The two SUVs pulled up to the gate and Green Butterfly landed in front of them. She said something to the two guards and then walked over to the vehicles, to Greg’s window. “He says that the Sect Master didn’t inform him of any merchants coming to the sect today, so he can’t allow you inside.”
Greg thought for a few seconds. “Do you think we could get permission to enter somehow? I’m willing to ‘donate’ a few relics if it gets us entrance.” They were cheap crap anyway. What would it matter if we lost $50 on a few of them if we could make thousands by selling the rest?
“Normally, I would say that bribing the sect master was dangerous and could earn his disapproval. But the last Sect Master died a year ago and his son took over. Of course, I would be the last person to speak ill of such an illustrious and profound master, but I believe that your small trade company lacks the resources to truly impress him.” The message was pretty clear. It wasn’t that he couldn’t be bought, it was that he was too expensive. And she couldn’t come out and say so with guards nearby who might report her.
“In that case, are the other disciples allowed to leave the walls of the sect?”
She nodded. “Many of them. Unlike many sects, we do not require our members to remain here all of the time, and actively encourage them to go out and seek adventures in the world, to bring back the fruits of their actions.” Yeah, they let people leave because they would either die trying to get rich, or succeed, then bring the wealth back to the sect.
“Then can we, perhaps, set up in a clearing nearby, where we may meet some of these disciples and help equip them for their daring adventures?”
She smiled and nodded. “Of course, I was just about to suggest that.” She told them about a small village just down the road where most of the lower ranked disciples purchased supplies which the sect didn’t provide, and how they had an area for traveling merchants just outside of the town. She then promised to spread the word about us being there. While Greg didn’t want to wait around for them, he was willing to remain there for three days, starting tomorrow as it was getting late, so that he could conduct business with the locals.
Once Green Butterfly entered the sect town, they turned around and went to the village, arriving an hour before sunset. The village likely couldn’t hold more than a thousand people, but had a palisade of trees half a meter across. Greg wondered how they could have moved the logs into place, but they likely had large pieces of equipment or work animals to help them. With a proper rope and pulley system, plus a work mule or two, he could probably devise a way to do it.
They drove up to the gate and the two guards in front of the gate stopped them, though there were others watching from the top of the wall. “Halt, who goes there?” one of the guards asked in a way that was oddly familiar to anyone that had played an RPG.
“I am an Independent Cultivator by the name of Greg Talmidge from the nation of The United States. I have come hoping to stay and sell my wares here for the next three days.”
The guard looked scared. “I apologize, sir. I didn’t realize that you were cultivators, and merely thought of you as traveling merchants.”
“Well, for the moment we pretty much are traveling merchants. Besides, we are only in the Third and Fourth realms, so we barely qualify as cultivators.”
The guard automatically took a step backwards in shock. “TH..Third and fourth rank?” In actuality, only Mike was in the Core realm, with everyone else being in the Foundation, but he wanted to see how the locals reacted to the news. “P-Please, enter immediately, sir. I am merely in shock, as most of the cultivators who visit us are in the first realm, or occasionally the second.”
‘Makes sense.’ thought Greg. After all, Green Butterfly said that those that visited were mainly from the lower ranks of the sect.
The Guard motioned to the others and they quickly began opening the gate. “Again, I apologize for the delay my foolish actions caused you.” the man said, then knelt on the ground and started kowtowing.
“There’s no need for that. Feel free to treat me as any other merchant.” Said Greg, realizing that telling the truth may have caused a few problems. The guard was obviously terrified.
“If you insist, my lord.” he said, then bowed a few times before motioning to the gate. “Please, enter our humble village. I shall send word to the inn that you are coming.”
Greg looked at him. “The Inn?” he asked.
“Yes, my lord. I must apologize that it isn’t good enough for someone like yourself, but it is the best that we can provide on short notice. If you are willing to give us some time, however, I can notify the village headman and I’m sure he will be willing to offer you his hospitality.”
Yeah, this had definitely gone further than he had hoped. Greg would have to fix that. He thought about what he knew about the local cultivators and remembered something that the local cultivators had mentioned to the people at the base. “A room at the inn is fine. In truth, I have just recently left a year of closed door cultivation in a cave, and welcome any place with a bed.”
“Ah, yes, my lord. It is certainly more comfortable than a cave.” He smiled and Greg wasn’t sure if he thought it was a joke or if he believed Greg.
Greg told the others what had happened, and continued into the village.
“I think we might want to start lying about our levels any time we’re in town.” said Randy after Greg told him what was said. “Maybe say we are first realm and Mike is second.”
Greg nodded. “You’re right. When we get to the next city we’ll do that.”
The guard escorted them to the inn and, when the inn told them the price for the eight best rooms, the guard whispered something to the inn owner and the owner immediately started energetically saying “No Charge” while offering them the keys as well as many services like room service, laundry and bath service, and ‘companionship’ from some of the local women he knew who provided such services.
