Master Of Myths

The trade with the small group went by uneventful, turns out the Dream Chasers' guild, another top guild, had come to him to ask if they could have him procure a good catch from the new world for them to serve as a guardian, which he more than happily obliged by giving them the little one he caught after the fight

There were two more guilds who tagged along, one's YuJu never heard of before, asking for a candidate guardian as well, sadly they got shooed away as he was in no mood to study their skill and pull out a good seed for someone he's yet to know the use of

"Mister, we have hatched that snake and assigned it as our guardian, would you care to provide us any tips?"

The veiled woman took the chance to ask after their guests left, it wasn't every day that Ephai came out to greet people

"Your wondering if this new illusion filled world would suit it?"

His assumption was spot on, apparent by her nodding

"Well, the enemy is using aura so it would be hard for it to understand much, but try it, though my suggestion would be to have Dream Chatrchers teach your little guardian illusion using their own"

The suggestion would go unheeded as he knew their secretive nature, they would probably take the little snake to learn illusion in the new world with the risk of it getting killed, but that was their choice to make

"Do you have any other questions?"

"No, but I would like to offer two more members to join the vampire ranks"

"Hmm"

He contemplated the offer for a moment, honestly he was more open to this guild than before, considering he found their identity being human after successfully being turned to thralls, that's why he wanted to give them a bigger chance than just some simple thralls

'Knowing their thought process they wouldn't be angered by the reveal of a higher vampire than Nee'

That gave him the possibility of turning one of them into a real vampire, putting the two groups closer

"Il consider the offer, maybe even get you a better bargain than that, though it might cost you a bit to get that"

She gave the matter some thought and ended up nodding, since they wanted to infiltrate the vampire ranks and find their real motives then a price had to naturally be paid, and peaceful negotiations were always better than sneaking in and making enemies

"If that is all then I must be on my way"

Have a safe- wait"

Mid wishing she called for him to stop, looking toward the entrance of the place

"Some more visitors have come"

He guessed it was their telepathy so he asked who came

"Poison Bite, a lot of them, we said we would allow a few but the leader entered alone, though she seems to be carrying something…shiny, in her grasp"

'Shiny?'

Did that woman think she needed a torch or was she secretly afraid of the dark?

Only when the woman came before him carrying the object did he understand her intentions

"I see you've come bearing goods"

"Of course, why else would I visit the best trader in the land?"

"Compliments wont get you anywhere, if the object in your hand is useless then I'm afraid there would be no freebies this time around"

After cleaning things up he took the round rock and gave it a one over, not that he needed to, his skill already identified the object

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Ascendance Catalyst: Originally an Enlightenment Stone, after being exposed to light energy for centuries and having its energy triggered by a catalyst it transformed into this miracle object capable of baptizing the user's body with a fraction of the power of Ascendance

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"So, what is it? Anything useful or some junk"

"...Where did you find it?"

Instead of answering her question he responded with one of his own

"Will you pay for that information?"

"I just want to make sure of the object's identity, for one it doesn't originate from your world since it is newly birthed, for two it must have been close to an abundance of light energy sources"

"Need I say anything then? Its as you said, we found this thing outside our land, in this little cute furballs place, deep inside some light crystal mines, though all the crystals were dimmed down and only this thing looked immensely useful, what with the god rays its giving"

"Hmm"

Ephai was indeed in a bind, one glance at the description and he could tell this was something amazing, it's just that he had no idea what ascension energy did, much less a fragment of it, nor how to use the object correctly

'Well, I could just synthesize it into someone…'

That always seemed to work, problem was what would he price it at?

'Let's give her the information on this piece and have her decide how to price it'

"Here is the thing miss-" "Lua, call me Lua"

He acknowledged and continued after her interruption

"I can't give you a price on this thing, for one its method of use is unknown to me, two, I have no idea who might be able to use it, the only thing I can tell you is that this thing can somehow baptize your body in the power of ascension"

"Ascension? What is that"

"Just as it sounds, when you reach the Apex of the world you can Ascend beyond it"

"I see, okay, take it, you owe me a favor"

The apex of the world? Too far for her, plus she couldn't even begin to fathom the use of this thing if he, a world traveler, had no clue either

"Hmm, that would be troublesome but I guess I am indeed interested in this item, then a favor you have"

She nodded and turned to leave, not before giving the veiled woman a look on the way out

"Was it wise to say all that?"

After Lua left the woman questioned his actions

"She wouldn't have kept it even if she knew its use"

"I meant the information of Ascension, it does seem to be a pretty big deal"

"Oh that, its common knowledge, plus almost no one ever gets to ascend, we would be lucky to see one or two achieve it in the next thousand years"

He shrugged and started to disperse into the surroundings

"Mister"

"Yes?"

His voice echoed as he disappeared, after her next words however he could only form his body once more

"There are more visitors"

"..."

"It seems to be the Mad Masks this time around"

"Let them come"

Though he felt this visit spree wouldn't end if he didn't refuse someone he still allowed them to come, after all who knew if they came bearing some treasure as well

"Greetings, to what do I owe this visit?"

"Let us get straight to the point, are you a neutral party or do you support one of the present factions of this land"

Throwing away politeness altogether the demon wolf mashed man asked a loaded question

"Factions? There are only humans and vampires, it would be a stretch to call them factions, especially since both parties entered an alliance"

Ephai's answer gave room for the man to explain who he meant when addressing them as factions

"What about that man with undead following his every word? And the masked guy who can be anything but human"

"Haha"

Giving a little chuckle the shadow almost seemed to be wiping away at some tears

"Beleive me when I say both sides are indeed human, well, for the most part, as for my interaction with them… it's business based"

"Even though the human guilds are to be in an alliance with you? Isn't it a betrayal to do something like when one of them is recruiting humans into his army by killing them"

After speaking the masked man seemed to sense a surge of power out of nowhere, one that cam as fast as it went, Ephai's answer barred him from putting any extra thought into the matter

"That man has stopped killing people to turn them into undead, what he did in the past concerns not our future interactions, half of you lot are not good people anyway"

"We may not be but what about those vampires? The real vampires, not the daughter pretending to be some leader"

The eyes under the mask turned toward the veiled woman beside after uttering those words, his words also meant to warn the woman, or perhaps ruin the relationship between the trader and the mysterious human guild

The veil did not give anything of the woman's expression however, neither did she move, so he turned to look Ephai with daring eyes

"What about them? The mother and her daughters have adhered to the new rules ever since the alliance was made, there is no reason for any hostility at this point"

Much to his surprise, Ephai did not deny it at all, he didn't even try to shift the conversation, admitting that the one they were supposedly allied with was somewhat fake, even though they all supposedly followed these new rules put forth

"I do not know what source fed you all this information neither do I care, just don't go spreading word around and making a mess of the current peace, it would do humans no good to be embroiled in an internal war"

"....."

It seems the guy ran out of questions, or accusations to be more precise

"Is that all you needed to know?"

"More or less, since "

With a nod the man proceeded to take the mask off his face, revealing not only what lays underneath, but much more to both partieswon't