With a staff in my hand along with bag of 500 numers, I travelled across town to find a suitable hotel. 500 numers itself was quite a small amount, but I was too tired to go to an auction house at such a late hour, to sell the staff. Either way at this time, no one rich would sit for an auction in the human realm.
After walking for about 20 minutes, I found a royal hotel decorated with a large, central, gold watch. I walked through the gates and met a man at a counter. Before I could speak the man started talking.
"Good morning sir. My name is Adam. How may I help you?"
Hearing search formalities, I could determine that the price of a room in this hotel would be expensive. Yet still, to confirm I asked,
"I'm looking to book a single bedroom. What would be the price?"
Adam replied, "The price for a single bedroom would be 1500 numers. However, if you do wish to buy a double bedroom, the price would only be 2000 numers."
Hearing those numbers I was saddened, to know that I had to drag my body to yet another hotel.
With a dreary eyes I replied, "Adam. I thank you for your service, but I must leave for now."
While bowing his head to indicate his understanding nature, Adam spoke,
"It's alright sir, I understand."
I left the hotel in despair, searching for another.
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Hours had passed. It was almost midnight. I had searched and wondered across tens of hotels with prices far beyond the amount I had. Until finally, I decided to reside in a cheap motel.
As I walked in, I was greeted by a young lady. She wore a metal armour that only covered her chest and her legs. She held a jug of beer in her hand and spoke,
"Hi olddie! Come on in!"
I was dragged by the young girl to a table. After sitting at the table, she gulped down a large amount of beer and sighed,
"Haaaa.... This beer sure does pack a punch! So...how much can you pay?"
I replied saying, "Well young lady, I'm ready to pay 500 numers for a single bedroom."
I tried my best to make my intentions clear. I was tired and wanted to sleep.
The young lady smiled, "Alright old man. Then it'll be 200 for a 'single bedroom'. My name's Risio. If you ever need any help, you can meet me at that counter over there."
The lady pointed a shabby office room on the same floor. After that, she got up and led me to my room. I paid her the amount and she left.
As I closed the door I sighed, "Huff...finally this old man can get some sleep!"
I looked across the room. The first thing that bothered me was the bed. Of all things, it just had to be made out of hay. 900 years ago, when I was a lesser demon, I was given a hay bed just like this. But after over 700 years, this was the first time I had ever slept on hay. Dreary as I was, I forgot about it soon and slept.
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I woke up as a ray of light hit my face through the window. Honestly, this was the best sleep I'd had in years. I guess not being a King has it's perks too. I wonder how my son would cope up with all that paperwork. Hahahaa...
*Meanwhile, in the demon realm, Helios sneezes with dark circles across his eyes, doing paperwork. "Who would've remembered me at this time of the night?....I mean day....Huff, I'm losing track of time..."*
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The first thing that I realised I had to do was, to sell the staff I had made. I asked Risio for the directions to the auction house.
After 50 minutes of travel, I reached. The auction house had a large number of stairs at the entrance and a wide gate that was similar to a tunnel. Two guards were standing at the entrance, above the stairs. One of them was an elf and the other, was a human. They wore a heavy set of armour with their face unguarded.
As I walked up all the stairs, the guards blocked my way with two large spears.
"Halt!", said the human.
He continued speaking, "What is your business here?"
I replied, "I wish to sell this staff."
The elf examined the staff and spoke, "You are permitted to go."
The two guards moved their spears from the entrance. With this, I walked through.
I approached a fat, short-statured, bearded man, who was sitting at the counter. With one look I could tell he was a dwarf.
I looked at the dwarf and asked, "Where can I sell this staff?"
The dwarf snatched the staff out of my hand and spoke, "This staff...are you a friend of Vagnolin?"
I recalled the name of the dwarf I had met before and replied, "Ah. Yes. That dwarf. Why, yes I am."
The dwarf was delighted to hear this, "Ain't that nice. He recommended your staff to us last night."
The dwarf squirmed around the chair before continuing, "I'll take this staff for now. An auction will be held tomorrow. Your staff would be sold with a starting price of 1,000,000 numers. I hate talking so much, but I gotta ask according to policy; is that fine with you?"
I complied saying, "Yes. That's absolutely fine."
After this conversation, I left the auction house, without a plan in mind.
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While walking for a span of 50 minutes, I thought to myself, after selling my staff, I had nothing more to do. Thus, with all that had happened, I thought meditating some more would be feasible.
I reached the motel and entered the shabby cabin. Unfortunately, Risio wasn't present at the time. Therefore, I walked up to my room and opened the door of my room with my mana. (Each and every hotel door is opened and closed with the help of mana. While renting a room, the owner of the hotel inserts his or her mana along with the person renting the room. This makes the room accessible to that person. On renewing this process with someone else, the previous renter's mana no longer helps in opening doors.)
I sat on the hard wooden floor and started to meditate. This time, since the mana in the surrounding was low, (due to the presence of a large amount of people constantly using mana as a source of energy,) I decided to use my mana to help increase my life force. This process involved utilising the mana from the central core and spreading it across the body. Processes like these were only possible for grandmasters with a high level of experience, such as myself.
I spread the mana slowly across my body. With a purer form of mana, I could build a better physical body simultaneously while increasing my lifespan. This process in general was one that was made using ancient demonic arts, which were readily available when I was young. But in this age and time, the demonic arts I was practising would be considered as relics. Nonetheless, it wasn't that this art was easy to practice if you had the steps. Even with the rules and instructions, only a limited few geniuses could practice this throughout the world.
After hours of hard work, while I was still meditating, the door snapped open.
A voice spoke, "Yo! Old man!........ huh? wait. How are you so young?"
I opened my eyes and looked at the person. It was Risio.
I stood up and looked at the mirror present opposite to the bed. Most of my wrinkles were gone. I looked like a human in his 30s if you ignored the colour of my hair. I stroked my beard and laughed,
"Hahaha! This pure mana was way more efficient than I expected it to be! All this time I thought that having such a low amount of mana was bad, however, with mana this efficient, I could be a God in no time! Just a couple hundred years more! Hahaha."
Risio looked at me as if I had gone mad. She tiptoed till she was outside the room and left.
Before I moved, I heard a voice outside the door, "What a weird old man..."
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Anyways, I couldn't meditate again as I was disturbed. My mana was also nearly run out. Thus, I could no longer do anything else.
It was around 12 o'clock in the morning. I had completed everything that I had to do for the day, so I decided to have some lunch.
I strolled down the streets, found the same restaurant, and sat at a table. I looked at the amount of money I had in the bag. With 300 numers, I could only use a hundred. The other 200 would be used to pay of today's rent at the motel. After selling the staff, I would no longer have to face such a situation, and thus, for once, I didn't mind eating less. I ordered a steak with a little bit of wine.
Little did I know that eating lunch would lead to a fight against the royal baron's son.