“Yeah, he’s not terrified at all.” muttered Greg before telling him that they will pay for the hospitality once they found a way to pay the man back. They knew that spirit stones were only really viable as currency when dealing with other cultivators, not that they had any that weren’t depleted by this world’s standards. That means that even if he paid them in stones all they could use it for was to buy things from cultivators or pay them for services, like killing monsters.
Greg warned the men about being on their best behavior, as he didn’t want a bad reputation, and they went to their rooms. The two vehicles had been left in the barn where merchants would normally park their carriages, and the men carried all of the goods to their room, in case someone decided to try and steal from them. They had only brought around five thousand dollars worth of goods with them, but they still couldn’t risk someone taking their trade goods, as missing some would limit what they could do in this world.
That night as they ate they sat around a large table the Innkeeper’s wife had set up and covered in various dishes. They didn’t see anything familiar, but they could put things into categories. Their were a few kinds of noodles that had some sort of vegetable cooked into them. They decided to call that Lo Mein. Their were steaks of various types of meat, both red and white, as well as a few fish. There was some sort of vegetable placed inside a shell and folded over before being grilled. Spring rolls? Tacos? They eventually settled on Spring Tacos. Some sort of grain was also in a bowl, with eggs fried in it. It tasted more like quinoa than rice, though, so they settled on Egg Fried Quinoa. Sure, none of the dishes or their names were fancy, but the meals weren’t bad.
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The men that spoke the local language learned the names of all of the dishes in case they wanted to order them in the future. Then, once everyone got their food, they started discussing business. Of course, all of their speech, including the food naming, was in English, so the locals had no idea what they were saying. “Well, to start off,” said Greg, “Randy suggested that we downplay our cultivation by at least two levels in the next town. The gate guard was respectful just because he new we were cultivators, but telling him we were in Foundation and Core just seemed to terrify him. So, when we get to the next town, we’ll say everyone but Mike is first realm, aka Gathering and he is second, aka Condensation. Everyone agree?” There were various murmurs, but everyone did. Nobody wanted to frighten the locals or draw attention to themselves. If third and fourth stage cultivators were that rare in these parts, then they would have to act like they were lower.
“Ok, then, with that settled, what’s our plan for tomorrow?” Greg asked.
“Well, we can just borrow a few tables from the locals, can’t we?” said one of the anthropologists, a Doctor Shmidt. “Then we can just set up like it is a swap meet. I doubt anyone would steal from us, and if they do we all have non-lethal devices with which to stop the fleeing thieves.”
The other Anthropologist, Dr. Lee, disagreed. “But would a merchant, not to mention a high ranked cultivator, put their wares out in the open like that? I know we were claiming that they weren’t that amazing, but from the look on Green Butterfly’s face, those relics are definitely worth it, and some of the techniques in the books also seemed valuable to her. I know one of the books might only sell for $10 and only contain basic techniques as far as we’re concerned, but to them it could be extremely valuable.”
“Then, what do you propose?” asked Greg.
“I say we let them ask for the types of goods they want, and only then bring them out. Even then, we should treat them like they have at least a decent value. It’s much easier for them to think we are selling them trash if we act like it’s nothing special.”
“But it is trash.” said Mike. “Nothing there is worth more than $20. We just have a lot of it.”
“Sure, but the value to us and the value to them are completely different things.” Dr. Lee corrected. “Water might be cheap in most areas, but in the desert can be more valuable than gold. Well, assuming you are thirsty enough. The same thing might be true here. How much is the ability to fly, even only through Levitation, worth to a person that is stuck to the ground? We take it for granted, and see it as a technique that everyone should have because of how easy it is. But if you have been dreaming of flying your entire life and suddenly learned to do so, how valuable to you is that knowledge?”
A few of the others didn’t seem too convinced, and thought we would be taking advantage of the people. “Oh, I’m not saying we should take them for everything they have.” said Dr. Lee. “Just that we might value things differently than them. I guess a lot of you were still children or teenagers when qi arrived, but I was already discussing retirement when I heard about the discovery. I can tell you, that to an old man like me the ability to drink a glass of algae and no longer have arthritis was basically a miracle, and I would have paid a hundred per glass for it if I had to. When the Sansoong Qi came out I waited in line for three hours just to buy one. That’s how important these things can be to these people. If you doubt me, ask the Innkeeper what he would pay for the ability to cultivate.”
The other seven nodded at this, and Greg spoke up. “Ok, then. We will ask the others what they want, and then bring out things that might meet their goals. Then we’ll let them determine the price. Once we know what a stone is worth to them and what the goods are worth, we can figure out if they are lowballing us, but as long as we don’t let them lowball us too badly we should be fine.” Everyone nodded. “So, any other plans?”
