Chapter Nineteen: Other Cities

The recruits were awoken by a heavy gong just as dawn broke, but since Lacy was now powered by souls she was already awake and practicing her water qi control while they massaged their faces and ate breakfast. When it came time for everyone to gather in front of Instructor Kong she sighed and got up. After using magic to kill a bunch of wasps yesterday she was starting to understand why everyone kept insisting she didn’t bother training to awaken her body. Exercising and weapons training would eat a BUNCH of hours every day when she could instead be increasing her proficiency with drowning her enemies on dry land, or making the earth swallow her enemies.

Yet still, that was half the benefit of already being a spirit cultivator. She could train to be a body cultivator during the day and practice her qi arts at night!

“Listen up, initiates!” Instructor Kong boomed with all of his diaphragm. “Now that you are here, I can reveal what you’re doing!” The body Seed went on to explain several main points.

One: they were at a training camp for guards and would stay there until they either dropped out, got kicked out, or graduated and earned the privilege to become Seeds. Though, there was still some training after awakening as a cultivator.

Two: it wasn’t Yellowvine’s training camp, it was actually utilized by a total of five different cities. Yellowvine, Slevote, Tosmai, Wice, and Lohgfamen. Also, they were the last to arrive, though they’d all gotten there within three days of each other.

Three: their days would consist of jogging in the mornings, rest in midday, and weapons training in the afternoon. As it turned out, the weight training from the preliminary seven days was only a test to separate those who didn’t want to put their all in the training from everyone else, because muscles weren’t required to be a strong body cultivator. Dexterity, agility, and skill derived from experience were actually much more important because a spear or claw would kill anyone if it struck a vital location, so the key to survival was not getting hit.

Additionally, there were as many muscular warriors as not, due entirely to personal choice, not any kind of systemic requirement or survival need. Swinging and stabbing a little harder was not enough to save a body cultivator’s life when it was in danger. This was why women were perfectly capable of being effective guards and even sometimes found it easier to fight due to their smaller-on-average builds that were harder to hit.

Four: there were special, magical resources available for the recruits who stood out, so they were competing against others from their own city, but they were first competing with those from other cities. The special resources were to be distributed once a month, so whoever stood out before then would be rewarded, but only if their city’s group won competitions against the other cities. There were only enough special resources for the standouts of two cities.

Five: the rules for living in the camp were the same rules they’d lived with their entire lives—follow orders from people above them and don’t commit crimes.

Six: nothing changed for Lacy. The instructor singled her out specifically, saying that everything applied to her, as well, so long as she wanted to earn the same privilege of body cultivation. She could remove herself from the training at any time, but that would constitute failing.

By the end of the speech and the start of their jog around the camp, Lacy was left wondering only one thing…since there was going to be competition, would she be forbidden from using her spirit arts?

……

They jogged around the camp’s perimeter—which was more of a small village, actually—and got a good look at the dozens of recruits from the other cities. Of course, they looked and acted normal. All of their city-states weren’t that far from each other, according to Instructor Poko, and they traded people and goods often, so it made sense they weren’t very different and no hostilities surfaced. They hadn’t even started competing yet, after all.

But the peace wasn’t kept for long. All recruit groups started and finished at the same time, so their mid-day rest was also at the same time and most people went to the cafeteria pavilion to eat snacks, rest, and hang out. There was very quickly an uproar when the other cities’ recruits discovered that only Yellowvine’s people were allowed to snack on fresh wasp honey.

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“Is this special treatment? Why do only they get to taste the honey?!” one aggrieved recruit asked very loudly at a dude behind the counter, gesturing toward the mass of Yellowvine recruits who were enjoying maybe an ounce of honey each in small bowls.

“That’s because we earned it!” some random Yellowvine guy shouted back as he stood and puffed out his chest. “If you want honey, then go find some! We took down that nest ourselves!”

Lacy was unamused at how much work the “we” and “ourselves” was doing, but she wasn’t going to say anything. She didn’t really want to draw attention and only came around for the honey she knew would be waiting for them. In the future she might just go practice qi control in her barrack during mid-day rest.

The guy who started the shouting match didn’t have anything to say at that, but someone else around him picked up the slack.

“Oh yeah? I don’t see stings on even ONE of you! I’d wager your instructors gathered it and you’re taking credit!”

