An hour later, Kiba left the inn without Ashlyn. He just wanted to go for a walk and to look around so he didn’t ask for her company.
In the market.
The sky was filled with warmth and serenity. The sun was no longer scorching the ground with its terrible heat.
Kiba walked through a street full of crowd. The sides were filled with stalls and shops selling various precious herbs, treasured fruits, rare minerals, and unique gems. The owners were exaggerating their worth and background with many even claiming their origin from the alien world.
Kiba checked the items and found none to his liking or necessity. He arrived on another street and a shop picked his attention.
The shop was focused on dart and knife throwing with gifts depending on the throw. Unlike normal shops, the difficulty was high given the abilities of the mutants.
Kiba was not interested in the gifts or the games. His focus was rather on a young woman standing across a dartboard.
She was don in a white dress marked with floral patterns. She was fairly gorgeous and stunning with glowing brown skin tone, cyan hair, and eyes.
Kiba was not interested in her beauty. His intrigue in her was more due to a tattoo she had on the back of her right hand.
A bright golden wheel with eight spooks.
Dharma Chakra.
Kiba recalled he has seen this woman before entering the fair. At that time, she was flying through the air along with her group. He wanted to meet her but the situation didn’t allow him to.
Kiba stepped towards the shop. The shop was rather enormous with dozens of dartboards focused on knife and darts along with various obstacles.
The boards would continuously spin from one place to another. Randomly, spears and vines would slash out from the floor to stop incoming darts and knives. Then there were layers of fire and water obstacles created arbitrarily in between.
The rewards depended on the landing of the dart or knife. In dart case, the maximum reward was on the bullseye. While on balloon board, the reward was placed inside the colorful balloons. What one gained was up to fate.
Kiba paid a fee to the shop supervisor and then walked next to the woman. In front of her, there was a short table upon which knives and darts were placed.
Streams of blue telekinetic energy swept out from her forehead and wrapped around 5 darts. The darts rose up high in the air in the aiming position.
Some ten meters ahead, a ballon board was rotating in high speed from one place to another. Her eyes flickered and the darts rushed through the air, leaving behind trails of telekinetic ripples.
In between, a curtain of water appeared followed by vines that swept towards the flying darts. The woman raised a hand and the vines were engulfed by a high attraction force. The same moment, the vines crashed on the floor and broke into pieces. Telekinetic force ripped the water curtain into fragments and allowed the darts to rush ahead.
Everything happened in less than ten seconds and the darts landed on five balloons that were oddly disturbed on the board.
The balloons exploded to reveal the gifts which were low-level beast bones and some herbs. Blue telekinetic energy wrapped the gifts in the form of bubbles and they flew towards her.
She made a sweeping motion and the bubbles left the shop. They soared above a crowded street after which the telekinetic energy disappeared. The gifts fell on the excited crowd below...
"The gifts are precious for those outsides but not for someone like you," Kiba said after he arrived next to her.
The woman turned her head towards him and said, "Someone like me?"
"I mean someone from Dharma Chakra," Kiba replied with a courteous smile.
Her eyebrows raised up at the mention of Dharma Chakra. Very few people knew about Dharma Chakra.
"I am Kiba and I really didn’t mean to disturb you," Kiba scratched the back of his head. "But it has been a while since I saw my friend from Dharma Chakra. So I couldn’t control myself from meeting his fellow members."
Technically, he was lying. He has never physically met anyone from Dharma Chakra. Nor did he knew anything about Dharma Chakra but he was pretending to knowledgable by being vague.
Also, the person he referred to as friend... well, if that person was not currently in a state worse than death and come to know what Kiba said, he would die from coughing up blood.
"It is fine," She stretched a hand for shaking his hand. "My name is Leela."
"An interesting name," Kiba shook hand with her. "It means divine play, right?"
"Yes, among other things," Leela answered with a smile.
A staff member in the meantime placed darts and knives in a table in front of him.
Kiba raised a finger. The darts and knives rose up in the air, and the next moment, they glide ahead. Obstacles in the form of fire curtain and spears appeared but the knives and darts showed no sign of stopping.
Streams of golden current reinforced them. The knives and darts swept through metallic spears which then disintegrated into dust. The fire curtain created no difficulty as the knives and darts passed through them without any difficulty.
Ten balloons burst apart to reveal his rewards.
"You are good," Leela remarked.
"Not better than you," Kiba replied. "The shop is mostly for Level I mutants so the obstacles are not worth mentioning. If you wanted, you could win every reward with just a flick of a hand."
Leela let out a soft chuckle in response.
"Then I guess we both are taking advantage of the shop owner," Leela said with a sweet smile.
"Yeap," Kiba agreed and they left the shop.
"You earlier mentioned a friend from Dharma Chakra," Leela brought the subject just like he expected her to.
"Ah... yes. He is a monk, well, technically a Psychic Hunter," Kiba raised his head towards the sky. His eyes were filled with sadness as he continued, "Sadly, he was gravely harmed around two months ago."
Leela was stunned in disbelief. Earlier, she wasn’t sure of his claims of him being acquainted with someone from Dharma Chakra but the information he muttered was far too precise. In fact, she knew it was something that was hidden from the rest of the world.
She instantly remembered details she has learned some time ago. She couldn’t help but mutter, "You are acquainted with Reverend Akshobhya from Mahayana Dhayana Monastery?!"
"Yes," Kiba’s eyes flashed with surprise but he nodded his head. He suppressed a smile and remembered the details she just muttered now.
Before meeting her, he neither knew the name of the monk nor of the monastery. All he knew was that the Psychic Hunter who tried to put his brain into a vegetative state was a monk affiliated to a mystic organization known as Dharma Chakra. Even the latter part was more of a guess but Leela’s words confirmed he was correct.
Leela looked at him in amazement. She never thought he was friends with Akshobhya.
Poor Akshobhya would beg to disagree. He was sure that a ’friend’ of his would not call him a pedophile nor put his body into a decaying state.
"So do you live in the State of Avalon?" Leela asked further. Mahayana Dhayana Monastery was located in the power center of humanity - State of Avalon. Even the capital of the world government - Holy City- was situated in the State of Avalon.
"No," Kiba replied. He didn’t dare lie on this part. After all, what he knew about the State of Avalon was limited to what he learned in passing. If he pretended to be a native then his ruse might fall if she started discussing things only the locals might be aware of.
"Oh!" Leela was surprised. Visits in the State of Avalon were restricted and only those with special permits could step in.
She wasn’t sure if he was truly friends with Akshobhya. After all, trusting his words blindly wouldn’t be a smart thing to do. But she believed he was either acquainted with Askhobhya or learned details about him from someone. In either case, it showed he was strong or someone with a powerful background.
"So that old monk lives in the State of Avalon," Kiba’s eyes flashed with malice. "Someday I need to pay a visit to Mahayana Dhayana Monastery."Chapter 268