Chapter 5: Permission
My thirteenth birthday came and went, and the year progressed through the seasons. When I hit 80% Body Tempering, the obelisk said I was late stage and I received another reward: an upgrade to my orchard and garden. There were actually two upgrades: first, the size of the plots and orchard space increased by a factor of four. Second, the "aging" speed quintupled, so one day equaled five years instead of one year. That meant that I could get 100-year stuff in twenty days or 1000-year stuff in 200 days. That was very helpful, especially since I was going to run out of my spirit plants (except for the orchard ones) around the time I finished the Body Tempering Stage.
When winter arrived once more, my garden plots were empty and I had run out of meat, but I succeeded in hitting the peak of Body Tempering, or 100%. My reward? An upgrade to the bed, ostensibly. As for what it did – it allowed me to enter and leave the realm through meditation rather than only through sleep. There were no cultivation Methods granted to me for the Awakening Stage, so presumably I'd have to figure that out myself rather than relying on the realm, which made sense given Lant's description of the stage.
It didn't escape my family's, Ketter's, or Seran's notice that over the time I'd been cultivating in the Body Tempering Stage, I had grown noticeably better, physically speaking. It wasn't just things like strength, speed, dexterity, and agility, but also my stature, build, toughness, and attractiveness. I was quite literally superhuman, and it was pretty hard to ignore, even if it happened gradually. Yet for some reason, though they hinted at it obliquely, nobody but Seran addressed it directly. Perhaps they didn't want to acknowledge that something was off about me; I didn't know.
Now at the peak, I was ready to go hunting again. I'd have to moderate my strength to avoid breaking my weapons, but I had plenty of practice doing that already. Unless my realm limited the number of spirit beasts per visit, I would hunt until I got tired.
I entered the woods, sword in hand. A snake appeared first, and I easily dodged its strike and then cut its head off. Way too easily. Insultingly so. I killed a squirrel with my sword next, then swapped to my spear. Though the wolf was faster and smarter, I easily dispatched it as well; I outmatched it in speed and strength both, and quite significantly at that. The boar was also dealt with with my spear, but I switched to fists for the armadillo. I continued searching, but the woods held no more beasts, and I explored to its fog-wall limits.
The next visit I again killed one of each kind without any difficulty, racking up my kill rewards and leaving them unclaimed. It wasn't until the eighth day, when my total kill count rose to eighty, that I got another bonus reward: a jade slip titled "Creation Arts (Basic)." It contained the very basics of alchemy, forging (which worked differently from mundane smithing), and "artifact refining" (which was basically magic tool creation). The last of the three taught me how to turn a piece of spiritual jade into a jade slip through pure qi manipulation, as well as how to combine two hundred pieces of low-grade spiritual jade into a single piece of mid-grade spiritual jade. For permanent jade slips that didn't degrade and could contain not just words but images, concepts, and motion, I needed mid-grade spiritual jade, so I went ahead and converted my jade into thirteen mid-grade and one hundred low-grade.
I then took one of those thirteen pieces of mid-grade spiritual jade and turned it into a jade slip, inserting all my knowledge of the 8-Element Qi Refining Method. I didn't know if she was better suited to a different Method, but Seran would probably be better off learning this one than whatever some random sect taught their beginner members. I had more doubts about the Solar Dragon Meridian Opening Method, however; I had no idea if yin and yang and their relationship to male/female sun/moon held any water in this world, and I didn't want to accidentally cause her problems until I knew for sure. It would take her a while to progress through Qi Refining anyway, so I had time.
She didn't actually have a way of using the jade slip herself, but when I learned to make jade slips, I also learned how to be a medium for someone else to use one, so I resolved to give it to her the next day.
-x-
"Happy Birthday, Seran," I said with a smile.
She grinned. "Thanks! Do I get a present?"
One of her younger brothers chortled, reminding me that I was in her house, and therefore not in a place where I could give her her present. I grinned back.
"Come on, let's go outside. I do have a present for you, but I can't give it to you here."
She followed me outside, and we headed out into the middle of her family's field.
It's hard to believe Seran's fourteen now, and in another season, I'll be fourteen as well. Originally, I was planning to head out into the world when I turned fourteen, but technically, we're not considered adults until we're sixteen, so I can wait a bit for her to get her feet under her as a cultivator.
I glanced at her. She was no "jade beauty," and she had a rough-and-tumble look to her, but she had very clearly hit puberty and was starting to look a lot less like an adorable little kid. I had no idea how to quantify my age, since I had gotten memories of being a (young) adult almost four years ago, but my body definitely had the hormones of my physical age, and I would be lying if I said I didn't find her attractive. But we were still kids, and I wasn't sure whether I counted as being the same age as her or not, so I did my best to ignore the hormones. Besides, she was my best friend, and I loved her as such; I had no intention of thinking of her as a potential lover.
"So, what's the present?"
I held up the jade slip. "This thing. This is called a jade slip, and I made this one for you. It has the Qi Refining Method that I used in it. In order to use the slip, I have to help, since you can't use qi yet. To make use of the Method, I need to make a qi gathering array based on the one in my realm. Making it outside would probably be best, but it's winter right now, so it would be too cold for you. There should be enough space inside the barn, but to do that I need permission from your parents, which means…"
"You want to tell people you're a cultivator?"
I nodded. "I think it's time. Obviously, I can't tell them about my realm, but right now I've reached as high as I can without going on a journey or joining a sect, so I'd like to focus on at least getting you to the peak of Qi Refining so you can be ready to open your meridians, though I need to do research to see if my Meridian Opening Method will work for you as well."
Seran nodded. "If you're sure. I've been wanting to start cultivating for a long time now." She grinned. "Can't have you leaving me behind forever!"
"Right you are! Should I tell my folks first or yours?"
"Yours, definitely."
"Then let's go."
"You want me with you when you tell them?"
I nodded. "You're my best friend, and we're in this together."
"All right."
A short while later, we stood in front of my parents in the house part of the building that was combination shop and house – my home. Calik and my little sister, nine-year-old Shishi, sat on the floor behind my parents, pausing their game of cards to watch.
"What is this important thing you have to tell us?" Dad said, frowning. "You're too young for this you having fooled around."
I nodded vigorously. "I completely agree. This isn't that at all; Seran's just here for support because she's my best friend."
"Your only friend," my sister piped up.
"Hush," my brother said.
"The truth is, I've been hiding a pretty big secret from everybody for years now. I don't know how to tell you this, but… I'm a cultivator."
The revelation was met with silence. It was eventually broken by my father.
"How?"
"Remember when I fell from the cliff on my tenth birthday? I had a revelation that day, and I followed that revelation and discovered a few things." Here I was fudging the truth. I showed them the jade slip. "This contains the first steps to cultivating, a Method for the Qi Refining Stage. I'm done with it now, since I'm past that point, and now I want to teach Seran to cultivate. I've already taught her to sense qi, but I want to get her parents' permission to teach her to actually cultivate."
