The squadron blazed through a clear sky as they set off on their journey. Laurel looked out over her temporary team. The officers she’d come to think of as her usual pilots were flying them in a vee formation above a pristine countryside. It had been officially spring for weeks, though winter refused to relinquish its grip this far north. A forest of stately evergreens spread out to their left as they flew south, following the Via Merista. The highway snaked through the hills, leading them onward. Leander, bundled up in the seat behind Trip, was pointing off to a small village. The pilot proved his nickname accurate when he veered out of formation to take a closer look. Being the third such sidetrip of the day, Kat didn’t even bother with a reprimand.

“Were we too optimistic putting them together?” Laurel leaned forward to be heard over the plane’s engine and the howl of the wind.

“Eh,” Kat replied, “at least this way the rest of us don’t have to go investigate every passing shrub.”

“This is Leander’s first trip outside the city. I expect when he realizes trekking through the wilderness can be monotonous, he’ll even out.”

Laurel had gone back and forth several times on whether or not to bring the kids along. It had been Martin in the end that convinced her.

“I’m taking the soldiers along and that’s it,” she said.

“What? Why? A few of the kids are at a good place in their cultivation to go out and see some of the world.”

“No. We’ll be far afield with no extra support if something goes wrong. They haven’t even opened their meridians yet, they’re basically still mortals.”

“L, come on.”

“No, Martin.”

The man in question walked over and pulled her into a deep hug, ignoring her wriggling protests.

“Ugh, too many feelings. I’m just being practical and the practical truth is that they aren’t ready.”

“Shhhh. You’re my oldest friend in the world, I consider you my sister. So hear me when I say this.

“L, I know you’re scared. You blame yourself for Borin’s death and I hate that you went through that alone. But you’re letting fear of that happening again stunt the growth of the living sect members we have now.

“Experiences are important in shaping a world view to fuel a cultivation journey. Take Leander and Rebecca. They’ll be opening their meridians soon and they’ve both never even been outside of the city, they’ve barely ever even left the slums. It will be good for them, and there is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that you’ll bring them home safe.”

“Fine.”

He released her from the hug. “Good. Now let’s go spar a bit to wash off the emotions, yeah?”

Flashbacks of Borin, killed the moment he was out of her sight, still plagued her when she sat alone for too long. But Martin was correct. The kids needed the chance to see the world, and a squad of soldiers and one master cultivator was more safety than most had when they left home for the first time.

The day continued without any surprises as they flew further south. She watched as the clear blue of the sky was painted in orange and pink and gold. When the sun kissed the horizon, the pilots found a clearing on the side of the road to set down. The soldiers immediately got to work setting up camp, having been trained for wilderness campaigns. Rebecca and Leander, on the other hand, were city rats to their cores; they stood awkwardly looking at Laurel for directions.

“First night you two. You need fire, water, and somewhere to sleep. You have the packs Annette and Esther made for you right, and the tent?” The two novices hefted the large packs. “Get to it then.”

“Umm Laurel?” Rebecca was still a little nervous whenever she asked questions, though Laurel had seen her chatting readily enough with the other novices. “Don’t you have fire and water crystals?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Laurel thought back to the training she’d received so many years ago. Sadistic masters forcing her into obscure, useless classes were interspersed with tedious, difficult, occasionally life-threatening tasks. On one notable occasion, she and her friends had been lured into the mountains with the promise of combat training and were instead abandoned and told to make their way home. She had never truly understood her teachers, not until this exact moment.

“Yes, I have fire and water crystals. I have them because I learned how to forcibly compress and crystalize ambient mana into a focus, and then impose basic properties. An extremely useful skill, and I'd recommend picking it up. Until you do, I suggest you take a look at how the soldiers are gathering snow and branches. Then we’ll move on to how to start a fire. You’re lucky. Annette’s a modern girl and I’m sure she packed matches and not flint.”

Their faces fell further and further with every word. They trudged off after Reynard to gather any dry wood they could find. Turning back to the clearing next to the planes, Laurel directed a gust of wind to sweep most of the snow out of the way. She tossed a wink at a laughing Captain Varska as she proceeded to drop her tent from spatial storage, fully assembled. Walking in a loop around the campsite and planes, she drove a series of engraved spikes into the ground. A touch of her own mana activated the enchantments. Another set them to pull in ambient mana to fuel the effects.

“Woah, what was that?” Reina’s head was on a swivel, on alert after passing through the perimeter.

“Weak barrier formation” Laurel called from where she was putting the last spike in the ground. “Won’t keep anything out, but spirit beasts will be encouraged to leave us alone. And if anything does come too close, we’ll have a warning.”

