The Merchant Caravans

The next day, the sun filtered through the clouds, signaling the end of the rain in Red Cloud city. The morning sun was shining brilliantly like a majestic sunrise that was announcing the beginning of a new day.

I got up from my bed and went to the backyard of the mansion to feel the gentle sun rays as it warmed my skin. Even when I was on back Earth, I was always attracted by the beauty of the sunrise.

Now, I am five years old which means I've been in this world for five years. I haven't done anything earthshaking as I was still a little boy and didn't want to draw too much attention to myself. It's very hard for a child that had the ideology of an adult to communicate and have fun with an actual child with childish ideologies, it would undoubtedly be a painful and tiring endeavor. I thought that with the passing of time, I would be able to assume the full identity of a child and acted like one, but it didn't work. As I continued to live, I've become more mature instead of having a child carefree attitude like I was supposed to.

As usual, I went to eat breakfast with my mother that morning as my father was busy with the affairs of the city. Although I haven't been able to act like a proper child ever since I was born, I always enjoyed the love and the warmth of my mother. This was something that hadn't change, the love I have for my mother either here or when I was back on earth. Sometimes, parental love was something hard to explain. Almost every night when my mother thought I was asleep, she would sneak into my room to kiss me goodnight and covered me with a blanket, sometimes she just sat next to me rubbing my hair gently while smiling and looking at me sleeping like I was her most precious thing in the world.

After finishing my breakfast, I went to my father's library. Although Martial arts and magic were very important in a place such as Archaic Continent, reading was also a good way to widening one's horizon and reasoning. Having overwhelming strength or power and no knowledge was kind of a bummer which was why I spent two hours in the library every morning to read books in order to build the foundation for my actions and reasoning. Plus I can't go out of the city yet to explore the outside which was what I wanted the most, so reading was one way to kill time.

While I was researching various things from all kinds of book, my mother sneaked out to my side.

" I knew that I would find you at this time in this place, can you go check if the merchant caravans from the Black Mist city came yet." Said my mother with a smile.

Of course, I knew my mother was trying to find an excuse to make me go out and stroll in the city. She always thought that the reason I spent hours in the library was mostly due to escapism or because of loneliness. I can't blame her because I didn't have many friends my age.

As for the Black Mist city merchant caravans, it was some sort trade of goods and resources between the three big cities as well as the surrounding small and medium cities. It was true that each city had its own culture or way of life, but a city could not properly flourish without a good economic system and exchange. The merchants' caravan was one of the most effective ways of trading. It was like a system of exportation and importation between the cities.

The merchants were able to sell and exchange their goods in different cities. In return, they bought the scarce resources that were needed in their home city or to a different city. Only by organizing this type of exchange system that the people from different cities could exchange and buy each other's goods. However, there was one major problem, some cities were located in between the mountains or very close to the forest where dwelled a large number of low-level magical beasts not to mention bandits. In order to protect their caravans and travel safely, the merchants hired mercenaries to protect their goods while traveling from one city to another or traversing one mountain to another. The merchants' caravan supported all of the cities, ancient tribe as well as the State, allowing them to function as a single organism. Every time the merchant caravan arrived in a city especially the small ones, it was like having a festival or the Fourth of July in America.

" Yes mother, I'll be going now." Without any delay, I closed the book I was reading and putting back on the bookshelf. After finished putting everything back in place, I left the house. Also, there were two guards following me. One was at level 46 while the other was at level 45. In another word, they were both 5th rank middle stage warriors. My parents never let me go out in the city without bodyguards because there are all kinds of people within the city, mercenaries, robbers, assassins, merchants and even spies.

..................

" Brother Wei, brother Wei, wait for me."

Suddenly a little girl's voice could be heard behind me. She had a small body frame. She wore a small white dress with her long black hair hung loosely on her back. Her big blue eyes blinked widely as her entire face turned red when she called my name. At this moment, she was running towards me and waving at me while an old man was following her.

" Ohh it's you, Shi Lihua where are you going this early in the morning," I said while looking at the little girl running towards me. She was really pretty and she will be a real beauty when she grows up. She came from the Shi family. Her father was the current patriarch of the Shi family and a 6th rank peak warrior, to be precise a swordsman. She was the third daughter of the patriarch and the youngest one. Because of that, her parents spoiled her lot by giving her almost everything she wanted. As for the old man behind her, he was the most trusted subordinate of the current Patriarch of the Shi family and a 5th rank peak ice Mage. The Shi family owned many businesses throughout the whole Red Cloud city. They were more like a family of merchants and owned multiple caravans of their own.

