Sovereign of the Karmic System

"With the price of the treasure taken into account, ten percent less than an already made water sphere."

What Daniel meant by that, was that taken the price of the essence treasure out of the cost of an essence sphere, he would make people pay the difference ten percent less.

This might not sound much as a discount, but for people that, in order to find someone that could create such a high level sphere, was already extremely difficult, ten percent was already a lot.

After all, people who were adept in specific types of essence were parts of sects or groups to which that essence was needed the most.

In fact, some sects had even formed around a single cultivator’s knowledge about essence.

For example, the Sect of the Illusory Edge had formed around its founder’s comprehension of light essence, which had created their style of swordsmanship, and had formed a sect around its use.

In most recent times, the majority of cultivators that had reached a certain level of comprehension would be roped into the various groups, so that these groups could have a steady source of the type of essence spheres they required.

That could explain why a ten percent discount was anything but little.

There were different types of market prices. In the world where Daniel was now, a the market price for essence treasures was low, while the price of the labour necessary to turn that treasure into a sphere was high. Therefore, the majority of the price of a sphere was given by the cultivator that had worked on it.

While on an universal scale material and labor respectively constituted 40% and 60% of the cost of a sphere, in the world where Daniel was right now, the percentage was closer to 15% and 85%.

The price of low-level essence sphere was of a hundred mid crystals, that of a medium-level sphere was of five high crystals, and finally, the price of a high-level sphere was of fifty high crystals.

By asking to any cultivator adept in water essence to create a medium-level sphere, she would have to pay four high crystals and twenty-five mid crystals, while instead, by letting Daniel do it, she would only have to pay three high, eighty-five mid, and fifty low crystals.

Of course, essence spheres of more difficult kinds of essence like spatial, time and sound essence would cost much more. Not to mention essences like life, death, light, and dark essence.

"That’s very convenient." Said the woman while taking a small piece of paper out of her spatial ring.

This piece of paper was a small contracts which could be purchased from the government office. They would be signed by the two parts that were making the deal, and would work as proof that could allow the government to personally step in and enforce its terms.

In order to use them, two people needed to inject their immortal essences after writing the terms of the deal. Then, a twin piece of paper that was kept inside the government office, would turn into the exact copy of that contract.

The woman quickly wrote the terms of the deal on the piece of paper, and added her immortal essence into it, then, she passed it to Daniel. She then tried to say, "Bring it to your mas.." but she was stopped mid-sentence by the sight of Daniel pushing his own immortal essence into it.

For as surprised as the woman was, she didn’t worry. The contract she had written had a time limit clause attached to it, and Daniel had the wealth to pay for it in case he didn’t respect her terms. She was simply caught off guard by the fact that the person who would create the sphere was actually Daniel.

She straightened her face, and while handing over the water treasure, she said "Okay, I’ll be back in a couple of days.. Take your ti-"

Once again, she was interrupted by Daniel’s action.

Instead of putting the treasure away, Daniel started to force large amounts of immortal essence into it, and right in the middle of the process, he asked "Any concept that you’d like me to add in it?"

The woman’s eyes opened wide in shock as she felt the quick composition of the water sphere advance. Almost without thinking about it, she said "Y-yes.. Freezing and flowing.."

After hearing the woman’s words, Daniel turned to look back at the semi-completed sphere, and inserted the concepts of freezing and flowing into it.

The whole process was completed in less than two minutes.

The woman’s jaw fell at the sight.. She simply couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She knew that someone could pull every small bit of immortal essence into creating an essence sphere all at once, but keeping a similarly powerful and constant stream, was near impossible.

The only thought that she was able to form in her mind, was that Daniel was much more powerful and old than he looked.

Daniel handed the sphere back to the woman, which stared at it for a minute.

Of course, the scene had attracted the attention of everyone in the radius of a hundred meters.

Not feeling the heavy flow of immortal essence, and the sudden creation of a sphere which radiated water essence, was impossible.

A large number of well dressed cultivators noticed the mid-level water sphere on the woman’s hand, and approached Daniel’s stall all together.

The first of them was an old man with a following of younger people. He was clearly a teacher, or an elder which belonged to a school of martial arts or sect, and the younger people were his disciples.

He was about to say something, but then kept quiet as Daniel lifted his hand, and said "Please, let me conclude my other deal."

The woman moved her eyes from the water sphere back to Daniel, and said "Do you want to be employed by my sect? We are the Sect of the Single Droplet.. We would definitely be able to use your talent in water essence for the best."

"I appreciate the offer, but water essence is one of the elements I have the lowest comprehension of.. Let’s conclude our deal, more customers are waiting in line." Responded Daniel with a polite smile.

Daniel’s words caused the various number of people that were simply observing and not standing in line, to join the line as well.

