Chapter 60 – Purchase

After leaving the guard, Kieran quickly moved inside the spatial rift station until he reached a door that was 100 meters in height and length with hundreds of thousands of people coming and going through this door.

He could sense powerful auras emanating from some of the passersby. Although they contained their crystal essence within their bodies, he could tell the Earth Drake was nothing against them.

The sight in front of him had left him speechless. He had never seen so many cultivators in one place. As he walked through the door, it was as if a new world had opened up before him.

A city stretches out in his eyes as far as the eye can see. A transparent blue domed barrier surrounds the whole city with a giant circle of inscriptions serving as an entrance to let many spaceships of all sizes pass through it to enter or leave the city dome.

In the sky above the center of the city hovered a fortress that looked like a giant sword with its blade pointing downward.

He walked into the city speechless at this incredible sight when a huge shadow darkened his surroundings. Looking up at the sky, he saw a giant double-winged snake.

Its long body, covered in feathers, spanning several kilometers, glided through the city's sky as if it were his garden. The winged serpent swiftly arrived above the sword, where it coiled around the hilt, its head resting on top of the pommel.

"Mom! Look, look!" said a little child waving his mother’s arm while pointing to the sky with his finger.

"It's the Guardian Beast!"

"The Quetzalcoatl is back!"

"The King has returned!"

All the people around him were not frightened by the appearance of such a beast in the city. On the contrary, each of them seemed to celebrate its appearance.

"A grade B city is really different. Even such a crystal beast is its guardian," Kieran whispered while being impressed by the view of the snake’s long body surrounding the sword.

"I'm really impressed with the technology your race possesses, Kieran."

Runihoril, who was following behind him, had his eyes shining as his gaze only darted back and forth each time an unknown object entered his vision.

"Not all human cities are as developed as this one."

"It's still impressive. It may have changed since my death, but my race remains close to nature. Our technological progress is extremely slow. We prefer to create inscriptions formations that can only be used via crystal essence rather than creating technologies that can be used by all as your race does. For even mere mortals to be able to travel in space, it's really impressive."

"Even if it is possible, I heard that the price is exorbitant. If it is an ordinary person without a spiritual world, it will still be impossible for them to travel through space."

"That's not wrong, but the possibility is always there. Where are we going?"

Kieran waved his hands in the air as he stared at the screen that had appeared in front of him, displaying a map of the city.

"We have to go to a station to take a magnetic train to the Starlight Industry. Once there, I could sell what I harvested. With the money I have now, I could never pay for the travel to Ozryn."

"Let's go then!" Runihoril said excitedly.

'Looks like Master likes to see new things.'

A smile appeared on his face as he walked towards the train station. On the way, he opened his aurora collar notifications and began to read the many messages he had received from his family, Thomas and Alexei, as well as several recruitment messages from guilds and even some from the Aegis Alliance army.

"I have received several invitations to join well-known guilds in Ozryn, even the army has started trying to recruit me. It's strange. None of them reacted when I had my double awakening. Why are they only reacting now? Is it because I demonstrated what I was capable of during the expedition to the secret realm?"

He looked at the invitations for several seconds before sighing.

"No matter with my weird ability to get soul crystals with every crystal beast I kill, I can't afford to join a guild."

He continued to read his messages ignoring all those related to recruitment.

"Alexei has tried to call me many times. It looks like he wants to know what happened inside the palace."

After sending several messages to Alexei explaining to him that he had been teleported directly to an island far from the secret realm, he came across the messages his mother had sent him.

"Looks like Mom worries about me even with the vital orb."

The more he read his mother's messages, the more he could feel his concern increasing as the days passed.

"I should call her to reassure her."

A screen appeared in front of him as he called his mother. A few seconds passed before the screen changed, and his mother's face appeared on it.

"Ki... Kieran... You came back..." said his mother with a trembling voice.

He looked at his mother, who was holding her hands before her mouth, trying to hold back her tears. Her eyes, which were as beautiful as two sparkling emeralds, now had dark circles under them as if she hadn't slept in months.

He suddenly clenched his fists before he slowly released them.

"I'm back, Mom."

His mother couldn't contain her tears when she heard the sound of his voice.

Kieran waited patiently for her to calm down before telling her about his journey through the rift, omitting several details that might have worried her.

***

"Everything okay at home?"

"Yes, your father came back a few days ago, and your brother is practicing every day in the garden, trying to master his ability. He has made great progress in his control since you left!"

