The Tower of Emnu

Aaron planned to finish his round first before he returned with the memory cores and so he rounded the next prison and found himself at the opposite wall from where he had started. In the cell the furthest away from the great master sat a woman. Well, she did not really sit, she lounged. Her cell had all kinds of pillows and an honest to god four-poster bed in the back. There were light screens around her prison and she looked like she was waiting for Aaron.

“Hello handsome.” she said with a deep pleasantly husky voice. The whole woman screamed sex appeal. Her long titanium blonde hair fell in curls over her back, framing her oval face. Plump lips broadened into a knowing smile as Aaron checked her out, unable to help himself. She was beautiful, her face either changed through makeup or more likely perfected through some kind of cultivation art looked like it was created by a very horny deity. She wore a very revealing dark dress with deep cleavage showing her ample bosom. Her long legs were tucked away and her bare feet visible to the side as she leaned on a big cushion. The dress was almost indecently tight and spanned over her hips and flat stomach. She shifted her posture a bit and Aaron’s gaze snapped back up to her eyes. They were a deep green and had a slightly hypnotic vibe to them.

“Well, I see you at least appreciate beauty, handsome.” she said with a soft chuckle.

Aaron cleared his throat and stopped staring. Instead he gave her a small bow as he got himself under control. In his past life he had learned how to blend in, especially in social gatherings and the like and he had some experience not just talking to beautiful women, but also dating them. In his honest opinion the beautiful women were rarely worth the effort because they were conceited, narcissistic and usually thought their beauty meant he owed them something. Beauty could not give you a good personality after all and he had much preferred women who created less of an impact. Better for his cover, better for their self esteem when he was away on another hit. Aaron had quite simply never met a beautiful woman who did not know they were beautiful and became annoying because of it. But to be fair none of his relationships had ever had a chance to begin with because Aaron had never told any of his girlfriends what he actually did. Maybe his view on the subject was a bit jaded, but at least he wasn’t some young idiot lusting after any piece of ass he saw. So he raised his gaze and smiled at the beautiful woman sitting in her cell.

“Apologies for staring, but this body of mine is brand new and young too. Hormones can be a terrible thing. I assume you are the Courtesan.”

“That I am, sweetie. But don’t worry I am quite a bit more beautiful than most women, it is only natural to stare.” she said haughtily and then winked at Aaron, taking the bite out of her own words.

“In all seriousness though, I always try to show off my charms when I meet a new face. Few can hide their secrets when they are flustered after all.” she said with a soft pearling laugh and Aaron felt a slight shiver run down his spine it was that pleasant to listen to. But he did not show it, or at least tried not to.

“I have come to deliver this to you.” he showed her one of the manastones and she leaned closer.

“Ohh, for me? Thank you darling, come closer, the box is just around the corner.”

Aaron walked around the prison and could barely focus as the Courtesan stood up, her body flexing in all the right ways and she sauntered over to the box with the casual grace of a ballerina. He quickly placed the manastone in the box and closed it on his end.

The Courtesan smiled at him and took the manastone out on the other side. She was actually taller than Aaron and she studied him with mild interest. The silence stretched and although Aaron really did not care about awkward silences, he knew from experience that people expected him to break the silence none the less.

“So, you were Kyoko’s master?”

“Indeed, that poor girl had such a lot of talent with hidden weapons and my own brand of stealth arts. But no, you are not suitable for any of them. Most men can’t properly learn the techniques I employ, so don’t feel too bad.”

Aaron had not even considered her as a master. For a lot of reasons really, but mostly because of who and what she clearly was and represented. He did not really like women like her and that must have shown on his face as the Courtesan made a disappointed face.

“No begging? No, please I need it to survive? Such a pity, I would have loved to see a man grovel before me again.” she said with a smirk and another wink.

“At least I am fairly sure you would not mind my brand of cultivation at least. Sex can be a wonderful thing and with a body chiseled by the fiend-god art you probably won’t have a shortage of suitors in due time.”

“You cultivate...during sex?” Aaron asked, trying not to show his surprise.

