Chapter Twenty-Five: Killer

The night of the inter-city contests, Autberry took Lacy on another hunt and praised the way she dealt with the accusations.

“You were watching?”

“The wind carries all manner of secrets to mine ears,” the man laughed softly as they walked through the forest, giving Lacy a jolt of panic as she feared he was about to reveal he knew about the vampire. “If only. No, I simply foresaw such a development and watched from a distance in case I needed to step in and deal some disciplinary actions. Thankfully, you handled yourself incredibly well with your challenge.”

“Thank you very much, sir,” Lacy said, trying to hide her relief. “In the past, I avoided conflict like that, but I remembered what you said about growing into my new status. I am a spirit cultivator and can use my influence for good. In this case, getting a guard to help me teach some assholes a lesson.”

Autberry nodded proudly before asking, “In the past?”

Lacy internally froze again. She was supposed to be an amnesiac.

“I may have had some trouble in Pole—the farming village that found me—and back in Yellowvine during the seven days of preliminaries.”

“Yes, that is terribly common for women seeking to become cultivators. You are incredibly fortunate to have a spirit root, especially one such as yours that provides talents in three elements.”

‘If only you knew,’ Lacy internally sighed. ‘Would be nice for you to teach me air elementalism. Gliding and floating around looks so fun.’

But she kept her genius-level talents to herself, not wanting to be taken to the capital and possibly forced into staying a spirit cultivator no matter how well she’d be trained. The Deity had told her to be as strong as possible for when they gave her orders. Being a dual cultivator, even if it meant she’d have to hunt even more frequently, was worth it to have both power over herself and the strength to follow the Deity’s orders.

‘Wait,’ Lacy thought, confused. ‘Does that make me a priest? Because I’m obeying a god’s commandment? Wow, that’s…whack to think about.’

“What is on your mind?” Autberry asked suddenly, bringing Lacy out of her reverie.

“Um, nothing much, sir,” she said, before realizing her mistake. He could tell from her expression that she had been thinking about something. Saying that it was nothing was only ever suspicious. “Well, honestly I was thinking about how I’m going to be a dual cultivator by the time I leave this place. I’m very excited about it. I know that the hunting seems easy now because I’m being protected by someone powerful and that it will be more challenging on my own or with people of my realm, but that’s what training is for. I can’t wait to be able to slay beasts with my own strength, without relying on someone more powerful.”

“It is good that you recognize it will not be easy,” Autberry nodded again, before pointing to their left and saying, “Ah, there is a suitable beast. Come.”

Lacy welcomed the familiar sensation of wind buoying her as they broke into a run and soon came upon a lone stag of some kind. It didn’t look exactly like a deer, but it was close enough to call it that, like with most animals in this new world; they were similar to what she knew from Earth but always different in some way.

Like usual, the Sprout trapped Lacy and the beast Seed in a cage of wind, and while the creature panicked, trying to break through the wind walls, Lacy prepared herself.

She’d been practicing diligently every night and hunting almost two nights. She could clearly feel the difference in her power between now and that first hunt with Autberry.

Lacy knew that tonight was the night she killed a beast without Autberry protecting her.

She summoned her aura and gathered ambient qi with which she emptied one and a half of her three waterskins, creating a glob of water that she forced into an approximation of a bowling ball and launched at the stag as it charged the wind barrier.

The stag was sent crashing into the air qi like it was tackled by a linebacker, and Lacy internally cheered as she took control of the water ball a second time, fighting through the stag’s attempts at destabilizing her qi control. The beast rose to its feet but Lacy’s water ball came crashing down onto its back, trying to keep it down so that it couldn’t charge her.

Yet it was a smart beast. It shrunk its aura and focused it on Lacy’s water ball just before it made contact, shaking her qi control enough that it still hit hard, but not at full strength. On top of that, the beast kept its aura focused on the water that splashed everywhere, preventing Lacy from gathering it again.

That was fine. She’d held back half the water on purpose for just this occasion. She formed another water ball and prepared to strike the stag right in the face, when suddenly the beast’s aura flared in all directions and earth qi all around Stacy came alive.

The ground buzzed as the stag let go of its suppression on the water and instead focused on the dirt. Faster than she could wonder what it was doing, it stuck its antlers into the ground before lifting its head again, flinging not just the dirt in front of it, but all the dirt within its aura.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Shocked, Lacy just watched with mouth agape as the barrier of wind sprung up to defend her, catching the hundreds of pounds of dirt.

“Damnit,” she cursed, stomping the ground in frustration. “Damnit, damnit, damnit!”

“It is quite alright, Lacy. You are already far more combat capable than most newly awakened spirit Seeds,” Autberry assured her from outside the fight. “It is expected that you would fail against a grown beast with a strong affinity.”

“Thank you, sir,” Lacy sighed before focusing her mind. It sucked that this one was still too strong for her, but after finishing it off she would solo a different beast. She couldn’t let this failure weigh on her.

……

She did eventually kill the stag and move on to a second beast—a furry carnivore of some kind that looked like both a cat and a monkey—that she killed without Autberry’s help for the first time.

But it wasn’t the same. The second beast hadn’t been able to wield an element like the stag.

Before they went their separate ways for the night, Autberry told her, “Do not let that first battle influence you, Initiate Lacy. Consider spirit beasts with affinities as the next frontier. The next challenge to overcome, because there is always a greater challenge. Always the next mountain to climb. Just be cautious not to be someone else’s stepping stone.”

