The man consumed the free drink without giving Sage more than a little nod in thanks. There was not even a grunt shared from his end and after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, Sage finally noticed a pitying look from the bartender. It was at that moment that he realized his guess was incorrect. This man was in no mood at all to chat with anyone at all. He got up from his stool and was on the way to leave after that embarrassing display. He could just head to another one of the mixed bars to try again. After turning around and starting to walk towards the bar there was a person waving a drink in his direction.

Sage felt a little embarrassed, but he got up and went to take a quick shower on the Inner World. He didn’t feel very threatened in this city and also had to take a few minutes to put the failure behind him. It was moments like this which showed that even as powerful as he was as a Cultivator, he was still at the whim of human emotion and ego. Powerful Cultivators could be offended or embarrassed just as any other person could and a tiny accident could lead to thousands of mortals being murdered in retaliation. It very much reminded him of the parable about the Emperor’s new clothes. When mortals ran into Cultivators they would be on their best behavior, terrified of accidentally upsetting these lethal beings. In turn, this constant flattery and fawning swelled the Cultivator’s ego and taught them to treat the mortals as lesser beings with little worth.

Sage saw this behavior soon after arriving in this world and grew disgusted with it. He adopted a similar attitude as the mortals in order to reduce his chances of upsetting other Cultivators. He would rather be a living coward than a brave corpse. While such times of weakness were in the past, he did what he could to maintain his conscience and keep from letting simple human embarrassment from turning him into a monster. He was ready to do a very normal thing and flee from a roomful of strangers and the awkward situation. Instead, he was beckoned over by a blond haired woman that looked like she spent way too much time in the gym. She didn’t have that lady bodybuilder look, but she definitely seemed way too fit and muscular for a mortal or even most cultivator’s he’d met. For some reason most Cultivators had very slim and less defined physiques even when their actual strength and power were far beyond normal human limits.

Being called over so blatantly by this woman, Sage chose to accept the invitation and sat down across from her. She was in a large booth seat that had a very high back on the seat that gave it the feeling of a private room. It would be more awkward to pretend not to see her at this point, and since he was here to gather information it would probably work better if he found someone that wanted to talk.

“That looked pretty rough. You looked like a puppy waiting to get a pat on the head.”

“Oh? Is that better or worse than trying to use bulging muscles as a personality?”

“Ehhh? So you like my body, huh? Your first time here and you’re already trying to get a bad reputation. Pretty impressive.”

“This banter is fun and all, but I better leave before you stomp out every last shred of my dignity.”

“That’s no fun. Since you don’t know Boris you have to be new here, and you looked like you needed someone to talk to. Sit, stay a while, tell Auntie Bee about your troubles.”

“You look far too young to be my aunt. Are you a super genius that has retained her youthful look even in old age?”

The blonde woman did not seem happy to be called old, which took Sage a little too long to figure out. He wasn’t sure if he was enjoying the insults they were throwing back and forth, but he earned himself a sour look and he immediately apologized.

“Sorry, I don’t know much about the people around here. I should have realized talking about a woman’s age is universally frowned upon.”

“Good that you realize it. Now buy us a round as a proper apology.”

Sage waved to call over a waiter and the two of them shared a few drinks. Sage explained the basics of being a Cultivator, in order to steer the conversation into a different direction. It took a little more chatting but he eventually learned more of her story.

“I’m not like those angry solo drinkers or those chuckle heads that are desperately pretending to be relaxing to hide from their real problems. I’m still extremely bitter about being stuck here, especially since I know I’ll probably be stuck here for another decade. Waiting is always worse when you’re staring at the clock.”

“You have a clock!?”

“I don’t, but they have one at the warehouse where I work. One of those old timers tricked me into checking it constantly and I learned what that saying meant.”

Sage was surprised at the presence of clocks, but considering the immense diversity of peoples he’d seen here so far then it wasn’t much of a stretch to think they could come up with many things he might already be familiar with. He was also suddenly curious what sort of clock it was. Something based on an hourglass? Maybe something mechanical with tiny gears, or perhaps something more magical?

“You seem very sure of how long you’re going to be here. Does that mean you’ve been banished here as a punishment? You’re from a big family and you upset the wrong person at a young age?”

“None of those. It has more to do with, uhh, my ability.”

“Your ability? What do you mean?”

“You really are interested in everyone’s abilities, aren’t you? Well then, as long as you keep buying I’ll keep talking.”

She waved over the waiter and ordered them another round of drinks, this time switching to a far more expensive drink with a much weaker effect. The ambrosia-like juice had a sort of dream-like effect seeming more like a psychedelic instead of liquor for cultivators. Since there were so many different types of cultivator bodies then it made sense for there to also be a huge assortment of different vices that they all indulged in.

“I’m what’s known as a Promise Taker. I can take the promise, or potential, from my past or future self. I could give half my strength for five minutes to myself in the past. It also doesn’t have to be linear. A Promise Taker can also choose to compound this effect. I might give up ten percent of my strength for two days in order to have a twenty percent boost for one day. I won’t tell you about the specific limits and nuances, since those are the secrets of every Promise Taker lineage. Let’s just say that I know I’ve made a promise in the future and I’ve got to spend more than a decade here, weak as a mortal, to pay for it.”

“I had no idea there was something so amazing. Since you shared so much then I think we can be considered drinking buddies now. Hello, I’m Lang Sheng.”

The woman knocked her mug against his and their strangely bubbling pink froth of a drink sloshed onto the table, “Lang you say? Nice meeting you, I’m Bianca Beaudouin, but everyone just calls me Auntie Bee.”