Sammath entered the mission hall in front of Ashe. From the front, like many of the other buildings in the sect, its true size was obscured by a large amount of foliage and Sammath felt as his eyes widened at the sheer size of the hall. People bustled about, yelling and shouting at each other, and Sammath felt his ears take offense at the sheer volume inside. Leaning down to Ashe, he yelled to the boy, “Alright. We need to find an easy mission!”
“What?!” Ashe leant in and yelled up to Sammath. Sammath couldn’t really hear the words but he read the Shinian’s lips so he knew what was said. Instead of trying to communicate over the racket, Sammath dragged Ashe back outside.
“We need to find an easier mission. Just something like collecting herbs or plants. Just remember that we’re doing this to gain some experience doing stuff alone. Not actually trying to get sect points. With how many people are in there, it’s going to be a free-for-all to grab anything good.”
Ashe pursed his lips and nodded resolutely. Sammath clapped him on the shoulder and opened the doors once again, the volume rising substantially as he did so, “Into the fray we go!” Sammath was tempted to push Ashe inside but decided to refrain from acting on the urge as he could end up just pissing off a Cultivator and you never knew just how many of them had connections with powerful people. Or how many of them had ‘young master’ syndrome, as Sammath had decided to call it.
So, Sammath just strode back into the door and began to walk around the hall, dodging rushing Cultivators and mission hall attendants as he did so. It seemed that everyone was frantically trying to complete missions and Sammath guessed that there was probably something important coming up that they needed sect points for. Whatever it was, it didn’t really matter to Sammath and he just focused on trying to find something that he and Ashe could do together. Each board that Sammath went up to was nearly stripped clean of missions and everything that was left was just long-term jobs. Every so often, an attendant came out with a stack of papers and the boards were emptied as fast as they were filled up. So Sammath decided to try predict where one of the attendants would end up and then grab a mission as soon as he could. Around ten minutes later, he spotted one carrying a number of papers and heading to a board nearby.
Sammath, dodging people as he went, tried to get to the board but nearly everyone else seemed to have the same idea and the area around the board was filled up before he could even get there. Sammath cursed as missions were taken before he could even catch a glimpse of the papers and he began looking around for another attendant. Once another one came out, nearly ten minutes later, Sammath tried to repeat the strategy but found that it came to the same result. Sammath cursed in his head as he realised he wouldn’t be able to get any missions. Then he felt a tug at his sleeve. Looking down, he saw it was Ashe and Ashe motioned with his head. Sammath, not having anything better to do and almost guaranteed not to get the missions, decided to follow along and Ashe led him to a quieter side room.
Inside the room, there were a number of mission boards with postings and Sammath frowned, “What is this place? Why isn’t anyone taking these missions?”
“They’re permanent missions. Stuff like getting beast meat for the kitchens or ingredients to be used in refining the weekly pill allotment. Most people don’t bother with these missions because they’re worth very few points unless you’re delivering items in bulk and most stuff is just grown or raised here in the sects but they’re probably good for going out and just getting some experience.”
Sammath gave Ashe a grin, “Good idea. I think we should probably get started, then.” Sammath immediately went to look at the papers, taking note of the ingredients there were. Most of them were just common ingredients like glitterleaf ferns, velvet moss, and dreaming willow petals. Like Ashe said, the ingredients were probably just grown in the sect to obtain most of them and the missions just left open so disciples could gain a few extra points from their missions if they spotted the plants and grabbed them.
Sammath and Ashe decided to head out from there and just go to the nearby forest where they’d hopefully find some beasts or plants to bring back. Really, it was just an excuse to go out into the world and leave the sect for a time. After returning to their house and grabbing their weapons, the two of them left from the gates of the sect and headed southeast, further into the Order and towards the nearby wilds. Unlike Arikar, which kept the wild places in the kingdom heavily monitored and towards the outskirts of the kingdom, the Order left them spaced out throughout their territory so that disciples didn’t have to travel far to gain experience. Nearly everything between the cities and sects, as long as it wasn’t a road or farmland, was wilderness where people could find beasts or magical plants.