"So this explains your… changes," Dad sighed. "I never would have wished this for you, Alzeic. The world of cultivators is dangerous. More dangerous than you can possibly know. More dangerous than any of us can know. Why would you want to be a cultivator?"
"Adventure, excitement, power, long life… there are lots of reasons. I don't really want to settle down and live a normal life. There's nothing wrong with an honest working life, but it's not what I want for myself. I want to be someone."
"Being a cultivator isn't a guarantee that you'll live a long life, or that you'll be powerful or notable," Dad said. "It's violent and deadly, and cultivators may not be vulnerable to us normal folk, but they die all the time to each other."
"I know. But it's a risk I'm willing to take. And… I'm already a cultivator. I've already started on this path."
Dad shook his head. "And so I can't stop you."
"Seran, dear, do you really want to follow on such a dangerous path?" Mom asked.
"Where Alzeic goes, I want to go as well," Seran said with conviction.
"Have you spoken to your parents?"
"Not yet. We wanted to talk to you first."
"You'll have to convince your parents without our help," Mom said. "I'm glad that you want to stay with my son, but we won't try to convince your parents to let you cultivate."
"I understand."
Seran bowed slightly, and I clasped my hands in respect. Then we left, heading back across the light dusting of snow to Seran's house.
Her parents had an interesting reaction.
"If you swear never to abandon Seran – not to leave her here, not to drop her somewhere on your journey, not to simply hand her over to a sect and move on – then we will approve of you teaching her to cultivate," her father said while her mother nodded.
I placed a hand over my heart. "I swear that, as long as we are both alive, I will never abandon Seran."
"Then that's good enough for us," her mother said. "Is there anything you need to get started?"
"Something to paint the gathering array on the barn floor."
"Very well."
A short time later, Seran and I were in the barn and I was painting while referencing the drawing I had made of the gathering array in my realm. It was complex enough that I couldn't do it in only a few hours, and I ended up working until nightfall, taking a break to eat and sleep, and coming back and working all of the following day to finish. I didn't do anything in the realm either of those nights besides review the information on alchemy and forging.
-x-
"Okay, Seran," I said after I had surrounded the gathering array with two hundred of my four hundred low-grade spirit stones. I had no idea how many spirit stones she would need, since in my realm I just used ambient qi, but the ambient qi was so weak and unbalanced here that she definitely needed spirit stones. Completely surrounding the array seemed like it would be good enough.
"What's first?" she asked eagerly.
"First, I show you what's in the jade slip. It's called the 8-Element Qi Refining Method. There are several parts to it. First, you'll learn how to control and gather qi in your qi center. Then, you'll learn how to refine the raw qi and turn it into your personal inner qi. After that, you'll learn to structure your qi center and nurture your spiritual roots. And finally, you'll learn how to ignite your qi center. Once you've done all that, you'll be able to refine even more qi – how much more depends on how much you nurture your roots, I think. Maybe? I have ten times as much qi as before I ignited my qi center, and to open my meridians, I needed to be able to channel seven times as much. Though… it's probably possible to do it with less, it'll just take longer, since it might require multiple attempts per meridian."
"Mhm."
"Hold my hand."
Seran put her hand in mine while I held the jade slip in the other. I connected to the jade slip, then also to her, and I saw her eyes widen as the information used me as a bridge to flow into her mind. The transfer was nearly instantaneous. She released my hand.
"Okay… I think I've got it," she said. "Let's give it a go!"
She sat down in the middle of the array, closed her eyes, and began her meditation. Just outside of the array, I closed my own eyes and meditated my way into the realm.
Nothing was different from last time, so I headed out into the woods. I was completely caught off guard by my very first encounter, because instead of one viper, two vipers came at me at once from different angles. It was still super easy to beat them, but I hadn't been expecting multiple foes. Moving on, two rollers rolled at me at the same time. The pattern continued, and I ended up killing two of each type before the woods ran out of monsters. Then I went mining before returning to the real world.
Judging by the position of the sun, I'd been gone for about an hour. More testing would be required, but this suggested that the minimum length of time I could spend in the realm was an hour, which meant that I was vulnerable in the real world while in the realm unless there was a way to force myself to wake up or someone else could wake me.
I wondered whether I could return for another visit and fight monsters again, but I didn't try because I was still mentally fatigued from mining, which suggested that perhaps I only spent an hour in the realm while sleeping and simply experienced actual sleep after I left until I woke up naturally rather than waking up immediately on exit.
To recover from my mental fatigue, I meditated and simply cycled my qi. Surprisingly, I was able to go from very fatigued to top condition in only a couple hours, so I attempted to return.
I wasn't able to. Belatedly, I remembered that the obelisk said there was a "visit cooldown" of twelve hours. Unless I could somehow shorten that, I could probably only go to the realm twice per day.
Seran was still cultivating, so I went outside and practiced my combat forms for a while. Eventually – by which I meant after she'd been cultivating for about eight hours – she came out.
"How did it go?"
"Well, I finally managed to pull a single pure-one-element strand of qi and spiral it toward my qi center, but it didn't go in."
"That was fast. It took me a few days to reach that point. It took me two weeks before I got to where I could draw in all eight strands together. You should go rest and work at it again tomorrow."
"Got it. See you tomorrow, Alzeic. Or should I call you Senior Brother? You're younger than me, but more advanced in cultivation, so…"
I laughed. "Just use my name."
She grinned and clapped me on the back, then headed to her house. I headed home as well.
That night, I ended up in the realm again. I once more faced all the spirit beasts in pairs, then did some mining.
The next day, Seran continued her cultivation and I entered the realm again. This time, however, I didn't face pairs; instead, I fought trios of spirit beasts. The same happened when I visited that night. I still thoroughly outclassed my opponents, but the battles required a lot more focus and strategy to avoid getting injured.
The visit on the following day, I braced myself to face quartets, and face them I did. This time, I didn't escape unscathed, though I still survived. When I returned to the obelisk, I saw that I'd gotten another bonus reward.
SIDE ONE
Visits: 1353
Deaths: 130
Kills: Rank One x150
Visit Cooldown: 12 hours
Kill Rewards: Unclaimed
=Rank One Giant Squirrel=
Beast Core x14, Meat (70lbs)
=Rank One Green Viper=
Beast Core x14, Snakeskin x14, Vial of Venom x14
=Rank One Ridge-backed Boar=
Beast Core x14, Meat (280lbs), Hide x14, Tusks x28
=Rank One Horned Wolf=
Beast Core x14, Meat (140lbs), Pelt x14, Fangs x28
=Rank One Armored Roller=
Beast Core x14, Meat (70lbs), Armored Hide x14
=Bonus (150 Rank One Kills)=
Beast Forest Upgrade
Identification Technique
Lots more cores, meat, and parts awaited, but the bonus reward was an upgrade to the woods. I suspected that the rank of the beasts I faced would increase, which would honestly be for the best. More powerful beasts meant better loot and a better chance to test myself and get more skilled. Maybe the forest would get bigger, too.
