Lightning Is The Only Way

Gravis smiled. "So, I can afford the scanner, huh?" he asked.

The seller nodded. "Yep. You can also afford something else that costs about as much. You have some pretty rare stuff there. Though, just because it's rare doesn't mean that it's useful. Rare resources from the lower world are the best materials for the Spirit Forming Realm, but nearly useless for the Unity Realm."

Gravis nodded. "I can understand that. Though, these premium resources for the Spirit Forming Realm are probably worth quite a bit for stronger people that want to get some equipment for their children, right?"

The seller laughed a bit. "Exactly, but I still need to travel quite a distance. I'm going to be honest here with you. I will sell these resources with a profit of ten times, but I have to travel to the relevant regions first."

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "Ten times is quite a bit. It almost seems like you're trying to scam me."

The seller snorted. "The problem is that you can't find people interested in those items here. Everyone that's here either has powerful strength or a huge background. In order to sell this stuff, I need to travel to the outer fringes of the world. Do you have any idea how far away this is and how much it will cost me?"

Gravis sighed and shook his head.

"When I sell all your stuff, and I mean ALL your stuff, I would have only made a profit of two times. It's also a risk and time sink for me to travel to these regions and sell it. After all, supply is one thing, but we also need demand. That's how business works. What use are these resources if I can't find someone interested in it?"

Gravis sighed. Everything the seller said made sense. He had no way of finding out how much these resources were actually worth, so, even if the seller scammed him, Gravis had no other choice. He didn't have the luxury of time.

Also, he doubted that he would even have the resources to travel to the lands where such resources had a demand. He doubted that the teleportation department accepted every piece of rubble as long as it was worth something. They probably only accepted some kind of hard currency, and Gravis was pretty sure that he had none of that.

"Alright. I accept," Gravis said.

The seller smiled. "Good choice. Now, go choose something with similar value to the scanner, and then we can exchange."

Gravis quickly looked around, and he had found something else that was also quite interesting to him. "I'm taking that," he said as a ring floated over to him.

"Good choice!" the seller said with a smile. "As it says on the sign, this is a Life Ring. It can theoretically store any beast below the Immortal Realm, but it depends on if they willfully enter or are forced to. The deciding factor is your Will-Aura, which is incredibly powerful for your level, by the way."

Gravis looked at the ring. "So, if a beast enters willingly, I can just keep them inside as long as they are below the Immortal Realm?" Gravis asked.

The seller nodded. "Yes, but they can also exit whenever they want if they enter that way. If you want to force a beast into the ring, you need to activate the Formation Array. It will use your Spirit as a resource and your Will-Aura as suppression. In general, your Will-Aura needs to be one Major Realm higher than the beast's Realm."

The seller pointed at Gravis. "So, in your case, you should be barely able to capture a low-grade Unity Beast."

Gravis' furrowed his brows when he heard that. "But I only have a level three Unity Will. Wouldn't that still be considered to be inside the Unity Realm?" he asked.

The seller raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Level three Unity Will? What's that?" he asked.

Gravis realized that his knowledge about classifications for Will-Auras came from the lower world. His homeworld probably had a different classification system. "Sorry, that's the classification for Will-Auras from the lower world I came from. What's the classification here?"

The seller realized what Gravis meant. "Oh, no problem. The second condensation of a Will-Aura is called an Equalization Will because its main purpose is to unite and equalize your centers of power."

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. "Equalize? Does it have something to do with the Nascent Nourishing Realm, which you have also called Equalization Realm?" he asked.

The seller smirked. "Nice deduction. Correct, the Equalization Will is there to connect the centers of power and to shift the power around in them. It basically goes through two major Realms, the Unity Realm, and the Nascent Nourishing Realm."

Gravis furrowed his brows again. "But my Will-Aura is already compressed to about 0.1% of its initial size. Shouldn't I be near the end of the Equalization Will then?"

