Chapters 25-26

Jun could only watch as the filthy little intruder shamelessly ransacked his precious belongings. He hadn’t even known there was anything else alive down here, not until this little creature decided to pay his makeshift home a visit. Oh! And would you look at that. The little fiend had been so kind as to bring along his friends. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

They were rats, there were ten of them, and they were each half again the size of his head. The only silver lining that the pests seemed content to ignore him as they went about their business—rummaging through his things with uncaring abandon.

And it was a good thing, he told himself, that they’d decided to leave him be. Seeing as, for the moment he was just about as threatening as a newborn kitten. Perhaps even less so. At least kittens were born with claws. He was still only half way through the second stage of [Leaf Rides the Gale] and that meant he was hours away from even the hope of seeking retribution. So it wasn’t that he didn’t want to move. He couldn’t move. Not unless he wanted to move in all directions with great speed, anyway.

Which meant that all he could reasonably do was try to maintain his breathing, and watch, as the dirty little rodents robbed him for all he was worth. In order they took the majority of his pills, all of his and Ivory’s books, and to add insult to injury, his extremely expensive breathing manual. Snatching up his future in their little rodent mouths before scurrying up the hole and out of sight like nothing had ever happened.

Ivory tried to stop them of course. Her scathing remonstrations and tiny little blows, while valiant and much appreciated, were also holy ineffective. The beasts merely shouldered her aside as they went about their business. And in truth, it hurt him more to see her indignant fervor turned to gloom and despondency, than did the ongoing theft of his very expensive property.

In a way, it actually made him glad he was unable to move. Seeing as, were that not the case, he would probably have done something Lady Maisell, in all her high-born civility, would’ve blanched at as barbarous.

In any event, the theft might’ve been excusable had he fully memorized the scroll beforehand. Or if he had the money to just go ahead and replace it. Funny thing was, he hadn’t memorized it, and he also didn’t have enough money to buy a new one. Even if he had, the uniquely named items shifted with every store reset, and since a weekly reset had already happened since buying the manual, it was unlikely he’d find it again if he tried.

Which ultimately led him back to two main conclusions. Conclusion number one—he needed his scroll back. Conclusion number two—he really needed his scroll back, and he badly needed revenge. For the sake of poor Ivory’s pride if nothing else. Unfortunately, before he could do any of that he would need to finish this rotation. Then, and only then, could he properly seek his retribution.

***

Ivory perked up as—after two glacial hours had elapsed—Jun let out the final exhale of his second breathing form.

“Finally! I feel as if I’ve aged decades in the time it took for you to finish that interminable ritual. Quickly now. Clean yourself up and then let’s get a move on. If we hurry, there’s a chance we might still catch them in time!”

In two hours, it was impossible to know just where the little thieves had scurried off too. By now, they could be anywhere, though that still didn’t change what they had to do next. After all, he needed that scroll back if he wanted to continue progressing.

“I’m not so sure about that, but we’ll damn well try. Just give me a second to get ready, okay?”

Ivory twitched. The words “whatever for?!” clearly hanging on her… whatever passed for lips. Restraining her impatience with a visible effort, however, she acquiesced with a furious lashing of her tentacles.

“Alright, fine! But you can’t take forever! I mean, it’s one thing taking things from others when you know they weren’t being cared for—after all if they’d really cared they wouldn’t have allowed them to be so separated from their person in the first place—but having things taken from you, especially when you had no intention of giving them away, is most unpleasant! Jun, we must get our things back! There’s no time to lose!”

Jun couldn’t agree more, though that didn’t mean he’d go unprepared. Still shaking after his ordeal, Jun wasted no time in taking a meridian rejuvenation pill. The cool, cleansing energy washed through his channels—soothing any injuries inflicted by the strain. Luckily, the little monsters hadn’t been able to steal everything in one go. And, though his stock of pills was much diminished, that, at least, was of no real consequence.

Entering the general store, he quickly topped off his supply. Then he searched for a convenient way to carry all of the pills he’d just purchased, as he’d be damned if he left anything here unsupervised.

