This place was huge! Ares and Aejaz were staring at the palace before them that extended backwards for at least a mile without an end in sight. God knows what was in this place that required it to be so huge but huge it was. A lot of the space it took up was probably decorative, as the entrance alone was just a long linear path with a pool running through the middle and marble walkways on either side. Near the end there were pillars holding up a sort of mausoleum looking entrance with steps leading towards the interior. Out here there were deck chairs for lounging about as well as movable palm trees. The palm tress were planted in a long and muddy area up against the walls and could be shifted around via earth magic so it didn't much matter where you felt like sitting as the palm trees would follow you. Ares checked with Omniscience and, sure enough, the magic was actually hammered into the deck chairs so the palm trees would automatically home in on them wherever they were placed. All this and it was still just the entrance!
Drai led Ares, Aejaz, and Massai inside, which was roughly a minute walk as the entrance was actually just that long, and the gawking at the surroundings continued yet again. The interior felt like a cross between a sandstone spa and a luxury hotel. It was a wide open space in the foyer that branched off into many different directions between pillars, each labelled with signs that could serve as a guide for finding what you were looking for. The signs were metal plates that could be infused with magic to light up at night with a soft glow so it was visible even in the dark. The walls had been painted a shade darker than regular sandstone to make the place feel cosy and high brow but the building still retained a charm unique to Xasca with all sorts of local specialties on display, for sale, available to try, or entertainment to watch. Things such as sword swallowers in one corner of the room performing to the rhythm of a sistrum being played nearby, a tray of baklavas near the front desk that could be picked from freely, ancient antiques looted form the Riddlemyd and discounted for the high class clientele that would be staying here, and butlers / maids that were wearying clothes that were actually rather skimpy. For the women it was a sort of revealing belly dancer outfit with a small veil that was just barely see-through covering their bright red lips. The men were shirtless and wearing barely anything more than a loin cloth between a ripped pair of harem shorts.
Naturally all of the workers here were good looking but there was likely a no touch rule. Unless of course the individual was willing, ether for fun or for money, in which case people were free to do whatever they pleased. The main thing Ares was thinking about in regards to this was that Enyo would see these outfits when he shared his memories with her later and this was yet another thing to add to the list of stuff she wanted to try. Tot that end, maybe Ares could find an outfit similar for sale and just pre-empt the request. He had the money, and their clothes seemed mass produced, so he might even just be able to buy it somewhere in this place without having to search high and low. Ares had never once thought he'd wind up buying sensual harem outfits for a literal harem but oh well, it was what it was. Plus Enyo would likely wind up getting the most use out of such clothing of anyone anyway. Not that Ares wouldn't also enjoy it, they looked nice so he wasn't complaining. He could also buy one of the men's because why the hell not? Enyo would probably appreciate that too. When in Rome and such.
Back to the building. There were six sphinx statues guarding the red carpet leading up to the front desk, on top of which there were all sorts of unusual artifcats that served very common purposes each. A desk bell shaped like a pyramid for calling a steward, runic papers that functioned as keys for the rooms, and a Vermillion Record for keeping track of guests much like the one Heaven's Path possessed but with a more sandy colour to it. Behind the counter was an individual fully clothed from head to toe with not a single inch of skin showing. How the person could even breathe in there Ares didn't know but, as he would find out shortly, this was what a typical Fellahin looked like. It was normal for them to do this, meaning most of them shared a rather similar look in that they were covered in bulky rags completely, but there was a pretty good reason for this.
Drai could tell Ares was curious about the person behind the desk so he gave a full rundown of these lot. "That person is a Fellahin. Not all Fellahins are born with this specific trait but a decent majority are partially made of sand. They're regular humans for the most part but certain body parts, depending on the individual, are not made of flesh and blood. These sandy parts are immune to physical attacks, and anything such as poison, curses, or burn marks, but can be blown away by magic and even the weather should it get too windy, hence the excessive clothes. Most Fellahin born with such a trait possess a very good affiliation for sand magic and can be incredibly tricky foes to fight in a desert environment which is why the Fellahin are a widely respected clan in Xasca. Plus they're descendants of some of the original sand dwellers that first charted the land according to ancient tomes. They're a large group, with members across the entire country as they can be rather nomadic at times, but most of them, including their leader, are situated in this city. They're primarily combatants for hire, for whatever you may need them for, but they also occasionally do odd jobs like this if the pay is worth their time.
