Chapter 4 - Exchange Center

Western Prefecture, Prosperous Lands Region, Blade City

The Sun Empire was at the center of the Red Sky Continent. The territories it possessed were delimited by boundaries that formed a circle shape. Excluding the center, the nucleus of the empire where the Central Capital was located, this circle was divided into four prefectures - Eastern Prefecture, Northern Prefecture, Southern Prefecture, and Western Prefecture.

Each Prefecture had its own capital with the same name - Eastern Capital, Northern Capital, Southern Capital, Western Capital. These capitals were the most important cities in the whole prefecture. It wasn't because of the large economic and goods flow they hosted, but because of the presence of the Onmyoji Army and the Onmyoji Generals.

The Five Onmyoji Generals, meaning those who held the highest position within the Onmyoji Army. They were also considered to be the strongest living humans. Their strength was said to be unimaginable, and they could easily destroy hordes of yokai. Except for one general, the other four generals presided over one of the capitals so that they could intervene in case of emergency.

The prefectures were then divided into Regions, two by Prefecture, and had names that reflected the type of terrain in that region. Lastly, within the Regions, there were the cities and villages in which, however, it was difficult to find the presence of the Onmyoji Army. Therefore they were places protected mainly by simple guards and by the Yokai Hunters.

Unfortunately, however large, the Five Capitals couldn't accommodate all the inhabitants of the empire, therefore having to build cities and villages in places at risk from yokai attacks. It was also for this reason that the Sun Empire concentrated a lot of its resources on the recruitment of new Onmyouji and funded the freelance Yokai Hunters.

As for the Blade City, it was one of the largest cities within the Prosperous Lands Region, in the Western Prefecture of the Sun Empire. It wasn't comparable to the five capitals, but for low-rank yokai hunters, it still represented a city full of opportunities.

At the moment, in the Exchange Center set up by the empire in the Blade City, Souma was delivering the letter received from the village chief of the Himawari Village. Inside it was written that the mission had been successful, and there was also confirmation of the Tsurube Otoshi's presence, bringing the danger of the mission from F to E.

"A Tsurube Otoshi, I see. Alright. Considering that it is our fault for not having verified the situation well, we will increase the danger of the mission from F to E. You will be given an adequate reward. Please wait for a few minutes. I have to fill in some forms for the request." said the clerk, who was in charge of receiving the mission confirmations.

"Then, in the meantime, I'm going to sell the yokai cores that I recovered," Souma replied as he didn't want to wait and do nothing.

"Okay. Go ahead. You will be called once the process is over."

Souma then approached another counter inside the Exchange Center. There was another clerk who was in charge of examining the yokai cores brought by the hunters and assigned contribution points according to the value of these cores. As far as contribution points were concerned, these were a currency ordinarily worthless. However, only in the Exchange Centers, they constituted a precious resource because they could be exchanged with items useful for hunting yokai. As far as money was concerned, it wasn't a problem; the reward for a successful mission was, in fact, a sum of money based on the dangerousness of the mission.

"I have yokai cores that I would like to exchange," Souma said to the clerk as he pulled out a small bag containing all the cores he had collected along the way.

"Put it on the counter. I will examine them one by one." the clerk mechanically answered as he pulled out a scale.

Spirit Measurement Scale. It was a particular item given to each Exchange Center in all cities of the empire. This scale could measure the amount of spirit power possessed by the yokai when it was still alive. It was because the core represented the condensation of the yokai essence, thus being able to provide information on the creature's power. Furthermore, if the yokai knew how to use magic or possessed particular characteristics, the core would acquire similar attributes.

"35 first-level yokai cores. 15 first-stage gaki, mainly middle phase. 12 Bekatarō, beginner, and middle phase. 7 second-stage Jikininki, mainly middle and high phase. Lastly, a Tsurube Otoshi of the fourth stage, beginner phase, and a specimen that knew how to use the fire magic. As an apprentice-rank hunter, you're doing well considering the number of cores you brought." the clerk commented while checking all the cores one by one.

"352 points total, 350 once the service fee has been removed. Does it suit you?" the clerk finally declared once finished examining all the cores.

"Yes, it's fine." Souma agreed.

The Service Fee was a small fee to be paid for using the services of the Exchange Center. In itself, it wasn't much, but since it had to be paid every time the services of the Exchange Center were used, during the life of a hunter, it would have reached a considerable amount, depending on how active the hunter was.

It consisted of one contribution point for each service used. In the case of Souma, one for the counter dedicated to receiving mission confirmations and the other for analyzing the yokai cores. In addition to those two contribution points, Souma was about to waste another to use the counter where he could exchange contribution points for yokai hunting items.

"Hunter Souma, total points: 421. If you wish to exchange your points, we will take away one point as a fee, bringing the total to 420. Is it okay with you?" asked another clerk at the Exchange Center.

"Yes. Go on." Souma replied.

