Chapter Twenty-Three: Contest

Two weeks passed without issue. If Autberry knew about her collusion then he hadn’t given that away in the dozen times he took Lacy hunting.

Besides that little bit of anxiety, life in the training camp had been surprisingly fun. Every night was full of spiritual training progress, the mornings were boring endurance training but it gave her time to spend chatting with her friends, the mid-day rest was usually Peegra’s time to check her progress and tutor her, and afternoons were spear training. Sometimes after spear training she hunted, which was…exhausting, but useful training. Lacy rarely flinched when facing a spirit beast, nowadays, and she could feel that one day soon her attacks with both water and earth would be breaking bones, not just bruising.

Today marked the first official competition between city recruits, and that was all anybody knew. No details were explained at all, to all the recruits’ annoyance—except Lacy, who knew she had life in easy mode as a spirit practitioner. Recruits from all five city-states grumbled at breakfast time about how frustrating it was to meet a challenge blind.

It was also at breakfast time when the only other woman taking the guard exams besides Shu and Lacy walked by their table, followed by a small posse of friends she chatted with.

“Good luck!” Lacy called out with a smile and a wave, having missed every other opportunity to talk to the pretty lady until then. She hadn’t wanted to look weird by chasing her down the days prior.

To Lacy’s confusion, the other woman paused in surprise before her expression landed on a frown that she walked away with. The woman’s posse also gave her weird, almost aggressive looks.

“She’s a bitch, I can tell you that already,” Shu said after they walked away. “My mother warned me about people like her. She’s also from a cultivator family like me but one of her parents is a spirit cultivator, I bet.”

“You bet?” Hoomar asked in his deep, gravelly voice.

“I do,” Shu grinned ferally.

“I did not take you for a gambler.”

“I haven’t had many opportunities. I considered betting against our dear Lacy’s…” she lowered her voice, “…talents, but betting on friends feels wrong.”

“Five jans.”

“Hmm?” Shu asked.

“Five jans against your bet that the rude woman has a spirit cultivator parent,” Hoomar said, patting the coin purse hidden in his robe’s breast pocket.

“Then prepare to weighten my purse!”

……

“How did we not see this coming?” Lacy asked after Autberry explained the contest to the gathered recruits.

Instead of the usual morning jog all the recruits were funneled to the training field outside the camp and made to stand in rows with those from their same cities. Then the dual cultivator Overseer floated into the air and explained with a magically enhanced voice that the recruits would compete in simple contests of endurance, spear fighting, and something special at the end.

“I was hoping for something…more,” Shu muttered.

“There is the mysterious third contest,” Hoomar reminded them.

The spear sparring was first and it was organized very simply. Since there were five different cities represented, each member of each group would spar with a random member of each different city, making four total fights for every recruit. However, since there weren’t even numbers from every group—Yellowvine actually had the second most—some people would have to spar more than four times. Additionally, they’d be fighting with padded shortspears and only need one point of contact to win the round, with best of three rules.

Lacy did well for someone who had only first picked up a weapon within the last month, Shu assured her, though she lost three of her four fights. Even then, she’d only won a fight because the other opponent had been a lot more muscular without being any taller, making them heavier and slower, allowing Lacy to land fast touches against his wrists and shoulder. She hadn’t even had to use her aura to suppress him, which she’d promised herself she wouldn’t do. Yet.

Shu and Hoomar both won three out of their four fights, to no one’s surprise. Both had been training for years before taking the exams. Shu was taught by her guard mother, and Hoomar by a retired cultivator neighbor—one of very few guards who lived long enough to be done serving the city.

The spars took a few hours to get through, and though Lacy thought the first event was boring, the spear fighting had nothing on the endurance contest.

It was just speed-jogging. 25% of recruits from each city competed at once, requiring the jogging contest to happen four times back-to-back. The recruits speed-jogged behind an instructor in circles around the huge training field, and the instant that someone lagged behind, Autberry would separate them from the pack with his wind elementalism. It went on until there was only one person left or if all the people left were from the same city.

It was boring to watch, but to Lacy’s surprise, she didn’t do too poorly. Once again, she could thank the isekai-ing Deity for building her a body with endurance. She wasn’t a monster like some particularly athletic people—her friends—but with consistent endurance training she might reach their level.

