Aaron walked through a wild forest, plants grew up to the sky and the foliage was so thick he had to push through with his hands to move. He pushed aside a fern as big as a car and paused when he noticed a crunch under his boots. He looked down and inspected what he had stepped on. Aaron had stepped on bones. He held up half a jaw with clearly human teeth and he flinched as he let it drop back to the ground. He continued on, his boots crunching on skulls, femurs, all matter of bones, old rotten, brittle. Aaron looked around and noticed the strange shapes around him covered by giant plants. Strange rock formations that looked too square to be natural. Slowly he stepped out on a clearing that looked like a pit of bones. The ground was ivory white, fragments of smashed bones and whole skeletons littered the clearing. It looked like the feeding ground of some great big animal. Smashed skulls, broken bones, death. Death everywhere. And now that he stood in the center of the clearing he recognized the shapes around him.

He stood in the central plaza in front of the guilds in the Town of Beginnings. Everyone was dead. Nothing remained but brittle bones and overgrown buildings. Then he woke up.

Aaron blinked into the darkness of an unfamiliar environment and sat up. The surface was soft and he was covered by a blanket. It took him another moment to shake off the disturbing images of his dream and remember where he was. Right, this was his new home. The Town still stood and centuries had not passed after the Town's destruction. Aaron did not think dreams were prophecies or anything like it. Even though he would not be surprised someone had been able to use dreams in that way, be it a cultivator or mage. But he was certainly not one of them. It had just been a dream.

Aaron stood up and walked out of the darkness into the big common room of his underground refuge. The light bloomed to life at the touch of a light switch and he blinked for a moment until his eyes had acclimated to the light. The vestiges of the dream still clung to Aaron and he started to stretch. Muscles he had unconsciously clenched were loosened and Aaron fell into the by now familiar positions of the stretches Mei had taught him. But this time he could finally consult the memory core again. He activated the core and put Mei's mirror image in front of him after he lived through the stretches once. He felt how Mei had manipulated her body, how she had taught her body to move and stretch in any direction she wanted. Then with those thoughts in mind he looked at the vision of Mei stretching in front of him and followed her movements exactly, like you would from a yoga teacher.

Just that these stretched were far beyond anything Earth could have imagined possible. Soon Aaron somersaulted, flipped, bent his spine, did splits and stretched every tendon in his body to and beyond its limits. When he was done with it he felt his body strain and repair itself at the same time. The fiend-god arts almost unnatural regeneration repairing any damage he had done, reinforcing the changes and then Aaron went on to the heavenly katas.

The best remedy to bad dreams was doing something familiar in his rather limited experience with bad dreams. Doing something that could allow him to be busy and not hang on to thoughts he knew were nonsense. Sure some day he would have outlived everyone he knew and was not a Cultivator. But that was in many decades. It was silly to worry about that now. So instead he focused on his training.

With all three memory cores of the kata back in his possession he could do a very thorough and focused training session. First he went through the Rejuvenating Fist very slowly and meticulously one time and then he began combining the first triplet slowly. First he combined the Rejuvenating fist with the Unceasing Palm kata. Then the fist and the Piercing Finger. The combined dual katas were very different from all three combined. Limited and yet they gave some insights in their strengths and limitations. He combined Unceasing Palm and Piercing Finger next and then went back to the start. He redid all of the katas, but this time he focused not on perfect movements, but perfect Intent behind every stance, every movement.

His mind boiled almost over with ideas as he incorporated intent into the katas. It was marvelous. Punches that had been purely offensive, could be used defensively with the right intent. A weak palm strike could be imbued with the image of a mountain pushing with it, making the air crack with the sudden force behind the simple hand movement.

Finally he combined all of the katas into a unified whole, first without intent, just perfecting movements, going through variations on variations. Each movement had a seemingly infinite amount of options to follow after it and Aaron went on to conjure beasts to narrow it down. When he felt the Rejuvenating Power of the Fist kata wane he switched to incorporating Intent again. He did not use any projection, just internal intent and yet he felt like he was using a limitless amount of possible options in an ever changing sequence, each as beautiful and perfect as the one before it. He had often felt amazed by the Heavenly kata, but this time he felt like he could glimpse a bit at the infinite complexity and ways to combine the martial art. How he was just starting to see the ocean of possibilities he stood before. Mastery of this kata meant mastery of combat itself. This would take decades, maybe centuries of dedicated work to truly master. But this did not scare him. Quite the opposite.

