…

In a room in one of Atlantis’s three major cities the most human looking merperson sat down on the ground watching the end of Jade and Quake’s battle. She was a dark skinned woman wearing a red and white cloth tied over her breasts and a similar cloth wrapped on her hip.

She chuckled lightly as she saw Quake struggle in the 3 dimensional light display of the battle before her. She thought ‘He really can’t see that the human is editing his existence. Blockhead, he needs more lessons’.

…

Quake moved his arm forward and it didn’t bend absurdly. He asked “How did you do that?” Jade curled his fingers backwards and energy runes slipped out of Quake’s body and the area they were fighting in floated toward him. The runes then dissipated back into energy, returning to his energy organ.

Quake was quite surprised as he thought ‘I didn’t even sense it’. He asked “How many humans are as strong as you?” Jade said “I doubt there are many humans as strong as I am maybe 4 are stronger than me. Emphasis on maybe”.

Quake smiled and said “Why is my IP silent about you?” Jade said “It’s because of my job” and he removed the Grim Reaper Cloak privilege for a second before putting it back. Quake was silent for a bit before he said “Interesting, follow me”.

Quake floated in a certain direction and Jade paid attention to the Astral Plane as he thought ‘We’re about to enter another city’. Before he knew it he was before and even bigger city than Atlantis-Border 8.

Quake said “This is Atlantis-Core 3”. Jade examined the memories of his arrival in this city thousands of times in a short moment before he realized that there was a passage way that suddenly became real for a moment allowing him and Quake to pass before it ceased to exist. The cities were real cities and they weren’t hidden, what was hidden was the way to the city.

The atmosphere of Atlantis-Core 3 was more military compared to Atlantis-Border 8. Most merfolk moved in orderly arrangements and there were people that were openly practicing martial arts below. The merfolk didn’t seem to have uniforms for their military officers. And why would they? They never had any wars before and they looked very different from the humans who could be their potential enemies.

Jade and Quake entered one of the mountain sized buildings and Quake sat down and pointed at one of the wounds that were healing on his body and it instantly healed. The other wounds healed instantly too and he asked “Can you do this?”

Jade said “No”. Quake nodded and said “No wonder you were having so much problems with my quakes. Since I have something I can trade with you I’ll explain how trading works. Each city has their own resource and knowledge they are capable of trading depending of the specialization of the city.

Only core cities have the authorization to trade all knowledge and you have to meet a city lord of those he/she puts over such trades if you want to perform such a transaction. You cannot sell knowledge you have already sold to one core city to another. Different core cities want different things so if you don’t have the kind of thing I want I won’t sell what I have. You are not allowed to sell any knowledge we give you; you can give it away for free though.

There are 3 core cities; Core 1 deals with weapons and technology, Core 2 deals with magic and related things and Core 3 deals with martial arts and related things. What I just did there was a Mandala art called Restore; it instantly fixes my body and expels foreign matter in it at the cost of Biomass and/or Stamina and Energy. So do you like it?”

Jade was completely shocked when he heard Mandala. He thought ‘There are other Mandalas apart from Soul Mandalas. Interesting’. He asked “What do the other cities have to offer?”

Quake smiled and said “You’re a smart one. I can’t really explain the details of the knowledge the other cities posses but I know their worth. Core 1 has the Merfolk’s prized technology called Reality Forging. But it is very expensive to buy you would have to bring a revolutionary technology to get it. There are other sub-technologies of Reality Forging you can learn at a lower cost.

Core 2 has the Merfolk’s prized magic, Spirit Magic. It is what allows us to hide our cities and it has been with us before the apocalypse just like Reality Forging. It has created a Tier 4 Feat but that is all I know about it. It is way more expensive than Reality Forging since it has been the lifeline of Merfolk. You would have to sell a magic that can do an even better job of hiding our civilization and more to get it.”

Jade was very sad when he heard the last part but Quake said “Don’t feel so down. They have other magic that they sell too at a lower price. Core 3, which is where we are, has the Mandala, Mantra and Forms martial arts. Mandala arts are the most expensive because they improve your other martial arts greatly and can even cause them to evolve. It’s not the most ground breaking stuff but it’s not expensive either. It doesn’t require talent to learn so magic types like you can learn it. So what do you say?”

Jade said “I mostly have magic to sell but I can give you knowledge of various human technologies for the Mandala arts”. Quake said “As expected, I will call someone at Core 1 to see if their interested”. He got up and floated toward one of the doors on the ceiling. He went through the door and Jade waited for him in silence.

Quake came back about 10 minutes later and a psychic link connected to Jade’s mind from Quake’s mind. A pompous stream of thoughts flowed through the link and said in Jade’s mind “So you think your human technologies are worth much huh? I’m sure they are only worth one Mantra or Form art, why would you want to sell it for the whole Mandala art course”.

Jade said “Dude it is the technology of the human race that you guys couldn’t rival before the apocalypse. I’m sure you will gain many insights simply by getting it and mixing it with your current technologies. You would leap many years into the future what I want is not just Mandala arts but the right to sell the arts also. That is just how powerful human technology is”.

The mind on the other end of the link grew worried and said in angry frustration “Why are you increasing the price?!” Jade said “Because you’re trying to haggle. Do you want me to increase it again or do we have a deal?”

The mind on the other end communicated with Quake for a while and Quake’s face squeezed in displeasure when he heard that Jade wanted the freedom to sell Mandala arts. The mind on the other end did its best to appease Quake and promised him more things in exchange for him buying the technology on his/her behalf. Eventually, Quake was so please with whatever deal he had struck, that he had a bright smile on his face.

The mind then said to Jade “I am Eye. How much human technology are you going to give?” Jade said “With what I have you’ll be able to build a human city and make most of humanities war weapons and other devices before the apocalypse”.

Eye said “Come to Core 1 and try to buy Reality Forging! You’ll see just how poor your human technology is compared to ours. Deal!” and cut the link. Jade said to Quake “He really hates humans, like you I assume?”

Quake said “He doesn’t hate humans like me. He is just proud and competitive is all”. Jade said “Talk about proud and competitive”. Quake chuckled and said “He is on another level compared to me. You’ll see”.