In a way, based on what little I know of revenants, the Fellahin are actually quite similar to you. The stronger a Fellahin is, the more of their body that turns to sand should they possess the trait. It is possible for them to fully revert back to human every now and then but it's dependent on their cultivation, and even at transition realm it can only last a day at most, so they typically save it for dangerous situations like the rare rain storms that do occur here and there that could wash them away. That being said, they can generate new lost limbs, provided what was lost was made of sand, so its not too dangerous for them typically, just a bit inconvenient. When it really matters is during combat but they have an advantage, thanks to their immunity to anything non-magical and stronger affiliation they get as a result of their trait, so it evens out They're a particularly interesting lot and usually rather strong. That disciple that bothered you earlier is the younger brother of the current leader of the Fellahin so that was who he was referring to with his threats. I think he's a bit uppity because, despite being a Fellahin, he was never born with the trait and that's irked him since birth... I should mention this but the 'Juggernaut' is incredibly powerful and even Yulo would be hard pressed to win against her consistently. She rarely gets involved in international matters, or displays her strength, but she is a powerhouse despite most people not having heard about her. I don't know who would win in a scuffle between you two but t would be a rather ugly fight to have happen on our doorstep so if you could avoid that... It would be wonderful. Thankfully, although a tempestuous temper is something she possesses, she isn't as petty or pointlessly aggressive as her younger brother so I think things ought to be fine on that front. She does enjoy fighting strong people, and gets into fights often for a variety of seemingly random reasons though, so I really don't know how a meeting between you two would pan out. Luckily she should be out in the desert for a long while on a mission, if I recall correctly, so there shouldn't be any problems cropping up any time soon in the short run at least... Unless you happen to run into her out and about in the desert, in which case I wish you the best of luck."
"Alright..." Ares didn't mind fighting someone strong for a bit of training so he wasn't particularly fussed if he met this Juggernaut out in the wild. It wasn't exactly likely anyway as he would just be heading straight to the riddlemyd and not taking any detours when leaving the city. It was a vast expanse out there and he didn't want to get lost pointlessly in a massive desert. There was also no good reason to go exploring unless he heard rumours of any kind of treasure spawning out in the wild so he would just take the simplest path towards his goal and not deviate from it. If the Juggernaut was on in said path then so be it. "Fellahin, huh..." Ares was already doing all sorts of combat-scenario envisioning in his head on how best to deal with them. Unsurprisingly the answer was as simple as it usually was with most humanoid foes. Blow them up! Explosions were magic so they could hit the Fellahin. Explosions were capable of destroying their protective clothes so they would be at risk of their appendages going haywire when exposed to open air. Explosions created blasts of wind so Ares wasn't reliant on weather to potentially screw over a Fellahin. Explosions... Were fantastic! That being said, everything Ares just said was hypothetically taking place in a vacuum... Unfortunately he was not in a vacuum, he was in Xasca so home-field advantage was a very real problem in the event he had to scrap with the Juggernaut. If their body could integrate with the dessert all around then it would be like the Bricky and Rocky fight from the international but way harder. Oh well, Ares had done enough thinking already so he would just wing it if the situation ever actually arose.
After being given his runic key to his room, which was somewhere in the middle-ish area of the building and a slight trek away, Ares was free to explore as Drai went to go deal with sect matters elsewhere. Ares was tempted to stick around and do a full tour of the place but he actually wanted to go and visit the quarry real quick. The proper evaluation of the problem would happen tomorrow but he was actually interested in what a fine grind blue quarry even looked like. Those things exploded, after all, so the area must have been incredibly secure and sealed tight to prevent any mishaps. It couldn't be like a regular quarry, surely? Unless fine grind didn't have that particular explosive property until it was mined... In which case it really might just be a boring old quarry and then Ares would be wasting his time... Or not! There was only way to find out so he bid a giddy Aejaz goodbye and left his brother to go on thieving adventures until the sun came down. At that point Ares would wrangle his brother back into his room even if he needed to drag his unconscious body there.
It was somewhat humiliating for Aejaz, Ares' own brother, to go around stealing in a place like this specifically due ot the nature of it. The Federation was different, because it wasn't a service and random rich people were people Ares would never meet again or have to put up with going forward. If Aejaz was caught here, though, and then the atmosphere grew awkward, every time Ares had to walk past a worker or another person staying here, he would not enjoy being treated like some low-brow common crook... It was not a pleasant experience and Ares wanted to avoid such a scenario while he was staying here! Aejaz needed to keep it in his pants a little because stealing in a place like this just felt wrong on so many levels! The people here were all working hard for the comfort of their guests and meanwhile Aejaz was acting like a devious little shit-eating gremlin and stealing things that, honestly, might have been given away for free if he simply asked for it... Well, to Ares at least, this was not the kind of behaviour that Aejaz should be displaying here specifically. For Aejaz, however, the more he wasn't supposed to steal, the more he enjoyed doing it. A place like this might as well have been a pharaoh's tomb loaded with treasure and cheering crowds encouraging him from the side-lines for all the difference it made in his eyes.
