Chapter Twenty-One: Built Different

“Sir? You want me to fight a beast with only my arts?” Lacy asked as her feet grew cold, just realizing that Autberry hadn’t given her a sword or any kind of weapon. Their spears had been taken away when they arrived at the camp. “You did watch me deal with those wasps, right? I only became a spirit cultivator a couple weeks ago. I don’t think I can kill anything other than bugs, yet. Sir. Peegra won’t even let me store elemental qi in my soul, yet, sir.”

“I wish to see you try, that is all,” the Overseer said, reaching into his robes and taking something out. “I even brought you an extra waterskin for you to pull from.”

That actually did help because Lacy’s was half empty, but she still thought the task impossible. The wasps she’d drowned were just normal animals, not spirit beasts. That’s why they couldn’t connect the floating water with the humans nearby. But spirit beasts could sense qi and auras! Any spirit beast would be able to see that she was attacking them.

She explained as much to the man and he said, “Again, you need only try.”

So Lacy gave up arguing. She would have to try 1v1-ing a spirit beast without a melee weapon.

“Oh! I almost forgot to ask!” Lacy said suddenly, remembering her earlier conversation with her friends. “Um, Instructor Kong informed us recruits about competitions for special resources that would make becoming cultivators and cultivating easier, but that there were only so many to go around, so competitions between the different cities would take place, right, sir?”

Autberry smiled as he nodded, seemingly already knowing where she was going.

“So…am I allowed to use my spirit arts in those competitions, sir?”

“Of course,” he replied instantly.

“Really, sir?”

“Absolutely. Your spirit arts are no more cheating than someone else’s spear skills that they trained years before even taking the exams.”

“Oh…I never thought of it that way, sir.”

“Additionally, even though your fellow recruits will no doubt have issue with your unfair advantage, why should we stop you? It may take a while to set in, especially with your amnesia, but you are a more valued member of society than likely any of your peers will ever be. That is the hard truth. Your spirit arts will always be more valuable to Yellowvine and Ten-Jan than having just another body cultivator, unless they reach Sapling, but most do not grow that far. So if you decide to use your influence to become a dual cultivator, we will not stop you, though many have already advised against it for your own sake.”

……

“This one should do fine as your opponent.”

Lacy watched with awe as Autberry casually used countless blasts of wind to redirect a wolverine spirit beast in circles. The poor thing was trying to flee but every time it kicked off the ground, air qi would push it backwards.

Without the ability to sense air qi it would have looked a lot like the man was using telekinesis.

“A size one carnivore. Perfect.”

Lacy gulped. The beast flailed against the air qi with both its body and aura, which entirely failed to destabilize Autberry’s workings, so ultimately it could only hiss and screech in outrage. But Autberry was a Sprout. Lacy’s baby Seed abilities would not have the same overpowering effect.

“Are you entirely sure about this? Sir?”

“Quite right. Now take my waterskin and kill it. Just remember not to try controlling two different qis at once. That will be too much for you at this stage.”

Autberry tossed over his waterskin, hopped backwards a dozen meters, let go of the wolverine, and changed his focus to maintaining a barrier that prevented the spirit beast from fleeing, which it was still trying to do.

Lacy just stood there awkwardly, watching the creature bounce around almost too fast to follow with her eyes, hitting walls of air and turning around to hit more. For a moment she wondered if it would just ignore her forever.

“Unleash your aura and attack it!” Autberry commanded, and Lacy sighed.

She did as instructed, unsheathing her aura. The wolverine’s temperament immediately shifted. It continued trying to go through the wind barriers to flee far from Autberry, but now it kept sneaking glances at Lacy, whom it realized was no ordinary mortal. It completely pushed back her aura from its body with its own, but it remained a defensive action.

