.
Jerigh wasn't stupid. He knew what Zack was very well known for, and that if he were to kill people here in the plaza, people would likely claim that the matter was instigated by him as revenge for the recent treatment.
All Jerigh could do, was to neutralize, or hold on against these people until the government employees arrived to interrupt the fight.
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Back behind Daniel's stall counter, Alesia had suddenly turned to look at Daniel and said "There are a few people bothering Jerigh and Zack. Should we go help them out?"
Daniel faintly shook his head in response, and said "Don't worry about them.. They can handle it on their own.. If they can't I'll just teleport them back here." Daniel rushed his last few words, as the first client of the day approached the stall.
"What kind of meat is that?" Asked a well dressed middle-aged woman.
Daniel smiled politely, and said "This is the meat of a sea monster. It contains large amounts of power, along with a bit of essence of corruption. The corruption will be expelled after consumption, but due to its presence, we are forced to mention that it isn't as food that we are selling it.. But as a cultivation resource."
Satisfied by Daniel's explanation, the woman asked "What level of power?"
"This one is comparable to the late fourth stage of immortal cultivation. The whole beast costs 5 mid-crystals." Said Daniel with a polite and pleasant smile still present on his face.
"That's quite expensive.." Said the woman with a surprised expression.
"It's the difference between the monster and a crystal.. Monsters tend to fight back. In any case, if you are not interested in buying it, We are also willing to exchange meat for any type of essence treasure." Daniel said in a single breath. He then breathed in once, and added "We also offer our service in creating essence spheres."
After hearing Daniel's last few words, the woman's interest was piqued once again.
Offering that kind of service in a marketplace was rare, and from how young Daniel appeared to be, the woman was lead to believe that he was actually a more powerful cultivator's disciple, instead of the actual owner of the stall. This, gave his shop a bit more of legitimacy.
"How much would it cost to create a high-level water sphere?" Asked the woman with a polite tone.
Daniel thought about it for a moment, then said "With the price of the treasure taken into account, ten percent less than an already made water sphere."