“Oh yes, people call it Dual-Cultivation” she winked again. “But its quite a natural process really. Biologically we are all made to procreate. Every species does it, it is natural and almost everyone has the deep set urge to do it. Its one of the most fundamental things there is in the Multiverse and all we do is tap into that energy and employ it to our advantage. It works in the tower well enough, even though your partners won’t have Qi, you can easily create it in the process. But alas the poor girl did not like the idea of spreading her legs at all. So she only took advantage of my stealth and assassination techniques, but she stayed too weak to take full advantage of them. I have no doubt she died because she was not even in the foundation realm yet.” the Courtesan said and Aaron could hear the bitter resentment and disappointment in her voice.

“I am sorry to hear that.” Because what else do you say to that? He was sure there were a lot of good reasons why you don’t want to bring cultivation into your love life. He at least was glad that he never had to make that decision. Not that he had a love life to begin with in this life. Being hunted down did not really make for good opportunities to pick up girls and besides he really did not care about it. Sex was nice, felt good and all, but he did not really need the whole relationship hassle that came attached to it most of the time.

The Courtesan waved away his sorry and shrugged a bit helplessly.

“Nothing you can do about it. It is in the past now anyways and you are not a good fit for my techniques. So hurry along now.”

“Not going to try to ask me to do something for you, like everyone else?”

“Oh no handsome, the only thing I crave does not fit through that tiny metal box if you understand what I mean and besides that I have all I need.” She gestured to her very nicely outfitted cell.

“I see that. How exactly did you get all of that into your cell?”

“Emnu gave it to me of course.”

Aaron froze, blinked and then decided against asking a rude question. If Emnu was a frequent visitor to this woman then it would be best to stay away form her. Far away. There was no reason to ever look for the attention of a being who created this Tower and was controlling it, not to say had trapped the most powerful beings he had ever even imagined in neat little cages. He was about to excuse himself, when the Courtesan continued.

“Sadly Emnu has not visited me for a hundred years or so. I believe he is quite afraid of me.” she smirked wickedly. “And I swear, I gave him barely any reason for that. I might have just drained him a little the last time. Just a tiny bit. The buffoon of a man thought his mana reserves were infinite.” she cackled and gave Aaron a broad smile.

“Serves him right for locking me up in here.”

“I see. That is quite the story.”

“What you don’t believe me?”

“No, I have no reason not to believe you. Still all of that nice furniture looks brand new.”

“Enchantments and I have access to some of the towers internal network. Nothing ground breaking, but quite handy for entertainment at least. Still it is expensive and my allotment is not much. I think he has simply forgotten he gave it to me.”

“Internal Network?”

“Don’t worry your pretty head about it. Once you have access to a console I will explain it to you.” she said dismissively, obviously thinking he would never get access to whatever a console was.

Aaron was not sure what to make of the woman, she seemed primarily bored now. Her whole demeanor was not attention grabbing or graceful anymore and while Aaron was grateful for that he felt also like he had been dismissed. As if to confirm his thoughts, she turned around with a lazy wave and stalked back to he cushion.

“See you around, don’t forget my monthly manastone.” she said and Aaron nodded and moved on, before she had a better idea and would send him on a random errant to find her something like an enchanted sex toy or something equally unpleasant to find and buy.

The next cell right next to the woman was different than all the rest because it had curtains on the inside. It was a plain prison without light screens and yet it was at least twice the size of all the cells he had passed by, including Mortag’s and the Courtesan’s whose cells had been a bit bigger than the others. This one was just plain gigantic even compared to those cells. It took up as much space as two or three cells combined. Aaron moved along the curtains until he found an opening. He hesitated for a moment then knocked on the iron bars.

“Just a minute.” a man called out and Aaron waited for a bit as he studied the curtain. It was obviously made out of some expensive material like colored satin if he had to guess as it was in a shade of expensive looking dark blue with a deeper dark blue, almost black at the seams. Finally the curtains opened and Aaron coughed as a wall of smell hit him like a physical punch.

It smelled of herbs and chemicals, of burned hair and skin and it reminded him strangely of the cocktail of chemicals he had invented to dissolve bodies. But there were also pleasant smells, mint and vanilla, spices and sweet and savory notes that made Aaron’s stomach grumble.