Lacy’s stomach dropped. She could see where this was going but she couldn’t stop it without yelling and defeating the purpose of staying silent.

“That’s because our own Lacy did it all by herself! And she only got stung once on the arm!”

So many ears perked up. So many heads turned. And every Yellowvine recruit looked up at hearing her name as an unspoken question passed through them all.

Do they reveal how she did it?

“Oh really?” the other city guy laughed. “You let a girl do it?”

Someone made the decision in only two seconds.

“Our Lacy found the hive, used a fire steel to build a fire under it, and smoked the wasps out!” another random Yellowvine guy spoke up. “Then she graciously decided to share the honey with us, but of course there isn’t enough for so many recruits! It’s just one hive! Go find your own!”

Lacy gulped and tried not to go red at all the eyes staring.

“Thanks, Lacy!”

“Yeah, thanks so much, Lacy!”

“You’re the best, Lacy!”

“Generous Lacy!”

The cheers from her fellow recruits only made it harder.

……

“Really? That’s how it happened?” Shu asked as the Yellowvine recruits filed into a humongous training field. Hoomar also walked beside them, listening as he always did.

“Yep. Looks like they want to hide that I’m a spirit cultivator. Maybe save it as a surprise for the other city people later, like during competitions. Instructor Kong didn’t say I couldn’t.”

“I noticed that,” Hoomar said, speaking for what felt like the first time that day. “Though, I do not want to see you thrown out of the exams and urge you to ask for clarification.”

“Hoomar is so sweet,” Shu said, giving the big man an affectionate elbow bump. “I was thinking that you should try to get away with as much spirit manipulation as you can, and if you’re told it’s not allowed, feign ignorance. Say nobody told you.”

Lacy chuckled.

“I think I’ll ask, just in case.”

“Boooooo, take the risk!”

On the field waiting for the recruits was a cart full of shortspears, and Instructor Kong began handing them out like candy, tossing them to the nearest recruits and letting them pass the weapons along until everyone had one. Having gone hunting with Mai Mosa so many times she had been forced to use a spear on multiple occasions and was familiar with its weight in her hands, though she still wasn’t exactly skilled.

“Form a grid with me at the center!” Instructor Kong ordered. “Have enough room between you and the nearest four people that you can swing your spear and not hit them!”

They did as instructed, taking up what felt like a lot of space until Lacy compared it to the rest of the field. They had room aplenty between city recruits, to the extent where each instructors’ bellowing sounded faint, almost inaudible.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that how well you master the spear will determine your future!” he shouted, while turning slowly so that he’d eventually look everyone in the eyes. “Almost all Seeds are the same, with their only differentiating traits being how well they can wield their chosen weapons in battle and avoid dying! The only methods of being different are acquiring rare and expensive magical resources—spirit treasures—that will enhance your body, or learning a particularly deadly technique! But since we are all mere peasants from ordinary Yellowvine City, we likely won’t get our hands on either of those! That leaves us with our skills, and chief among those are weapon skills, and chief among weapons is the simple spear!”

He paused to let his words sink in. Looking around, Lacy found many determined expressions. It seemed like most of them weren’t finding his reality check hard to internalize.

“Who can tell me why every guard is trained in the spear?”

Someone on the other side of the grid from Lacy raised his hand, and Instructor Kong pointed him out. Lacy could barely hear the guy speak.

“LOUDER!” the instructor roared.

“Because it is easy to learn and provides the reach advantage, sir!”

“EXACTLY! Now who can tell me why we body cultivators envy the spirit cultivators!”

Of course, many eyes turned toward Lacy, but she did her best to ignore them.

“For the same reasons, sir!”

“AND WHAT ARE THOSE REASONS?!” Instructor Kong demanded.

“The spirit arts are easy to learn and can be wielded from longer distances, outside of melee range, sir!”

“EXACTLY!” he repeated. “Those of us not blessed with spirit roots have to work MANY times harder than spirit cultivators and we STILL lack the same survivability and killing potential! Now EVERYONE tell me what they just learned! What do you need to master?! The—”

Everyone shouted at the tops of their lungs, “SPEAR!”

“EXACTLY! And we have to work…?”

“MUCH HARDER!”

Instructor Kong went on to say a few more encouraging words to balance out the reality check before instructing that everyone assume the same poses as him, and the training began.