Sky Gathering

"Alright, here is your badge. Please infuse it with your mana in order to bind it." an old man said as he presented Andrew with a bronze badge.

Andrew took the badge and guided a bit of his mana towards it. As soon as his mana touched the badge, it was sucked in. The badge then quickly changed colors to a bright silver with occasional lines of gold. Many of the golden threads agglomerated in the middle in an intricate pattern as if trying to form a rune.

There was a mix of shock and respect on the old man's face as he looked at the center of Andrew's badge.

[This generation is really monstrously talented. There is a 27 year old Grandmaster and a 17 year old half-Grandmaster in front of me. It seems our association is going to enter a golden era soon. We might even have a chance of surpassing the Sky Tower in the future.] he thought expectantly.

"Esteemed Sirs, if you don't mind this old man's question, are you two going to participate in next year's Sky Gathering?" he asked politely.

"Eh? Sky Gathering? What is...?" Andrew asked as he looked at Shawn. There was a surprised look on the old man's face as he heard Andrew's question.

"I will participate for sure." Shawn replied to the man's question as he pointed at Andrew. "The head will probably nominate him as well."

"I understand, I am sure Sirs will bring glory to our association and to the Fortress." the old man lowered his head for a bit and then took his leave, deciding to not impose any further. Shawn then turned to Andrew.

"How come you are a Peak Array Master and you never heard about the Sky Gathering? Do you live under a rock?" Shawn asked mockingly before shaking his head.

"Anyway, it's a contest that happens once every 10 years and every Guardian City sends their most talented Array Masters to participate. Its purpose is to assess the level of masters in every city, to exchange knowledge and to find those especially talented in arrays." Shawn explained.

"Haha, I really never heard of it." Andrew smiled awkwardly as he continued "Are there any conditions to participate? And why is it called Sky Gathering?"

[If it's a competition then there surely will be rewards. Even more so if all the Guardian Cities will participate. I only hope the rewards won't be just becoming someone's disciple. I'd rather just have mana stones.] he thought.

"No special conditions, you just have to be nominated by the association in your city. The competition is age-based as well, meaning you'll compete only with people in your age group. As for its name... well, for thousands of years the Sky Tower has by far been the winner of this competition. As such, nobody refused when they changed its name to Sky Gathering. They also took on the responsibility of always being the hosts of this event." Shawn replied.

"Sky Tower...is that the Guardian City in the south?" Andrew thought for a bit before asking.

"In the south...not a geography fan are we?" Shawn laughed before continuing "Yes, to be more specific it's located in the south of the African continent. Thousands of years ago it was a place known as the Kalahari Desert but along with the rise of the Sky Tower, the surrounding landscape has been altered so much that it became a huge forest, the Sky Forest. It's also the main defense of the Sky Tower, only God knows how many arrays are hidden in that forest."

"They have always been leading in the field of arrays. Right now they have three Ascendant Masters!" he said as he scratched his cheek "We only have one. And for reference, most of the time we are ranked second, rarely third. They are completely on a different level."

"Are Ascendant Masters that rare?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah, the Sky Tower has three, our City along with the Heavenly Eye Guardian City have one each, and those are the only ones we know about. So supposedly, the other three Cities don't even have one." Shawn thought for a second before continuing "The conditions to become an Ascendant Master are really too harsh. Firstly, you need to be a Sage. It's already hard enough for anyone to reach that realm, and those that do never really had the time to dabble too much in their occupation. Anyone who would be able to reach the Sage realm as a Peak Grandmaster would have to be amazingly talented." he shook his head.

"Still, this is not the hard part, it's by far easier than the second condition. But, you are very far from that. If you have any designs on becoming an Ascendant Master, I suggest you try to become a Sage first." Shawn said.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to know." Andrew shrugged.

"Well...some things do." Shawn sighed.

[Why is he so serious all of a sudden? What things hurt to know?] Shawn's little remark didn't escape Andrew.

"Anyway, now that you are an official member, you automatically have a permit of opening a shop. Well...more exactly you will be provided with a space you can use to open a shop or not. You can do whatever you want with it." Shawn continued.

"Oh? That's great! How long until I can use it?" Andrew asked expectantly.

[The faster, the better. I want to gather those elemental stones as quickly as possible.] he thought.

"Well, I already took it for you. Let's go." Shawn smiled as he put his hand on Andrew's shoulder.

[Eh? Wai..] Andrew didn't have time to respond as the two teleported away.

...

A few kilometres away, there was a relatively big street. On could see hundreds of small shops lined on both sides of the street. A lot of people could be seen walking around, looking at the displayed items and haggling with shop owners.

Two figures suddenly appeared in front of a small luxurious shop called Crown Formation Shop. One of them was breathing heavily while the other had a frozen expression for a few seconds before shuddering.

"Is this that far from the association? Was it really necessary to teleport?" Andrew asked loudly with a confused expression.

"Hah, I just...don't like walking I guess, haha." Shawn took a deep breath before replying. "Anyway, this is Charles 3rd Street. It's a commercial hotspot, so it's really a good place to open up a shop. And I got you a really good spot." he said as he pointed on the left of the luxurious shop where there was an empty space of no more than ten metres in both length and width. In fact, most shops on the street were around that size.

"Eh? But there is nothing there! Am I supposed to build it myself??" Andrew's eyes went wide as he saw the patch full of grass.

"Erm? Do you even know how things are built usually?" Shawn smiled awkwardly as he asked.

"Of course not! Wait, do I really have to build it myself?" Andrew couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"No no, I was asking you if you know that you don't really need to do anything. It will build itself." Shawn laughed before he extended his hand and a small black cube appeared in his hand. "Here, take it."

"What?" Andrew was confused as he took the black cube. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Just put it in the middle and infuse a bit of mana into it. Though, do get away from it quickly." Shawn smiled as he said.

"O...k?" Andrew replied as he stepped forward and placed the black cube on the ground. He infused a bit of mana into it before jumping back. His eyes went wide as he looked at the cube.

As mana was infused into it, the small black cube started wriggling furiously before liquifying and expanding to cover the ground on a ten over ten square. As the black liquid finished spreading on the ground, it stopped wriggling.

"I'll provide the materials as well. Consider it my gift for your performance earlier." Shawn said as he waved his hand and a one metre wide space distortion appeared above the black liquid. In a second, blocks of different types of metal started falling from it and into the black liquid. As soon as the metal made contact with the liquid, it started dissolving at a very fast pace.

The black liquid was expanding at a rapid pace and as it did so, it started moving on its own. Four black pillars rose in each corner before four black curtains connected them. The liquid then expanded upwards even more to form a very simple roof. A deep brown color started replacing the previous black, as if trying to imitate wood. The previous liquid form started solidifying rapidly.

In a few seconds, a small building, not much different from the ones around it, was formed. On its front, there was a two metre brown door with big display windows on its sides. Above the door, there was a rose-gold empty plaque.

"See? It's done already. Now you just need to name it and you have your shop." Shawn said. Andrew looked at the new building for a few seconds before turning to Shawn.

"What?" his expression was full of confusion as he pointed at the shop.