'You… you truly are scum!' cried the tiny girl. Her glistening eyes were red-rimmed, her lips trembled, and with each word her face grew redder. 'You're cheating, vile filth!' she peeped furiously, and dashed the tears away with an angry stroke of her hand. 'How could you do that to older brother?! He was so excited to fight! Father is right, all of your kind should be wiped off the face of the world! You are a bastard, a bastard scum! I hate you, I HATE YOU!' she screamed the last in such a deafening, shrill little voice that for a moment, the area around them was silenced.

Nicolai gazed down at her. In her tantrum she reminded him of… what was the name… Katie, hissed the Mask, infuriated by his failure to remember. He felt the sudden upset from it, that seeing this young girl was causing it some mental strain—which pulled him a bit of a spin considering just moments ago it had been so happy. Temperamental…

Don't worry, Nicolai told it. He knew exactly what to do.

It was important for young minds to be given proper encouragement, if they were to reach the peak of their potential. That being the case, it was time to revisit his briefly assumed role of a teacher. To act as a Better Man.

So, in that moment of stunned silence where no one knew quite what to do with the interruption in ever-so-serious business by this tiny girl, where the Primarch was staring down, not yet reaching out and grabbing her… Nicolai sank smoothly to a knee, until his close-fitting, inhuman helmet was level with her tiny, furious, miserable face, and it seemed as though the world froze around them.

His Soul emanated the glowing pleasure of someone proud of what they'd done, and he said:

'If you want me to be punished, then simply become strong enough to kill me.'

She stared at him and and her eyes now were very serious, surprisingly calm, almost tranquil. 'I will,' she told him. 'One day. One day I will kill you.'

He nodded his head deep, practically a bow. 'Very good,' he breathed, able to feel the razor sharp focus of her sudden killing intent emanating from her Soul, sharp and pure and without limits in the way only children are capable of. 'I will be waiting.'

He could almost see it, the future. She would grow up, train hard, search out every story and piece of info about him she could find, and then one day she would come at him, armed to the teeth and with a thousand plans dreamt up over the years.

And what fun, thought Nicolai, we will have!

He swept back up to his feet and time resumed. She was dragged back and there was a great deal of yelling from various Cultivators as the girl was taken away and it all settled down. The Modules were very happy with the interaction and told him that had definitely been Better Man behaviour. They felt sure that he'd just caused the creation of a kind of human Killbot which of course was a good thing. The Mask was less sure but in the end decided that giving her encouragement (of a sort) rather than dismissing her was probably… a good thing?

'So,' began the Hao clan Primarch, and he sighed. 'You did cheat. And my granddaughter is right. You are vile filth. I dearly hope that your Soul is thoroughly extinguished before you die, so that you might be barred from reincarnating and never trouble this reality again.' He said it quite simply, not with any particular inflection—merely stating a fact, and Nicolai realised the old man was giving him one of the most profoundly disgusted looks he'd ever seen.

'The rules he agreed to were written and communicated clearly,' Nicolai droned, doing his best to channel Legal. 'It is each individual's responsibility to ensure they are fully aware of what they enter into.'

The surrounding Cultivators snarled and threw various insults at Nicolai, while the old men—excepting the Hao clan Primarch—forced their gritted teeth into polite smiles.

They still wanted the Yin-Yang Rotation Symbiote. Even the Hao clan Primarch did, otherwise he would not be here.

Nicolai took out the Yin-Yang Rotation Symbiote and held it out. 'As before, I request 1,000,000 points-tags.'

The old men sighed and rolled their eyes. 'No one has that much!' growled the Hao Primarch, apparently unwilling to tolerate any more of his antics. 'We have only been in this place a few months! Stop joking around like this!'

'I will also accept certain Oma crystals to bring the value up.' Finally, he got to his true desire, the words he would have spoken the first time were it not for Jian's fruitful interruption. 'Tier 3 Cultivators can create special Oma crystals that use Tier 3 energy. One such crystal is valued at five hundred normal Oma crystals. Are you not a Tier 3 Cultivator?'

The old man raised his eyebrows, surprised. 'I am.' He frowned thoughtfully. He's considering it.

'What a terrible deal,' muttered one of the other old men. 'Only a fool would take such a bad trade.' He sneered at the Hao clan Primarch, who glared back.

Suddenly, all of the old men were spouting similar comments. Talking about how the face of the Hao clan was suffering greatly, how they were ashamed to see their peer be scammed so badly—and after his son was beaten in such a dishonourable way, how today marked the beginning of the Hao clan's decline and eventual extinction, and so on and so forth.

Nicolai's eyes narrowed. They were trying to upset the deal. They didn't want the Hao Clan Primarch to take the trade and gain the Symbiote, and the Primarch did seem concerned by the idea of losing yet more "face." With the steep price Nicolai demanded, and the further loss of reputation, he could see that his odds of making the trade were dwindling. The old man wore a sour expression, and Nicolai had the impression that in only moments he would turn away, even though he must want the Symbiote extraordinarily badly to have put up with everything so far and still be standing here.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Fortunately for him, Nicolai did not give a single shit for "face." He'd already come up with the proper act, one that was based on what he and the Modules knew of these people and what the Mask, always empathetic, felt the old man wanted.

'Mighty Primarch, you would be doing me a great favour by taking this deal,' said Nicolai, suddenly and loudly. All eyes focused on him. 'In truth, I feel badly about cheating to defeat your son.' He let out a self-depreciating little chuckle. 'I think we all know that if it weren't for that, he would have beaten me handily. Unfortunately, one such as myself must use unscrupulous methods to fight on a level field with the great Jian of the Hao clan. Outside of this arena, and the meaningless matches within, I would stand little chance.' He bowed to the old man, as he'd observed these people doing to those they respected.

