The time spend with his mother was peaceful from that moment on, later that day they left in a carriage towards the capital. The capital was not that far away as they arrived the next morning after sleeping in the carriage.
The ride was smooth as even the bravest bandits wouldn't dare to attack a carriage with the Hable crest on it, if a bandit was strong enough to take that risk there were ways to earn more money in a safer way.
After waking up and hanging his head out of the window he noticed that the city was still a long way off, a place of light in the wavering darkness of dawn.
He grabbed the incomplete book of Pupil and starts examining it, and he found it to be quite interesting. There are no full techniques, but the underlying information is all there... 'Moeder doesn't want me to become strong by just being force-fed with high class techniques. If I want a good technique for cheap I'll need to use my brain to get it.' But this doesn't dissuade Plethora, in fact it motivates him to create his own version!
'I will become the strongest by making this path for myself! And maybe a little help from those titans?' He chuckles at himself before focusing on the book, studying what it says, what he'll need to know to become better in learning.
A while later Plethora saw the imposing sight of high stone walls with guards patrolling on top of them. Another higher wall further behind and a huge castle behind there. In that castle Plethora met the king before.
The carriage was let through the walls without being stopped, they pass a long line of people waiting for their turn to be let inside.
Once inside the walls his mother wakes up from the noise outside. "Oh I do love the sound of the big city in the morning," She breaths in deeply while stretching her back like a cat "The smell not so much though."
It was true, even though they had many solutions to waist problems, the smelliness of many people gathering was something they couldn't get rid of. They say that the tunnel system to get rid of the waist underneath the city is more complicated than the city above. And that criminals love making use of it to escape the guards, making them part of the underworld system.
Percy on the other hand had a plan in mind, and armed with a wallet two of his phantoms jump out of the window without his mom noticing. The perks of being a kid, hanging your head out of the window doesn't look that weird at all.
As the carriage continues traveling to the inner city to have some proper breakfast the two clones merged in one move through the masses without anyone noticing. Atlas's Phantom provides stealth in the battlefield, a busy shopping street is nothing compared to that.
Percy's idea is to buy his mother something nice and surprise her with it later. And the two phantoms set out to do just that.
Walking through the busy street they see many different stalls with things his mother would think are cute. Little tea cups with black and white bear drawings on it, green flowers with pink leafs, even small teabags woven out of the roots of a still living plant on top. But that's not the kind of thing Percy wants to give her.
And then they hear it, a random remark from a passing young woman. "Did you hear, they have the cutest little critters at Typhon!"
The phantoms appear out of nowhere in front of the woman and ask, "Lady, where can I find this Typhon you were talking about?"
The woman is visually startled. "Don't scare my like that young man! But it's a store that's a little hidden, so it's hard to explain.... You know what, I was planning to take my little sister here there later, but I guess we can go there now too." She says while pointing at the girl next to her, the girl seems about the same age as Plethora.
"Thank you." Plethora says while bowing a little to show his gratitude.
"Oh don't be so polite little boy. I am Eli, and my little sis here his Anna. She is a little shy." Eli says while laughing softly. Anna on the other hand blushes before hiding behind her big sister. "What is your name little ghostly boy?"
The phantoms are a little see through, even if it are many phantoms stacked on top of each other, which makes them resemble ghosts, but Eli can see that Plethora isn't a ghost or something else weird, but just a normal human.
"My name is Plethora, it's very nice to meet you both Eli and Anna." Again with a small bow, his parents taught him to be polite to strangers, especially to woman.
"You don't need to be so polite Plethora, and if you want you can stop the ghost thing. With me here no one will dare to rob you." Eli tries to comfort Plethora and flexes the tiny muscles in her arm. But Plethora knows that looking weak doesn't need to mean anything.
"Thanks Eli, but I can't do anything about my looks, it's part of a technique I practice." He doesn't bow this time, she's definitely trying to be friendly to him, so he shows a friendly smile back.
"It must be some technique if you want to sacrifice looking normal for it... Oh well, everyone his preferences. Now follow me!" And she resolutely turns around and walks to where she comes from.
Plethora didn't tell her he was just a clone. He didn't see any reason to.
While they're walking Plethora walks on the left side of Eli, Anna on the right. He notices that Anna keeps trowing curious looks at him behind Eli's back, she's probably just curious about his ghostly looks. "Hey Plethora, are you going up for the Boundless Ocean examination in a few days?" Eli asks out of the blue.
Plethora looks at her with a perplexed look. 'How does she know that?' He thinks to himself.
