Well, they were wrong. After I bled all over it on my first night in that cave I heard a voice tell me that my talents were in line to be the inheritor of some long-dead cultivator. I wasn't too impressed at the fact that a near deathless existence was killed by one of his thousands of concubines like I understand wanting to be loved by women….but anything in the triple digits was a tad bit beyond help.
I was actually glad after reading through a bit of the inheritance that there were a few mid-grade cultivation techniques for a multitude of races, the inheritance itself was more focussed on soul power than actual cultivation level so all of the cultivation manuals were supplementary to the rest of the art that would nourish his soul.
The two remaining portions of the inheritance were the combat art self-published as 'The Fetters to Enslave the Heavens' which was nonsense and I will come up with a better name for that because even if I have to think that one more time I will strike the gem with a hammer, the consequences be damned.
The last portion of the inheritance was knowledge on crafting puppets, from just about anything you could get your hands on except...nope that's in there too, even the living could somehow be made into puppets. Maybe there was more than one reason why that concubine killed him other than jealousy, oh well his loss is my gain I suppose, my class and talents were mostly in healing with potential in fire and wind magic. So even if I learned spells in other fields I would still be a healer, my main talent, so if I learned fire spells they would mix with my healing talent to become a holy fire, originally that sounded really cool.
Until I found out that holy fire would be strong only against darkness or evil beings, so if I did use it I would be targeted by such beings as if I was the scum of the earth.
With my wind talents it would become, you guessed it, the blessed holy wind. now to be fair once I could use my wings for flight it would be pretty useful and it could form barriers or blow away poison but it also had little damage output. So having puppets defend me was actually pretty cool in my book until I found out that even though the knowledge was sound and gave great ideas the materials for these puppets went extinct once the Merge happened hundreds of thousands of years ago!
This old bastard probably got killed before it happened and only left this thing as a last will in case of an accident or murder in his case. After sifting through the rest of the information I copied of the data to my cloud network and sold the remaining cultivation techniques to an online auction house, after confirming that the arts were real they transferred 200,000 credits into my account and sent me a contract to not resell the information for the next five years, I happily agreed and signed the contract.
Picking up the Pamphlet again the recruitment would last for the next three months, with my new funds and the families cultivation resources I can gain back a few small realms, being a cherub with flightless wings for the rest of my life is a big nope for me. Looking at my wall there were two posters, one had the old way of gaining power and respect, cultivation, and it was the only way for the angelic race to be promoted.
I was a Cherub the lowest of the ranks if you didn't count halfbreeds, then came the ArchAngel class they had nine classes just like the cherubs but it was divided in half the lower half of the class were just known as angels which consisted of the first five levels while the upper half was the ArchAngels, the Angels had a pair of wings that could be used to hover or glide in the air for a short time while ArchAngels could actually fly. After the ArchAngels came the Seraphs, elite experts with beautiful wings.
Seraphs had three stages, the first stage gave them a second pair of wings, the mid-stage gave two more pairs and the final stage gave them a final two pairs for a total of six pairs of wings. Each pair enhanced the amount of power one could absorb and contain by several-fold but gave immense prowess of flight. After the Seraphs were the last rank among the angelic races, the Archons.
The last Archon to ascend to the high council was over a thousand years ago, and there wasn't talk of any upcoming seraphs to challenge that bottleneck. He had no clue as to what an Archon looked like and every time he asked his mom she would tell him it was a secret, boop his nose, laugh, and walk away. Though sometimes she would tell him to cultivate harder so he can find out firsthand, which was the plan anyway.
Looking at the second poster though was what irked him, originally being a higher being would have made him top of the food chain, and sure he could probably fight a dozen normal humans no problem, but after the Merge, the cultivation path had been placed in upheaval. The materials and resources underwent massive changes and basically no longer existed, so eons of knowledge were only used as reference material, the class system was born and any being left alive started at level 0 and at first no one gave a crap about the system until they started running into high-level beasts that normally wouldn't have been their match and were slaughtered.
It turned out that everyone had base stats and talents, now with high cultivation, your base stats were pretty high for anything below level 60 but if an ArchAngel fought a level 60 beast without levels of their own they would most likely lose and retreat, or be food. Monsters breed very quickly and gain levels by fighting just like everyone else, they being more violent by nature gained levels by attacking just about anything not from their own villages, tribes, or nests and even that wasn't very rare.
