124 The Wasteland World - Meeting (1/2)

”Spiritual essence you say.. Do you believe him, Lucious?” Asked the head scholar from her middle seat.

From in front of the three leaders, the old man that had spoken to Daniel, said ”He definitely has a second motive.. There is no reason why he would want to help us.. But that's as far as my doubts go.”

After a brief pause, he continued ”We fed him contaminated meat, and while he was able to drastically increase his power, he also rejected the contamination.. He is able to make clean food appear out of nowhere.. If It's true that he can free our youngest generation of corruption and render them immune.. We could go back to a time where we were able to live for hundreds of years.”

As he reached this point, he started to talk more animatedly.. As if he was releasing a life worth of ifs and buts ”Just one generation.. Just one generation capable of resisting the corruption, and we could explore our world in depth.. Maybe find a clean spot in which we can live.. Isn't it a future worth taking a risk for?”

”You seem to put an awful lot of faith in this kid, Lucious.. How are you so sure that he won't just leave if he were to find a source of spiritual essence.. Or worse.. He'll grow powerful enough to slaughter us all for capturing him?” Asked the old man sitting to the left of the head scholar.

The head scholar became quiet for a few minutes, and then, she said ”If he really wants to help us, he will have to do it after we conduct the proper tests on him. Even if this was all possible, and I doubt it, I would rather set him free after the research and hope that he'll still decide to help us, than letting go of our only hope in thousands of years for a promise.”

-----

After Lucious's conversation with the triumvirate, Daniel had accepted to let himself be used for a few tests and experiments, which were much more humane than one might believe.

For three months, Daniel ingested various types of concoctions created by the scholars, consistently gave away small portions of blood, and allowed himself to be tested regularly. In exchange to his cooperation, he was allowed to roam the city in the company of a selected guard.

The guard that had been selected to keep an eye on Daniel, was a woman in her late twenties.

Her skin was of a sick grey color. A color which Daniel had learned was the natural tonality of skin of this particular race. The black spots of on her body turned her arms and legs completely black, while on the rest of her body, small black pots covered her body like strange freckles.

She belonged to the warriors, therefore, her body was covered by small plaques of metal over a layer of leather that covered her waist, thighs, breasts, and vambraces, while on her feet, she wore a pair of leather boots.

Her hair were of a natural green color, a color which was lighter during her youth, and similar to the green color of her eyes.

Her name was Gai'ha, and her weapon of choice was a short sword and a shield.

Since Daniel had met Gai'ha, he had formed a large variety of different opinions on her. She was a serious person, and quite talented cultivator. Unfortunately for her, she had been born in a corrupted world, in which she could not shine properly.

During the past three months, Daniel had recounted to her the majority of his adventures, how life in his world was, and about his ability to create a world with sheer comprehension of the elements.

The reason why Daniel had told her all these things, was simple.

After three months, he had guessed Gai'ha to be a good person, but that didn't mean that a good person could not be used as a spy.. And that's what she was.

The triumvirate had specifically picked her so that Daniel could open up with her, and reveal things which would convince them whether they could trust him or not.

Except for the fact that he was carrying a inhabited world on his person, and his karmic system, Daniel had nothing to hide.

He had considered that, in case he would be able to find a connection to the spiritual plain, he would be able to offer entrance to his clean pocket dimension to this tribe.. And grant a better chance than the harsh they led for them and their children.. But then, he had to consider two different matters.

The first one, was that he would not tell the tribe that he had a ring which contained hundreds of thousands of people, and a clean environment perfect for their race to thrive.

Secondly, he would not allow them in the pocket dimension unless he was able to match their power. The strongest level of cultivator within his pocket dimension was only at the peak of the ninth stage of cultivation.. And even if paired with the group's bonus in battle prowess, he was sure that there were hundreds of warriors within the tribe that could easily take over the entire pocket dimension.

If he were to take them in, he would do it in a different pocket dimension, and once found a way to increase the power of his own people, we would slowly make the two groups encounter, and possibly merge.

-----

Back in the underground cave castle.

”Give us a report of the exams.” Said the head scholar with an orderly tone.

”Well..” Said Lara with a dispirited tone, and just a bit of embarrassment. ”I was not able to find anything. His blood gets corrupted just like ours with the right amount of corruption, but if the amount is small enough, it simply bounces off. I've tried to use his blood on many of our detoxifying concoctions, but the most they did, was to increase the effectiveness, and grant us a forgettable increase in power.”

A grim expression appeared on the faces of the three leaders. The head scholar looked at Lara and said ”Do you think we should do a more.. In depth research?” She was, of course referring to more invasive ways of research, like vivisection.

”Head scholar.. If I may.. I don't think we will be able to find anything. If we see the tempistics and reaction to ingesting contaminated meat, we can assume that his words were true. That 'spiritual essence' he talked about was fighting the contamination as he 'cultivated', and when he finally stopped increasing his power by getting further contaminated, his spiritual essence fought back and removed the contamination from his body altogether..” Said Lara in a single breath.

”Why don't you just give us your opinion on what we should do? You and your father are our best scholars.. That's why we've let you study the outsider.” Asked the old man, whose face showed a slightly irritated expression.

”I think we should accept his deal.”

”Exploring the prohibited land is not a joke.. We'll need the help of the other tribes just to get in. There is a good chance that, by simply exposing him to the other tribes, they'll attack us to do their own research.” Said the chief hunter after fixing herself in her own seat.

”A war could leave the tribe with half of the army for years.. It's too risky..” Added the old man.