276 I hate this world

There was a dirty little girl running for dear life with a loaf of bread in her hands. Behind here were two burly men with snarls and knives, and…

"Earth, hold them." Remian whispered to the ground.

During his time harvesting cores, he'd learned a few things about 'using magic' in this world.

First, he couldn't make something out of nothing. He could only affect things that there were already around. For this reason, fire had become the least available, while earth and wind were usually in abundance.

Second, he had to tell them what to do. He couldn't just say 'earth' and expect what was in his mind to occur. The rules in this world required him to specify what he wanted. Rather than 'spells', it was more like he was giving out commands.

Third, whatever he wanted, he had to say it out vocally. It didn't matter if it was loudly or softly, he could whisper it if he wanted, but there had to be a spoken word into the atmosphere for something to happen.

Why? He had no idea. Everything he learned so far was the result of trial and error; he was basically fumbling his way around in the dark and only knew what worked and what didn't.

Anyway, a command like 'hold them' wasn't as elemental-specific as 'burn' or 'freeze', which were obviously only do-able by fire or water. Therefore, Remian specified how he wanted those men held; he wanted the earth to do it, not the air, or anything else.

"Whoa!" With a yelp, both men fell flat on their faces before they knew what was happening. Remian noted how the ground had basically grabbed their feet and buried them in little humps so that they were held in place out of the blue. Their feet broke free momentarily, but not before they'd tripped and met the ground face-to-face.

Without pausing or anything, the fleeing girl darted right past Remian's place and zipped off into the crowds. By the time the pursuers got to their feet, she was long gone.

There was some cursing and some swearing and a whole lot of bad language, but ultimately the men were unable to resume the chase and turned back empty-handed. Meanwhile, Remian just sat there idly sipping tea as if all of it had absolutely nothing to do with him.

When the time came, Remian watched as Mu Hou left the Guild Hall in a hurry and headed over toward the Xue Clan. Then he went back in and told the receptionist he wanted to sell medicinal ingredients. He took out his token and waved it at her.

This was, thankfully, a different receptionist. Clearly, the changing of shifts included that post as well. Without question, she directed him to Conference Room 1.

There was a different guy there, an older uncle who introduced himself as Mu Yun. He made a simple offer of 40,000 Black for the forty cores in Remian's sack, no questions asked.

"If you can bring in one hundred in a single batch, you'd have achieved a trade of at least 100,000 Black and qualify for Level 4." He mentioned as the deal concluded. "I can promote you on the spot."

"Does that mean you're an Elder?" Remian guessed.

"Just a lower hall elder, but yes, actually I am." Mu Yun said with a small grin.

"Thank you, Elder Yun, it was nice to meet you." Remian said politely and bade him farewell.

He went around buying supplies, mainly food and cooking ingredients, then carefully headed for the city gate.

Outside the city, he traveled down the road, turned the corner, and then stopped with a sigh. "You're still following me?"

There was no response, no sound, nothing to indicate a follower of any kind.

Remian turned and looked straight at a bush behind him. "You can come out now. I won't hurt you."

Slowly, a frightened, dirty face rose up from behind the bush. It was the runaway slave girl who had stolen the bread.

"You can't keep following me around. It's dangerous out here." Remian told her.

But she didn't leave. Didn't turn away. Didn't say anything at all. She just stared at him, wide-eyed and frightened. In her mind was a jumble of thoughts mainly about what he might do to her and how she might suffer… but also a feeling of desperation and a simple, strange fact.

That he was the guy who had helped her earlier.

"How did you know?" Remian blinked, taken aback.

It was such a small movement. But at that moment of fear and panic, her perceptions had been sharpened to a razor's edge. She had noticed that among everyone watching the chase, only he made any movement in response.

And the result… was that she was saved.

Having nowhere else to go and not knowing what else to do, hoping for maybe just a bit of kindness or maybe some direction, she followed him. She waited outside the Alchemist's Guild as he completed his transaction. She followed him around when he replenished his supplies. She trailed him even after he left the city, all the way up to here.

