A hand on Benton’s shoulder woke him, and it took him a moment to grasp the situation. It was dark out with only the flickering light of their fire providing light. He was in his tent on his bedroll. Yang Ru had shaken him.

Benton mentally asked the System how long until his alarm was supposed to go off, a function he’d recently discovered.

Host was set to be awakened in one hour and twenty-eight minutes.

As the small group had ventured deeper in the spirit beast territory, it had become impossible to find areas completely devoid of the creatures. He’d had to set a watch.

“What’s the situation?” he said.

“Something large is moving nearby, Senior Brother Chao.”

Got it. Benton had instructed whichever kid was on guard duty to wake him if they saw or heard anything larger than the small rodents and snakes they’d gotten used to dealing with. Yang Ru had done the right thing.

As Benton rose from his bedroll, he extended his spiritual senses. A rank two beast was nearing their campsite.

It occurred to him that such a check was the first thing he should have done as soon as his sleep had been disturbed. Next time, he needed to do better. Next time, he would do better.

Though he had the benefit of Su’s memories, actions were not yet ingrained into the core of his being. He was learning just like his disciples.

The important thing at the moment, though, was that danger was approaching. He pulled one of the mortally made spears from his ring and pondered whether to trade with Yang Ru for the higher quality one to use in the upcoming fight. After all, Benton had managed to avoid having either of the kids face a rank two so far.

Taking the better spear was the safer move. With it, he felt confident he could kill the beast without anyone getting hurt.

On the other hand, the kids had been working hard. They were probably ready. Maybe. And he’d be there to help, albeit with only what was little more than a stick with dull metal tip as a weapon.

“You want to be the one to kill whatever is making that sound?” Benton said.

“Yes, Senior Brother Chao. This lowly one wishes that greatly.”

Benton hadn’t expected such enthusiasm. Good deal.

He judged the beast’s trajectory and pointed to a spot near the tents. “It should emerge there. Get ready. We’ll handle it the same way we’ve been fighting the rank ones. I’ll keep its attention. You kill it.”

A figure much larger than any beast they’d seen—about four feet in length with yellow brown fur and weighing at least sixty pounds—waddled into view. Two large incisors hung prominently in its mouth, and a long, paddle-like tail trailed it.

A beaver.

Benton stepped forward and drew its attention. The creature was obviously built for power, not speed, as its approach was downright glacial. It would have been an ideal matchup for Yang Xiu, but she was presumably asleep in her tent.

It was a more problematic opponent for Yang Ru. He preferred to kill with a single powerful strike.

Looking at the massive beaver, Benton doubted it would go down that easily.

When it got within range, it lunged at Benton. He easily dodged out of the way in the direction opposite where Yang Ru stood.

Benton used the butt of his spear to whack it upside the head. That hit made it angry and, more importantly, kept its focus entirely on him.

Meanwhile, he’d positioned the beast perfectly for Yang Ru to take a shot.

The boy charged, clearly committing to a powerful strike. His superior spear sank deeply into the beaver’s side. And Yang Ru just stood there, expecting for it to keel over and die.

Spoiler alert, it didn’t.

There was a qualitative difference between rank ones and rank twos. Besides obviously being bigger, they were stronger and tougher. If you want to one shot one of them, you needed to penetrate the brain.

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Not the side.

While the beaver was slow for a spirit beast, that didn’t mean that it was slow on an absolute scale, just a relative one. It was much quicker than a wholly unprepared Yang Ru.

The beaver snapped with those huge teeth, aiming at his arm. Yang Ru didn’t even know what was happening. Its teeth were sharp enough to chew through trees like they were cotton candy. Yang Ru’s flesh and bones wouldn’t stand a chance.

Luckily, the beaver wasn’t faster than Benton.

As the beast thrust out its neck toward Yang Ru and opened its mouth, Benton stabbed it in the eye.

If he would have been using the System-wrought spear, the fight would have ended right there, but the mortal-smithed metal tip simply wasn’t strong enough to penetrate all the way to the beast’s brain. Neither was the wood shaft strong enough to withstand the hit. It shattered.

Benton stepped back and drew another spear from his ring.

The beaver’s attention was fully back on him, and he spent the next few seconds dodging claws and teeth. Yang Ru used the opportunity to stab it again, and proving he’d learned something the first time around, he quickly pulled the spear free and stepped back out of the beast’s immediate range.