Despite his dream, despite the dread he had felt, he felt comfort now from having time. He could perfect this kata, could make it better every day for multiple lifetimes. He might never be done with this, might never be finished and that felt surprisingly good.

When Aaron was done he was bathed in sweat and although he did not feel physically tired, he felt the strain on his mind. He grinned to himself, feeling good, almost refreshed after the training. Now it was time to break through to the seventh minor realm.

He went ahead and drew a bath and prepared everything for the breakthrough. Which included one of the few Detox pills he had gotten. He inspected the pill curiously, but he did not take it now. He would wait until his dantian was full.

Aaron felt his hunger gnaw on him and was just too lazy to cook right now. He wanted to push himself, wanted to break through. So he ate one of the Hunger pills. He wanted to see what that was like anyway. See how effective these pills really were.

The pill tasted like nothing surprisingly, even though it was coated in sugar. When he swallowed it, he felt the pill settle down at the bottom of his stomach. Slowly it released energy in soft pulses and his hunger passed with each pulse as nutrients flooded his system. Aaron's body was ravenously absorbing the nutrients, the sheer concentrated force of the pill seemed limitless and yet the pill had more to give, more to do as Aaron's body started to devour the pill.

A strange sensation he rarely felt overcame Aaron. It took him a moment to recognize the strange feeling. He felt…full. Satiated. He had not expected this, not really. Hunger had been a constant companion since he had learned his cycling pattern. It never had really left and he had grown used to it instead of trying to sate it all the time. It had come in waves of intensity, but it had never been really sated. Until now.

Aaron marveled at it and laughed softly, before he stripped and then sat down naked in his bathtub. He calmed down and started to cultivate. Tranquility and sensory deprivation came easily to him today. His body happy to settle down, happy to do anything he wanted without any complaints. Without hunger his mind was so much easier to focus. Aaron almost unconsciously grabbed after the first beastcore to begin. He was almost entirely certain that most of these cores were not from the fifth floor, but from floors beyond. He doubted anyone could kill that many hyena alphas. So he guessed these cores came mostly from the 6th or 7th floor. But he might be wrong about that.

He took his time, cultivated slowly, filled his dantian with the highly energetic mist of Qi that he called his own, but he did not compress it yet. He had kept three of the bigger wildcat cores for the breakthrough and then paused as he remembered something else that could help. He had two Amalgamation pills made by Modestus himself. But should he use them now? He was currently in the 6th minor realm. So he would have 3 more breakthroughs in the minor realms till the foundation realm. The breakthrough right now from the 6th to the 7th, then from the 7th to the 8th and then from the 8th to the 9th level. The 10th level was the big breakthrough to the foundation realm itself.

Aaron checked and he really only had two Amalgamation pills, so he would either have to make one himself or be without one in one of his next breakthroughs. He hesitated, having used so many pills already recently, but in the end he still decided he would use one now. It would give him something to work on in his alchemy and pills were there to be used. It was silly to hoard them. Nodding to himself he brought one of the Amalgamation pills next to his bathtub as well and then settled back down.

He was close to filling his dantian now, but he stayed patient. He kept absorbing Qi from the beastcores and eventually when it seemed to take forever he absorbed one of the wildcat cores. This did the trick luckily and Aaron filled his dantian to the brink. It was now like a giant expanse of fog, slowly rotating about a heavier and more concentrated center. Time to use the two pills and break through.

He eyed the detox pill curiously, before he took a deep breath and swallowed the pill. This one tasted surprisingly sweet. But that was the only thing sweet about it. Aaron felt another kind of energy spread out from his stomach, felt the energy of the pill sear through his flesh. This was the polar opposite of the hunger pill. It hurt. Not as much as getting stabbed or injured, but it felt like he had eaten something bad. His stomach cramped and then he felt the energy pulse out in one searing flare that made his whole body shudder. Black tar like ooze secreted from his skin, was pushed out and he could literally feel how each of his cells was detoxified. This of course meant that these toxins had to go somewhere. Which in this case meant he excreted it in any way possible.

Aaron puked, yet the two pills in his guts stayed exactly where they were. His whole body spasmed and the detoxification came in waves. After he had puked and snorted out the disgusting bile like impurities he panted and he felt so sick like he never had before as a Cultivator. It was absolute agony for all of his senses. Especially sensation, taste and smell. Aaron shuddered and emptied his bowels. It was disgusting beyond belief and Aaron quickly opened the shower and let the bathtub drain. The cool fresh water washed away some of the grime in his hair and on his skin. But the next pulse of detoxification was close and Aaron steeled himself, before puking again.

