Humanity: Evolve

Zhang Long exited the meeting room after shaking hands with Alan and agreeing to his deal. Although he was excited to start their business immediately, Alan said that it would take a few days for him to apply to rent a store as well as obtain a permit.

The pioneer association already had Zhang Long's details, including his occupation and his CV since he was conscripted and specially trained by them. This directly cut down on the hassle.

Even though he was eager to start making money, Zhang Long knew that it would be better to familiarise himself with the city as well as buy a few utility items.

He had actually requested to take one of the wolf bodies from the terror bird attack, but Alan refused on the grounds that they had been taken by the association already. He couldn't do anything about it.

Luckily, housing was already provided, as were the three daily meals. Although both the former and the latter were rudimentary, it greatly eased the pressure of a young man about to start a business.

'Hopefully, our store will have sleeping quarters, the association's provided ones are...'

His mind flashed to the grim interior of the barracks. The sheets were stained green and the metal bed frames were rusting. Just the thought of spending a night there would make one shudder.

Alan had told him to get himself registered with the organisation, when Zhang Long had returned to the meeting room, he'd been shoved a leather bag in the face.

The registration system was pretty simple. Each month he'd have to check in to let them know he was still alive and if he was absent three months in a row, that is, if he missed three registrations, his properties and possessions remaining at the association would be withdrawn.

Zhang Long opened the "goody bag" which Alan had given him. It was the standard rookie gear given out to each newcomer, thus he didn't hope for too much.

He pulled out a small leather pouch with a telling "jingle". On the front was a white label with the number "500" on it.

'Five hundred sovereigns. That's quite generous.'

Next was a black box. It was as long as his arm, with about the same width as well. Unlike the sovereign pouch, this box had no label.

As he undid the clasp and pried it open, a gust of spiritual energy burst out into his face. Zhang Long's medium-long black hair fluttered, as if someone had pointed a switched on leaf blower in his face.

'One, two, three. Three small sized spirit stones.' He counted, hastily shutting the black box and stowing it away again.

'Three small-sized spirit stones are enough to promote a grade one human or spirit beast a single sub grade. I've already used a medium sized spirit stone, and am subsequently at the grade 1/2. I'll give these three to Winter.'

He glanced at the white wolf, it's head reaching his elbow. Winter's nostrils were flared as it breathed in the remaining spirit essence in the air before looking at it's master pitifully.

Zhang Long grinned and pushed it away.

'Greedy dog.' He reprimanded, quickly burying himself back into his goody bag.

He brushed past the mini bottles of spring water and cans of tinned food. He froze as he saw a disc shaped object sitting at the bottom of the bag.

It was a scanner.

There was a note taped against it's side, which he pulled off and read.

'To my new business partner, Zhang Long.

I noticed you really wanted one of these scanners, so I took the liberty to "borrow" this one from one of my higher ups. Don't worry, you won't get into any trouble, that miser has several better quality ones stashed away in his room, the one in your hands right now was the worst of the bunch.

Anyway, this will remove the need for you to try and gain a promotion to captain. It'll definitely save us a lot of time, heck it took me several years of toiling away to get mine. In the time you'd get promoted, we'd already be showering in sovereigns.

Make good use of your starting money, I'd recommend grabbing yourself a decent artefact for self defence. Whilst you have Winter, it never hurts to have a weapon at the ready. Trust, I learnt that the hard way.

-Alan White'

Zhang Long stifled a chuckle as he read the letter, wondering how a person with such a stern exterior could write and act so mischievously.

'Then again, I'm the same.' He thought, folding the letter up and placing it in his b.r.e.a.s.t pocket.

He realised that his photo, the one he had taken with him before entering the portal, was gone. A pang of pain stabbed into his heart.

'It must have fallen out during our trip to Bastion.' He sighed.

Winter nudged his shoulder gently, feeling it's owners emotional pain. The feeling disappeared quickly though, replaced by steely determination.

Zhang Long injected spiritual essence into the scanner in his hands. The transparent centre disk lit up a light blue, before holographic panels emerged.

He noticed a large number of functions in the main menu, but quickly found the one he was looking for.

He tapped the button which said "scan life form" and pointed the disk at Winter. The latter looked at him in confusion, before feeling excited. "We're going to play fetch!" It thought, tail wagging at a rapid pace behind it.

