Encounter (3) - The Short Meeting

Due to working all the time in his previous life, Stigma had eventually developed a habit to waking up earlier than usual upon seeing daylight.

After sitting up from the bed, Stigma came across a soft sensation when his hand landed on the side, mistaking it as a pillow he pushed it down without much thought and heard a cry of a woman afterwards.

Turning his head from the source of the sound, he found his hand on top of the hourglass sister's well endowed chest, sleeping beside his bed like it was natural thing to do. Unfortunately, her mask was on, so Stigma couldn't tell if she was still asleep or wake from the sudden weight on her chest.

With such a provoking figure resting right next to him, Stigma would feel very embarrassed from what he did. But when Stigma heard the sound of someone moaning from the other side the tent, he found a tied up man on the ground and a short woman clutching on his head.

Like the woman beside him, they were both wearing their mask. These people are the ones from yesterday who claim to be assassin, if Stigma remembered correctly the sound of the beating ended really early, so he didn't even know what happened afterwards.

Looking around, he found that the furniture disarranged and bottles were littered around them, some torn fabric or cotton from the furniture were found along with some broken shards of ceramic. If Stigma didn't knew what happened yesterday, he would had thought that the aftermath of his cruel joke would just be them trying to sleep off a hangover.

Stigma would have felt bad for the man, but when he squinted his eyes to look at the entire scene, he had lost all intentions of trying to fix it.

What he saw, was a man being embraced by the chest of a short girl, his face was drooling with a blissful smile. But that wasn't bothered him, after looking around the man, Stigma had changed his opinion completely from HIM a pedophile to a complete pervert.

Beside them was a dresser, but what was on it was what caught Stigma's attention, after all, what could be more disturbing than seeing a man restrained in ropes and his pants were hanginG by the dresser.

'....So he isn't just a pedophile but a lolicon as well.'

With a sheet covering the short ones body, it was hard to tell what she was wearing.

Eventually Stigma looked away and ignored them, as he got out of bed to stretch. At the same time, the hourglass sister sat up, but unlike Stigma who was already awake, she was still little light headed from suddenly waking up.

Without her cloak on, Stigma could see her entire body. She wore a sleeveless purple turtle neck emphasizing her chest, while she wore a skirt that reached to the way down to her feet showing of the out lines of her thighs.

She had long blue hair was tied to the side, and had a pendant with a flower engraved on it with a small ruby that shaped like the center petal. If Stigma had to guess her actual age, she would still be in her twenties and mistaken as someone as someone that was married.

Unlike yesterday, she removed the leather vest that held some small containers that were the size of her palm. Without the vest, her body was now free to show of her natural mounds, even with the mask covering her face, she still looked stunning.

" *Yawn!*...Good Morning boy....you woke up early, do you perhaps have somewhere to go at this time...." Even when she asked the question, her head was still swaying from time to time, trying to keep herself awake.

"Yeah, I have to meet up with my friend who I left outside the forest, something happened so I had to find a living space. He is still young so I'm kind of worried about him, since I found a place, I can't waste time anymore..."

After stretching a few more times, Stigma peeked with one eye to each side to find Dusk still standing by the sidelines. If they did something to him, Dusk would have retaliated by binding them by their limbs, and Dusk would resort to breaking their limbs or snapping their necks if things got out of hand.

With a flick of his hand, a small pouch appeared in thin air. With the events that transpired yesterday, he had given up in hiding the space ring and used it in front of them to store the ax, but he avoided using his original space ring and used the one he got from the follower.

All he had to do was switch between using his original and the followers and no one would know the difference.

...

"...Hey"

"Hmmm"

"Can you not stare at me I need to focus, when I's counting..."

"But... do know the actual pricing?"

"...."

"I'm curious though, why do you want to sell these? You can use them in your cultivation training."

"...What do you mean, I sell them and buy resources that can help me in my cultivation, right?"

"There is that, but you can also use and absorb the energy inside the core. Most clans use that approach in an early age, so most of their members are in the average of the Zero to First Tier, with a handful of Second or Third Tier, though larger clans have different statistics."

Stigma stopped and looked at the sister with a baffled expression, this new piece of information was like a gold mine to him. From what Felix said, Stigma had already accumulate enough to live of in luxury for about twenty years in a small empire.

He even told him he would be willing to buy them but he refused.

He understood why most non-cultivators like mercenaries or hunters risk their lives to earn and make a living, but Felix never told him why Cultivators liked to buy them, he assumed it was the same reason. He only told Stigma that they are an important part that can help develop a society, especially a clan.

If he go by how the bandits from yesterday reacted, Felix and his group must had their eye on the 2nd Tier core, after seeing it. But they didn't take it even with their number, so it only indicates they don't want to antagonize Stigma if he had more, which he in fact did, hidden in his space ring.

