-A few minutes earlier-
A woman with pale blue eyes and wild black hair streaked with glowing lines opened her eyes and frowned faintly at the roof in front of her. Removing her hands from behind her head, she sat up and looked down over the ledge she was resting on.
What are they doing?
Idling below her were the forms of Zhang Mingxia, Catherine Sherwood, and Liliana Mason, discussing the location and direction of her illusory doppelganger. She had cast an invisibility spell and the doppelganger spell at the same time as soon as she detected Zhang Mingxia’s spiritual sense on her, not wanting to be bothered again by the offensively outgoing cultivator, but then she found the presence of Liliana Mason and Catherine Sherwood meeting up with the white-robed girl.
And then she discovered their absurd plans.
Liliana, she could... well, maybe not understand, but knew the girl would likely try to follow her again. It was what happened in the past timeline, after all. The idea of her meeting up with Zhang Mingxia to stalk her made sense if a slightly strange butterfly effect to occur.
But then was Catherine Sherwood. She didn’t have much experience dealing with her, besides when they battled each other. The girl wasn’t part of the Navy at any stage in the past. What she did know about the girl was that she had a reckless personality and an addiction to adrenaline. She was a battle junkie. Like she didn’t have enough of them in her original crew.
She rubbed her temples as she contemplated what to do because events were dragging on for far too long. And her personality didn’t like to deal with troublesome things.
The personality of ‘Adrianna Riftmire’ wasn’t something like giving her consciousness an entirely different personality that she may as well be a different person. She was still Lucille, and Lucille was her. It was just that her thought patterns had been changed so there were differences between the two consciousnesses that would ensure she didn’t slip up.
In some cases, just the act of changing the thought patterns would be enough to be a distinctly different person, but not in this case. She was still modelled after a specific period of her own life, she still carried many characteristics from back then, and her personality would change as time went on to become similar enough to automatically merge with her main personality. It just might take 231 years to occur naturally without a little push.
The Heavenly Realm’s soul cultivators sometimes had issues with their clones becoming hostile towards their main body, and wanting to replace them. That was physically impossible in her case. For one thing, ‘Adrianna Riftmire’ was part of a System skill, so no errors like that would ever occur. The severing of a soul clone from its main body usually occurred in the case of them using a technique that absorbed the soul power of others, contaminating the clone’s soul with foreign spiritual energy signatures, and therefore allowing them to form their independent soul source.
Lucy didn’t need to do that, and if the artificial personality didn’t exist, Lucy would essentially be piloting two bodies. As it were, Lucy had thinned the link between the two consciousnesses so the artificial personality’s thought patterns wouldn’t change upon detecting the main consciousness’s thought patterns.
She contemplated widening the link to allow her other self, who had the soul structures that enabled her to properly reflect her emotions, to merge with her and deal with this but had to sigh. That would defeat the entire reason behind the creation of the artificial personality. Even if she was still struggling to get into the mindset of calling herself ‘Adrianna’ rather than Lucy mentally, her personality was required to properly deal with the events that would occur in the future without seeming suspicious. Griffin had never seen the more cordial side of her, for the obvious reasons of her not ever having enjoyed being in his presence.
Although she still thought of herself as Lucy, she currently had slightly different emotions towards things. That included the existence of any easy solution in briefly merging the two consciousnesses to deal with the idiots below, which she dearly wanted to do, but couldn’t, and which was making her annoyed. And her annoyance was exacerbated by the fact she could only get angry at herself because she set herself up like this.
She looked down again and scowled. If it was just Liliana, she would’ve left her alone, because the girl would eventually stop following her when it got too awkward and never brought up the subject at all last time. She doubted she would have as much luck when it came to the other two.
She decided her best bet would be to confront them and get it over with. Still keeping her invisibility spell active, its illusion essence draped around her form, she jumped down off the ledge and then stood behind them as she dissolved her illusory clone and the illusion.
…
The girls continued to stare at the woman who had made her presence known, still gazing at them with her icy eyes. Slowly, very slowly, Zhang Mingxia raised her finger to point incredulously at her.
