Kael quickly and silently made his way back to town.
As he slowly approached the gates of the town, he saw a carriage with the symbol of Dreadforge.
This made him excited as this meant the priests had finally arrived to commence with the awakening ceremony.
As the carriage slowly stopped at the gates someone stepped out.
It was a woman of about average height with hair that was so dark it almost seemed purple under the glistening sunlight.
What made this woman special was the robes she was wearing.
'She's the head priest' Kael noted.
As the guards saw the woman step out they instantly crouched on one knee and shouted.
''We greet the imperial delegate!"
Quickly the surrounding area got quiet.
The woman had a serene smile on her face as she quietly told the guards to stand up.
The guards with a look of reverence and respect on their faces did as they were told.
"Is the mayor not here to see me?"The lady said.
Before the guards could reply a man wearing a red regalia appeared behind one of the guards.
"You're a little early this year" the mayor said.
His voice wasn't loud but it had the effect that one could hear it no matter the distance.
"You know things are changing, we can no longer afford to wait as long as before" The lady said.
"Sigh, you might be right, just why must It happen so early" the mayor Adam said.
"Our enemies are to blame" the lady said with the same serene smile on her face.
The Priest and the mayor walked in the town on foot while the remaining people in the carriage entered and drove to the building built especially for them.
Kael hearing all of this quickly thought of a lot of things.
'Is the empire going to have another large war?'
This was the only answer he could think of when he heard their conversation.
Although the Dreadforge Empire was warlike and glorious it hadn't been at war for 15 years.
With the subjugation of The Vraakis, a militaristic and bloodthirsty race, the empire put a pause on all other wars needing to recuperate.
With the defeat of the Vraakis brought humanity a lot of land and resources.
It's been 15 years since then and the Dreadforge empire has grown a lot.
The enemies of humanity not happy to see this obviously wouldn't sit still.
Soon Kael approached the gates.
"Hey kael how did it go"! One of the guards shouted.
Kael with a smile on his face showed them his bag.
"Nice kill, the fur isn't heavily damaged you can sell this for a decent amount" one of the guards said patting Kael's shoulder.
"Thank you uncle Torrek" Kael said smiling.
After some more small talk Kael made his way into town.
Kael's family consisted of his father and his little sister.
As for his mother, his father refused to tell them a lot about her but apparently she left shortly after Irene, Kael's younger sister was born.
As Kael was young he didn't have more than a few memories about her.
What he remembers most vividly is her dark jet black hair.
Which only he seemed to have inherited as his sister and father had brown hair.
This was another one of his goals.
To find out where exactly his mother went to and why she left so suddenly.
Kael quickly arrived at the butcher shop.
Here old man Martin purchased whatever goods Kael brought.
This is where he learned one of his first lessons in negotiation.
The first offer is never the real battle.
If you offer what you think it's truly worth you've already lost.
"Old man Martin!" Kyle shouted at the front counter.
After some time and old man with one eye and graying hair walked out from the cellar with blood on his apron.
"Ah little Kael what have you brought for me today" Martin said with a eerie smile
Kael tossed the bag into the counter.
"Just another late-Sycord" Kael said
Martin reached into the bag and pulled out the head and the rest of the sycord and laid it onto the table.
After some inspection he smiled.
"Your getting better at your craft little Kael"
"This has minimal damage"
Martin uttered some words which sounded like the whispers of countless beings and suddenly a part of the counter shone with a light revealing a safe"
He quickly pulled out some coins.
"This will be worth 1 silver and 2 bronze coins is that alright with you" Martin said
Kael rubbed his chin and said " 1 silver 5 bronze and you have yourself a deal"
"You know this won't work Kael I'm already giving you a good price with my offer" Martin uttered
"A sycord with slight damage on it goes for 1 silver while mine is almost perfect" Kael said.
"1 silver and 3 bronze" Martin said.
"1 silver and 4 bronze" Kael said .
Slowly the tension in the room increased.
"Hahahahaha" Martin let out a howl.
"Sure little Kael" Martin said with the same eerie smile as earlier.
Kael felt relieved, he didn't think Martin would actually relent.
Martin took out 2 more bronze coins and slid it to Kael.
Kael had a suspicion Martin only relented because of how much he had scammed him already.
The Empire had an easy to understand system of currency.
12 bronze equals 1 silver.
14 silver equals one gold.
And above that is sun steel.
One sun steel is equal to 16 gold coins.
A currency used by the high members of society.
Ordinary people would never see a single sun steel coin in their life.
A testament to its value.
Then there were the essence crystals.
Only Peak Feral beasts and above had enough essence in their body to form one after their death.
Essence crystals were used for various reasons.
The biggest being cultivation.
You can absorb the essence in the crystal to imporve your body and soul.
Different stage beasts produced essence crystals of different purity levels.
After pocketing the money Kael bid farewell and left the shop to go home.
After today was the Awakening ceremony.
After today Kael's journey would truly start.