Only after two more bouts of full body excretion did Aaron feel the effect slow down. Instead of his entire body being affected now the energy focused on his past injures. His chest, his side, his ribs. The injury he had taken previously was now corrected. Anything that had not healed perfectly, any scar tissue was burned away and his body healed it afterwards. The combination of hunger pill and detox pill was like giving his body an unlimited allowance to tear away imperfections and rebuild itself. Injuries he had forgotten even existed were purged, rehealed, reforged. It was awesome and now that Aaron did not have to puke anymore he could focus on it more.

It took a long time until the last bit of detoxifying energy had left his body and the pill had crumbled entirely. These were miserable hours, but also incredibly beneficial to his body. It was like he was being reborn, rebuilt from the ground up and any imperfections were pushed out and discarded.

Aaron was so glad he was standing in his bathtub as he scrubbed himself clean continuously with soap and cold flowing water. He had feared the draining pipes would get clogged with the disgusting gunk he had left behind, but it actually was quite water soluble. It still took almost half an hour to scrub himself clean and clean the bathtub until his sense of smell did not rebel against him anymore.

When it was all done he stood under the cold water shower and let it wash away his worries for a long moment, before he filled the bathtub back up. He was exhausted from the ordeal and silently cursed Modestus and his hellish pill. Sure he knew on an intellectual level that this had been good for him, but damn was that a bad time. That had been disgusting and agonizing at the same time. Now that it was over though he felt light, his body was unbothered, unburdened, his every cell as healthy as could be. He basked in that feeling for a long moment, before he sat back down in the clear, ice cold water.

He felt for his dantian and it had not emptied by much, some Qi had been used here and there, but nothing significant. He reached for the Amalgamation pill. He hoped this pill would not be as bad as the detox pill. He shuddered at the prospect of having to do this every time before a breakthrough from now on. But there had to be some benefits he did not see beyond the repair and detoxification of his body.

Aaron sat for a long time in the tub, breathing evenly as he reached for equilibrium again. His sensation of a new body without any kinks, no pain, no discomfort in any way, faded slowly. Only when the world was silent, when he was inside of a cocoon of serenity and his mind was clear and focused. Only then did he swallow the Amalgamation pill.

Modestus had called it a fusion of beastcores and in some ways he had been right of course. But it was so much more than that. When Aaron swallowed the sweet pill it was like a shot of vodka searing his throat. The energy released from the pill was an intense concentrated mix that flared and was absorbed by his body already filled to the brink with Qi in an instant. This energy was pure Qi, so pure and potent it shocked Aaron. This was not the weaker watered down version of energy beastcores contained usually, no this was the purest energy he had ever felt.

With effort Aaron tried to wrangle the energy being released as he acclimated to the new source of potent energy. His cycling pattern moved as Aaron used his own Qi to guide the fresh and potent Qi to be processed. When this cycle was established, Aaron focused on compressing his Qi. His dantian was already full and this new influx of super potent energy made it a necessity to break through. He had no other choice, but this was his plan in the first place.

Aaron compressed all of his Qi while he guided the energy of the pill into his cycling pattern. Doing both at the same time was extremely difficult. But once Aaron had established where the energy of the pill should go, most of the energy flowed there on its own. So Aaron mostly focused on compressing Qi into a tiny ball around the core of his dantian. The usually nebulous form of the Qi was now almost soupy, but never truly liquid. It was like compressed gas under high pressure. Aaron pushed, he squished the ball of Qi into an ever smaller and smaller circumference. Occasionally he had to go back and guide the pill's energy. It was a nightmare of multitasking even though the energy of the pill almost naturally flowed the right way.

The problem was that almost. Energy that did not go where it was supposed to did not fuel the breakthrough, nor was it entirely absorbed by his body, it just flowed through him randomly, interrupting his concentration. So Aaron was very busy and it was just incredibly hard to guide energy, no Qi, so potent to where it was supposed to go.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

In the end Aaron had to decide what to focus on primarily and he focused on compressing his Qi. It was the only option really. Because every time he directed his focus elsewhere the highly compressed Qi in his dantian loosened and trails of it unraveled like a ball of yarn that was squished together very tightly before letting go. With most of his focus on just compressing the Qi he found the center of gravity and started to spin the core of his dantian, more and more Qi was drawn into the highly energetic core, more and more was added as fuel for the small ball of revolving Qi that spun like a small star as it glowed in his inner eye. The more energy there was in the core the more volatile it became though.