“How many of those gadgets are you carrying around?” Kat once again displaying her mastery of the ability to snark while holding a lit cigar between her teeth.

“Quite a few,” Laurel said. “I grabbed whatever would be useful on an extended stay in the wilds. After all, why work so hard if you don’t get to live with some extravagance?”

The novices reappeared, arms full of dead wood as they stumbled back into camp. Reynard kindly took them under his wing and demonstrated how to build a fire and get a camp stew boiling away. They gathered around the fire, sitting on camp chairs the soldiers and Laurel had brought for the purpose. When she spied Leander making a face at the soup Laurel was rocked by peals of laughter.

“Remember to pick up something nice for Esther while we’re on our adventure,” she said as she nudged him with her foot.

After eating and cleaning up, another task the kids were dismayed fell to them, Laurel pulled out a low table, a sheaf of maps and an engraved silver orb the size of a large grapefruit. She tossed it up a few feet above their heads, where it caught in the air and hovered. It emitted a faint blue light as wisps of mana floated off and dissolved into the air. The map on top of the pile showed the entire world, though the place names were only recognizable to Laurel. Faint lines in pale green were traced throughout the entire map, not corresponding to borders, landmarks, or anything else recognizable to mortals.

“Let's discuss routes. I have some ideas of where I want to go, but since the mana tapestry of the world has been entirely rewritten since the last time I did this, we’re ultimately guessing until we get lucky.”

She traced the coastal highway they were following down to the southern coast, and jumped to the continent people called Gavroz nowadays, continuing a ways inland until her finger hovered over a mountain range. “The Floating City of Caer’Listara.” Her finger journeyed further south and east. “The jungle, and then the Hashran Dunes”. Her route hopped back across the sea into the modern nation of Somorin, southeast of Merista. “The islands in the archipelago, nothing fancy but areas that team with life are usually good options.” She looped back up through the eastern deserts and back into Merista. “The deep mines of the eastern mountains.”

“Some areas that were natural treasure troves in the past, and might still be today. There are lots of others, but these were such deep mana wells I think we’d have the best chance of finding something.”

“Didn’t you just say the old places aren’t reliable? Wouldn’t it make more sense to look closer to home?” Reina was tracing over the proposed route Laurel had outlined. “This will take half a year, maybe more.”

“We could. And I’m willing to listen to wisdom if everyone agrees that’s best, but I worked this out with Martin and Adam and the reasoning is sound. With me along, this is one of the best protected and capable groups that will be doing this kind of harvesting. We can afford to take the risk, and some of these locations will have treasures harder to find at home.”

“Modest,” Varska said, smiling to take the bite out of the rebuke. Laurel shrugged, it was true.

“Second, we are basically flying blind.” She pointed at the sphere still bobbing gently overhead. “That thing is mapping the local mana flows. The ability to store three-dimensional spatial information like that was a cornerstone of my sect, and we can take advantage of it. It’s possible to pull some of the same information from the City Core network when it’s functioning, which it very much isn’t.

“Lastly, natural treasures can rejuvenate if they’ve been harvested properly, but that still takes some time. If we find things further afield, we can let others harvest closer to home. We’re lucky, the massive influx in mana over the last few years is the only reason I’m confident we’ll be able to find so many on one trip.”

The pilots had been focusing on Laurel’s route. Kat had pulled out her own world map, this one with modern countries and air currents noted.

“The first one should be fine. The mountain range is shared with Naxos but it's hard to farm and only has a few active mines. They quarry the stone but shouldn’t have a problem if they run into us poking around. Same thing for the desert, the people will probably just think we’re lost or on a training run. Though we’ll need to be very careful about any oases we run into. They do not like it when it looks like people are threatening their water.”

“Wow Major, we should bring you for our team on trivia night at the Rifle.” Trip said.

“Geography degree seemed like it would be useful for the army,” she said, and went back to plotting a course.

“Sounds like we’re in agreement then. This lets us stop in Lanport and check on how Theresa is doing on the Core there as well.”

Full darkness had fallen while they were setting up camp and Laurel glanced up at the moon and stars to try and gauge the time. There were another two hours or so before anyone would be tired enough to go to sleep. Just enough time.

“Now for the cultivators among you, let’s go over how to identify a natural treasure with your spiritual senses and the common ones we’ll come across.” A large book popped into existence from her spatial storage. Leander and Rebecca situated themselves across from her with defeated expressions. If they thought being away from the sect would put a break in lessons that hope was roundly crushed over the following hour. Laurel finally released them and sent them to cultivate, with a reminder that they’d be responsible for finding a location to do any necessaries before bed, and the wilds didn’t come equipped with indoor plumbing.