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Chapter 46 - Preparations
🕑 Added 2024-10-15 17:11:36 +0000 UTC60th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt lay in his fancy bed, which felt like warm, feathery pudding, waiting for his roommate to return to their dimly lit room, still coming to terms with his situation.
How did it come to this? Why would anyone pay one first realm spirit gem to spend a night in a fancy inn?
Many things made little sense to him, not the least of which was the dim light he failed to turn off no matter what he tried. Is Dandelion really doing something immoral with Elder Frostgrave?
The door opened, and one smiling Dandelion walked in, light shining behind his back. He looked like a hero returning triumphant or an immortal bathed in heavenly radiance.
“Have you done anything immoral?” Newt blurted as soon as the former sect master closed the door.
Dandelion’s smile changed, but Newt did not know what the new smile signified, so he simply turned crimson, regretting his tongue getting ahead of him.
“First, what men and women consensually and consciously do behind closed doors, without exchanging goods or services, is beautiful, not immoral. Second, the ‘gentleman never tells’ is disgusting nonsense braggers say, you should never say it, and third, no. We discussed cultivation, my chosen path, and potential for cooperation.”
Dandelion pierced Newt with a flat gaze. “And she understood my words on the first try. She did not throw a tantrum, run outside, nor drink a gallon of tea, which I believed was fancy, but now I understand was provincial trash.
“So, Elder Frostgrave decided she wished to show me benevolence to return the favor I have done for her, and we worked out a deal.”
Newt noticed something off.
“You didn’t say you are friends now.”
“I did not. I cannot be her friend until I reach the fifth realm, at the least. Friends need to have comparable strength. Did I not explain that to you the last time we met?”
Newt furrowed his brows, but remained silent. Some things Dandelion said in Black Fist Gate had gone over his head, and he did not remember which. In truth, he forgot most of it.
Newt considered asking about what deal the two of them had struck, when Dandelion believed they were not equals, but did not indulge his curiosity. Instead, he asked about their immediate future.
“So, about the mission tomorrow, how did you know to select the one for ice-attributed cultivators?”
“Well, I did not. Not really.” Dandelion explained, taking off his robe, followed by his undergarments. “These beds increase your circulation and the rate at which you absorb ambient spiritual energy. It is a tiny improvement, but it is an improvement. The more of your skin touches the bedding, the better.”
“Does that mean someone else lay here naked?” Newt jumped out of the bed, his face painted with disgust.
“They change the sheets, Newstar.” Dandelion deadpanned. “This is a high class establishment, they have spare beddings.
“Anyway, regarding your question. I did not reserve a job, and even if I wanted to, the Association does not allow it, they make the mission unavailable when someone sets off to complete it. I simply memorized everything available and threw the offer, seeing that Elder Frostgrave has so many disciples with her.” Dandelion paused. “To be honest, I was afraid their realms were too high for them to consider teaming up with us. Will you go back to your bed? You do not have to take off your underclothes.”
They each had their own luxurious bed, and Dandelion had already jumped into his, covering his nudity with a thin cotton blanket. Newt took off his shirt, but kept his underpants before going back to bed.
“Lights off,” Dandelion commanded, and the dim, romantic lights went out, startling Newt.
“I tried turning them off, but didn’t know how.”
“I asked the maid while she was showing me back to our room,” Dandelion said. “Now, regarding tomorrow’s mission, the caverns we will visit form a giant maze, or to be more accurate, an ancient, highly evolved frostworm had burrowed its lair a long time ago and has long since died. The ice jade deposit I mentioned earlier is actually the dead spirit beast’s skeleton.”
Newt frowned.
“Do not be surprised, frostworms are so massive, without bones and a partial exoskeleton to support their bulk, they would fall apart while their realm is low.”
“I wasn’t surprised.”
“Why the frown, then?” Dandelion asked, and Newt realized that was the first time the former sect master did not know what he was thinking. For some reason that made him feel better, and made Dandelion seem more human.
Newt could have lied, but opted to tell the truth. “I noticed a similarity between these frostworms and my clan. A once powerful existence brought them here, and after it passed away, they became fodder.”