Lesser Grade Dimensional Bag (Uncommon)—4,000,000 SP

3,000,000 SP (-25%)

Thinking this underground space to be theft proof, he hadn’t seen the need for compact storage of any kind. Add to that the fact that the spacial bag in question did nothing to slow the aging of whatever was placed inside, and he had dismissed this item out of hand almost immediately. Now though…?

The bag was an unadorned tan about the size of Jun’s hand with fingers spread. The mouth of the bag was elastic, almost unnaturally so, and regardless of the light or what angle he turned it, the inside remained an eerie, impenetrable black.

Jun shrugged off the oddity as unimportant, before shoving everything he still owned into the sack and securing it on his waist with the cord. According to a few sources, he should be able to fit half a ton’s worth of stuff inside before he began to feel the weight, so he wasn’t particularly concerned with overdoing it.

Tugging on it twice to make sure it was secured properly; Jun sat back down in the lotus position and swallowed the spirit restoration pill he’d palmed. The influx of spirit was a lot less pronounced than it had been the first time around. He wasn’t sure if that was because he’d simply grown accustomed to guiding the energy, or if his channels’ having grown to be twice their original size had anything to do with it.

Four days had passed since he’d first successfully completed [Leaf Rides the Gale], and he felt like all the effort he’d put into his cultivation in that time had payed huge dividends.

Looking into his dantien through his mind's eye, Jun was greeted with a sight that never failed to bring a smile to his face. Hundreds of the little green leaves could be seen dancing on the renewed tempest in his lower abdomen. He’d been busy these last few days, and, if you knew where to look, it most certainly showed.

That wasn’t all, either. Though it might not have looked like it, his three essential parameters had improved in leaps and bounds over the last four days. And though he still couldn’t make out why everything was measured in “Stars,”—rather gargantuan for something labeled “small” if you asked him, seeing as the heaps of celestial essence he was continually consolidating apparently didn’t even represent a percent of a percent—he had managed to configure things in such a way that the fruits of his labors were, at the very least, made visible.

Name: Beckonfrost Zhaoshen Junwei

Race: Human

Cultivation: Spirit Condensation Realm: 7th Stage

Bloodline: NOT APPLICABLE

Titles: Merchant of Promise, Fledgeling Magnate, Budding Sage

Resonance Pillar: Blinded Sapling [12 of 20]

Cultivated Body: NOT APPLICABLE

Body: 0 Stars (1,414 Celestial Essence)

Mind: 0 Stars (1,414 Celestial Essence)

Spirit: 0 Stars (1,024 Celestial Essence)

Insight: 0 Stars (0 Celestial Essence)

And it didn’t end there either. With the clarity born of his cutting aura had come a peculiar revelation regarding [Leaf Rides the Gale]. If he ignored the pain—something that, with the help of his aura, had only gotten easier with time—there was actually a complimentary feeling that accompanied the raging rivers of spirit which raced through his channels. An invigorating strength, very much at odds with the debilitating pain.

Curious, during a short break in between cultivation sessions, Jun had intentionally guided his spirit through the pathways it always seemed to take during those sessions. What he’d discovered in doing so left him utterly astonished.

Well, it’d done that, and very nearly caved his skull in on the spot. It’d been difficult at first—coordinating his spirit flow without his breathing techniques’ guidance—but, by implementing parts of the second and first forms into his regular breathing patterns, it became almost second nature to have the churning river of spirit constantly flowing beneath his skin.

Then, when he was confident his spirit would continue without conscious effort on his part, Jun braced himself, and took a single step. There was an audible crunch as his face collided with a wall that hadn’t been there a second ago. Staggering backwards, he felt the back of his skull crack against something just as unyielding.

Dazed and confused, it took three more high speed collisions before he came to his senses and stopped circulating his spirit. Collapsing to the ground in a bloody heap, Jun merely lay there for several long seconds, before two pills were slipped between his teeth, and after a difficult swallow, he promptly passed out.

In any event, since that, ahem, less than optimal learning experience, he’d been able to further experiment—eventually confirming one thing. The speed at which he circulated his spirit mattered. Demonstrably so. The main reason why he’d launched himself with so much force in the first place, was due entirely to the insane speeds at which he was able to circulate his spirit. Well. That and the fact that, by that point, he’d nearly tripled his body parameter in the space of a week—effectively making him twice as strong, flexible, durable, etc as the average mortal man in their twenties. Positively invigorating, in other words. Although, even he could admit it wasn’t helping matters in that particular instance.