Flares of Qi broke out of the confines of his control and Aaron had to spend long minutes to recapture and tighten the center of his dantian. Eventually he could not compress any further, the constant strain of multitasking was too much and so he decided to start. The core was now bending and stretching against the confines of Aaron's control. So much Qi was in such a small area it was exceedingly difficult to control. This Qi wanted nothing but to spread out. To burst apart. He let the core go and followed along with his inner eye as his core exploded outward in a wave of Qi.

Starburst was an apt name for this technique and he rode the supernova of his own power. The wave of Qi broke through the walls of his dantian, searing them away as new room was made. He felt the barrier he had not been able to overcome before and passed it, leaving it far behind. The highly energetic pill fueled the expansion more than he could have ever imagined. The purity and the concentration of Qi had been much higher than he had managed ever before even while splitting his focus.

Aaron felt how deep and far his power reached until he met another barrier and was pushed back. But instead of stopping here, Aaron pulled his energy back to the core. Strained against the wild power and flowed with it back into his core like the tide. That was all he could do for a few long moments, his mind strained controlling this much volatile Qi at the same time. But then Aaron got enough control to pull back all of his Qi once more and go for a second starburst. Throughout the whole process a small stream of fresh Qi entered the dantian after being refined in his cycling pattern. It refilled the expended Qi and the second starburst felt almost exactly like the first.

The cycle of pushing outwards, searing through obstacles, making more room and then pulling back and concentrating his Qi once more continued. Over and over again. He pushed himself, deepened his reservoirs of power until he had lost count of the number of times he had rode the starburst to break through to the barriers holding his power in check.

His breakthrough only ended after the Amalgamation pill had been consumed entirely. Without a steady influx of Qi the starbursts power weakened and Aaron finally let the Qi settle in his much expanded dantian.

Many things had been different this time. The power of his breakthrough had been night and day and the resistance he had faced had been light. When he opened his eyes there was barely any black oozing detritus on his skin. The impurities had already been removed so he guessed that was the reason the barriers he had faced had been light and easy to overcome. The little impurities he had released were probably just from expanding his dantian this much. He had barely 5% of his maximum capacity in his core now. But not because he had expended so much Qi, which yes, he had. But it was more that the total capacity of his dantian was so much bigger. It felt like it had been increased by ten times at least.

Aaron emptied the bathtub and scrubbed himself clean again as he emptied the tank of water on top of his new home. He would have to be careful with how much water he used up. But this had been the most comfortable breakthrough he had ever had. After he dried himself off and ensured the entire bath did not smell like the disgusting scent of the detox he had endured, Aaron walked into the main room of his new home in the Seventh minor Realm of Qi Refining.

Despite his almost entirely empty dantian, he knew that the amount of Qi he had left would have been almost 20% of the previous expansion of his dantian. At least if his guess was anywhere accurate. He felt comfortable and his whole body was brimming with new strength. His senses had sharpened once again and he was sure he had lost some weight. But despite that his body looked sculpted out of marble. His skin was as pure as a skincare models, his muscles looked more akin to a boxer or martial artist than a body builder, but Aaron was still more muscular than one would think. His hair was lustrous and shiny and there was not a single scar or blemish on his entire body. It actually looked almost fake in the mirror. Unnatural to be this perfect. But he loved it. Aaron felt like he was in the best physical form he had ever been. His body had already had an inexhaustible energy to it, but now there was an eagerness to move as well.

So Aaron used it. Slowly he moved through his stretches and katas once more. This time to acclimatize himself with the changes to his body. While he fine tuned his increased senses and stopped himself from hearing his own hair bristle like every strand of hair was a leaf in a storm. His eyes were so good he got lost in watching the pattern of the wooden floor, following the microscopic changes in the wood grains, before he got himself back under control.

He did not know how much stronger he was, but he did know he would need to kill a lot of beasts for a long time to fill this dantian up to its full capacity again.

Merix ran down the dirt road of the first floor: Sweaty, tired and at the end of his wits. He had rushed down the floors as fast as he could. But there had been problems. The fourth floor had been a nightmare. He had gotten lost twice and he had fought his way through the monsters in waves even with only a dim light. Luckily his enchanted blades had been enough to tear any beast apart. He had still been hurt plenty of times. This was not how this was supposed to go. He was only there to scout and finish things off, to cover other members of his team. Not to be on the front line. He had never climbed alone before in his life.