The other bonus reward, the identification technique, was another jade slip. It contained my first cultivator technique. It wasn't as useful as I thought from the name, but it was still pretty useful: I could identify materials with it as well as analyze the quality of pills. That would be helpful in assessing value; I'd be able to tell if I made a good product and tell when I was being ripped off.
-x-
The forest was definitely bigger, considering how long it took me to find a target. The rhino-beetle-looking beast was only about three feet long, so it wasn't as immediately threatening as if it had been the size of an elephant or something, but it was still disconcerting to see an insect that big. I approached cautiously, but my care was for naught; the beetle noticed me when I got within forty feet and immediately lifted into the air and charged me at chest height.
It was fast. I'd grown used to the speeds the Rank One beasts, and this was on an entirely other level. If Rank One was roughly equivalent to my 10% Body Tempering, Rank Two seemed to be around 30%. Considering I was at 100%, I was still outclassing my opponent, but I strongly suspected I would have real trouble when I reached the quartet stage of the woods.
I dodged. When the beetle landed, I spun and thrust with my spear.
Clang!
The iron spearhead sounded like it had struck metal when it hit the beetle's shell. Without a martial technique to increase my attack power, I would have to rely on using more of my strength if I wanted to pierce its defenses. It would be for the best if I had a weapon made of something a bit stronger, since I'd be able to use more force without worrying about breaking my weapons, but alas.
I tossed my spear aside and drew my sword; if its shell was like armor, I'd be better off targeting it while it was flying and strike under the wings. I quickly backed away, and it took to the air again, shooting at me at high speed. This time I pivoted to dodge and slashed after it, catching it in the vulnerable space that flying revealed. It crashed, and I charged forward and reached down, grabbing it by the horn and tossing it into the air. It tried to fly again, but its wing was damaged, and as it fell I slashed again, cutting off its wing entirely. Dropping my sword, I picked up my spear and darted a few feet away, turning back to face it again.
It charged at me. Evading was simple, and I spun my spear before stabbing deep into its vulnerable spot. It vanished upon death.
"Whew. That was… a bit more involved than I was expecting, thanks to the weakness of my weapons compared to its defenses. Let's move on."
The next opponent was a male deer with ruby-red antlers. Instead of running away when it noticed me like a regular deer would, it turned and charged, head lowered. I jumped over it with ease, then spun around and thrust my spear into its chest with considerable force. It tried to pull free, but my spear was lodged inside. I felt the haft creak at the tug of war, but eventually the weapon popped out. After that, I just dodged a few times until it collapsed from blood loss and then perished.
The red-and-black fox actually caught me off guard, because apparently it could use illusions to create fake doubles. Fortunately, it didn't do too much damage when it bit down on my leg, relatively speaking. My skin and muscles were so greatly enhanced that while its teeth did pierce through, they didn't go very far into my flesh. I reached down, grabbed it, ripped it off of me, and then beat it to death against a tree.
Number four was an owl that was nearly three-quarters as tall as I was and was completely and utterly silent, along with possessing the ability to mask its presence so that I didn't notice it at all. As a result, it started the fight by trying to pick me up by digging its talons into my shoulders. This was quite painful, but it couldn't dig deep enough to get a good enough grip to actually lift me. I reached back and tore its talons out by grabbing its legs, but it managed to slip from my grip.
I used my spear to win the fight, though I received a few more wounds first because it kept flying into the canopy and I kept losing sight of it until it attacked again. I was victorious in the end, though.
The fifth and final Rank Two spirit beast was a butterfly, of all things. It had a wingspan of about nine inches and was quite beautiful, looking like blue, red, and purple stained glass framed by black. It also had the ability to use magic (or spirit arts, or whatever they called it in this world), including a mind-affecting ability that caused disorientation, lack of balance, and confusion, as well as an ability to create a shimmering barrier of light to protect itself. The mental attack left me lying dizzy on the ground the first time it hit me with it, but when it tried to feed on me with its proboscis like a freaking mosquito, my skin protected me completely. It couldn't use the mind attack at the same time as a physical attack, so I was able to recover, but it retreated and surrounded itself with a barrier before I was able to attack it in turn.
Then it hit me with the mind attack again. I decided not to attempt to kill it right away and used the opportunity to train my mental defenses. By fortieth time, I was just made a bit dizzy. By the hundredth time, I barely felt its attack at all. At that point, I was sick of being its mental punching bag, so I went on the offensive. I had to put some effort into it to shatter its barrier, which chipped my sword, but once the barrier was gone, I sliced it in two.
Then I went back and used the bed to return to the waking world.
Chapter 6: Transactions
Over the next eight days, I mined and fought, testing different strategies and weapons against the five types of Rank Two spirit beasts. My weapons survived, but they weren't in great shape. On the night of the eighth day, I viewed my obelisk.
SIDE ONE
Visits: 1369
Deaths: 130
Kills: Rank One x150, Rank Two x80
Visit Cooldown: 12 hours
Kill Rewards: Unclaimed
=Rank Two Flying Horned Beetle=
Beast Core x16, Beetle Horn x16
=Rank Two Red-antlered Deer=
Beast Core x16, Ruby Antlers x32, Hide x16, Meat (320lbs)
=Rank Two Deceiving Fox=
Beast Core x16, Meat (32lbs), Pelt x16
=Rank Two Huntsman Owl=
Beast Core x16, Meat (48lbs), Feathers x160
=Rank Two Confounding Butterfly=
Beast Core x16, Wings x32
=Bonus (10 Rank Two Kills)=
Lunar Phoenix Arts: Moon Ash Strike, Lunar Mirage Steps
=Bonus (20 Rank Two Kills)=
Stellar Rain Arts: Staccato Star Strike, Shimmering Veil
=Bonus (40 Rank Two Kills)=
Harmonic Eclipse Arts: Eclipse Parry, Severing Slash
=Bonus (80 Rank Two Kills)=
Creation Arts Encyclopedia
I grinned. I hadn't claimed my rewards for killing the Rank Twos yet, but as before, I got Lunar Phoenix, Stellar Rain, and Harmonic Eclipse stuff for 10, 20, and 40 kills, as well as something related to creation for 80 kills. After claiming the rewards, I checked everything out. The Rank Two beast cores were about the same size as the Rank One beast cores – most were a bit bigger, while the butterfly ones were a bit smaller – and rather than being mottled, they were two solid colors each (half on one side and half on the other). The bonus rewards were the best part, though.
I finally had real cultivator martial arts techniques. Each technique, once I could actually activate it at will, had three potential levels of mastery (growing more powerful at higher levels of mastery): Proficient, Expert, and Mastery. Moon Ash Strike was basically just a really powerful punch that, by default, was augmented by fire and ice qi; at expert level, I could add wind and earth; and at mastery I could also add lightning. Lunar Mirage Steps was a movement technique that left an afterimage behind; higher levels of mastery created more afterimages and made the afterimages last longer.
