A wall made of hardened dirt and rocks rose as high as hundreds of metres. Some might think that they are fragile or could not bear the strength of a beast, but that is why Requim abilities are often considered magical. These tall walls had just risen in the previous days.
Myriad of insects were constantly trying to break and climb the walls. These insects were around hundreds of feet long and a couple of feet wide — that was just the average size, however. Some insects, like huge ants, were narrower than giant arthropleura and other such insects.
A huge butterfly was flying far above, though. It was holding a man who was shining brightly. His lower body was glowing like the sun, effectively hidden from plain sight.
The butterfly was not alone however, there were millions of other insects flying towards the walls — not exactly.
[There is a special wall here, stopping these giant insects]
This voice was ringing in Elias's mind — the priest could not talk in his butterfly form thus used Requim to communicate in his mind.
Elias felt something wash over him; it was similar to having cool wind carry you or cold water enveloping one in hot sunlays.
Soon they passed the invisible barrier stopping the insects; Elias could not help but see the remains of cities outside the barrier and the agitation of the insects after seeing him get inside.
Inside the walls, the world was far different than the tribes. He remembered snippets of his life in the tribe — thankfully it allowed its members to not have the tribe's name in their name or he would have to deal with this Red Tiger Empire's society.
Just inside the invisible wall Elias saw a huge waterfall which seemingly fell from the sky into the core of the world. He looked beneath him; lines and rows of huge black bunkers made from a strange fabric were spread with multiple Chinen constantly moving from one place to another like flys.
Alongside the bunkers, there were long water channels which stretched towards the end of the horizon.
The giant butterfly continued flying though it went closer and closer to the waterfall. Before Elias could say anything, he found a bubble of light covering him and the priest.
He could not see out of the bright white dome as they presumably flew into the giant waterfall.
They seemed to travel for quite a long time, about ten minutes. Just when Elias was about to ask how much time it would take, the ivory light in front of him dissipated and revealed the beautiful city.
Directly in front of him was an insurmountable spire — its heights rivaling the mountains and the waterfall. It was of dark green colour with huge flowers dangling around it.
As the butterfly carrying him flew closer to it, he found a vast plain plate around it — it was extremely flat and had an uncountable number of tall buildings in it. Looking closer, he saw that most of the buildings had pointed roofs and red colour scheme.
Elias felt that the air was warm and humid and tasted like freshwater as the butterfly flew towards the huge spire.
The priest was lowering himself at a steady pace as he carried Elias to the bottom of the spire.
As they landed, Elias saw that everyone around him wore a weird and refined type of animal skin and extremely expensive clothes.
Usually the tribes never wear the Empirical clothes due to their price and unaffordable repairment. Thus Elias had only worn animal skins and leaves bound by vines rather than clothes.
Elias was dumbfounded and didn't even notice when he entered a huge building.
"This is Ha teaching centre, take these Requim crystals and this paper and buy some clothes and rest at the Haoki residence, show them the paper and they will let you stay there for a few days.'
…What?
"When you think you are ready, enter this centre and I'll start teaching you; do not take more than… six to seven sunlays though."
A boy with lustrous tan skin was walking on a cheerful street. His purple haired fluttered as many bystanders stared at him — why wouldn't they?
He was covered in bright white light below his waist as he walked around confused. He had a small bag with Requim crystals and a paper in it as he wandered.
Am I getting richer, or was our tribe poor? No I shouldn't compare tribes with empires; mortals cannot be compared to heaven.
Elias sighed as he realized how annoying it is when everyone stares at him.
After wandering around for an hour, he finally found a shop to buy some clothes for himself. He entered the simple but tasteful shop as he stared at the vast collection of cloth with greedy eyes.
"Which type of clothes would you like to buy, mister?"
The voice was of a well dressed man in tight clothes; his hair was long and well kept and his demeanour was of respect.
"What are the main types of them?"
The man sighed with remorse in his eyes before hesitantly looking at Elias.
"Well, there are mundane clothes, graded clothes and Requim which are of clothes and armour tributary, unfortunately we do not have such Requim and you would have to buy them from Requim traders.
Graded clothes are of a certain grade and can withstand pressure from that tear; for example, if one is wearing grade two clothes, then attacks of second grade would not destroy them."
Elias nodded and paused for a moment before asking, "For now, I will buy mundane clothes."
"Very good, mister, we have a huge variety in our clothes; we have Racs, Krens, …"
Shopping is so fucking annoying
The man started talking in a baffling, overcomplicated manner. The employee kept throwing around different words and made a million stories, referencing countless places and telling him the source of the clothes.
Why would he care about that?
He listened and summarised mundane clothes into three categories. The first one were expensive and impractical clothes with large amounts of fabric and complicated patterns. A wide array of colors was also included.
The second type of clothes were small and tight, with most of them having a thin and coarse texture while only some were soft. Surprisingly, there were much more of these clothes than any other type of clothes in the shops.
The third type was of comfort and durable clothes; they were not too skimpy nor flowing. Elias pondered for a moment before choosing the third type.
"Very good, mister! What colour would you like? We have black, red, celestial blue…"
There are this many colours!?
Well, it did not matter anyway, Elias had long before decided to either wear dark purple or black covering complimenting his hair, so he simply asked for dark purple clothes.
The colour he chose was so dark it would be mistaken for black from afar, not as if he cared.
Elias thought of changing right away, but looking at himself, he really needed a bath. Thus, he simply asked to buy the clothes.
He had bought a single dark purple piece which was made from sheep cotton. The employee had told him that sheep cotton was much lighter than normal cotton and would be better for the Sunlays.
There was a simple ribbon binding the clothes on his back, making it hard to wear them. But to Elias, that was not a problem considering the leaves and animal skin he used to wear; and the fact he was covered in white light rather than clothes.
"So how much for these clothes?"
"About 10 grams of Requim crystals."
Elias pulled a Requim crystal out of the bag the old man had given him… should he start calling him teacher now? No, he was kind of fishy to be called one.
Elias and the worker went to the counter, and the employee pulled out a small machine. It had a small blade and multiple tubes around it, twisting and turning into each other. The man took the crystal and used the blade to chop off a part of it.
He put it in one tube and checked how much it weighed.
{15.83g}
The man nodded slightly and took out some coal from a compartment and placed it inside the machine. The peck of the crystal traveled from one tube to another as a small fragment of coal rose from beneath one tube.
The peck was transferred into the tube with coal under it and started melting.
Interestingly, the tubes were completely closed off with a closed hole in one tube. The man blew into the hole from time to time as the peck liquefied.
Then the blue liquid was transferred into one of the tubes as the man turned some gears. Soon two smaller drops emerged in two different tubes.
The man then turned a gear which released some kind of gas in both of the tubes. The drops solidified into small pecks as the shopkeeper pulled out the two pecks and threw the remains of the fragment of coal.
The larger peck was kept by the shopkeeper while the smaller peck was given to Elias after weighting.
Elias chatted with the shopkeeper for a few minutes before exiting the shop. The shopkeeper advised him to convert the crystal into coins before bidding farewell. As soon as Elias exited the shop, the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
Someone is watching me
Elias sighed in regret; he was having so much fun just now. Well, no matter what, he was going to train later, anyway.
Elias did not see anyone directly staring at him thus, he simply walked towards the Haoki residence. He appeared to be calm and collected as he used the Requim crystal as a mirror to look around, only to find nothing.
No confrontation yet. I am new here and my entrance was too eye catching I guess.
After all, even if becoming a disciple had uncountable benefits, it too had uncountable risks and dangers.
No benefit could be acquired without risk after all.