Much to Winter's disappointment, Zhang Long just scanned it before burying his head in the list of statistics.

[Canis Lupus Arctos]

(Polar Wolf)

Grade: 1/2

S.e.x: Male

Diet: Carnivorous

Talent Class: Physical - Grade 1/1

Method of Attack: Biting, Clawing, Harassment

Evolution: 34%

---

Zhang Long felt surprised by the fact that Winter had already reached grade 1/2. He had half expected the wolf to be at the same grade as others in it's pack but then again, Winter was their alpha.

'That means the spirit stones I've received from the starter bag is enough to directly promote Winter to 1/3, then I can use the terror bird's beast core to promote it.'

Although plans had gone awry, he had quickly gotten back on track. Zhang Long stowed his scanner inside his double b.r.e.a.s.ted coat, noting how damaged it had become since he had arrived in Pangaea. The sleeves had been ripped and there were a few bloodstains and brown marks across the front and back. He almost looked like a beggar.

He decided to look for the artefact shop which Alan had mentioned before, Handy's. After that, he'd go and buy some new clothes, more fitting for the local environment of Pangaea.

Pangaea's geography itself was very similar to old Earth's, except for the inhabitants and the fact that each environment was very extreme.

Apparently, the volcanic regions could reach up to ten thousand degrees in temperature. On old Earth, recorded temperatures mentioned that volcanic lava was usually between seven hundred to one thousand degrees.

From this, one could tell just how extreme Pangaea was, of course, this was one of the more exaggerated examples. Some areas were similar to tropic regions and there were also savannas and deserts. All of the regions on Pangaea all shared one similarity, that is, their gargantuan size.

Just the forest region which Bastion had been built in was the size of the united kingdom, 242,500 square kilometres. Even now, modern humanity had barely explored any of the surrounding area. The distance one would have to cover to reach the next region could take anywhere from weeks to months, that's if one was driving a vehicle.

Then there were also other factors such a weather, geography and spirit beasts. The inhabitants of these extreme areas were equally as extreme. For any creatures to be able to survive there, they would without a doubt be dangerous high grade spirit beasts.

Zhang Long stopped in front of a large shop full of traffic. There were statues of golden lions standing proudly on either side of it. The exterior was decorated with a variety of precious looking metals, gold, silver and much much more. Men and women walked in and out of the store in a never ending stream of customers.

He slipped past the crowd. Although he wanted to enter the large shop as well, there was a long queue. He would have to wait for at least an hour before making it into the shop and dealing with the mass of shoppers inside would be another matter entirely.

Zhang Long found a much less crowded street. He arrived at a humble looking shop with a large signboard hanging over the top. Handy's.

The bell rang as he pushed past the door. The interior had an antique feel to it, a musty but not unpleasant smell wafted into his nose.

The accountant was lying on the counter, eyes half open as she slumped in a daze. At the sound of the bell, she jolted and sat upright, wiping away drool from the side of her mouth.

She saw Zhang Long and grinned guiltily, pretending to be busy.

The latter took no notice, gravitating towards the shelves of artefacts like a moth to a light.

A few signboards, smaller than the shop's main one, hung from the ceiling. Each one had different categories of artefact engraved on the dark grey ebony.

Zhang Long's gaze swept across them as he searched for something fitting.

'Blades, ballistics, quarterstaves, polearms, even armour.' He muttered.

Those weren't the only categories though, there was one row of shelves for almost every type of weapon in existence, save for guns.

Zhang Long immediately omitted the more lethal ones, such as a polearm or a sword. What he needed was something that could by time for him to escape or something that could knock an aggressor out.

His eyes were drawn almost instantly to the quarterstaves section. A quarterstaff was a traditional European pole weapon which was simply a wooden staff. Some quarterstaves had a ferrule on one or both ends, which added extra lethality to the weapon, however Zhang Long would no doubt choose to have no metal attachments on the end.

The quarterstaff admittedly looked harmless, more like a walking stick than a weapon, however that didn't make it any less threatening than a sword or halberd.

Of course, Zhang Long would definitely aim to disarm or disable his opponents, rather than kill.

He strolled slowly through the aisle, carefully appraising each of the presented staves. There were short staves and long staves. The shorter ones were around Zhang Long's height, 1.8 metres whilst some went up to 2 metres.

The long staves reached all the way up to 3 metres, dwarfing the user completely.