The new path to power was relatively simple, anything you kill gives you experience, the higher your level the more experience you need. Over the years we learned that certain skills could be trained from someone else from higher levels, organizations like the guilds, churches, and unions. Class trainers are adventurers that retired or recruited for a great salary, depending on where and who you learned from you would either spend weeks or months training a new skill or if you had the credits than you could by a skill crystal which would accelerate your comprehension of the skill to hours or days depending on the knowledge of the teacher.
I wanted to be an Archon just to solve that age-old mystery of what it meant and how it felt, other than that I wanted to go on crazy adventures, but my parents were adamant about me staying at home after the incident with the dragon. Luckily they were away on business, my father is an ArchAngel and the owner of one of the solar systems top trading companies while mom had broken through to a Seraph a few years ago and was appointed the chief of a mercenary guild, and with them being married most of their contracts came from my fathers' caravans and bounty hunting these days.
With my parents away I was free to play, so I checked my account, I had a total of 285,000 credits, my allowance was pretty high at 20,000 credits a month. So with my small fortune, credit to one dead immortal, I needed to get some armor and weapons and plenty of materials for crafting puppets….and a few manuals on current puppetry crafting. The inheritance was a great reference with beautiful designs but since none of the materials matched what was available on the market he would have to learn what was currently used and redesign his own puppets. Which meant only one thing, a trip into town.
Pulling on a black coat he went downstairs and snuck into the garage considering he would need a large number of materials he went straight to a small shuttlecraft, technically I wasn't old enough to drive but it had an autopilot function that would take me to a port just outside the market district. taking out my tablet I linked to to the shuttle and programmed my destination, while the shuttle began its diagnostic run down I did a search on the network, I could find the manuals and tools for puppets in a few specialty shops in the southern half of the market district while armor and weapons were close to the docking station for the shuttle.
A few minutes later the shuttle began its launch and slowly lifted from the ground and made its way to the exit of the garage after got outside the vehicle climbed into the air and took off towards town, I say town but it was a city with 50 million residents, my family lived on the outskirts of the city, nothing but fields of medicinal plants and a few herds of tamed beasts. Some of the beasts were used as food and some were sold as mounts. Shuttles may be awesome at long distances but if you needed to hunt down beasts or investigate certain areas it would just get in the way, not to mention shuttles cost more than my current funds so not many adventurers would waste their money on one.
Ten minutes into the flight the shuttle pinged the tablet with a message that they would arrive momentarily, looking up from the tablet he could see the magnificent silver buildings at the center of the city.
I had decided to buy from the more common vendors so I wouldn't waste money on overly showy goods, he didn't need a sword etched with a dragon image with an enchanted gem in the hilt. He had already checked out the goods listed from the shops that he would be buying from, the prices listed were fair for the goods he had chosen but he would still go and make the purchase in person and check the quality of the equipment, no one liked buying something only to have it not match the description upon arrival. He placed the tablet against his forearm, the screen shrunk down and smoothed into almost a second skin that glowed with a small map that had his route to the shops.
The shuttle descended onto a platform and began the docking procedure, there was a light shaking before it went still and a green light came on around the door. Exiting the shuttle there was a very pretty female attendant waiting for him, "Good afternoon young master, how long will you be staying with us today?" In response, I tapped the tablet which activated my account and held it out for her to confirm.
"I'll be here for most of the day, just do a full days charge and add a physical labor charge as well, once I have the materials I will call for the pickup arrangements if that is alright?" She took out her own device and scanned my own. Before her tablet pinged she stepped into his personal space and pulled out a small card, without breaking eye contact she pushed the card into his front pocket, "That's right young master, we will provide physical labor, all you have to do is call."
He took another look at her. She was cute for a human, with plenty of curves, green eyes, and black hair. I leaned forward, her eyes widened slightly and she leaned forward, I let our lips lightly touch before pulling away, keeping just barely out of reach. She gasped lightly at the contact and stayed close while looking up at me.
"What's your name?"
"Rin."
"How much do you make working for the tower service?"
She blushed in embarrassment but she still answered "22,000 per year, young master."
The poor girl would barely get by in the city, but she was cute and seemed resourceful he could see the ambition in her eyes. She might make a good subordinate if she were to start training, he would need his own subordinates in the long run and a stable income as well to support his crafting needs.
