16 A family - part 1

Somewhere on an unknown continent, in a lively city full of life and joy, a little kid around six years old, wrapped in a black cloth slowly walking aimlessly and with curiosity observing everything around him.

"Delicious grilled meat! Very cheap, only for a single level one soul stone! Don't miss this chance"

Asura Ryuu: "Little master, what's a soul stone?"

Little Dragon: "A Soul Stone? Those things are used even after a million years. How nostalgic.", the dragon's voice rang in his head.

Little Dragon: "A Soul Stone, as its name says, is a stone containing soul energy. You can absorb the energy from it for cultivation and that was the initial currency in the past. I can't believe it still used even now"

Asura Ryuu: "Not much changed in a million years, did it?"

Little Dragon: "Not really. That's the only thing that remained the same, well at least for now. Everything else changed a lot." She said in a nostalgic tone as if remembering something from the distant past. "In my time, spirit beasts were making up around ninety percent of the whole known population, the rest were humans - or more likely what would today be called gods. They were very strong, so strong in fact, even some of the very rare and overbearing spirit beasts like us, dragons couldn't compete with them. Nowadays you'd be happy if you can even find one in the countless lower realms with the same amount of power as them."

Asura Ryuu: "Is the difference that big? And wait, how do you know that? Were you not trapped in the void for the past million years?"

Little Dragon: "Heh, even though I'm now your Soul Spirit, I still have some use you see. Don't joke around with your master, I didn't make you accept me as a master on a whim. As a true master, you need to have skills to teach others or you'll be a failure.", as she spoke Ryuu imagined her proud expression and couldn't suppress a sweet smile appearing on his face.

As they were talking, Ryuu already arrived in front of the stall selling grilled meat. Because of his age, he was barely high enough to see what was on the stall.

A piece of meat caught his eye as he smelled the wafting fragrance from the meat.

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Asura Ryuu: "Uncle, I don't have any soul stones, is there any other way to buy this piece of meat?"

A person responsible for selling the meat only now noticed that Ryuu appeared in front of his stall and as he saw the little handsome guy standing there looking at the meat with excited eyes, he couldn't help but laugh heartily.

"Hahaha. What a cute kid, here, take it." He said, piercing the meat with a stick and gave it to Ryuu.

Asura Ryuu: "But uncle, that's not okay. If you gave every piece of meat to cute kids like me, would you be able to earn anything? I want to help you somehow in exchange for this meat."

"Hoo? A little kid like you could be this smart, well I'll be... You shouldn't worry about this uncle, I'll have enough, just take it as this old man's goodwill."

"Kid, can I ask you something?"

Asura Ryuu: "Go ahead uncle, don't hold back. I'll tell you anything I know."

"I know I shouldn't stick my nose into others' business but, are you perhaps traveling alone? From the way you look someone around here would think you're a homeless child..."

As Ryuu heard this question, he thought: "I knew someone would ask about this. Anyway, this seems like a good time to learn more about this place, might as well talk a bit with this uncle."

Ryuu found a small log near the stall and sat down, chewing on the meat and turned around to face the uncle who gave him the meat.

Asura Ryuu: "Um. I'm not from here. I just arrived in this town and don't know anything about this place."

"You arrived alone? What about your parents?"

When Ryuu heard this question, his mind again became filled with thoughts: "Parents? Do I even have something like that?"

In fact, the parents he was living with until his second age were his 'imaginary' parents made from the illusion that little dragon created while his soul was sleeping in the void.

Noticing the Ryuu being silent, old man glanced to the side as he thought: "Did I ask something I shouldn't?! Perhaps he's an orphan..."

"It's fine if it's hard to answer, this uncle was just curious. Sorry if I asked something I shouldn't", the old man said with a guilty tone in his voice. What Ryuu noticed was not only that, but he suddenly felt a bit of sadness in this old man.

Asura Ryuu: "Hey master, time to teach your disciple."

Little Dragon: "What's wrong? Don't know how to make an excuse? You don't need me to think up of what to tell the old man, do you?"

Asura Ryuu: "No, not that. Why do I feel this guy's emotions?"

Little Dragon suddenly became interested: "You feel his emotions? Tell me in details!"

Asura Ryuu: "Hmm... how do I say it, I can feel the sadness somewhere inside of me, but it's not mine and when I look at his face, I can clearly see that his smile is forced. There must have been something that happened, but I don't know what, I only feel that he's sad."

Little Dragon: "That may be related to one of your soul spirits. I can feel that one of them is being active now, but I can't exactly pinpoint it so you'll have to do that yourself."

Ryuu thought about it and decided to try it out later. His priority right now is to find out more about this place and rules.

Asura Ryuu: "No, you didn't ask anything wrong. I just fell in thought and forgot to answer, sorry."

"Haha, it's fine as long as I didn't ask anything personal. So, mind telling this old guy about it?"