“A roof.” said Randy, and Greg looked at him. “We don’t want to be outside selling our wares. Not only does it look trashy, but we don’t know what the weather will be like around here. If we can’t borrow a room here at the Inn to do business in, we should at least ask to use that gazebo I saw near the main gate. It’s classy enough that I could see a merchant using it, though if we are pretending to sell luxury goods, it might not be enough.”
Once they had discussed it a bit more, Greg agreed to ask the innkeeper if they could set up in the main entertainment room. The Inn had a room just off the foyer with a small stage, where people could listen to musical performances and parties could be hosted. The innkeeper immediately agreed. They hadn’t taken advantage of much of the hospitality he had offered only the food and baths, so he was happy to do something for the Powerful Ones.
The next morning the guards brought a few tables into the Entertainment Room and, after eating breakfast, they brought in the plastic crates full of trade goods and set up a few chairs for Greg, the Biologist, Dr. Shmidt to sit in. Each one had claimed a specific type of trade good. Greg claimed the Relics, as that is what most interested Green Butterfly yesterday. The biologist, Dr. Clement, claimed the Alchemical supplies, as he knew a bit about how they were made, having taken a few classes in Alchemy. Dr. Shmidt ended up with the technique books. While he also liked studying techniques, he had once been a teacher at a university, so if anyone needed the techniques explained to them, he would be the best one to do it. Dr. Lee would be subbing in for them as they went on break or helping any table that got busy.
The guards would be stationed with two of them outside the Inn’s entrance and two in the room, so that people would realize it was a bad idea to steal from them. An hour after when the other businesses in town opened, however, they still didn’t have any customers. “Hey, Greg.” said Randy, getting bored standing outside. “Since we don’t have any customers, do you mind if I go fly around the area? If nothing else I can head towards the sect and see if something held them up. It’s only ten kilometers from here, so it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes to get there.”
Greg thought for a second and nodded. “Might as well.” he said, and Randy thanked him and left.
Once he stepped outside he activated his Flight technique and flew into the air. As he was at Foundation he could have used the Antigravity technique along with it, but he hadn’t actually learned that one yet. Instead he just used an improved form of Flight to make the trip more quickly and efficiently. The people in town all stopped and stared when he lifted off of the air, but he didn’t pay them any attention.
As he didn’t see any cultivators outside of town he followed the road back towards the sect, which he could see near the horizon. Five minutes later, about half way there, he saw several flashes of light in front of him. He went over and hovered above the people below. There were several large creatures, like a mix between a porcupine and a coyote, but as large as a horse, attacking them. They were using a variety of weapons to fight, and occasionally one would send off a bolt of bright qi which he didn’t even need to use qi sight to see, and would even be visible to people from before qi times.
As he watched the team of three young men and two young women started to get pushed back, but when the creatures lined up while advancing one of the men jumped forward, yelled something, and swung his sword. Flames flew off the blade and towards the wolves and, even from around three meters away, they were cut and the wound burnt. About half of the creatures died from the blow and several more started whimpering and trying to leave, while three fled. While landing near one of the fleeing creatures Randy pulled out his phone and, after opening the translation app and repeated the words the young man had just said. A second later the words “Sweeping Flame Slash” appeared on screen. Of course that was what the move was called.
Seeing a man drop out of the sky in front of it, the creature stopped to avoid hitting it, then got angry and decided to jump at him. Randy just grabbed it by the throat, its quills doing nothing to his barrier, and crushed its throat. He then ran to where others fled and merely ran into them. The force of him hitting them was more than the force of a high speed car crash, and he heard bones snap in both of them. As both of them were still alive from the collision, having impressive endurance, he simply grabbed their heads and twisted, snapping their necks. He then grabbed one in each hand, by the skin at the back of its neck, like one might lift a puppy, and carried them back to the young adults. They were surprised to see him land, and started speaking, when he held up a hand and left to get the other creature.
When he returned with it, he dropped it as well, and pulled out his phone. “Hello,” he said into the microphone. “I am an independent cultivator from the United States, named Randy. I saw you fighting the monsters and thought you might need my help.”
A loading icon appeared on the screen and two seconds later the phone started speaking in the native language, repeating what he said.
The boy who had launched the creatively named attack said something and two seconds later the phone spoke again. “I thank you for your assistance, fellow Daoist. We are from the Eastern Gate Sect, and were sent on a mission to hunt the Vrooshkin.”
“Were you, by any chance, told about a group of traders located in the village twelve li from here?”
“Yes Senior.” the conversation continued after several seconds of translation for each speaker. “We hope to see what they have in trade, but, as the Vrooshkin frequent this path, we decided to hunt them first, then trade what we didn’t need to keep with those cultivators.”
Randy nodded. “I am a guard with that trade group. If you would be willing to tell me what is useful from these Vrooshkin, I am willing to give you some of it, as well as escort you to the village, if you wish it.”