Gulping again, Lacy first searched the ground for a rock bigger than her hand, but came away with nothing. That was annoying. From Peegra’s instructions and her own experimentation she’d learned that earth was so hard to manipulate because of how loose most of it was, so usually a spirit Seed like her could launch a clump of dirt once before it became too many loose clumps that would need to be forgotten in favor of a new clump. Or, an earth elementalist could control rocks instead, which were much more energy intensive to control but easier to manipulate continuously because they didn’t separate into a million different particles.

But she couldn’t find any big rocks, so settled for a collection of smaller ones that she carefully brought together into a clump and controlled all at once, making them one structure in her mind. This would have the same disadvantage as a clump of dirt in how she would need to collect all the rocks again after they scattered, but with the advantage of hurting more if it did hit.

Lacy waited for the wolverine to attempt another jump through the wind barriers before she unleashed the rocks, striking the beast with an imitation of buckshot before immediately shifting her attention to controlling water. The beast shrieked at being hit and pushed her aura away even more but otherwise seemed fine as it charged her so quickly that she couldn’t do anything more than splash it with water before it reached her.

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And bounced off a wind barrier. Lacy sighed in relief as she thanked the gods that she hadn’t pissed herself, which she could still do, since her body’s metabolism and stuff was more in a magically-sustained stasis than self-regulating. Basically, her body still held the pee she hadn’t released before flipping the switch to turn off her metabolism.

“Again!” Autberry ordered.

Lacy pursed her lips as the wolverine continued bouncing between invisible walls and she worked on gathering the water out of the ground. It was rather easy to dry things as a water elementalist. She just singled out and only controlled the water qi, then voila, water rose off the ground from where she’d splashed the wolverine.

Water worked well—according to Peegra—as a blunt weapon only when the water elementalist could keep their magical hold on it. Essentially, what she was trying to do was overcome the force of recoil as the water hit her enemy, keeping it together with her willpower long enough to transfer kinetic energy.

It was possible, and easier to do than with soil, but harder than just controlling a single rock. The reason she didn’t just launch a single small rock as fast as she could with what was essentially telekinesis was because she wasn’t good enough. She hadn’t practiced enough. She couldn’t reliably hit the target at the speeds necessary to hurt a spirit beast, which was why she’d tried looking for a bigger one.

With her second blob of water Lacy spent more time focusing on it, ensuring that she could hold onto it long enough for it to transfer kinetic energy and hurt the beast.

After an embarrassingly long time making sure she could spiritually hold onto her chosen weapon, Lacy unleashed the attack on the wolverine, then cheered when it had the intended effect. The wolverine was blasted backwards with maybe the same force a kick would have delivered!

Not yet lethal, but progress.

“Again!” the unrelenting teacher commanded.

……

Autberry kept Lacy and the wolverine captive until nightfall and she still couldn’t kill it in the way she wanted to. She’d become a little more skilled at attacking with a blob of water, but on a fundamental level she still hadn’t acquired the necessary spiritual power to make the water hurt enough.

So her only choice was to wait it out, because even spirit beasts grew exhausted. Then, she drowned it. Thankfully, her spirit arts consumed no more of her energy than thinking did, so while she could use elementalism forever, body cultivators and beasts consumed and ran out of blood essence, which they recovered slowly.

Blood essence was basically spiritual blood that everyone had some of but cultivators had much more of and body cultivators specifically could weaponize. Spirit cultivators didn’t need it for anything other than living.

“That was excellent, Initiate Lacy!”

Lacy looked at Autberry like he’d transformed into a duck.

“What? After all that, you think that was good? I thought you were disappointed in me that whole time! You just glared silently!”

Autberry shook his head.

“No, that was an exemplary showing. I thought I made it clear that I did not expect you to be a master spirit artist?”

Lacy pursed her lips.

“I’m sorry sir, you’re right. But…what about that was exemplary?”

She’d really thought he was gonna chew her out.

“You did not shy away from this fight, Initiate. You went at that beast with ferocity, with the intent to kill, no matter how much stronger it was than you, no matter how long it would take. THAT is what we as guard trainers look for. You do not think you performed very well, but many in your place would have fallen apart, unable to muster the will to defend against something that is attacking them. Others would also have given up, considering the hours this battle took.”

