Daren opens his eyes and finds his face planted into the ground. He pushes himself off the ground only to see that he has broken the table he was sitting on into small pieces and the wooden floor had an imprint of his head on it.
Arlene and Rusky had looks of deep worry for Daren written all over their saddened faces. Their eyes were fixed on Daren.
"How long was I out?" asked Daren will rubbing his face to feel if there were any injuries to it.
"About 5 seconds since you faceplanted into the ground," replied Rusky. He was dumbfounded at how fast Daren had regained his consciousness. Then again, those who were able to cultivate had stronger minds than people.
"Really?" It had felt like 2 or 3 minutes had gone by in his soul sea. 'It looks like time goes slower in there.'
"What happened to you little Daren?" asked the worried Rusky.
"I overexerted myself during cultivation before I came here. My mind is somewhat weak due to trauma from my past. It happens quite often for me. so I always safe somewhere safer afterward."
Daren made an excuse that was quite plausible since it is known that if someone cultivates more than their natural limit, they would be severely weakened and common side effects include nausea, headaches, and fainting.
"Don't do something like that ever again my little brother. I know how tempting it is to become stronger but you must take your time." Rusky's voice sounded as if he knew what he was talking about with personal experience.
There was a hint of pain and regret in those words but it was as if Rusky was trying his best to hide it. Daren noticed it but he was not going to ask anything. He felt that Rusky was the type of man that would share anything that came to mind unless it was absolutely something he couldn't.
"Yes, brother. I won't do something like that ever again. I have no family in this world except two other people. If I die, I believe the girls won't exist either. I will think about her and approach a safer path. Thank you for guiding me, big brother." Daren knew that he was lying to a wonderful man but there was no helping it.
" Now that you have acknowledged him as your brother, we will be considered family from now on. Try not to hide anything from us and take care of yourself." These words were stolen straight from Rusky's mouth by Arlene.
"Now, who are these girls that are considered your last family?" continued Rusky.
"Ahhh." Daren should have just said he had no family left. "One of their names is Celina. You could say that we are married in a way. The other one is her little sister who we have not named." What he said was technically half a truth but it was a truth nonetheless.
"Where are they then brother? Your wife and her sister are part of our family as well," said Rusky. He was excited to not only have a brother but also a sister-in-law as well.
Daren fell to his knees while cupping his face into his hands. He started to sob uncontrollably while looking at the floor. His acting was perfected with all the years of pretending to be a normal CEO of a normal mega-corporation.
"Sniff. Sniff." Daren slowly stopped crying and then said "She has a little sister who has been in slumber for a whole year now. I gave up my original focus of cultivation so I could come to this city and find a medicine that could not be found in mine."
Daren's story was very realistic as in this world, there were many strange phenomena where children would fall asleep for a long time. When they woke up, they would be blessed with high cultivation talent.
Rusky and Arlene each touched a shoulder Daren to comfort him.
Daren got up and wiped his tears off with his sleeve. He then proceeded to the reception and put down a silver coin while saying "This is for breaking the table."
Even though the table was only worth around 50 bronze, Lilith could not say no to him as it was a gesture of kindness that should not be denied. That's what her parents had taught.
As long as there was goodwill and true feelings behind someone's kind action, they should not reject it as it would cause that kind person more pain.
Daren then walked away and sat down at the last empty table in the inn. Rusky and Elena joined as they knew that what Daren needed right now was the support of his friends.
Daren decided to tell them the fabricated story below:
It all started when Daren was born into a house with two loving parents. The parents were farmers and gave all their love to Daren. They taught Daren that even if the world was cruel to you, there would always be someplace else that you could be happy at.
With a positive outlook on life, Daren worked hard on helping his parents on the farm. He learned to grow things like potatoes, wheat, and rice. All he did was work until at the age of 10, he took the test that every human 10 year old's took at their local school or church.
Daren put his hands on the magical instrument that was used to find out the level of talent that a human held. The instrument then went to display "2 hours 30 minutes.".
This meant that Daren had very high talent in cultivation as the maximum length that the best talents could achieve was 3 hours of force absorption.
This was the kind of talent that was sure to be taken in by the nation's royal academy and when their strength grew in the future, they would be given good ranks by the royal family.
Of course, Daren and his parents being illiterate and from the back end of the countryside. If they did, they would go to the closest government office and report that their child was talented.
Daren would then be taken under protection by the royal academy and molded into a strong pillar for their forces.
There was a catch though. The royal academy in their country had set a limitation on how many talents they would take from a territory every 5 years. This was because this kingdom lacked resources and had a hard time allocating them correctly.