Zhang Long wanted something that could easily pass off as a cane or walking stick, whilst also being light and easy to wield, thus he went straight for the short staves.

They were a variety of different colours with a myriad of gems and metal decorations attached to them. He ignored these, for they were all too flashy for his taste and wouldn't accomplish it's job well. He wasn't even sure if he could afford the decorations on the staves, let alone the weapon itself.

Zhang Long picked up an unassuming ashen grey staff which had been sitting covered in dust at the very end of the aisle. It was a short staff with strange engravings on it. Several different animals were engraved on it, making the weapon seem like a miniature totem pole, although the markings were worn and he could only roughly make them out.

'Perfect.' He thought, giving it a twirl.

During the two year long training he had partaken before coming to Pangaea, he had specifically chosen to practice stick fighting as well as a few other weapon forms which had more flexibility and handling. Sure, a sword could disarm an opponent just as well as a quarterstaff, but the latter required less skill and precise handling to achieve that goal, unlike bladed weapons.

The top and bottom were slightly weighted, a cap on both ends. Zhang Long noticed a red gem on the top, however it was already the least assuming staff the store had to offer. The others were simply too gaudy.

He made his way over to the front desk, tapping the staff against the floor to alert the dozing girl. The latter leapt in fright.

'O-Oh, hello sir, what would you like to buy?' She asked, stuttering slightly.

Zhang Long lifted the staff and placed it horizontally on her desk.

'How much?'

The girl quickly checked a list of prices in front of her. Zhang Long managed to sneak a peek of the paper with his height. The prices would rise according to appearance, quality and finally materials the weapon was made with.

Luckily, quarterstaves were cheap to make and required a lot less effort compared to rapiers or stilettos.

'Erm. The price is one hundred sovereigns.' The girl said in an embarrassed manner.

Zhang Long frowned.

'That much for a stick like this?' He asked, his cold appearance intimidating the girl.

The latter shook her head vigorously.

'I-If you want, you can pay with spirit stones too!'

Zhang Long snatched the piece of paper from her hands and studied it carefully, eyes darting from the price guide to the staff lying on the desk and back.

'At most, this piece of junk could only sell for fifty sovereigns. At most.'

He said, his cold tone betraying how he felt internally.

'This weapon is perfect for me, as if it was made with me as it's wielder in mind, however there's no way I'm spending a fifth of my money for this. If a hundred sovereigns is the cheapest price for a quarterstaff like this, then what about all the other weapons?' He thought, suddenly realising why there were no other customers.

The girl seemed to give up on selling the stick for a bumped up price. She slumped back into her chair in defeat.

'Fine, you can have it for fifty sovereigns, I've been trying to get rid of that garbage since I got it in the first place.' She grumbled, taking the small bronze coins which Zhang Long had offered.

He looked at the young girl, no more than 14 years old as she counted the money.

'You're too young to be in charge of a business, who's the boss here?'

'Grandpa is the one in charge, but he's off adventuring. Somewhere. He disappears like this all the time, leaving me here with nothing to do.' She replied spitefully. 'Here, your weapon.'

Zhang Long took the quarterstaff and nodded at the girl before exiting the store. Then he asked around before making his way toward a clothes store.

He had 450 sovereigns left from this purchase, definitely enough to buy some good clothes.

Is what he thought, however he was sorely mistaken.

After browsing through the cheapest clothes, he let out a sigh of exasperation.

'At least it'll remind me of home. The price of clothes in both worlds are ridiculously high.' He joked, listlessly.

Zhang Long had bought a white double b.r.e.a.s.ted jacket for one hundred sovereigns and a pair of armoured leg wear for fifty more.

He looked at his quarterstaff bitterly. For the amount he had spent on clothes, he could buy another two staves. Then he shook his head and walked away from the vicious store as quickly as possible.

Zhang Long was now wearing a tight fitting white jacket, along with a pair of dark grey combat trousers. In his right hand, he held a worn looking grey staff which had several spirit beast engravings embossed on it, as well as a red gem on the top.

After being told off by the clothes store's staff, he had reluctantly recalled Winter. The wolf sat silently in his consciousness, it's head glowing a faint blue.

He decided to find somewhere to stay- anywhere other than the mouldy barracks. Then he would promote Winter from grade 1/2 all the way to 2/1.