So she tried her best to think about it from that angle. To keep in mind that she was still actually really new to magic! But of course it didn’t help much, so she practiced the night away with qi manipulation.

“What’s wrong?” Shu asked sleepily when the morning gong rang. “You’re…sad.”

Lacy explained what had happened.

“You’re an idiot,” Shu concluded as she fell back into her cot and covered her face with her pillow. “I’m not rising until you apologize for being an idiot.”

That made Lacy laugh.

“I’m sorry for being an idiot.”

Shu got up and looked Lacy in the eyes as she asked, “Do you know why you’re an idiot, my dear little Lacy?”

Lacy smiled softly.

“Because I’m holding unrealistic standards for myself.”

“Exactly. Now stop being an idiot and let’s continue working hard.”

Shu didn’t magically cure her frustration, but it helped much more than Autberry’s words. It was nice to confide in close friends. Friends she hadn’t managed to make back on Earth.

……

That mid-day rest the recruits from one of the other cities—neither the other lady’s city nor Lohgfamen—celebrated as they filed into the cafeteria pavilion after the morning jogs.

Shu bellowed a laugh. “They actually did it!”

The cafeteria cooks had put up a table with familiar little bowls, but this time only for members of Wice.

As Lacy, Shu, and Hoomar approached, a familiar but wasp-stung face approached, carrying three bowls in his hands.

“I sincerely apologize for my rudeness weeks before,” he said, not looking particularly sincere, but Lacy gave him the benefit of the doubt. “I am told I can be abrasive. Also…you three were impressive in the contests.” He looked directly at Lacy. “Especially you. The method with which you put down the men who insulted you was awe-inspiring, and the way you gave them face afterwards is commendable. My father advised that I take after you. He is a Wice instructor.”

Lacy smiled as she accepted a bowl of honey.

“Apology accepted. It’s common for people to start off on the wrong foot.” She paused before asking, “Do you want to spar with us in your free time?”

“I… Yes. Call me Rogen, and I am happy to accept. I am proud of my spear skills and find joy in training them further with others.”

Shu and Hoomar smiled evilly, but not for the reason Rogen likely thought.

……

That night, Lacy experimented more with darkness qi, which always put her on edge. Hydrugno said most human cultivators struggled to sense it even when they’d fought against it before and searched for it specifically, but Autberry wasn’t most human cultivators. He was a dual Sprout, so if anyone in the camp could figure out what she was doing, it’d be him, and the thought terrified her.

But she couldn’t miss out on having access to darkness qi because it seemed too useful in a magical world where stealth was only praying not to be seen as one hid their aura and tucked behind cover. It could very well save her life.

So she practiced, despite the dangers of being caught.

Darkness qi proved the most difficult to manipulate. Even though she seemed talented in all of the elements, training with one did not entirely mean becoming better at others. Learning how to wield one made her better at qi control like how working out strengthened muscles. But if her overall qi control skill was how strong her muscles were, then learning every individual element was like playing different instruments. They each felt different in her hands and required different skills to play effectively. A piano was not a drum kit.

Regardless of all that, darkness qi was harder to grab and hold onto than any other elements. She didn’t know if that meant she was less talented with darkness qi or if that’s how it was even for koroths, but it was reality, so she resigned herself to doing what she could: trying harder…even though it didn’t seem to increase her learning pace. Skill came with practice over time.

What did help her stay motivated was imagining Hydrugno’s future face when she showed off her progress the next time they met.

Lacy also dearly wanted to store some in her soul. Peegra had taught her that capable spirit cultivators did not have to rely on solely the “pitiful” ambient elemental qis around them in a fight like she did when hunting with Autberry. It worked for her because she was just a Seed but more powerful spirit cultivators needed much more energy to pack into their attacks, and the easiest way for anyone to make sure there was enough energy for a fight was to carry it with them. This was especially important for water, wood, gold, and fire cultivators because their elements weren’t everywhere like air and dirt, allowing them to throw out water balls, fire walls, and whatnot even without any water or fire present.

That meant storing elemental qis in their souls through qi breathing so that when a fight began they weren’t left scrambling to gather what they could from the environment. However, Peegra warned that she shouldn’t try doing that until he deemed she was ready, because apparently it was common for new spirit cultivators to accidentally lose their grip on the qi and discharge it, where it often became an undirected attack. Additionally, if a strong enough spiritual grip didn’t maintain the qi at all time, even if it didn’t let loose entirely, it would leak into her aura, giving away what she might be keeping in her soul to use in a fight. However, none of that applied to the neutral qi Lacy already learned to keep in her soul, since that stuff was veritably docile.

Darkness qi was basically invisible to most humans, but its effects could still be perceived. If Lacy’s control wasn’t strong enough and darkness qi leaked into her aura out in public, it might look to others around her that parts of her body were disappearing, which would cause confusion in the best case and questions she couldn’t answer without revealing her secrets in the worst case. The idea of getting caught practicing darkness elementalism because she’d stupidly tried holding it in her soul before she was ready when she could have kept her talents a secret otherwise…

Lacy stuck to only practicing darkness qi for a couple hours each night in her barrack, neither willing to practice it outside of her safe space nor store it in her soul, no matter how useful it was.