After such an intense, tiring and prolonged journey, Finlay was glad the rest of it was relatively eventless. He just stuck to a cautious approach and kept his hateful attitude towards the insects from influencing the fights he picked.
As his long journey to the target was coming to an end, he stood before a weirdly, perfect conical boulder at the top of a small hill of big rocks.
‘An out of place rock near the conical boulder…hmm out of place, what exactly did he mean by that?’
Fortunately, it didn’t take long before Finlay noticed a flat rock slab leaning suspiciously against the big boulder.
“Aha!”
Moving it revealed a red painted arrow with a number beside it showing the direction and distance to the destination. He covered up the mark again and moved towards the indicated direction. It wasn’t long before he walked through a path that was almost a trench that disappeared into dense big trees. The ambush vulnerable surroundings didn’t sit well with Finlay and he was growing suspicious with the information he obtained to begin with.
‘Did that Fu*ker screw me over? Was this a setup all along? Maybe I should turn back. This trip has been enough of a disaster already.’
He stood still at the beginning of the suspicious path, hesitating, for a good 5 minutes before he eventually decided that he had invested too much to back off now and he didn’t feel like he needed to feel particularly threatened by anyone under the Qi condensation realm with his new gear in close quarters. He took out his spear and heightened his senses as he walked through said path.
It didn’t take long before the narrow, suspicious path opened up into a wide clearing in the middle of the dense jungle surroundings. Even as he entered the clearing, Finlay still felt on edge until his eyes laid on what was before him, a giant stone plaque with a symbol indicating Alchemy. Finlay finally relaxed both physically and mentally. He didn’t put away his weapon but immediately circled the clearing to check for other people since it’s a place that is open to everybody and the knowledge here is open to access for everybody.
Although he did find a couple of places with traces of encampment, the place was empty for the moment. Finlay didn’t waste anymore time and chose a convenient place to set up his camp and sat down to comprehend the information on the stone plaque.
Even though the candidates in the valley possess a completely mortal body and are yet to finish their transformation, their bodies already possess the strength of many adults, with senses, similarly, a few times sharper. Hence, each of the stone plaques contained vast amounts of writings, images and qi marks. The further into the hunting zone, the more the information on them. As a topic like Alchemy is very information heavy, especially when aimed at newbies who might lack even the most common skills and knowledge.
This is why Finlay had prepared beforehand by using up one of the 2 credits at the library to get the book on Alchemy to help with the fundamentals. He brought out the book on the side and focused wholeheartedly on learning Alchemy. The biggest thing he realised after 2 hours is that he needed to practise certain things if he is going to make much progress. Hence, the remaining time was spent with him making a copy of things that he could onto a different book for later reference and determining the ingredients he would need to begin his practise. The Alchemy book from the library was a lot more helpful in this regard with its extensive knowledge on herbs and materials used in Alchemy.
He found that the immediate surroundings were a good place to source a good number of herbs he needed. But if he was going to make any meaningful progress in his practice, he would need to purchase a proper Alchemy cauldron that can be operated with Qi. Hence, he did not waste long before starting back out of the hunting zone. He had only spent one night at the clearing.
On the way back, he tried to pick up all the herbs he could that were useful for his practice. This seemed to attract some of the creatures that prefer grass and other plants for their diet. Fortunately, he didn’t face too much trouble with them since they all came at him individually. Thus he acquired a few more cores and monster materials from 2 deer like beasts of earth attribute, 2 twin horned rabbits and 4 regular azure rabbits. Otherwise, he had a safe, albeit long journey back. By the time he was out, he had a bulging back stuffed haphazardly with all the monster parts and herbs. He was both physically and mentally exhausted and hadn’t had a proper bed to sleep in a long while. He decided he would first recover, then deal with the cauldron and the bow problem. He was really looking forward to seeing the face of his roommate after so long, who unfortunately seemed to be away, so Finlay left his stuff at home and went out to get a relaxing bath and a change of clothes.
That was one of the most relaxing baths Finlay had ever had. He almost drowned from falling asleep despite his super human constitution. That cued him to end the 2 hr long bath and return to his dwelling to rest. He bought a few delicious skewered meat sticks to share with his roommate on the way. Lu Bao came back just in time, only minutes after he entered.
“Senior brother! It’s been a while! I was starting to get a bit worried that you got into some kind of trouble,” Lu Bao said with a worried yet delighted expression.
“Ah…I apologise, brother Bao. I did not expect it to take so long either. Right, here I just bought some delicious meat to share with you. Let us eat as we talk.”
“I see…okay. If it’s Senior brother ming’s treat for returning safely, I won’t be polite. Hmm…these are my favourite as well.
“And brother, I’m once again glad that you’re back. It’s only a few days till the pill distribution and I was worried you would miss even that.”