He didn’t want to toot his own horn or anything, but he was almost positive that most cultivators his realm would’ve been hard pressed to match him. Achieving the speeds he could easily maintain would likely run the risk of damaging another’s channels, if it didn’t cripple them outright. And all of it he felt he could attribute to his vastly expanded meridians.

Finally, all packed up and ready to go, Jun began circulating his spirit once more—all the while trying to make sure he didn’t overdo it this time.

“Alright! Ivory, you ready?”

“What kind of question is that? If I’d had my way, we would have long since apprehended the thieving scoundrel!”

“Oh yeah?” Jun grinned. “That a fact?”

“Jun, I don’t know why you feel the need to make that face, but you say that as if I was the one holding us up. I was not, in point of fact, and I will very happily remind you of as much.”

“Well, I don’t know about all that, but if you’re that impatient, I suppose we’d best make up for lost time. Let’s just hope you can keep up, shall we?”

Hunkering down into a low squat, with a sudden flex of his legs, Jun jumped. He’d intended to merely leap up and grasp onto the lip of the pit—five or so meters above him—then haul himself up and over from there. But, even with his initial precautions, he’d underestimated his own strength yet again.

What actually happened when his feet left the ground was almost what he’d intended. And for the record, he did soar gracefully up into the air. It was just that he kept on soaring gracefully for… well, quite some time. By the time he’d finally reached the apex of his leap, he was half the pit’s length above the cavern floor. Desperately flailing at the sudden vertigo, all he could do in the end was hang there and await his eventual reunion with the ground. On the bright side, at least he hadn’t fallen back into the hole.

With a groan, Jun got back to his feet—careful so he didn’t launch himself into the air with the motion. He waited patiently for the mending pill he’d swallowed to do its thing. He also studiously ignored Ivory’s amused expression. Seriously, how did a creature with no lips smirk! It didn’t even make sense!

Ears burning, it was around then that he noticed, barely illuminated by the glow from his system screens, a furry little head not even a dozen paces away.

Gotcha! The little thief figured he’d come back for seconds, did he? How awfully careless of him. Suddenly heedless of his wounds, Jun leapt forward to grab the thing, Ivory trailing closely behind. Unfortunately, the little creature was far smarter than it looked, and so did the very thing he’d hoped it wouldn’t do. It promptly turned around and made a hasty retreat—dodging between a field of stalagmites as it went.

Oh no you don’t. Jun followed in hot pursuit, trying to keep the little beast within the glow of his screens at all times. Unfortunately, the little bugger was damned quick, and knew how to use the underground terrain to its advantage. Again and again Jun was forced to divert from his path, hop over obstacles, and shuffle between stalagmites just to keep the rat in his sights.

Meanwhile, the ease with which the beast flowed through and over obstacles only made the distance between them widen even further. To add insult to injury, Ivory was having the time of her life. Her small form and nimble agility—not to mention the power of flight—turning what was, to him, an unpredictable obstacle course, into what amounted to literal child’s play.

“Trouble keeping up? I can slow down if that helps, though I doubt our quarry will be so obliging!” Ivory called back cheerfully, as she swerved around another clump of stalagmites.

Jun reddened. Well, he hadn’t thought he’d be forced to put it to the test so soon, but he’d be damned if he was outclassed so badly after all the time he’d spent preparing for this very moment. Closing in on yet another dense field of stalagmites, Jun let his cutting aura flare. Then he pushed—gathering the entirety of his weakly pulsing aura to revolve around his two outstretched fingers. Mentally chanting the mantra he’d received with the enlightenment—having realized that doing so helped immensely with the shaping process—he barely gave the looming wall of rock more than a peremptory glance before he was bearing down on it with no intention of stopping.

I cut what obstructs my path.

Just as the stalagmites came within arm's reach, he lashed out with a wide, horizontal swipe. As his fingers met stone, they didn’t bite into it so much as sheer straight through. Rock spikes fell away like toppled saplings, each cleanly bisected through the middle.

Leaping nimbly over the remnants of what’d once been a barrier, he elatedly continued the chase. He would catch this rat if he had to run to the ends of the empire and back. If the little guy thought it too could steal from him and get away with it, then it was in for a rather rude awakening.

