Sovereign of the Karmic System

The head scholar looked at him, and said "I hope the treatment that you’ve had to endure for the last few months wasn’t more than you could handle. We apologize for that."

"It’s alright. I understand the burden of having to take care of such a large number of people. It’s.. not as easy as many believe to be cope with the pressure and needs of everyone." Responded Daniel with a calm and polite tone.

The three simultaneously tilted their heads in curiosity.

Daniel’s words couldn’t be more true, and he spoke them as if he had had a first hand experience in the matter, despite him being younger than twenty years old.

For the first time, a few random thoughts started to form in the heads of the three members of the triumvirate. They wondered if Daniel could be a prince of a distant world, or if he was a prodigy commander of a large army.

Daniel smiled at the three old people, and said "As per custom, I have a gift for each of you."

As Daniel finished speaking, a small and elegant table appeared right in front of him. On this table, there were two weapon, two books, and an eighth rank beast core.

As the three noticed the four items, their eyes filled with curiosity.

Daniel approached the table, and picked up the first weapon. It was a bow made of sandalwood, with a string made out of the tendon of a seventh rank beast. The weapon was perfect tier, but had not been enchanted. Yet, it was still the best quality weapon the chief of the hunters had ever seen.

She stood up to receive the gift gracefully.

The second object Daniel picked up, were the two books. These two books were different. The first one was new, while the second appeared to be recently written. On the cover of the old book, -Basics of Alchemy- was written in Daniel’s langue, while on the cover of the second book, there was no title.

He approached the head scholar and handed the two books over to her.

On the second book, the head scholar found the translation of the first book, along with the alphabet of Daniel’s language, and the phonetic pronunciation of the various letters.

The third and last gift, was a greatsword made out of a mixture of different precious and resistant metals like gold, platinum, and steel. It was, just like the previous bow, a perfect tier weapon devoid of any enchantment.

The eyes of the strongest of warriors opened wide in shock as he saw this greatsword. His greatsword carved in a large monster bone had been his most prized possession, and now that he saw this greatsword in Daniel’s hands, he immediately realize how poor their world was compared to Daniel’s.

He got up, stood straight, and accepted the gift with a big smile.

The fourth and last item, was for the three of them to study. From it, the three felt a relatively high beast essence, and the complete lack of corruption.

"I have to admit.." Said the old woman which was calmly brushing her palm over her new bow. "Your ability to make items appear out of nowhere is truly interesting. Is that something that we can learn to do as well?"

"I’m afraid not.. As things are now." Responded Daniel with an apologetic smile.

The woman looked back at Daniel with newfound interest, and said "What do you mean? Is there a way we would be able to do that too?"

"I have no way of knowing. All I can say is that the ability of using our unique power, which we call ’ki’, to store items, is directly correlated to.. Well.. to our comprehension of space, and to spiritual essence."

As the three of them heard the term ’spiritual essence’, they put the gifts they had received aside, and looked back at Daniel with serious expressions.

The head scholar said "So, let’s cut to the chase. Scholar Lucious and scholar Lara said that you had a proposition for us.. They claim to have heard you saying that you would be able to help our race greatly.. Why don’t we talk about that for a bit?."

-----

The conversation between the four of them went on for a fair bit, and in that time, Daniel explained his entire comprehension of how spiritual essence worked, how the spirit of an individual was connected to the spiritual plain, how this world lacked of such a connection, and how spiritual essence reacted to the essence of corruption.

"..And you think that within the prohibited territory there might be a connection to this ’spiritual plain’? How can you be sure of that?" Asked the strongest of warriors.

"I am not sure.. At all. My stay in this world is going to be as long as yours if I am wrong. But according to the description that I was given of the group of mages that caused your world’s corruption, I have good reasons to suspect that there might be.." Responded Daniel with a matter of fact tone.

The head researcher looked attentively at the beast core, then turned to look towards Daniel, and with a low voice, she said "What you ask is not little.."

"It’s not what I’m asking. I don’t stand here in front of you today to make a request, not to beg for help. When you’ll finish your tests on me, and I’ll lose value, you might kill me, or let me go. If I were to be let go, I’d simply hunt my way to a power high enough to allow me to easily roam this world in search of a way out.. And if I were to die.. Well, I wouldn’t be the one having to worry about living in a hole in the ground for the next thousand years."

Daniel response hit exactly where it hurt.

Regardless of the amount of danger, they would never win unless they started taking some risks.

Daniel could see that the three had almost been convinced. So, he gave them an additional reason to trust his intentions.