The man that had opened the curtains, which had to be enchanted to keep the smell inside of the cell, looked like a slightly older man with still black hair. He reminded Aaron of paintings of medieval rulers or fat merchants. Just that this one had an obsession with paint or cooking. Because while he wore brocade and silks that were obviously expensive, his clothes were stained with spots of all kinds of liquids in all kinds of colors, one of which was still slightly smoldering and the man beat the fire out with an annoyed grunt.

“Modestus, Master Alchemist, do make it quick, yes? I have a concoction brewing that I need to get back to.”

“Aaron Plane, Aspirant and new here.” he said a bit stumped by the brisk welcome. Modestus eyes widened and he studied Aaron with interest, before dismissing him just as quickly.

“Ah yes, the new cultivator. All brawn and no brains it looks like. Go on, what do you need?” he said and glanced back into the back of his cell. Aaron followed his gaze. His whole cell was divided by the same blue curtains and he could see with one glance shelves and even more shelves of all kinds of materials and chemicals in beakers. The most exotic and common sense materials lined the shelves. With one glance he could see iron bars and metals of different colors neatly stacked in rows, spices or different colored powders in neat glasses and a whole array of liquids that could be anything, but some shimmered in all colors of the rainbow or in pure gold, so if he had to guess he thought they might be magical in origin. But that was just a small part of the things he could see, most of the things being hoarded Aaron had no concept for at all. Plants that inverted on themselves, strange rocks that Aaron could swear moved on their own and animal parts that looked like they were still alive even though they were not attached to anything.

“I...I am here to give you this.” Aaron said looking back to the man and presented one manastone. Modestus studied the manastone with a raised eyebrow and then scoffed.

“Just throw it that way.” he said dismissively and pointed to a small mountain of manastones glinting in their own light just ten feet away. Aaron stared at the hundreds, no thousands of manastones, some of which were obviously higher grade as well. It was a fortune and he looked back to the man with raised eyebrows.

“Do you even need the manastone?”

“What? Of course not, but you made a deal and I want my cut. I did not become wealthy by being charitable.”

Aaron felt like arguing with the man, but eventually he shrugged and threw the manastone into the cage, not really caring where it landed. He missed the pile of course, but the stone just kept rolling on the ground until it joined the others in a display of what could only be magic or some cultivation art.

“Sorting Enchantment. Neat right? These mages can make some of the most practical things you can ever imagine, but by all the Transcendants are their spells weak and don’t get me started on what they call alchemy.” the man scoffed and looked back to a closed curtain with a small yellow smoke cloud drifting upwards from the seams.

“Lets make this quick. I am a master Alchemist, a master of real alchemy. Not the weak knockoff they produce here in the tower. But even though they are like children, they still have stumbled upon a side of Alchemy that I find intriguing and I am in the process of discovering and classifying a new form of combined Alchemy that will revolutionize Alchemy in every conceivable universe. I don’t need your help and you don’t seem to have talent for alchemy and even if you had I have no time to teach. So I will give you the standard deal I give any Aspirant. Bring me ingredients as magical as possible, as rare as possible and we can trade. I have elixirs and pills that can help you break through into the next realm and foundation elixirs for body cultivation. In short if you bring me something interesting I will give you something that makes you stronger. Got it?”

“Interesting how exactly?” Aaron asked with a small frown.

“Highly rare, mutated, highly magical, extraordinary in some way. Unique, exceedingly rare with attributes that are unheard of.” the man made a dismissive gesture.

“Most of what you idiots bring me is worthless, but sometimes you find something interesting or worthwhile to use. So don’t be shy, I will make it worth your while. Now any other stupid questions?”

Aaron hesitated and shook his head. Modestus grunted and then drew the curtains closed, shutting off the smell cascade still rolling over Aaron. The sudden stop of it was all the more glaring and Aaron shook his head before he moved on. At least the Alchemist had promised him a deal. If he could find anything that interested the man there was a good chance he could strike a good bargain with the man. If he ever found something good that was.