Chapter 254: 020 – Mission Failed
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Lirian laid back on the soft chair in the mayors study for a while as he processed what the mayor had said to him.
"Sorry," Lirian eventually replied, "But I intend to go to the desolation, it sounds interesting," Lirian said with a smirk and got up to leave.
Ever since the first time Lirian had heard of a desolation in the empire he wanted to visit one and learn more about them.
But aside from the bedtime stories told about the desolations there wasn't much, even when he hacked confidential servers he got nothing, and when he tried to use the system to learn about the desolations, the fate points required made him give up.
Lirian had studied so many aspects of the 33 Neather Plains, during his many life times, but he never came across anything that resembled a desolation, so he assumed that it was some unique trait of the main plain.
But the most important thing to Lirian was that it was something new, something that he never experienced before, and something that could be studied.
For someone like Lirian who had always dedicated himself to finding new knowledge and research, the desolation was like an irresistible apple pie, made from heavenly ingredients.
'I hope that this worlds desolation is a real desolation,' Lirian thought with a look of elation plastered on his face.
If the mayor or any person on Nebula-6 knew the thoughts running through Lirian's head they would completely lose their minds, even the heavenly emperors looked at the desolation with dread, yet Lirian was filled with excitement at the mere thought of it.
The mayor didn't know what to think when Lirian called the desolation interesting, he thought that Lirian was very smart, but that reply made him rethink his evaluation of Lirian.
The mayor sighed with resignation as he looked at Lirian, he had another plan to entice Lirian but he hoped that he wouldn't have to use it.
"15 gold a year, plus food and accommodations," the mayor blurted out helplessly, 5 gold was a small fortune in this little village and that amount would severely drain the coffers of the mayor his annual taxes collected didn't amount to more than 1000 gold.
After the tribute he'd pay to the lord and the expenses of the village, he'd be lucky to have 50 gold in reserve every year and that was not including the expense brought about by the harvest festival every year and any other additional expenses that could come up, so he would just barely be able to afford it.
It was also a very high rate that he was offering, when you include the free lodging and food, aside from some exceptionally talented adventures, making a 15 gold profit a year could be considered extremely good.
The mayor had hoped that he could entice Lirian with his hospitality and one of his daughters, so that even if Lirian still demanded payment he'd ask for a small amount due to their connection, but since Lirian saw through that plan, he had to use the expensive method.
But the mayors heart quickly sunk as he saw Lirian shaking his head in pity, "I can offer you 20 gold a year," the mayor reluctantly added but seeing no change in Lirian he made one last offer, "If I'm able to get everyone in the village to pool some resources together I might be able to raise it to 25 gold a year," he said through gritted teeth.
The mayor knew that this would cause a lot of trouble and bring the dissatisfaction of the villagers, but he was doing this for their own good.
"Sorry," Lirian said with a smile, "But you'll have to try to trick the next cultivator that comes through your village," he chuckled and turned around.
Lirian understood the thoughts of the mayor, and he could respect the mayor's efforts to try and rope him in, but to put things frankly Lirian didn't care about him or his village.
As Lirian turned around he decided to do a quick fate string search on the mayor to find out if he missed anything, and Lirian's eyes widened behind the blindfold because he discovered something he didn't expect to find.
Within the mayors memories he found what was necessary to become a cultivator, and it was actually very simple, hack it didn't even take much effort.
All Lirian needed was to gather 25 gold and get a letter of merit from any important individual within a village or town or city before bringing it to a lord of the area.
The people of importance that he could get a letter of merit from was any blacksmith, herbalist, village mayor, guild branch leader or a noble.
The letter was used as a type of guaranty, so if the cultivator violated any rules the person who gave them a letter of merit would be held accountable, so it was pretty difficult to get a letter of merit, because it was the same as using one's life to vouch for the character of another.
But Lirian did find it curious there was nothing about it being forbidden to share the knowledge, 'Is there something else that happens when a person goes to cultivate?' Lirian wondered.
Lirian stopped in his tracks and turned to the mayor, "I won't be staying for that long, but I might be willing to stay to help you until the orc problem is resolved,"
"But, I would first like to meet your local cultivator to hear what he has to say about the situation," Lirian said, the first step for him was to learn what oath the cultivators had to take.
The oath didn't frighten Lirian at all, he had his own tricks to severe almost any type of binding oath, but he wanted to know the process before hand, just in case there was anything he might overlook.