Ares left through the front entrance, passing by some other individuals staying here as he exited through the gates, and happened across a rough looking fellow outside who was likely a core disciple and not a person who could enter this building. Ares could figure this out without needing to ask as the golden chains, and other such jewellery and or objects on his person, gave Ares to understand this golden gaudy guy was the very same one who owned the almost all-golden house he'd seen earlier. This person looked fierce but Ares wasn't convinced he was necessarily that strong. It was really more of a 'bark worse than bite' kinda deal as his golden brass knuckles, golden teeth, and spiky hairdo with slight golden tints all screamed rich 'punk' but his cultivation base was pretty low and couldn't match his bravado. Well, low in Ares' mind anyway. This guy was still a core disciple here so it was around the mid stages of bloodline awakening. He was a decently big guy, and had a mean and ugly face, but Ares didn't much care about any of that.
Ares' real issue here was that this guy was misusing gold! Ares' hand was like that of one belonging to a heavenly masseuse to gold and, meanwhile, this idiot was touching the stuff with icky hands and smothering his stupidity all over it! Seriously, who the hell turns their entire house into gold? Sure it screamed wealth, probably not even much less than the amount Ares had even after all the rewards he was given on the Federation, but it also screamed very loudly that the owner was an insecure, avaricious moron with a preference for shallow displays of grandeur. The fact that that monstrosity of a building and the palace behind Ares existed in the same place was criminal! This punk's house should honestly be knocked down for aesthetic crimes against humanity. Actually, this idiot probably was a criminal as that was the sort of intuition Ares had after years of living like one himself. He was a bandit who saw all sorts of shady people in his time and this guy smelled of poor life decisions.
Actually, the punk did also smell of something else but Ares couldn't quite make out what. Probably because he'd slathered himself in ten different perfumes at the bare minimum before leaving the house. Apparently 'more is more and more is good' was this guy's entire life philosophy. He'd most likely bought incredibly pricey perfumes, and been scammed a hundred times over in the process, and then just unloaded them on himself in a bid to garner attention. It was working but for all the wrong reasons but he probably didn't care about that as, even if you ere looking at him in disgust, you were still looking by technicality. Also, to sum up the kind of person he was, in case it wasn't clear as day, despite Ares having literally just walked out of place only the greatest of people in this domain could step foot in, this guy spat at Ares' feet and glared him down right where he stood. Ares didn't even bother asking why as it was obvious he was jealous big time. There were some things loads of money couldn't buy and access to the palace was one of them. This guy must have been dying to live in that place, even if only temporarily, and never gotten permission to enter no matter how much stardust he offered Drai. What Drai mentioned about personality playing a role in determining who got access must have been particularly true for this narcissistic weirdo. Honestly, this punk would be right at home over on the Federation instead! Actually, he might be considered poor there but at least he would earn a valuable lesson about humility. Big fish, small pond. Still his confidence was unwavering which meant he almost definitely had some kind of other backing excluding pure monetary power. Ares wouldn't be surprised if he was the young-master-of-a-clan type or something roughly similar.
Anyhow, Ares was not going to take the spit that came flying towards his feet lying down so he one upped the guy by shuffling out of the way of the incoming projectile and then spat on him instead! Pettiness aplenty but if this was the hill the punk wanted to die on then Ares would gladly start a massacre and dig him a grave afterwards. The punk seemed incredulous when Ares' spit landed right on his brass knuckles, and shocked somebody had the balls to fight back for once, but he quickly regained composure and even got a little angry when he saw Ares' lacking cultivation. A puny cultivator like this had no business puffing up his chest like this. "Listen here you fucking foreign rat. You don't understand who you're messing with. I don't give a shit what connections you or your rich daddy and mommy have, it means nothing in Xasca and, round here, I'm king. I won't do anything to you here but step foot outside this sect and you're in serious trouble. I'll have my guys take real good care of you until I arrive and then we'll have all sorts of fun together, you hear m..."
Slap
Ares put his finger to his lips and... Shhhh... Hushed the guy after whacking him across the face mid speech. "You like gold right? Well silence is golden... And so is this. Grand Annihilation." Ares swung his golden mana-imbued finger at the confused disciple and chaos ensued.
Apparently Drai had left too soon so, when he saw a golden explosion on the horizon, he immediately dismissed himself form the meeting he was in, while profusely apologising to the esteemed guests, and making a run for the location were things were evidently kicking off.
