Strings Of Domination

After walking inside the tenth gate, Nash watched as his vision became completely white before everything before and around him changed.

The frame of the gate from his sides and the huge hall behind him vanished and what replaced it was a massive, seemingly infinitely vast room filled with numerous tables which top was covered in a cube of glass which contained different items and objects.

"Welcome to the Tenth Hall of Treasury. My name is Eshter and I will be your guide here." as Nash and Miles were examining the dazzling sight in front of them with loosened jaws, suddenly a creature appeared in front of them with a golden light.

However, to their great shock, it was not a humanoid creature with an ordinary height and appearance but an extremely small creature that was about as big as a human palm with a body akin to a serpent!

Furthermore, this little snake whose body was covered in beautiful kaleidoscopic scales possessed a pair of transparent butterfly wings flapping behind her back, allowing her little frame to float in mid-air seemingly without any struggle!

'Scaled Butterfly!' Nash immidieatly recognized the creature in front of him and couldn't help but swallow gently while a flash of thought appeared in his mind before it was forced to be pushed back to the back of his mind.

'Too bad... Scaled Butterflies Legacy is extremely useful. Only if I could steal hers...' Nash sighed bitterly in his heart and shook his head.

The Legacy of the Scaled Butterfly Race was called Dream Dust. It was an ability that let their enemies fall into a deep sleep for a limited amount of time with hardly any ways to counter it!

Such a power not only was extremely useful and could serve as a trump card against enemies on the battlefield, but it could also be a lifesaver in critical situations! The number of possibilities such an ability can grant one in any situation was simply uncountable!

Of course, Nash could still decide to try his luck and see if he could raise one of this Scaled Butterfly's Emotion Levels, but the truth was that each emotion of this little snake was around 25%, each being inside the Neutral gap!

To raise one of her Emotion Levels from literally 0% without his Dominator's Domain was something Nash knew needed a lot of time and patience!

'Maybe I should still try my luck?' Nash thought, but as he didn't know how he should raise the Happiness Level of the creature in front of him as the other three levels were obviously out of the question, he just sighed and let it go... For the time being, naturally.

'First, let's see what kind of Domination Arts this place can offer us.' Nash thought in his heart and said, "We would like to buy a Domination Art. Where can we find some which can be bought from this much?"

Eshter took a quick glance at the amount of Space Jade Crystals inside the pouch Nash held and said, "Well, as the Tenth Hall of Treasure only offers the best it is hard to tell if you will be able to find any. With a wealth of only that much maybe your best choice should be below the Sixth Hall of Treasury."

"Is there really no Domination Arts we can buy from here?" Miles suddenly asked, his disappointment apparent in his voice.

"Unfortunately, not. The weakest Domination Art here costs at least five times more than the amount inside that single pouch." Eshter explained and quickly continued, "But you can still go to the Fifth Hall of Treasury. You just only have to take the medal you have gotten after your tests into your hand and imagine the number five in your head."

Nash and Miles did as Eshter told and imagined the number 5 in their heads. Immidieatly, their visions turned slightly blurry before the scenery around them changed again, but only for a small degree.

Everything looked the same as it was before so there still were tables covered in a glass next to each other, each containing different items and objects while the room was still as massive as it was ever before.

The only change, however, was the number of tables present; their numbers increased drastically and now the space inside the room felt more stuffed than in the previous room!

"Woah, so by imagining which gate I wish to go to I can teleport between rooms?" Nash asked, looking at Eshter who still floated in mid-air in front of them.

"Exactly. Of course, it only works inside the Mystic Hall of Mastery so don't even waste your time attempting to teleport inside here from the outside." Eshter said, destroying Nash's growing hope with that single sentence.

"I see, how unfortunate." Nash sighed and after putting away his medal he asked, "Then can you please show us where we can find the Domination Arts?"

"As you wish."

Whoosh!

Immidieatly after that, the scenery around the two changed once again and quickly found themselves standing in the center of several hundreds of tables, each containing different-sized scrolls, cubes, and books.

"These are all Domination Arts, differing from Dimensional Class all the way up to Transcendent Class," Eshter explained in a soothing voice as she flew around Nash and Miles.

"And how do we see what each Domination Art can do if they are sealed inside these glasses? Also, how do we know how much each cost?" Miles asked as he looked at a small blue scroll on his side.

"You just need to touch the glass and concentrate on the item inside it. The rest will show itself in your retina." Eshter said as she stopped before Miles, her small dot-sized black eyes looking straight into Miles' through the mask's gaps.

"Let me give it a try," Nash said as he placed his palm onto the glass' surface and concentrated on the blue scroll which Miles had been looking at.

Whoosh!

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{Treasure Information}

• Title: Water Skin

• Grade: Higher

• Class: Dimensional

° Description: A weak but useful Domination Art capable of allowing the user to walk on water or even remain under it for a longer duration!

° Price: 50 Space Jade Crystal

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Upon reading the description Nash immidieatly thought it was really a weak but useful Domination Art, just like how its description defined it. However, when his gaze fell on the Price his eyes almost fell out of their sockets from shock.

'50 Space Jade Crystal for this? It's only a Dimensional Class Domination Art!' Nash yelled in his heart and his eyes subconsciously lowered on the pouch in his hand.

"I have told you. With your current wealth, you can at the very best buy a Domination Art around the Middle Garde of the Divinity Class." Eshter spoke, her eyes now falling on Nash's figure.

"I see... Though, we still wish to look around." Nash said, and without waiting for a reply began to examine each and every treasure with Miles following him and doing the same.

"As you wish. If you need any help, just call my name." Eshter nodded her little head and without saying any extra words vanished into thin air.

Time passed slowly, and the two examined about a hundred or so items but neither of them was to their likings. There were techniques that boosted one's agility or physical strength, there were even that allowed them to control a specific but basic element for a limited degree once mastered, but there was none that was particularly powerful and useful at the same time.

"Brother Nash... Over here." Miles, who walked and examined things a little further away suddenly gestured toward Nash, indicating him to go to him.

"What did you find?" Nash asked calmly once he was next to Miles, his eyes already fixed on the item on the circular table in front of them.

It was a book, about a few inches thick, six inches wide, and about eight inches long. Its surface was quite rigid and old-looking, but on its very middle, the words that were not Archaic Symbols but letters that they could understand were perfectly visible!

"Esoteric Marks and Their Usage?" Nash raised a brow and placed his hand on the glass wall.

Whoosh!

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{Treasure Information}

• Title: Thousand Esoteric Marks

• Grade: Lesser

• Class: Transcended

° Description: A bizarre Modified Domination Art that was created through knowledge of Arrays and Symbols. It is extremely hard to learn but upon mastery, lonely imagination can stop this technique's growth!

° Price: 1,000 Space Jade Crystal / 100 Gold Jade Crystals / 10 Galaxy Jade Crystal / 1 Ancient Jade Crystal

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'O-One thousand?! T-That is exactly twice as much as we combined have!' Nash's eyes widened, not knowing whether he should laugh or cry.

Although for rich people 1 Ancient Jade Crystal was nothing, especially for those Royal Families that existed inside the Ancient Dimension, for them with their current wealth it was astronomical!

'How bad... I was truly curious what this technique could do, but alas...' Nash sighed with regret and was ready to walk away when suddenly Miles grabbed the side of his robe, stopping him from walking away.

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A/N: Hope you liked it! Make sure to vote for more! :)