As Kael shot out from the hole, he looked down only to see that there was nothing but dirt there. Landing, he knelt down to run his hand over the dirt. Feeling stone a few inches down with deep lines carved in it, he passed it off as the magic of arrays. Bowing to Bantan, Kael hopes he is able to breakthrough before his lifespan ran out. Turning around with misty eyes, he tried to get his bearing.

Looking around, the river was on his left and the bottom of a tree-covered mountain was on his right. Determined to get his hammer back he began following the river upstream. 2 days later he found a split in the river. He supposed that one split went down river to the town, while the other split took him to where he was earlier.

Continuing up the river, he came to a ravine area after just 1 more day. Deciding he now had an awesome ring of storage he began to swim up the river. Where possible he would run along the raised stones for speed. After a few hours, a very tired and wet Kael saw his hammer, still sticking out of the side of the stone wall.

Really happy at not losing his hammer, Kael began to scale the stone wall. He could definitely feel the increase in his attributes as he climbed, especially his agility. Getting to the hammer he simply grabbed the handle, then stored it in his ring. Falling back into the water he did a cannonball out of excitement.

Going downstream he scouted out a nice place to camp. Eating the rest of his rank 10 rabbit while sitting around a small fire he sighed in contentment. Taking out his hammer and gently stroking it, he remembered back to all the time he had spent with the two that made it for him. Storing it, he promised himself to speed up to get back as soon as possible. Remembering his statistic page, it showed his age at 10, which meant it was not new years yet it would be soon.

The next day Kael put everything into his speed as he followed the river. Running at his max speed with Heat Raising steps activated, he whipped along the shore at 60 miles per hour. In just a few hours he flew past the split in the river. After 2 more days of going full speed ahead his technique advanced.

Soul’s technique, Heat Raising Steps has advanced. New skill rank, Great Completion.

Current benefit, 50% reduction to endurance expenditure due to moving.

Current benefit, 20% increase in movement speed when not using another movement art.

Additional benefit, reduction in impact weight by 70% when moving. May cross water.

Congratulations! Make persistent efforts!

Hearing the notification that his movement art finally ranked up almost caused him to trip. Slowing down some while eyeing the river, he decided there would be a lot fewer things in the way on top of the river.

Speeding back up he closed his eyes as his first few steps landed on the river top. Opening them up again and finding he truly did not fall in he was ecstatic. The feeling of wind whipping past my face is nice, but the feeling of mist and wind whipping past is better.

A week of running along the top of the water brought him back to the first and only city he had ever been in. Just on the opposite side from the one he entered last time. Not having any money and currently wearing nothing but rags, Kael decided to camp out and wait until the next day. Keeping an eye on the gate just on the off chance of seeing a wolf merc, he waited out the day.

The next morning Kael got up before the sun. Sneaking to the side of the town wall he began to scale it. Approaching the top, he waited for the two lazy guards on patrol to pass before flipping up onto the top, then jumping down the other side. Meandering around the slums area until the sun came up, he began to work his way towards the tailor he went to last time.

Reaching the tailors building he went around to the back. Looking around to be sure it was clear of other people, he took out a rank 5 hide from some kind of deer like creature from his ring. He took a moment to kick off and store his boots as they stood out against his ragged clothes.

Heading inside, the two ladies looked up at him with a questionable look on their faces. “Good morning ladies, it’s been about a year since we have seen each other. I kind of lost everything I own to the river and was wondering if I could trade you this rank 5 hide for some cotton clothing and boots?”

The young lady hearing this gave him a once over and asked, “Child are you sure you have shopped here before?”

“Of course I have” Kael responded. “I purchased and had you make a dress from Darkfern Spider Thread last year around this time.”

Standing up the old lady smiled. “I remember you child, sorry to hear you lost your stuff. The hide is worth too much for us to trade you.”

“How about if you throw in a bath with the clothes? I really need new clothes before my parents see me.” Kael smiled as he replied.

Working out the details with the two ladies, Kael managed to score 100 silver, a set of clothes, boots, and a bath. While in the bath he shifted the 150 hides from his ring into the spatial pouch. Leaving out the rabbit skin. Walking out of the tailors with a wave and smile, he began looking for the leatherworker he met with last year.