The faces of the old men who'd been issuing vicious mutters were transformed. Now their mouths hung open, eyes wide and wrinkled flesh lax with shock.

The Hao clan Primarch, on the other hand, had a slow smile of shocked delight spreading over his face, and his eyes glittered eagerly. 'Well!' he chuckled. 'Good, junior! Good, good, good! I am glad you admit such. Very glad!'

'In a similar vein… it is a shame, but I am very poor.' Nicolai sighed loudly and dramatically, spreading his arms and raising his voice, making sure the large crowd of Cultivators observing could hear him well. 'Thus I must lean on the kindness of the rich Hao clan. As can clearly be seen, there is no other clan here as wealthy as they, able to so freely spend such vast sums.'

He sneered at the Hao Primarch's rivals, who glared back at him. 'A great and wealthy clan surrounded by miserly fools, none of them able to put forward the true value of the Yin-Yang Symbiote. I hope that the Hao clan will not disappoint me, even though I must be shameless enough to request such a large amount in payment!' He bowed once more, nice and low for good measure.

Nicolai would happily bow a hundred times and speak a thousand empty compliments, if it would secure him what he wanted.

The Hao clan Primarch was grinning wide now, whereas the others all looked exceedingly put out, eyes smouldering behind angry slits. 'Of course I have some of those crystals,' said the Primarch loudly, and with a flick of his wrist a large crystal that burned with a multitude of inner lights appeared in his hand. He raised it casually, displaying it to the crowd. 'Plenty, in fact. To match 1,000,000 points-tags, I believe it would be about 15,000 Oma crystals. Which would convert to…' The old man made a faintly unhappy face—just a momentary flicker, that anyone else would have missed. But Nicolai, with the aid of Modules, spotted the micro-expression. 'Thirty Tier 3 crystals,' he said at length, and glanced around again. 'A small part of my stock,' he added.

Nicolai understood the problem. Based on what he'd learned, these crystals represented the old man's ability to sustain himself in battle. They'd only been in this place a few months, the old man must not have had time to make many, and there were many dangers around. He couldn't spend them frivolously, and from his sour expression, thirty was more than he'd like to part with. Luckily for him, Nicolai didn't just want the Tier 3 crystals.

'I don't need that many,' he said loudly. 'I want 15 Tier 3 Oma crystals and the rest of the value split between points-tags and Oma crystals.' Nicolai paused thoughtfully. 'That should come to… 300,000 points-tags and 4,000 Oma crystals, alongside the 15 Tier 3 crystals. That is what I want—I am sure it must seen a pitiful sum to the mighty Hao clan, known for their towering wealth, but for myself it would be a great treasure.'

'Perhaps I'll throw in an abacus, too. You could use some assistance with these sums,' grumbled the old man. But after a glance around, he quickly reformed his smile.

With his words, Nicolai had successfully altered the dynamic and was now able to use "face" for his own advantage, instead of seeing it wielded to his detriment. He was now asking for even more than the original 1,000,000 points-tag value, and he knew the old man wasn't pleased by that—but after Nicolai had gushed about his wealth and magnanimity, if he were to act in any other manner than wealthy and magnanimous, it would all be for nothing. On top of that, by spreading the cost across three currencies, the old man wasn't overly pressed.

The crowd began to disperse after that, recognising the drama was over, and they made the trade. It was a little complex to do so, simply due to how much space 4,000 Oma crystals took up. The old man had to open his portal and fetch a few sacks. Until then Nicolai had done all trades by just exchanging the two items at the same time, but he now knew the City had a better system—it had been mentioned in passing within the Duel Arena book, when the text talked about how to create a Stake Duel, as it compared the two systems.

One simply had to say "Activate Trade System between myself and the-other-person" and a UI would spring up. There you put in what you wanted, and what you were giving, while having the items handy. Once you'd put it all into the UI, you both confirmed the trade and the items simply twinkled and swapped between you and the other person.

Once done, he opened his portal and deposited the crystals back in his base, while storing the tags in the Big Mouth. By the time he was back the gaggle of old men had vanished into the crowd. He could have put the Oma crystals in his Big Mouth, as it didn't seem bothered by them in spite of what he'd have thought was a spiritual nature, but all those crystals took up a surprising amount of room.

In terms of points-tags, the trade brought him to around 380,000 points, more than he'd ever held.

Now, at last, he could complete his original objective, and join the Slayers Guild.

He turned and began to step—only to find himself faced by a number of Earthborn, all staring at him with shocked, angered, and disappointed expressions. They must have gathered while he was depositing what he'd gained.

'Did you really mean all that?' mewled some big idiot, who Nicolai took to be referring to all the crap he'd spouted to the old man. How long had these people been silently watching for?

God have mercy, does this never end? Nicolai was beginning to realise that he needed to work on building more of a tolerance to crowds. Back in his heyday, he'd been able to slip through them easily; though back then, he'd done his very best to avoid being the centre of attention. Now, he was unused to tight presses, and as always he disliked being observed by so many.

The end result was: He was fed up of being in this building surrounded by hundreds of shouting people, many of whom kept trying to grab at him.

'I didn't mean any of it, it was just a Big. Fat. Lie.' He gasped, putting a dramatic hand to his chest. 'Oh dear, oh no… Get the fuck out of my way.' He strode forwards and the protection made a path for him through the confused, muttering gaggle of Earthborn.

Fortunately, he was soon out and away, and just thinking of the great wealth he'd gained over the past hour put a broad smile back on his face.

A great day.

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.