What he had learned from that ordeal was that you had to be suicidal or stupid to climb alone. He had ran out of potions halfway through the fourth floor and had barely made it to the third floor platform. There he had waited for pickup, even though their private boat should have been at the ready. Another delay. Luckily he had been able to stock up on potions in Oceanview, but he had not stayed and had hurried down to the first floor.

It still had taken him days to do get here. Merix was slow compared to how quickly his team could have moved. He was weak and this irked him. The helplessness, the sheer inability to do anything was pure horror to him. Now that he was so close to his goal, he was close to exhaustion. He had slept a few hours, but it had been restless sleep and he was ready to collapse. He ran towards one of the smugglers entrances into the Town and was greeted by surprised red-light district members.

"This is an emergency! Quick, bring me to Mars." Merix said while panting heavily and showing them the half moon tattoo on his arm, marking him as a member of the Gang.

The tough looking men that had eyed him wearily almost got courteous with him when they spotted the tattoo. As they should be. They led him into the tunnel into the Town and down into the guts of the district. To Merix pleasant surprise there were many Vessels here. With his skill he saw plenty of them gathering in a big underground room, talking to one another and Merix could not believe his luck. With this many people at the ready they might actually have a chance to save his team. One of the men with a red armband lead him through tunnels towards a staircase, then they climbed up a metal ladder. Merix found themselves in a Casino and then soon on the street.

The Town was busy, especially around the district and Merix felt a bit weird about seeing this. Ambition was so different to this free spirited and open display of debauchery. How the powers that were allowed this district to exist, he had no idea. But this was not important right now. He was hurriedly lead to the big guild buildings and brought up plenty of stairs without being questioned by any guards. Merix found Mars sitting in his office writing reports. His skill allowed him to peek over his shoulders, but they were just boring accounting of the districts supply chains. How much food drink and other necessities needed to be shipped, produced etc. Nothing of importance. A group of men approached his office and they started talking. Of course Merix could not hear them, but he could read lips very very well.

He was one of the premier spies of the Half Moon Gang and was sent down here not just to make it an easy journey, but to see what Mars was up to. From the looks of it, Mars was preparing for something. A lot of pieces were moving, but none of it was particularly dangerous to his Gang or important right now. He was brought before the man, mid discussion. The discussion had also been disappointing. It was rather mundane sadly from what he could read on their lips. Something about a training expedition, which made sense considering how much force he had seen gathering underground. It was not enough to fight anyone except maybe people on the first floor. Who were all weak. But it might exactly be what he needed right now. A force ready to come to his aid.

Mars looked up when Merix was lead into his office, but he did not look surprised at all. Which was strange. Had someone sent a runner ahead of them? Either way it was time to project confidence. So he puffed out his chest and exposed his tattoo.

"Mars, my name is Merix." he said boldly. He did not use any honorifics because this man was technically his subordinate. "I am from the Half Moon Gang and I was on an expedition down here for your regular tribute when I was attacked by a Cultivator! As stated in our treaty, I demand that you immediately send 50 of your men to the fifth floor and save the rest of my team."

Mars gave him a calculating look before he smiled.

"Of course. I would never do anything to threaten the good relationship I have with my superiors." Mars said with cutting sarcasm and Merix frowned. This was not what he expected to happen. Mars was neither surprised or confused. He did not even question the information he had just presented to him. Mars Ventros was an old fox. Merix doubted he was so trusting usually. What was going on here?

"But you are not really up to date concerning the news of your group." Mars said while he leaned back in his chair.

"What do you mean?" Merix asked with a deep frown.

"Fact is your group reached the Town without any problems and took all of the tribute in dust. Then on your return journey you were all killed to a man by your Rivals from the Black Hand. This happened in the Labyrinth on the 9th floor of course and that is where the remains of your expedition will be found."

"What? What nonsense is this?" Merix demanded, but he was suddenly aware of the group with him in Mars office. He had not bothered to identify them earlier, but now that he did his face drained. All of them were exceptionally high level. High enough in level to be one of his bosses.

"Its simple, you have to make a choice now, Merix is it?"

