Chapter Twenty-Nine: Lion Sapling
Lacy planted her feet next to Dod, who balked at her presence. No doubt Peegra would have reacted the same way if he were present, but he was likely asleep in his barrack. The man was a good teacher, but when his presence wasn’t needed he took advantage of his status to lounge around.
“Return to the back lines, Student Lacy!” Dod demanded. “You are no combatant yet, and this is not the place for newbie fighters!”
Many of the front liners turned to gawk or at least snuck glances at her, but Lacy paid them no mind and didn’t immediately think of a response to Dod, instead choosing to practice some qi breathing to calm herself.
Eventually, she replied, “I’ll be in the back of the front lines with you since I’m only an elementalist, not a dual cultivator. If the lion gets this far, we’re probably all doomed anyway.”
If even Dod, who only had a wood affinity and didn’t see much combat outside of what it took to stay young, could boldly place himself in front of the lion Sapling, then she could too. Sure, Dod would mostly attend injuries and support the body cultivators with enhancements, but he was prepared to defend with his practice if necessary. Lacy could not be outdone by the whiny healer.
“I am at very real risk of death, mind you!” the man chastised. “The beast is a Sapling! It may well sense that I provide valuable support to its opposition and go straight for me, resulting in my end but allowing our warriors to land killing blows! If you join the fight you might perish instead, and I refuse to outlive my student!”
Lacy could only blink in response. Dod… No. Elite Physician Dod was a lot cooler than she’d given him credit for.
“Cut chatter,” a feminine voice commanded from the very front, and all cultivators immediately ceased making any noise. “The beast approaches with purpose, likely more intelligent than others of its ilk. I will attempt communication.”
Instructor Poko was one of the camp’s highest ranked Sprouts, just behind Autberry, but since he wasn’t present at the moment, Poko took command.
‘Wait, where’s Autberry?’
The dual Sprout was the camp’s most powerful cultivator, and he was in charge of the competition! He couldn’t have disappeared, right? As Lacy pivoted in place to search for the man, Instructor Poko puffed out her chest, enhanced her lungs with blood essence, and projected her voice across the field.
“HONORED BEAST, PLEASE DEPART! WE HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER YOU!”
Just as Lacy was about to give up searching the training grounds for Autberry, she spotted the man holding a spear, standing at-the-ready in a small group of recruits to her far back left. His eyes met hers, and he put a finger over his lips before gesturing to the lion as if telling her to focus on the enemy.
‘What the actual fuck?’ Lacy almost asked Elite Physician Dod what Autberry was doing all the way over there, but she soon figured it out on her own. ‘Oh, he might be there for a sneak attack on the lion. His element is wind, so combined with his physical strength he can move pretty fast.’
Satisfied, Lacy returned her attention to the front, and to her surprise, the lion had actually stopped approaching. It now sat on its hind legs some one hundred meters away, staring at them, but also glancing around as if looking for something. Or waiting.
Now that she was really inspecting the beast, Lacy noticed that it was a good deal bigger than a normal lion and covered in injuries. Its mane had spots carved out of it, its flank was covered in scratches, and many pieces of its fur were slightly discolored, as if dyed by blood.
“HONORED BEAST, PLEASE RETURN TO THE WILDS, AS WE WILL HAVE TO ASSUME YOU A THREAT IF YOU APPROACH MORE!”
The lion didn’t turn around and leave like Lacy hoped. It didn’t do anything in response to Instructor Poko’s words, likely because it didn’t understand her. Even if it was intelligent, which Lacy had heard some beasts could be, it probably didn’t speak their language. After all, the Deity had gifted Lacy with a translation boon specifically because this world didn’t have any kind of universal language system—
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
‘I have a translation boon,’ she realized, before immediately clearing her throat and walking up to Instructor Poko.
“Excu—” the woman jumped slightly as Lacy’s aura blended with hers, and her flinching caused the man next to her to also flinch. Nobody was as calm as they appeared.
“What?” Instructor Poko hissed, trying to keep an eye on the lion while also facing Lacy. “I cannot keep you from fighting, but remain in the back!”
“Let me try talking to it!” Lacy insisted, before shaking her head and changing her wording. “I mean, I’m going to try talking to it! Um, since I’m a spirit cultivator!”
Without waiting for permission, Lacy latched onto as much dirt around her as she could grab in a second and stepped forward, swirling the dirt around herself in a display of spirit arts. Then, she cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered with all she had.
“HONORED BEAST, PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE!”
