"Do you know where you're going?"
"Course I do, got a comprehensive map in my mind."
"Well can you manifest it in elysium?"
"Sure sure."
Winter watched as a large map with marked zones and notes appear on the table in front of the couch. She glanced over it and was astonished by the detail. With each zone, notes of commonly found beasts, important environmental factors and resources were all listed.
"Where are we headed?"
"Blood fields."
"Sounds dangerous."
"Unlike what it sounds, it's actually a relatively safe area."
"So why the Blood Fields?"
Winter scanned the map to find where it was
"Well I want to hunt for a bow and arrow beast spirit, so obviously I have to hunt avian beasts. The blood fields got it's name from the bloody soil, it's actually a long stretch of dry tundra. All sorts of birds are around there."
Winter found it and looked at the notes
"You put a star here, what does it mean?"
"The stars are how I gauge danger. One star means I just have to keep an eye out and I'll be fine."
Qiu Ye sprinted across the field heading south west, her body got stronger along with Eternal Pulse Sutra and along with the energy it provided she was able to sprint basically indefinitely. Along the way, Qiu Ye used her daggers to slice open beasts. A voice appeared in her mind.
Basic Experience increased
Knight Experience increased, Knight Beast soul obtained.
At her current level, she had no problem dealing with common and knight level beasts. She summoned the beast soul and a pair of silver Katars appeared in her hands, it wasn't the type of knife she was used to but it was undoubtedly much sharper and tougher than any steel humans could forge. Qiu Ye slotted the daggers back into their sheathes and used the Katars for the rest of the journey.
While running around was not a problem, it was time consuming and Qiu Ye was already feeling hungry from spending energy. She stopped for a bit and created a fire to roast up a boar like beast and eating it. While the heart pumped energy more efficiently, the energy still had to come from somewhere. Qiu Ye had manuals which could help but at the time being she wanted to focus on the Eternal Pulse Sutra.
She sensed a person sneaking up on her but decided to just feign ignorance and keep eating as they approached. By how easy it was to detect them she could tell they weren't a noble yet or maybe a very weak knight. Most likely a new recruit for one of the gangs of the nearby shelter. Qiu Ye warned Winter to try and sense if there were any other people trying to ambush them as she paid attention on the approaching man.
Winter had better senses than Qiu Ye, most likely a side effect from training more in the mental battlefield as Qiu Ye took care of the physical. Winter said that there was no one else nearby, so Qiu Ye paid attention to the man behind her. The moment he pulled out a dagger, she rolled to the side and fired two arrows in an instant.
The man knocked an arrow away with the dagger, the blade shattered immediately but the arrow was knocked away off course. He tried to catch the other one but it drilled through his grasp and punched into his shoulder. Qiu Ye dashed over and trapped his limbs with earth. Qiu Ye summoned one of her katars and pushed it against his neck.
"I could detect you from a mile away, what do you want from me."
Sweat beaded on his forehead
"I'm sorry I was hungry."
"And what you thought you could just take it?"
"Listen, I'll pay you just give me some food."
"Hmm, what are you paying with."
"Credits? Resources? I'm staving please just share some food with me."
After thinking for a short moment, Qiu Ye stepped away from the man but kept the earth restraints on. She sliced off a serving of meat and skewered it with an arrow. She crouched down next to the man.
"200 credits for a serving."
"Seriously 200? Isn't that just a Berserk Boar? 200 is more than double the usual price."
"I owe you nothing. It's my own food that I'm sharing with you. Are you paying or not."
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The man realised Qiu Ye wasn't going to budge so he gave in.
"Fine fine 200 credits, just share some food with me."
Qiu Ye let the man sit up with his arms free but continued to secure him to the ground with leg restraints. She gave the skewer to the man who instantly wolfed it down.
"How'd you get lost around here anyways? Have you not been ennobled?"
"I was being escorted to another shelter where my family was."
Qiu Ye rolled her eyes, she already pieced together what happened. While warp gates have been calibrated to send people through into the in-between, due to the inconsistency of the fractures, which sanctuary people first end up at is completely down to luck. However it seems the inconsistency is only from person to person and not every entry, Whichever sanctuary people return from will be the one they are warped to from earth.
From what Qiu Ye could tell, the guy was probably the son of a rich family and ended up at a different sanctuary. Since people could easily meet up back on earth, the family most likely paid mercenaries at the sanctuary he landed on to escort him to where his family is. And judging by how little injuries he had, he probably abandoned them while fighting a higher rank beast.
"Where was it?"
"Where was what"
"The beast that attacked you?"
"Oh it's somewhere west from here, I walked for quite a while so I'm not completely sure."
"Hmm…"
Qiu Ye handed him another skewer of meat which he quickly inhaled. Suddenly Winter spoke.
"Multiple knight class beasts, to your 8."
