In a small kingdom near the center of the Ultinian Heavens, a meeting was taking place.
"I heard that you found the weapon and lost it." A man in white spoke maliciously to another.
'Liar,' His associate stood by side, chained to the wall.
'Traitor' The man in white spit at the ground. "We spent the better part of the last half century looking for that stupid weapon. Our scouts in the area and even our acolytes were destroyed in the process. Since no one has been able to complete the job, it's now fallen on us and the Order has given us blanket authority to accomplish the mission."
"Redden was a problem, if not for Maria he would have completed his goal but that fool saw nothing but her in his eyes for centuries. Its a pity that he's dead." A dark voice came from the side, "The Weapon must be recovered but I cannot feel its presence, its like it is hidden in a pocket space."
"Perhaps it is in a storage ring?" The man chained to the wall opened his mouth.
The figure in a white coat slapped at the prisoner's face, "Even if that is the case, it must be brought out eventually. I'm surprised that it can be put away, our own forces were unable to stow it."
"That helps prove its mystical nature, only items of a particular kind cannot be stored away" The shadowy figure vanished from sight. "Keep your searches active. Eventually, it has to make an appearance."
A Red hot rod appeared in the white robed man's hands. "You'll tell me what you know... or die in the process." A sinister grin was smeared across the white robed man's face, he began to cackle.
The lights flickered, a blinding red beam shot down and another creature, one with four wings and tentacles came down from the heavens above. "New Orders. Start the Assault, the one who wields the weapon will eventually show up, use whatever forces remain on Shiyan. I want them to know it was their own arrogance that brought this upon them. All things left by the creator belong to me and me alone."
"As you wish, Master." The man in white put down his tools and ignored the two chained men.
A Red light crest the horizon and locked down on top of him, taking him away.
The two men in chains looked at each other, another man walked in.
"Now, where did he leave off?" A notebook on the wall had a log of the torture and confessions automatically dictated. "Oh.. I get the fun part." A smile crossed his face and the lights began to flicker shortly after.
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There was a large library of cataloged events in Eonroil, the group had stopped there. It was important to get some rest after a hunt and everyone wanted to find out what their spoils were worth. As hunters, they were among the few who would and could bring back beast materials rather than just spirit stones. To the record keepers, their actions drew lots of attention. Every hunt they participated in yielded lots of materials, the groups notoriety had skyrocketed in just a matter of weeks. Whenever they arrived, the entire trading post would stop and stare. Some of the items they brought back were unbelievably difficult to take away from a living target.
"Hey!, Old Man.. I have shit I need to do, hurry it up." One of the regular customers got upset, his group had been bringing spirit stones to exchange for goods. He kicked at the counter. "Do I have to call your supervisors? I would have expected you to know my family's name by now." he twisted his finger around one of the receptionists hair when he brushed by her purposefully.
"We go one at a time. There are rules for a reason, besides, you only have spirit stones." The Old Man behind the counter spoke about manners and shrugged the boy off.
He was immediately offended and jumped in front of his face. "Exactly, I have spirit stones, it should be quicker and there should be less complaining but.. here we are."
"Spirit stones or not, you're still at the back of the line." The Attendant kicked some dust toward the kid as he bounced and sent spittle in his face.
"Fine, lets see how you deal with the pressures of the Gusau Family." He turned toward the door and left the building. The Boy gave a hand sign to someone down the roadway and a carriage came around the corner.
"Some people are just spoiled assholes, its not like you can count any faster." Vira shook her head. It was her turn to exchange the lower spirit stones.
"Right.. what's his problem?" Misozi's puppet had come along so she could catalog everything in the building, the built in functions of the puppet were set for that.
"His family owns an herb farm nearby, it takes a specialist to grow heavenly herbs and the cost is simply outrageous. We're talking thousands of spirit stones every month, this is a thing we simply cannot compete with and why his family has official status." The Attendant shared some private information, it wasn't disallowed but it was in bad taste for the business.
The old man frowned, "We shouldn't speak ill of clients, much less powerful ones. Please drop this matter and let us get back to counting." he didn't want to have to lie, they were busy counting and anything less was not in his job description.
"I don't want to make myself a target either, so.. what can I buy with this?" Vira knew well that they had gotten extra attention. She kept herself covered but it didn't help once some of the materials came out. She pulled the netting from her back and tossed down the sack of organs and large portions of small animals. "I went hunting and was fortunate." The bag sagged a bit and slumped across the table.