“How?! I was watching you with my spiritual sense! You were over there!” she exclaimed, pointing to some far-off distance. “Not here!”
Adrianna continued to gaze expressionlessly at them. “Do you not know what illusions are?”
“B-But I still should’ve seen you approaching us!” Zhang Mingxia exclaimed again, disbelieving.
“Invisibility,” was all Adrianna replied.
Zhang Mingxia closed her mouth and glared silently at her, hands clenched by her sides. Liliana was awkwardly avoiding eye contact, while Catherine gazed at her for a beat before the redhead smirked.
“Where are you planning on sleeping tonight?”
Adrianna switched her gaze to her. “None of your business. Stop following me,” she said, and turned around, marching off.
Catherine grinned and followed after her, an indignant Zhang Mingxia and embarrassed Liliana tagging along too.
“Come on, don’t be like that!” the redhead replied, quickening her pace to walk beside the cold woman.
Adrianna ignored her, continuing to walk forward at a steady pace.
Catherine clicked her tongue. “At least tell us why you don’t sleep in the dorm.”
“My sleeping habits are none of your concern,” she responded in her toneless voice, turning a corner.
“But they’re so weird!” Catherine said, spreading her hands. “Like, why the support beams? Or the roof? At least pick somewhere that’s not cold or out in the open. I don’t get it.”
“As intriguing as it is to know that my places of sleep have been well documented,” Adrianna replied icily. “I want you to leave me alone.”
“Boo!” the redhead suddenly exclaimed, giving her a thumbs down. “Minus ten points for the blatant sarcasm! You should make it subtle so you keep the opposition guessing! How are you supposed to keep up the strong, cold, and indifferent schtick if you show your emotions so easily!”
The fiery-haired woman grinned as she saw Adrianna’s expression begin to twitch, and seemingly decided to push a bit further.
“By the way, is this something you decided to do on purpose? Like, put up a front of being like this to hide your antisocial personality behind a cool façade. Maybe I should try it.” Then Catherine put a hand on her head and moved it side to side. “Although, I don’t think I have the height for it. Shame, I wanted to look down on people like you do.”
Her grin grew wider as the taller woman’s expression grew colder with every word of the annoying girl.
Catherine gave her one little push. “The glowing hair kinda ruins the effect though. What kind of intimidating military woman has glowing hair? Oh! Is it a cosmetic choi-”
“Would you Shut. Up.” Adrianna growled, whirling around. She glared at the three of them. “I have already told you to leave me alone. Are you deaf? Do you not understand the meaning of those three words? Should I take you to the medic to diagnose your mental illnesses?”
Liliana flinched back at the look in her eyes, while Zhang Mingxia frowned. Catherine stared at her and then pointed a finger at her as she scowled. “Hey, that’s insult-”
“Do I look like I care?” Adrianna interrupted, her voice dripping with freezing derision. “If I do, then you’re blind. I am here for one thing only. I will do what my superiors ask of me but do not expect me to have any interest in forming something like a ‘relationship’ outside of a professional acquaintance. This is making me angry.” She narrowed her cold eyes. “Get lost.”
All three girls stared at her as they registered what she said. The blue-eyed archer among them looked awkward, while Catherine gazed silently at her.
Zhang Mingxia took a step forward. “I cannot help but notice that the attitude which you have towards us is much different to that of Liliana the past few nights,” she said with an airy tone. “Is it something against us two additions you have?”
Adrianna glanced at Liliana for a moment, making the girl shrink back, then turned her icy stare back to the other two girls. “Mason’s voice doesn’t make my head hurt because she doesn’t speak to me,” she stated flatly. She turned around and stormed off once more.
The three girls behind her traded glances, and then slowly began following her again. This time, Zhang Mingxia came up beside her.
“May I ask what you did before this? It is rare an illusion manipulator decides to enter a military profession,” she asked.
Adrianna had a dark expression. “I do not like having to repeat myself.”
