Hour after hour went by, with two people sitting quietly in a clearing deep inside the forest. One of the figures was meditating intensely, pearls of sweat on the forehead, and the other just watching, occasionally speaking a few words of advice.
If any wandering Cultivator passed by right now, they'd all start questioning their life's meaning, lamenting about how useless all their struggles were. Why? The meditating figures aura increased bit by bit, at an inconceivable speed, practically gaining at least one level every half an hour!
Of course, the two mysterious figures were Maren and Niita, with the former guiding the latter onto the path of Cultivation.
Originally, Maren hadn't taken Niita's high aptitude seriously and was thus surprised at her godlike speed. There were virtually no bottlenecks when her level increased, and her improvement speed was comparable to a racing car. She had only started Cultivation six hours ago for goodness' sake! And now she already approached the middle of the Understanding-Mortal realm! That was a speed comparable to even the best geniuses from the mainland's biggest sects!
Finally realizing the true might of a prodigy's aptitude, Maren was happy, whistling a happy tune while providing guidance to Niita.
Like this, the day quickly passed by and the sun started sinking behind the horizon. Seeing that it gradually got darker, Maren got up and stopped Niita's meditation.
"We are done for today."
With a wave of his hands, the tent he bought earlier appeared, falling onto the grass.
"You go and set up our campsite, I'll prepare dinner."
Niita was still in a state of comprehension, rehearsing the advice and pointers she had received during the day, and thus nodded subconsciously.
She set up the tent rather slowly, but Maren didn't mind it much, as a state of learning was evident on her face, and that's exactly what he wanted her to do; comprehend the essence of 'Mantled in Night Skies' quickly. Also, the ability to multitask was essential for Cultivators of higher realms and he didn't mind her getting used to it earlier.
Thirty minutes later, Niita woke up from her trance and hurriedly set up the remaining parts of the tent. She then walked towards Maren, who had started a little campfire next to the small river and was currently roasting some fish and bread over the flame. The delicious smell of the food made Niita's mouth drool, but she didn't dare take any of the fish without permission, only sitting down on a stone next to the fire cautiously. After a while, Maren started to put different kinds of spices on the fish, in a manner she had never seen before, even though she often helped her mother in the kitchen before. But when she saw Maren mixing together a weird and smelly dark liquid and pouring over the fish, she couldn't help but open her mouth.
"Master... what is that?"
It was obviously a cooking ingredient, or else he wouldn't have used it on the fish he painstakingly prepared before, but she couldn't understand what it was. Since she loved cooking and it was basically her only hobby, she decided to put down her fear and ask.
"This? It's called soy sauce. It's a speciality from Japan."
Maren had always loved camping, and he was fully absorbed by preparing the meal, so he didn't put much thought into his answer.
"Japan? What is a Japan, master?"
Niita had a confused look on her face.
Noticing his mistake, Maren chuckled slightly.
"Ah, I talked too much, hehe."
He didn't really want to talk about earth with people in this world, as they wouldn't believe him probably, but seeing Niita's pure and questioning look, he decided to explain it to her.
"Earth is my... homeworld."
She was confused at first, not understanding what he meant by 'homeworld', but thinking about it for a short moment her entire body froze, and she looked at Maren with eyes that burst with astonishment. Her master came from another world?!?! Does that mean...
Her astonishment grew and grew. Earlier, she only described the feeling of Maren's aura as godlike as a comparison, but he would have never guessed that he actually wasn't from this world! That could very well mean he was a real god!
Maren didn't bother to answer the questions on her mind and only ate his fish silently. After finishing, he began to walk towards the middle of the clearing, sat down there and started cultivating. When Niita finished her food as well, she sat down a short distance away from him and started watching the circulation of his Qi. The moon slowly started rising up on the sky, and the silver moonlight illuminated the forest.
Niita's eyes started twinkling. When he sat there, not moving, surrounding by colourful wisps of Qi and veiled by a layer of silver light, Maren looked quite handsome.
She felt her heart flutter for the first time, for a reason different than fear, when she looked at the young man sitting on the grass, the man that was her master.
Hours went by in this way, with neither Maren nor Niita moving the slightest bit at all. Only when it was around midnight did Maren open his eyes, and locked gazes with her. There was a slight golden glow in his iris and a charming smile on his face, the combination of both making her face flush red.
He got up and walked towards the tent. When he passed by her, Niita got up too and followed him inside.
***
The next day, they both woke up early in the morning. Niita noticed, to her embarrassment, that she was still hugging with Maren from last night, and the latter just watched her amusedly. She hurriedly removed herself from his embrace and started dressing. Maren did the same while admiring her peerless physique.
After exiting the tent he took out some bread and honey, handed half of it to Niita and started eating breakfast. It was great that, with the help of the system's inventory he didn't have to worry about freshness, as the items inside wouldn't decay over time.
Then, after a set of warmup exercises, he started doing some basic sword sets from earth, as to not get too rusty. He always liked swordsmanship and poured some actual effort into learning it, so it would be a waste to just let his skills decay.
While he let his sword sir through the air, Niita went to wash her face in the river and started meditating again afterwards.
When the morning mist slowly started to fade and the sun was rising again, both stopped what they were doing. Niita then proceeded to dismantle the tent, while Maren just sat down, waiting for her to finish.
A short while later, he stuffed the tent back into his inventory, and they both made their way back to the city. The entire time of the trip, Maren hummed a few catchy folk song tunes from Germany and Polland, making Niita nod her head in the rhythm.
They spent half the day getting back to Koda city and the sun was already burning high in the sky again when they finally entered the city gates.
Back on the main road, they hard a variety of whispers.
"Did you guys hear? Apparently, the Golden-Prism came into contact with a grandmaster level forger, who sold them a huge amount of peak tier weapons cheaply!"
"Yes, I heard they would perform a large scale auction soon too!"
"You think we could attend?"
"Bah, who are you kidding. I heard even the city lord of Ahan city would come. Do you think you could compete with the strongest Cultivator in terms of Wealth? Stop dreaming."
The discussions became pretty heated very quickly. If the crowd knew that the 'grandmaster' was actually walking right beside them, who knows how they'd react.
Maren didn't pay them any mind, and just walked towards the auction house directly, when they got there after a few minutes, an employee in a normal attendant's uniform walked towards them.
With a quick, respectful bow he started introducing himself.
"Sir expert, the manager sent me, to bring you to him as soon as you got back. He didn't want you to be troubled by the masses."
"En, good arrangements!"
Maren didn't want to be swarmed by those useless bugs either.
They quickly arrived in the manager's office and got warmly greeted by the latter.
"Sir grandmaster, you are here!"