Timeless Prominence

Rein inwardly sighed, knowing that he could not sit idly by, waiting to, as Overseer Jeahz so put it earlier, ‘get endlessly poked by a fictite needle’.

He gestured to attract both Beincen and the crowd’s attention. “How fortunate that Beincen of the Larne Clan has kindly allowed this incident to pass.” A bouncing bow. “I believe it is necessary to prove my words with action against the demons and devils.”

His concern was that Beincen also would be able to attract competent helpers due to his position in this city. He first had to give a favorable impression to all-- this would be fairly important if Beincen were to try to use his influence in the city against him.

Rein released a shallow breath as he softened his words. “I will definitely be looking to Beincen of House Larne as an inspiration. I have no doubt that Beincen has already accomplished certain dangerous missions in his time within the Hall of Heroes!” 

With a wry smile and a respectful nod to Beincen, Rein continued towards the Hall of Heroes temple with a fidgeting Chirh in tow.

A few in the crowd cheered and clapped, but some were confused at this seemingly dull conclusion. Many had thought an interesting fight would break out, but Overseer Jeahz’s presence ensured such an event would not occur. In his eyes, the weaker Rein’s role was to die while taking down a few demons and devils along with him, and not in the plaza before the Hall of Heroes!

As for Beincen and his advisor, both of them glared hatefully at the departing figure of Rein and Chirh. Unbeknownst to  Rein, the reality was that Beincen had not actually participated in a single dangerous mission in his time with the Hall of Heroes... Frankly, most nobles avoided such high risk missions, and this fact was very much an open secret! Rein had actually poured oil on flame with his final conciliatory statement.

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Darhge greeted the Fusion Sect elder Baejenh at her magical round tea table.

The white-robed lady gave the bowing man a glance. “Is it done? Did he respond well?”

Darhge nodded. “Yes. He took the opportunity to ingratiate himself to Overseer Jeahz.”

“As long as one of them can get some information on the relic, it will be worth it.”

Rein had thought that Darhge was intentionally going against the Hall of Heroes under Fusion Sect’s banner. In fact, it was two birds with one stone! Darhge had also aimed to ensure that Rein would enter the Hall of Heroes intact!

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The pair of Rein and Chirh traveled through the elliptical plaza and entered a wide avenue that led to the Hall of Heroes.

The white stone used to pave this avenue was expertly flattened, its appearance so smooth and orderly that Rein partly believed that the stone was cut with a single clean slice of a gargantuan magic blade.

The avenue’s side was lined with many different stalls, their owners doing their very best to drown out their competitors through yelling and gesturing to the potential customers wandering to and fro from the Hall of Heroes.

The pair remained silent, unsure of how to approach the subject of the recent event. Rein noticed that this whole while, Chirh could not keep his downcast eyes from staring at the repeating blocks that paved this very avenue like a nervous child trying to calm himself by counting shapes.

Finally, Rein asked the burning question in his mind. “When I first met you, you seemed like a man well-versed and disciplined with martial arts.”

“I might have been something in the mortal realm,” Chirh only shook his head with a sigh. “But in the Hall of Heroes, I am not even considered to have truly entered the advancer world yet. You know what they say… you need to know when to act strong and when to stay meek. I’ve seen numerous advancers have worse lives when they failed to recognize the strength of some of these houses and clans in the Hall of Heroes…”

He suddenly jumped in shock as he exclaimed,  “Twelve hells, I’m in for it now. That House Larne will come for me too!”

Rein found the collar of his jet-black jacket gripped by a Chirh whose face was pale and drained of color. By now, Rein had thoroughly discarded his initial impressions of this hysterical man beside him.

“You and your magical staff have fucked me over! Why would a traveler in a worn black knotted jacket have a staff with an imbued magical protection?! I still have family waiting and praying for my glorious return!”

Upon hearing those words, Rein wanted to swat Chirh to the ground, but before he could act on his impulse, Chirh himself had curled into a small ball in the center of the avenue, drawing many disapproving eyes from the passersby.

“Xune’s Spear, this is my fault! If I never recognized or approached you, none of this would have happened in the first place!”

Rein struggled to believe that this was the first person that he acquainted himself with in this city-- and the Hall of Heroes… He dragged the groveling Chirh up by the shoulder. How embarrassing! The older Chirh was even an inch taller than him! Rein himself still had a few years to grow.

“Gods, what’s happened has happened. If you join me on those dangerous missions, the Hall of Heroes won’t tolerate you being badly treated by anyone. You just have to... do what you need to do…” If there was one thing that Rein knew, it was that the Hall of Heroes cared about results the most.

Rein trailed off, for a moment lost in his own words. Then he gave a strong pat on Chirh’s back, before moving onto a stall that caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

The stall sold nothing fancy, but Rein recognized the aurae buns that he had relied on for sustenance when searching for Master Yirn. Rein wanted to get a good amount of this cheap, dry and crunchy kind of tasteless bun-- that was supposedly the most basic ration in the advancer world, and would serve as a good safety net if he were to get stranded somewhere.

Rein withdrew a limpite coin--a circular grayish coin with a square hole in the center-- from his pouch and with a flick of his thumb, spun the coin through the air into the storekeeper’s palm. He received a sack of ten aurae buns in return. This was the normal rate for these buns. They were so common that the buns themselves were basically a currency tied to the worth of limpite coins.

His resources were naturally limited. His small amount of limpite coins was gifted by his half-senior Chenhr for this mission. He was, after all, meant to be a mortal from the Golden Desert Town that traded all of his fallen house’s wealth for a half-chance to enter the advancer world. That was his cover.

This explanation was also meant to explain his magical staff. Although mortal wealth was not treasured by the advancer world, a House’s wealth could be traded for a few magical armaments and spare change.