"I see Ryan doing well. I don't know when I could get back to Ozryn yet, but it shouldn't take me long."

"Don't worry about me. Now that you're back in a city, I know you're safe. Enjoy your time in Aldrines. It's not every day you get to visit a B grade city."

"Okay, I'll let you know when I know how long it will take to get back to Ozryn. Goodbye, Mom."

"Goodbye, Kieran. Take care."

He stopped the call as he arrived at the magnetic train station. Approaching the ticket office, he bought a ticket before boarding a train.

"Your mother seems to care a lot for you," said Runihoril, following behind him.

"Yeah, she doesn't like when I'm going across a rift, but she accepts it because she knows I want to become stronger. I just wish I could do something so she wouldn't worry about me so much."

"It'll never happen. That's what being a parent is."

"Do you have a child, Master?"

"Unfortunately, no, I didn't have that chance," Runihoril said in a sad voice as his eyes stared into space.

Kieran had already seen several facets of his master until now, but it was the first time he had seen him with such a sad look around him.

***

After half an hour of crossing the city with the magnetic train, Kieran finally arrived at his destination. A few minutes later, he found himself in front of a large building. Walking inside, he was greeted by a staff member.

"Welcome! How can I assist you today?" said the staff member.

"Hello. I would like to sell several items and crystal beast materials," replied Kieran.

"Of course. You can go to floor -10 to make any type of exchange."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

The staff member bowed slightly before watching him leave.

Following the instructions, he quickly arrived at floor -10.

The floor had several large rooms spaced from each other, with a few people doing business inside. After talking with the staff member who manages this floor, he was taken to a room.

Kieran sat in front of a staff member standing behind a desk.

"Welcome, Sir. My name is Landan, and I will be the agent in charge of this exchange. What would you like to sell?"

"Hello. I would like to sell everything in this spatial gem," Kieran said before handing a spatial gem to Landan.

Landan inspected the gem.

"Do you also want to sell the gem you handed to me?"

"No, I would like to keep it."

"Alright. Please wait a moment while I calculate the total value of your possessions."

"Of course."

After more than an hour of waiting, Landan had finally finished counting everything in the gem.

"Thank you for your patience. All your possessions were inspected and checked. Here is the list and the price that the Starlight Industry offers," Landan said, waving his hand.

A screen appeared in front of Kieran.

[Starlight Industry, Agent Landan. Proposed Transaction Price:
3562 crystal cores and corpses of Iron rank beasts: 2,781,000 nova.
302 crystal cores and corpses of Bronze rank beasts: 502,000 nova.
250 Bronze rank soul crystals: 16,257,327 nova.
320 weapons and armor of Iron rank: 957,236 nova.
287 spatial gems: 5,643,128 nova.
53 boats modified with crystal beasts materials of different sizes: 2,524,627 nova.
1 galleon of 300 meters modified with crystal beasts materials: 1,350,000 nova.
1 X-521 cannon: 12,000,000 nova.
Total Transaction Value: 42,015,318 nova.]

Kieran's mind went blank for a moment when he saw the total amount of the transaction.

'I am rich!'

He quickly accepted the transaction, exchanging the contents of his gem with the gem that Landan possessed.

"Thank you for using our services. If you want to proceed with another exchange with Starlight Industry in the future, do not hesitate to ask me at the reception, and I will come to your service immediately. Please also accept this membership card. You would be entitled to a 5% discount in all our stores on any purchase not exceeding 1 million nova," Landan said, bowing slightly while handing a black card with gold writing on it with a small star engraved in the upper right corner.

"Thank you very much. I will not hesitate to come back if the opportunity arises."

A smile appeared on Landan's face when he heard his words. Each staff member of Starlight Industry will receive bonuses according to the transactions he concludes with customers. 42 million nova credits may be a small sum for a giant like Starlight Industry, but for him, a small staff member to get a bonus on such an amount would be to receive several times the amount of his monthly salary.

He didn't exaggerate when he told Kieran that he would come immediately the next time he wanted to make another trade.

Kieran quickly left the room before returning to the upper floors, humming a tune with a smile on his face as he approached a member of staff.

"Welcome, sir. Can I help you?"

"Hello. I would like some information. How much does it cost to travel to the city of Ozryn?"

"The city of Ozryn? One moment please."

The staff member tapped the air for several minutes before returning his gaze to Kieran.