This was 2 per baron-sized territory and the limit would increase as the noble's rank went higher.
If you were talented enough, then they would break the rules with ease for you. But if you were not, you would be tossed aside. The territory that Daren and his parents lived in was ruled by a Baron.
This baron had two sons with a decent talent for cultivation. They were set to go to the royal academy as they had just turned 10 as well. The baron, when he saw the result of Daren's test at his school, was worried that one of his sons was going to be left behind.
So he made sure that the information about Daren's talent did not get spread as he paid all the spectators to keep their mouths shut.
That day, as Daren was going back home after the test, he was suddenly grabbed from behind and knocked out with a drugged handkerchief. He was tossed in a small carriage and tied up.
When he had awoken. He saw the kind face of the old village doctor who had explained to him that his parents had been falsely charged with tax fraud by the Baron and executed on the spot.
The old doctor was the only educated person in the village and a kind man at that. As soon as he saw the talent that Daren had, he knew that the Baron would pull some strings.
He had kidnapped Daren and was about to go save his parents as well but he was too late. Now they were at the border of the kingdom.
The doctor gave Daren some money, a trashy cultivation technique, and dropped him off in the home d]town of the doctor which was in a neighboring country.
He told his relative to let Daren eat and live at their home for 4 years until he was strong enough and ready to venture into the world on his own.
The relatives did exactly as they were told. Daren ate, slept, and cultivated in the home of friendly relatives for four years. His progress was slow as the trauma from the death of his parents had caused his mentality to weaken.
His talent was crumbling down every day. What it took him four years to do, would take him only 4 months if he was in his original state of good mind.
Daren was Body Strengthening Level 1, Peak Grade at this time so he was fairly confident in protecting himself while traveling the world and not causing any trouble.
After 2 years or so of hunting weaker beasts to earn travelings funds while going through all sorts of towns, villages, and cities, Daren arrived at a small riverside village.
That's where Daren met Celina. A girl who was only a year younger than him. She was an orphan just like him and had a little sister that she took care of.
She toiled day in and day out for the villagers that kindly took care of them when her parents died from a beast attack. At the same time, Celina took raised her then-infant sister who had yet to be named by their parents.
Daren was only planning to stay in that village for two days before leaving but somehow, he kept extending his stay in the village to talk to Celina.
He wanted to see her every day. He wanted to share her load of work. He wanted to help her raise her sister. He did exactly that for over a month.
The villagers did not take long to notice Daren's feelings for Celina. They encouraged Daniel to confess to her as they had made sure that Celina also had some feelings for Daren.
Celina accepted Daren's proposal and they got married a week later.
The combination of the couple's bad luck on the wedding day led to Celina's 5-year-old sister collapsing right after the wedding. The village doctor informed them that she had been struck with a rare illness that would make her fall into a slumber for an indefinite amount of time.
Both Celina and Daren were distraught. They did not know what to do. They both loved her so much and could give up anything to wake her up and see the refreshing smile she gave them each day.
The only solution the doctor provided was going to Igrit city to purchase an extremely rare medicine that has been shown to awaken a person from this disease, about half the time.
Daren then decided that he would put his all into increasing his strength. He did this so he could hunt magical beasts or also known as beasts that cultivate force.
This would give him enough money to pay for the expensive medicine. After reaching Body Strengthening Level 2, Middle Grade, he left on a long journey towards Igrit City.
Along the way, he had risked his life to fight against magic beasts for their cores. He sold the cores and slowly amassed a large enough fortune to buy the medicine. He had arrived today to do just that.
The end... or not I guess.
When Daren had finished his story, he looked around to see the response of his friends. What greeted him was the sight of about a hundred or so people gathered around their table.
Some had eyes of sorrow while others made deep sighs. When Daren had initially fainted and then cried, he had garnered the attention of the entire restaurant's customers and staff.
During the hour or so that it took to tell the tale, more people entered the establishment and listened in on a depressing story about the saddest couple they had seen.
Lilith could be seen crying at the reception, bawling her eyes out. She didn't know that the man that had initially greeted her with such a cheerful smile could actually have been hiding so much pain beneath it.
Her father, the chef, and her mother, the cook could not handle this tragedy as they were showering themselves in tears.
Daren was not surprised as his story even made him want to cry in pity for its main character.
"You ugly a*s f**cking monkey! Go f*ck yourself into the sh*tty sewer you little hairy rat!"
It was over for Daren as he had just pissed off the female main character of this heartbreaking tragedy.