{AN: Made a discord server with the help of my friend, here is the link:
https://discord.gg/ZCX5F5cfKq
Don't worry I will also post the link in the comments session.}
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Tulia looked at me, her eyes displaying many emotions, I could see that she was visibly disturbed by her destroyed face, but she had enough will and training to hold it on herself. Looking at me she said; "I don't trust you.".
"The feeling is mutual.".
She sighs while she massages her temples in frustration; "Look, I don't know what a cultivator wants with my little brother. But-", I took this time to interrupt her, I know where this is going and I am simply too tired to care enough to let her threaten me; "Look Tulia. We are friends, we saved each other asses more times than I could count. I am not asking you to trust me. Just trust your brother's judgment, that is all I ask of you. I don't know your problem with cultivators, but if this will let your mind at peace, I don't belong to any organization nor do I have in the past.".
Tulia seems to contemplate my words for a second, she continued looking at me but made sure to avoid my eyes, guess she is smart enough to learn her lessons. She sighed out loud again and said; "Okay, I don't mind giving you a modicum of trust... And considering you all will be joining Silverhood shortly I guess I shouldn't be biased... But I know you are the strongest and oldest in the group, so if you are planning on doing anything to my brother I will stop at nothing to murder you. I did it once, I am not afraid of doing it twice.".
"I won't say am a good person because I am definitely not. But I consider those people my friends."
"Good.", an awkward silence permeated the table after Tulia answered like that. She seems rather content with my answer, I guess this talk was more to keep her mind at ease than anything else.
She took another deep breath and said; "You all will be going to get a check-up at the temple tomorrow, it's better if you are rested. So I won't take much more of your time. Unfortunately, we don't have any clothes of your or Shuten's size, so you both will have to keep using the same until you buy some later.", she said that while getting up seemly eager to finish the conversation.
I also got up eager to sleep for the first time in a long time, but before going to the second floor I looked at Tulia once more and said; "I am going to teach cultivation to them, I think it will help with the group overall strength.".
"I don't mind, the organization would bitch about it if I was the one teaching, but if it's you we won't be breaking any rules.", she said that with a slightly evil smile, no doubt bitter about the fact that she couldn't teach Turalion before due to some stupid restriction for being a [Silver Dagger], "Just be sure to give them more time to get used to the [Ripple] a little bit more.", after saying that last piece she simply disappeared upstairs towards what I think is her bedroom.
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- Middle Day - Nex Day -
Finding a room was easy, I ended up sharing a room with Turalion and Altair, the girls were sharing the guest room and Tulia slept alone in her room. No one woke up early or not even close to it, it was midday already eh the first of us opened his eyes, and it was none other than me. Guess a [Divine Dan] and [Wave] really dow wonder to diminish rest periods.
Instead of moving towards and possibly having another very awkward conversation with Tulia a simply decided to meditate until everyone was properly awake. It was only some hours after at the end of the afternoon when the sun was setting did everyone wake up.
Soon enough everyone was back at the table eating again, but this time we were properly rested and being properly fed. After eating our fill it was finally time to go towards the temple.
"Good, now Turalion will guide you all towards the temple of Mara. There they will give you all a check-up, ", then Tulia looked at me, "and they may even be able to heal old wounds... and I already paid for everything so don't worry about the money.".
After that e said our goodbyes towards Tulia and proceed towards the temple. What was really funny is that Tulia was shadowing us through stealth means, I was only able to notice it because of my [Sense] when we passed close to a group of people on the street she thought she was hidden amongst them a la assassin's creed style.
My [Sharingan] is currently deactivated for obvious reasons, so the only way for me to see anything is with my [Sense] which has grown to a size of 125 cm, but seeing as I have been spamming it quite a lot, the growth is expected.
Turalion guided us towards the temple of Mara with slight familiarity, the streets weren't as packed as I expected them to be, but considering it is the end of the afternoon I guess it is expected. I could hear people coming and going, the sounds of steps all around me, people talking about different kinds of things, negotiating... The city was almost alive, even with the rather smaller quantity of people on the streets right now, pubs and taverns starting to get crowded.
Soon enough we approached our destination, and Altair who has been describing things for me until now took his time describing the temple. The temple has five big structures, one giant in the middle that according to the description should look like a mix between a mosque and a big church, the other four buildings were each in north, south, west, east. According to Altair, those buildings are rather tame compared with the one in the middle.
Our group immediately made a beeline towards the north building, the one in front of us, there were a particularly big entrance and archway. From what I was able to gather the temple also works as some kind of hospital and charity place.
Reaching the entrance a priest and a priestess of Mara was already expecting us at the entrance; "Good to see you alive and healthy Turalion. Your sister already made the arrangement for six people. The ladies please follow Priestess Kara while the gentleman please follow me.".
The group parted with the girls following Priestess Kara while we followed the priest. The girls went towards the building on the east, while we boys went towards the west building. We quickly reached some sort of reception hall where there were a bunch of chairs for us to sit.