"Come work for me, Rin, I will provide training and increase your current salary to 3000 credits per month and if you do well I will increase your pay. I can see that you have potential and I want to polish you into a fine gem, it may be a little hard at first but I think you can handle it, so what do you think?"
There were tears at the fringes of her eyes, 'that's good, this offer means a lot to her', she took a deep breath and collected herself. He let her take as much time as she needed, her demeanor showed him she wasn't a horny young girl, she was intelligent and she would do what she had to to survive. After another two minutes, she nodded, "I will pledge myself to your service, young … I mean, my master!" she smiled and gave him a curtsey.
He brought up his system page and everything he told her came to life, he looked it over and willed the contract to her, the words formed into the air on parchment of light, they both stored a digital copy to their cloud tablets as well, when she accepted the contract it split in two, one for him and the other for her. This would make it so he couldn't go back on his word unless she did not perform up to his standards. "Alright, prepare a letter of resignation for your current employer and be ready for my call. I will need a few strong workers if everything goes according to plan."
"Yes, m-Master"
'That was really cute', I leaned forward and kissed her. She gave a surprised yelp before melting into my embrace. This was the first time I was close to a girl since before the incident, and I believed the furthest I could go with a woman was enjoying her taste, but when Rin had flirted with him, he had felt something briefly.
With this kiss he felt it again, his pain receptors had been dampened by the living metal but he could feel everything like normal now but he hadn't expected to feel that rising sensation and the tightening of his pants.
I pulled away and let Rin take a breath, she had started using her tongue and if they kept going he wasn't sure when he would get to his tasks, there was still so much to do, "After I finish in town we will have time for fun" he kissed her again until she nodded in agreement.
"I'm looking forward to it, my master," she pushed him away and had a cute smirk on her face. I believe now that having cute subordinates is the only subordinate he will hire. Sure that was sexist, and he didn't care, female subordinates could do everything male subordinates could.
Though I guess discriminating against my fellow males wouldn't be too polite so only a select few would be in the upper echelon while females would have to work just as hard as their male counterparts, but he was getting ahead of himself as he still needed a stable income to support himself and his future subordinates. Maybe I should ask Dad for a small loan, just a million credits? I could even ask one of Dad's business partners if there were any new enterprises springing up that they could push his way into.
Taking the lift from his landing pad took a few minutes, walking out of the tower I was met with the sights and sounds of the city, not the richest part of it mind you, but it was still a great view. It was like walking into a fantasy styled town with technology clinging to every surface. Technology and magic had come together to make a place where each one leaned on each other, either one was splendid by there own right but when they came together they provided an amazing sight, firearms no longer shot metal projectiles, most monster races could survive more than a few rounds from a standard rifle so cold weapons reigned supreme but that didn't mean firearms had no place.
Low leveled monsters such as goblins and wargs and such were rather easy to kill with low caliber weapons, it was the sound and low ammo capacity that made them a problem. Sure you killed ten goblins, but the sound traveled far enough that you alerted three nests and now they were after you, most adventurers couldn't afford bags of holding much less than the extreme prices for a storage bracelet.
With everything else that changed the creation of spatial equipment was rendered useless, about 200 years ago some genius figured out the materials and method to recreate space and storage equipment and the trading company that recruited him was wealthy beyond means. Even though I didn't have one, mostly because my parents said I didn't need one, I could probably purchase a bag of holding for 100,000 credits base price but that was about one-third of my savings, I could get by without one for now.
Moving through the busy street was difficult, to say the least, everyone had things they needed for their next adventure and they needed it yesterday. There were two types of shops, those you entered and the stalls along the alleyways in between them. You could hear the stall owners calling out prices and specials on their goods, stall owners were usually adventurer owned trying to cut out the middleman and get a better price on things they had retrieved from their hunts or quests. That also meant the goods hadn't received a letter of authentication from a reputable source, so there was the chance you were being taken for a ride.
I managed to push through the adventurers until I reached my desired location, it was an average looking building with a black sign with red print that read 'Baines Armoury'. Straightforward with none of the tacky signs that said nonsense about 'cheapest prices' or 'best in the business' it may not be the most popular or flamboyant but when your mom has mercenaries coming and going you can learn a thing or two about good equipment and where to get it.
I pushed open the door and walked in, a small bell announced my entry, no one was at the counter. A muffled shout came from the back, "Be out in just a minute, take a look around while you wait!"