Back over by Ares, the punk staggered out of the golden magic with clothes torn and a bruised body. A bone or two must have definitely broken because he took that magic straight in the mouth with no protection to speak of. No defensive arts, no guard, no weapon, no treasure. Nothing. He just stood there and took it like a man! Kudos! Not that he'd done it intentionally, anyway... Ares had really ambushed him here... Although, to be fair, Ares just walked up to the guy and did it. There was no fanfare, sure, but It's not like he was hiding his intentions or anything. "See? Silence!" Ares had indeed shut up the punk but reminding the stunned moron of this titbit enraged him and it seemed he was going to disregard everything he said earlier about not picking a fight here and now. He should have been a little more wary given what happened to him not even a second ago but his head wasn't in the right space and he'd lived all his life getting what he wanted, when he wanted. Right now he wanted Ares dead so the universe ought to bend over and make it happen for him even if he was picking a losing battle. Not that he saw it as such. He didn't understand Ares' arts and made no effort to, assuming it was a treasure or something that caused the previous explosion, so he was about to be in for a rude awakening when Ares cast it multiple times in a row without breaking a sweat! "Grand..."
"STOP!"
Ares sighed. "Fun killer's back..." Drai came zooming onto the scene and shooed away the punk who kissed his teeth and promptly disappeared back towards his house without saying another word. What he was going to do from now on was anyone's guess but this was most certainly not the last Ares would see of... Whatever his name was...
Drai, much like Ares did a second ago, sighed. HIs was one of relief, though, because this punk was actually more troublesome than the previous disciple overall.... "Ares, that man is Diggers, the 'false king'. I'll spare you the details, because not too many specifics are know about him, but he's the leader of the scavengers. You had a run in with them at port, right? He controls every single scavenger across the entirety of this city and there's a lot of them. Diggers himself is actually rather weak and his position would have been usurped long ago if it wasn't for the 'tool'. The 'tool' is a incredibly annoying cultivator who, for years now, has been doing quite literally everything asked of him by Diggers. No one knows why, we just all know that Diggers is a difficult person to deal with. If you defy him, he'll sic the 'tool' on you and that's never a pleasant experience. The 'tool' isn't a strong cultivator either, necessarily, but he's... Difficult to deal with for other reasons. Just keep an eye out on Diggers. None of the other scavengers are likely to be a problem for you but that doesn't mean he won't keep endlessly hurling them at you for petty revenge. Your trips to the Riddlemyd are going to be somewhat of a hassle from now on. Also, any scavengers inside the Riddlemyd will attack you on sight once Diggers gives the word to make your life as difficult as possible.... Just be careful and, please, for the love of God, stop blowing things up in the sect?" Ares had only done damage to the sandy floor but Drai still felt the need to beg here in case he was going to have to pay for any significant damages out of his own pocket at a later date...
"Alright, I'll try. But, you know, self defence is self defence... Not like I picked that fight... Kinda... Ok, maybe I did... Well, no, I just escalated it... Ah whatever, I'll just try and stay my hand from now on, you have my word." Ares waved his hand to Drai who promptly left once he had Ares' assurance. It seemed like he was in a rush to get back to this meeting... Ares turned around and walked back towards the palace. He was interested in the quarry, yes, but he'd already caused enough trouble for one day and there was no guarantee he wasn't going to get into more, knowing his poor luck in that regard, if he continued aimlessly wandering around as he was currently doing. Constantly dragging the sect master into his own issues over and over again, especially on the first day of his stay here, was rather rude. If Ares was still just a disciple he might have considered it, because the result of his actions wasn't really his problem to deal with, but now his sect's reputation was on the line. He didn't want people to be like 'Ah, yes, Heaven's Path. Teh sect filled with so many unruly brats even their sect master is one too! He runs around demanding preferential treatment, like staying in the finest buildings, wherever he goes before making a mess of the place by picking fights and blowing everything up!' Ares was going to leave Sheryashka at some point but that was hardly the kind of legacy he wanted to leave behind! To that end, just returning to the palace was enough for now and he could get some sleep in preparation for a longer day tomorrow. He would be analysing the quarry and then heading over to the Riddlemyd to kickstart his adventures in this new land so it was a big day ahead! As for Diggers and the Juggernaut... Ares wasn't too concerned. Whatever happened, happened! Knowing his luck he wouldn't be able to avoid confrontation so he had more a 'bring it on' attitude. At this point he felt confident no human could pose a major threat to him in this domain and he was half right. Still, some people were harder to deal with that others for reasons that had nothing to do with cultivation which he would experience first hand eventually.