Merix blanched even more. What was going on here? Was Mars about to rebel? He feverishly looked for a way out, but the door was closed and he was boxed in by a group of rather unfriendly looking high ranks. Fuck. This was a trap from the start. Merix vanished into thin air. He felt the constraints of space as he was forced into an uncomfortable position standing straight and on his toes. His body was deposited into the pocket dimension in an instant and from one moment to the next he could only hear his quick breath. Every other sensory impression vanished. But sanctuary was not so dark for him. He opened his eyes on the other side of the spell. Wearily taking in the entire alchemist guild office.

Mars looked unbothered by his disappearance and the men with him barely reacted. Mars looked at the point where he had vanished and mouthed clearly, so that Merix could read his lips easily:

"Lets not make this difficult. I know about Sanctuary. We have all day to wait here. Its better if you surrender. I mean you no personal harm, if you make the right decision."

Merix thought about what he had seen, thought about his position. He knew there were spies here in the Town working for the HMG, but he did not know their identity. For security purposes. Would they have noticed his arrival? Undoubtedly. But they would not have eyes in Mars personal study in the Alchemists guild building. Fuck. Mars chose this moment to betray them? Was he nuts? They still had his family. Everyone knew that. But the threat only would work if the Gang found out about this. But that was inevitable surely with all the spies here?

More importantly though what was his own future? If they knew about sanctuary, then he was trapped. He could prolong this, but he was basically already captured. Mars was leaning back and waited looking relaxed. While the group between Merix and the door stayed alert. His only hope was to make sure there would be a public confrontation.

He appeared out of Sanctuary in the next moment, ready to move. But before he could so much as put a hand on his daggers, the sharp point of a rapier pushed itself against his throat and he froze.

"Ah there you are. Good. I like to speak to people I can actually see. Don't try to run or do anything stupid. I don't want to kill someone with such a useful skill like you. But I will if you do not behave."

"What do you want?" Merix asked brusquely.

"What I want? Freedom, to save my family. To see your bosses burned on a stake or torn to shreds. But none of that will become reality any time soon. No, what I want from you is simple. Your cooperation in a little play we will put on for some of the spies here in Town. I can never trust you until the Half Moon Gang is destroyed, so until then I will put you under house arrest. And before you try to throw yourself out of the window or something, know this. I know exactly how many spies the Gang has in the Town as well as their identities and I do not intend for them to see any more of you. Unless of course you decide to help."

Merix did not believe a word of what Mars said. If he knew about all of the spies, then why would they still be alive? Besides why would he tell him that? Either way he had no doubt how this would end if he resisted. The rogue standing close to him was silent and his stare was unblinking as he held his Rapier to his throat, ready to kill him in moments.

"Help? How?" he asked carefully. Maybe there was a way out of this mess.

"I will make a little spectacle for the spies. With your help. In return I will save your group from the fifth floor. Once you are all safe and sound here on the first floor the play will begin. I will replace some of your killed members and you will go along with your business as usual. You will take some dust, maybe spend a night in a tavern or brothel, your pick. Then you will leave again and vanish without a trace."

"Just like that?"

Mars chuckled.

"Once you are out of sight of the Town you will surrender your weapons and armor and then spend the next year or so leisurely sitting on your ass enjoying life."

"That does not sound appealing to me." Merix said wearily.

"Then convince me that you can work for me, not the HMG. Prove yourself and I assure you whatever your ambitions, whatever your desires I can grant them to you."

"Big words for someone who is a glorified overseer."

Mars chuckled, clearly enjoying himself.

"I am an independent boss of an entire floor's criminal activity. Sure I do not have access to high ranking mages and the resources down here to train Vessels is limited. But that is only a matter of time. Now you have a decision to make. Hand over that cloak of yours and your daggers or try to fight us all and make us take them from you."

Merix skill showed him everything around him, but he could not see a way out. Damn he had walked into a trap made for him. How was that even possible? How did Mars know about what had happened on the fifth floor already. Who could know? Really there was only one person. Merix blinked and then said slightly surprised.

"The Cultivator works for you. He told you about what happened."

"Yes, that much should be obvious. Another reason I won't just let you go. But again, prove yourself to me and you might find yourself in a position of power, wealth and influence if that is what you want. Now hand over your enchanted items."

Merix hesitated for a long moment, before he unclasped his cloak slowly and then handed over his daggers in their sheaths. Mars nodded satisfied.

"Good, in a day or so the rest of your team will arrive and then we can begin. For now, how about they show you to your room. You look exhausted. Its best you get some rest Merix."

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.