Chapter 339 - The End Of Headache
Daniel's planet was once again traveling through space. Only a couple of hours had passed since they had left hell, and Daniel's head was already about to explode. He was currently sitting on the ground with the wolf cub laying on his legs, while trying not to listen to all of the discussions that were taking place next to him.
Between Hannah's group that had become incredibly chatty after finally havin someone new to talk to almost two years, Xargy and Aeron that were constantly throwing mental blades at each other, Xargy who kept annoying others with how much he had learned about hell's culture, and the wolf cub that expected a dark essence sphere as soon as he would finish eating the previous one, Daniel was barely able to hear his own thoughts.
The only two that gave him a bit of piece of mind, were Lady Night, and Virgil, both of whom sat quietly next to him, in wait that he made their destination known.
After Daniel's increase in power, he had found out that his world had gone through a change of sorts. While before he had full control over it, now he could feel his own cultivation at the planet's core.
In the beginning, Daniel did not know how that could have happened, but he soon realized. His planet was not stored inside any of his spatial rings or pocket dimensions. It was part of him, and he was able to store it in his own body, and take it out whenever he wanted.
For the planet to have become a true extension of Daniel's body, and not a simple object he was able to store in it, there could have been only one explanation.. When he had reached high immortality, the presence of the planet within his body had triggered another change, allowing for the planet to merge with him at a deeper level. Now, the core itself of the planet was able to produce Daniel's essence.
While he was able to control, shrink and enlarge the planet already, that had always required for an immense amount of concentration on his part.. Especially during a fight. Now that the planet itself was able to create his own power, however, he was able to feel every bit of it no matter how big or how far away it was. If he wanted he was sure then he could have been able to reshape it into a sword, allowed it to travel on its own through space, shroud it with dark essence to turn it identical to a moving black hole, and even teleport inside regardless of how far away from it he was.
Unfortunately, Daniel was unable to truly explore this new ability, as his train of thought was being constantly interrupted by spoken questions, or messages sent through sound essence.
".. Can we trust him?" Asked Aeron through a wisp of sound essence.
"HEY DANIEL! Come and listen to this part! It's the best part of the story Haha!" Said Xargy out loud with enthusiasm. He was recounting his stories to Alex and Josh, who stared at him with rapture.
A few meters away from Aeron, stood Sewah. He had noticed each of the odd looks that the mental warrior was throwing at him from behind his mask, and he almost hoped that Aeron would instigate a fight, just so that he could take revenge on him. "If the shy guy starts something, I will punch his teeth in." He said out loud after turning toward Daniel.
Forming a group of their own, were Hannah, George, James, and Felix. They were discussing whether to ask Daniel to take them back home, whether the members of their family were still alive, or whether to live their life as cultivators and give up their past.
"They might be alive!" Said Hannah to Felix while in an emotional state.
Felix shook his head in disagreement, then responded by saying "Two and a half years since the plague started.. It has been too long. Remember what happened when we went to look for James and Josh's parents? Their father was a police officer, and even he ended up chasing us down the street!.. My mother was an office worker, and my father was a mechanic.. Your parents aren't any more special.. They are gone.. They are all gone."
"Stop saying that!! You don't get to say that!" Screamed Hannah in response.
"ENOUGH!" Shouted Daniel with enough power to dissipate any form of sound that came from everybody's mouths. "Just.. Just be quiet for a minute!" He then added before slowly standing up, and turning to look at Sewah and Aeron.
"You two, stop bickering with each other. No matter what happened before, you are both alive and kicking, so cut it out!" He said with exasperation before turning to look at Xargy, who after noticing his eyes move on him, couldn't help but flinch "Please! Keep it down or go somewhere else! If I hear about how you have stolen your father's treasured totem one more time! I swear..!"
After bursting out, Daniel sighed deeply, and calmed himself down. He then turned to look at the group of young cultivators who were currently looking back at him, and said "The race of demons who created the plague that destroyed your planet doesn't exist anymore, so whatever is happening in your planet, has probably ended. If your family is alive, they are probably not in danger anymore.."
".. but if you wish to go find them, the distance is a few hundred billions of light years in that direction. When you will have arrived, the whole solar system will likely not be there anymore." He then added while pointing at a specific point to his right.
Once he finished saying what he had to say, Daniel saw the hope leave Hannah's face, causing him to immediately feel bad. In an attempt to remedy, he added "I have dragged you away from your planet, and as soon as I find a way to take you back there, I promise I will." Along with the words, came Daniel's intention, which exuded nothing but his honest commitment.
Hannah responded to Daniel's words with a soft nod in between sobs.
