Lily was able to lead Micro safely through the alleys to the outskirts of the city without issue. The few cultivators they passed on the way were too weak and anxious to notice the pair of fugitives through the smoke, and it wasn’t long before they had reached the wall of the city.

“Ouch.” Micro shouted as he suddenly fell to the ground.

“What is it, master?!” Lily cried as she raced back in panic.

“Sorry.” Micro answered quickly as he stood up again, an expression of frustration rather than pain on his face.

“Pothole… I’m fine.”

“I see. You must be tired.” Lily sighed in relief.

“There’s a secret passage behind the bushes here. My family should still be waiting nearby.”

Lily led Micro into some of the dense shrubbery that decorated the base of the city walls, far from any gate and its guards, and they crawled through a small opening in the wall after making sure they weren’t being followed.

As he made his way through the small tunnel, the sounds of the angry and panicking cultivators of the city grew quieter. Many of the voices he recognized as those which had been cheering him on not long before. But mixed in were an increasing number of shouts from cultivators who hadn’t been involved in the tournament’s unfortunate conclusion.

“It’s hard to believe that even the cultivators who didn’t get their cores drained can’t find us…” Micro thought aloud as he looked back over his shoulder one last time.

“The cultivators?” Lily replied from a few paces ahead.

“Right now your aura isn’t that different from any mortal, and we’re all but invisible to them.”

“They can’t see weak people?” Micro asked with an eyebrow raised.

“That’s cultivators for you…” Lily shrugged.

“All they see is power. The weaker sect disciples are petty and vindictive, but it can be convenient how self absorbed they tend to be. The more powerful ones, like the Cerulean Core woman you met today…”

“Yahari?” Micro asked.

“She was nice, I think…”

“Be careful around people as strong as her.” Lily replied with a stern voice, stopping to turn around and make sure Micro understood her warning.

“They rarely get involved in lower sect affairs, but we live and die at their whim. They look at us the same way they look at any bug crawling on the ground.”

“I thought they wanted to kill all of you, but she ended up cutting Azar’s arm off instead.” Micro said with a frown.

“What a confusing person.”

“What is truly confusing is why she was here.” Lily continued.

“For a Cerulean Envoy to have come to the Beryl Kingdom, something much more serious must be happening somewhere. The Temple of Nora may be planning something that will make tonight’s summoning look like nothing.”

“They’re planning to attack the cultivators again?” Micro asked.

“That’s right.” Lily answered.

“I want to go home...” Micro sighed, scratching his head.

“Just a little farther, messenger.” Lily said, sensing his anxieties, then she started walking again.

As Micro popped out the other side of the wall after Lily, he suddenly felt a cool sense of relief wash over him. The smoky air of the city felt far behind him as the cool air of the grassy field he stood up in filled his nose.

He could now clearly see the mountains to the North and South. The valley full of villages which surrounded the Imperial City seemed like a peaceful oasis compared to the burning city behind him, though the strange feelings in his chest prevented him from fully enjoying it.

“You made it!” The familiar voice of Lily’s father cut through the silent night.

“Praise Nora for her mercy…!”

Micro turned to see Lily standing with her family and several large men in leather armour and long swords at their waists. They looked suspiciously at the clothes Micro wore for a moment, but didn’t seem interested in his presence.

“Hello.” Micro greeted the indifferent men with a wave.

“I’m Micro.”

“These are the escorts we were able to hire from the mercenaries’ guild thanks to you, master.” Lily introduced them.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“They’re the finest the guild has to offer. They regularly exterminate goblins and other dangerous pests in the area!”

“We should depart at once.” One man interrupted her with a slightly reddened face.

“It’s a good chance to get ahead of the search parties.”

“Understood.” One of the men answered with a firm nod.

“The cultivator coming too? That’ll cost extra.”

“You’re welcome to join us, if it suits you.” Lily looked hopefully at Micro, but was disappointed by the look in his eye.

“I’ll come see you one day.” Micro answered with a smile.

“Will you serve honey buns at the Brake Light?”

“I promise!” Lily answered gleefully.

“I’ve never tried one, but I’ll look into them when we arrive!”

“I think I’ll head back to Kel’s house.” Micro continued, then looked down at his chest.

“I need to do something about this…”

“I see…” Lily replied as her family picked up their bags and the mercenaries began to move.

“Good luck, Micro.”

~

As Micro watched Lily and her party venture East across the moonlit valley, quickly disappearing from his half-impaired sight, he took a deep breath and resolved himself to get moving.

“I think I’m nearly empty, Blue.” He said while rubbing his sore left eye.

“I can’t cultivate at all with my core like this… Need fuel…”

“Do humans not eat grass?” Blue asked as she climbed onto his shoulder.

