Chapter 561 Exploits of the Old Man
This proclamation by the old man was met by silence from both Elanev and Daneel, who could only stare at him while he smiled broadly, clearly very proud of himself.
Daneel recovered first.
His head full of questions, he asked, "Care to elaborate?"
For the life of him, he couldn't imagine what this old man who had apparently been in a pedestal for the past thousands of years could have done to infiltrate one of the Big Four and set up such an elaborate scheme to train a disciple.
Still beaming, the old man first looked at Elanev, who shuddered with fear both because of his expression which spoke volumes, and the statement he had just heard where he had said that he would soon see "real hell".
Then what the hell had he seen so far?
Turning to Daneel, the old man began to answer his question.
"I already told you that I bond with promising Fighters and travel with them by splitting my consciousness and giving them the skills they need, right? That was how I set up the Training Hall all in your kingdom. Well, over the years, there were certain Fighters who were so promising that they managed to enter the Big 4, itself, and even reach high positions from where they could pass down orders that would stay in effect for generations. But, I knew I was playing the long game. So, instead of using this strategy of laying down orders, I decided to have those fighters instruct their disciples, and then the disciples of those disciples after them that they would have to carry out a task if they were truly grateful to their master. That task… Was to identify and help the one who displayed certain techniques, no matter at what time they appeared, because it would mean that that person was the successor of their grand-grand-whatever master. I won't go into the details - suffice it to say that I made a very elaborate tale which would not be doubted by anyone. Basically, it seems that one of those plans paid off - a disciple in the Big 4 must have taken a high position, and is now carrying out that instruction of mine. Boy, I'm telling you, you really should feel lucky. There can definitely be no other master who thinks so much for their disciple. What can I say? The credit goes to my master, who taught me everything that I'm teaching you. Ah, you should have seen the way he laughed whenever I screamed during all those times when I was close to death. Of course, it was only through those experiences that I got strong enough to become a vassal Hero of the Emperor. Anyway, prepare yourself. I would suggest that you say your goodbyes, because the training you're about to undergo is definitely not for the fainthearted."
Hearing this, Elanev looked to Daneel with a terrified expression on his face, as if begging for help.
Clearly, his elder brother was not looking forward to this, but then he knew that he was the sort of man who might react in this way initially and be afraid, but when the time came, he would definitely step up and give everything he had.
So, deciding to have a little fun at his expense, the King of Lanthanor walked forward and laid his hand on Elanev's shoulder solemnly, as if mourning him already.
"You will be missed," he said, before bursting out into laughter.
Daneel couldn't help it, as he knew that even though the old man was scaring Elanev in this way, he definitely cared enough for him that he was willing to use this opportunity which was definitely one of a kind just to train him. No one would let such a precious disciple die, especially during training.
So, this was just some kind of psychological conditioning which his elder brother would have to go through.
The laughter made Elanev curse under his breath and look to the side, but the old man interrupted both of them.
After the story, he seemed to have slipped into a reminiscing mode, which made him speak almost like he had forgotten that there were other people in the room.
"Ah, I miss those times. When was the last time I felt a woman's touch? It must have been 300 years ago…"
Wait… What?
Both Elanev and Daneel were similarly dumbfounded. Why was a spirit talking about a woman's touch?
Their shock made the old man snapped to his senses, and as he looked at them, he smiled and launched into an explanation filled with weird expressions.
"What, do you think I'm one of those damned spirits whose only thoughts are about getting stronger? There is so much more to life, dammit! What's the point of longevity and power if one doesn't enjoy their life? In my time, I was quite the voyeur… Why would I let that go just because I became a spirit? Sometimes, I made a few wrong judgments… Fighters who got into a bond with me would occasionally turn out to be heartless murderers or rapists who would do whatever they wanted. I despise such people. So, I would… ehem, guide them to a state where their brain would be dead, allowing me to take over their body and live a full life. A businessman, a traveling merchant, a mercenary, a farmer - I have reprised all of those roles, and I always make sure to get as rich as possible so that I can have a blast. Oh, and I left behind quite a lot of sons and daughters all around the world. Well, most of them are just normal people, so you don't need to think about them. Now that I think about it, I quite miss it… Maybe after the threat is past, I'll do so again!"
Toward the end of the old man's long speech, he was speaking more to himself than to the two in front of him, which was why he didn't notice the extreme expressions of bewilderment on their faces.
Both of them had one thought going through their minds.
What the… f*ck!?
Although this guy had never given them the vibe of some wise old master whose knowledge would awe young Fighters, they could never have guessed that he had had such an… Illustrious past.
As Daneel heard all this, a very crucial question appeared in his mind.
"If spirits can do all this… Why don't they just amuse themselves in this way and not go crazy?", he asked, thinking about the Black Raven Empire Spirit and all the others who had gone mad due to thousands of years of isolation and boredom.