“I guess I kinda get what you’re talking about…sir. Thank you.”

……

Lacy returned to the camp to find Shu deep in sleep, so Lacy sat on her cot and began meditating, practicing her qi control.

She’d learned a lot today. The limits of her qi control, for one. She’d made a ball of water hit as hard a mortal’s kick! It wasn’t lethal, but it was so much more than what she’d been capable of just weeks ago! Maybe in another few months or even just weeks she could…send water flying with the energy of a cannonball?

Time flowed like, well, water while she practiced, cycling between controlling water and a clump of dirt that she kept in her pocket. It was fun. Feeling just the smallest smidge more capable with every hour that passed.

“Your skills progress quickly.”

Lacy was shocked out of her meditation by the familiar voice that was masculine but not human. Opening her eyes, the spirit Seed found a seven-foot-tall alien of dark blue skin, green eyes, pitch-black hair, and large ears.

‘Actually, I’m the alien, aren’t I?’

When Lacy didn’t respond—only glancing at the sleeping Shu—the vampire smiled.

“Rather collected. I approve, little elementalist.”

“Thank you…” Lacy said awkwardly, her nerves demanding she run or fight.

“Do not concern yourself with my discovery…Lacy.” The way he tasted her name made her skin crawl. “In lands so weak as these, no human except the dual cultivator I smell guarding this camp can find me.”

Only then did Lacy notice…there was qi moving. Circulating. Undulating. Clinging to every surface. Clinging to Shu.

The vampire said something but Lacy was focusing. Cutting everything out. Her life wasn’t in danger. She didn’t have anything to worry about.

But that energy. There was something hanging around. Working in the background. She had to see it. SHE HAD TO KNOW.

Lacy opened her eyes after some time to find the vampire now frowning at her.

“I lack the frame of reference from which to understand why you had the gall to ignore me.”

“Sorry…” Lacy said slowly, unsure of how much to say. “I was just…overwhelmed. I needed to concentrate…”

The vampire loomed closer.

“This is the first instance I have smelled deceit from you, Lacy,” he growled. “That scent is unpleasant.”

“Wow, you can even smell half-truths, that’s pretty overpowered.”

The vampire hesitated before saying, “Indeed. Koroth noses are sharp. Now explain your deceit unless you have suddenly stopped valuing your life.”

“My second sight revealed your qi to me.”

He blanked in the same way he had back when she divulged she was from a different world.

“Is that strange?” she asked.

“Extremely.” He hesitated more, seemingly trying to figure out what to say. “Ordinarily… Well, you are not ordinary. You are a human from a much different world. However, when you come to live as long as I do, you come to learn of a kind of…balance to the world.”

“Whaaaat?” Lacy asked, suddenly lost and feeling like she was about to be preached to about joining a cult.

“The different races that inhabit our world. I have not met them all, but of those I know about I have seen patterns, and I am not the first. Humans have high birth rates but very low attunements in the elements, on average, and fragile bodies. However, of those with affinities, they can usually attune to any of the five major elements, with variation between individuals.”

The vampire could clearly tell that Lacy was lost because he added, “Patience, young one. My point is that very, very few humans are attuned to shadows. But you are not the usual human, Lacy. How much can you sense…this?”

Nothing physically changed about the environment, but for a moment all of the qi in the room deactivated and reactivated, creating a strobing effect. As soon as Lacy spoke, all the qi stayed activated.

“A lot. Is that…darkness qi?”

The vampire nodded as a smile worked its way across his face.

“And you can sense it. Fascinating. Darkness qi is how we koroths move undetected. It is how we talk beside your friend here and she does not awaken. She cannot hear. If she awoke coincidentally, she would not see.”

Lacy nodded along.

“That’s…actually really cool. So, you’re saying if I practice manipulating darkness qi I’ll also be able to do that?”

“Correct. Now, we have dawdled enough. Present your blood essence.”