"How does that work?" Stigma already has the 'Soul Eater' skill, but the issue was the skill indiscriminately absorbs anything, be it souls or energy. So he wasn't risking his skill to reach to a point in where he would be reaping a living person's life by accident in one go.

"Hmm, you don't know... well it's fairly simple and most clans don't circulate the knowledge for a reason..."

After grabbing a Zero Tier core, she made a simple explanation along with giving a visual explanation for Stigma to understand.

"As long as you can pay the appropriate sum or find someone to train you in the underworld, you can find out. Since you already made some contributions like providing living arrange for us, I will teach you as my form of thank you."

"Now pay attention, all you need to do is insert your Zen energy in the core and pull the energy inside it like this..."

The core in her hand had started to emit some light, the more he observed the clearer the veins were seen from a red hue, afterwards the core lost all colors and became a colorless stone. But she didn't stop there and grabbed another one.

She then explained that this method of accumulating Zen energy is not actually perfect, as many people are not capable in perfecting the training, unless one was confident in molding energy the results would vary.

Too much energy and the core would be destroyed and turn to dust and the energy will disperse in the air, too little and the one to lose energy would be the possessor, while the core would be the one taking the energy.

Many clans use higher Tier Beast Cores for young or lower Tier Cultivators in their clans to train in, but the higher the Tier the more difficult it was for them to mold their energy, especially to higher Tier Cultivators who are trying to make a breakthrough.

"...Thank you for the advice." With such valuable, how could Stigma not be excited, an immediately decided to add energy molding in his quota of training in the future. If he can master it, then he can fill in the time gaps in his experience by training with the Demon, along with mastering his new techniques and speed up his accumulation and breakthrough in the future.

"Your Welcome, after all you are going to be like us, so I have to make sure we have a powerful ally in the future."

....

Within the thirty minutes Stigma grabbed everything that was needed then went out, but he left behind his sac filled with his preserved food and clothes and second Tier Core from yesterday, but the most important thing he left behind was Dusk.

He gave Dusk an order, if any of them tried to take the core, they are to be left alone, but it had to point out who took it when he comes back.

Now that he had some people to look after his current base, Stigma was now free to move around the market and gather supplies, so he can't waste anymore time,

Luckily the hourglass sister was the one who set up the barrier, so she made a special key by pulling out a talisman and made some hand seals.

"Here, as long as you have this talisman, you are free to leave and enter the area, but you are the only one aloud okay. Have a safe trip!" The Talisman she handed over had a lot of inscription that looked alien to Stigma, but he didn't had time to study it since he had other plans.

"....I will."

***

After Stigma left, the other two woke up followed by a loud shriek, unlike the petite one who was casually trying to fix her attire, the man was panicking to find his pants as he struggled to remove the ropes on him. But the girls didn't mind as they are already familiar with this scene.

"Good morning."

When the sister saw her leader, she lightly sighed. Her leader was older than her, yet she was able to keep her skin nice and smooth without an inch of body hair or any excess fat. From what she remembered she was born with that condition, so she can't help it but feel a little jealous.

Her healthy baby like skin, and her hair filled that still had volume only shows that she is blessed to look young without much effort.

Without giving it much thought, she ignored that their leader was barenaked, not even bothering to cover up her chest or her crotch.

On the other hand, the leader was always envious of the sisters developed body structure, she was taller, bigger and more developed that had most men turn head after one look. While she was the complete opposite.

Though such polar opposites were able to become friends and be on the same team, so it was a wonder to most people how they got along.

"Where's the boy?" Stigma was not present, but she had noticed that his belongings such as his sac was still present.

"He said he went out to get his friend and wanted to gather some supplies." The sister was already familiar with the short one's personality, so she didn't mind her rude behaviour, to her, it was more of a charm point.

"Hmph, he better bring something to eat, I haven't eaten yet..... So what do you guys think of him." Turning her head to the side, she asked the sister first, after all it was her specialty to tell a targets special traits.

"Hmm, despite his age, he's was very vigilant, his speed is what caught our attention in the first place so that means he as high physical abilities, but his lack of panic along with his quick time judgement surprised me. He immediately singled me out as the one who made the barrier without even double guessing it was one if you two. In his age group, it's quite rare to find someone who can make calm analysis unless they have experience life and death situation on a daily basis. So I think it was the right choice in scouting him."

The sister gave her honest opinion, although Stigma was aware that two out of the three was the caster, he had only made an assumption that it was the sister. Since she was the one only one who kept on observing him the entire night.

If anyone wanted to set traps, they had to adjusted it to follow the specs of the target, even if they have to risk of putting themselves in harms way.

Her role in the group was to provide a trap formation using talismans or any other object that has a physical form and adjust it to provide support, the dark veil surrounding the tent was to block sound like those in recording room to block any other noise from entering or escaping.

