Merchant Of Yliaster

Maxwell sighed as he opened the door of the 12th inn he was visiting. In hindsight, he probably should have sent Blueberry for scouting. Making the bird understand what an inn was would be quite hard, though. Also, it was not guaranteed that Gendor and Bob would be inside.

He was pleasantly surprised to see that the inn he entered this time was quite cozy. There was a hearth with a fire going on, casting a yellow light in the inn despite the early hour. There were a few people inside, some of them sipping drinks, some of them eating some food, looking very unappetizing after Nesha's cooking.

He quickly spotted the bartender. behind the bar counter, who was eating the same food. Places like this usually didn't have a great selection, with food diversity being less than that of the modern world.

He approached the man, going through the motions with a sense of numbness. Apart from the shady inn, everything had been really monotonous in these last hours.

"Hello, have you seen these guys? We were separated some time ago, so I'm looking for them," he said, once again showing the coin to the guy. To his surprise, though, the man barely glanced at the coin before speaking.

"You can keep the money, I assume you are the guy Gendor was talking about. He said you were a kid, though," he said, glancing at Maxwell.

Maxwell smiled genuinely, hearing the man. It's not every day you can find people with integrity.

"I guess I was a bit malnourished back then," he said, even himself not believing the lie. There wasn't a believable excuse he could give, though. If he said his body was catching up to his soul, he didn't think the man would be happier.

"Everything became stupid after this initiation thing. Bah, whatever. You can have the room next to Gendor's. He and the kid are out, though," the man said, sounding tired. He took a giant sip from his beer, looking at him thoughtfully.

"Gendor said you were good at making things stronger or something. Can you make the furniture in the room stronger? I would really appreciate it." he said. Looking around, Maxwell could see a great many broken chairs and tables in the corner of the room. The man is probably having difficulties due to the increased stats of the general population.

"Considering your tone, I suppose you are dealing with Gendor?" he said. He didn't think the man would suddenly request something from him if he didn't have a similar relationship with Gendor. Gendor probably told the guy that Maxwell was his apprentice or something.

"Yeah, he sold me some meat, and also the kid is good at handling drunks," the man said, sounding pretty pleased. Maxwell felt a bit weird, knowing that he was eating premium food in a luxury hotel, while his friends hunted for meat and threw drunks out of an inn.

"I guess, I could. Just give me information about the rumors from time to time as a payment." Maxwell said he didn't think that the guy would have anything he would be interested in apart from his soul, and that seemed too much for infusing some mana into furniture.

"You are much more like a proper apprentice than that other kid. Gendor said the same thing as you when we first traded," the man said. Maxwell couldn't really blame Bob, as Maxwell was probably a lot better than even Gendor in the trading business.

He turned towards the inn, considering his options. Most of the things were composed of wood, so simply infusing the wood element would do the job. He would simply infuse the remaining stone parts afterwards. There was a small problem, though. In his senses, he could see that there was a person with high spirituality inside the inn.

If he suddenly mobilized a thousand mana here, he would probably scare the guy to death. He observed the man.

Scholar - Level 16

Maxwell was surprised to see someone with such a high level. Considering his high mana, the man's class was probably not simply a type of scholar, either.

"Who is that guy?" he asked to the owner, pointing towards the guy with his head.

"Oh. That's Toren, a scholar.. He used to come here even before the initiation. He is a good kid," he said, and stopped staring at Maxwell as if trying to decide whether or not he should continue.

Maxwell simply formed a soul channel between them, trying to get an idea of what the man was thinking. With his new stats, doing this was pretty simple when the level difference was high.

In the end, the owner chose not to say anything further, but Maxwell already got what he wanted. He smiled, as what he got proved one of his theories.

There was a rebel force on the planet, and it was much wider-spread than a simple revolution. This man seemed to be an avid supporter. Maxwell really didn't like the nobility system on this planet, so he was happy that there was a proper side of opposition.

As someone who governed a world as fairly as possible for a long time, he felt a deep sense of wrongness whenever he looked at this planet from a big perspective. One couldn't simply do something according to a principle without gaining those principles themselves. Maxwell knew that the existence of the upper class was almost impossible to prevent, but limiting knowledge was stupid.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

He simply sent a mental message to the man, giving him a simple warning. He didn't want to shout out loud that he would reinforce the furniture inside.

Toren was depressed. Back when he was picking his class, he chose the scholar class to understand the world better, and he even elevated it to a great class in his tier advancement. Now, though, he was still staying in the same inn he always stayed in, eating the same sludge of a food he had always eaten.

He was excited when the initiation first happened, thinking that rebellion would finally have the power to topple the current regime. This, though, proved to be an exaggeration. It was still quite impossible for them if they couldn't find some kind of supporter from the inside. The nobles simply had too many resources.