These people had been attracted by the singularity of what had happened, but didn’t care for water spheres.. Therefore, they had no reason to approach the stall.

That changed after Daniel talked about being adept in other essences.

The woman quickly handed over a small spatial ring to Daniel, which contained the right number of crystals she owed to him. Then, she stepped aside, and observed.

The previous old man approached the counter, and said. "Can you make high level spheres?"

"Lightning, water, earth, wood, and wind." Responded Daniel with a casual tone, just like a waiter would list the dishes of the day.

Daniel’s words left the entire crowd paralyzed in shock. Some more people within the crowd that were still unconvinced, started to join the line as well.

"Are you serious?" Asked the old man with a surprised tone.

"Dead serious."

The old man, just like Daniel’s first customer, belonged to a group whose main skills focused on mixing martial arts with water essence, therefore, the item that was asked of Daniel to produce, was a high level water sphere.

Honestly speaking, Daniel had lied. He had long since reached the level of perfect comprehension of wind, water, and lightning essences.

In the past, all he needed to do in order to reach a hundred percent comprehension was to mix them amongst other elements, and now that he was able to use each and all of them to a certain extent, it had been a matter of days for him to manage to reach perfection with those three types of essences.

The only two elements of which he still possessed a low amount of comprehension, was fire, while he had a comprehension of metal above the fifty percent.

Daniel started to prepare one essence sphere after another, causing half of the customers present in the marketplace to crowd around his stall.

That had forced the government office to send a few guards simply to prevent people from assaulting, or trying to kidnap Daniel.

While Daniel swept away the majority of the crowd, the various stalls which sold essence treasures started to go crazy in response.

They put discounts to their merchandise in hope to hop in Daniel’s trail of business.

For a few hours, the busiest person of all, was definitely Der.

He was given money by Daniel the very moment he got paid, which he would then use to purchase each and every essence treasure in the market in block, and at a discounted price.

On the other side of the square, a group of dark green robed cultivators were crawling their way out of the market. Each of them had a broken arm or a broken leg, and they could hardly support themselves.

Jerigh casually approached Zack, and said "Let’s go back, there is no need for advertisement anymore.."

That, was the longest sentence Jerigh had ever said since he and Daniel had met.

-----

Marketplace, 7 PM

"..Okay, that’s enough for today. We’ll open a stall here tomorrow morning.. Today was the grand opening, so, from tomorrow, the discount is going to be five percent. Thanks for choosing us!" Said Alesia with a bright and gorgeous smile.

People were visibly disappointed by her words, but after seeing the "tired" expression on Daniel’s face, and the beautiful and polite smile on Alesia’s face, they bowed politely at them, and went on their way back home.

Of course, Daniel was just pretending of being tired. He had done so every two or three essence spheres, as he wanted to look like an extremely powerful and talented cultivator, and not look like a monster. So, he had decided to do so in order to maintain a parvence of humanity.

As the crowd dispersed, Daniel casually waved his hand, and opened a spatial portal. On the other side, was a slightly startled Der, which after noticing who the person that had opened it was, quickly crossed through.

"How much did we do?" Asked Daniel to Alesia with vivid eyes, almost as if he had done nothing special.

"You’ve made eighty-nine mid level spheres, and thirty-three high level spheres. In total, around one perfect crystal, and six hundred high crystals." Responded Alesia while reading the notebook on which she had been writing all day.

She then turned to look at Der, and said "How many treasures, and how much is left?"

Der pushed a wisp of immortal essence into his ring, and said "Two hundred and eighty five mid level treasures, and a hundred and fifteen high level treasures.. About five hundred and twenty high crystals left.."

"How much does it cost to receive a merchant permission?" Daniel asked to him.

Slightly uncomfortable, Der looked back at him and said "Around a hundred thousand perfect crystals.."

*Ssssshh!* Daniel sucked air through his teeth. Only after a few minutes he managed to calm down, and say "It’s alright.. We have plenty of items to work with now. Is it enough for us to travel to the capital at least?"

"Yes, it’s more than enough."

"Good.. we’ll visit a few other close by cities, and then we’ll go to the capital." Said Daniel with a determined tone.

His path home was still long, but at least, there wasn’t the constant feeling of being lost that he felt when he was in the wasteland world.

-----

Within an extremely large hall, somewhere in the city, a small group of dark green robed cultivators were standing orderly in front of a group of black-cloaked cultivators.

If someone were to possess an extremely good eyesight, they would realize that these black cloaks were actually green, but of an extremely dark shade.

These people, were the elders of the Sect of the Illusory Edge.

In front of them, were the group of cultivators that had tried to take away Zack, and attack Jerigh.

"Explain to me why you have come back in such a sorry state.." Said the elder that sat in the middle.