Starlight Life Of The Sage

Public Release: Feb. 27th, 2019 - 3:30 am EST

Cara's brow was covered in sweat. She wanted to curse but didn't dare open her mouth, lest she give the raging mana within her an exit. Her eyes turned bloodshot, he hands started to shake, and her skin blushed, making her look a bit like a ripe tomato.

A low groaning noise escaped her throat alongside a small packet of mana. She sealed her mouth shut. She couldn't afford to lose any excess; she couldn't afford any waste here. Her mind roiled and smashed upon waves of pain interspersed with euphoria.

The world around her shimmered like a breaking illusion. She shut her eyes briefly, closing them for a moment's respite, but she knew it would cost her. Without her eyes open how could she perfectly fuse the mana and materials in her new halberd?

Her eyes shot open and she decided to bear the brunt of everything. Her willpower almost seemed to manifest itself around her like a shield.

Her body cycled through extremes. She could feel her vessel cracking, she could feel her soul being literally split. Tears ran down her cheeks and her knuckles turned white.

Her hands never stopped moving. She never stopped putting together her weapon. Her mind felt like a dropped mirror, with shards broken in every direction. A black cloud of impurities separated from her skin like ash from an active volcano. The inside of the tent looked like a battlefield. Bottles were smashed and desks were ripped up. Wood splinters scattered as a terrible cyclone of air formed, surrounding Cara at the center of it all.

She couldn't hold her voice in. She threw her head back and roared, her voice like thunder. Mana burst out from her in that moment, and she bit her tongue to stop the flow.

She couldn't afford to fail. She knew that better than anyone. If she failed here, just who was going to slap her impudent disciples around in the future?

If she failed here, she could even end up having to live in this world with Zara forever…

An intense fire lit up in Cara's soul. Her newfound determination caused the entire folded space within the tent to shake.

It was as if she saw the ghost of Christmas future in that brief moment. She would not fail.

-

The City Lord swaggered down through the lower public seating. Many wondered why he didn't just sit in a private booth, but none of them voiced their concerns aloud. His gait looked strange; he leaned back while walking and stretched his legs as far forward as possible, rocking with each step as if to the beat of a song only he could hear.

The Dixon Head looked on at the scene with a grim face. He didn't want to fight the City Lord because he wasn't certain if he could win in a one-on-one battle, but the City Lord came to the venue with only two of his assistants. Was it hubris? Did he think he could handle the might of three of the Four Families alone?

Had he broken through to the next level?

The Dixon Head's Identify spell never worked well on the City Lord, so he skipped it entirely. He cast the spell he used on the green-haired woman, instead.

'Death Detect.'

The spell moved and analyzed the City Lord.

Normally, whenever he would cast Death Detect on the City Lord, the Dixon Head would get back numbers between 30 and 70 percent, usually dependent on whose cultivation was going better at the time.

The Dixon Head decided that if the number returned under 50%, he wouldn't fight the City Lord by himself. He'd have his Half Soul Knights fight with him, but if it turned up above 50% he would risk everything and go at it alone. He had his own pride as both a man and a combatant, after all.

So you could imagine the Dixon Head's mood when the spell returned a percentage of exactly 5%. Not 50%. It returned only 5%.

The Dixon Head went white as a ghost. Everything seemed to be going wrong for him, today. He wanted to curse. He wanted to thrash about. He wanted to hit something…

But most of all he just wanted to get at least one of the two Perfect Soul Knight scrolls. He was completely fine with getting both, but he didn't see that as a possibility right now, not with the City Lord being at a higher level than before.

-

Zara watched the little dance below with rapt attention. She wanted to decipher the Path of the City Lord, to learn that foreign power of his. She figured that her Teacher would recognize it, but she still couldn't make heads or tails of it. It was something of this world, and she wanted to obtain it. She wanted to obtain it bad enough to even cause a mess here against her Teacher's wishes…

But then she spread her aura towards the spacefold tent and frowned. For some reason she couldn't tell what her Teacher was doing inside it anymore. Something happened in there.

Zara was torn between wanting to mess up the auction and checking on her Teacher, but she knew the right choice in her heart. She grabbed an armful of her winnings so far, making sure to get the most embarrassing equipment possible, and she climbed inside the tent.

Immediately, Zara's face twisted into a scowl. Her eyes were laced with panic. She screamed, "Teacher!"

-

"We'll start the bidding at 30 million," said the Auctioneer, breaking up the atmosphere a bit.

"I don't think you heard me," said the City Lord in response. "I said that I'd rather like to have that pill."

"Sir, this is the Twin Birds Auction House. We can only auction off the goods. We can't sell them directly to you…"

"Did I ever say I wanted to *buy* it? I assumed your Auction House would gift it to me," said the City Lord. He wore a shit-eating grin on his face. His recent power-up meant he could start abusing his authority, and he knew it better than anyone.

After all, he finally surpassed level 500 in his job, 'Martial Lord'. With it came an increase in stats that totaled an unnatural number. Right now, with his abilities as a Tier 6 Mage, level 500 Martial Lord, Bloodline Ability, and his Half Soul Knight ability, the City Lord thought himself unrivaled everywhere south of the Ridge that ran along Tin's northern border.

He didn't even think that the 'green-haired woman' he heard rumors of, someone from the Northlands, could compete with him now.

"I mean, if you don't want to offer it as a gift, I suppose I'll have to bid," said the City Lord. "But I will inform everyone else that, should they bid against me, I *will* accept their lovely donation afterwards."

The atmosphere in the venue went silent. People refused to communicate aloud, preferring to only send voice transmissions still. No one wanted to offend the City Lord out loud and invite his wrath, but everyone in the venue felt angry to their cores.

A few people in the know looked over to the balcony where Zara had been, but they found it empty, with only a small tent remaining.

A lot of people took that empty balcony to mean something. A few people understood from the atmosphere that the City Lord had broken through a bottleneck, and now those same people assumed his aura scared off the Northland woman.

And a lot of people realized that, if things kept going this way, the City Lord would take home all three of the main items.