After the speed-jogging everyone took a mid-day rest—though it was a few hours later than when they’d usually do it—with Lacy, Shu, and Hoomar heading to the cafeteria pavilion like usual. However, this time it was the rude lady who was sitting at a table while Lacy and co passed.

Shu couldn’t seem to contain herself and blurted, “Looks like Yellowvine is in the lead thanks to no one accepting our luck!”

Lacy smacked the back of Shu’s head and apologized to the lady and her posse before hurrying to the other side of the pavilion, mortified.

“You should have played along,” Shu whined. “No need to be the bigger person when she insulted your simple encouragement.”

“I find being the bigger person quite easy,” Hoomar said, and the women froze.

“Did he just…?” Lacy chortled.

“He did!” Shu said before breaking into laughter.

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When the giggles passed Lacy gave Shu a serious look.

“There’s probably a misunderstanding involved. At least, I think it’s right to give most people the benefit of the doubt. She didn’t say anything rude. In fact, she looked confused. Maybe in her city telling someone ‘good luck’ is an insult because it implies they’re going to fail without luck on their side. There’s no need to antagonize her…yet. If she’s a bitch to us later then yeah, feel free to knock her down a peg.”

Shu crossed her arms and nodded.

“That makes sense, my dear Lacy. I like that you’re so generous to others. A golden heart, even!”

Hoomar nodded, saying in his softest voice, “With your…status, you could get away with being a rather foul person. I am glad that you are not such an individual.”

Lacy tried not to blush or hide her face as she said, “Thanks, guys.”

……

“Welcome to the third and final contest!” Autberry’s voice boomed over the training field after everyone gathered again. “First, we had you compete in spear fighting because, more than anything, your weapon skills will keep you alive when you battle spirit beasts. Second, we tested your endurance because being able to hit hard is not nearly as valuable as outlasting your opponent or simply traveling through the wilderness without being winded. Third…”

Autberry paused dramatically.

“I will personally test your aura resistance. Fights between cultivators do not usually involve auras, but all fights against spirit beasts do.”

Lacy understood that first-hand thanks to her chaperoned hunts, though she also picked up on the half-truth. Fights between most cultivators didn’t involve auras, except when spirit cultivators were involved.

“Spirit beasts have stronger auras than both body cultivators and spirit cultivators. In fact, they rival dual cultivator auras. Thankfully, not every spirit beast can control the elements like spirit cultivators do, but they still hold the aura advantage—they reach farther and hit harder. Therefore, part of your training from tomorrow onward will involve weathering a cultivator’s aura pressure. Today will be your first official experience in that regard. I will test half the recruits at once.”

The various instructors and guards from the different cities went through the ranks of recruits and tapped one out of every two heads. Lacy’s hair went unruffled.

“Everyone whose head was touched, gather around. I will let you know if you must stand closer.”

Both Shu and Hoomar were selected and walked forward as the ones who weren’t selected backed up and made room.

“There, everyone is within my aura. In a moment I will begin applying pressure, and I will increase the pressure by a smidge every few seconds. Once you cannot handle it any longer, simply sit down.”

Autberry said nothing else, and the contest began. Lacy was the only recruit who possessed the second sight necessary to see the aura, but no doubt the people caught in it were feeling it. Lacy noted confused and curious expressions, so no doubt Autberry was starting out soft. But soon…

If she had known how to properly use her aura back when that piece of shit Jin was in her barrack, Lacy could have folded him. He would have been too busy trying to breathe and staying on his feet to even look at her. Instead, she’d only made him angry by applying enough pressure for him to feel threatened without actually suppressing him.

Now Lacy got to watch a real cultivator showing mortals how important one’s aura was. And damn, Autberry’s aura was impressive. Peegra had taught her that body Seeds had auras that could only reach as far as their outstretched arms. Of course, one’s aura was malleable instead of just a big bubble, but the more an aura was stretched and thinned the harder it was to use. Meanwhile, spirit Seed auras reached four times farther, about four meters from the body.

Dual cultivator auras were different, however. They had the spiritual weight of spirit and body cultivators combined, making them about twice as strong, but instead of their reach being additive—like one meter plus four meters equaling five meters—the reach was also doubled.