"Hmm, hey, what do you think?" After getting out of his restraints, the man grumbled as he tried to tie his pants back on.

"Three words: Tricky. Inexperienced. Brat."

"Like what sister said, he is overly cautious and needs to understand that not all those afflicted in this line of business are dangerous. I have to disagree that speed was his only quality though; when he threw the knives, he had the intention to aim at some important organs like my eye or arteries on my leg, even in the dark that is almost impossible to see clearly."

"Normally knife wielding or knife throwing isn't a big deal, as long it's practiced, anyone can do it. But the strength behind the throw was what caught my off guard, if I didn't put enough grip on my first catch, I might have lost my eye already. Based on that, along with the exaggerated and wasted movements, I can only assume he had only practiced by himself without proper guidance not long ago. If he were to be properly trained in the fields of combat or assassination, he would be on a class of his own."

"He also seem to know the functions of the space ring, as he had effectively store weapons like that ax to close the distance. My guess is he had previously owned on or had the knowledge from asking another expect that owned one. I can see why he didn't use the space ring early on, or his little trick would have been found out already."

"If he and I fought again, without the fear of reinforcements along with the restrictive environment, I would be the one in the disadvantage as he would keep the distance between us. All in all, he has a lot of potential to either be an assassin or a warrior, but still lacks experience, so I am against in having him enter the field anytime soon."

The man responded that way since he specializes in scouting, analyzing and capturing targets. Be it a man or a beast, he had the experience how to grasp a targets movements within close proximity, so if Stigma hadn't use his knives in their encounter and did a full on close qu, he would have been captured earlier than expected.

"Oh! It rare to see you praise and give a detailed explanation to anyone you fought. I wonder if you really are the type that observes little boys movements in the shadows with a smile on your face with your pants down as you do your business."

The petite woman made a cupping gesture with her hand as she moved it up and down, to indicate a familiar action, while his sister blushed and covered her mouth as she made a small giggle.

The sibling were already aware that their leader likes to make dirty jokes from time to time, so trying to argue back was pointless. Yet the little brother's pride was already damaged when Stigma called him a pedophile, so didn't want it to catch on.

Based from their experience, their leader would take every opportunity for her to make dirty joke be heard no matter what.

"I am not! You know I smile to confuse my enemies and throw them of their concentration, its the boys fault that he'd mistaken me as a pedophile! I am just concern for him! He reminds me of me when I was younger, so there was a sense of comradery!"

"Too be future bosom buddies, or should I call it pe - "

"HELL NO!!!!" Another round of laughter broke out, the women were always teasing the man since he had an honest personality, yet he rarely breaks the poker face known as his smile or else he would be teased relentlessly such as now.

"Alright, alright, my opinion is the same as you two. Judging by how he had fought and the scent of blood, he is at least capable in harming someone. Along with him not having the heart to kill without a reason from yesterday's performance, perfect to be our friend! On that note, make sure that he doesn't get into trouble when he get back okay!"

Both the leader and the sister looked at the brother like it was to be expected, he was already considered a human pack mule and slave to the group without question, since he was always weak towards older female.

".....alright, alright, just let me make sure I'm not missing anything."

"Ah, prepare a bath before you leave and make sure you clean the bathroom first, after all we don't want the same accident, right...."

"Of course!" The man was aware of what happens if he ignored his leaders orders, between those two, he was going to die ten out of ten before he can make the first move.

After all, she was in charge from dealing and delaying all targets, so she is far more than experience than these two put together when it come to combat.

"I wonder who is stronger, me or that boy, I can't wait until he comes back..."

***

While the three were busy at the base, Stigma was at the market. Due to the storm that lasted for days, the top merchants have decided to add events to add in more customers and try to earn back their lost profit.

When he entered the market, he found someone handling some tickets and stamping out the receiver. He was about to look away when he remembered the prizes, so decided to bet his luck and see if he can win any prize.

"Hey!"

Because of the people were in the way, Stigma's voice was overshadows so he was ignored, with not much choice Stigma volted towards him by rushing past the crowd and made dashes.

Luckily there were some caravans nearby, so Stigma used them as footholds when he volted and saw the distributor walking away.

"Wait!"

Not letting his chance slip by, he made a running jump lifting him up ten feet in the air, startling the vendors and spectators underneath. But he didn't care since he was going to land right in the middle of the crowd, eventually disappearing from their sights, after a few short dashes he was now a few feet away from the distributor.

"Finally!"

When he was about to get his ticket from the distributor, when he saw a familiar face that was covered in a hood not far from where he stood.

"Felix!"

"?Stigma? What are you doing here?"

"To get a ticket, I called you out to return something you left yesterday."

Stigma had ran into his old acquaintance, Felix, he and his group looked after him when he collapsed, before he could thank them they left. He was about to take out the pouch, but was asked another strange question.

"Stigma...are you interested in joining my clan?"

Huh?