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“And you do not need to,” the Sect heir announced grandly. “You have made your intentions clear. We only wish to know more about a fellow member of our cohort.”
“Our cohort?” Adrianna muttered. “I’m hearing this from someone who won’t even be here in a few years.”
Zhang Mingxia frowned as she gazed at the cold woman. “I may not be here permanently, but that does not mean I will not do my utmost to aid the Navy as I would as a permanent member.”
“Ah! I get it!” Catherine suddenly exclaimed, slamming a fist down on her open palm. “You’re being rude so we’ll leave you alone! I was wondering why you’re so verbal tonight!”
Adrianna suddenly spun around, startling the three of them. “I. Want. To. Sleep.” she hissed with a stormy expression. “We only get 6 hours of sleep. I want mine.”
The three girls hesitated as they realised what they were doing, which was annoying someone who did not happen to have the rejuvenation ability of the water element, and who also wasn’t a warrior, and so didn’t have high CON. Zhang Mingxia’s and Liliana’s expressions became slightly awkward, while Catherine narrowed her vivid green eyes at her.
“Then where are you sleeping tonight?”
The woman growled and whirled back around, storming off as fast as she could without outright running.
Catherine sped up to a jog to keep up with her. “Can’t you just tell us where? If you do, we’ll leave you alone, and then you can catch up on the next 5 hours and a half of sleep, so tomorrow you’ll-”
Adrianna whipped around with a cold look on her face and pointed her index fingers at Liliana and Catherine. A silver mana-circle abruptly appeared before both of her index fingers and began spinning.
Catherine’s eyes widened and she ducked, aware of what was happening, but Liliana was a second too late and the small white bullet hit her. The archer soundlessly crumpled to the ground, while Catherine stood up and placed her hands on her hips triumphantly.
“Ha! I dodged-”
The ‘dodged’ bullet turned around behind her to hit her in the back of the head. The redhead likewise crumpled to the ground.
Zhang Mingxia gazed at the girls with wide eyes, while Adrianna just silently observed the sleeping forms of Liliana and Catherine. After making sure they were asleep, she hefted both up and slung them over her shoulders. Then she began heading back to the dorms, but not before looking over her shoulder to narrow her eyes at the stunned Sect heir.
“I hope you have more sense than to test me too,” she stated icily, before marching off like usual, but at a slightly slower pace.
After an awkward pause, Zhang Mingxia slowly began following too, but a few more steps behind than before, and with a more subdued expression. She hesitantly spoke up, “I have seen you cast more than three spells at the same time, so it would’ve been easy for you to cast a spell on me as well.”
Adrianna didn’t look back, but she did answer. “The sleep spell targets the mind as an attempt at the dream subset of illusion magic,” she replied apathetically. “It wouldn’t affect anyone who cultivates the soul.”
“….you are aware my cultivation technique is also a soul art?” Zhang Mingxia asked cautiously.
“Don’t misunderstand,” Adrianna responded coldly. “I don’t care about your Sect technique’s secret functions. I’ve only noticed due to my application of spiritual energy in magic.”
The 19-year-old girl went silent as she tried to understand the implications of Adrianna’s words. She hugged herself, frowned slightly, and then sped up her pace a bit. They walked in silence for a while, until Adrianna was almost at the dorm room of the girls.
“I would just like to ask one question,” Zhang Mingxia spoke, straightening up as she looked at Adrianna with a serious gaze. “I cannot comprehend why you do not want to spar with me. It is almost certain that with your strength you will be paired with me for the spar tomorrow and perhaps onwards.” She took a breath. “Could I know why you do not wish to do so?”
Adrianna turned around to gaze dubiously at the Sect heir. Zhang Mingxia blinked, before raising her chin and planting her hands on her hips.
“I swear on my status as the 27th ranked successor of the Vast Longevity Flowing Glacier Scripture, that I will talk to you no more this night if you return an answer to my question,” she proclaimed.
The woman with icy eyes studied her for a moment, and then an imperceptibly faint smirk appeared on her lips. She tilted her head. “You wish to know why I don’t want to spar with you?”