The sorrow in Newt’s voice was palpable, and Dandelion spoke up for him.
“You are not fodder, and neither is your family. I have said it before, but I will say it again, your circumstances are unfortunate, but they forged you as you are. Good comes from bad, and bad comes from good. It is an unending cycle.”
Newt said nothing, and Dandelion continued explaining the details of their mission, followed by battle tactics and the nuances of tunnel combat compared to fighting in an open field. The wide tunnels were more or less the same as an open battlefield, but the narrow ones were a completely different beast. By dawn, Newt concluded he needed to buy a solid short-sword, because there were many cases in which he simply could not use a spear. Besides, he could use a short-sword for butchering spirit beasts in the future.
“Where can I buy some decent-quality equipment?”
“Your spear should be passable for your realm. Not the best, but passable. As for purchasing new equipment, the Blacksmiths’ Guild is the best option, while the open market and used items are a gamble. Potentially profitable once you develop a knack for it, but still a gamble. However, the Blacksmiths’ Guild’s wares are the most expensive, and you are broke.”
“You are a member, what’s the price of a short-sword appropriate for third realm cultivators?”
“Couple hundred third realm spirit gems, or equivalent.”
Newt’s vision swam at the sum. He did not have one millionth of that amount. In fact, he owed more than he owned.
“I can lend you the money, but you have to work it off through missions.”
Newt stared at the ceiling, the whole room spinning. A weapon is a bare minimum of what a wandering cultivator needs. Then I need a variety of medicine until I learn the Cauterize Wounds’ fourth form, Burn Toxin. What about armor? What about storage items capable of preserving spirit beast cores?
Newt stared at the ceiling as dawn crawled in through the window, and he once more realized just how poor he and his clan were. The list of what he needed seemed endless, the list of what he had nonexistent.
“Do you really have that kind of money?” he asked, unable to believe it. Dandelion had left the Black Fist sect only with enough resources to reenter the third realm, and maybe some pocket money.
“Naturally. I am an alchemist, what do you think I do all night when I only have to sleep once a week and the entire city is under a curfew?” Dandelion answered Newt’s next question before the youth got to ask him how he had gotten his money.
Newt almost asked why Dandelion was helping him, but stopped himself. The former sect master threatened to beat him senseless the next time he asked that question.
“Thank you,” Newt said instead. “Will you help me pick a good short-sword? And the rest of the equipment we need?”
“Sure, but keep in mind that that cave system is full of third and fourth realm frostworms. Your technique which shields you from fire should negate the cold, but getting struck or bitten by gigantic worms is no joke. Their jaws are massive and full of needle-like teeth. You could easily die if you are not careful.”
Newt got up from bed, while Dandelion remained prone, squeezing every possible second from his cultivation bed.
“Is the mattress really that effective?” Newt asked, curious as he donned his robe.
“Not at all. I estimate it at around three to five percent increase for some ten hours, that makes it an extra half an hour of drawing spiritual energy at my average rate at most. Under normal circumstances, I would have made two or three batches of pills at the Alchemists’ Guild, but we were stuck here, and wasting the advantages you have just because they are slim is against my religion.”
Newt mulled over those words.
“You only did it because you had no better alternative,” he asked, and Dandelion nodded. “Does that mean you would be doing something else instead of clearing a mission with me, if you had a better alternative?”
Newt was somewhat offended by the notion.
“Can you ask yourself that same question, just switching our places?” Dandelion deadpanned, and Newt did.
He would definitely do something better and more worth his time if he knew it existed.
“It was a stupid question.”
“No, it was an egocentric question,” Dandelion frowned in annoyance before quickly adding, “but you are not to blame for asking it; viewing things from our own perspective first is an unchangeable part of our nature.”
He glanced out the window. “The sun is almost up, and the curfew is nearly over. We should get up and go shopping. I will lend you enough spirit gems to purchase decent equipment at the Blacksmiths’ Guild.”
With that, Dandelion and Newt prepared themselves for the day and left the Noble Dragon before breakfast. There was little time to waste, since they had agreed to meet the two ladies from the Everfrost Palace at noon at the northern city gate.