A look of reluctance flashed across the mayors eyes but he quickly answered before Lirian called him out for acting suspicious, "Mr Cassy is out of town, he escorted one of the merchants out of town and he wanted to take a look at the orc's, he should be back in 2 days,"
Lirian nodded at the mayors reply, "I'll be waiting then," he said and walked down the stairs.
As Lirian walked away, the mayor looked at Lirian with a shine in his eyes, if he could keep Lirian here for 2 months, until the cultivators from Proge arrived he might just have the chance to get Lirian and one of his daughters together.
[Mission: Failed]
Lirian was expecting that the moment he found the info about how to cultivate in the mayors memories, while he still didn't know the secret that would allow him to cultivate, he knew that it could be done at any residence of a lord.
When Lirian made it down to the first floor of the house, the two daughters of the mayor quickly approached him with a lot of vigour.
"Good sir, I'm Elle and this is my little sister Elsie," the elder of the two girls introduced themselves, Lirian knew that she was 15 years old from the mayors memories, just a year away from being of marrying age, and the little sister Elsie was just a year younger.
Lirian learned that 16 years was the general age of marriage, Lirian learned that during the previous night, when he got to hear the many prayers and desires of the people from the village.
The two girls had long blond hair and they were roughly the same height, with their similar looks it would be easy for anyone to confuse them as twins.
The two girls rushed to Lirian's sides with each one attaching themselves to one of his arms as if it was a natural procedure, seeing how natural their movements were Lirian knew that this was a well-used tactic of the two girls.
"Father has said that you might be staying with us for a while," the younger of the two girls Elsie said in a soft voice as she lightly attached herself to Lirian's one arm while the elder sister Ella mimicked her movements on Lirian's other arm.
'The mayor and his wife have trained their daughters really well on how to get the attention of a man,' Lirian thought, any man in the world would be hard pressed to say that they were unhappy with the treatment.
Lirian would bet that if the mayor was down here his eyes would be gleaming, and he had no doubt that this was all part of the mayor's plan to keep him here.
"I'm afraid that I won't be staying," Lirian said completely unperturbed by their advances, so far the girls were behaving themselves, so, he didn't mind entertaining their advances and chose to enjoy the feeling of having two girls wrapped around his arms.
"Oh," Ella said with a disappointed pout, "I was really looking forward to your stay, father doesn't allow us to go out much, he say's that if we want to go out we need a strong man to accompany us," she added and squeezed Lirian's hand while looking at him intently.
"My apologies lovely girls, but I'll be taking my leave," Lirian said and deliberately extracted his hands from their hold allowing them to see some of his skin.
The girls stared at Lirian's pure white hand like it was a priceless treasure, when Lirian reached the door he covered up his arm and took a step towards the door.
But just as he was about to leave the two girls snapped out of their daze, but a strange light had entered their eyes, "Wait," the two girls cried out in unison and rushed to Lirian's side once more.
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Lirian laid back on the soft chair in the mayors study for a while as he processed what the mayor had said to him.
"Sorry," Lirian eventually replied, "But I intend to go to the desolation, it sounds interesting," Lirian said with a smirk and got up to leave.
Ever since the first time Lirian had heard of a desolation in the empire he wanted to visit one and learn more about them.
But aside from the bedtime stories told about the desolations there wasn't much, even when he hacked confidential servers he got nothing, and when he tried to use the system to learn about the desolations, the fate points required made him give up.
Lirian had studied so many aspects of the 33 Neather Plains, during his many life times, but he never came across anything that resembled a desolation, so he assumed that it was some unique trait of the main plain.
But the most important thing to Lirian was that it was something new, something that he never experienced before, and something that could be studied.
For someone like Lirian who had always dedicated himself to finding new knowledge and research, the desolation was like an irresistible apple pie, made from heavenly ingredients.
'I hope that this worlds desolation is a real desolation,' Lirian thought with a look of elation plastered on his face.
If the mayor or any person on Nebula-6 knew the thoughts running through Lirian's head they would completely lose their minds, even the heavenly emperors looked at the desolation with dread, yet Lirian was filled with excitement at the mere thought of it.
The mayor didn't know what to think when Lirian called the desolation interesting, he thought that Lirian was very smart, but that reply made him rethink his evaluation of Lirian.