Zhang Mingxia eagerly nodded, and Adrianna turned back around to open the door of the room.
“It’s because you’re bothersome,” she stated flatly, walking in to deposit Liliana and Catherine on their beds after shutting the door. Then she went to her bed, took off her boots and jacket, then got in.
Zhang Mingxia remained frozen, staring at the door with a stunned look on her face. It gradually became incredulous.
“I’m…. bothersome? I’m bothersome?!”
The girl glared at the door and the figure of Adrianna in her spiritual sense, before furiously turning around to storm off to the place where she liked to cultivate, muttering in a dark voice the entire way.
“She called me bothersome…. me, bothersome, a successor of a Heavenly Sect!”
----------------------------------------
“She attacked us!” an angry redhead exclaimed, arms crossed as she sat on her bed.
Her audience winced at the tone of her voice. “Cathy, I’m not exactly sure it could be considered an attack when she didn’t even hurt us….”
The blue-eyed archer timidly shrunk back when faced with Catherine’s furious gaze.
“Whose side are you on, Liliana?” she demanded, scowling. “No, she attacked us, no matter what anyone says. She cast a spell on unwilling people and hauled us like sandbags to be dumped back in our beds. Even if we had been willing somehow, she still treated us like literal garbage!”
“You did say anger was better than indifference…” Liliana awkwardly pointed out.
The redhead’s scowl intensified but she didn’t answer and instead glanced over to the bed opposite Adrianna’s. “Anyway, what’s with you today?”
Zhang Mingxia was sitting on her bed with a tasselled jade pendant on her lap, sorting through an assortment of belongings. She had a miffed look on her face and was rather roughly arranging her objects to be replaced into her spatial jade.
“She called me bothersome,” she said with an affronted tone. “I have never in my life been insulted in such a way. How dare she mock my good intentions by treating me like some irritating flying insect!” She crossed her arms with a dark expression. “I have lost any form of desire to hold back my strength today, regardless of her being a mage or not. She will face my full power or not at all.”
“Ooh, scary. Make sure I’m there to see it,” Catherine replied with a vicious grin.
Liliana glanced between them hesitantly and then buried her head in her hands. “This is why we never should’ve followed her….” she muttered wearily.
“What’s done is done,” the redhead stated, stretching her arms. “All right, let’s get ready. At least we’re not too tired for today. I guess some good came out of it….” she muttered grumpily.
The three girls got changed and ready for the sparring session that would occur, all filled with nervous energy and eager to finally begin learning to do what they had joined the Navy for. Fighting.
…
“The basic rules for this are as follows,” Officer Stanhope announced to the uniformed cadets standing in front of him. “You will be paired up with another cadet of the most similar strength to you, and you will spend the session fighting them as the instructors and I observe your abilities. You may be switched to different partners depending on your fighting style, level of skill, or apparent weaknesses.”
He began pacing in front of them, clipboard in his hands. “Magic classes will not necessarily be paired with magic classes or warriors with warriors. It will be entirely decided by which partner will develop your fighting ability the best. There are 34 of you left right now,” he told them. “If you are not at a certain benchmark of ability by the end of this next week, you will be told to leave. We don’t care if you have a high rarity class, a path of progression, or a high level. This is purely based on your ability to fight and adapt in battle.”
He pointed to a big wooden board that showed a schedule. “Sometime next week we’ll progress to team battles commanded by team leaders. We’ll pick the leaders. All right then.” He looked down at his clipboard. “Without further ado, I will announce the pair-”
“You can’t be starting without me already, Officer Stanhope?” A tall, burly, dirty blonde-haired man in his mid-40s dressed in a long navy-blue, white, and gold-trimmed coat walked towards the front. “Wait for your own Commander now, would you?”
The battle-scarred Commander Merrow Arkenast grinned as he crossed his arms and observed the cadets once he had made it to the front, who stiffened and went white as a sheet as they realised they would be sparring in front of the Commander himself.
Officer Stanhope blinked and then narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t hear you were coming, sir.”
