A Journey Through...

A WEEK LATER

Ray spent the week travelling to 'Soutuo City' to join Shrek Academy, well wait, as Shrek won't have been looking for new applicants or teachers yet.

Ray was making quick work as all he had to was teleport the way there and with the pace, he was going he would reach the city within a couple of hours from now...

As Ray reached the city, he saw that there were guards up ahead and at this point, he decided to use his illusion abilities to make himself look older as to not look suspicious, I mean what would you think if you saw a 9-year-old walking towards you from out of nowhere trying to enter the city you have to protect.

Now Ray looked like he was 19 years old and he showed his cultivation at to not get treated poorly by the guards as he passed into the city.

As he reached the entrance to the city a guard stopped him and said, "Hey you, stop, you need to go through clearance first!", Ray stopped looked at the guard, smiled and said whilst releasing his cultivation for a second, "Of course, guard lead the way, please!".

The guard flinched when he saw Ray release his cultivation and felt how powerful he was, I mean he was only an early level spirit elder, an when he saw how powerful the youth in front of him, he felt awe, respect and a little fear from what a powerful spirit master at this age was doing here and he replied, "O-oh, my mistake sir, sorry for my impertinence, could you tell me why you are visiting Soutuo City?", Ray had a small smile his face and replied with, "I'm thinking of staying in this place for a while, taking a break, might even open a shop."

The guard just nodded his head as he didn't feel any malicious intent or trickery from the youth and plain honesty and replied with, "Is that so, well we are going to have to give you a pass to stop anyone from having to bother you at the gates young sir if you are to stay here for a while, also may I ask what shop you are thinking of opening up?"

Ray looked at the guard and said, "I'm thinking of blacksmithing business and opening up another that lets people who need spirit rings hire me to help get new rings as a part of the Star Dou Forest is nearby", the guard had again nodded his head as to say that this was fine and said, "Well if you are to open shop then sir, you will have to gain a permit from someone of authority like the guard captain, if you will I can lead you to him?", Ray knew that the reason that this guard was being so nice towards him is that he thinks that he would get in one of Ray's good books and give him a discount on his business and maybe other benefits as he is a powerful soul master at the spirit king level.

Later that day Ray met up with the guard captain who was impressed that someone could reach the level of spirit king at a young age and heard he was going to open up a business within the city, he gave Ray all the paperwork Ray needs to sign and gave him the permit to open shop.

Ray decided that today he would stay in one of the local hotels, he found a good enough priced and quality hotel and stayed there for the night.

...

NEXT DAY

...

Ray woke up early and put his illusion ability back on, he cultivated for a bit and then decided to look for a suitable place to open shop, he ate some food from the hotel's menu and went out.

He looked through many places within the city and came about finding some of the better places within the city(richer part), he found a place within this part of the city, it was a decent looking shop, all things considered, the place was made from brick and dark coloured marble and had a bit of a modern look, was a medium-sized building being 10metres high and 20metres wide, big enough for his blacksmithing and ring hunting business, it had a small walkway leading to a few steps and a door, two windows on each side of the front door, and relatively big one on the second floor.

Ray, went and knocked on the door, he waited for a few moments and found an old man who opened the door, he said, "Oh, hello young man, how can I help you,?", Ray smiled and respectfully said, "Hello, sir, it's nice to meet you, I have an interest in the building and was hoping to buy it from you?", the old man had a big grin as to say 'finally someone wants to buy!', and said, "Oh, that's what you want, if you looking for a price then its 2000 gold."

Ray looked at the old man and thought, 'Well, I know that it's a good place, but it's not worth that much, lets bargain.', Ray then said, "How about, 1500?", the old man then said, "Let's see... how about 1850?", Ray was thinking, 'The place is worth about 1750 gold, let's see how low I can get it.', and said, "Hmm...1600?", the old man then said, "Sigh...1700?", Ray inwardly smiled and thought, 'Yes! I've already got it less than what it's worth, does the old man even know how much the building is worth?!', Ray then said, "1600?", the old man then said, "Final offer kid 1650, take it or leave it?", Ray had the expression as if he was in deep contemplation and replied, "Hah...you have a deal, sir!", Ray gave the old man the gold and the old man gave Ray the deed for the building.

Now you may be wondering how Ray got this large amount of gold well before he left, he sneaked into his mom and dad's room and found his dad's inter-spatial ring hidden within all his stuff and took some of the money, and some meaning 7500 gold as you wouldn't believe the number of gold coins that were in the ring, hell, it probably only made a dent in his wealth, this made Ray think that high ranking spirit masters really live in high wealth and it made him think of all the times he ever asked his mom or dad for stuff when they went shopping and he got whatever he wanted, the inwardly thought when he took the money, 'Damn!! Dad wouldn't notice that I took any gold right? hehe...'

Little did Ray know the inter-spacial ring had a counter on it that checked how much was in it...

...

RAY'S HOME

...

Ray's father was checking the rainy day money that he kept hidden under all his things and he was gobsmacked by how much was missing, 7500 gold coins, who would need so much money to spend, more importantly only one other person knew where the ring was...his wife...

He walked towards his wife with his ring on his hand, Ray's mother heard him coming and smiled towards him but that quickly changed into a confused face because he was making a face of anger and sadness?

"Honey, what's wrong?", she said, he looked at her and showed her the ring which made her more confused but that quickly cleared up as he said, "You know what's wrong, you are the only other person who should know of this ring and how much is in it, and I only have one thing to say, how could you spend 7500 gold coins in the last week?!?!?!?!"

She looked at him even more confused and said, "HUUUUHHH!?! What are you on about I have my own money why would I take from there, we don't have any emergencies where I have to use it, so don't go accusing me of stealing from there and again why would you think that I would need 7500 gold!!!!"

Now, this confused Ray's father even more because he knew his wife was a terrible liar in general as she didn't even like to anyway, heck, she literally has a holy attributed spirit, he knew that she was the only other person who knew of the money...wait... what if someone in this house knew of the money but he didn't know that they knew about it...

He was thinking that there was only one other person in the house and he knew that he didn't tell him which leads to him being the only other person...it was..., "God damn it!", he shouted out, this made his wife confused and she said, "What is it, do you know who took it!", "Yeah, it was...it was Ray!!!", "What!!? Not my Ray he wouldn't, heck, how would he have known in the first place?", she said worryingly as she knew that Ray didn't need it, "Well, it had to be him, literally no one else would be able to know, but why would the brat need it?!!", "I don't know, but he must've needed it for a reason right, right!?", she said as if she was hoping for a reason, "Well he better have a good reason the next time I see him, or else!"

...

BACK TO RAY (POV)

...

Ray started sneezing from out of the blue as he was cleaning up his new shop and he said, "What the hell is it that's making me sneeze, am I sick already or... someone talking about me, must be mom and ad, maybe they are worried about me? Must be!", he smiled at the thought and continued cleaning.

Later that day Ray was done cleaning and made the tools he needed with his elemental control over earth and metals, and was ready to open up shop with the name of the pace being...