Finlay felt a bit embarrassed for making him worried. He briefly explained that he had a detour and some obstacles causing his delay, without actually explaining the details that are a taboo to be shared with others. Lu Bao could only marvel and show an expression of yearning for adventure and curiosity as he listened. He couldn’t help but passingly mention vaguely that there is a huge mosquito problem in the deeper areas and not having bug repellant was a major annoyance to deal with.
“Brother Bao, it seems you’ve had a productive time here as well? Congratulations for advancing to level 3 so quickly!”
“Haha! It’s due to the Senior brother’s grace. That new cultivation technique was truly profound. I didn’t even use half a month’s worth of the medicinal pills, yet I made almost a two month level progress. This must be what ‘Half the efforts for twice the results’ mean.”
Finlay was glad for this brother’s good fortune. After their conversation, he headed off to his room to take a long nap.
----------------------------------------
Finlay woke up after a very relaxing sleep. The only reason he even woke up was a rumbling sound in his stomach. It was already painfully bright outside, so he squinted his eyes as he made his way over to the kitchen area to fill his angry stomach. He saw Lu Bao in the kitchen busily making some breakfast.
“Good day Brother Bao, did you just wake up as well?”
“Just wake up??...Senior brother, it’s already past midday. I grew hungry waiting for you, so we could eat outside and finally couldn’t wait anymore. Just wait there for a few minutes, I’m almost done with cooking,” Lu Bao said with a helpless tone.
“Haha, I apologise for troubling you,” Finlay embarrassedly chuckled at his blunder.
They exchanged brief pleasantries over lunch before Finlay reviewed the cultivation progress of Lu Bao and they discussed their experiences with each other. Ofcourse, since Finlay was a level 9, he did most of the explaining as Lu Bao mostly expressed his confusion or odd points in cultivation.
After Lunch, Finlay, now with an entire night’s worth of sleep and a full stomach, was feeling invigorated. He set off to deal with his spoils and things he needed to purchase.
Later at the Blacksmith, “Hmm…Not bad, kid! That is a pretty decent haul. These rare mosquito cores are very valuable. They may not be very powerful but can be made into some unique equipment that can poison foes. This one in particular can be made into a hive mind disrupting tool that works against the General level Mosquitoes. Ofcourse, it will cost you a pretty penny, even more than that spear…
Finlay promptly raised his hand, indicating the old man to stop.
“Old man, I know what you’re doing. Stop it. I’m not interested. I would prefer cash. I have a lot of expensive things I need this time.”
Finlay was already plenty distracted from his cultivation. At least the other areas he is investing the time in, are eventually expected to give a return on investment like his Alchemy, Archery, the beast cores,etc. Moreover, such a device might be temporarily helpful against the mid level tier 1 Mosquitoes, but eventually, they become useless as his combat ability gets better. He would look for a water movement martial art instead.
“Brat! What is this old man again? Weren’t you respectfully calling me as ‘senior’ before??”
“Well, I adapt to people quickly. I already said I don’t want it, so tell me how much these are worth already.”
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“Well, that’s a shame. This would all come to a good amount of money but…well, I suppose you’ve earned it.”
“Earned what?” Finlay couldn’t help but express his confusion.
“Here! That all comes down to 2 and half spirit stones. So, here take these.”
Finlay received small hemispherical crystals with hints of Qi in them. His eyes went wide.
“These are…”
“Yes they are spirit stone halves. Normally nobody trades materials from the valley for these, but the ones from the deeper areas have some value and are qualified to be traded for these spirit stone halves. In case you're ignorant, let me tell you. The spherical spirit stones you’ve seen before are all poor grade, but poor quality spirit stones are already very valuable amongst the cultivators below foundation establishment, so don’t even think about exchanging these for full spirit stones. These halves are exactly that. The mysterious structure of the spirit stones make it so that they will break into equal halves or crumble into dust. Each half can only hold a tenth of the spiritual Qi and hence are worth only tenth. That’s why I have you 25 pieces.”
Although Finlay already knew a bit, he was still thankful for a thorough explanation and quickly thanked the old blacksmith. He held the spirit stone halves in his hand and closely observed them. He immediately noted that they aren’t hemispheres but are polynoids, made from multiple facets, approximating a curved surface and moreover, holding two halves together showed that a complete spirit stone wasn’t a sphere but more of an ellipsoid.
“Why the sudden kindness, senior? I would have been okay with just the usual gold or barter system.”
“Don’t overthink it. I’m neither giving away more than it’s worth, nor am I cheating you, giving you less than what the materials are worth. More importantly, I must warn you kid. Don’t become too dependent on hunting so much to earn some money. Cultivation is what’s important ultimately.”
“I will take the senior's words to heart.”
“Also, these monster materials are not as valuable as Alchemy ingredients. If you are in need of money, you should try to sell those. I will leave a word with the Alchemy store. Next time, don’t waste so much time just hunting beasts. Alchemy materials should be easier to acquire as well.”
Finlay quickly thanked the old blacksmith but couldn’t help but ask, “But why is it like that? What’s so special about Alchemy ingredients in this valley?”