Soon enough, Sammath and Ashe found themselves trekking through a forest, green leaves blocking the mid-day light and dappling the ground with shadows. Deadfall cracked underneath their steps and leaves crackled with every footfall. Now that he was outside the sect and actually in danger of being attacked by beasts or other people, Sammath spread his Motion Sense out and let the information flow to him. Sammath felt the tiny amounts of Motion from the bugs in the dirt and on the ground as well as the larger amounts of Motion that birds in the treetops had as they flitted from branch to branch.
Sammath kept his senses open and let the information just flow into him as he looked for danger while Ashe kept an eye out for anything that may be needed for a mission. As the two of them moved deeper into the forest, the sun sunk deeper and deeper in the sky until, eventually, the light turned orange as it touched the horizon. Neither Sammath nor Ashe wanted to spend the night anywhere exposed or in the middle of the forest ground so, despite the time, they kept on moving and changed their focus from searching for pill ingredients and beasts to finding shelter for the night. Just as the light was shifting from orange to grey, Ashe stumbled across an opening in the side of a hill, “Hey! In here!” Ashe called to Sammath and the older boy looked over and spied the crevice as Ashe entered it.
“Oh, yes.” Sammath muttered under his breath, “Enter the dark, creepy crevice that I can barely fit through that’s probably crawling with spiders and who knows what else that I’m sure would love to lay eggs in my corpse. Great idea, Ashe.”
Ashe poked his head out from the crevice, “What was that?”
“Nothing. I’m coming now.”
Ashe nodded and ducked back inside, leaving Sammath to follow him. Sammath took a deep breath, steeling himself, and then headed inside the crevice. Even as he entered the thin crack, Sammath felt the squeeze on both sides of his body and tapped into his Motion Sight to see Ashe. Slowly, the crack began to get thinner, and Sammath had to breath in deeply to wiggle further into the crevice until, finally, he got stuck. Sammath exhaled lightly before taking in another deep breath and tapping into his Concept. Sammath pushed at his own Motion to send him deeper into the crevice and felt his clothes rip and skin tear on the sharp rocks but he pushed through it and, with a grunt, fell through into a large cave. Sammath pushed himself to his feet and kept his Motion Sight active, scanning for any creatures that might be a threat.
Ashe bounced on his feet, “Come on, let’s go explore.” Sammath nearly agreed there and then but he knew that he had to be responsible while Erin wasn’t around.
“Sorry, Ashe. Not yet. We need to set up camp before anything else.”
Ashe pursed his lips but nodded and walked over to Sammath. Erin had given them a small spatial storage ring to take with them and filled it with supplies for them to use. Sammath closed his eyes, not being practiced with the use of spatial items, and imagined pushing his consciousness into the ring. Despite not actually being able to see anything, he could ‘see’ the items inside the ring like series of mental pictures. Sammath tugged at the picture of the sleeping rolls, a flask of water, and some dried food and they materialised in his hands. Sammath handed Ashe some of the food and the flask and the Shinian practically inhaled them, even as Sammath dug into his own rations. While it wasn’t nearly as good as a freshly cooked meal, the food did the trick and curbed Sammath’s hunger.
Once he was done with eating, Sammath stood up and Ashe followed suit, “Time to explore?”
Sammath nodded, “We need to scope out the rest of the cave to see if it’s safe. We don’t want to be sleeping and end up getting attacked unaware.”
Ashe nodded and put himself behind Sammath as the two of them walked deeper into the cave, the darkness enveloping them.
Sammath kept his Motion Sight active and layered over his normal vision, letting him view the world in shades of blue. The tunnel around them glowed a muted blue, letting Sammath navigate around with ease. There wasn’t any movement around them and there was only a few small creatures in the earth around them. If anything, though, the quietness of the area around Sammath and Ashe was only making Sammath more concerned. He didn’t expect this cave to be so quiet, especially with how he’d begun to feel the magic in the air increase. While he didn’t actually interact with magic directly, magic primarily enhancing his brain so that he could control Motion, he did could sense it almost like static in the air. Goosebumps prickled along Sammath’s skin with the increase of magic, and he could feel his nerves tightening like someone was tuning them.