“There are two transportation services that our Starlight Industry offers. One of them is flying from one city to another using a tamed crystal beast, the price for this method is 520,000 nova, and the travel time is six months.

The second method is to travel via the starlight spaceship. Unfortunately, the city of Ozryn has no port to accommodate a spaceship. If you want to use this method, you will need to use a tamed flying crystal beast once you have reached the nearest city with a spaceship port. The price for this method as well as the transport by the crystal beast is 5,450,000 nova, and the travel time is five days.

'The crystal beast flying service would be the most profitable, but I would have to wait six months before I could return home. Even though 5 million nova is a huge sum, I can afford to pay that much, given my ability to obtain a soul crystal every time I kill a beast. Getting such an amount won't be difficult in the future.'

After thinking about it for a few seconds, he bought a ticket to take a spaceship, indicating that the starlight spaceship would only leave in 10 days from Pier 59, giving him time to use the city's facilities.

"Well, it's time for me to go shopping now."

After asking the staff member for directions, he quickly reached floor 28, where he was greeted by many shelves filled with potions. What looked like wisps was slowly floating inside it.

"According to the front desk member, this is the floor to buy potions and other soul recovery items. Are you sure these kinds of potions will restore Luna's soul?" asked Kieran.

"Yes, although they are not very powerful, Luna's soul is weak and only of the Bronze rank," replied Runihoril.

He nodded before approaching the agent who manages the 28th floor.

"Hello, I would like to purchase ten Soul Restore Potions."

"Welcome, sir. That will make a total of 2,000,000 nova."

Ten Soul Restore Potions landed in Kieran's spatial gems. Wasting no time, he headed to the other floors, buying whatever he needed.

Thanks to Runihoril's advice, he bought everything necessary to learn blacksmithing as well as ores to train with.

The next floor he visited was for the protective gear. He searched for an armor that could change shape only to find that no armor below Gold rank with that ability was for sale, and the cheapest Gold armor with this shape-changing effect cost at least 50 million nova.

*sigh*

"I thought I had become rich."

Left with no other choice, he bought several damage-resistant clothes that could change shape for 100,000 nova.

Floor 35 was his next stop. Possessing a wide variety of cultivation resources, he purchased 100 crystal essence stones which cost him 100,000 nova each for a total of 10 million nova, making him want to cough up blood. After hesitating for a moment, he bought 50 fire elemental stones of different quality for 1,300,000 nova.

"The crystal essence stones cost me a fortune, but it takes me two days to fully attract the crystal essence one contains. I should be able to cultivate for several months with this. I will be able to stay home for a while before returning inside a rift."

Thinking about the Aclaron, which was still in his aurora collar, he asked a staff member if he could use the services of their alchemist to create a pill. 500,000 nova was deducted from his account again, and it was only because he had the Aclaron, which was the main ingredient for the pill. Otherwise, the price could have been more than ten times higher than that price. The pill would be refined in the next few days and delivered to the address he would like as long as he was in Aldrines.

"After seeing so many potions and pills, I still don't understand the difference between the two," Kieran whispered.

"Potions tend to be stronger in the short term, while pills are the opposite, their effect is strong in the long term. This is why most potions that are created have instant effects while most pills require several days of refinement inside the body for their effect to be fully absorbed," explained Runihoril.

"I didn't think it was like that."

He inspected everything he had bought.

"Hmm, I could take the opportunity to buy a cultivation technique for Ryan and Thomas and a technique to help me manipulate my elements."

Kieran did not ask Runihoril to transmit the Heavenly Sun Body to his relatives. He understood his master well. He knew he had spent millions of years perfecting this technique. He would refuse to transmit this technique to anyone if he did not accept them as his disciple.

He spent a moment searching through the list of cultivation techniques to find one that Ryan and Thomas could use.

He bought two copies of The Great Transcendent Way technique for 10 million nova.

The Great Transcendent Way technique could allow them to reach the transcendent realm without any problem if they could get a suitable evolution path.

Continuing to search through the list of techniques, he found those related to the elements. His face suddenly went pale as his eyes stared at the price of 500 million nova for the cheapest elemental technique, causing him to give up hope of being able to purchase an elemental technique today.

"I've used almost 30 million nova in such a short time... I never imagined earning so much a few months ago, let alone spending it in such a short time."

He sent the two techniques to Ryan and Thomas before leaving Starlight Industry to find a hotel, collapsing on the bed the instant his feet crossed the threshold of his room.