Entering the leather workers shop, he wandered around looking at things on the walls until it was empty of people. Once it was just him and the shopkeep he approached with a big smile. “Hello there! I see you are selling some of the jackets I designed last year. Hope they are doing well for you.”

The shopkeep looked over with surprise in his eyes. Seeing the kid was actually the person who designed it, he was a bit wary. “They are doing ok I suppose.”

“Good, if I give you the hides and dimensions you will make me one right? I won’t say anything about the design again and you can keep selling it.”

“Sure kid, that sounds like a good deal.”

After giving the shop keep the dimensions he asked if he would buy hides as well. The shopkeep told him he would pay 9 silver for a rank 1 pelt, and it doubled in pay for each rank it went up, but only if they were in good condition. He would pay extra for rank 6 and above too. Considering the pay vs the true value, Kael decided to only sell off some of his hides. Since the old ape would give him random beasts each day, he had eaten about 40 rank 5 beasts, 70 rank 6, 30 rank 7, and 10 rank 8 beasts.

Handing over a soft blueish rank 8 hide to make the jacket, he sold him the 40 rank 5 hides. The shopkeep seeing Kael produce the hide from a small pouch was a bit surprised but even more so terrified. He couldn’t believe a little kid had a storage pouch. When Kael asked for the guy to dye the jacket maroon and to use dark green highlights, he agreed quickly.

Taking his payment of 5 gold and 740 silver, Kael put in his pouch. Telling the leatherworker he would be back tomorrow for the jacket, Kael headed out. Looking around town until he found a decent inn, he coughed up a huge 50 silver for a top grade place to stay. Getting some decent food for the first time in almost a year, Kael went to bed satisfied.

Hanging around the Inn until noon, Kael went to check on the jacket he ordered. He was happy to find the guy did a rush job and finished it for him already. Taking the jacket he headed out and wandered around town some. Seeing an actual alchemist shop he went in to look around.

While looking at their goods, he saw they were selling 6 different pills and an actual Dan, called the Foundation Establishment Dan. Examining it he found it was meant to help people break through into xiantian. Looking around at another counter, he saw they were also selling recipes and a few cauldrons.

The recipes being sold were all for the pills on display in the shop. Four of the pill recipes were selling for 10 gold each. The last two, which were the washing pills, were selling for 20 gold each. Looking at the cauldrons, the cheapest one was 10 gold and the most expensive one was 200 gold. Pondering for a bit, he left the place to go find a blacksmith that would buy bones, teeth, and claws.

Wandering through a few smithies he finally found one that was worthwhile. He could sell the claw of a rank 5 beast for 12 silver, or non-tusk type teeth for 2 silver. He could also sell their larger bones for 2 to 5 silver each. Altogether, he could sell the bits and pieces for about 280 silver per beast. After discussing it a bit, the smith agreed to a higher price for rank 6 good. With the agreement, he could get about two and half times more than he could for the rank 5 parts. After haggling it out for a bit to conclude the entire deal, Kael told him he would return shortly with the goods. Leaving to find a quiet place to shuffle his goods into the pouch, he swapped everything before heading back.

Returning to the smith he made a total of 60 gold off the combined rank 5 and 6 beast parts. Leaving with a grin he returned to the alchemist shop. He spent 50 gold buying the 4 basic pill recipes and the cauldron. Talking to the alchemist there about how to make pills, they also threw in a basic introduction to alchemy book for free.

With 15 gold left he went back to the familiar herb shop. Looking over his recipes as he walked around he decided to make a few changes to them.

For the body cleansing pill recipe, he swapped out the two bloodthorns for one saint myrrh root. In his body strengthening pill, he simply cut out the cinnamon. For his qi cleansing pill, he swapped out the liquorice for tang-kui, making it closer to his Qi boosting pill. Who the hell makes these recipes? Are they that shoddy, or do they sell subpar recipes on purpose?

After calculating the prices and amounts needed, Kael went up to the shopkeep. Ordering 50 sets of herbs for the 4 recipes he handed over 13.5 gold, stored the herbs in the pouch, and then quietly left town.

As he left town he immediately took off at top speed. Wanting to be sure he was not followed he headed the wrong direction into the forest. After an hour he cut back and headed towards home. Running at max speed he quickly made his way home. Taking only two days, he entered his village at dusk the night of new years.