Looking at us the priest said; "First, my name is Jlen and I will give you three check-up exams. I will be calling you one by one.", after saying that he entered some sort of room according to the sound of a door opening and closing.
A few minutes passed by and we soon heard; "Altair, please come forward.", and so Altair was the first to be examined. Some minutes passed and soon enough Altair was already back, he probably didn't have any problems.
Curious I asked; "How was the exam Altair? Anything we should be worried about?".
Altair contemplated for some minutes before answering; "Nah, the exams are pretty quick. Just a look over if there is nothing wrong, and a diagnosis spell.". I flashed my [Sahringan] and I could see that Altair's scar was healed a little bit better, it wasn't as jagged and rough as previously.
"And about your scar? It looks a little bit better.", Altair just nodded his head and answered; "Yeah, he cast some kind of [Restoration] spell that helped me heal the scar rather nicely. It looked like it was something pretty complicated, he said it is just something they use to help scars heal properly. It doesn't remove the scar just adjust it?", he said the last part with some doubts in his voice, he probably doesn't understand much about what the doctor explained to him.
Turalion chose this moment to fill us in; "If I am not mistaken that is a [Master] rank [Restoration] spell, it is fairly difficult to cast because the precision and control necessary is almost staggering. Very few masters in [Restoration] can cast such a spell. If I am not mistaken it is called [Healing Skin], ti helps stimulate the healing rate of just your skin... I think. Sorry about that one Jin, I don't know many details about such a spell...", he sounded slightly apologetic towards the end.
I just shrugged and said; "No problem. Your information is already more than enough, really. Thanks.", Turalion nodded in appreciation, and soon enough his name was called, he got up and went towards the adjacent room.
Almost an hour later he came back, flashing the [Sharingan] I saw relief was written all over his face, before I could ask what happened he said; "It was indeed a good call coming here for a check-up, apparently I was carrying some kind of disease.".
Altair sent a concerned look towards him and asked; "Shouldn't [Ripple] purge that kind of thing from your body? I remember hearing that [Ripple] users can never get sick or something of the sort.".
Turalion shook his head in disagreement and added; "Well normally that would be true for most diseases, even some of the magical ones. But there always special cases and exceptions, I was one of them. The priest didn't explain much, but apparently, this is a disease that Manimarco created to affect [Ripple] users especially, thankfully hr was just partially successful. The disease can indeed infect us [Ripple] users, but it never activates due to [Ripple].".
Slightly confused Altair asked; "So what's the problem if we aren't affected by it?".
"Well, the problem is that even if it doesn't affect the [Ripple] user we can still carry it and infect other people. Thankfully I didn't have much contact with anyone so the disease didn't spread. A small blessing really, no one likes a pandemic.", after saying that we made some more small talk until the priest called me, I got up and walked towards the room, I had some trouble finding it unknowingly passing the point, but a shout out from Altair helped me find the correct direction of the room.
Entering the room I briefly flashed my [Sharingan], thankfully the priest wasn't looking at me as he appears to be more concentrated on some papers at his table than anything else. I just simply waited for Jlen to finish whatever he is doing. Soon enough he finished and said to me.
"Ok, this examination is something brief and painless. First, I ask that you remove your clothing minus your undergarments. After that, I will make some simple tests on you using some [Mysticism] spells.", Jln said in a tone that indicated that he has done something like this plenty of times, it felt almost robotic the way he phrased it. He probably needs me to remove most of my clothes for them to not cause interference with the diagnostic spells he will cast.
Soon I could hear some sounds of leafing paper, Jlen probably went back to doing whatever he was doing while I get out of my clothes. It didn't take much time to remove everything, so soon enough I was ready.
Suddenly, I heard a slight *Gasp*; "By Mara. What happened to you?!?!", asked Jlen worry and something I couldn't exactly detect filled his voice.
Directing my head towards the sound of his voice I said; "I got hurt?", the answer was very shitty and I very well know that. Thankfully my shitty answer appears to get Jlen out of his stupor. He approached me and started to look around my body, his hands moving in different patterns while he summoned his magic and used different diagnostic spells on me. With each spell, I could feel him grow more frustrated and worried, until he apparently had enough.
"No, this is really serious. I barely could examine you, I will need to call the head priest to treat this, but before I do something like that, I will need some information. The more information you give her the better she can try to heal you, so try to be open with her", almost as if he couldn't help himself he asked; "What kind of wounds are those anyway... they look like... cracks?", asked Jlen with a no-nonsense and worried tone. He looked at my wounds, the ones on my disfigured face, on my torso, my horrible disfigured legs. For the first time in a long time, I felt some shame. But with all my experience I quickly squished it.
Sighing in exasperation I answered; "All of these are self-inflicted, and not by a blade or by magic. But by an ability of mine.", he seems very appalled by my response. I heard the sound of hurried action and of him breaking something, and then a light that even someone quasi-blind like me was able to see filled the room.
Then I heard an old woman's voice, "What is the problem Jlen?", her voice sounding equal parts bored and worried. So this is the head priest of Mara huh.