The seller laughed a bit and shook his head. "Kid, you're underestimating the possible compression of your Will-Aura. Your Equalization Will will continue to compress until it is only big enough to suppress the Spirit Space of someone else. You can see your own massive brain from your Spirit Space, so you should know how small your Spirit Space is."

Gravis thought about it and realized that the seller was right. The compression of his Unity Will didn't take the compression of the volume into account, but the radius. The radius was decreasing with the compression. So, the initial radius of Gravis' Will-Aura was 600 meters, which would become 0.6 meters if he compressed it fully.

Yet, the Spirit Space inside Gravis' brain was a bit smaller than a millimeter. He would need to compress it down to another three digits, to around 0.0006 meters, which would be 0.6 millimeters. When Gravis finished his math, he realized that he was a small bit over the halfway mark of compression. There was still a long way to go.

"So, my Will-Aura is equal to a new Nascent Nourishing Realm cultivator then?" Gravis asked.

The seller nodded. "Yep, but that's only theoretically," he said, confusing Gravis again.

"What do you mean with theoretically?" Gravis asked.

"You don't need a powerful Will-Aura to reach the Nascent Nourishing Realm," the seller explained.

Gravis' eyes widened. "I don't?" he asked, shocked.

"Nope. It's one of the few Realms that don't need a Will-Aura. Most people call the Nascent Nourishing Realm also the Willless Realm, because you don't need to temper your will to reach it."

The seller sighed. "To be honest with you, your Will-Aura is even stronger than mine, even though I am already at the middle Stage of Nascent Nourishing. I'm kind of envious."

Gravis was, again, shocked. This powerful person that could slap him to death with ease had a weaker will than him? This felt almost unreal.

"Anyway, let's get on with the trade!" the seller said with a smile. Then, the scanner and the Life Ring flew over to Gravis. "Bring them into your Spirit Space first," he said.

Gravis knew why the seller would offer the wares first. He was the stronger of the two, and if he demanded payment first, he could just leave. He was giving Gravis the wares first to show his honest business attitude.

Whoop!

Gravis pocketed the two items, and the seller nodded. "Alright. Now, just summon these things. You don't need to worry about them falling due to their weight. I can hold them easily," the seller said as he transmitted a picture of the stuff that he wanted.

Gravis summoned everything, and for a short time, a massive pile of items appeared. Yet, just as they appeared, they vanished again. Gravis hadn't even seen them before they were already gone. The seller had exquisite control over his Spirit.

Like this, Gravis' Spirit Space was nearly empty. He could only see his two nearly broken sabers, his two new items, Heaven's body, and some scattered miscellaneous items that the seller wasn't interested in.

Whoop!

The shop vanished. "Alright. I'm heading off to sell your stuff. This should be faster than waiting here forever for another customer. It was nice doing business with you, kid," the seller said.

Gravis was surprised that the seller immediately closed his shop as soon as their trade was finished, but he didn't mind it. "Sure. Thank you," Gravis said.

The seller waved once more and then shot off into the distance. He was definitely much faster than Gravis.

Now, Gravis was alone again. He looked once more at the Sky Community, but after knowing that it hid such danger, he decided against going there. It was time to visit his parents.

With a smile, Gravis lowered himself to the city again.

"HALT!" an imposing shout appeared as a guard from the city teleported in front of him. "Your Realm is too weak to enter the city!" the guard stated.

Gravis blinked his eyes in surprise a bit. "I'm a Research Adept. I'm allowed into the city," he said.

"Show your emblem as proof," the guard said.

"What do you mean, show my emblem? It's right here…" Gravis said, but then he opened his eyes wide in shock.

His Research Adept emblem was gone! It was not on his body and also not in his Spirit Space!

Gravis immediately looked in the direction where the seller left. No wonder he had been so friendly and forthcoming in his trade. He was never interested in his wares.

That dick was only interested in stealing his emblem!