I was always very fond of Shi Lihua. Also, I even considered her as my own little sister because I didn't have one and she was kinda funny and cute. Her innocence made her even more lovable. I always wanted to have a little sister or brother, even when I was back on earth. Unfortunately, I didn't have that blessing. So having her constantly looking for me and give me stuff that she took from her family's business was kind of cute. Also, for some reason, I always seem to be happy when she smiled at me.

" Brother Wei, I'm going to check the merchant caravans coming from the Black Mist city to see if there's anything pretty that I like."

" Can we go together." Said Shi Lihua while grabbing onto my hand and looking at me with her big blue sparkling eyes. There was a look of anticipation and pleading in her big blue eyes which were as beautiful as the blue sky.

" Ok, let's go," I said bluntly. I was going to check out the Black Mist city merchants caravan anyway, I didn't mind going with her.

"This old man has seen the little City Lord." Said the old man behind Shi Lihua.

" Ohh grandpa Ley, you don't have to greet me like that every time we meet," I said to the old man. I don't really like when older people were calling me with such respect.

One of the reasons I barely go out was because that almost everyone in the city knew me. It's hard to have fun when everybody feared your family and flattered you for no reason.

.................

It's been two hours since the Black Mist city merchants caravan had entered the city. At the western corner of Red Cloud city, was a piece of huge vacant land especially reserved for the merchants, the originally spacious land suddenly became packed. There was a great number of tents, small bamboo houses, and street stalls. There was also a large number of people slowly walking around and checking each of the tents or bamboo houses to see if something picked their interest. Also, there were no clear distinctions between regular mortals, warriors, and mages between the crowds.

Some of the tents had small magical beasts such as white wolf cubs, tiger cubs, and all sorts of small magical beasts that I've never seen before as it was my first time. Each of the tents had a variety of products such as fruits, herbs for a potion, medicine, precious ores etc.

On the way, Shi Lihua was looking everywhere with curiosity. Her big blue eyes were wide open calling out in joy and exclaiming in surprise for everything she saw that she found appealing. However, I after a few hours, the old man took her back home against her will as she wanted to spend more time with me.

Even though I saw that the Black Mist City caravan had come, I didn't directly go back to report it to my mother because I wanted to see whether the merchants of the Black Mist city caravans had come with some magical beast core. I wanted to buy one and see whether i could absorb it with the Gamer's Godship. Mages and warrior were able to absorb some of the energy within a beast core as a way to speed up their cultivation. It was more like a shortcut.

This kinda shortcut doesn't work all the time due to the bottlenecks. for example, when a person was at the peak of the 3rd rank warrior or 6th rank, no matter how much beast core he absorbed, he won't break through the next stage unless he knew how to boost his shrouded battle qi aura or the principle behind it. In my case, I came here to find a beast core to see whether I could absorb it with that Gamer's Godship within my Brain. According to the way of cultivation in this world, only by breakthrough the 2nd rank warrior or mage, one was able to absorb beast cores. The first and second breakthrough must be made without any external help. I always believed that was different from them and that principle did not apply to me, as such, there's only one way to find out. My father won't give me a beast core because I was still in the 1st rank warrior and mage, also I couldn't buy it or sent someone to buy it for me in the city as I was being followed everywhere I go by my bodyguards.

After Walking for hours, I finally got rid of my bodyguards within the crowds.

The people were really nice to each other because they need4d each other. The city needed the merchants' caravan to buy scarce products and the merchants need the people to buy their goods in order to keep the business running.

The sun started to set and an endless stream of people was still coming in.

I was slowly moving along the crowd, and the crowd was still bustling with activity. Some people were touching stuff and asking for prices in front of the stalls while others were just looking. The Red Cloud city guards were everywhere within the crowd as to assure the security of the people or to prevent an accident. After looking for hours, I decided to go home because I couldn't find a merchant that sells beast core. The magical beast core was very expensive and rare, even if someone had it, he won't sell it that easily.

As I was walking away from the crowd in direction of my house, my footsteps paused slightly.

" Host, I have detected an object with a high concentration of energy, if I'm not wrong, it probably what you are looking for all along, a beast core." I slightly paused because I heard the voice of the girl that called herself the spirit of the Gamer's Godship. Not only that, the patterns on the Cubic circuit was shining brightly as of it was attracted by something. Without any delay, I followed where the object with the highly concentrated energy was while the spirit of the Gamer's Godship was instructing me the way.