Blue Beach City

"Jena is it? Well it's nice to meet you." Minos smiled, reaching up weakly to shake her hand.

Smiling, Jena returned the handshake before immediately getting back into talking, being the type that never stopped once you got her started.

…

With Jena's unrelenting talking, the journey was a fast one, and before Minos knew it, the two had already arrived at a grand city.

Despite having traveled all across the Alephora Continent, Minos couldn't help but admit that this small city alone was comparable, if not better, then Aleph City itself.

It was clear this new place he had found himself in was of a completely new level, and the Alephora Continent was just a little playground in comparison.

Letting out a sigh at the wonders of the world, Minos and Jena finally entered the city after being stopped for a moment by the guard.

Normally if Minos had tried entering alone this would have been a problem, but fortunately Jena clearly had some reputation in this place, so the guard let the two in without much trouble.

Entering the city, Minos looked around curiously, though he was already used to such sights, so his interest was only held for a short while before he put his focus back on walking.

However while he wasn't all that interested, Jena still took the effort to tell Minos about every single store they came across, even whispering all sorts of strange gossip into Minos's ear as she did so.

Fortunately, as annoying as Jena was, the journey was a relatively short one, so the two soon arrived at a small clinic that was mostly empty except for a few guests sitting in the waiting room patiently.

"Next." An elderly voice called out from the room next door, causing the middle-aged man who had been sitting patiently to get up joyously.

Walking into the room with a limp arm, it didn't take him long to walk back out flexing his arm, looking as good as new.

Impressed at the doctor's skill, Minos also took a seat with the help of Jena, refusing her offer to cut the line as he waited for his turn.

The doctor was clearly a skilled man, so each patient typically only went in for a few minutes before coming back out, a refreshed smile on each of their faces.

Standing up weakly, Minos slowly walked into the other room with the help of Jena before finally meeting the doctor in question.

Despite his advanced age, Minos could still see the similarities between him and Jena hidden underneath his aged features.

"Oh? This is rare, I don't typically deal with such bad injuries." The old man said after only a glance at Minos, his skills clearly incredible.

"Grandpa, you have to help, otherwise this old man might die!" Jena said with teary eyes.

"Calm down, calm down. Who said I wasn't going to help? Here, lie down on the bed and let me have a look."

Nodding, Minos got onto the bed, his stature finally being revealed as he laid down with a straightened spine, no longer hunching over. 

He was so large that his feet were hanging off the other side, causing Jena and her Grandpa to look at each other awkwardly for a moment.

"It's amazing that you're still so tall at such an age! You must have been a giant back when you were young." The old man said with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood of the room.

Despite being way off, the doctor wasn't completely wrong, in fact Minos had lost about 10 cm or so of height due to his aging, having dropped from around 200 cm to 190 cm.

Of course considering the average human male was only around 170 cm, he still dwarfed most people, so it wasn't surprising that the doctor was amazed.

"Anyways, let me have a better look here." The old man said, before pulling out a strange device and pressing it all over Minos's body.

"Amazing… How are you still alive?" He couldn't help but exclaim after he finished his quick inspection.

"That's what I was saying!" Jena quickly pitched in.

"Is it really that bad?" Minos asked, not even having the strength to check for himself.

"It's about one step better than death itself, but the fact that you're alive means that your vitality is still incredibly strong, even at your advanced age. You must have some sort of special physique." The old man added.

"Special physique, really! My heaven's, don't tell me I randomly stumbled into a Blessed!" Jena said with glittering eyes, Minos being unsure of what the two were going on about.

While he was aware of physiques to some extent, considering both his daughter and wife had one, that was the depth of his knowledge.

What they did, what abilities they granted, what kinds there were, that was all blank, but Minos was always happy to learn, so he was quick to ask.

"Physiques, Blessed, what are those?"

"You really do live under a rock, don't you!?" Jena said exasperatedly, always amazed at the depth of Minos's ignorance.

"Watch your tongue Jena! Please ignore my rude granddaughter, she doesn't always know what and what not to say."

"It's fine, she's young." Minos smiled, waving his hand weakly.

"Young? She's already 25 for heaven's sake, she should have been married a long time ago!" The old man suddenly said, causing Minos to scratch his head awkwardly, not sure how to reply.

Seemingly realizing he was being inappropriate, the old man quickly let out a cough before finally getting to answering Minos's question.

"Anyways, back to the main point, Physiques are special bodies some people are born with that grant all sorts of unique powers."

"Colloquially, we call people with Physiques, Blessed, which I think goes without any explanation."

"So far, Blessed have been split into four different levels, Human, Earth, Sky, and Heaven."

"Even Human Blessed, the weakest of the Blessed, still cultivate many times faster than normal people, not to mention they have access to special traits and abilities."

"For example, the Fire Physique which is at the human level, not only allows the user to learn and master fire-based techniques much faster, but all these techniques are also significantly stronger in their hands."

"On top of that, this advantage naturally also applies to fire-based cultivation techniques, which means when you add that to their already improved cultivation speed, they cultivate even faster."

"A Human Blessed already has so many advantages compared to the typical cultivator, so you can imagine just how terrifying a Heaven Blessed is."

"Amazing. Who knew that such unique people existed in the world." Minos said with a sigh, having never realized just how little he had yet to understand of this world.

"What are you signing for? You may be one of those Blessed!" Jena added, having not forgotten her grandfather's previous words.

"I'm not Blessed, if I was I'd have known, it must just be due to the cultivation technique I use." Minos said, not completely lying.

The Heaven Forsaken Furnace Technique, beyond its core abilities, granted a whole host of other benefits, including improved strength, speed, vitality, etc, and none of these improvements were small by any means.

It was just that compared to the true nature of the Heaven Forsaken Furnace Technique, they weren't worth mentioning, so Minos just glossed over them.

Though it seemed now that it was exactly those benefits that he had ignored that had actually saved him, keeping him alive through what should have otherwise killed him.

"Cultivation technique, huh? There are quite a few that grant advanced vitality, so that's also a possibility." The old man said, not asking Minos to disclose the technique he used, aware that this was a secret most cultivators held close to their hearts.

"Really? And here I got excited for no reason." Jena said with a pout, her excitement immediately fizzling out.

"Excuse my granddaughter. Anyways, there is a concoction that is quite helpful for internal injuries, the only problem is the price…"

"Price? Go ahead and say."

"One vial should cost about 1000 Nux Stones, and from the look of things, you may need 10 or so to heal up properly."

If it was in the past, 1000 Nux Stones would be nothing to Minos, but now he was completely broke, his entire wealth having gone along to that other world with Rinka.

"That's a problem… Is there any way to earn money around here?" Minos asked.

"Of course there are, but with your age and condition, none of them are very viable…"

It didn't take long for an uncomfortable silence to fill the room, Minos absorbed in his own thoughts as he considered ways to make money.

While he could fall back on his old skills, he needed money to buy supplies in the first place, so he just ended up right back on square one.

Even the cheapest talisman making would take a couple Nux Crystals to get started, which he didn't have at the moment.

Not to mention building up to 1000 Nux Stones from that would still take a while, and he just wasn't certain he had that kind of time or strength.

Feeling the tension, Jena couldn't help but squirm around for a moment before a light went off in her mind, her voice ecstatic as she explained her idea.