Matthias cultivated as he waited. He’d recently saturated his soul and was halfway towards bringing his body enhancement to the peak of eight. It was phenomenal progress for someone who had never set foot on Tian. He followed the intelligent path; the one that everyone should take, in his opinion. Matthias minimized risk, accumuted wealth by using his transit sphere, and grew strong by steadfastly cultivating.
His world was one of the first to be touched by the Dream Engine. That gave him a head start on the other dreamers of the greater multiverse. Though that advantage paled in comparison to the value of the insight he’d inherited. Matthias intended to be the first Xian lord to ever arise from the ranks of dreamers. It should be easy to achieve so long as he stayed ahead of the other heirs of Volithur.
Esther tapped on the desk of his rented office cubicle to bring his attention back to the present.
“Are you ready for the walk-through?”
Matthias opened his eyes. “You mean am I ready to part with a billion and a half credits?”
“And in return you will own a skyscraper in Promise City.” Esther gestured impatiently for him to leave the maze of beige cubicles. Matthias got to his feet with a sigh. He really did not like spending so many of his accumuted credits. If things went well, he’d make a fortune charging rent to the Xian of Union Central, whether they be dreamers or rogues or even expatriates of Tian. Currently there was only a single housing unit in the city exclusive to Xian and that one was owned by the nation of Amarat – obviously not a pce that would accept applications from random tenants.
Esther bounced on the soles of her feet, eager to move faster than Matthias set their pace. She was a solid business partner, always on top of details and honest to a fault. She also wasn’t hard on the eyes, though her boxy frame and lean muscle wasn’t something he preferred in a woman. For that matter of taste more than out of concern for their business retionship, Matthias maintained a strictly professional demeanor around her.
They took a taxi to the address of his new building. It was a tower of steel, gss, and concrete, the same as any other in Promise City. Its doors unlocked at their approach and they stepped inside the small lobby area. Before them was a line of stainless steel doors leading to high speed elevators.
A short Jinn man approached, hand extended eagerly. “Why if it isn’t Lord Matthias!”
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Does owning a single building on an unempowered world qualify me to be a lord now?”
The man didn’t bat an eye. “You might as well be a lord on this world. Ninety-seven percent of buildings in Promise City are owned by corporations. The remaining three percent are rgely held by families. Single owners are quite rare. As are level eight souls.”
“Is that right?” Matthias gestured to the lobby around them. “Can we begin the tour?”
“Certainly! Do you prefer to work top down or bottom up?”
Matthias grunted. “We’ll start at the penthouse suite.”
In a city where about a third of the popution lived in capsule hotels where their sleeping quarters were slightly rger than a coffin, having a multi-room suite on a top floor was the epitome of luxury. Being able to travel between worlds at will earned him a very comfortable living. Unfortunately, it also cut into the energy he had avaible for cultivation. For forty years now he’d been climbing the metaphorical mountain of power.
If his venture into real estate paid off, Matthias might be able to reduce his trips as a porter so that he could live rge while rapidly ascending the rest of the way to level ten. Maybe in another fifty years he could call himself a lord for real. Though he still had no intention of going anywhere near Tian. Matthias could set himself up as someone of power on this world.
All of that would be in the future, though. Level eight might be impressive to the locals of an unempowered world, but the presence of the Coalition Army on Union Central meant that he would never be comfortable throwing his weight around until he had lord strength. And he wouldn’t advance to level ten until his body was at the peak of level nine. He would be no hollow spear.
The elevators were indeed high speed. It took only a minute for them to reach the penthouse at the thirty-sixth floor. During that time, the representatives of the construction company kept up a steady stream of inane chatter. Matthias idly wondered if they were in such a rush to speak because their lifespans were so small. Though he was barely into his sixties, Matthias had lived most of his life with the knowledge that he would climb his way to immortality. Already his lifespan could be measured in centuries. Peak nine would entirely stop his aging entirely and make him immune to disease.
He felt so little rush to do anything. Life was honestly quite boring. Matthias never had to risk himself like a typical Xian to acquire resources or defend his honor. He performed closed door cultivation for the majority of his time. Just cultivating all day long, except for brief outings for a daily dinner and trips between worlds when he was in a working phase.
All eight of the elevators opened onto a small hallway that had only a single door leading deeper into the penthouse. That door opened for Matthias and he stepped inside to admire the wide open space. This was the height of luxury within Promise City: empty space.
