After a fitful sleep filled with troubled dreams, Lily woke up in a meadow. She was groggy and disoriented. At first, the cultivator thought that she had imagined the restaurant filled with monsters. Then Lily saw Zane standing next to a cart, gently brushing Daisy’s mane.

The spirit beast made appreciative noises as he worked. Finally, the rogue cultivator stopped and turned to face her. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

Lily looked around, they were alone. Next to her was a pack with her old clothes folded haphazardly on top of it. A new and undamaged sword replaced the one she had destroyed fighting the core fiend. The cultivator frowned. “Are you setting me free?”

“Yes, if that's what you want. But I thought it would be good for us to talk first.” The young man sat down across from her. He didn't have any visible weapons, but she knew that meant little for her safety.

The woman sighed. “Alright, let's talk. We can start with why I'm not horse food.”

Daisy looked up at the mention of food, then went back to pointedly ignoring them. The horse had voiced her concerns to Zane during their journey. If the woman proved to be untrustworthy or attacked them, that was on him.

The rogue cultivator took a deep breath. “My name is Zane, and I'm what you people call an outsider. I'm sure you've probably figured it out already, but I'm the man in red who saved you last night.”

He waved his hand and the robes he wore went from green to crimson. “I knew it might cause trouble, but I decided to save you because you remind me of my little sister. I don't fully understand it, but my class prohibits me from harming a guest or allowing them to come to harm. Unless of course you were to attack me or someone else. But that's not why I brought you here.”

Lily's mind was racing. Outsiders were the stuff of legends. If it weren't for what she had seen at the restaurant, she would have called him a liar or a lunatic. “You haven't told me what you want,” she pointed out.

The young man laughed, “I want what you want, what everyone else seems to want. I want to get stronger.” Zane's voice was almost musical as he spoke. Then, his eyes darkened. “This world brings out something in me that I don't like. It rewards murder and violence. The Mesh encourages us to become monsters.”

She wasn't sure how to respond to that. Surely it was the same everywhere. “But what's your point?”

Zane smiled. “My point is, you probably don't care about any of that. You're a cultivator. You want to get stronger. And without a sect backing you up, you're vulnerable.”

He waited for the words to sink in before continuing. “Daisy and the rest of them are frightening to you because you think they're dangerous. Your first instinct is probably to run far away and never look back.”

The cultivator nodded. “The thought had crossed my mind.”

“Well, here is your opportunity,” the man in red pointed to her pack, “You can leave now and I won't stop you. Or, we can help each other.”

“Help each other?” Lily raised her eyebrow at the idea. “You're offering to share power with me? Aren't you worried I'll betray you?”

“No,” Zane said, continuing to follow his gut. The young man knew he was being reckless, but he had never been one to play it safe. “I think that you're in the same boat as me. You left the sect because you realized they were full of shit. Now you're on your own, and don't know who to trust.”

“So you're saying we should trust each other?” Lily asked.

“Exactly,” the rogue cultivator beamed, “If we work together, we can advance much quicker. Everyone wins.”

She thought about the monsters Zane had under his control and the fanatical zeal they showed for him. “What about your pets?”

He shrugged. “They want to get stronger too. What about them?”

“They're like a cult,” Lily pointed out. She knew that this might be the thing that pushed them into a fight, but it needed to be addressed. “They call you the ‘Awakener’. That's a bit disturbing.”

Daisy trotted over. “I was frail and weak, trapped in a chilling fog. I would have died without him. Can you fault my devotion?”

Lily wasn't sure she could. “Ok, but what about the void stalker? That thing is freaky.”

“It's a cat. Cats are furry little psychopaths,” Zane replied dismissively, “I found Dumpling starving to death in a crate. Some idiot had taken her from her mother before she was old enough to eat solid food.”

He shifted uncomfortably as he spoke. “Pinky told me it was crazy to keep her. But what was I going to do, let her die? I don't always do the right thing, but rescuing a kitten just to let her starve to death is wrong.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Zane shook his head as he realized that his class might have affected the decision. He liked feeding people and taking care of them. Apparently that extended to spirit beasts as well.

He decided to stop dicking around and get to the point. They could talk forever and not change a thing. It was time to shit or get off the pot.

“Look, all we want is to get stronger and climb the mountain. We will stay in Hero’s Step until everyone is ready, then move on to the next town. Do you want to join us, or not?” Zane asked.

Lily looked at her pack. She could leave. But what would she miss out on if she did? Zane could create food so rich in essence that it would propel her cultivation forward by decades. He was also an incredible fighter, and probably skilled in other things as well. She could learn much from him.