I mean they can’t keep getting away with this, can they?

 ————————————————————

 Of all the dismal, dreary-weather fates Raina had ever believed herself destined for—either by dint of blind circumstance, her genuinely poor upbringing, or a succession of even poorer life decisions—life as a slave to an intelligent race of spirit beasts had likely never even crossed her mind. And the funniest thing was? She was actually starting to believe that, now of all times, she had a fairly decent chance of turning her life around. Likely the best chance she’d get, for a while yet, at any rate. And it wasn’t just because Edmund, the bastard, insisted on keeping to strict booze rations until the mission was complete. Though a small part of her, the part she disdained to acknowledge, did recognize that it likely played a role.

It took time to sift through the massive under city—in search of the treasures and trinkets their rodent overlords seemed to covet so highly—though not nearly as much time as they no doubt believed, stranded as they were on the other side of the outer walls. Which often left room for activities—small, harmless distractions that helped wile away the day, while they waited for something… anything to happen. For Edmund it usually meant a whole lot of doodling—using his finger to trace lines in the dust, while mumbling incoherently to himself. An island of strange calm, he was habitually surrounded by all manner of arcane scribblings. He said it was to help keep his rune-work sharp, though to Raina it still looked like so much gibberish, even after nearly a decade spent in each other’s company.

For Arthur it meant time spent in deep meditation, as he no doubt went over his talents, techniques, and abilities again and again in that obsessive way he had. Going over contingencies, his back up plans for said contingencies, and then how he might possibly improvise should his preparations prove inadequate. In many ways, paranoia wasn’t the worst thing to have in a spacial practitioner, though it did have a way of grating on one’s nerves after a while.

For Raina it generally meant pining for the next drink between naps. And, as for Viviana, the most practical of their merry little band, it usually meant training up the kiddies for war.

“Now widen your stance! Remember, the perfect strike is not achieved by simply flailing one’s arms about! A solid strike must have a solid foundation. Counter intuitive though it may seem, a good blow starts from the soles of your feet. You can think of them as your roots. It’s where most of the power you’ve seen me display ultimately comes from. Well, that in addition to impeccable technique, a few decades worth of practice, and an obscene amount of natural born talent. Though, that’s neither here nor there.”

The ripple of laughter which followed said pronouncement made Raina want to roll her eyes. This wasn’t a new side to the swordswoman she was seeing. Respect, devotion, the swooning adoration of her juniors—half of them all but smitten with her, with the other half wanting to be her outright. Viviana practically ate that shit up. Never mind that she was a raging narcissist at the best of times, and a fun-sponge when in less impressionable company. Not that Raina thought her reasoning wasn’t sound. After all it would be a serious setback, should one of these brats come to harm before they’d served their purpose. What rankled was simply that her motives weren’t nearly so pure as she’d have them believe.

They were sequestered within the once grand courtyard of a massive underground estate. Drab stone walls, topped with grey shingles, hid them from the greater city beyond. Everything around them made of stone and layered with dust—this included the many statues, dry fountains, and hidden alcoves harboring light crystals spaced tastefully throughout—though whether that was by design, or if it was simply all that withstood the test of time was anyone’s guess. A thin cloud of dust hovered over the center of the courtyard were Viviana and her brood diligently trained. Meanwhile Raina, for her part, lay sprawled out on a stone bench at around spectating distance, the comatose body of their would-be contact slash employer snuggled up at her side.

The girl was nearly the perfect cuddling size after all, and so long as she wasn’t going to be getting any use out of it, her limp body made for an excellent pillow.

“No offense.”

As expected, the little girl did not respond. She gave the kid’s ratty mess of tangles a couple of headpat’s regardless, ignoring the grimy feel of the wheat-blonde locks on her skin. It wasn’t as if she’d catch anything she didn’t already have. After a little over a week spent toiling away in the under, waiting for their mark to finally show up, there wasn’t a one of them present that couldn’t use a nice hot bath. If anything, the children were worse. Seeing as they’d been stuck down here, abducted and enslaved, well before her team’s arrival. As it was, she could only hope that their target showed his face sooner rather than later. She relished the idea of going another week without a decent drink about as much as she did their too vague assignment.