Staccato Star Strike was a stabbing spear combo that by default stabbed three times in the time frame it normally took to stab once; at expert level, I could stab five times; and at mastery I could stab eight times. Shimmering Veil was a defensive spear spin that created a shimmering metal-and-wood qi barrier by default; at expert level it also created a second, larger shield of water qi; and at mastery those striking the main shield would be counterattacked with lightning qi.
Eclipse Parry was a parry-and-counter sword move. The higher the level of mastery, the more powerful the parry and the more powerful the counterattack. Severing Slash was a vertical sword slash using metal and wind qi that had great power to cut through defenses and objects. The higher the level of mastery, the greater the defense it could negate and the further beyond the tip of the blade the attack extended.
It was insane to think these were all techniques available to cultivators at the Body Tempering Stage, let alone things I could theoretically have earned before even reaching Mid Stage. It was probably for the best that I had been building up my skills without them, though, as overreliance on techniques could be a problem since martial techniques required the use of my qi, and that was a resource that could run out (though it was a renewable resource).
The encyclopedia was bound to be useful, too, as it contained a wealth of information on spirit beasts, spirit metals, and spirit plants, detailing not just what they looked like but also how to work them and what they could be used for.
Instead of heading into the woods, I practiced my new techniques until I ran out of qi, mined, and returned to the waking world.
-x-
The next day, Seran excitedly informed me that she had obtained a drop of refined inner qi at the end of her eight-hour cultivation session. That was a few days faster than I had done the same. The day after that, she took only seven hours and called it quits, knowing that she wouldn't have enough time to get a second drop that day. The next day: six hours. The next: five hours. The next: two drops in eight hours. The next: two drops in six hours. The next: four drops in eight hours. The next: eight drops in eight hours. Then twelve drops. Then twenty drops. Then thirty drops. Then forty drops. Then forty-five. Then fifty.
By the time we came out the next day, the spirit stones had crumbled to dust. I wasn't sure if they were being consumed at a steady rate regardless of her cultivation by the gathering array or not, so I put four hundred spirit stones there this time just in case. The two hundred had lasted twenty-five days, but still.
During this time, I didn't fight any spirit beasts, instead training relentlessly with my techniques and then meditating until I recovered my qi. I was gradually getting faster at recovering my qi, but the improvement was slow.
A bit over three weeks later, she had capped out at a hundred drops per cultivation session. I'd never capped out in the time I'd done things, though my improvement was more linear than hers and had been much slower. I wasn't sure how things compared, though, because I didn't know how long my cultivation sessions were since time didn't flow the same in the realm as in reality. It took almost exactly a month after she hit he limit to completely fill her qi center, so I was pretty sure that her unignited qi center held around the same amount as my unignited qi center had. Perhaps that was standard for all humans.
At that point, winter was coming to a close. She had used up all four hundred spirit stones a couple days before, meaning that the array used up the equivalent of eight stones per twenty-four hours (though it drained all the stones at the same time), so I had supplied the stones as needed for the last couple days.
Now that it was warming up, Seran decided to take a break from cultivating instead of immediately throwing herself into structuring her qi center and instead practice martial arts. Together, we practiced with the spear as well as the basic forms of the Lunar Phoenix Unarmed Arts. She wasn't as talented at unarmed martial arts as with the spear arts, but still clearly had the knack for it. I stopped practicing my techniques during my daily visits to the realm, instead just mining before returning, since I didn't have the time to meditate and recover during the day because I was spending time with Seran. As a result of pushing myself further, I increased the number of spirit stones mined per visit from around eighty to one hundred.
I informed my parents about my desire to visit the city again when they went in the second month of spring, and they agreed. After all, I needed new weapons since mine were in bad shape and I wanted to resupply my spirit plants. My orchard spirit plants had all reached 1000-year, but I'd need to wait two hundred days after planting the rest for them to reach the same point, so the sooner I planted them, the better.
After the first month of spring ended, I returned to the woods, knowing that I'd be facing pairs. The butterfly pair was my first, and it was easy since I could ignore their mental attacks. I had reached Proficient level with all my martial techniques, so I simply used Severing Slash to cut through barrier and beast alike with a single stroke for each one, completely overwhelming their defenses without even damaging my blade, enhanced as it was by the technique.
I stopped the beetles cold with Shimmering Veil, then punched them with fire and ice with Moon Ash Strike. The foxes, though proficient in usingillusions, weren't so great at dealing with them, and Lunar Mirage Steps worked wonders to bait them out so that I could counterattack with my spear. It was pretty funny to use Eclipse Parry against pointy antlers, but it actually worked, and the deer were taken down with my swordsmanship. The owls were the biggest headache, since I still couldn't detect them unless I was staring right at them, but the quick movements of Staccato Star Strike helped me take them down before they could fly away after attacking.
Using martial techniques made dealing with the enemies much easier, and even two on one only the owls had a hope of actually hurting me. My second go around that night worked just the same as the first.
The next day I had to deal with trios on both visits. This was more challenging, but only slightly. It was on the following day that I actually had some difficulty and wound up getting hurt a few times; facing four foes at a time was no simple task, despite my higher physical prowess.
Just as last time, when I reached 150 kills, I got a new pair of bonus rewards: an upgrade to the woods and a new general technique called Qi Reinforcement, which allowed me to spend qi to reinforce objects temporarily so that they could better withstand stress and damage. This technique would be essential to getting more life out of my weapons in the future, since I didn't know how long it would be before I could get weapons made of better materials.
I was still hesitant to start fighting Rank Three spirit beasts, though. My current weapons didn't have much life left in them, and Rank Threes would be even harder to fight than Rank Twos. I opted to wait until we returned from the city and instead just mined and (at night) practiced my techniques.
-x-
"Ah… It feels nice to be back in the city after two years," I said, stretching. We had arrived yesterday evening (no bandits on the road this time) and now Seran and I were walking down the street. I needed to sell some beast cores to get spending money, since I had less than seven gold (left over from two years ago). We didn't bother with disguises this time; we were young, but we were teenagers, and old enough to be accepted into a sect. And I was nearly six feet tall, despite having growing left to do. (Seran was much shorter, at about five-foot-three.)
The jewelry place wasn't in the same spot as last year, and I couldn't find it, so we were stuck looking around for another place to sell.
"I'm sorry! Please forgive me!"
I turned my head toward the commotion. A kid – younger than us – was prostrating himself on the ground before a man who was obviously a cultivator. The blue-black-haired man looked to be in his late twenties, and though his style of clothing was different from Lant's, it was all obviously expensive and included a yellow sash with "Blazing Yellow Sun Sect" written on it. He wore a contemptuous expression, like the boy was a piece of shit that he had stepped in.