“There’s always time for spontaneity.” The Commander smirked, the Officer eyeing his superior with a dubious look. “And besides, the cohort this time is going to be a little different, isn’t it? I wanted to watch them today.”
“I thought the Admirals hadn’t decided yet,” the Officer remarked, looking curious.
The Commander raised an eyebrow at him, making the Officer pause, and shake his head. “A discussion for later then.” He held up his clipboard. “I was just about to announce the pairs for today.”
“Hmm.” Commander Arkenast took the clipboard from the shorter man and then nodded once he had scanned it. He passed it back. “Looks like what I expected. But first….” He grinned widely as he placed his hands on his hips. “There’s something I wanted to show you all today.”
He scanned the cadets, and his grin widened when he saw who he was looking for. “Could the cadet with my personal invitation come to the front?”
The Commander smirked as he saw her cold expression twitch slightly, but the woman just sighed and came forward. There were mutters as they all saw her moving, this being the first time it was proven that she was the recommended cadet. Eventually, she stood in front of him.
“Here, sir,” she said, her normally toneless voice tinged with slight weariness.
Commander Arkenast placed two hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face the rest of the cadets. He gestured to her, one hand still on her shoulder. “Now, I’m sure you’ve seen and heard her name before, but I’ll get her to say it again. Please introduce yourself to them, cadet.”
“My name is Adrianna Riftmire,” she stated coolly. She glanced to the side and saw the Commander’s eyes narrow on his grinning face, so she suppressed a sigh and continued. “I'm 21 and a former mercenary. I use illusion magic and spiritual energy.”
Commander Arkenast pressed her shoulder a bit, telling her to continue, so she reluctantly did. “My class rarity is Epic and I’m at Level 52.”
There were a few murmurs at that. Epic rarity was one of the better rarities among them, the average being Rare. But it was only a step above Rare. It wasn’t Ancient, which would’ve been a more acceptable Rarity level for someone only 21 who had caught the eye of the Commander. Neither was she any higher than the average level among them. The scarred man behind her opened his mouth as he dropped his hand from her shoulder, likely to end her introduction, but she said one last thing.
“My only elemental affinity is illusion. It’s superior grade,” she announced expressionlessly.
The cadets stopped talking in hushed whispers to start discussing whether she was telling the truth or not, creating an uproar among the group. Even the two Navy members’ eyebrows went up, the Commander and Officer Stanhope exchanging glances, unaware of this fact.
Eventually, Officer Stanhope stepped forward to quiet them down when the noise went on for too long. “All right, that’s enough,” he ordered a slight frown on his face. He stepped back as he looked at the Commander for him to continue.
Commander Arkenast smirked as he spoke up. “Well, now that you have discovered this….. interesting fact about Cadet Riftmire,” he said with a glance at the cold-faced girl, “I’m sure you’re eager to begin sparring amongst yourselves. However, one thing needs to be shown to you.” He crossed his arms as the smirk on his scarred face widened. “The gap between someone I personally recommended….” He pointed to the cadets. “And you guys.”
He whispered to Adrianna, “Use the one you did for me.”
She gave him a wary look. “….. with their current strength?” she replied, making the cadets in the front row who heard her scowl.
He gave her a malicious grin. “If they’re too weak to remain standing after being hit by a Rank-1’s spell, the Navy doesn’t need them. Take it away.”
She sighed and then pressed her hands against her ears. Then, with a twist of her Origin Skill, the air around her began to ripple and distort. It didn’t do anything for a few seconds before the ripple burst out with a shockwave and the sound of screaming metal and fracturing glass sounded throughout the training grounds.
Boom!
All the cadets hurriedly put their hands to their ears and several dropped to a knee when they had become dizzy from the painful sound. The mana in the area went chaotic and into disarray, clashing with the internal mana of all the cadets, sending an abrasive feeling like sandpaper throughout their bodies and their mana veins. The spiritual energy gave them all pounding headaches that throbbed with the increasing intensity of the cry, leaving them feeling strangely dissociated and disconnected from their bodies as they observed their surroundings with blurry vision and deafened hearing. The cry itself gave everyone an impending sense of dread that couldn’t be removed like they were about to be devoured by some nightmarish creature.