Asura Ryuu: "Actually, I can't remember much. I never knew my parents and I was alone since the time I can remember. I was always alone, hunting the spirit beasts in order to survive and only now I've reached this town so I want to know more about the people, culture and similar things. About my appearance, it's a bit inappropriate for others to see so I had to wear this cloak."

"What do you mean?" The old man asked, quite intrigued by what he heard.

Asura Ryuu: "Well, I mean this."

Ryuu said while slightly pulling the hood over his head, revealing his ten-colored hair and beautiful face with long eyelashes and eyes capable of taking away one's soul.

When the old man saw his eyes, he became absent-minded while staring at the cute appearance of a little kid next to him.

Soon enough, he came back to his senses and quickly pulled the hood back to how it was before, to cover his whole head.

"Why are you keeping your soul spirit active? If you recall it, your appearance will go back to normal."

Asura Ryuu: "Well, since the Soul Spirit I have enhances my perception, I always keep it active in order to protect myself. As I said I was living alone all the time and I had to protect myself even while sleeping and because of that it turned into a habit."

"Oh, so it's like that." The old man said slightly pondering about something and then took out a stone out of his pocket and picked up another one which was identical in size to the first. The only difference was the color, the one he took out from the pocket was white, while the one he picked up from the ground had different colors mixed. If compared visually, one could even say that the first one was pure while the second had impurities.

"Tell me everything you find different between these two stones", the old guy said as he gave Ryuu both of them.

Ryuu took the stones and carefully observed them. Apart from the different shape and color, the stones were pretty normal. At this moment Ryuu felt some kind of formless power covering the small area around him and his eyes sharply glanced at the uncle in front.

"Good perception, don't be so tensed up that's my Spirit Sense." The uncle said.

Ryuu's expression changed from tensed to relaxed and then turned into an intrigued one.

He carefully observed the stone once more and, unable to find anything using his eyes, he decided to use Spirit Sense as well. His Spirit Sense spread from himself to the stone, meanwhile countering the one from the Uncle.

When his spirit sense came in contact with the stone, colors sharply changed on the 'pure white' stone. It went from yellow to orange in an instant, then after a blink, it turned red, blue, purple, black until it became pitch black and, as Ryuu's Spirit Sense entered the depth of the stone, it began vibrating and broke.

The uncle who was observing Ryuu had already became dumbfounded as his eyes overflowed with shock.

"Kid, do you know what this is?", he asked pointing at the broken stone in Ryuu's hands.

Asura Ryuu: "Little master, any leads?"

Little Dragon: "Ryuu, he's not like the others. He has a strong Spirit Sense, albeit it is weaker than yours but you are an exception, it's normal. Be careful when dealing with him, he might be a swindler."

Asura Ryuu: "Don't worry, what he feels right now is an overwhelming shock, not greed. I just want to know what this thing is that just broke."

Little Dragon: "Then it's okay, that thing is a stone called Spirit Seeking Stone, used to test one's Spirit Power. It can measure the Spirit Power up to the hundred and something and different colors represent different quality. Yellow and Orange are common, Red is uncommon, blue is rare, Purple is even rarer. Black usually appears only on the old fools who've lived for hundreds of years, and your pitch-black corresponds to the peak quality of Spirit Power. The stone didn't break because of quality, but because of your Spirit Power level."

Asura Ryuu: "Then, how high is my level right now?"

Little Dragon: "Roughly, around a thousand points. That's why it broke so fast."

Asura Ryuu: "And what's the amount?"

Little Dragon: "I'm not sure for the current time, but in the past, it was around two hundred to three hundred points for someone your age. You are an exception even among the so-called monsters above geniuses."

Asura Ryuu: "I guess I need to keep it low from now on...", Ryuu thought.

Asura Ryuu: "Uncle, I don't know what that is, but I see that it's a stone that can change colors and it has a pure structure."

"One piece of grilled meat, please", a customer said while they were talking, pulling the uncle back to the reality.

"Here you go, please come again." The uncle said to the customer with a smile, accepting the payment and began closing the stall, as it was the last piece of the meat he had to sell for today.

"Kid, do you have a place to stay?", he asked.

Asura Ryuu: "No, uncle. I don't have one, do you know any good ones that can be bought without Soul Stones?"

"Let alone that, do you want to stay over at my place? I haven't finished talking with you and only me and my daughter are living there. She's around your age, so you can stay with us for now since you don't have Soul Stones.", he said.

Ryuu thought about it: "I don't know anything about this world, this might be a great chance to learn more, and there's someone around my years so I can see how I should behave in public from now on, otherwise everyone will figure something out."

Asura Ryuu: "Sure, uncle. I hope I'm not a burden to you."

"Hahaha, a little monster like you, how can someone like that be a burden. Come with me, I have to talk to you about something important when we go home."

Asura Ryuu: "Then, let me help uncle to carry things home." Ryuu said as he picked up a few bags and put them over his shoulder.

The man was about to tell him how he shouldn't carry heavy things, but seeing Ryuu picking up so many bags, he just smiled and said nothing.

The two of them went like that all the way out to the edges of the city, somewhere near the forest.