Having taken three major wounds, the beaver slowed. Its thrusts became lethargic and weak.

Yang Ru had no trouble stabbing it two more times before it finally collapsed.

Benton sliced into the beaver’s skin and extracted its core. “Good fight. Well done.”

The boy grunted, sounding not entirely pleased with his performance.

“I’ll say it again. You are learning. There should be no expectation of perfection.”

Benton sighed. He was wide awake and wouldn’t be getting back to sleep. That was fine, though. Being smack in the middle of Qi Gathering realm, he only needed about six hours a night. He was getting four and then dozing while the kids cultivated during the day.

They seemed to be fine as well, alternating so that each could sleep a full eight hours one night and four when they did watch. Long term that might not be tenable, but it was fine for the immediate future. He’d keep an eye on them and adjust if needed.

“I’ll clean this core in the stream and then finish up your guard shift,” Benton said. “Go ahead and meditate on the fight and then go to bed.”

Yang Ru grunted again.

After washing up, Benton warmed himself by the fire. They’d been steadily gaining in elevation as they’d hiked, and the temperatures were dropping accordingly. As he held his hands facing the flames, he watched Yang Ru meditate. Ten or fifteen minutes into the trance, his spirit surged, indicating a minor breakthrough in his weapon technique.

Both the disciples had mostly stagnated lately in that regard. To get to Large Success, they’d either need a year of sparring or to participate in life and death battles, something the rank ones just weren’t giving them.

They’d spent the three days after advancing to stage three of their hunting training continuing to hike four hours a day. At that point, the number of rank ones in the area was starting to be eclipsed by the rank twos, and Benton hadn’t felt like the kids were ready to move up again. They’d spent the last two days camped in the same spot, working on their teamwork against rank ones.

On one hand, Yang Ru had performed well. There was no hesitation. Good power as always. And after that initial flub, he’d recovered well.

On the other, he had nearly gotten seriously injured.

Was he ready to move to the next stage? Was that Benton’s call to make?

In the corporate world back on Earth, the worst consequence of a mistake was that you got fired. In a cultivation world, a tiny screw up could lead to death. The decisions he made weren’t nearly as easy as in his old life.

Benton sighed. If the decision was so hard that he honestly couldn’t tell which direction was correct, he might as well put it to the kids.

After breakfast, he said, “Your teamwork has improved; it’s been days since either of you has stabbed me or shot me with an arrow.”

Both his disciples had the decency to look embarrassed.

“Honestly,” he continued, “it’s still not where I want it to be. That being said, I feel like I might be a little conservative when it comes to managing risk. I would not want either of you to face a rank two spirit beast solo, but the danger is much mitigated with me fighting beside you, especially if I stop trying to emulate a clumsy or thoughtless partner and actually act to assist you.”

Both his disciples looked excited at the prospect of moving to stage four, which was the exact reaction he’d expected and feared.

“Understand that rank two spirit beasts are at a minimum four times stronger than any rank one. Yang Ru, if that beaver had connected with your arm earlier, it would have snapped right through skin and bone. Its cultivation is at the same level as yours. Your enhanced cultivator’s body wouldn’t have protected you like it does with a rank one. The most probable outcome would have been for you to have lost your hand.”

Well, maybe not if he’d taken a Major Healing Pill, but Benton needed them to feel that the fights were as dangerous as possible, both to maximize gains and to make them take the fights seriously. With experience comes contempt, and neither of the kids treated rank ones as a risk any longer.

“The decision is yours,” Benton said, “move on and advance to stage four of your core harvesting training or stay here for a while and perfect your teamwork.”

“Move on, Senior Brother,” Yang Xiu said.

Yang Ru grunted his agreement.

“You’re not even going to pretend to consider it?” Benton said.

She tilted her head to the side and poked her chin with her index finger a few times, hmming to herself. “I thought about it, Senior Brother. We should move on.”

Benton hid a grin. “Very well.” He pulled two Minor Healing Pills from his spatial ring and handed one to each of his disciples. “Keep these on you at all times. If you suffer any major injury, take one immediately. If I or your sibling suffers a major injury and is unable to take a pill, force feed the pill to that person. This is quite literally a life saver. Understand?”

“Yes, Senior Brother Chao,” the siblings chorused.

“Alright, let’s pack up camp and get moving.”