"Oh don't give me that look. A young boy, trained in any technique as far as you have, showing up in the capital just before the examination? That's a pretty safe guess." She says while rolling her eyes. "Anna here is also going for that examination. If I didn't expect you to go there I wouldn't have shown you the way myself silly boy. You know what they say, you need to be strong to gain respect." Eli gives Plethora a nice toothy smile. "Maybe you two can be friends?"
At that Anna's pale face turns red like a tomato. "Eli! I can find my own friends!"
"Oh, I thought you wanted to go to Typhon because you were scared of going lonely without your big sis?"
"Arg Eli!"
And like that the two sisters started to squabble as they walk. Plethora finds the experience oddly relaxing. He has always been only child, friends were mostly just friends because he is a Hable. So most of his time he has been training, training so he can spent more time with his dad and mom. His mom would take care of him after training hard, and his dad would be the one who trains him hard. He wouldn't say that it was lonely as a kid, but he sure would've loved some more people his own age.
On their way to Typhon Plethora found out that Eli actually tried the examination three years ago but failed. She didn't want to say what she needed to do and didn't want to 'spoil the surprise'. On this Anna spoke to Plethora for the first time and said that Eli didn't want to tell her anything either, seemingly still holding a grudge.
He also took a good look at both the woman. Eli was quite tall, about 1,75m tall, long grayish green hair that fell till halfway her back and matching eyes. And even though Plethora is many things but not a perv he still took a minute to admire the curves on the young woman. You could definitely see that she moves a lot outside with a slim build and slight tan on her arms and face.
Anna was different. Her hair was greener and so were her eyes. Her hair was cut at the length of her chin and just above her eyebrows. Framing her young face making her look even cuter. But her build was truly different from her big sister. She was thin, everywhere. Her skin was slightly suntanned though, making her skinny build seem not sickly at all.
The other thing he found out was that Typhon is a store that sells everything living that's not smart enough to speak. Plants, animals, monsters, Eli even hinted that they could have more. But everything depended on your luck in what they have in stock and your luck in how much the owner likes you. But Plethora wasn't that worried as Eli told him it was mostly based on how talented and hardworking someone is.
Arriving at the store he's truly happy the two sisters walked him there, it's truly a hidden place hidden behind several alleyways. You need to walk through at least five alleys that are so narrow that you cannot walk comfortably with three people next to each other before seeing a main road again.
"Thanks a lot for bringing me here. I'm really curious about what they have here if it's this hidden!" He is truly curious, it could be hidden because it is extremely good, extremely poor, or because it doesn't like the authorities. But Plethora isn't worried, even if it is a trap he'll at most lose his wallet, and money isn't something he's worried about. Even though the money he is carrying is a significant amount for any normal family.
The girls walk in together first. Telling Plethora to wait as it is the rules of this place that any buying party should come in separately. The two sisters only wanted to buy something for Anna, so they were one buying party, Plethora was one on his own.
He walks in and feels a weird feeling in his gut. He knows this feeling, it's something that only the highest end stores can have. A shop instance, a small pocket dimension allowing stores to provide separate instances for different parties and different displays for different parties.
The only drawback is that one can only leave when the shop owner permits one to leave.
In front of Plethora is a big man, big as in tall and extremely toned, gray hair tied up in a bun and a deep black eye staring at Plethora. The other eye seems to be lost in battle, a giant scar runs from the man's right forehead down to his chin, taking out his eye. When the man smiles the scar is a straight line, pointing to the fact that while the man was battling the battle that lost him his eye a big smile was plastered on his face.
'A battle maniac' is the only thing that Plethora can think of.
"So the newest Hable is looking for a pet?" The man says with a small smile on his face, a smile that says 'You must be wondering how I know who you are?'
Plethora isn't even that surprised. A man who can afford a shop instance in a location no one can find must be able to gain some standard information about nobles, or anyone that enters for that matter. He probably even knows it isn't truly Plethora standing in front of him, but his phantom, two of them.
"I am actually looking for a pet for my mother so she doesn't feel so lonely when both my dad and I are gone..." Plethora pauses for a moment before continuing. "And maybe a companion for myself, if you have one that could grow with me?"
"Didn't those two girls tell you that you can only buy one item per head in here?" The man smiles even wider now, not even disappointed that Plethora isn't shocked that the man knows who he is.
Plethora splits in two. "Does this count as two?" the two voices say at the same time.
The man starts laughing loudly. "For you it does young man, for you it does."
He stands up and a portal appears to the left side between Plethora and the man. The man holds his hand out as to point to the side without the portal and says "After you young man."