"Forgive you? For this?" The cultivator gestured to the meat sauce on his lower shirt, obviously the result of the boy bumping into him while carrying food. I spotted said food on the ground nearby; it was some sort of chili in a bun. "I should kill you for this slight."
"Is he going to kill that boy?" Seran said worriedly. "We should do something."
"Yeah. We should. Or rather, I should. You should stay back. You still don't have your qi center ignited, let alone your meridians open." I looked around at the growing number of people watching. They had cleared a space around the two, but they clearly weren't going to intervene.
"Please, I beg you, Master Cultivator!"
The trouble with laws in a world like this was that because might made right and personal power was a thing, mortal laws didn't really apply to cultivators since they were strong enough to do whatever they wanted. Therefore, if that Blazing Yellow Sun cultivator wanted to, he really could get away with murder. After all, the sects (at least as I understood it) really only policed their own with regard to actions toward other cultivators or really heinous acts toward mortals, not something as mundane as killing a child for sullying one's clothing.
If I didn't step in, this guy really might kill that kid.
A sword appeared in the cultivator's hand.
"Wait a moment, Senior," I called out, swiftly striding toward them.
He stopped and turned toward me. I came to a halt next to the boy.
"Who are you? You walk like a cultivator, and you called me Senior, but you don't have a sect sash. Are you a loose cultivator?"
I clasped my hands in respect and gave a shallow bow. "I am called Alzeic, and I have yet to join a sect, for I am only fourteen years old. However, I have done much training on my own."
He scoffed. "Much training? What stage are you?"
I straightened. "Peak Body Tempering."
He blinked.
"What?"
"I am at Peak Body Tempering Stage, Senior. I have yet to step into the Awakening Stage."
"Ridiculous. There's no way a fourteen-year-old brat who's not even from a Clan is at Peak Body Tempering."
"I assure you, I would not lie to you, Senior."
He sneered. "And if that is so, why are you interfering?"
"Surely there is no need to kill the boy."
"These clothes are expensive, and now they're dirty."
"They can be cleaned, right?"
"Of course they can! But this is an insult worthy of death for a mortal."
"Perhaps compensation…?"
"Ten spirit stones."
I stared.
"That's outrageous."
"Then buzz off so I can kill him."
"…What stage are you at, Senior?"
"None of your business!"
I smiled unpleasantly. "I see. Your cultivation is lower than mine. Perhaps, 'Senior,' it is you who should 'buzz off.' But I am generous. I can spare a single spirit stone in compensation." I reached into my pocket (and into the realm) and pulled out a low-grade spirit stone, holding it up. "Do you accept, or are we going to have a problem?"
He hesitated, and I could see the wheels turning as he weighed his options. He scoffed and stowed his sword in his spatial storage ring, then snatched the stone out of my hand.
"Next time, mind your own business," he said and stormed off.
I crouched down beside the kid.
"Are you all right?"
He sat back on his legs and nodded. "Thank you for saving my life, Master Cultivator!"
"You're welcome. Try to be more careful in the future."
"I will!"
He stood and ran off.
Seran came up to me as I straightened.
"I'm glad that you were able to get him to go away."
"Me too. Though I'm a little worried he might try something if he's with someone else. I did just reveal that I had enough spirit stones to spend one on getting him to leave the boy alone."
"Spirit stones are really valuable, right?"
"Right. I know I've been using them like water for you, but the amount of stones you've used would be worth six thousand gold. Or something like that."
Her eyes bugged out.
"Yeah. They're valuable. I basically gave him ten gold to go away. Anyway, let's get back to our search."
By noon, I was starting to get a bit frustrated, so we found a nice-but-not-crazy-expensive restaurant and spent six silver on meals and tips. I asked the waitress about where I might be able to sell beast cores or even spirit stones.
"I don't know about spirit stones, but there's an enchanter who works out of the wealthy district who will buy your beast cores. He's a cultivator that moved into the city last year. He makes and sells low-tier artifacts to sell to the rich. His name's Stefan, I think."
"Thanks."
Off to the wealthy district we went, looking a bit out of place in our current outfits. Still, I was a cultivator wearing a sword at my hip, and I walked with the confidence that implied, so people didn't try to stop us or shoo us away. I even asked a passerby about where Stefan's workshop was and got directions.
The workshop/shop was fairly small, feeling a bit like a cozy corner store. The man himself, who happened to look like he was in his early forties, with banana-yellow hair that was turning gray, was sitting at a desk and reading a book when we entered.
He looked up and watched us cross the shop.
"Welcome, Juniors. My name is Stefan, the owner of this artifact refining shop, or enchantment shop as the mortals like to call it. What can I do for you?"
I clasped my hands and bowed; Seran copied me.
"I am Alzeic, and this is Seran. We are… I think the term is loose cultivators? We haven't yet joined a sect. I have some spirit stones and beast cores that I want to sell in order to gain normal currency for making purchases around the city. I'm also curious as to whether you sell spatial rings, or whether you could make one to order."
"Well, I can certainly buy from you. I don't sell spatial rings here generally, as they are expensive and require qi to use, which makes them nonideal for mortals, but if you provide me with mid-grade spiritual jade and spirit stones, I can make one for you. Though I do warn you, they are expensive, especially for loose cultivators."
"How much do they cost?"
"A basic one – what I can make with mid-grade spiritual jade – would cost fifty spirit stones."
I blinked. That was significantly more than I was expecting. But… now that I thought about it, it wasn't too crazy. Fifty thousand copper was actually kind of reasonable.
I nodded. "I can afford that. I'd like to get two. Seran hasn't ignited her qi center yet, but I want one for me and one for her so she'll have one when she does."
He raised his eyebrows. "You have the spirit stones and the jade?"
"I do."
I reached into my satchel and pulled a bag of one hundred spirit stones out of my realm, taking it out of the satchel. I handed it over.
"Spirit stones."
He opened the bag and did a quick estimate based on sight, then hefted the bag and estimated based on weight.
"Well, that's a hundred spirit stones. Color me surprised. And the jade?"
I reached into the satchel and my realm again, pulling out two mid-grade jade pieces. I handed them over as well.
"Payment and resources received. I'll work on them while you wait if you want; it will only take a couple hours."
"Out of curiosity, what resources do you need to make them?"
"Mid-grade jade, raw qi from spirit stones, and any beast core or spirit herb with spatial properties. I actually have a small garden of spirit herbs which includes a few Dimensional Daisies. The cost you're paying includes labor, expertise, raw materials, and cost of the daisies."
"Before you start working, could I sell some things?"
"Of course."
"What kind of beast cores do you buy?"
"Anything Rank One or Rank Two, though I'll pay more for elemental or conceptual ones."
"Is there a limit?"
"Well, yes. I don't have infinite money. How many were you thinking of selling?
"I have a lot. None of my Rank One cores are elemental or conceptual. What would they sell for?"
"I can pay you four gold apiece."
That was better than what the jeweler paid.