He took a spoonful from his meal, and was startled suddenly. He felt like something slamming into his mind, not dissimilar to his analyze skill when he analyzed something too complicated. After a second, his mind managed to process what happened.

"I will be reinforcing the building. Don't mind the mana activity," an apathetic voice said. The thought felt heavy, as if someone had thought it in a higher dimension. Toren gazed around, trying to understand who sent the message. He also focused on the ambient mana, trying to understand what the mana activity was.

Near the owner, he could see a young man with clean black clothes. He looked out of place, as his clothes looked unnaturally clean-cut. Also, his eyes glowed with a green light, giving him a headache as he stared at them. Somehow, he felt like they were staring back at him despite the fact that the young man was looking somewhere else.

In the next second, Toren's attention was forcefully ripped away from the eyes, as he could suddenly feel an immense wave of mana coalescing into the building. People around didn't seem to be phased, as the mana was completely docile, as if it was listening to its master.

The amount was ridiculous to the degree that Toren couldn't understand how a person this early into the initiation could control this amount. Waves and waves of it rushed into the building, and to his surprise, simply disappeared into the furniture around the room.

Toren, being a devout scholar, quickly gathered his bearings as he stared at the mana, trying to understand what was happening. Mana couldn't simply disappear, so it was probably doing something to the furniture, but he couldn't understand how.

He quickly used one of his skills to understand the phenomenon. He used the skill on the mana wave, mentally targeting the phenomenon of mana disappearing into the furniture.

There was a piercing pain as his mind was assaulted by information. Every single mana particle's position streamed into his mind, nearly causing him to faint. He felt that he was getting closer, though, so he tried to push through.

To his surprise, he felt the stream of information come to a sudden halt. He received a notification immediately afterwards.

Skill usage terminated.

Not enough authority.

He couldn't believe it. Since his childhood, he was not allowed to learn things simply due to his low birth. Now, even the system was trying to stop him, saying that he didn't have enough authority. He just couldn't accept it.

He used his skill again, feeling it halt immediately. His heart filled with anger as he continued to try to see what was happening. He was too stubborn to yield to a notification. He pushed even harder, feeling a strain in his mind greater than anything he felt before. It felt like his brain was fighting against his skull.

In the end, he felt something give in, as pain lessened. He smiled, finally feeling the skill activate, albeit briefly. A window popped in front of him, filled with incomplete information.

Analyze Results:

The observed phenomenon is called ***** Infusion. It is usually done by ***** to ******. To use it, one requires a ******, which makes it different from the usual mana manipulation.

Trait Awakened: He Who Denies Authority

Toren let out a laugh. Apparently, this system still had a bit of a fairness. He was consumed by darkness in the next moment, but he felt content.

Maxwell started to infuse the furniture after giving the man his warning. As always, he was a bit amused by the man's reaction to his telepathy, but what followed confused him.

The man found him pretty fast, looking at Maxwell like he was some sort of a monster, but that was not very surprising. It meant that the man would probably be quite talented in telepathy if he ever learned it.

Immediately after he started infusing the mana, Maxwell could see the man staring intently at the process, apparently trying to understand it. He was surprised to see a wave of mental energy rush out from the man toward the area. The man's reaction, though, was weird.

First, he looked like someone had hit him with a hammer. Immediately after, he looked like someone had murdered his family. And just a second later, he was smiling like an idiot.

Maxwell watched the man topple to the ground with a smile on his face, as he received a notification.

Title Acquired: He Who Stirs Souls

He Who Stirs Souls:

From your perspective, your actions are completely normal. However, for the bystander, they can be a catalyst for great change.

Stir their soul, giving them newfound motivation, as they see what they can attain if they manage to overcome themselves.

The fuck did I do? Maxwell questioned himself. The title really put it well, as from his perspective, he was not doing anything too complicated. It was the other guy who overreacted and fainted suddenly. When he analyzed a situation for a second, though, he could see the problem.

Soul infusion was a skill that could only be used with a soul. And even the Traveler couldn't understand why Maxwell had a soul. Even mentioning something suggesting that it was usually formed by using faith, and Maxwell was pretty sure that meant the attribute was usually exclusive to gods.

He could see how Toren would improve as a scholar by seeing this skill. This didn't change the fact that it was ridiculous, though. So I can go around and show people infusion, making them improve? He theorized. He figured it wouldn't be that simple, considering the last sentence of the title.

As he was lost in thought, he was done with the infusion. In his thoughtfulness, he even infused the walls, overdelivering by quite a bit in his service.

He walked towards the scholar, observing the guy. He was alive and seemed to be sleeping like a baby, but he wanted to see if anything had changed.

Toren - Scholar - Level 20

He got four levels out of this? Maxwell was really starting to get envious of the way people leveled without seemingly doing anything.