The mayor sighed with resignation as he looked at Lirian, he had another plan to entice Lirian but he hoped that he wouldn't have to use it.
"15 gold a year, plus food and accommodations," the mayor blurted out helplessly, 5 gold was a small fortune in this little village and that amount would severely drain the coffers of the mayor his annual taxes collected didn't amount to more than 1000 gold.
After the tribute he'd pay to the lord and the expenses of the village, he'd be lucky to have 50 gold in reserve every year and that was not including the expense brought about by the harvest festival every year and any other additional expenses that could come up, so he would just barely be able to afford it.
It was also a very high rate that he was offering, when you include the free lodging and food, aside from some exceptionally talented adventures, making a 15 gold profit a year could be considered extremely good.
The mayor had hoped that he could entice Lirian with his hospitality and one of his daughters, so that even if Lirian still demanded payment he'd ask for a small amount due to their connection, but since Lirian saw through that plan, he had to use the expensive method.
But the mayors heart quickly sunk as he saw Lirian shaking his head in pity, "I can offer you 20 gold a year," the mayor reluctantly added but seeing no change in Lirian he made one last offer, "If I'm able to get everyone in the village to pool some resources together I might be able to raise it to 25 gold a year," he said through gritted teeth.
The mayor knew that this would cause a lot of trouble and bring the dissatisfaction of the villagers, but he was doing this for their own good.
"Sorry," Lirian said with a smile, "But you'll have to try to trick the next cultivator that comes through your village," he chuckled and turned around.
Lirian understood the thoughts of the mayor, and he could respect the mayor's efforts to try and rope him in, but to put things frankly Lirian didn't care about him or his village.
As Lirian turned around he decided to do a quick fate string search on the mayor to find out if he missed anything, and Lirian's eyes widened behind the blindfold because he discovered something he didn't expect to find.
Within the mayors memories he found what was necessary to become a cultivator, and it was actually very simple, hack it didn't even take much effort.
All Lirian needed was to gather 25 gold and get a letter of merit from any important individual within a village or town or city before bringing it to a lord of the area.
The people of importance that he could get a letter of merit from was any blacksmith, herbalist, village mayor, guild branch leader or a noble.
The letter was used as a type of guaranty, so if the cultivator violated any rules the person who gave them a letter of merit would be held accountable, so it was pretty difficult to get a letter of merit, because it was the same as using one's life to vouch for the character of another.
But Lirian did find it curious there was nothing about it being forbidden to share the knowledge, 'Is there something else that happens when a person goes to cultivate?' Lirian wondered.
Lirian stopped in his tracks and turned to the mayor, "I won't be staying for that long, but I might be willing to stay to help you until the orc problem is resolved,"
"But, I would first like to meet your local cultivator to hear what he has to say about the situation," Lirian said, the first step for him was to learn what oath the cultivators had to take.
The oath didn't frighten Lirian at all, he had his own tricks to severe almost any type of binding oath, but he wanted to know the process before hand, just in case there was anything he might overlook.
A look of reluctance flashed across the mayors eyes but he quickly answered before Lirian called him out for acting suspicious, "Mr Cassy is out of town, he escorted one of the merchants out of town and he wanted to take a look at the orc's, he should be back in 2 days,"
Lirian nodded at the mayors reply, "I'll be waiting then," he said and walked down the stairs.
As Lirian walked away, the mayor looked at Lirian with a shine in his eyes, if he could keep Lirian here for 2 months, until the cultivators from Proge arrived he might just have the chance to get Lirian and one of his daughters together.
[Mission: Failed]
Lirian was expecting that the moment he found the info about how to cultivate in the mayors memories, while he still didn't know the secret that would allow him to cultivate, he knew that it could be done at any residence of a lord.
When Lirian made it down to the first floor of the house, the two daughters of the mayor quickly approached him with a lot of vigour.
"Good sir, I'm Elle and this is my little sister Elsie," the elder of the two girls introduced themselves, Lirian knew that she was 15 years old from the mayors memories, just a year away from being of marrying age, and the little sister Elsie was just a year younger.
Lirian learned that 16 years was the general age of marriage, Lirian learned that during the previous night, when he got to hear the many prayers and desires of the people from the village.
The two girls had long blond hair and they were roughly the same height, with their similar looks it would be easy for anyone to confuse them as twins.