Liliana was on her knees, her head lowered as she tried to cover her ears. Catherine was angrily trying to stand up, but couldn’t stop her trembling limbs and nearly toppled over sideways due to dizziness. Zhang Mingxia spat out blood as she stared solemnly at Adrianna, the chaotic spiritual energy giving her minor internal spiritual energy backlash.
The reactions of a few others were mixed as well. Ruel Deirvetch and Drew Baxtimer were barely standing, and they exchanged wide-eyed glances as they realised who Ruel had been yelling at. Zhang Meng was scowling at Adrianna like she was a new threat to be eradicated, and Liao Tengfei had his eyes narrowed as he tried to get up from one knee. Noirel Arventiel had gone white as a sheet as she stared at Adrianna, her entire body trembling in what looked like fear rather than lack of strength or pain.
And… Conlan was gazing at Adrianna with a wide, disconcerting smile on his face, easily standing up and appearing unaffected by the spiritual dissonance.
“I think that’s enough now, Cadet Riftmire,” Commander Arkenast announced.
Adrianna withdrew the presence, and the visual distortion disappeared as the horrific sound died down. All the cadets watched her warily after they sighed in relief as the Commander grinned at her again and asked her a question.
“Now, what level of strength would you say that was in comparison to the original creature, Cadet Riftmire?” he said.
“I believe I managed to mimic 8% of the Monstrous Elder Drake King’s cry, sir,” she replied calmly, her words making the cadets’ faces turn white.
“And you stayed conscious long enough to copy its properties?” he asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.
“My high spiritual energy allowed me to endure, however, I was knocked unconscious soon afterwards,” she stated expressionlessly. “I heard the few other Users under Rank-3 nearby went into comas for several days to weeks. I was lucky.”
Her words made several of the other cadets shift uncomfortably, and Commander Arkenast picked up on it.
“You believe she’s being intentionally humble,” he said, crossing his arms. He eyed them solemnly, and then shook his head. “I’ll tell you now: she’s not. She is incredibly, incredibly lucky to be alive after that. The cry of King-ranked monsters can kill,” he growled. “The shockwaves they release cause environmental devastation and soul damage, but even worse are the aftereffects. Monster essence instils despair and hopelessness in people by its very nature. It brings about all sorts of dark emotions at the moment, such as anger, grief, or panic, and many become depressed for months after being near high levels of monstrous mana.”
“You are in the Distorted Depths,” he continued with a stern expression. “Dealing with monsters and high-level monster presences will become a daily ordeal for you all. If you do not have the strength of mind to cope, you will break. And the fact that Cadet Riftmire here,” he said, pointing to her, “Had the strength of mind to analyse the cry of the monster, while enduring the spiritual shock of the call, means she had already demonstrated she is capable of adapting in battle and learning from her enemies, a qualification we need here at the Navy.”
He looked around at them again. “I am not afraid to say that if somehow only one of you passes this training camp by the end of the month, it will be her. If she asked, I would transfer her to join the Navy right now.”
He smirked as he glanced at her. She didn’t react. He shrugged and took a step back, then placed his hands behind his back as he began walking off to the side. “But she knows there are things she can learn here. And because of that, she’s smarter than every single person here who’s complained about what we’re teaching.”
Several cadets flinched, the Commander having pointed out exactly what they had verbalised before. Not many of the sessions had been about actual fighting that week.
As he left, Commander Arkenast waved to Officer Stanhope. “Stanhope, don’t announce the pairs in alphabetical order this time. Announce them according to strength.” He gave his subordinate a toothy grin. “There’s going to be a few changes around here soon.”
The Officer gazed at his Commander with a complicated expression, and then sighed slightly, nodding. “…..yes sir. Then, I’ll now continue announcing the pairs,” he said as the Commander left.
“1st ranking pair: Adrianna Riftmire and Zhang Mingxia.”