Even though I knew what I wanted it never hurt to take another look, looking at the shelves and racks of weapons and armor was fun but nothing caught my eye until I saw a pair of mannequins that had a set of robes.
The design had the length ending just after the knee with two slits in the front and one in the back, making it easier to move around without tripping over the fabric. One model could have the sleeves up and the other down, customers preference, there was a built-in hood that did quite a good job at hiding one's face.
Taking a look at the back I sighed in relief, 'no cape thank the gods', the chest piece was designed with a metal plate beneath the fabric that would protect your heart and lungs while there seemed to be a flexible yet sturdy weave for the abdomen and spine of the outfit. Wearing one would probably make you look like an ostentatious assassin, but it would get the job done and you would look good while doing it, the price was a little high but not by much for the craftsmanship that went into it.
After another five minutes of looking around, a middle-aged woman walked out of the back, she was wearing smithing leathers, still, she came to the counter and tossed her gloves onto the counter. "So what can I get for you young miss?" she asked with a warm smile.
'Not again' I wept on the inside.
"Sorry to disappoint you ma'am but I'm a boy, and I placed an order this morning under the name Aka."
Taken off guard for a moment before letting out a chuckle, "Sorry about that, but you know what you look like so please don't blame me for the misunderstanding, and let's see, here you are for a standard shortsword with a matching knife in a dual-styled sheath, with another two knives of the same design one with a sheath for the thigh and one for a boot.
Well, at least you will have a spare blade in case of an emergency. Alright, and you ordered a .45 caliber handgun with three magazines and the ammo to fill them, with a modified holster to carry the mags. Alright, your current total is 3000 credits anything else we can help you with?"
I nodded and pointed towards the mannequins, "How many sets of robes do you have in stock?"
"Four, they are a prototype that one of my trainees came up with. This model can adjust to the wearers' height and body type and they can change color, though I had to do the enchantments myself the concept was supposed to be active camouflage, that is turning out to be a problem so, for now, it is just what color you like to wear. Not a lot of assassins would go for light armor that showy, and without the active camo they wouldn't buy it."
Well, I wish it had that active camo now as that would add to my survivability in the wilds, and at 5000 credits a robe they must have some impressive defense for light armor. "I will take them all, I would like to wear one out along with the weapons also do you happen to have these in stock?" He passed her a list of standard gear for new adventurers, like a one-person tent, collapsible shovel, a multi-tool, and a few other basic goods. She took the list and added it to the invoice, "Okay, with everything added in your new total is at 25,145 credits please have look and confirm the total while I go get everything, which robe did you want to wear out today long or short sleeve?"
"Short please."
She retrieved the robe and showed him the changing room, after changing he came out and asked for help placing the sheathes and holster as he had never done it himself before and his hands weren't that steady yet. She agreed and showed him how and where things should be placed and helped get everything situated, though her hands did a little roaming making him blush a bit. While she only gave him a light laugh as her explanation, after getting equipped and noting how everything was meant to be placed he signed the receipt and paid for the goods letting her know someone would come by for the rest of the goods soon.
"Thank you, young sir, and please come back soon!" She thanked him and walked into the back of the shop, smiling at the back view of the shop owner he left and gave Rin a quick call letting her know that the first package was ready and which shop, he quickly made his way to the trolley station nearby and paid for a seat.
The trolly would get him to the southern market much faster than pushing his way through the crowds. Next was to get the materials and basics of the current puppet making recipes, plus the equipment to build a small lab at home.
As the trolley moved about the market, he watched the crowds and at first, everything seemed like a normal prosperous city but as time passed he noticed that there were quite a few homeless. Women and children were the majority but there were a few men on the streets but they had various injuries that without proper medical care would make most adventurers retire.
'That isn't a good sign, why are there so many destitute families? The death rate of new adventurers is pretty high but if you survive your first year the rate drops significantly. I might be able to use them, but first I will need to find out what happened to make them all homeless in the first place. While he was pondering over this new discovery, he had arrived at his destination. Stepping off the trolly he heard a few catcalls and whistles from a group of passing young men.
I pulled the hood on and ignored them, the southern market was a bit on the shady side of society which sold indentured servants, sex, dangerous materials, and other non-traditional goods. The streets were not as crowded but most people who entered the market would wear masks or hoods, no one wanted their private affairs or purchases out in the open if they could avoid it.
