Public Release: March 2nd, 2019 - 3:30 am EST

"I'll make this easy for all of you here," said Cara. "My Master and I are in need of Mage Techniques. We won't pester you for your best, but we do require a large number of them."

Cara laid bare her desire from the outset. She wanted to study the Path of the Mage, and she wanted to make sure there were no strange side effects or bad overlap with her already planned Paths. She currently only had one Mage Technique for reference and she could hardly extrapolate much from it.

With numerous unique techniques, even if they weren't high leveled, Cara could grasp the Mage Path better and, perhaps, even start cross referencing it with the rest of her knowledge on energy manipulation.

"That's fine with me," said the Dixon Head. He looked cramped while sitting in a normal sized chair due to the sheer mass of his muscles. Cara admired his dedication to his physical training despite being so advanced in age. She felt a kinship, in a sense. The Dixon Head reminded her of younger version of herself in her first life, just a bit.

The shitty City Lord, though? Cara didn't like him at all. Not only did he cause such an annoying disturbance at the auction, he acted like having strength meant he could do away with his morals. He clearly didn't understand the true terror of Karma. Cara knew that if you snatched things from others today, you would in turn have your things snatched from you.

Though, Cara did have to admit, karma didn't always seem to work right until a person reached the higher levels of cultivation. Lots of bad people lived good lives in the mortal world called Earth, and lots of good people lived bad lives.

It didn't matter in this situation. The City Lord had a high enough cultivation that Karma would start messing with him. In fact, Zara's earlier punch could have very well been the result of some earned Karma.

"In fact," said the Dixon Head, "Young Cara I hoped to give you the entire legacy of the Four Families."

"Wait, what?" Cara asked.

"You're a member of the Four Families as much as I am," he replied. "I can feel the aura of your bloodline, and it's tremendously pure. You've inherited the Stonelights' ability, and to a tremendous level too."

"Care to explain?" Cara asked.

The Dixon head looked over towards the Twin Birds members and then the City Lord with concern.

"Zara, can you put up a barrier?" said Cara.

"Sure!"

A tremendous aura surged. Reality seemed to warp in on itself as the air turned solid down the middle of the table, sectioning off the room completely.

"They can't hear now," said Cara.

"Very well," said the Dixon Head. "I'll explain everything, then. Since you were living in the Soldier Garden, I assume you recognize the Knight Techniques most of the men in the Tin City use."

"Of course. They copied the technique of the crocodile-apes."

"We call those creatures Rakkas in the Four Families, and they have a special bloodline ability that lets them sense out mana. It also lets them gather information better than others as well as 'identify' things.."

"No," said Cara as she put together the dots. She remembered the teal-robed mage using some 'Identify' spell on her back in the Soldier Garden.

"Yes," said the Dixon Head. "Somewhere in their family history, a member of the Zeitgar family managed to obtain the bloodline of the Rakkas, and every child since has had some portion of those abilities."

"Okay, okay. So, I know a few ways to transfer bloodlines," said Cara as she held up her hand to stop the Dixon Head, "and I've been very suspicious ever since I heard that bloodlines here were hereditary. Normally when you transfer a bloodline, unless it's done by a secret professional method I know of, it can't be passed down genetically. Unless.."

Cara left the words hanging. She could see the old man blushing and she had the answer. She wanted to puke. The people in this magic world were deviants.

"Unless they fucked!" Yelled Zara, about a full ten seconds late on the uptake. "Someone in the Zeitgar's ancestors fucked a monkey!"

Cara wanted to slap her. She really wanted to change the subject, but then she thought of her own bloodline. She remembered how easy it was for her to copy the wyvern's breath attack all that time ago..

"Oh no," said Cara as she looked to the Dixon Head with grave eyes.

"Oh yes," said Zara as she looked to the Dixon Head with excited eyes.

"The Stonelights posses the bloodline of a Land Wyrm," said the Dixon Head.

"Your ancestors fucked a worm!" Zara yelled.

"Kill me," said Cara.

"Hey, what animal did the Dixon ancestors sleep with?" Zara asked, completely unashamed.

"Ahem," the Dixon Head coughed. "The Dixon family has the bloodline of the Westerland Fox Demon."

"See, that one makes more sense," said Zara. "If it was a fox demon it could probably have a pretty attractive human form transformation.. But a Rakka and a Land Wyrm?"

"The Kane family has the bloodline of the Rock Garrigan," said the Dixon head, changing the subject away from his own family's past.

"That's probably the worst so far.." mused Zara. She remembered seeing an illustration of a Rock Garrigan in one of the books that her teacher stole from some bandits. She recalled that it looked like a deformed potato with a mouth...

"Can we get back on topic?" said Cara.

"Yes, I agree," said the Dixon Head.

"You're both killjoys," said Zara.

-

Zara undid her space locks and the disjointed reality melded back together. The people from the Twin Birds seemed happy about being able to rejoin the conversation, but the City Lord seemed disappointed. As someone who practiced Space-type techniques himself, being able to study the Space Locks Zara created was actually a huge opportunity for him.

The rest of the meeting didn't take too long. Cara made very few demands, and they were unanimously agreed to. She asked for as many Mage technique manuals as possible and, in exchange, her and Zara would provide each group there three of Zara's newest pill, the one that could instantly turn an incompetent into a Houtian realm cultivator. The pill that could instantly turn someone without any talent directly into a knight.

-

Cara and Zara walked away from the meeting place, both carrying tote bags filled to the brim with goods, scrolls, and female accessories.

"Zara, I am not wearing those things," said Cara as she looked over her shoulder.

"That's okay. I have another fun use for most of these, anyways. Though I'd *love* it if you'd model some of them for me at least, Teacher~"

Cara could only sigh. She really didn't care for all this, but she could see just how much her disciple wanted it.

"Fine. I'll indulge you. While I'm training my halberd you can.." Cara shuddered. "Dress me up."

Zara's subsequent squeal of joy drew quite a few stares as the duo walked through the streets, but most people just passed them by. After all, it was pretty common in a City to see someone acting strange.

Life went on in the Tin City for most people. Most enjoyed the day despite the earlier earthquakes. Knights moved throughout the City helping rebuild any damaged buildings. Everyone seemed to be happy with the results... With one exception.

For one man, the City Lord, there was no happy ending. A terrible malice shined in his eyes and he started making plans.