As I look around at the groups of people that are still mulling over their inability to join the young masters, to get an easy pass up the mountain, I take a look at three different shining people located in a few of the groups.

One of them is a black-haired young man, who looks to be around 22. He seems to take a backseat to the group. He doesn’t have any confidence in himself, and is going along with one of the other group members who are just climbing the steps.

If my take is correct, he might be of the personality that if they gave up early, he would join them. If only to not rock the group.

None of them look like they could make it up the mountain without help.

In another group, there's a bombastic young man, who appears to be trying to psych himself up, to go up the mountain. Based on his physique, I think he could get a significant portion up the mountain, but may have some trouble in the later portions. Mainly, it looks like he talks to himself to work through any uneasiness.

And he definitely looks very uneasy.

Last, there's a red-headed woman, also of a diminutive stature, similar to the black-haired man.

There are a few girls who are arguing about what each of them might have done wrong to not make it into the carriages, while she sits in the back of their group, staying quiet. From what I can see, they treat her as a supporting person to the group. To be more accurate, they keep her around to make themselves feel better.

In contrast to the other diminutive guy, my scan shows she can actually climb the entire mountain herself. She actually has exceptionally good abilities, but is burdened by those around her. She also has self-confidence issues.

The other people, who are also shining, have already headed up the mountain. All 16 of them, which includes the three people, are like every other person around here.

They have their own personalities, quirks, and tendencies. Balancing how to get them all on my side, are getting rid of the people who are a bad influence on them, might be a bit of a struggle.

The first group I go towards is for the Bombastic young man.

I'm afraid that if I don't get to him early, something could happen. Although he is psyching himself up, being alone on a mountain like this is clearly a huge venture. Having someone that's willing to take the journey with you can make all the difference.

Though, maybe I don't actually have to be with him to influence him…

Walking up to him casually, he doesn't seem to notice my approach.

At the last moment, just before I talk to him, I get the idea to use a variant of my merchant scan and replace my potential scan with it. I focus this one on speaking ability and skills. I hope it will allow me to navigate the conversation a little more adeptly.

“… So, you seem to be a little unsure of yourself.”

I started the conversation with the statement, which appears to shake him out of his self-speaking mantras.

With a quick look at me and a gulp, he quickly bows his head and yells something unexpected out.

“I’m sorry, sir! I hope I didn’t disturb your preparations with my foolish words.”

… Sir?

Oh, right. Some of them might think I’m a young master based on my battle with Long Shui.

His loud words gather quite a few eyes on us.

Unfortunately for me, these aren't so much friendly eyes, as opportunistic ones. Despite that, I decide to focus on getting him on my side before worrying about that.

“There’s no need to apologize, friend. It was simply reminding me of the journey we have in front of us. Even I can get a little nervous at such things, but having someone who shares that feeling… is a bit heartening. That I’m not alone in my worries.”

A minor lie… since I most definitely can do this. However, if this was the old me, I would definitely be scared out of my mind. I also wouldn’t be able to complete this, either.

I continue to adjust my conversation scan, as I'll call it, throughout the talk. It seems I made the right choice in using this, as he appears to relax at my words.

“I… know I can do it. I’ve been training for so long to make it up there. But it’s different when you have to do it. I just feel so weak and like I can’t remember the times I practiced.”

“I know that feeling. When it’s finally time to do something that you’ve been waiting to do for so long, it's so easy to doubt yourself at the last moment. I can’t help but think things like, ‘Am I ready for this?’ or ‘Do I really want to do this now?’

“It can be really tough to push through that. No matter what it is for.”

My scan tells me this is the time to really try to connect with him. I placed my hand on his shoulder, which draws his sapphire eyes to look at mine. I continue speaking.

“I can assure you. Don't doubt yourself. Don’t doubt the work you’ve put in for this moment. You're ready. You got this.”

I pause, deciding to pull a bit on the wisdom of someone from my world, Henry David Thoreau.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.”

After shamelessly borrowing one of the inspirational quotes from my world, I can see the young man’s eyes flash. His eyes drift to the sky above me, glassing over as his back straightens.

It has awakened a fire within him.

He runs towards the stairs, ignoring everything else around him. His eyes are locked into the distance, toward his goal.

But then he almost trips, as if he remembered something.

He turns around, bowing in my direction.

“Thank you for your wisdom, sir! I’ll see you at the top.”

He gives a silly grin and sprints up the stairs.

… He definitely won’t make it if he keeps that pace.

Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine.

… actually, I should slow him down, just in case. No need to chance it.

With a loud voice, I yell out, “Make sure to Slow Down, and pace yourself! You got this!”

He almost trips at my yell, but nods with another smile afterwards. He slows down a bit.

Good enough.

Wow, that went a lot better than I thought it would.

He may not be joining me on this journey, but I think he got a good idea of my personality. Not everything has to be rushed for right now.

I just need to give them a little help to get over the line.

However, it is at this point that I realized that everyone else is looking at me. I was pretty loud in this conversation. The young man was loud, and I subconsciously matched him, in accordance with the conversation scan.

I can feel my mouth dry up at everyone's gaze. Even the girls’ group, with the redhead, appears to be looking over at me.

This is a little awkward.