Unfortunately, the only shop within the city that dealt in puppetry was in the southern market, it was a medium-sized warehouse squeezed between a slavers den and whore house. Passing by the slaver den he saw a few posts for premium goods that were going on sale later that day, a few of them caught his eye but he would come back after he had gotten what he was after.
The name of the store was 'String Theory' which was slightly humorous, puppets no longer required actual strings, maybe a string of consciousness to link yourself to your puppet, of course, there were several ways to link puppets to an owner but it depended on how the puppet was crafted.
Opening the door he walked into the shop, there were attendants all about the shop either polishing the shelves and merchandise or moving materials from one part of the store to another. The strange part was they all wore the same long black robes and they all wore the same black mask shaped like a black dog. One of the attendants came up to me and greeted me in a muffled voice, "Welcome to String Theory, what can we get for you today dear customer?"
It was a rather formal address but everyone had their own standards of business, he had done some light research on a few manuals he would need plus a special catalog of materials used for beginners in puppetry, he pulled the list from his pocket and handed it to the attendant. "For starters, these manuals, and I would like to view the sets of tools for crafting puppets, also if you could prepare fifty sets worth of materials for standard beginner-level puppet creation?"
The attendant took the list for a moment, before showing me to the counter and began writing an invoice, while he was working the manuals were brought to me and I perused the catalog of materials there were only a dozen core materials and nearly one hundred supportive materials. For the most part puppet creation was not as expensive in the lower levels as he thought, the inheritance he received had called for the best materials that an immortal could get their hands-on, even if he wasted materials on beginner level puppets, that old bastard wasted money like it was his goal in life.
"Here are the crafting sets customer, there are three sets with one for beginners one for journeyman and another for masters of the craft. Each set of tools has three separate qualities bronze, silver, and gold are available for sale. The sets are designed so that each one is part of the next, so I advise keeping to the same quality from one to the next."
Looking over the sets he learned where the money gets invested.
Beginner:
Bronze-1500 credits
Silver-3000 credits
Gold-6000 credits
Journeyman:
Bronze-6000 credits
Silver-12000 credits
Gold-24000 credits
Master:
Bronze-240,000 credits
Silver-480,000 credits
Gold-960,000 credits
The beginner and journeyman sets were not so bad but the master sets took a significant leap forward, "Are there a quality past gold?" I asked hoping it was a no.
"There are."
'Damn, of course, there are.'
"Is there a rank beyond master?"
A few moments of silence passed and I thought that was a dumb question only to hear that the nightmare continued.
"There are more ranks above master but I do not know them. A word of advice, the set does not make the craftsmen but you also get what you pay for."
Thinking over how in the end by the time he became a master of the craft his income should be stable enough to get the corresponding set so he chose the gold quality for the beginner and journeyman sets and treated it as an investment for the future, the total for everything over 40,000 credits. Although this should last him for a while, he hoped, after signing and paying for it all he left the shop and was preparing to call Rin when he heard a commotion at the slavers den.
Curiosity took over and he ran to the shop, at the entrance were a few guards who had their hands on their weapons and looked him over anxiously as he approached, I dropped my hood which helped them to relax a bit when they saw how young I looked.
"Are you still open for business? I had seen a few lots that looked promising and wished to inquire if they are still available." After announcing himself as a customer one of the guards told him that there had been an incident but other than that he wouldn't speak of any details, but they were still open so the guard called for an attendant who whisked him quickly into a suite to wait for one of the salesmen.
While waiting he ate a few snacks that had been brought in for him, there was cream for the fruits that was simply divine. After ten minutes passed I was starting to wonder if they forgot about me, another ten minutes passed 'this was horrible service'.
I stood up and went to the door, sure he had planned to buy here but if they weren't available then they should have just closed till they were ready, there were at least five more slaver dens that he could go to. As he touched the door handle someone pushed the door open which smack him in the face, "Son of a bitch!" he recoiled from the blow and placed his hand on the pistol at his hip.
A stunned looking salesman stood in the doorway and took a moment to take in what happened, seeing the customer placing a hand on a weapon he raised his hands in a passive stance to show he was unarmed. "I'm so sorry about that, please there's no need for weapons it was my fault for being so late. Please have a seat." He motioned to the chairs.