"I have a hundred and forty-nine of them."
"…I have to wonder where you found your prey and how long it took you to hunt that many. But yes, I can buy all of them."
I reached into my satchel and began filling it with Rank One beast cores. I hesitated, debating on whether I should pull out Rank Two cores as well, but decided against it. It would be better to come back later to sell them so I had the excuse of having stored them elsewhere; my satchel was already starting to actually look heavier than it had been since it was formerly empty and now was filled with marbles.
I just handed over the satchel.
"It's just the beast cores in there, so you can take them out one at a time or pour them out."
He poured them out slowly and counted them.
"Yep. Five hundred ninety-six gold tablets."
"Do you have any silver? If you could give six of those gold tablets as sixty silver tablets, that would be helpful."
"Sure, I can do that. If you want to wait, I'll make your storage rings and put your money in one of them."
"Thank you."
I watched him work, paying special attention through my qi sense, but much of what he did was lost on me. The crafting process was muchmore complex than making a jade slip was, even though it was all qi manipulation. Five spirit stones per ring had their qi drained and turned to ash, and the Dimensional Daisies melted in the air and fused with the jade. Then he coaxed the jade into the shape of rings. He put on one of them and waved his hand over a pile of gold and silver, making the pile vanish, then removed the ring and handed both rings over.
"There you go. Two spatial storage rings."
"Thank you. We much appreciate it."
"If you ever want to sell the Rank Two beast cores you implied you have, come on back."
"I will keep that in mind."
After we left, we went shopping for all the spirit plants I'd gotten before that I still needed to replace. I bought twice as much as I had last time, which would still only fill one of the garden plots since the plots were four times as large as they had been when I'd filled two of them before.
Then we went to get new weapons to replace our old ones: one spear for her (she was a bit taller now, after all) and two spears and two swords for me (so I'd have weapons even if I broke one of each).
We wandered around for the rest of the day, buying snacks and trinkets after that, then returned to the inn to eat supper with our families.
Chapter 7: Conflict
We returned to Stefan's shop the next day – not to sell, but to ask questions.
"I don't really know a lot about cultivation in general, just my own journey," I said. "I was wondering if it's all right to share my Meridian Opening Method with Seran, or whether she needs to get a different one."
"Hm. That depends. Is yours unique to your constitution?"
"How can I tell?"
"Well, who taught you?"
"Nobody; I had a fortuitous encounter and found the Method."
"I see. Would you mind sharing it?"
I had been prepared for this; I had made another jade slip with the Solar Dragon Meridian Opening Method. I took it out of my storage ring, where I had put it, and handed it over. Stefan used the slip, then handed it back.
"I see. This is a very effective Method. It's limited by only being able to be used in sunlight, but it's quite potent. No, I don't believe there would be any problem with her using this Method. Is she using the same Qi Refining Method you used as well?"
"She is."
"And there have been no problems?"
"None," Seran said.
"Then it should be fine."
"Thank you for your advice."
"Not a problem."
Nothing else of note happened that day. On the following day, however, we had another run-in with cultivators.
"Oy, brat!"
We turned around to see three cultivators approaching, all wearing Blazing Yellow Sun Sect sashes. One of the was the man from two days ago; the other two were similarly aged men, one with brown hair and the other with auburn hair. All three were carrying swords in their hands.
"Back away," I said quietly to Seran, who nodded and hastened to do so.
"What do you want?" I said loudly with affected annoyance.
"You humiliated me the other day, and now I'm going to pay you back! You're a loose cultivator, so there's no sect to get mad if we kill you right here and now."
I narrowed my eyes and slipped into a combat stance. I had no idea what stage these guys were, but the fact that they were ganging up on me meant they were probably all lower than me. The fact that they thought ganging up would work implied they were in the Body Tempering Stage, just not as far along.
"Don't blame me for what happens if you attack me," I warned.
"I, Disciple Javier of the Blazing Yellow Sun Sect, declare that you have offended me with your actions and words, and that I will have satisfaction through your death!"
So dramatic.
"This is your final warning: I won't hold back," I said.
They charged. Their speed was on par with a Rank Two spirit beast, so they reached me almost immediately. All three thrust at me from slightly different angles at the same time, striking my afterimage as I used Lunar Mirage Steps to move to the left. Qi roared through my arm and out my fist as I punched the leftmost one in the center of his chest, flames and ice exploding outward as he flew back with a collection of cracks, blood spitting out from his mouth. The other two shifted their positions and slashed, flames blazing along the paths of their blades. I leaped backward, fire and steel passing in front of me.
They split up and attacked me from my 12 and 3, but once again they simply struck my afterimage as I moved back and to the right. My right fist connected with that cultivator's temple, flaring with flame and frost as I caved in his skull and sent him ragdolling to the ground a dozen feet away. Now, only Javier remained.
He attacked with a wordless battle cry, sword blazing even more brilliantly than before as he swept his sword in a horizontal slash. This time, the arc of flame extended far to the left and right of his actual swing, shooting forward in a wave.
Can't dodge!
I shielded my face with my arms. The red-and-yellow flames caught me from abdomen to head, burning through my clothes and searing my skin. Except… all it did to my skin was redden it.
I brought my arms down to see Javier staring at me open-mouthed.
"B-but that should have…! Did you take a fire resistance pill?!"
I shot forward and delivered one last Moon Ash Strike right to his sternum, shooting him back to crash on the street. I straightened, not even breathing hard.
None of them so much as stirred.
They were definitely dead.
I put my left hand to my mouth. I feel ill. I just killed people. Again. I looked down at the closest one, eyeing his yellow sash. I really hope that their sect doesn't come for revenge. I only know how sects function from stories, and I have no idea how far away their sect is, either.
I glanced around and spotted a pair of city watchmen standing some distance away. I gestured to them, beckoning them. They looked at each other, hesitated, and then came over.
They clasped their hands and bowed.
"How can we help, Master Cultivator?"
I paused. "I'm going to take their belongings as compensation. Dispose of the bodies for me."
"…Of course, Master Cultivator."
I checked my skin. While it was somewhat tender, I didn't think I'd actually gotten real burns, or at least not anything that would last like a burn would for a mortal. I was starting to think that my Body Tempering Method was actually a really strong one, based on the other guy's reaction to how little his flames hurt me. Satisfied, I then looted the enemies. Only Javier had a storage ring, but both of the others had not just swords but also pouches with stuff in them. I didn't bother to check what was in the pouches or the storage ring, simply putting it all in my own ring to be sorted through later.
"Are you okay?" Seran asked.
"Yeah. It hurts a little, but it's just a minor injury. They were a lot weaker than me. We should… go."
Seran nodded.
"Are you all right? I mean… having killed again?"
"…I will be. It's not as bad as it was last time. Honestly, that actually worries me. I don't want to be okay with killing willy-nilly."