Glad to have been able to solve this mistake, Daniel sat back down on the ground, and looked directly at the wolf pup. He then muttered "Spoiling you that much might have been a bad idea.." The wolf responded to these words by bending his head to the side in an attempt to hear the sound of Daniel's voice better.
As soon as Daniel sat back down, Lady Night turned to look at him, and protruded her hand in his direction with her palm turned upwards. On it, were the two rings that she had been wearing until only minutes earlier.
Daniel immediately noticed this action, and without even turning to look back at ther, he scratched the head of the wolf cub, and said "You are not a prisoner. What is yours belongs to you.. You are free to cultivate."
The woman did not expect this response, and was taken aback for a few seconds by it. She then came back to her senses, and put her rings back on, before placing her hands above her legs, and waiting in silence.
"Dan, where are we going?" Asked Xargy with curiosity.. After all, they had regrouped around Daniel in wait for him to tell them their destination.
Before responding, Daniel closed his eyes, and focused once again on the window that had appeared in his head about a minute earlier. His expression was a conflicted one, almost as if showing mixed feelings towards what he was looking at..
____________________________
Dan Hiel - Karmic system's wielder.
Age - 27
Power level
-High Immortality
Battle Prowess
-79th phase
Karma - 440,763,178,500
____________________________
Weapons Masteries (Details)
Martial Arts (Details)
Skills (Details)
Spells (Details)
____________________________
Reap What You've Sown
Time Is Precious Lv.75
Reduced Cost Lv.25
Bonus Points Lv.25
Second Chance (Upgrades 4/4) Lv.20
Karma X Luck
Karma Debt
Karmic Retribution (Upgrades 2/2)
Devil's Advocate
Regulator's Will
System Upgrades (Details)
____________________________
The battle in hell had been a real gamble for Daniel. He was nowhere near as powerful as the demon lords, and two were already enough to kill him at least a dozen times. If a third demon lord able to damage a cultivator's spirit had been able to join in the battle, not even 'Second Chance' would have saved him.
In order to triumph in the battle, he had been forced to follow the quest's indications blindly, even when they did not make sense to him, and caused him to die over and over again. At the end, just to make sure that he could go through with the plan, he had been forced to use Karmic Retribution so many times, that he had lost count.. Each use paid with half of his remaining karmic points. At the end of the battle, his remaining karma was not in the billions anymore.
Thankfully, the system's rewards and the karmic points given from his kills had come to replentish it, or he would have been terribly scared.. Not for himself, but for his friends, who he wasn't sure would be safe or not.
After he looked through his system's profile once again, Daniel opened his eyes and said, "We are going to pick up a friend." Once he finished speaking, the speed of his planet picked up, shooting through space at a level that a wandering planet was not supposed to have.
-----
Within the depths of the territory of the universal government, was a planet called Cato.
Cato was, after the government's capital, the most important planet of all. Not because any of the main government branches had been estabilished on it, but because It was the core of its commerce.
In it, were conducted deals of the highest end, while at the same time, the items that were considered treasures for the merchants of any other planet, were sold in the street stalls at exorbitant prices which were nothing but pocket change for the planet's wealthy inhabitants.
Due to this nature, Cato was also known as 'The Corporate City'.
On Cato, every single city conducted enough trades and business to put any other planet to shame, and amongst these cities, was one called Hiel City.
Despite being a new city, Hiel City was bursting with liveliness. Many merchants and cultivators came and went from its borders, but despite the number of tall buildings, the traffic of these people appeared to be focused on three buildings.
The buildings of the city were extremely clean, and built out of slabs of white marble, making them look extremely refined. Placed next to the entrance of every building, as well as patrolling the streets, were numerous warriors in heavy armor that had reached the lowest stages of high immortality. On the left side of their chestplate armor, was a simbol in the shape of a fist sized coin made entirely of gold. This coin was split in two vertically, and while the right side was dirty, the left side was pure and shiny.
The same symbol appeared a few hundred meters up in the sky, where a half dirty and half clean golden coin with the diameter of a hundred meters, slowly rotated while locked in air.
On the edge of this massive coin, two names were written. The one on the top was Hiel City, while the one on the bottom, was Golden Karma Company.
The biggest building in Hiel city was a skyscraper a hundred stories tall, and right at the attic, sitting at a desk within the biggest office, was a woman with silver hair dressed in an elegant black dress. She was currently looking at a pile of documents, but she seemed to be distracted.
Every other minute, her eyes would trail off from the documents, and move on the two metallic plaques on her desk. Embossed on these plaques, were two faces.. That of a middle aged man, and that of a young woman that one would believe was the younger version of this woman herself.
This woman was, of course, Emelnie. She had been the one who had been taking care of the business of Daniel's company, and after obtaining a discrete success, she had built a city whose name had been dedicated to him.