So a dual Seed had a default aura reach of eight meters. Autberry was a Sprout—one realm above a Seed like Lacy—and Peegra said every realm up was twice as strong as the one below, so dual Sprouts had a default aura reach of sixteen meters in every direction. Of course, they reached farther when they were stretched like soft clay.

Hearing the numbers hadn’t painted much of a picture for Lacy at the time, but now she could see the difference. Autberry’s aura was a dense cloud that could cover almost all of the recruits at once, but he tested only half of them at a time so they didn’t have to be packed together like sardines.

After a minute, the first recruits dropped onto their knees or butts, and Autberry explained, “Most normal people can withstand up to three-fourths of a peak Seed’s pressure. You all have already made it beyond that threshold and should be proud.”

Then he went silent again, and Lacy could vaguely see the pressure increase again. Well, she really wasn’t seeing the pressure Autberry was applying to the recruits. She could see his aura and its density, but the pressure…she just kind of felt some of the pressure from outside of the aura. Like waves emanating outward, carrying a ghost of the aura’s power.

Now the recruits began dropping like flies. Three, then another two, then another three, then another one. Soon, even Shu and Hoomar caved, both of whom Lacy knew were already given some kind of aura suppression training by the cultivators in their lives. The last man standing was surprisingly small—about her size but maybe a little shorter—and from a different city. He hadn’t stood out in the competitions until now.

“Congratulations to the last young man. He withstood more pressure than the average body Seed can produce and only fell once I increased it to early Sprout pressure. Those who were left out for the first half, make your ways here.”

In mere moments the two halves of recruits switched places, and now Lacy stood within Autberry’s aura, faced with a decision to make. Should she take advantage of your aura to alleviate some of the pressure and last longer during this last trial?

… Yes. Lacy had barely been on the fence about the choice after getting destroyed by three men who had obviously already trained with spears. It was fair for them to put their all into spear fighting. It was fair for her to use every trick to withstand Autberry’s aura.

“The same rules as before. Stand still. Fall down when you cannot take anymore and I will release you from the pressure.”

Then he began, and immediately Lacy was brought back to her hunting trips. It was almost exactly the same feeling, with the difference being that she could tell the entity applying pressure was a human rather than a beast.

Her scalp itched, her spine tingled, and her heart grew heavy. She was even subjected to a vague sense of impending doom. Nothing too strong, yet, but it was there.

When the first person dropped, however, Lacy began to sweat. She was forced to concentrate to keep her breathing rhythmic. This was three-fourths of a regular Seed’s pressure, and Lacy wanted to pull out her aura, but she defiantly withstood the pressure naked of spiritual defenses. She wanted to see how she compared to everyone else.

Another two leaps in pressure and Lacy’s breaths staggered. Her knees almost gave out but she projected her aura out just in time. Had she waited too long and actually fallen, she would have been disqualified. Now, however, she felt free. She was still just an early Seed, but having an aura at all made an enormous difference, even against more pressure than even she could exert. Her internal organs still felt heavy, but only as heavy as it had felt in the beginning.

Lacy looked around to find that her competitors were almost all on the ground, gathering themselves, looking up at her and the others still standing in awe. The lady with the posse was also standing, unsurprisingly. Shu was certain that she was from a spirit cultivator family based on her attitude and how people from her city treated her. If at least one of her parents was a cultivator that would explain why she was so good at withstanding the pressure; she’d been trained.

Then the woman fell, too, just seconds before the last men. Lacy had won, unequivocally. She almost fell down right then just so people didn’t think something was up, but she remembered that the last man from the first half had lasted a few seconds longer than how much time had currently passed.

So she put on her best “I’m in agony” face and counted to ten, ignoring the shocked whispers and susurruses of the crowds around her.

Autberry smiled as he retracted his aura just as she fell, and said, “We have a winner. This young lady lasted the longest of all recruits. Congratulations.”

Lacy fell down dramatically as clapping and supportive shouts erupted from the Yellowvine recruits, which she had mixed feelings about. They hadn’t liked her until she was winning clout for their city, but whatever. They were human, and born into a heavily patriarchal society.

To Lacy’s surprise, most members of the other cities joined in the clapping and congratulations. A good fourth of them didn’t, however. The other woman among them.

‘I bet they think Autberry went easy on me. But whatever. I’m a damned spirit cultivator, a soon-to-be dual cultivator. Their opinions don’t matter unless I let them.’