The two girls rushed to Lirian's sides with each one attaching themselves to one of his arms as if it was a natural procedure, seeing how natural their movements were Lirian knew that this was a well-used tactic of the two girls.
"Father has said that you might be staying with us for a while," the younger of the two girls Elsie said in a soft voice as she lightly attached herself to Lirian's one arm while the elder sister Ella mimicked her movements on Lirian's other arm.
'The mayor and his wife have trained their daughters really well on how to get the attention of a man,' Lirian thought, any man in the world would be hard pressed to say that they were unhappy with the treatment.
Lirian would bet that if the mayor was down here his eyes would be gleaming, and he had no doubt that this was all part of the mayor's plan to keep him here.
"I'm afraid that I won't be staying," Lirian said completely unperturbed by their advances, so far the girls were behaving themselves, so, he didn't mind entertaining their advances and chose to enjoy the feeling of having two girls wrapped around his arms.
"Oh," Ella said with a disappointed pout, "I was really looking forward to your stay, father doesn't allow us to go out much, he say's that if we want to go out we need a strong man to accompany us," she added and squeezed Lirian's hand while looking at him intently.
"My apologies lovely girls, but I'll be taking my leave," Lirian said and deliberately extracted his hands from their hold allowing them to see some of his skin.
The girls stared at Lirian's pure white hand like it was a priceless treasure, when Lirian reached the door he covered up his arm and took a step towards the door.
But just as he was about to leave the two girls snapped out of their daze, but a strange light had entered their eyes, "Wait," the two girls cried out in unison and rushed to Lirian's side once more.
Lirian laid back on the soft chair in the mayors study for a while as he processed what the mayor had said to him."Sorry," Lirian eventually replied, "But I intend to go to the desolation, it sounds interesting," Lirian said with a smirk and got up to leave.Ever since the first time Lirian had heard of a desolation in the empire he wanted to visit one and learn more about them.But aside from the bedtime stories told about the desolations there wasn't much, even when he hacked confidential servers he got nothing, and when he tried to use the system to learn about the desolations, the fate points required made him give up.Lirian had studied so many aspects of the 33 Neather Plains, during his many life times, but he never came across anything that resembled a desolation, so he assumed that it was some unique trait of the main plain.But the most important thing to Lirian was that it was something new, something that he never experienced before, and something that could be studied.For someone like Lirian who had always dedicated himself to finding new knowledge and research, the desolation was like an irresistible apple pie, made from heavenly ingredients.'I hope that this worlds desolation is a real desolation,' Lirian thought with a look of elation plastered on his face.If the mayor or any person on Nebula-6 knew the thoughts running through Lirian's head they would completely lose their minds, even the heavenly emperors looked at the desolation with dread, yet Lirian was filled with excitement at the mere thought of it.The mayor didn't know what to think when Lirian called the desolation interesting, he thought that Lirian was very smart, but that reply made him rethink his evaluation of Lirian.The mayor sighed with resignation as he looked at Lirian, he had another plan to entice Lirian but he hoped that he wouldn't have to use it."15 gold a year, plus food and accommodations," the mayor blurted out helplessly, 5 gold was a small fortune in this little village and that amount would severely drain the coffers of the mayor his annual taxes collected didn't amount to more than 1000 gold.After the tribute he'd pay to the lord and the expenses of the village, he'd be lucky to have 50 gold in reserve every year and that was not including the expense brought about by the harvest festival every year and any other additional expenses that could come up, so he would just barely be able to afford it.It was also a very high rate that he was offering, when you include the free lodging and food, aside from some exceptionally talented adventures, making a 15 gold profit a year could be considered extremely good.The mayor had hoped that he could entice Lirian with his hospitality and one of his daughters, so that even if Lirian still demanded payment he'd ask for a small amount due to their connection, but since Lirian saw through that plan, he had to use the expensive method.But the mayors heart quickly sunk as he saw Lirian shaking his head in pity, "I can offer you 20 gold a year," the mayor reluctantly added but seeing no change in Lirian he made one last offer, "If I'm able to get everyone in the village to pool some resources together I might be able to raise it to 25 gold a year," he said through gritted teeth.The mayor knew that this would cause a lot of trouble and bring the dissatisfaction of the villagers, but he was doing this for their own good."Sorry," Lirian said with a smile, "But you'll have to try to trick the next cultivator that comes through your