Seran shook her head. "Even if you get to the point where it doesn't make you feel bad, I know you'll never be okay with killing for no reason. You're a good person."
"…Thanks, Seran."
We went somewhere mostly secluded and I took out the loot to sort through it. The first thing I noticed was that the swords, which were actually single-edged and slightly curved rather than straight and double-edged like mine, weren't actually regular iron. Two of them were very high-quality steel, while Javier's was actually something my identification technique told me was "steel forged from spirit iron," which was supernaturally durable. In other words, it could withstand more strength than mundane steel.
The two non-Javier cultivators had money, spirit stones, and bottles of pills in their pouches. Altogether, that was twenty-three gold, seventeen silver, nine spirit stones, and a total of nineteen pills (composed of six different kinds). The pills were between 73% and 76% "pure," with the remaining percent being "pill toxicity" that would need to be purged through cultivation if the pill was used – otherwise the toxins would build up and impair either the body or cultivation advancement.
The types of pills were blood replenishment (2), bone mending (1), general healing (5), general antidote (4), sensory boost (2), and qi replenishment (5), all of the lowest tier. I didn't necessarily know exactly what that meant; I just got the names popping into my head from the identification technique.
Considering the high level of pill toxicity (these were probably average or even poor quality), it would probably be best to sell them in the future rather than using them ourselves – unless it was an emergency.
Javier, surprisingly, wasn't actually that much better off than his compatriots. Most of his wealth was probably tied up in the ring and sword. He had two each of the same pills as the others, eleven spirit stones, fifteen gold, three silver, some food, and some jugs of water. In addition, however, he also had several blades of azure grass (Azure Skygrass), a couple stalks of a seeding yellow grass (Golden Binding Grass), and a single purple chrysanthemum (Amethyst Chrysanthemum). These were obviously spirit plants, and in fact they were plants found in my encyclopedia: the first was used in making qi replenishment pills, the second was used as a binding agent in many types of pills, and the last could be used to make a beverage of some kind.
I wonder if I can transplant them into my garden…
After sorting through everything, I stowed it all back in my ring, and we went exploring the city once more (including buying more clothes). The day concluded without any more incidents, and the next two days consisted of the journey home.
Once we were back home, Seran began her meditation to "see" her spiritual roots. It had taken me four months to succeed, which I told her up front so that she wouldn't grow frustrated. With her being occupied by this for most of the day each day (the rest of her time spent exercising and practicing unarmed and spear arts), I turned my attention back to my realm.
-x-
First, I planted all my plants. Before doing anything else, I took a moment to study the obelisk and catalogue my possessions.
SIDE ONE
Visits: 1601
Deaths: 130
Kills: Rank One x150, Rank Two x150
Visit Cooldown: 12 hours
Kill Rewards: None Unclaimed
SIDE TWO
Spirit Garden 1: Ginger, Ginseng, Licorice, Astragalus, Angelica, Sage, Thyme, Kale
Spirit Garden 2: Azure Skygrass, Golden Binding Grass, Amethyst Chrysanthemum
Spirit Garden 3: Nothing
Spirit Orchard: 1000y Ginkgo, 1000y Goji, 1000y Plum, 1000y Fig
Spirit Pool: Cleansing Water
Spirit Pool Inhabitants: None
Advancement Tree: Sapling
SIDE THREE
Bed: Grade 2 – Return to Waking World, Visit by Meditation
Pill Furnace: Grade 1 – Apprentice Level
Spirit Forge: Grade 1 – Apprentice Level
Spirit Mine: Grade 2 – Low-grade Spirit Stones, Low-grade Spiritual Jade
SIDE FOUR
Cultivation Stage: Body Tempering (Peak)
Qi Center: Ignited, 9 Celestial Harmony Roots
Meridians: Open (Tier 1)
Body: 100% Tempered (Worldly)
Mind: Gated
Progress Rewards: 8-Element Qi Refining Method,
Spirit Mine (Grade 2),
Solar Dragon Meridian Opening Method,
8-Element Body Tempering Method,
Spirit Garden & Orchard Activation & Enhancement
Bed Upgrade (Grade 2)
POSSESSIONS
Spirit Stones: 92 Mid, 800 Low
Spiritual Jade: 22 Mid, 40 Low
Money Tablets: 595 Gold, 80 Silver
Beast Cores: Rank Two x150 (30 of each type)
Rank One Spirit Beast Loot: Squirrel x42, Viper x32, Boar x27, Wolf x26, Roller x23
Rank One Spirit Beast Meat: 880lbs
Rank Two Spirit Beast Loot: Beetle x30, Deer x30, Fox x30, Owl x30, Butterfly x30
Rank Two Spirit Beast Meat: 750lbs
Jade Slips: Combat Arts, Techniques, Encyclopedia, Cultivation Methods
Pills (70s%) : Healing x7, Antidote x6, Qi Replenishment x7
Blood Replenishment x4, Bone Mending x3, Sensory Boost x4
Usable Gear: Sword/Spear (Damaged), Sword x2, Spear x2, Spatial Ring x2
Sellable Gear: High-mortal Sword x2, Spirit Steel Sword x1
Hm. That's actually quite a lot of stuff. Before Seran reaches Body Tempering, I'd like to have at least Stage Three spirit beast extermination completed as well as raise my alchemy competency to the point where I came make high-quality body tempering pills so that her Body Tempering Stage doesn't last as long as mine did. Of course, considering that she can't refine qi as fast as me, it'll probably take her a long time to structure her qi center… it might actually be a couple years before she's at that point.
I headed to the woods, which had once more grown tremendously in size. As it turned out, Stage Three spirit beasts were what I estimated to be where I'd stood at 60% Body Tempering, so while they were head and shoulders above Stage Two spirit beasts, I still had the edge. There were, as before, five new types: venomous giant scorpion (as tall as a horse, excluding tail), metallic-scaled lizard (about five feet tall), lightning-wreathed wolf with a blade horn (about four feet tall), giant boar with earth-manipulation abilities (about eight feet tall), and an eagle-sized hawk that moved a lot faster when swooping than its rank would account for (and so I assumed it had some sort of "speed" ability rather than an elemental one).
Unfortunately, other than the wolf and hawk, the others all had incredibly tough defenses, and the wolf wasn't exactly lacking in that regard. The fights were actually challenging, and even though I was using qi reinforcement on my weapons, they still were clearly reaching the very end of their life by the time I killed all five. Of course, I was pretty sure that qi reinforcement was less effective on something that was already damaged, so there was that at least. My second go at the woods that night ended up breaking both my sword and spear, forcing me to start using my first replacement set. Qi reinforcement was much more effective with those, confirming my theory.
My first bonus reward wasn't what I expected. Instead of getting more unarmed attack or movement techniques, I learned a technique called Phoenix Restoration, which was a self-healing technique. It involved meditating and cultivating, but instead of using energy to enhance the body or gain additional qi, it dramatically accelerated healing speed. Higher levels of mastery not only increased healing speed but also allowed the user to do things like remove poisons and venoms and set their own bones (even if the bone was fully shattered).