Souma, like all other hunters, had become accustomed to these procedures. Even though there were clandestine exchange agents who sold and bought yokai cores without going through contribution points, the risk of being ripped off was high. At the very least, the Exchange Center was safe since it was under the control of the empire.

"I need one Fire-type Elemental Pill, two Mortal-type Cultivation Pills, two Internal Flow Blocking Pills, and five Lvl 1 Healing Potions." Souma listed the list of items he was looking for.

"Fire-type Elemental Pill, 200 points. Two Mortal-type Cultivation Pills, 50 points each for a total of 100. Two Internal Flow Blocking Pills, 10 points each, for a total of 20 points. And finally, five healing potions Lvl 1, 20 points each for a total of 100 points. The total sum of the required items is 420 exact points. Do I proceed?"

"Go on."

Souma then received the items he had requested. He also received the money for a mission of danger E. Then, at that point, Souma went to the bulletin board where the requests for help from the citizens of the empire were hung. Each city contained only requests regarding the region in which they were located. Only in the Capitals of the Sun Empire, you could access a greater number of requests. Fortunately, accepting missions was a fee-free service.

"Exorcism of the Haunted Mansion and Investigation Mission of Stolen Oil. Both are missions within my reach and are not even too far away. I could accept them both and do them simultaneously." Souma said to himself as he went to the mission counter to get the necessary information.

It must be known that the missions were divided into various categories: Exorcism Category Mission, Investigation Category Mission, and Extermination Category Mission. Exorcism missions consisted of clearing a building from the presence of yokai. It was similar to an extermination mission, but the number of yokai was lower. The investigation missions concerned investigating thefts, kidnappings, and other unusual phenomena and understanding their causes. They were the less remunerated missions but, if the hunter were to eliminate the responsible cause, they would have received a bonus. The extermination missions instead concerned cleaning up whole hordes of yokai, and they were the only ones that didn't have an allocation limit. Anyone interested could join the hunt.

Once he finished what he had to do at the Exchange Center, Souma decided to eat. It was now lunchtime, and his breakfast had been a meager piece of bread. So he was starving. With the money at his disposal, he could have gone to even the most luxurious restaurants in the city, but in the end, Souma opted for a small, inexpensive tavern.

"With the Elemental Pill, I can increase the synchronization with Fire Magic to 5% and improve the power of my attacks. Mortal-type Cultivation Pills can help me to reach the peak of the third stage. From there, I will have to find something to overcome the intermediate bottleneck and reach the fourth stage. As for the support objects, two Internal Flow Blocking Pills are enough. It doesn't often happen to suffer internal wounds, and for external ones, there are the healing potions, although the healing effect is mild." Souma examined the objects at his disposal and how he would use them.

As far as the Cultivation Path was concerned, it was necessary to know that every breakthrough, whether it was from one phase to another, from one stage to another, or from one rank to another, had a bottleneck. These bottlenecks were divided into a minor bottleneck for advancing between phases; intermediate bottleneck for advancing between stages; major bottleneck for advancing between one rank to another.

The main difference between the three types of bottlenecks was the difficulty of the breakthrough. The minor bottleneck was the easiest to overcome. The intermediate one, as the name suggested, was the second easiest. Lastly, the major one was the most difficult and often required the help of even more precious resources to the normal cultivation pills that helped the hunter or the onmyoji during meditation.

In addition to advancing on the Cultivation Path, there was, however, another fundamental aspect - Elemental Magic. Each hunter and onmyoji, when awakening their spirit power, also carried out an elemental affinity test to find out which were the most suitable spells. The Elements with a higher affinity were the easiest to learn, although nothing forbade trying to learn all the others.

Once you discovered your affinity, you first had to create your own spirit seed, that is the condensation of your magic within your body. In a sense, it was like the yokai core; it just didn't have a real form but existed as energy. The hunter or onmyoji would then begin the synchronization process. The higher the sync percentage, the stronger the magic and more complex spells could be learned.

But the Elemental Synchronization and the Cultivation Path weren't disconnected from each other. Indeed there was a profound relationship between the two. Because if one wanted to advance in rank, then not only a sufficient amount of spirit power was required. They also had to reach the minimum number of synchronization. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to breakthrough.

In the case of Souma, an apprentice-rank hunter, to reach the next rank, the soldier one, he would have to reach the peak of the fifth stage and have reached 10% synchronization with at least one elemental magic.

Souma had finished eating. He was full, and he wouldn't have minded a good night's sleep. So he decided to go to an inexpensive hotel and rent a room. First, he would have slept to rest his body and mind. Then he would have meditated to improve his cultivation, using one of the two pills he had bought.

Only when he was full of strength again would he leave for the two missions he had accepted. After all, they were close, and there was no immediate request for help. So he didn't have to hurry to go there. However, at the same time, he couldn't even take too long, or the Exchange Center would assign someone else the mission.