“I don’t think so…” Micro replied.

“I think that’s cows…”

“Well, a city full of jade core jerks doesn’t sound appetizing.” She said, punching his ear.

“Start walking. I’ll get a head start on dealing with my own core.”

“Good luck, Blue.” Micro replied as he began to walk. Without his energy, the valley felt much wider than before, but he vaguely recalled the location of a village nearby.

“I won’t need it.” Blue stated contently as she began to meditate.

“Not having to wait for energy to come to me is nice. And this is still just a jade core! You cultivators really were on to something with these.”

“I thought getting an amber core might be enough to find a way home, but there are a lot of cores…” Micro wondered as he walked.

“I wonder how many there are.”

“Well, there’s jade, amber, sapphire…” Blue began to count on her fingers, her eyes still closed.

“Then you’ve got the emerald and ruby folks. They’re a real pain to deal with.”

“Which level was Yahari?” Micro asked.

“She seemed stronger than Azar… a lot stronger…”

“She probably had a cerulean core.” Blue answered.

“They keep to themselves most of the time.”

“Is that the highest level?” Micro asked as he went over the list, counting them out on his own fingers.

“That seems like a lot.”

“I’ve met a few silver and gold level cultivators, but they’re super weird.” Blue said with a look of distaste.

“I met one stick in the mud who said he had a pearl core. He’s the one who-”

Blue suddenly paused, then shook her head to rid herself of the unpleasant thought.

“Pearl is the highest I know of.” She eventually continued.

“I’ll aim for that, for now. I wonder if that old geezer is still kicking around somewhere. I bet he’d soil himself if he met a pixie with a pearl core.”

She began to chuckle as her meditative state waned, but Micro was too tired to continue the conversation while walking. As the chaos energy holding his core together slowly evaporated, he felt weaker and weaker, so he dedicated the remainder of his power to walking in the direction of the village.

He distracted himself from the growing pain in his legs with pleasant memories of the tournament, hoping his new friends would find their way home safely. He hoped Kel and Tae would be able to recover quickly, and he thought about the next time they might eat mountain fried beef together. He could almost smell the freshly baked honey buns which filled him with warmth and comfort with every bite. But the next thing he tasted was dirt.

“Gah…!” He spat out a mouth full of dirt, having tripped over a rock hidden in the knee-high grass.

“Oof.” Blue grunted as she landed beside him in the long grass.

“What gives?!”

She stood up, having recovered a small amount of energy, and glared at Micro, but he wasn’t as quick as usual to stand up this time. He stared at the ground on his hands and knees as tears began to fall from his eyes.

“Hey…” She shouted, though her anger was diffused slightly by his unsightly emotional state.

“You hurt your toe on that rock?”

“This world is crazy…” Micro sniffled.

“It’s such a beautiful place, but everyone is always fighting…”

“Yeah…” Blue shrugged.

“It takes a while to get used to humans. There’s more of them every day though, so get over it.”

“Humans…” Micro repeated as he leaned back to sit upright, looking at the tall grass in front of him.

“For what it’s worth, nobody likes humans.” Blue said, placing a hand on his knee in an awkward attempt to reassure him. She quickly removed her hand and turned away.

“What were you again? A farm tool?”

“Yeah…” Micro replied, wiping his face with his sleeve.

“Hmm…” Blue looked back at him with a deeper expression than he’d seen on her before.

“What is it, Blue?” Micro asked as she stared up at him.

“Well, it’s just…” She began, but she quickly shook her head and turned around again.

“It’s nothing. I’m just hungry.”

“Me too.” Micro nodded.

“Then stop thinking so much.” Blue scoffed.

“You’re a farm tool, so act like one and get the job done.”

“Okay…” Micro answered. He held out his hand, and Blue climbed quickly up to his shoulder as he brought himself to his feet. He took a deep breath and looked forward. The small weight on his shoulder took some of the weight from his mind, though his hunger made the rest of him feel heavier by the moment. However, a smell suddenly caught his attention which seemed to lift him out of his gloom with a single breath.

“Huh?” Blue blurted out as she noticed the abrupt change in the air around him.

“What got into you?”

“Do you smell that?” Micro asked with a smile forming on his face.

“I smell…” Blue closed her eyes and sniffed the air several times.

“Smoke?”

“Not just smoke!” Micro said excitedly.

“You still have some dirt in your nose?” She asked with an eyebrow raised.

“That smell…” Micro said as he took a deeper breath through his nose and smiled widely. He immediately started walking in the direction he estimated it to be coming from. Blue held on to his shoulder with both hands as his pace quickened.

“That’s the smell of a mechanic!”