The question made the old man laugh heartily before saying, "Perks of being a Fighter, boy. My consciousness is much more versatile than theirs, meaning that I can split it into so many more parts without caring about going insane. Fighters wade through years and years of extreme self-torture and pain to obtain power which results in this kind of consciousness, as opposed to Mages who just sit around and 'understand' stuff. Of course we Fighters have certain tricks up our sleeves which Mages cannot contend with!"
The Ancient Dragon also spoke up at this point.
"Young king, he speaks the truth. The power of Mages is tied to their consciousness, as opposed to Fighters whose main source of power is their physical body, for the most part. You already know that this is why our consciousness is much larger, but, like he said, there is also the flaw that we cannot split it as we wish. What I did before, splitting mine to enter a bond with you, was risky in itself. If this part of me dies, the other on the pedestal will have to go into a long period of hibernation just to recover. That is not the case with this Fighter. Even if he loses multiple parts, he can still stay normal and even regenerate those parts over time, which is something that Mages cannot do. Of course, we have our own advantages - when we take over a body, we can instantly output our power level to an extent because all we need to do is use a higher complexity, but a Fighter can do that, because they would need their own body to exhibit their power to the fullest extent."
Indeed, there were advantages and disadvantages in both areas, just like the old man had said.
Still, Daneel couldn't stop thinking about the fantastic adventures of this guy, which would definitely make for an exhilarating tale if someone ever decided to note it down.
After all, there couldn't be a more unique perspective than someone who had lived for thousands of years and only wanted to have fun in the world, without caring about anything else.
Shaking his head, Daneel got rid of these useless thoughts and said, "Well… It was nice to find out all that. Elanev, start packing. We will leave soon."
Elanev still seemed to be in shock due to both the old man's exploits and the fact that he was going to have to go through something that was on a different level than what he was currently facing. So, he just nodded, before walking in the direction of the door with slumped shoulders.
"I don't know how you did it, but good job gaining entry into the Big 4. Be careful, though. Power twists people in unthinkable ways."
With this, the old man disappeared and reappeared next to Elanev before laying a hand on his shoulder and beginning to say something.
Daneel heard the tail end of the conversation before the door closed, and that was enough to make him raise an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Hey, here's an added incentive. If you reach the goals I set for you, I'll impart certain special… Techniques that I've perfected over a long time. I promise that they will have an excellent effect in the be-"
As the door closed, the last thing he saw was Elanev's back straightening, as if he had been injected with a very strong shot of enthusiasm and motivation.
…
Meanwhile, Jordan was sitting inside his room with a very satisfied excision on his face, as he had just finished editing all the data trinkets with the records of financial estimations and calculations that would soon be sent to all the members of this plan.
He had clearly outlined everything - a certain level of profit which was almost impossible to obtain was being projected as the most likely figure, and a lot of hidden charges had been added which would make it so that much more money than was needed would be pumped into this project by all these successful business families.
A portion of that money from the hidden charges would be added to the profits to show them that a lot was being made, which would entice them to put in even more, which Jordan would once again siphon away with even more hidden charges.
As for the other portion, it would actually be invested into the plans, too, but the intention was to use it in such a way that the overall cost of whatever they were doing would come down at least on paper, which would also increase the profit margin and squeeze more money from the others.
This was a notorious cycle which would definitely be successful, but it would take a little bit of time.
In the meanwhile, that voice in his head had just given Jordan another idea.
Taking a piece of parchment, he noted everything down, and when he was done, he couldn't help but marvel at it, himself, as he wondered how he had come up with it.
On the surface, it looked like it was a very fair and profitable plan, but when one dug into the details, they would realize just how… evil it was.
After thinking for a bit, Jordan reached forward to write down the name of this plan.
"Pyramid Scheme- a plan to target all the smaller business families associated with the larger ones"
Feeling happy, he put it aside, before beginning to think about how he was going to introduce it.
…
The next day, after Daneel woke up, the first thing he did was check on Jordan, his main pawn whom he was actively monitoring through an eavesdropping trinket.
He had put two ideas in place of the man's mind which were inspired by the greatest scams that he knew about from Earth - one was a scam which involved the infamous "hidden charges", which would allow anyone to change prices as they wished, and the other was a "Pyramid Scheme" which had ruined millions of lives, and continued to do so.
The latter was meant to target the smaller families which had benefited from the larger ones, so that no stone would be left unturned in the objective of implementing stuff using others which would increase the satisfaction level.
Seeing that everything was going well, Daneel began packing too.
Right now was a time where he could afford to go missing for a couple of days, so his plan was to head to the Fighter Sect.
Only, just before he was going to embark on that task, he received the strangest message from Kellor.
"My King! There's a…20-foot giant that has come to speak to Elanev! It somehow teleported onto the academy grounds, and it's currently creating havoc in the forests nearby! Oh, wait, I just received a message that it seems to be building some kind of toy castle with trees…regardless, everyone is in a panic! What should we do?!"