Next Move (2)

Ding! Ding! Ding!

In a dark cave, only the clash between hammer and metal provided sparks of light. Through these momentary flashes, one could spot the intricate lines and symbols which covered every inch of the room. This was obviously not a natural formation, but the beauty these diagrams had when viewed as a whole, could contest against nature itself.

"Whew~, that should do it."

With his eyes there was no need for light so Shui could closely examine the longsword in his hand. Since he was going to be leaving Cyrus soon, in addition to the last artifact of the harmony series, which he had already sent to Yur, he planned on giving gifts to everyone he cared for. Since this included all of the women at Fairies' Wardrobe, there were a lot of duplicate artifacts and jewellery in his gift list but he made every single one of them with care.

Right as Shui was about to take out another slab of metal to work on, a hole opened up in this room, allowing dim light to peek through.

"Damn, I don't understand all of this but I really want you to add it to the rest of the place."

The wolf that strutted into his space was Cin. Since Shui wanted an isolated place to forge and had already melted his place in the clan, he asked Cin if he could use a part of his cave for it. Cin was worried about the noise at first, but once he saw Shui's sound isolation array in action he agreed to it.

"Sure, I'll give you a discount. How about a thousand beast cores?"

"Well, you sure are a greedy human, huh?"

"Always have been. So, what do you want?"

"Can't a big brother just want to check up on his little bro?"

"Cut the crap and hurry up, I'm busy."

"Fine, fine. You said you're leaving that town soon right? I need your help with two things."

"Go on."

"I should be breaking through to the high beast boundary in about a month."

"So you want me to help protect you?"

"That's right."

Cin's rate of cultivation was heaven-defying for a evolved beast, but due to its circumstances, Shui was also aware that its speed would slow down after becoming a high beast. However, the other high beasts would definitely try to stop it from reaching their level since it was already a threat. Cin had to swallow a bit of its pride to ask this of Shui, but it was confident that if Shui guarded it then it would have nothing to worry about.

"Fine, we are brothers after all. And the other thing?"

"Well you see, there's this hidden world that reveals itself once every five years..."

Shui knew about the hunt that the five cities were planning, but this was the first time hearing about a hidden world. Cin told him that due to the hidden world that would open around that time, the forest's defenses would be weakened and vaguely mentioned that he heard the humans would attack at that time. However, since the beast lord was too strong to enter the hidden world, he would send his descendants in his place and protect the forest with the other evolved beasts that couldn't get a quota to enter the hidden world.

"How do we get a quota?" asked Shui.

"That part's easy. All we have to do is beat someone who got a quota from last year. There aren't a lot of high beasts among that list, but I can definitely beat any of them and I'm sure you can handle yourself perfectly."

"Hmm..., sounds interesting. Fine, I'm in."

"Good. I'll tell you more after I break through and, greet my neighbours."

A few days after his conversation with Cin, Shui was back in Cyrus for the auction. Before heading to the auction house, he decided to see his big sisters at Fairies' Wardrobe to give them their presents.

As soon as he showed himself at the entrance, one of the staff happily welcomed him in and led him to Jeanne. Although she was staring at the papers on her desk with a stern look, once she spotted Shui, that changed into a gentle smile.

"Hey Big Sis Jeanne. It's been a while."

"Quite. I was wondering if you were sneaking around the red-light district."

"Haha...ha."

Since he didn't want to touch that topic, Shui laughed awkwardly and scratched his head.

"Lilia's at home you know."

"Oh, really? Well, that's fine. I came here to see you."

"Hmm, what is it?"

"I came to tell you that I'll be leaving the town soon."

"Oh, already?"

Jeanne's smile froze for a moment, but she then nodded in acceptance. She liked him being here, but she knew the young man in front of her had big goals that he wanted to accomplish so there was no way he would stay.

"Do you have a date in mind?"

"Probably in a week or two."

Jeanne continued to nod her head while trying to hide the disappointment from showing, but even though she didn't cry the mood was awkward. Shui saw this coming so without wasting time hesitating, he put a space expansion bag on her desk.

"It's a little early but these are farewell gifts. I want to give them to you and everyone else."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" said Jeanne in a joking manner as she regained a smile and checked what was inside it.

"..."

"..."

All she took was a peek, but that was enough to make her speechless. She looked up at Shui's calm face with blatant bewilderment before properly checking what was in the bag again. After she made her assessment, she released a heavy sigh and gently pushed it back to him.

"This is too much, we can't accept this."

"Why not? I'm not lacking in funds you know."

"Even so, isn't this too over the top for going away gifts? And you're the one giving them too!"

"I said it's fine didn't I. Just treat it like a bonus from your boss."

"But..."

Jeanne already expected something amazing from Shui the moment he brought out a space expansion bag just to deliver the gifts, but she was even more surprised when she realized that the cost of these gifts far surpassed that of the bag. For normal gift packages this was natural, but how could she remain calm in the face of tens of high quality jewellery, artifacts and trinkets. Despite her familiarity with what she thought was large amounts of money, her base estimate for the total cost of these gifts surpassed any figure she had seen in her lifetime.

"No buts, either you take it yourself or I'll tell them you don't want to."

"Ugh, fine."

Jeanne still had some reservations, but she agreed since she didn't want to have all of them going on strike just to force her hand. Luckily, although she could tell how expensive all of the gifts were due to her experience, none of them were conspicuous enough to attract too much attention on the street. However, whether the girls would be able to wear them outside was another story.

"Good."

"So, are you heading to see Lilia next?"

"No, I have something to do before that."