Cain wasn't happy to see that message. If it were going to be easy to avoid a Sect War today, the reward for the quest wouldn't be so good.
The crowd seemed entranced by the two small disciples sitting on either side of Cain, though, and not at all violent or aggressive, only curious about why he had chosen to bring the two small girls with him to the stand for the day.
Some suspected it was to keep them out of trouble while the other Disciples were training since common sense said that Disciples that young certainly couldn't be on the same power level as the ones who were in their late teens or possibly older.
Gaining power slowed the aging process in this world much the same as it did in Cain's world, so after they reached their late teens, it became much more difficult to judge the actual age of anyone without analyzing their aura to determine their bone age, which was neither an easy skill to learn, or one that most cultivators would let you do casually, as it was viewed as being highly impolite and invasive.
"First off, I will ask that there is no fighting in the crowd. I know that many of you are eager to get something made, and I will be here for as long as I deem reasonable, so there is no need to fight for a spot.
Now, who would like to go first?" Cain asked.
His words were disregarded the second they came out of his mouth, and immediately a fight broke out for the first order of the day. It moved from two men at the front to including the four men and two women who tried to take their place as they fought into an all-out brawl.
They might have kept at it, except that nobody had expected the sneaky nature of the Shadowed Blade Sect, who sent one of their most junior disciples, who had almost no aura of cultivation at all, to sneak through the crowd and place an order.
"On behalf of the Shadowed Blade Sect, I would like to ask you to show us how to make a venomous Rune Dagger. Elder Fetid Wind says he will cover any reasonable price." The girl reported dutifully.
Cain was about to answer when a roaring from the back of the crowd interrupted him. "Where are you, you little shit? It was Dragon Fang who told you to call me that wasn't it?"
The girl laughed and darted away through the crowd of fighting cultivators, deftly dodging feet and bodies as she activated her elementary stealth skill.
The man made his way to the front, pushing through the crowd to find the Disciple, then stopped when he realized she was already gone and gave Cain an apologetic look.
"I am Elder Blade Wind of the Shadowed Blade Sect, and it seems that I am paying for today's purchase." He sighed.
Luna giggled at the prank that had been played on the Elder, then abruptly stopped when both Cain and Elder Blade Wind glared at her in unison.
"With my materials, I can make you a Mythic Rank Rune Dagger, holding the venomous enchantment for fifty Mythic Beast Cores." Cain offered.
"I can give you thirty and a large Mana Ruby." The Elder counter offered, holding the ruby out beside a bag of beast cores.
"Close enough. You have a deal.
Now, I am sure everyone knows the deal today, I will demonstrate the method as I work, though the chances of anyone actually picking it up completely in a single day are somewhere between The Celestials Invading to throw a party and Elder Dragon Tooth being a man in drag."
That made all of the assembled cultivators laugh, and most of the fighting stopped. Both had a chance of somewhat less than one in a million, and they understood that, but watching might give them a bit of inspiration to push them closer to learning a new technique.
"Luna, please go fetch me a bone from the kitchen about the length of your forearm," Cain instructed.
"Got it." She called, running out of the booth and through the camp. It only took her ten seconds to get back and hand the bone to Cain, who looked it over with appreciation.
"Excellent size. Now, the first step for this is to shape the bone into a dagger." Cain began, using [Modify] to shape it into a large bowie knife with a pure white, single-sided blade and antler-patterned handle.
"Depending on the quality of your kitchen staff, you might be able to stop right here. But today, we will need to add a little bit. The edge I made is sharp and serrated for ease of tearing a wound open to inflict the poisoning effect, so all I will add is the simple rune for poison and then pull that matrix of energy through the blade like so.
I don't know how many of you can actually even see what I am doing here, but that is the method to draw the poison rune through a blade this shape. And then, with an injection of Mana to set it, the weapon is done."
The crowd went silent as the blade turned from pure white to sickly gray with green glowing runes down the length. It was obvious from the energy it put off that it was a Mythic Rank Artifact, and it did give off the vibe of being poisonous, but Elder Blade Wind wasn't going to just take Cain's word for it.
As soon as the blade was handed over, he immediately sunk it into the thigh of the man standing next to him, causing gasps of panic as black streaks flowed across the man's body in mere seconds before his whole body began to convulse and he dropped to the ground, paralyzed.
Cain quickly cleansed the man, and healed him back to full health, then glared at Elder Blade Wind.
"I will have to ask you not to test the weapon on random strangers. But for the record, he had about three more seconds to live." Cain chastised the Assassin.
"Not bad at all. It lives up to its name." The Elder agreed happily, then disappeared into the crowd.
"Since you had to get stabbed by the last item, why don't we take your request next?" Cain asked the man he had just healed.
"That bastard, I will pay him back for that. But not today. He will be expecting it today. Could you make me a Skill Book of Divine Crushing Mountain, as the Crushing Mountain Sect knows it?" The man asked.
"Who here is from the Crushing Mountain Sect?" Cain asked with a sigh.
An enormous man, who might actually be the mountain that the Sect was named after if he gained a few more inches, came forward with an amused grin on his face.
"Go ahead and make it for him. He's too dumb to learn it anyhow." The big man informed Cain.
"Well, since we have permission, if you are prepared to pay the equivalent of one hundred Mythic Beast Cores, I will begin. The details and number of pages vary based on the technique, but the basics of making an actual Skill Tome, one that can be used to immediately learn a skill by anyone with the aptitude, are the same for every Skill.
First, you need to assemble the appropriate materials for the skill you are making. Today, I will use the core of an Earth Golem and a bit of divine sand I borrowed from the smithy. Grind them well and mix them into your ink, then add energy to blend them until you get a usable mixture.
Then, you need to precisely control your energy as you write the text into the book. Any variations, spelling errors, or interruptions, and you will get an incomplete text, which can still be used to some degree, but not a perfect copy of the skill."
Cain explained his method slowly as he wrote out the Rank C skill book, which the man making the request had mistaken as the Crushing Mountain Sect's secret skill.
"If you finish it perfectly, your energy will form a detailed cover as soon as the last rune is inscribed and the pages are stacked, like so. Now, this is a complete Tome of Divine Crushing Mountain."
Cain finished and held his hand out for payment.
The cultivator gave him an Immortal Realm Dark Flame Phoenix core, which had the same value as a hundred Mythic Beast Cores, and picked up the tome.
He looked at it. Then glared at it. Then poured energy into it. Then swore at it. None of those things had any effect, though. The man had close to zero affinity for Earth Skills, as far as Cain could tell, and the book didn't even begin to glow when he poured energy into it.
Even Sabbat could make it glow a little, and she was neither a warrior nor an Earth Mage who could possibly use the skill.
"Well, that is unfortunate. But the Crushing Mountain Elder's guess was right. It seems that despite the tome being complete, you lack the affinity for it. There is still the chance to use it manually, but I will warn you that the ability to use it immediately will fade in an hour or so. I didn't permanently stabilize the book." Cain informed the man, who looked a bit pale at the news.
"What would it cost for a stable book?" The Crushing Mountain Elder asked.
"The Materials for a permanently stable book are roughly ten times what he paid for that one." Cain shrugged, not elaborating on the fact that he was using the Inscription desk, which was nestled into the cushions in front of him, to create the books for free.
"That's steep. But we don't need it anyhow. We can just teach our juniors." The big man chuckled.
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