He said "I understand that you have people to take care of.. But this is an operation that might change everybody’s world. I’m sure there are other trustworthy tribe with whom you could form an alliance.. To which you could entrust your younger generation, and borrow a few powerful warriors, willing to fight for a better world."

What made Daniel’s words so convincing, was the fact that he actually cared about the people of this world. They had done nothing to deserve the life they had to conduct..

They reminded him that, if he and his group hadn’t sent the monster back to its home, his world of origin might have been a step from becoming a wasteland not different from this world.

"Okay.." Said the head scholar in a low voice. "We will discuss about it amongst ourselves."

"Very well." Said Daniel while bowing slightly, then turning to walk out of the room.

Before Daniel could leave, the strongest of warriors stood up, and said "Hold on, young man.."

Daniel stopped, and turned to look back at the muscular old man that was looking at him.

"I cannot accept this sword. Its value is too high, and I have nothing worth as much to give back." Said the old man with a firm voice.

Daniel smiled back at him, and said "I am a practitioner of the art of the sword. How about a trade?.. A sword of my world for a sword of yours?"

The old man looked at his sword with what Daniel could recognize as a loving look.. then, he said "I’m afraid It won’t be possible.. The bone of which this blade has been made is a family memento. This sword is too important to me."

"How about the pommel then? It’s a nice piece of metal, but you can get it replaced." Responded Daniel while feigning disappointment.

"I can do that. I’ll have it removed, and delivered to you by today." Responded the old man with satisfaction.

Suddenly, Daniel remembered something.

He turned to look back at the three of them, and said "Oh, before I forget. I am willing to exchange more beast cores for beast meat.. You all could use some uncorrupted power.. And if you were to agree to my proposition, I’d need as much power as possible."

He then bowed once again, and left.

-----

Later that night, Daniel was quietly sitting on a bench. In his hand, was the small pommel that was once part of the greatsword of the strongest of warriors, and he was looking at it intently.

Sitting next to him, was Gai’ha, which was starting at him in silence. After a few long minutes of silence, she said "That was a fine weapon.. Why did you exchange it for a piece of metal?"

Without looking back at her, Daniel responded "This isn’t a common piece of metal.."

"What it is then?" Asked Gai’ha with a curious tone. She had looked at the pommel almost as long as Daniel had, but she couldn’t really understand what was so special about it. After hours of looking at Daniel stare at it, her curiosity had kept growing bigger and bigger.

"Can you keep this secret? I promise it’s nothing relevant for the triumvirate, your race, or even your world." He responded to her.

Gai’ha’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Daniel’s last words meant that he already knew that she was a spy for the triumvirate, and yet, he hadn’t said anything until now.

After a few seconds of silence, she said "Okay, if it’s really not relevant for my race, I’ll keep it to myself."

"It’s something that nobody is supposed to have. We make use of these to learn the power of the elements.."

More curious than before, she asked "But what is it exactly?"

"For us, just a useful treasure. For nature?.. A source of life." Responded Daniel criptically before putting the perfect metal treasure into his ring, and becoming quiet.

He then turned to look at Gai’ha, and said while smirking maliciously "Hey, want to train some more? I know how hard it is for you to keep your hands off me.. I don’t want you to suffer until tomorrow."

"You cheeky bastard.."

-----

Five days later.

At about five hundred kilometers away from the tribe’s location, was a cave. Inside this cave, around thirty people divided into eight smaller groups, were sitting around a large bonefire.

The people which formed these eight groups, were the leaders of the various tribes that inhabited the surrounding area.

The different groups could be distinguished from one another thanks to some details, or style of clothing.

These differences were caused by the place from which they arrived, from the type of resources they possessed, and the different levels of knowledge inherited from their culture of the past.

A clear example of this, was the cannibalism that was very frequent in this world.

It was said that there were a few tribes whose cannibalistic views had been inherited by a few bills and posters that had been found within the cities. These bills, depicted or described scenes in which people took part in acts of cannibalism.

After centuries of studies, people had come to discover that these bills were nothing but advertisement material for ludic activities.. Like theatrical plays, or street shows, but their use was far too deep into these tribe’s culture to be eradicated despite knowing the truth..

The majority of the people within the cave were looking at the same three people.

These three people, were the triumvirate of the tribe which had found Daniel.

The strongest of warriors, the head scholar, and the chief hunter.

The strongest of warriors got up from his seat, and while looking at the rest of the tribe leaders, and carrying his newly acquired weapon on his back, he said "Now that everyone is here.. We can start this gathering."