“Find the lost children. Keep them safe. When the time is right, they will lead you to the one I seek. Find him. Bind him. Bring his soul to me, and you may consider our business concluded.”

Now normally, had someone come up to her with nothing but vague riddles, and even vaguer promises, in place of a hard contract written in common, as the head of their little mercenary outfit, she’d have been the first to stick her steel-toed boot where those riddles rightly belonged, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Would have too, were the pay even a fraction less than it had been. As it was, the payout they’d receive for this single job was likely the most lucrative out of every odd job they’d taken over the many years combined. It represented a greater opportunity than even their employer was likely aware of. And all they had to do was find a single boy. In fact, if their employer was correct, it should be even easier. Because in that event, all they really had to do, was wait for him to come to them.

***

Snagging the rodent by the scruff of its neck, Jun was just barely able to yank it away in time. Diving behind a hidden alcove, he tried desperately to get a handle on his breathing as whatever they were approached. With surprising strength, the little beast almost squirmed its way free immediately, though not before he viciously clamped down on it, curtailing its struggles, at least for the moment. By then, it was all that he could do to keep it, and by extension himself, from making any noise.

It’d been a very close thing, all things considered. As the rat raced towards, what they could only surmise by the sounds to be a large group of… creatures, he’d been presented with a troublesome dilemma.

Was a lack of discovery worth losing their only potential lead? Because his little rat friend—for whom he simply had to pray was leading them in the right direction—was apparently dead set on a collision course with the aforementioned gathering of unknown entities. Of course, it went without saying that the rodent couldn’t simply be allowed to walk away. Not after the blatant disrespect it’d shone him. His aura practically flared with indignation at the thought. And so, he’d decided it was about time he show this stupid rat the truth of the disparity that lay between them. With barely a thought he sped up his circulation, tensed, then launched himself at the vile beast…! Overshooting its now retreating form by about half a dozen meters as he did so.

Stupid legs.

He really needed to get a handle on just how much was too much with this new ability. Luckily for him, the furry little fiend had been expecting his sudden flight just about as much as he had. That moment of stunned, almost incredulous stillness had been all of the opening he’d needed.

Now, as the creatures passed by their cozy little nook, he was able to confirm what he’d already suspected. They weren’t human. That much was obvious. They were rat like in a way, though much larger—only a little shorter than him at 5”6–bipedal on the whole and ugly as sin. Snaggletoothed and oddly jointed, most wore nothing but the matted fur on their backs, while others flaunted roughly sown rat-hide cloaks.

Fashioned from what looked to be dozens upon dozens of their smaller rat brethren, they hadn’t even had the wherewithal to sever any of the bright pink tails. Tails which instead flopped about by the dozens, as the creatures strolled on by. Jun had to stop himself from shivering at the sight. Apart from the hooded figures who marched along unarmed, most of the rat people held crude weapons in their clawed hands. Things of chipped stone and carved ivory. They wielded everything from spears, to daggers, axes, and more. He even thought he saw a few war-hammers mixed in. Unrefined though they might’ve been, however, he was under no illusions. Even he knew that a blunt weapon could still kill so long as time wasn’t an issue.

Jun counted thirty-five of the rat-kin, though, as to where they were all headed, he could honestly say that he couldn’t care less. All he really wanted was his breathing manual back, and then he’d be gone from this place as quick as you could say- aargh!

Jun jerked his hand away from the evil little biter, and that lapse in restraint was just enough for it to wrestle itself free. Screeching bloody murder, it made a b-line straight for the retreating army of rat-kin.

But no… There’s no way they can possibly understand it, right?

As if in response to his question the rat-kin turned towards his little alcove in unison.

Oh, you little rat!

With Ivory tugging on his shirt sleeve, insisting they stay, Jun stepped out from hiding, fully aware that they’d been made. He tried to appear as nonthreatening as possible. Dismissing his cutting aura and everything, despite the obvious comfort it gave him. You never knew. Perhaps they could be reasoned with. That was when one of the hooded rat-kin pointed a gnarled finger in his direction. This slender rat creature, a few inches taller than its brethren, then let out an ear-piercing screech. And in the next moment, the rest of them charged.