He went through the house and found that there five rooms. Three of the rooms had beds in them, the fourth was empty and the last was a study. If you add the main living room, and the kitchen, there were seven rooms in total. The house was also well-furnished. The study had three bookshelves and a writing table. Each of the bedroom had a dresser and the kitchen came with a stove and an oven. Not that Victor knew how they worked as there were no electricity. Instead, both kitchen appliances were covered in strange markings. Victor was more than pleased with the house, but he had some questions.

“Reunion, what are all these markings I see on the furniture?”

“Those are runes.”

“Runes?” Victor opened one of the cupboards in the kitchen and took a closer look at one of the runes. “It’s different from anything I had ever seen before. What do they do?”

“The rune you are currently looking at is a preservation rune. If you put food on a shelf with this rune on it, the food will not go bad.”

“Really? But what if some flies come along?”

“The field of the rune will prevent it from landing. Besides, have you seen a living thing since you came to the island?” Reunion asked. “When I transferred the island, I transferred all living things off it.”

“Wait, you mean I am all alone on this island? There’s really nothing living on it?”

“Yes, though it is just a matter of time before something comes along. Life will always find a way to live. You may also want to introduce some creatures to the environment.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Experiments to see how qi affect the creatures of this world. Maybe you can even gain some beast companions out of it. Although you do not have the cultivation methods for it yet, beast-taming is a very respected art on many cultivation worlds.”

“What is beast-taming?”

“It’s a form of cultivation where cultivators formed a symbiotic bond with certain animals. The animals help the cultivator in various ways, and some may even fight alongside him. As the cultivator gets stronger, so does the animal. Remember when I told you qi can also affect animals? Well, animals that bond with a beast-tamers gets qi both from the environment and from their human partners. In return, the tamers get access to powers the animals have. Think of them as Poke- wait, this world doesn’t have them. Let me find another example for you.”

“No need, I think I get what you are saying. These Beast Cultivators are like The Pigeon, and the Cat Lady.”

“Oh, you’re right! I should have known there will be people with such superpowers on this world. Let me check … the Pigeon was a superhero who could talk to pigeons … wait, just pigeons? What a useless power! At least the Cat Lady has limited control over a variety of cats.”

“Don’t knock the Pigeon.” Victor said. “When he was active, there was almost nowhere you can hide. In a city, pigeons are everywhere.”

“It is still useless.” Reunion countered. “Beast-tamers can tame almost any type of animal. High-levelled tamers can even bond with dragons. What are pigeons compare to that?”

Victor shook his head in disagreement. “Power is not the same as usefulness. The Pigeon may not be powerful personally, but he was terrifying. You just can’t hide from the man.”

“You sound like you are speaking from personal experience?”

“I am.”

“You were beaten by a man who can speak to pigeons?” Reunion was incredulous. “What kind of useless host am I struck with?”

“I was found by a man who could speak to pigeons.” Victor corrected. “I was beaten by a team-mate of his.”

“Useless!”

Victor ignored the miffed system and went into the study. Although he wasn’t ashamed of it, the fact that he was beaten by the Pigeon wasn’t a glorious chapter in his villainous career. When the old man’s young grandson got caught up in the Candy Crisis, the hero came out of retirement for vengeance. Victor was under no illusion of his place in the world, but that beating was both painful and deserved.

Victor had spotted runes on the bookshelves and they looked a lot like the runes in the kitchen. “Reunion, what are these runes for?”

“They are also preservation runes. Any book you placed on the shelves will maintain their condition.”

“What do you mean?”

“Paper oxidation; humidity causing them to rot; the runes will prevent stuff of those nature.”

“Cool.”

Victor went to the study table and sat down. He felt the touch of qi. It wasn’t as strong as the bridge, but this table had qi as well.

“Reunion, I can feel the qi of this table. I felt it earlier on that wooden bridge across the river. How is that possible?”

“Qi affects all things.” Reunion began to explain. “Qi affects the trees. You cut down the tree, and you can qi-infused wood. This table and that bridge are made from such wood.”

“Is there any advantage from having things made from such wood?”

“Yes. Things made from qi-infused wood or metal channel qi easier. For example. the runes on this table increased the concentration of the person using it. If the rune was placed on a table made of normal wood, your concentration would be increased by three percentage. Runes placed on qi-infused wood would increase it to five percentage. That can make a world of difference when you are studying a difficult subject.”

Victor nodded in acknowledgeable. “What kind of runes are on the bridge?”

“None,” Reunion answered. “The cultivator who made it used something called ‘Feng Shui’ to harmonize it to the surrounding environment. The bridge may be man-made, but it is now a thing of nature. You can even call it a living thing.”

“That bridge is alive?” Victor asked in shocked.

“As much as the trees in a forest are alive. Or the flowers that bloomed in spring.”

“Amazing.”

It truly was. When Reunion first introduced cultivation to him, Victor had hoped that it was something special, but he had seriously underestimated it. It sounds like there was almost nothing it couldn’t do.

“Reunion, is your shop open?”

“Yes,” Reunion happily answered. “You currently have two hundred and twenty points.”

“That much?”

“You gained points every time you complete a task. You just never bother to ask for the total before. What do you want to buy?”

“You have any cultivation books at that price?”