Recovery Talisman cost 10 Fate Points each.
It would cost 20 Fate Points to buy two Recovery Talisman.
Yet Leo received them for just three Fate Points.
'The person managing this place must've forked the extra money from their own pockets and given it to Leo as a loan.'
It was clear that the leader of the base was trying to help everyone.
The civilians, while undernourished, were not on the verge of starvation, even though they probably did not hunt demons and earn Fate Points.
Someone was giving them food for free.
Cayden took note of the points.
He hoped his brother also met these types of kind people.
But he knew better than to pin his hopes on luck.
He turned to Leo.
"Where is the Totem Pole?"
"It's in the middle of the base. But you can't use it without the leader's permission. Wait, that sounds suspicious."
Leo hurriedly explained.
"I– no, the leader was worried someone would buy weapons and stab others, so—"
"You are shit at explaining things, Leo. Shut up."
An unfamiliar voice cut through Leo's ramblings.
A girl, near his age, walked towards them.
She wore an academy uniform different from Leo.
Her silver hair, red eyes, long legs and angry expression made her stand out.
Holding a clipboard over her shoulder with one hand, she stood before Cayden.
"You need to register if you want to stay at our base and use the Totem Pole. If not, please, kindly fuck off."
"H-hey, Aurora, don't talk like that–"
"Shut up, Leo. I'm already pissed we had to use two Recovery Talisman, because a dumbass did not know the difference between a Low-rank Level 1 Demon and a High-rank Level 1 Demon, so don't speak."
She chewed out Leo before returning to Cayden.
"Do you want to register?"
"Yes."
"Got it." She jotted down on the clipboard. "Answer our questions. What is your name, age, affiliation?"
"Cayden Wood, 16, and I was a civilian in humane domain."
"When did you appear in the demon world?"
"One day ago."
"What!?"
Leo jumped to his feet.
Before he could speak, Aurora glared at him as if she would skin him alive, making him swallow the words he was about to say.
"One day ago, huh."
She looked at Cayden.
His clothes were clean and he did not look malnourished.
It was impossible unless he never fought the demons and still somehow managed to feed himself properly.
"Lucky bastard."
She clicked her tongue.
Most people appeared in the demon world one month ago. Aurora and Leo were among them.
They worked hard to find the Totem Pole, gather everyone and create a safe community.
Those who arrived later reaped the benefit of their hard work.
She continued.
"Do you have someone you are searching for?"
Cayden was surprised.
He had not expected to hear that question.
"Why do you ask?"
"The meteor killed a fuck ton. Quite a few families and friends are searching for each other. Now answer."
"I'm looking for my brother Hein Wood. He is ten years old, looks similar to me, he is a bit stupid and he likes chocolates."
Her expression softened when she heard Hein's age.
She looked at Cayden with a sympathetic gaze.
"We don't have anyone like that at the base.
"I'll pass your brother's information to the Exploration Team. They are doing their best to search for as many as possible and save them."
Cayden did not expect much from them.
But he did not say that.
There was no need to reject their kind intentions.
"Lastly, what kind of job do you want? Do you want to join the Exploration Team or do you want to work in the base?
"The base is protected by Totem Poles and you will get free food if you work inside the base. But you won't be given special privileges.
"It will take years, probably a decade or two, to complete the task and return to the human domain if you keep hiding here.
"If you choose the exploration job you will be given special privileges. You will be personally taught by us.
"We are from the three exorcist trainee academies of the Duolin City, so our methods are guaranteed to work. And if your performance is good, the base leader might teach you his Breathing Technique."
"I'm not sure yet. I'll think about which job to take."
Cayden was not in a hurry to work for others.
He wanted to know about the base before anything else.
"Okay, your registration is done. You can use Totem Poll. Ask Leo to teach you about the base's rules."
She was about to leave when Leo spoke up.
"Uhm… What about his rank? You didn't ask that."
"He said he appeared yesterday."
"About that, he was the one who defeated the High rank Level 1 demon."
Aurora's softened expression slowly morphed into an ugly frown.
"Are you two pulling my legs? You think I'm stupid enough to believe that?"
She had reached the First Spirit Node rank and she knew the difficulty of advancing.
Her speed was already extremely fast.
Any normal person would go insane, unable to handle the Cursed Energy corruption, if they tried to reach First Spirit Node rank in a day.
"I'm not lying." Leo protested.
She alternated her gaze between Cayden and Leo.
"Fine, prove it," She said. "But if you are lying, be prepared to starve for three days."
Leo turned to Cayden.
Cayden returned a nod and released a portion of his Spirit Pressure.
A heavy aura appeared around Cayden. It pressed down forcefully on everything in his surroundings.
Leo was instantly brought to his knees.
His teeth clattered, he shivered as if he was in the arctic and his clothes were drenched with sweat.
He could barely lift his head.
He looked at Aurora with a victorious smirk.
She wasn't faring much better.
Although she was standing, she could barely breathe.
It was like invisible hands were tightening around her neck.
She could not move.
The Spirit Pressure, fueled by Cursed Energy, had frozen her in place, and it suddenly disappeared.
Leo, knocked out, was foaming at his mouth, and Aurora fell to her to the ground, breathing heavily.
She stared at Cayden with a complicated gaze.
If Cayden was at First Spirit Node rank, she shouldn't have been affected by his Spirit Pressure so badly.
"Second Spirit Node rank?"
Cayden nodded.
"Wow, fuck."
…
Cayden was allowed to use the Totem Pole.
Currently, Aurora was trying to suppress the news of him, a Second Spirit Node rank Exorcist, being in the base.
He suspected he was either the strongest or among the strongest personnel of the base.
The news could throw the base in chaos, especially when the base leader was out for exploration.
He saw the Totem Pole.
It was a 5 meters (16.5 feet) sleek black pole.
A giant golden dome made of faint golden light was covering the base with the Totem Pole as the center.
He pressed his hand on its surface.
Details appeared inside his head.
[Personal Information]
Cayden Wood
Rank: Second Spirit Node
Fate Points: 01
Bloodline: None
Talent: Buddha Mind (SSS-rank)
Spiritual Techniques: None
Demons Defeated: One (Lvl.1)
The personal information tab was as he had expected.
There were also [Shop], [Quest], and [Search] tabs.
He opened the Shop tab and bought a bread for 1 Fate Point.
The Fate Point Mark on his hand changed to 0.
While eating the unappetizing food, he opened the [Quest].
[Quest]
>Main Quest
–Transfer 100 Fate Points to Totem Pole
–Reach Tenth Spirit Node rank.
Reward: Return Ticket
Time Limit: None
>Side Quest
Defeat ten demons.
Reward: One unranked weapon of your choice. (Repeatable)
Time Limit: None
He read the quests.
Every demon gave Fate Points equal to their level.
Earning 100 Fate Points was no easy task.
The difficulty increased by several times with the added condition of reaching Tenth Spirit Node rank.
On average, it took Exorcists ten years to fulfill both conditions.
These Exorcists were cream of the crop; after all, the weak ones died in the demon world and failed to accomplish the main quest.
He was in no hurry to complete them.
His goal was to search for his brother.
'Did father also come to this world?'
Although he hoped against it, there was a chance his father was caught in the meteor's range.
He opened the Search function.
[Search]
[Cost: 10,000 Fate Points]
"10,000 points?"
It was bad news.
One could roughly tell the size of the demon world through the cost of Search function.
Unawakened humans normally appear in smaller demon worlds.
It costs anywhere between 500~1000 Fate Points to use [Search] in those worlds.
By his estimates, Cayden's current world was the size of the moon.
This wasn't the worst part.