But this might be a good opportunity. Some people over there are obviously looking like they want to join the little group I have here.

Glancing behind me, I can see that the rest of my group has been trailing a small distance behind me. They don't seem to interfere with what I'm doing, assuming that I'm doing this for a reason.

Now that I think about it, this group can be a little imposing with the giant, tamed beasts trailing me from behind.

I switched between activating my conversation scan and my potential scan to make any adjustments between my actions. The conversation scan, I put in a feature which gives me a general idea of how people feel about variations of my actions. As an example, whether they'd be receptive to having the group behind me or not.

Since the diminutive young man's group is already gone, I decide to go to the redhead’s group next. Luckily for me, most of them seem to react positively to me having a group slightly behind me.

Just before I go, I use my healing ability on myself to reset any weird smells I might have gotten on me, from all the activities I’ve been through. It’s been quite a while since I’ve taken a bath, but this should help a lot. I assume it might not smell nice, but at least it won’t smell bad.

My natural tendency is to go towards the red-headed girl, but I stop. The closer and closer I got to her, the more uncomfortable she and the surrounding girls became.

Even though I might want to go after her first and don't want to acknowledge the other girls, because of the way they treat her, I have to work within the hierarchy they are used to.

If I just go after her, there's a high possibility they may shame her into not going with me. Additionally, I don't know what type of relationship she really has with these girls, which could ultimately hurt everything if I try to pull them apart.

I might have to take them with me.

With this in mind, I head first to the leader of their group. She appears to be an attractive blonde woman, with sharp reddish eyes, who is the one that was getting most agitated by my orientation to anyone else other than her. As I readjusted my orientation back to her, her face seemed to settle a bit.

Something bothers me about this group a little, so I use a small portion of my scan to read the situation a bit.

Shit.

I see why she's the head of this group. She's part of one of the small mid-tier clans, with her name being Shi Ji. The family appears to have similar physical characteristics to her, with their trademark being red eyes and blonde hair. Beyond that, there isn’t much difference between their family and others. At least not to the public.

She doesn’t have enough wealth and influence, nor the status in her family, to allow her to get a Qi treasure, but she definitely has enough to easily command respect from those around her. She should also be able to make it up the mountain.

Everyone else doesn’t seem as high of a status as her, but still have families that are connected in their own ways.

… If I disrespect her, I might have a bad time.

As I get closer and closer to her, her eyes widen more and more. I can see her nose twitches a little.

Not wanting to mess this up, my conversation scan shows the most effective way to start this off well is to start out with a simple greeting. This should indicate that I know who she is, placing importance on her in my acknowledgment.

I raise my hand and then move to clasp my hands while bowing slightly to her.

“Miss Shi Ji. I don’t believe we have met. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My apologies for not being able to give my name, as I am currently under the need to conceal it. I hope you can forgive this transgression.”

She just stares at me. Saying nothing.

A few of the other women in the group are doing the same thing.

One of them, in the back, scoots forward a bit. Eyes locked on me.

There’s a look in their eyes that feels familiar, but slightly different. I can’t quite place it.

It’s extremely disconcerting.

… Did I do something wrong?

I use my scan to check to see if my manners were incorrect, which it doesn’t appear to be the case. Flowery, but in accordance with what I was taught, is one of the normal introduction methods to give women of status.

With this being such an important conversation, decide to turn up my scan to a very high amount in a pulse to find out what the issue could be. To somehow get an idea of what I might be doing wrong.

The scan takes a significantly less amount of mental energy than I assumed it would, revealing that this is obvious and not even a slight secret.

What it shows is an unfortunately interesting series of notes.

There’s an exotic and mysterious young man, who single-handedly beat a major young master and won his respect, as well as another major young master’s. That same mysterious young man, with his face covered and eyes the color of mahogany, comforting yet tough, approaches you. The slight bit you can see shows an attractive face, perfectly symmetrical and with a beautifully slight brown tint. The clothes he wears appear to be of extremely fine quality, having threads so small you can barely tell the seams, denoting some measure of wealth or status. That man already has a group behind him comprising 3 giant and clearly intelligent tamed beasts, as well as some other people who seem to follow him. Showing a level of skill and/or authority. Not even a few moments ago, he showed himself to be open and supportive, yelling out inspiring statements to a man others avoided, causing that man to reveal great speed and strength. Making others who listened become inspired, as well. When he approached, he already knew your name. Which in the big scheme of things, you are not a person of high enough status to be commonly known. So, you might be important to him, in some unknown way. And finally, the absolute, most important note. As he approached, something hit everyone’s noses. Matching his eyes, it was woodsy, but with subtle notes of raindrops in a forest. But this forest is on the edge of an ocean beach, with the slightest breeze tickling your lips. Hidden within even this is the hint of a dessert that you’ve only tasted once or twice at a high-end banquet. Dark and sweet in every way.

This all wraps together into an irresistible scent that makes you want to immediately move closer and smell him. Something that awakens a feeling deep within you, that is hard to recognize. Something they wouldn’t know the name of… Pheromones.

This is a natural result of continuously improving a body far beyond its normal limits.

Not taking a bath for so long… was protecting me and others from what I had become.

A delicious man.

Oh God.