The spirit beasts were dangerous, yes. But so were people. Was she any better off on her own? Wasn't it better to have friends she knew she could rely on?

Zane had saved her, knowing full well that it would cause him problems later. He could have done nothing and let the core fiend rip her apart, or left her to bleed to death in the street. Doing nothing was easy. It was the easiest thing in the world.

“Alright,” Lily said. Her stomach was unsettled by the risk she was taking, but it was her best chance of getting strong enough to climb the mountain. Besides, it wasn't like she had anything better to do. “I guess we're going to see where this thing leads.”

Zane smiled, relief showing on his handsome face. “Welcome to the family.”

It felt like a stupid thing to ask, and Lily knew she was tempting fate by bringing it up. But she had to know. “Would you have killed me if I didn't agree to join you?”

The rogue cultivator shook his head. “No. I've killed enough people since I got here. It was fun, at first. But the novelty is wearing off. Now it just feels like work. The experience points are nice though.”

“But I could expose you,” Lily pressed.

“I know that you won't, because the last thing you want is to return to your old life.” Zane's eyes bored into her for a few seconds before he stood up. “I'm choosing to trust you. But I know you don't trust me yet. So, here's what I'm going to do.”

The rogue cultivator pointed at his cart. “I’m going to head home now. You can join me on the cart, or walk back alone. It's up to you,”

Before she could answer, Zane’s entire posture shifted. The rogue cultivator sniffed the air a few times, then smiled. “Actually, that's way too dramatic,” he said with a shake of his head, “How about this? I just realized that while I'm out here I might as well gather up some cultivation resources and stuff for the restaurant. Would you be kind enough to help me? I'll make us some really good food when we get back to the restaurant afterwards.”

Lily blinked from the emotional whiplash. His disposition had gone from dark and serious to sunny almost immediately.

She looked around. It was a nice day for resource gathering, and it couldn't hurt to spend some time getting to know him before they returned to the city. “Sure, why not?”

“Awesome,” Zane said with a smile, “Follow me. I've got this really cool ability that lets me sniff out resources, and I think there are some mushrooms nearby.”

He didn't wait for her to respond. The rogue cultivator walked off towards the treeline without a care in the world, like their previous conversation had never happened. Zane wanted mushrooms, and he was going to go get them. Everything else was in the past.

Lily looked over at Daisy. “Is he always like this?”

The spirit beast shook her head. “No. He's usually way worse.”

***

After an incredibly productive day of gathering the mountain’s bounty, they returned to the restaurant. Pinky smiled and gave Lily a hug. “I'm glad you decided to join us.”

The kitsune gave her a conspiratorial wink. “I like Zane and the beasts, but I'm looking forward to having another woman around. Isn't that right, dear?”

The chef had already started planning out dinner and was ignoring everything else. He mumbled a vague affirmation to her question then went back to work.

The two women retreated to a table in the back of the restaurant with a pitcher of freshly squeezed strawberry juice. “How is your injury?” Pinky asked.

Lily told her that it was healing nicely and showed no signs of infection. The cultivator looked at her host. “So, what do you need me to do?”

Pinky wasn't exactly sure. She knew they needed help if they were going to do more than brunch, but hadn't decided how best to utilize the cultivator’s skills. “We're doing pretty good financially because the building was cheap. People love our brunch, but we're figuring out our next steps.”

The kitsune pulled out a sheet of paper with some drawings on it. There was a large cube with a skeleton standing inside of it. “This is something called a vending machine. People put their money in the slot, and Groucho gives them a bottle of cold juice.”

The idea of using a temple guardian to man a kiosk seemed sacrilegious, but Lily was quickly reaching her saturation point for surprises. The cultivator didn't think anything could faze her after the day she had. Then an eye opened up on the wall next to her.

A pale blue iris looked at her for a second, winked, then disappeared. Pinky laughed. “Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. The restaurant is alive. Zane thinks it might be some kind of mimic. He says we have a symbiotic relationship. Though, I wonder what it gets out of the deal.”

Lily looked around. At first glance, everything seemed normal. Then she spotted little details that broke the illusion. The grain of the wood paneling on the walls was too uniform to be natural, and there were no scuffs or dents on the floorboards.

“Is there anything else I should be aware of?” Lily asked.

Pinky decided against mentioning how the Mesh thought Zane was a kobold and that he was functionally immortal. She also neglected to mention his triple blessed status. But Pinky did have something else to show Lily, and was curious to see her reaction.

The kitsune smiled wickedly then began to transform. A few seconds later, the cultivator was looking at a perfect copy of herself. Pinky giggled and changed back, sprouting ears and a tail in the process.

Lily looked at her empty mug. “I think I'm going to need something stronger than strawberry juice," she said.