"This is a nearly whole Lagan, how did you preserve its body?" The accounting clerk at the counter had many questions. "The list of our current holdings available to top clients. Please take a look at it and see what fits your requirements."
"I need weapons, at least five of good quality." She put another, larger sack of spirit stones on the counter. "And I want the best hammer you have."
about half an hour passed while they appraised everything she had brought, Vira used the time to browse the item list and something caught her eye. There was a book for sale among the items, Vira had brought enough back with her to pick through the weapons and choose what she wanted regardless of the price, five weapons would not exhaust the wealth she had just given over. The stowed the book away and made her choices of the stock.
"How much longer is this going to take?" One of the people behind her was growing impatient, their group was ready to go drinking but exchange rates were terrible. There was a token made from special materials to trade among the locals as a form of standardized currency, they couldn't be replicated because each of them was made by the same person.
When it was time for her to leave, she carried everything away on her back and disappeared into the crowd. Vira had what she wanted and what she had come for. A rough patch of dirt came at the end of the stone roads when she was leaving the city. It had taken her time to lose the people who had been following behind her. When they were unable to keep up, several pairs of eyes were still following her until she disappeared into the trees.
Some of them tried to follow her tracks but Vira had not left even one. She hugged around the branches and then flew across the treetops. Her footsteps ended after the first bend from view into the woods.
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The Group had been in their predicament for nearly three months since they had been forced into a portal by an unknown creature. It had slammed into Misozi's hull and ruptured some things in her internals. Misozi called it an energy pipe, some sort of conduit that was special. The book that Vira had in her possession was a book of local monster anatomy, a prideful creation with many abstract uses for their materials.
It was the manual of butchery, Though it was not designed to be that sort of thing. The book showed the best way to take apart corpses that were known to the people, giving clue to the use of the items that they had gotten from kills over a many generations. Vira handed it to Kuzunoha and watched her disappear into the room to read it.
"Thank you." Vector handled the hammer, it felt like it could withstand a few good blows against a strong opponent. His energy weapon manifestations were just not up to snuff, they had always shattered after a single blow. It was a matter of energy density and he could only work on that in the long term. With a weapon in hand, he had at least a method of self defense.
Mursayade stood by the table where the other four weapons were sitting. Two of them were for her, she picked up the spears and flexed them slightly. "These are nice." The handle was some sort of cartilage from a large beast and its tips were made of an unknown metal, one glowed green, the other yellow. Light trailed as she swung down during her movements. A bright bone grip on both ends helped weight them appropriately, Mursayade was truly pleased with them both.
The other two on the table were a sword and scythe set. Vira wanted them so that she had some versatility, Kuzunoha was working with her bow skills and already had a special weapon, the sacred scroll, even if she didn't use it often.
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In her room, the Book sat in front of the Empress.
She cracked it open and began to soak in the information, each page was filled with drawings and depictions of items or their suspected uses. A green light illuminated its pages while she read, it caught Kuzunoha off guard. She suspected there was a hidden layer to the book and fed her spiritual sense into its content.
A green light swirled around her and the book's contents were visualized in her mind. It was spectacular and strange at the same time. She wondered what other books had the same type of utility in the pagoda library but it was not something she had access to since they had been blown into the pocket space.
The people were human, but they were extremely unpleasant. It reminded Kuzunoha and Vector of tyrannical hegemony and light novels, grand buildings were maintained with the help of a slave force that was comprised of the nations citizens. Those who had any sort of political or social power used it to assert dominance over everyone around them. It was cut throat and a far cry from ideal. They weren't the kindest of people either but it was worth noting that the people who were underfoot had been most helpful to the Group in their stay.
Flipping the page, she found even more information on the other side. Arteries and anatomy were transmitted into her mind, she felt a deep sense of appreciation for the book.
Vira walked in and sat down to cultivate, she dared not interrupt Kuzunoha. 'Seems like that was a good idea.' The scythe was in her hands, she sank her energies into it and then her body to circulate her energies. Ten spirit stones whirled around her at an equal distance, their energy swirled and converged above her head before diving into her body and spreading while she continued to circulate.
The energy was intense, it was the most she had absorbed in a single sitting but it was going faster than ever. She was working hard to gain strength, strength enough to pierce the dimensional veil and allow the group to escape. Vira began to sweat when the first of the spirit stones vanished, there were nine left.