Small plops echoed through the air as the two went deeper into the cave, water dripping down from stalactites that had begun to extrude from the ceiling. Wanting to rely on more than just his sight and hearing, though, Sammath sniffed the air but all he could smell was the damp, musty air of the cave. Still, something just didn’t seem… right. Sammath moved cautiously forward and stopped when Ashe made a Light Rune. Sammath glanced back at the Shinian, realising that he probably couldn’t see anything, and made a decision.
“Ashe. I think you should go back. Let me scout out the cave.” Sammath kept his voice low but he still heard a small echo rebound off the walls. Ashe opened his mouth, a frown forming on his face, but Sammath spoke before he could, “It’s not about capability or strength. If there’s anything in here, your light will give away your position while I can move around and see with my Motion Sight.”
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While Ashe still looked like he wanted to argue, he listened to Sammath and nodded, heading back to the entrance of the cave where their bedrolls were. As soon as Sammath was sure he was listening and wasn’t going to follow him deeper into the cave, he turned around to face the darkness that led deeper into the earth.
Sammath’s feet tread lightly on the ground, each footstep cool as the skin of his soles touched the ground and he made sure to keep his breathing shallow and light. It had been nearly twenty minutes since he’d sent Ashe back and continued deeper and the cave just kept winding further and further, extending down into the earth. As Sammath had descended, it had slowly started widening out and the sounds of water had gone from a monotonous dripping into a light trickling. Despite that, though, there was no more signs of life this deep into the cave than there had been on the surface and Sammath’s nerves kept tightening and tightening the longer he went without seeing any major signs of life. To Sammath, the desolation could only mean one thing; he and Ashe were in the lair of a predator.
Sammath decided to proceed with even more caution than he’d been using, taking it even slower as he crept forward and, eventually, it paid off. In the distance, Sammath heard snuffling and scuffing. Immediately, he stilled and pushed on his Motion Sight harder to try and look through the walls of the cave. While the world lit up around him, it did allow him to differentiate a slightly brighter form through the stone walls than what he’d seen before. It was large, at least a metre in length and over half a metre tall and was crawling along the ground slowly. Sammath decided that he could probably move forward at least a little more to try and get a good view of the creature because, even if it was too strong for him to beat, he could probably at least flee. Fleeing was something that his Concept was very good at, after all.
Slowly and carefully, Sammath moved closer to the creature and further into the winding cave until, finally, he rounded a corner and it came into view in all of its glowing, blue glory. Sammath couldn’t actually see anything as he didn’t have a source of light but he could see the shape of the creature. Just over one metre long and coming up to Sammath’s hipbone, the creature shuffled about on its short legs, each step rocking its shoulders back and forth. Its nose was pushed to the ground, as though it was smelling the floor constantly. When Sammath took a step around the corner, the creature’s head snapped to where Sammath was, which looked a little ridiculous considering its nose was still stuck to the floor, and Sammath froze, using his Concept to completely still his own movement. It was a little uncomfortable to freeze himself like that but that was fine as long as he stayed alive.
After a few minutes, the creature started moving forward, towards Sammath and he swore internally. He either had to move now or he would be found out. Before doing anything, Sammath tried to judge the mental pressure he was feeling from the creature, nearly sighing in relief when he felt it was only at the Viscount Stage, so it matched him. With his mobility, he could probably beat the creature if it came to a fight.
As the next minute passed, the creature slowly got closer and closer to Sammath and he began preparing himself for a fight, spreading out his Motion Sense and pulling his staff out of the storage ring. As he moved and put pressure on his front foot, the Cored caught his movement again and began to move towards Sammath. As it grew closer, he began to make out more details. The contours of its face and showed Sammath where its eyes were and he could feel and see fine, whisker-like strands that waved about its nose and touched the ground. When the Cored was only about a metre away from Sammath, he decided that he needed to attack before the beast did.