The lion’s head, previously facing the training camp, snapped toward Lacy so quickly that she forgot what else she was going to say.
“It understands spirit practitioners?” Instructor Poko wondered aloud before she grabbed and shuffled Lacy back. “Hester, you are our voice now!”
“Wait, no!” Lacy insisted as she struggled fruitlessly against Instructor Poko’s Sprout grip, and she was forced to let the dirt drop.
Before Lacy could think of how to explain why she should be their voice without raising suspicion, Hester—the only spirit Sprout in the training camp—obeyed.
“HONORED BEAST,” he said, “WE HAVE FLEDGLINGS TO PROTECT! PLEASE DEPART!”
Lacy was the only person who knew with certainty that the lion didn’t acknowledge Hester at all, so she cupped her hands around her mouth again and repeated Hester’s words.
“What are you doing?” Instructor Poko hissed, but Hester spoke again, and Lacy again echoed him soon after.
“HONORED BEAST, THERE IS NOTHING OF VALUE FOR YOU HERE!”
“Lacy!” the older woman intoned. “What are you doing?! You are the last person who should be attracting its attention! Stay silent beside Dod!” Instructor Poko let go of her once they reached the healer.
“I-I’m doing whatever I can!” Lacy said with as much anguish in her voice as she could muster. “I don’t want to die, but I need to help!”
Lacy knew she couldn’t tell anyone the truth without causing herself a shit ton of problems so she opted to play up her desperation, acting like she wasn’t in her right mind.
Thankfully, Instructor Poko bought it and her expression softened.
“Thank you, Lacy, but stay with Dod.”
There was nothing else that could be said because the lion stood and resumed its stride, a little faster than before. Instructor Poko returned to the very front line in the blink of an eye.
“LEAVE US ALONE! WE’LL KILL YOU!” Lacy shouted as the cultivators readied themselves, channeling blood essence and preparing techniques. Elite Physician Dod took a handful of seeds out of his pocket and threw them in all directions with one clean motion—some seeds landing on other cultivators—before he swept his aura as far as it could stretch in every direction, sucking the wood qi out of every blade of grass and leaving them wilted. No doubt the man’s internal stores of wood qi were already full, but it was always good to use what was available first. The wood qi he gathered slowly sank into the nearest Sprouts, Instructor Poko included.
‘Enhancements,’ Lacy noted. The potential to use wood qi to temporarily stimulate and enhance body cultivators before combat was one of the main reasons that dual cultivators with a wood affinity were so envied. They could heal and enhance themselves.
[Studious Aura has activated.
(Seed) (Wood) Muscle Enhancement has been recorded.]
The words appeared in her mind without warning, and Lacy staggered with surprise at the information that was suddenly at her fingertips.
‘A wood technique,’ she thought, eyes wide. ‘I can…feel the knowledge right there! THAT’S what Studious Aura does?!’
Before Lacy could ponder the implications of her second boon, Instructor Poko shouted another command for the cultivators to ready techniques, and even more messages popped into Lacy’s brain.
[Studious Aura has activated.
(Seed) (Body) Swift Step has been recorded.]
[Studious Aura has activated.
(Seed) (Body) Power Swing has been recorded.]
[Studious Aura has activated.
(Seed) (Body) Eagle Eyes has been recorded.]
Lacy clumsily retracted her aura in panic, sweating at the thought that someone might have noticed what had happened, but no one peeled their eyes off of the approaching spirit beast.
‘Maybe they just don’t have the time to address it right now? Fuck! It’d be bad enough if anyone knew how talented I was, but now I have to hide that my aura can steal techniques!?’
Trying not to panic at the idea of being imprisoned and studied, Lacy also prepared for the Sapling’s arrival, though because she didn’t officially know any techniques she couldn’t do much else besides lift as much dirt as her young cultivation base could support. She didn’t even glance at the knowledge just sitting there in a corner of her mind, the promises of power that her aura had pilfered. According to Peegra, learning and using a technique for the first time wasn’t something too strenuous, but Lacy had no way of knowing what opening up her database of techniques would do to her. Maybe she’d just instantly figure out how to use them without any lag time, but she worried that her consciousness might be sucked into a mental library while her physical body stood defenseless. Or perhaps her cheat method of learning techniques would just take up a lot of her mental processing power, also leaving her defenseless.
The lion Sapling exploded into motion and all excess thoughts crumbled. Almost as quickly, the body cultivators surged forward. Not even two seconds later, flecks of human blood painted the training grounds grass.