Matthias strolled forward, admiring the view through the floor-to-ceiling gss walls facing outward. What he conceived of as his ‘contemption room’ occupied a quarter of the top floor. He pnned to pce a couple of pieces of furniture in it for him to switch between while cultivating. A plush recliner along the inner wall, a divan next to the windows, a meditation pillow on the floor, and a kneeling chair on wheels. He’d add a table and implements for brewing tea as well, though he hadn’t decided where that fit yet.
“What do you think?”
“I approve,” Matthias granted. He stepped right up to the windows and stared into the distance. “Esther, did you know that the Lord General survived an antimatter bomb about twenty miles in that direction? It was before the city was here, of course. They built the dome of the dungeon over the crater. I guess it made sense to take advantage of the unintentional excavation.”
Esther whistled. “I didn’t realize anyone could survive antimatter.”
“As I understand it, schism beams are the far deadlier Jinn weapon.”
“How does that compare to a cut from an Arahant Sword Sage?”
Matthias shook his head. “There can be no comparison. It would be simple for a Xian Lord to avoid a bde. Schism beams move at the speed of light.”
“I wish I had memories from Tian.” Esther wrinkled her nose.
“So you’ve said. What did the Dream Engine give you again? An Alfar?”
“A Strigoi,” Esther corrected him. “With a true insight into human anatomy. No thank you. Just… no. I refused to harness life energy because I knew how risky it was with the shape of my particur insight.”
Matthias nodded absently. He remembered hearing that Esther became a Xian because her world was under attack by monsters and she wanted to fight. That much had stuck with him. The bit about a true insight into human bodies as well. Esther was making a small fortune off of the Aes Reconquest. Not enough to buy a building, but certainly enough that she had a locked in a decade long lease for one of the smaller suites on the floor below his. It was quite impressive for a dreamer whose memories didn’t teach her anything about cultivation. She had to cobble it all together from what other dreamers shared with her.
They checked out the bedroom, which had space for a massive bed. Then the bathroom already furnished with everything, including a Jacuzzi tub. The kitchen was modest, but having one at all was a sign of affluence. Matthias doubted he would ever use the stove-top, but he did like to microwave leftovers when he didn’t feel like waiting for a restaurant to deliver a fresh meal. The utility room and computer room were fairly standard, other than the fact that he would never need to share them.
The walk-through continued down through the other floors. Matthias dutifully took his time poking around. An inspection service had already validated every inch of the building matched the pns, but this was the st opportunity for Matthias to demand fixes. After he signed the electronic document, this building would be his and he would need to pay for any repairs or renovations.
The suites, rge rooms, small rooms, and cubby rooms were all as expected. The spaces that would some day host the library, shops, restaurant, and other amenities were all exactly right. In fact, there was only one thing he could object to.
“The stone used for the cosmic chamber is inert,” he said.
The representative bnched. “Excuse me?”
“The stone isn’t from Tian. It has no cosmic energy whatsoever.”
The man cleared his throat. “I have paperwork assuring its provenance.”
“And I can sense cosmic energy. This stone has none.” Matthias folded his arms. “It must be repced before I sign the agreement.”
There was a tense minute. “Is it possible the stone is just a little old?”
“The cosmic energy half life of Tian granite is two hundred years. For this stone to be so depleted, it would need to have been removed from Tian over a thousand years ago. I refuse delivery of my building until this is handled.”
The man defted. “We bought this from our most reliable source of Tian artifacts. If it’s not acceptable, then we can’t deliver the cosmic chamber you requested. Can we discount the price instead?”
Esther turned away from the representatives to hide her smile. This was her gambit, after all. They’d pced a request into the contract with the sales team that sounded simple to fulfill but would actually be all but impossible to achieve given the position of the Xian towards exports. Because the company attempted to pass off fakes, they were not only in breach of contract but also guilty of fraud.
Given the extraordinary surveilnce present on Union Central, there would be evidence of that fraud for the System Administrators to find. Given that Matthias and Esther formuted their pn off world, there would be no evidence that they pnned this situation. They would appear to be hapless victims to the authorities.
“Our contract specified a cosmic chamber for cultivation. I will hold you to that.”
The representatives looked at each other. Finally, one of them spoke. “We are authorized to make a significant concession in circumstances like this. If you sign now, we can offer a two percent reduction on the total purchase price. This is a significant savings for you.”
Matthias managed to hold back his smile, but only barely. “Send me the revised contract.”