Sammath shifted on his feet and, as he did so, the creature reared onto its back feet and Sammath brought his staff down onto the creature’s nose, which he guessed would be extremely sensitive. Nearly as soon as his staff even touched the nose, the creature squealed in pain and the sound from the creature’s roar moved around four vicious incisors in the creature’s mouth. Sammath nearly paused… the sound moved around the teeth. Sammath had to jump back as the creature slashed forward with its front limbs, long claws trying to rend Sammath’s flesh.
The claws snagged on Sammath’s ripped shirt, tearing it even further, and he would’ve breathed a sigh of relief if he hadn’t been in the middle of combat. Sammath’s hardwood staff pulled back, and he jabbed at the creature’s chest, smashing its ribs. With another scream of pain, it turned around started a weird, rolling gallop-walk away from Sammath. While caught by surprise, Sammath reacted quickly and chased after the creature. Its movement, though, was deceptively quick and it… ran into a wall before Sammath could reach it. Suddenly, it began to dig into the side of the tunnel wall and Sammath felt his eyes widen. Running at the creature, he tried to stop it, but fragments of rock flew out from around the creature and he had to dodge around them so that he wasn’t impaled by the flying shards. Behind the creature, the rock collapsed, blocking off Sammath’s path to try and hit it.
“Well shit.” Sammath muttered even as he strained his Motion Sight to the limit, making the world glow bright blue but letting him see through the rock and at the tunnelling creature. Sammath kept his eyes on the creature as it tunnelled through the wall and up into the ceiling of the cave, watching and waiting for it to strike. With his staff, he began to tap the area to the side of him, figuring that it probably sensed the vibrations made by movement and would try to attack the staff. Sure enough, the creature erupted from the ceiling, aiming for the staff with its vicious claws and snapping at the air with its mouth and the vicious teeth but Sammath wasn’t there. Instead, he immediately pulled his staff in, lifted it up, and smashed it down on the creature’s back as it flew through the air.
Enhanced by Sammath’s Concept, the staff blow packed a huge punch and Sammath felt the creature’s back bend and give way to the hard wood as it howled in pain. Landing on the ground, it seemed he hadn’t broken anything in the creature’s spine as it immediately began scrabbling to dig itself into the ground, but he’d definitely hurt it. Sammath jumped into the air above the creature and jabbed down with his staff like a spearfisherman striking for his next catch and the creature once again shrieked its shrill pain to the world.
Sammath spun in the air and landed on his feet even as the mole disappeared into the earth. Spinning around, Sammath tracked its passage once again but, this time, the creature spun around in a circle, forcing Sammath to adjust his position in order to keep an eye on where the creature was. Suddenly, the creature angled upwards and dug towards Sammath. Carefully timing the manoeuvre, Sammath jumped up in the air, boosting himself with his Concept and pushing down with his staff to give himself a boost right as the Cored erupted from the earth. Its arms swung wildly and one of them connected with Sammath’s planted staff, smashing it to the side and forcing Sammath to let go if he didn’t want to tumble to the ground. Gnashing teeth clacked over the air beneath Sammath’s feet and Sammath’s eyes opened wide as he began to tumble towards the macerating incisors.
Suddenly, though, Sammath felt something run into the field that was his Motion Sense and a glowing light appeared around the bend of the tunnel, “I thought you said you’d be stealthy!” Ashe yelled out. The sound caught the creature’s attention and Sammath managed to land and spring off its head, flipping forward and out of the way of Ashe. Ashe drew a glowing white Rune in the air and pushed Ink into it. A stream of fire erupted from the Rune and hit the creature, which Sammath managed to see was a giant mole, and the creature squeal-shrieked its agonised anger at the two of them. Ashe grimaced, “God, that thing’s loud.”
Sammath just nodded and ran for his staff as Ashe carved a sharpness Rune into the air. It was something that he’d been working on with Erin recently and, by carving a sharpness Rune on either side of a solidity Rune, Ashe could form what was essentially a blade made of Runes, giving the solidity Rune edged that were as sharp as any blade. While he couldn’t actually manipulate and move his Runes with his mind yet, Ashe was still able to anchor it to his hand or, more specifically, his fingers and use them to wield the Rune blade. As the mole dug into the ground, Ashe ran past and cut a deep slice out of its leg as he ducked under the flying shards of rock.