Qiu Ye picked up her bow and retrieved the two arrows she fired, looks like the guy had a good bloodline because he was healing already. She motioned for him to be quiet and sit still and activated Hawk Eye and Time difference. Her peripheral vision widened and range increased, she was able to see the small pack of horned dire wolves approaching the camp.
If they approached, she was confident in killing them easily. But she wanted to try something out. She drew the bow to it's fullest and and injected it with wind and lightning. Qiu Ye's eyes narrowed as she pin pointed the exact location of each dire wolf. She then let go of the arrow.
Bai Jun was frightened, the woman holding him hostage suddenly told him to shut up and picked up her bow. He fought her first hand so he knew how powerful she was. He was quite strong since his base body was above average but even he could not sense anything in the distance. Suddenly the woman drew her bow and fired. All he saw was a flash of light and suddenly a loud crack of thunder. The woman then disappeared and reappeared with half a dozen dire wolf bodies at tow.
From Qiu Ye's perspective, the arrow flew through the air and then curved. It was like a bolt of lighting with a storm tailing it. Even with time difference, the arrow shot across the distance like a bullet, it pierced every wolf through the head and left a burning hole in their temple. A loud bang could be heard when the arrow broke the sound barrier.
Knight Experience Increased
The voice echoed in her mind, repeating the same phrase.
Knight Experience Increased, Beast Soul gained.
Qiu Ye smiled, yet another knight classed beast soul. Even though it wasn't incredibly impressive having knight classed gear, it was much better than the things she could buy at the stores at the school. When she summoned it, armour made of a thick hide and silver fur coated her body. Larger areas were reinforced with some sort of chitin or bone plate. A wolf head like hat covered her face. She kept it hidden under her cloak because the silver colour was quite eye catching even in the night.
But she was slightly disappointed when she retrieved the bodies and the arrow. It seems like the arrow wasn't able to handle two elements at once and was destroyed. Luckily they were relatively cheap as they were just steel arrows. She still had many in her quiver. The good thing about using arrows to hunt was that the wound it made was quite small. She was able to keep mostly intact wolf pelts to sell. She also drained and butchered each wolf to make jerky just in case.
While she was drying the meat on a make shift rack, the man spoke up.
"I have a job proposal for you."
"Hmm?"
"You're strong, I can tell. Money isn't a problem for me either. Since my guards all died, I still need to reach the sanctuary my family is at. If you get me there, we'll pay you handsomely."
"Hmm… How much were the guards paid?"
"1 thousand credits each, but only 500 up front."
"Which sanctuary is it?"
"Iron Forest Sanctuary."
"Alright, thats not too far from here. I want 15 thousand credits, no negotiation."
He didn't even hesitate and simply put out his hand for a shake.
"Alright 15 thousand. My name is Bai Jun, hope this partnership lasts."
Qiu Ye shook his hand
"Artemis."
They rested at the camp for the night. Bai Jun ate many more servings of meat before going to sleep. The trip to the Iron Forest Sanctuary was not too long. Qiu Ye knew where it was and knew how to get there safely. Bai Jun was able to keep up with Qiu Ye so she didn't need to worry about stopping and waiting for him. In just half a day, they made their way through he great plains and into the forest. Iron Forest Sanctuary was much better than Bronze Angel Sanctuary so Qiu Ye was going to make it her home as well. They often sent patrols out into the forest to clear out the area so she wasn't worried about running into any beast when she entered the forest.
What was even better about Iron Forest Sanctuary was that it was much larger and had many shops and merchants willing to buy and trade. Since they had stable business, prices were much more stabilised and fair. Qiu Ye wasn't a haggler so she appreciated honest business. When the two reached the gate, Bai Jun found his parents there waiting for him. He explained his situation, thankfully he left out the part where Qiu Ye attacked him. His parents shook Qiu Ye's hand and introduced themselves.
"Thank you Artemis, truly. We'll get your credits as soon as we can. I'm Bai Luo, Bai Jun's father. And this is Bai Gu, his mother."
Qiu Ye nodded, she appreciated the hustle.
"If you have time for more work, I'll find you. Is there a way I can contact you?"
"Add me on battleground, send me a message if you need anything."
Bai Jun's family was rich obviously, having a source of quick money was always good. The two exchanged details on battleground and separated. Qiu Ye went to explore Iron Forest Sanctuary and find someone to sell her wolf pelts to sell. While she heard of the sanctuary in her past life, she didn't have the chance to visit it before evolving and moving on to the next level of the in-between.
Since people could freely move between the sanctuary and earth, the residential area was made up of mostly just motel like rooms and houses owned by rich families and business owners in the in-between. Other than that, sanctuaries were usually filled with stalls, shops and training centres. There were some occurrences where people lived very far away from warp gates so they had their own houses in the sanctuaries when they went hunting. Qiu Ye made her way to through the markets where shops buying and selling all sorts of items from beast souls to raw materials were densely packed.