Khaos removed the apron and looked at it as a memory from his past emerged.
"Khaos this has way too much salt", a distorted female voice said.
"Yes son do you want to kill us from oversalt?" another voice, this one male, chimed in.
"Oversalt?, is that even a thing?" past Khaos asked.
"Well with the amount of salt you use, i am sure it will become one, after our deaths that is", the male voice said.
"Maybe i should write 'Don't add salt on his forehead'", the female voice said, and the small family laughed.
The Khaos in present time sighed as he removed the apron and used it to wipe his tears. Then he looked at the piece of fabric one last time before his hands caught fire.
The apron was quickly turned to ashes and Khaos used a small gust of wind to blow the ashes into the open sky.
With a determined look in his eyes, he jumped down and walked towards a certain direction. "I need to raise my power as fast as possible, if i miss this one, the next enrollment will happen after ten years, and i can't wait that long", he said to himself.
Cultivation was the art of absorbing and compressing World Flux into their Cores. This was done mainly by meditation, or for a lesser effect, sleep. When a Cultivator reaches the required Flux density in their cores, they compress it, and in doing so, the Flux becomes more concentrated.
More Flux concentration meant better quality and better quality meant higher efficiency. A fourth stage Cultivator could fly and or fight for way longer than a third stage Cultivator.
This was because even though they had the same amount of Flux, the fourth stage Cultivator had better Flux quality.
Meditation was the most popular and widely used way to Cultivate, but besides sleep, there was another way. When World Flux became too concentrated in nature, it condensed into liquid, then into solid form, creating Flux stones. Though this process happened many kilometers underground.
Absorbing these Flux stones was hundreds if not thousands of times faster than meditating and they had no side effects. However it was very hard to find Flux stones, one could either join a mine, or buy them with gold.
The first option took too long, and one might even go a whole year without obtaining a single Flux stone since mines paid by commission, depending on the amount the Cultivator uncovered.
Buying the stones with gold was much easier and much faster, however as one might have already guessed, it was not cheap. One Flux stone on average cost 5 gold coins, and to put this into perspective, the cheapest four roomed house in Lator city cost 20 gold.
After a few minutes of walking across the wreckage, Khaos arrived in front of a certain half destroyed building. It was 10 square meters in area and used to have a second floor before the incident. This was Khaos' family forge, or it used to be.
Luckily, the forge was quite a distance away from the point where the Dark Dish appeared, so even though it was destroyed, it was not turned to dust like the other buildings. Khaos jumped over the pieces of the door and began rummaging through the rubble.
There were scattered weapons and metal pieces everywhere, while some weapons were disfigured beyond recognition. Khaos sighed as he threw away a sword which had a 90 degree bend in the middle.
He had hoped that he would find weapons to sell at reduced prices, after all he didn't need to turn a profit anymore.
Then after searching some more, he found a two handed battle axe which was undamaged. 'If only the grinder still worked, i would have fixed some of these', he thought while looking at a blunt saber.
Khaos hung the axe on his back and went to the back of the shop, where the till counter used to be. It did not take long to find the iron box which housed the entire business' liquid funds, and he quickly counted the coins inside.
"29 gold coins and 32 silver", he mumbled as he pocketed the money. With that amount, Khaos could buy 6 Flux stones and be left with 4 gold and 2 silver change. A Flux stone was worth 30 coins in silver, average.
Khaos looked at the remains of the forge one last time before leaving, he knew that it would be his last time seeing it.
Khaos walked towards the north, this was the direction of the closest city which also had a Flux stone mine nearby. Khaos would have flew there, but his Wind Flux had not fully regenerated so he had to walk.
Luckily, Lator city was already being rebuilt, so Khaos hitched a ride on one of the carriages which was on it's way to pick up materials from the next city. During the journey, Khaos meditated, not to cultivate but to refill his Flux storages faster.
About three hours later, the sun was about to set and it's golden light covered the horizon. The citizens of Galor city were rushing through the streets, which seemed to get more crowded as the darkness rose.
As he walked past, Khaos watched everything with a sad smile, Lator was just like that the very same morning, and now it was gone.
After getting directions, Khaos arrived at an inn. "Hello, how much for a room?" he asked the clerk at the front desk. She was a woman about the same age as Khaos, with light blue hair and golden skin.
"Evening sir, our rooms are 2 silver coins a night and 10 silver for a week", the clerk answered with a smile.
"Why is it so cheap?" Khaos asked as he handed over the 2 silver coins.
"Well almost everyone in the city has their own house so we don't have many customers, also our rooms are quite crappy. But don't tell anyone i said that", the clerk chuckled.
"Oh no lady i have to tell everyone this". Khaos shook his head. "But, i could reconsider if you direct me somewhere i can sell this", he pointed, with his thumb at the axe on his back.
"You drive a hard bargain mister", the clerk narrowed her eyes. "Right across the street, count four shops, the fifth one is a building with an anvil on the door", she handed Khaos a key. "Upstairs, first room on your right", she added.
"Thanks and thank you". Khaos smiled as he walked up the stairs, but then he suddenly stopped and turned to the clerk. "You know, too bad i am not staying, i would have asked you out", he said before walking up.
"Like you would have stood a chance", the clerk scoffed.