Cain was having dinner with his disciples that night when Divine Elder Mariel showed up to hear what message Cain had to relay to her. The moment that she came in the door, Luna climbed from her seat into his lap, claiming her spot in no uncertain terms and glaring at the Elder.
"I think I offended you with my game earlier, little one. I'm not trying to steal your spot. You can relax. I even brought a peace offering." Mariel told her, holding out a piece of candy.
"It's ambrosia honey candy from the Divine Planes. I am certain that you've never tasted anything like it before."
Luna's eyes went wide as she popped the candy in her mouth, and she totally forgot that she was in the middle of dinner.
"Oh, this is amazing. Apology accepted. But you still can't have my spot. Take his other side."
Mariel laughed and sat down on Cain's left in an open seat, waiting for him to finish eating so they could talk.
"I don't think it matters if the Disciples hear this. It's not that big of a deal, just not for the public. A certain Greater God that I know would like to meet you. He is waiting on the other side of the portal in your Sect Compound, and he is quite certain that he has knowledge that will help you." Cain explained.
"One of them? I understand that they are Greater Gods, but would they really be willing to teach me something that could help me advance? That's taboo in every pantheon." She replied.
[Why do you think we're exiles? Because nobody else sees the benefits of building up all your friends.] A female voice spoke in Cain's mind.
"Yes, I can say for certain that they would definitely be willing. It is also one of the reasons that they are so unpopular with everyone else because they don't view it as a competition but as more of a country club. Everyone they deem worthy or entertaining is invited if you understand my meaning."
Divine Elder Mariel thought about that for a moment. "You know, back when I was still a young cultivator, barely into the Immortal Realm, I met a strange man in another world during my travels. Everyone insisted that he was nothing more than a Demon Cultivator who gained and applied all sorts of knowledge without thought for the moral implications of what he was doing.
But, after I spent a few weeks with him, it seemed more like he was simply bored. I got the feeling that though he was an Immortal like me, he had done it all before. You get that feeling a lot with the Avatars of Greater Gods who have regained some of their memories, a sense of ennui, but he was still working toward his goal, just in an unconventional way.
He also thought that knowledge should be shared and that the world would be more interesting if there were more than a few Greater Gods in every Plane fragment."
Cain smiled at her description and wondered if it were really the Laughing God's Avatar she had met at some point in the past. It certainly sounded like him.
"Sometimes seeking entertainment alone leads you to do strange things. I heard a number of stories about the sort of things that Immortals who have been alive too long get up to, and by the standards of the Mortals, they would be nearly unthinkable. Perhaps it's simply the thought process of a more advanced Cultivator who has experienced things we haven't?
Take me, for example. I'm not even fifty years old yet. At least, I'm pretty sure I'm not yet, I forgot to count at some point, but that's irrelevant. I couldn't fathom the level of boredom that an Immortal could get to in a thousand or ten thousand years. Maybe some of the more eccentric so-called Demon Cultivators are just misunderstood because nobody around them has the knowledge that they do?" Cain suggested.
"Wait, back up. Did you make it to Divinity in under fifty years? How is that even possible? Just the transition from Spirit Rank to Immortality usually takes longer than that after you start reforming your body." Mariel exclaimed.
"Well, I wasn't exactly human at that point, and my body was already Immortal, so it wasn't a big deal. The Immortal advancement took me under a minute since I only had to reform my mana storage. The Divine Tribulation took longer.
The one who wants to talk to you is the one who taught me how to do it and helped me along."
Mariel thought about that for a while and then nodded. "I think I can agree to come with you. My Sect Master might not be happy about it, but I know my way around the Planes pretty well, and I shouldn't have a problem coming back home if I am not interested in their proposal."
"Well, that makes things much easier. Maybe I should set up a puppet with the knowledge to teach the Crushing Mountain Sect the basics so that I don't have to do it myself, and then we can do something fun before we have to go.
I'm sure my Disciples are tired of just hanging around training every day, no matter how much fun they are having sparring with the others."
Cain's question perked up all the girls. They were having fun here, but there were many more fun things to do in the world than train their combat skills.
"Why don't we go see the beach? Auntie Neffie said that the beach is amazing, and there are sea monsters to pet and merfolk and the sailor elves." Luna cheered.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that was an entirely different world. This one doesn't have pettable monsters or Elves, and the Merfolk are all savages." Mariel informed her.
"Fear not. I know the trick to petting almost anything. You just kill the mean one and summon a replacement." Luna informed her proudly.
"She's right. Summons won't attack allies without orders, no matter how ill-tempered they are." Jen agreed.
"Plus, we can go swimming and for a run on the beach. Do you know a good spot, Elder Mariel?" Penny asked.
"Well, my Sect is on the ocean, so there are lots of spots like that in our territory, but I need to be here for the next week while the new Disciples take their final tests. The ones that I brought will go back where they started if they fail unless they want to stay here at Crushing Mountain Sect to keep trying." She explained.
"Well, I suppose that we can wait that long. But in the meantime, can we make a better arena? This one is too fragile for Carnage to go all out." Jen asked.
"You know what, that gives me an excellent idea. A gift that I can leave the Crushing Mountain Sect with." Cain agreed.
If he carved the runes to cast the Seraphim Arena into one of his Dragon Scales and gave it to the Sect Master here, he could use it as an artifact to cast the spell, so they could have it long after Cain left. It would also save Luna from having to waste the mana to keep the Arena active.
Cain transformed one arm into a dragon paw and plucked a small scale, then carefully engraved it with his claw, covering almost every square millimeter with a delicate script before changing his hand back to normal and inspecting it for errors.
"It looks perfect. Now, to find an appropriate sucker, I mean gracious host, to activate the new Arena for the Sect." Cain declared, making Mariel laugh.
"You're seriously not going to just make a permanent arena for them? You're a World Dragon. How much effort would it take to make an arena and enchant it?" She asked.
"More than this, I'm pretty sure. Plus, who doesn't like to receive Divine Artifacts as a gift? Nobody, that's who."
"You do have a point. They could display it in the Elder's abode, put it in a warded case for everyone to see, like the shining Golden relic of a benevolent Deity that it is."
She was trying her best not to laugh, but Cain's smile only grew.
"I should have picked the scale from somewhere better than the back of my hand. They would never know, and it would be there for everyone to look at forever."
"I can imagine it now, hosting some Dragon dignitary a thousand years from now and watching them realize that you pulled a scale from your butt cheeks to make their most precious artifact." Mariel laughed, making all the Disciple choke on their dinner.
"Don't encourage him. He really would do it now that he's thought of it," Penny warned her.
"We should go find the Sect Master and give him the gift. You can honestly tell him that you just finished custom-crafting it for him. You're invisible to divination spells, so he couldn't have watched to see what you were doing or how long you worked on it for." Mariel suggested.
"I'm invisible to Divination?" Cain asked.
"Not precisely invisible, but the spell splits into a hundred thousand parts when anyone tries to watch you, and it's impossible to tell which version is the real one and which are the alternate possibilities you considered."
"Again, don't give him ideas. He's already enough trouble." Penny sighed.
"Don't worry. I will behave myself. These are friends, and it would be rude to have fun at their expense. We are just going to find someone new to keep the arena active."
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