Rein continued onwards, unable to keep his eyes from sweeping from magical item to item of the passing stalls. Yet he did not bother giving them more than a cursory glance. It was not as if he had the resources to afford them.

Chirh had chosen to stick with Rein for now, following a few feet behind while incessantly muttering about the high mortality rate of those who participated in the dangerous missions.

From his words, Rein gleaned nothing new-- he had long learned such information through his studies about the Hall of Heroes. The black star missions, the hardest ranked missions in the Hall of Heroes, had mortality rates as high as fifty percent, and that was with the more capable and brave advancers taking on said missions.

Nearly no sane person would want to participate in such missions. Most advancers wanted to live longer, not throw one’s own life into the twelve hells!

The rewards, however, were supposedly tantalizing. Too tantalizing for a not an insignificant population to take the risk. Still, it was well-known that the Hall of Heroes lacked willing participants and had to raise the rewards to a barely-unsustainable level for the more difficult missions.

Rein turned his head sideways, his now shoulder-length mane of black hair momentarily lifted into the air by the wind for a single heartbeat.

He was thoroughly surprised that Chirh was still following him. This guy… He already declared his intention to join dangerous missions. Is there any point for Chirh to take on these missions if he could not even stave off that ignorant younger scion of the Larne clan? He would just be a liability, Rein thought.

Frankly, Rein simply could not find it in himself to trust Chirh to have his back at a critical juncture in a critical mission. Not after today. There was too much at stake!

He appreciated Chirh being friendly and all throughout this day, and the man had yet to do anything malicious, but…

“You know,” Chirh finally spoke again, his voice quivering. “The Hall of Heroes’ protection of its lesser members is just for show… The nobles donate many resources to this branch, and many of the members who have offended the nobles… I’ve noticed these past six months. Often, they simply die out west on some mundane mission.” He wailed pitifully in a hoarse voice, “We’re..  We’re fucking dead!”

“The Hall of Heroes might not tolerate a committed body falling at the foot of its doors! But once we step out… We’re just meatbags to throw at the western wilderness…” He muttered in fear as his imaginations presented his mind with untold horrors.

Rein was rendered speechless by Chirh having already thrown in the towel. Perhaps it was him that had changed. After all, he had spent the last six months never winning a single battle against his half-senior Chenhr. He, too, had a rather defeatist attitude at the beginning, but then despite his continuous losses, he found himself lasting longer in their duels. One second by one second longer he would last longer each time.

Anyhow, the two’s journey to the hulking Hall of Heroes at the end of this zone, named the Avenue of Transcendence, was cut short by a crowd uproar.

“Out of the way. You, you, and you! Out of the way!”

A group of young men and women in neat and clean servant garb started demanding all within the avenue to shift to the side and empty the center portion of this path. One might assume this group to be a bunch of boisterous troublemakers, but the bounce in their feet and their passionate voices brimming with devotion, crackling from overuse, thoroughly dampened any inner resistance.

A majestic young woman that looked to be in her low twenties, riding a heavyweight black stallion, casually trotted up toward the Hall of Heroes through the emptied avenue. She was dressed in a skin-tight white robe with gilded gold edges, and a large emblem resembling an eagle at the back of the robe signified her clan.

She was, of course, an incomparable jade beauty. Then again, this was the norm for many female advancers, at least appearance-wise. For the most part, advancers had long lives and thus maintained the appearance of their prime-- this would usually be an appearance between twenty to thirty years old.

In the advancer world, jade is the gemstone that could carry and store most aurae energies, and thus considered the most expensive. At least, this was why the term jade was quite literally used to describe most things that were ‘top-of-the-line’.

Now, thanks to the nurturing of the body from worldly aurae, an advancer’s skin and body would be healthy beyond imagination. It should also be mentioned that the body could be somewhat modified to a limited degree, by certain magics.

Thus, when it came to female advancers, many of them would have much of the looks and body they so desired. What truly accentuated this woman right now was her current demeanor. It contained a cool confidence, as if everything was in her control.

However, what truly set many of the men’s hearts aflame was her graceful gyration as her slender body shifted to the movement of the black stallion trotting underneath her hips. Her skin-tight white robes, though certainly not revealing much skin, failed to keep her substantial breasts truly contained, as all observers who dared to look would see the weight on her chest somewhat shifting along with her graceful gyration on the stallion.

“Twelve hells! That’s Lyne. The young mistress of a recently recognized advancer clan, the Xuere clan! She’s already a mid-stage shell advancer!”

Chirh yanked Rein behind one of the wooden stalls, cutting off the line of sight between them and the beauty on the black stallion.

The wimp’s actions scared Rein. Did Chirh, at some point of time, make an enemy out of Lyne and the Xuere clan? Rein increasingly doubted Chirh’s character and history.

“We can’t attract Lyne’s attention! She is the target of many suitors in the city! That Beincen being one of them! It’s best for Lyne to never recall seeing either of our faces! If her glance so much as lingers on one person too long… those crazy motherfuckers will come for you!”

By the fallen gods. This man is just an absolute wuss! Rein stuck his head out from behind the stall, ready to be a part of the crowd.

Following behind the jade beauty Lyne was your typical brown horse pulling a wagon. Within the wagon sat a few deathly looking individuals in chains, as well as a few lifeless demon beast corpses. And behind that wagon was Beincen and a group of proud guards with their every step in sync with each other.

Rein silently ducked back behind the stall to the relief of Chirh. He wasn’t sure how to feel about Chirh any longer. Somehow, this wuss had helped him avoid a situation that would have doubtless turned even more eyes on him.

The two simultaneously exhaled sighs of relief and both had small smiles on their faces.