“Hmf! An idiot! Think about it a little brat. All these monster materials I use for tool making, they are only able to create weapons of the same lower tier, at most a tier 2 poor quality item. What about alchemy? Any medicine you make for a body transformation realm practitioner, it will enhance their body or cultivation itself, something infinitely more valuable than a weapon that you will eventually have to throw away as you progress. Not to mention the various low level herbs and other devoid or low in qi ingredients used in higher level recipes as auxiliary things or cheap alternatives.”
Finlay was enlightened and once again expressed his thanks before concluding his business. As he walked away from the store, the old man turned to leave but suddenly turned back and stared at Finlay’s back.
“When did this kid start calling me senior again? Haha, truly an amusing one.”
Finlay next visited the sect-run Alchemy store to get a cauldron. Eventually, he spent 1 out of the 2.5 spirit stones he acquired from selling off monster materials. He still had a few monster cores not belonging to the water attribute on him to help aid his cultivation.
Later, he went to the library once again and asked to purchase a water attribute movement art, to help him in combat and also escape one if necessary. He did not use the library book token he had and instead opted to purchase the art for half a poor grade spirit stone. The token is much more valuable after all, being able to access all of the upper floor. A simple movement art belongs to the lower floor and can be easily purchased if you have spirit stone currency. He would use the last chance of the token on a more substantial book of knowledge like his Alchemy book, or something useful for the Qi condensation realm.
Next he went to the market area setup by students to sell off used items like tents, armour, weapons, etc. They also sometimes sold lower quality items directly to others either because to save time and money, haggling with the big stores or the value was simply too low and the big stores refused to buy them due to low demand.
Finlay walked through as he looked around until he spotted an area selling off camping tents. He is planning to buy a tent where indoor fires can be lit. These kinds have the centre parts of the tent made of an animal skin that can be stiffened and made flaccid by merely pushing Qi. The erect tent will have a vent at the centre with a rain proof cover over it, like in a typical village hut.
“Brother, how much for this tent? I need one to be able to use an Alchemy cauldron in during the rain.”
“Let me see…this one is relatively unused and costs you 2 spirit stones. There is this other one that is a bit more used, but still in a very usable condition for 1.5 Spirit stones.”
The ‘a bit more used’ tent had patches all over. Except for the central area, all the walls seemed like they would let in water in a heavy rain. Finlay wasn’t rich yet so he couldn’t be picky but 1.5 is everything he had. So, he tried to haggle a bit.
Unfortunately, perhaps he was bad at the refined art of haggling or just too naive looking, he couldn’t haggle below 1 spirit stone for the patchy tent, but he still had yet to purchase a bow and the arrows required for them. Ultimately, he had to give up on the tent.
‘Well, it’s not like I really needed the tent anyways. I could just build a small wooden cabin or a hut. I just didn’t want to waste my time.’
He purchased a decent but ordinary bow for about 3/4th of a spirit stone (7.5 halves) and used a quarter on metal arrows with the special blueprint he acquired from the archery stone plaque. He now had only half a spirit stone’s worth or 5 ‘halves’. For the sake of convenience, Finlay decided to name them bits instead. Since the arrows will take some time to be made at the blacksmith, he headed back to his dwelling for the day.
To be continued.
Preview - System Status
Identity :
Finlay
Male
14 yrs old
–
Mortality :
Sura (Mortal)
Job :
None
Titles :
None
Cultivation :
Body Transformation stage level 9 (Water attribute cultivation)(🠕)
Stats :
→open←
Skills :
The All seeing eye (Analyse) :
(Grade - E)(🠕)
Authority granted by the first god of the world, Dinn. You can peer into the secrets of things and beings of this world as long as you know what you’re looking for. (Requires activation conditions)
Inventory space :
(Locked until Foundation Establishment)
Universal Language comprehension (Grade A+);
Mana Blast (Grade F+)
Spiritual :
Cultivation Talent :
S+ Grade (Appears as C-)
Divine Sense :
None
Law Comprehension :
S Grade
Physical :
Body Type :
Five Element body (Grade : B+(Aggregate)) (Appears as C-)
Elemental Attunements :
Metal
S- Grade
Five Element Body Type
(Dominant trait)
Earth
A Grade
Wind
C+ Grade
Fire
C- Grade
Water
D Grade
Light/Darkness(Yin/Yang)
D- Grade
Lightning
F+ Grade
Other Talents :
Weapon Talents :
Sword/Bladed type
A+ Grade
Ranged
C+ Grade
Hand to Hand
C Grade
Polearms/Spear
D Grade
Soul based/Mental type
D- Grade
Qi Circuits :
(Arrays, Formations, Magical Restrictions)
B- Grade
Crafting Talent :
C+ Grade
Alchemy Talent :
D+ Grade
Miscellaneous stats :
Health : 125/125
Stamina : 69/69
Mental Energy: 73/73
Qi : 2/2 (prev. mana)
Status Ailments : None; Very Healthy