Sammath grabbed his staff and looked at where the mole was tunnelling; it seemed that it was going to tunnel underneath them and into the ceiling, “Ashe!” The boy called out, light Rune floating above one hand and his Rune blade hovering above his extended fingers in the other, “It’s coming from the ceiling. It’s aiming for you. You’ve got three seconds.”
Ashe nodded, his face growing completely serious as he focussed on the roof above him. Sure enough, three seconds later, the mole once again erupted from the ceiling like a reverse-dolphin that swam through solid stone. Ashe jumped forward, rolling underneath the falling mole, and then turning around to slash at its stomach as it fell past him. Ashe’s Rune blade opened up a deep gash in its body and blood poured out of the wound, splashing over Ashe and the stone even as the mole fell. Sammath was there, jabbing his staff at the creature’s sensitive nose and practically useless eyes in an attempt to distract it and cause it pain as Ashe tried to hamstring it.
Ashe’s blade slid into the muscles of the mole, tearing across the leg and opening it up and the beast whirled around, trying to swing its oversized claws at the Shinian boy. Thankfully, he was fast enough to dodge out of the way and Sammath used the opening to jab his staff into the wound on the mole’s leg. Bellowing in pain, it reared up on its back legs and tried to swipe at the air, but Ashe lunged forward, taking the opening to plunge his Rune blade into the mole’s head. The creature slumped as it lost function in its brain and Ashe had to scramble out of the way as it fell down towards him. Sammath slumped, leaning against his staff, as he panted but his exhaustion still couldn’t wipe the tiredness off of his face.
“That was fun!” Sammath’s voice was cheery, even as sweat dribbled down his spine, and Ashe clearly couldn’t help himself as he grinned back.
“Yeah, it was. It was our first fight without Erin, too. The mole wasn’t really a hard enemy, unlike a panther or some sort of hunter but I’m quite happy either way.”
Sammath nodded, “Yup. We should be pretty proud. Hunted a big beasty by ourselves and without the help of mother Erin.”
Ashe chuckled slightly and shook his head, “Don’t ever let her hear you call her that, Sam. She’d kill you.”
Sammath shrugged, “She’ll have to catch me first.”
Ashe raised an eyebrow, “She’s pretty fast already.”
Sammath nodded, stroking his chin and inclining his head as he made a particularly poor attempt at a wise expression, “That’s true… but we’ve never raced and I’ve never tried to cheat in a race by manipulation her Motion.”
Ashe grinned, “I’m going to pretend you never said that so I can feign innocence if you ever do race.”
Sammath pointed to Ashe, “Good idea. Plausible deniability.” Ashe’s grin widened slightly and Sammath, having caught his breath, made his way over to the slumped mole Cored.
Putting both of his hands on the Cored’s corpse, he thought about it being sucked into the storage ring on his hand and he nearly fell forward as the corpse disappeared. “Careful, Sam. Don’t want to slip on the blood, do we?” Sammath raised an eyebrow at Ashe and the boy shrugged, “We don’t have many clothes with us and you don’t really want to make them really dirty.”
“Ashe, look at my clothes. What about them screams clean and well-maintained.” Sammath gestured to his torso, his top stained with dirt and tiny fragments of rock clinging to the fabric. Tears and rips nearly split into a poncho and Sammath could feel air pushing against his skin in nearly a dozen places. “Now, I think it’s time to see what that mole was doing down here.”
Ashe nodded and gestured for Sammath to go ahead, “Lead on, Mr ‘I can be stealthier than you’.”
Sammath grinned ruefully, “I’m not living that one down anytime soon, am I?”
Ashe grinned and shook his head, “Not for the next few years, at least.” Light Rune in his hand and Rune blade dispelled to conserve his Ink, of which he probably had about half remaining, Sammath headed deeper into the cave.