village," he chuckled and turned around.Lirian understood the thoughts of the mayor, and he could respect the mayor's efforts to try and rope him in, but to put things frankly Lirian didn't care about him or his village.As Lirian turned around he decided to do a quick fate string search on the mayor to find out if he missed anything, and Lirian's eyes widened behind the blindfold because he discovered something he didn't expect to find.Within the mayors memories he found what was necessary to become a cultivator, and it was actually very simple, hack it didn't even take much effort.All Lirian needed was to gather 25 gold and get a letter of merit from any important individual within a village or town or city before bringing it to a lord of the area.The people of importance that he could get a letter of merit from was any blacksmith, herbalist, village mayor, guild branch leader or a noble.The letter was used as a type of guaranty, so if the cultivator violated any rules the person who gave them a letter of merit would be held accountable, so it was pretty difficult to get a letter of merit, because it was the same as using one's life to vouch for the character of another.But Lirian did find it curious there was nothing about it being forbidden to share the knowledge, 'Is there something else that happens when a person goes to cultivate?' Lirian wondered.Lirian stopped in his tracks and turned to the mayor, "I won't be staying for that long, but I might be willing to stay to help you until the orc problem is resolved,""But, I would first like to meet your local cultivator to hear what he has to say about the situation," Lirian said, the first step for him was to learn what oath the cultivators had to take.The oath didn't frighten Lirian at all, he had his own tricks to severe almost any type of binding oath, but he wanted to know the process before hand, just in case there was anything he might overlook.A look of reluctance flashed across the mayors eyes but he quickly answered before Lirian called him out for acting suspicious, "Mr Cassy is out of town, he escorted one of the merchants out of town and he wanted to take a look at the orc's, he should be back in 2 days,"Lirian nodded at the mayors reply, "I'll be waiting then," he said and walked down the stairs.As Lirian walked away, the mayor looked at Lirian with a shine in his eyes, if he could keep Lirian here for 2 months, until the cultivators from Proge arrived he might just have the chance to get Lirian and one of his daughters together.Mission: FailedLirian was expecting that the moment he found the info about how to cultivate in the mayors memories, while he still didn't know the secret that would allow him to cultivate, he knew that it could be done at any residence of a lord.When Lirian made it down to the first floor of the house, the two daughters of the mayor quickly approached him with a lot of vigour."Good sir, I'm Elle and this is my little sister Elsie," the elder of the two girls introduced themselves, Lirian knew that she was 15 years old from the mayors memories, just a year away from being of marrying age, and the little sister Elsie was just a year younger.Lirian learned that 16 years was the general age of marriage, Lirian learned that during the previous night, when he got to hear the many prayers and desires of the people from the village.The two girls had long blond hair and they were roughly the same height, with their similar looks it would be easy for anyone to confuse them as twins.The two girls rushed to Lirian's sides with each one attaching themselves to one of his arms as if it was a natural procedure, seeing how natural their movements were Lirian knew that this was a well-used tactic of the two girls."Father has said that you might be staying with us for a while," the younger of the two girls Elsie said in a soft voice as she lightly attached herself to Lirian's one arm while the elder sister Ella mimicked her movements on Lirian's other arm.'The mayor and his wife have trained their daughters really well on how to get the attention of a man,' Lirian thought, any man in the world would be hard pressed to say that they were unhappy with the treatment.Lirian would bet that if the mayor was down here his eyes would be gleaming, and he had no doubt that this was all part of the mayor's plan to keep him here."I'm afraid that I won't be staying," Lirian said completely unperturbed by their advances, so far the girls were behaving themselves, so, he didn't mind entertaining their advances and chose to enjoy the feeling of having two girls wrapped around his arms."Oh," Ella said with a disappointed pout, "I was really looking forward to your stay, father doesn't allow us to go out much, he say's that if we want to go out we need a strong man to accompany us," she added and squeezed Lirian's hand while looking at him intently."My apologies lovely girls, but I'll be taking my leave," Lirian said and deliberately extracted his hands from their hold allowing them to see some of his skin.The girls stared at Lirian's pure white hand like it was a priceless treasure, when Lirian reached the door he covered up his arm and took a step towards the door.But just as he was about to leave the two girls snapped out of their daze, but a strange light had entered their eyes, "Wait," the two girls cried out in unison and rushed to Lirian's side once more.
