The rune that bound Hal’s hands were of a rank two quality but could most possibly hold it’s own against an average rank three rune. This lady was obviously a rune-master at a much higher rank than Master Swanson.

‘Yo Hal. Remember the level of strength that can affect astral beast in terms of cosmic energy’ Grimiore piped

‘Yes I do’ Hal replied dreading what was coming next

‘These two are well past it’ Grimiore said confirming Hal’s suspicions

On the Haron continent, trying to judge a person’s age by looks was useless. The only reason anyone grows old physically is when they are nearing the end of their lifespan, or were nearing it before they broke through to the next realm.

The middle aged man was most probably over 500 years old, same could be said about the lady and were definitely still in their prime. Even with the abysmal strength in salmon city, only the young generation look their age, people like Gregory Payne, Ford Horst and even Melinda were above the age they portrayed physically but all that for another time.

Tanya Haron studied the man she had bound with an astral rune everything about him seemed out of place in a small city such as this.

She once again stretched forth her right index finger and a rose colored rune (this time meaning search) materialized before her finger and then slammed against Hal’s head.

At first Hal panicked but grimiore soothed his worries, informing him that search as she might she would not be able to detect it’s existence.

Tanya scanned his mind discovering an astral sense of such purity that it should not be in this region, she sighed and with a flick of her wrist released him. Hal rose back to his feet but did not leave. She obviously had no intention of killing him and he doubted he could outrun her

“I actually don’t really care much about that astral beast, there are other ways to refine astral sense” she said to the middle aged man and he inclined his head in a subtle bow

Tanya then turned towards Hal “I bound you so you won’t run and so I could search your mind space. How did you know how to refine an astral beast?”

Hal saw no point in playing dumb, he did not believe she so valued whatever information he might give. she simply seemed curious

“I heard about it, it seemed more of an urban legend than truth but I decided to try” Hal said without missing a beat

“So you risked your life without knowing proper procedure” She sounded a little shocked

“That’s right” he lied through his teeth

She moved closer to him their faces barely an inch apart

“Do you consider yourself a daredevil”

Hal clenched his hands in a bit to control the urge to tear away her flimsy looking veil and capture her lips

‘Calm down Hal’ he told himself ‘all in good time’

“I prefer risk-taking genius but yours seem shorter so let’s go with that” He said calmly with a shit eating grin on his face

Tanya’s eyes narrowed but Hal could tell she was smiling. With a flick of her wrist she withdrew a Jade seal with the words, Royal Academy impressed on it and handed it to him.

“What is this?” Hal asked turning it over, of course he knew suspected what it was for, however asking for confirmation couldn’t hurt.

“Show some respect peasant. You should at least show some respect to the lady” The middle aged man growled

Hal blinked “Oh I almost forgot you were here”

The man was incensed and so the suffocating pressure was seeping out once again but a look from the red garbed lady caused him to instantly rein it in.

“That token will allow you to participate in the Royal academy selection in Six months” she told him

“There’s no need, I don’t want to join the academy” Hal said intending to return the token back to her

In all honesty, Hal did not see the point in joining any sect (whatever it was called, the academy was still a sect) as long as he had currency, he could possibly have anything he wanted. A sect or ‘academy’ would simply tie him to their beliefs and rules.

There was nothing better than an independent man.

The middle aged man’s anger was getting riled up once again seeing Hal reject such gesture of good will.

Tanya on the other hand nodded in understanding

“Hold on to it, the selection is in six months, hopefully you will have found someone to explain the advantages before then” She told him before her cyan colored disk rose into the air and flew away

“I hope to see you again” Her voice reached him before she vanished into distance

The middle aged man took one last look at Hal before sprouting white and yellow colored wings and followed after her.

“Well that was quite an eye opener” Hal mumbled

‘You made the right decision by not joining that academy. With me in your corner you don’t need them’ grimiore said

‘Actually, I’m starting to consider joining’ Hal told him while he retrieved two spatial pouches from his inventory

‘Why?’ Grimiore was shocked

‘Why do I do anything” Hal sighed excessively

‘For a woman?’ Grimiore was incredulous

‘Ding Ding Ding Ding, Bingo!’

Hal opened one of the pouches and looked inside with astral perception and stopped dead, rushing to open the other and checking inside again and stopping dead once again in shock. He completely disregarded the fact that he was possibly revealing himself to a demon beast ambush and yelled

“FUCK ME, I AM RICH!!!”

…

Meanwhile the middle aged man caught up with Tanya who flew ahead of him

“My lady, why would give him a token and a jade token no less” The middle aged man was indignant, he knew just how special and dangerous the jade token was

“Why do I do anything? Because I like him and because he has promise. He might be a liar but he is obviously talented and gutsy I need someone like that in my corner. 5th Elder”

“Sigh. Very well, I just hope you haven’t put your trust in someone undeserving” The 5th Elder said before falling silent.

“Besides, that way this trip was not a total waste. At the very least I got a talented potential protégé”

At time they heard an echo of ‘fuck me, I am rich’

“A stupid protégé” The 5th Elder reasoned

“Actually I find him quite charming and intelligent. I honestly can’t wait for his arrival at the royal academy” Tanya giggled

***

An hour later Hal was out of Tretch forest and was now close to Salmon city. After discovering just how much wealth he had been able to acquire from salmon, he had found a stream to wash himself after which he changed his clothes.

While the journey into the forest had not taken the few days he had anticipated it was still well past midnight when he returned to salmon city (Although, they should probably change the name now).

When he got into the mansion, He went into his room and found Melinda asleep on it or at least he thought she was. when he laid on the bed behind her however she turned around hugged him tight and kissed him. It looked like he won’t be getting some rest after all.