This was already halfway back to the Pod. Remian shook his head. "Girl, you better not follow me. Go find your new life elsewhere. Find someone kind, who'd maybe take you in. I can help you look for a family to adopt you. How about that?"

But she shook her head, touching a branded mark on her forehead. Fear upon fear piled up in her mind, along with a dark, resigned sorrow.

This was it. She was done. She already had nowhere else to go. This world had no place for her. This was the end.

Remian frowned, troubled in his mind and heart. Half in jest, he said, "You know, if you follow me, you'd have to leave your entire world behind."

He wasn't sure if she understood him in the first place, but amazingly, she replied, "I hate this world."

From her thoughts, Remian gleaned a few things.

First, that slave-mark meant she would always be treated as a slave. No family would take her in, nobody would offer her aid. Most likely they'd sell her off, or return her to her previous masters for a reward. Either that, or enslave her themselves.

Second, she was, by the standards of martial cultivation, crippled. She couldn't cultivate, and thus had no prospects of a future in this world. This was because an enemy of her tribe had, upon destroying that tribe, taken great pains to make sure every man was dead and every woman and child of her people crippled and sold as slaves. As for who that enemy was or why all this happened, she actually had no idea.

Third, the little kindness Remian had shown her earlier today was the most she'd ever gotten in her life ever since.

"Fine. Come with me." Remian sighed. "But you can't tell anyone what you see or hear, okay?"

"I can cut my tongue out." She offered. "Then I won't be able to tell."

"No, that's not necessary. Just don't get me in trouble." Remian grimaced, hoping he wasn't about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

***

"I've got it!" one of the guys in the center of the room suddenly shouted. He was fiddling with a magical diagram in the center of the room, one of the room's tests.

CREAK! The ceiling opened up, like an eye in the center of the roof. The test, and the test-taker went floating upwards to the next floor. The eye shut after they passed through, then after a minute reopened as the test descended back to the ground floor without its earlier passenger.

So that's how you go up?

"I'm going too." Cooper announced, heading over to the test. "Someone keep an eye on Tang Yin. Make sure he survives and gets out of here on his own power."

"Don't worry. He already has a new best friend." Alan snickered, looking over at Gary.

Gary paused. "Fine. I'll keep an eye on him, but no promises."

"Great." Assured, Cooper sat down to take his test.

Gary considered for a moment, then decided to let Tang Yin snooze a little as he went on to look through other scrolls, other books in the shelves on the bottom floor. He skimmed through them, snorted and ditched them right back in the shelves without bothering to study them, much to Alan's chagrin.

"Have some respect!" Alan yelped.

"They don't deserve any! They're all nonsense!" Gary snorted. "Except those three. Those three books are somewhat okay."

Alan glanced at them. One was about space. Another was a copy of the Night Flight of the Upper Heavens Zeppelin. The third one was on star charts observed by this very observatory's telescope.

"Well, at least you believe in SOMETHING." Alan grumbled, going back to take another test.

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Over the next few hours, the ceiling frequently opened while the club members took tests and Gary sorted through every single book in the lowest floor. At the end of it, only a fourth book joined the approved stack; a record of falling stars from outer space hitting the world.

Alan shook his head. "You're never going to be an astrologer or a lunar mage."

"That's just fine with me." Gary snorted, reading through his selection.

More and more people went up, until only three were left.

"Are we done yet?" Tang Yin sat up suddenly. "Can I go home now?"

"There's only one way out, Tang Yin. That's the lift to the next floor. There's supposed to be an exit on the fourth floor." Gary reminded him. "You'll have to take a test and pass it to go up."

"Right, right…" Tang Yin yawned, and sat down to take the test without even studying anything.

Gary and Alan exchanged bewildered glances as they watched him work his fingers through diagram after diagram.

Before even twenty minutes were up, the ceiling opened and Tang Yin ascended on the lift successfully.

When it closed, only Alan and Gary were left, stunned and staring at the ceiling, all alone on the ground floor below.