I shifted to alternating between fighting spirit beasts during the day and training my techniques at night. Two days later, I got my next bonus reward: the Starlight Spear technique. At Proficient level, it allowed me to created a spear made of non-elemental qi that looked like it was composed of starlight. At Expert level, said spear could be adjusted in durability and power to match my Body Tempering level rather than simply being the equivalent of High-Mortal. At Mastery level, the spear could be made of elemental qi, combining up to three elements.
Four days after that, I got the sword bonus reward: the Shadowlight Sword technique. This was similar to the Starlight Spear technique, allowing me to create a sword made of qi. However, it appeared to be made half of darkness and half of yellow light, and I could make one or the other take over entirely, switching between the two at will. When it was made of light, it was strong against magical defenses, and when it was made of darkness, it was strong against physical defenses. The Expert level effect was the same as the Starlight Spear effect. At Mastery, light was also lightning and fire, while dark was also ice and water.
My first set of replacement weapons were beginning to show some wear at this point, but I was sure I could make them last at least until the 80-kill reward, so I kept going. And in another eight days, I did indeed make it to that point, though my weapons were now in very bad shape.
My reward was sweet because it was twofold. First, I got a jade slip for "Creation Arts (Beginner)," which was apparently the next step up for "(Basic)." This included the method for making Body Tempering pills. Second, my spirit mine was upgraded to Grade 3. This didn't change anything with regard to spirit stones or spiritual jade, but it added another material: Spirit Iron. With this, I should theoretically be able to make my own sword and spear that could keep up with my full power.
I mined 100 spirit stones, 10 low-grade spiritual jade pieces, and 2 quarter-pound nuggets of spirit iron. Mining the iron worked a little differently than the spirit stones and jade; I placed my hand on the black rock it was embedded in and mentally pulled, which caused it to slowly stream out of the rock and solidify into a nugget. It was even more mentally draining than mining jade. Creation Arts (Beginner) told me that I could chuck twenty nuggets into the forge and inject qi and manipulate it, and out would pop a half-pound Spirit Steel ingot. Where did the rest of the material go? No idea, but it was magic, so… shrug.
The next day, I headed into the woods, slightly dreading facing pairs of spirit beasts. I emerged victorious, but injured and having broken my first replacement set of weapons. The next time, I was injured yet again, though my second replacement set was fine. After that would come fighting trios, which I was really not looking forward to, so I took a break from fighting to focus on training.
I trained forms and techniques for the rest of the spring (most of a month) and the entirety of summer, eventually reaching Expert level in all everything except my most recent acquisitions (and Qi Reinforcement and Identification, neither of which had different mastery levels). As my mastery increased, so too did the amount of qi I used to execute techniques as I could bring more power to bear.
It was around this same time (the beginning of autumn) that Seran finally succeeded in being able to examine her spiritual roots, meaning that it had taken her around the same length of time that it had taken me, which I honestly thought was pretty impressive. I practically poured spirit stones around her gathering array – 1,200 stones, which would power the array 24/7 for 150 days.
Then I headed back into the woods. Armed with more versatile and more powerful techniques, I was sure that I could succeed.
-x-
I faced the hawks first. The tactics were simple: block their swoops with Shimmering Veil, then counter before they could recover by using Staccato Star Strike. With the increased size of the shield and the speed of my attack, this worked wonderfully. Unfortunately, this was also going to be the easiest battle, I thought. When the trio of giant boars all charged at me at once from three different directions while using earth arts to block off all other venues of escape, I was forced to jump straight up and let them crash into each other. I landed on their snouts, then sprang off to the side. Severing Slash at Expert proficiency was powerful enough to cut through their tough hides and nearly decapitate them, but I was also forced to use Deflecting Parry to deal with the attacks from the other two after I killed the first.
To fight the lizards I used Lunar Mirage Steps for defense and Moon Ash Strike (which now also used wind and earth in addition to fire and ice) for offense. They could take a real beating before going down, but my weapons would waste durability against their metal scales. When I fought the scorpions, however…
Three was too many. I got nailed by one of their stingers, and it all went downhill from their. I took out all of them, but I didn't even find the wolves before I collapsed from the effects of the venom and subsequently died.
The next visit, I went back into the woods. This time I faced the wolves first, then hawks, then lizards, then scorpions… and died after beating the scorpions again. The next day, I got the boars, then the hawks… and then there were no more beasts in the woods. Guess there's no cheesing to avoid fighting quartets.
It took me three tries to kill twenty more spirit beasts, because four at once was a bit overwhelming even for the other types, not just for the scorpions. My weapons were nearly broken, so I trashed them when I finished.
I had finally reached 150 Stage Three kills.
SIDE ONE
Visits: 1866
Deaths: 134
Kills: Rank One x150, Rank Two x150, Rank Three x150
Visit Cooldown: 12 hours
Kill Rewards: Unclaimed
=Rank Three Giant Scorpion=
Beast Core x12, Stinger x12, Vial of Venom x12
=Rank Three Steel Lizard=
Beast Core x13, Metal Scale Skin x13, Meat (260lbs)
=Rank Three Lightning Blade Wolf=
Beast Core x15, Fangs x30, Blade Horn x15, Meat (225lbs)
=Rank Three Earth Boar=
Beast Core x13, Hide x13, Tusks x26, Meat (650lbs)
=Rank Three Dashing Verdant Hawk=
Beast Core x17, Feathers x170, Meat (17lbs)
=Bonus (150 Rank Three Kills)=
Beast Forest Upgrade
Pearl of Enlightenment x2
I noted how this would affect my beast-related possessions.
Beast Cores: Rank Three (Scorpion x28, Lizard x29, Wolf x31, Boar x29, Hawk x33)
Rank Three Spirit Beast Loot: (same distribution as cores)
Rank Three Spirit Beasts Meat: 2,228lbs
"Claim rewards."
My bonus reward was two Pearls of Enlightenment. These turned out to be pearlescent gold – not yellow – spheres about half an inch in diameter. They were simultaneously weightless and heavy: physically, it was almost as though they didn't exist, but they had a spiritual presence that was incredibly dense. Even though I'd never heard of them before, I knew right away they were a Big Deal.
"Am I… supposed to swallow this or something?" I said hesitantly, holding on up to my eye and examining it. "I don't even know what this is, let alone how to use it. Even Identify doesn't work on it."
I put one over with my mining materials and sat down on the gathering array, rolling the other one around in my hand. Pearl of Enlightenment… is this something that can advance my cultivation in the Awakening Stage? Or is this something that can advance my skills, like for crafting or weapon arts? Either? Both? I have two of them… but… I still don't know if I should use them. Should I use one and save the other for Seran? Even if I decide to do that, how do I use it? Should I eat it like a pill? Or do I need to hold it while I meditate?
"Hm…"