Leader

The barn house in the village was in complete silence. Sej and the others were resting in this place. It was the only available pace to stay in this village as it was quite small. The place was filled with stocks of hay and some grain. Currently, Cara and Sam were still covered in blood but they had washed their faces and hands.

The rest of the blood started drying and mainly covered their armour and some clothing. They had placed their armour to the sides. Sam was lying down looking at the ceiling. It was unknown what he was thinking about, Cara leaned against the barn wall with her eyes closed, a few tears could be seen on her cheeks. Henry had his head down. After the way he cowardly during the fight, he could not look at anyone face to face and just sat there looking at the ground.

Sej was also sitting there, glancing at all of his teammates who seemed like they just died. He thought he should say something but did not know what. He was still injured slightly so he took some restoration medicine. After taking the medicine, he felt much better and was starting to improve.

On remembering being rammed by the horned leopard monster beast, he still shivered before shaking his head and starting thinking of other things.

Some time passed and Sej realised that he had to say something because no one else would. He thought long and hard but nothing came to mind so he just blurted out "that was fun right guys". Cara opened her eyes and glared at him while Sam and Henry made no response to his outburst.

Sej assessed that of this group only he and Cara had a stronger mental fortitude. Sam was more susceptible to fear and took longer to recover. While Henry was just cowardly. But Sej did not blame them for this. It was scary, he was scared as well but he was well. Sej decided to start with Sam and Henry.

Taking a deep breath Sej continues "Henry, it is ok to be scared. This is our first time, we will improve. It does not matter that you froze in battle. We survived, just take what you learned this time. Remember that feeling of fear and fight anyway. So lift your head and be better. Don't wallow in fear." Sej was surprised that he could say such words. He did not think that he was this type of person.

Henry turned to look at Sej. He was grateful for the words that were spoken but he was still depressed.

Sej moves on to Sam. "Sam, you fought bravely. You saved Henry's life, so what if you made a mistake in battle, you still killed the horned leopard in the end. So get up, wash yourself off and be prepared for the next hunt. You're a cultivator, we are all cultivators now, that means we can never give up."

The mistake Sej was referring to was when Sam took a step back and allowed the monster beast to gain momentum in the battle. Momentum in battle is very important. Strong momentum can cover a person's flaws in battle and allow for fewer mistakes, it has a great effect on the tempo of the battle. Finally, it affects morale, especially for large armies.

Sej stoop up and said "our first battle, it was bloody, messy and there were mistakes that we all made, but it is the first step for us to become great and we won. We won the fight. So stand up, wash up and prepare for this again. Let's go back and conquer that forest one step at a time."

Cara, Henry and Sam slowly got up. Their eyes started glowing. This was it, this was what they signed up for when they became cultivators. To fight, to win and become immortals. Their spirits rose up and were fortified. They were stronger now than ever before. As their spirits rose, the spiritual energy in the area in the area when chaotic and rushed into the group's bodies, the aura of the group rose higher and higher as more resolve filled them.

Cara broke through to the tendon refinement realm and Sam and Henry finally broke through to the muscle refinement realm.

Sej became confused about what was going one, how did they break through the wonders and why did he not breakthrough.

However, this breakthrough was caused by him. Cultivation was heavily reliant on the spirit/heart of a cultivator, if the spirit/ heart of a cultivator makes a breakthrough, then it is equivalent to increasing the talent of the cultivator.

It makes it easier to sense, absorb and refine spiritual energy, while also increasing the person's comprehension ability.

There were 9 stages to spirit/ heart realm cultivation. However there was no specific way to cultivate it, you learned it by reflecting on who you are and what you have done. you must find your true self and improve on it.

The first realm was called Acknowledgement realm. It was the easiest realm to get into but most people only entered it at stage 2 essence gathering or stage 3 essence purifying realm.

Sej inevitably leads the way to break through for his team with his speech. What Sej did not know was that by doing so he also gave up something. Originally, Sej had 81 constellations of destiny but after gaining resources from the Apail family, it dropped by half a constellation. Now it dropped again by another half leaving him with only 80 constellations. With every bit of destiny lost, the calamity was one step closer to being fulfilled.

He had accidentally used destiny to help his friends improve and gain more confidence.

Even if he did know though he would not care as if it helped his friends, it would also help him. Not to mention the fact that the bonds of friendship would grow stronger.

As the spiritual energy calmed down from its chaotic state, Cara and the eyes of the rest were still shining bright and looked towards Sej.

"Thank you, Sej" Cara spoke while Sam and Henry nodded their heads in agreement to Caras words.

"good, clean yourselves up. There is still time today so we can make another trip to the forest. Sam and Cara quickly went to a nearby well to wash themselves up. Henry, on the other hand, started to meditate. He was reflecting on what has happened today.

Sej started to do the same. He thought back to the fight today and was trying to figure out if there were better ways to fight. More effective measures and that had left risks. Finally, he was making an analysis of his mistakes in the battle. What he found was that if he reacted faster, he may have had a chance to use his sword skill waterfall on the first Leopard but he rejected the thought when it came as the skill would drain him of energy and leave him vulnerable to any attacks. Even so, if he was faster he could have got to the beast before it reached Henry but he was not fully accustomed to the strength and speed of his body at all.

When he identified this problem he decided to try and persuade the group to change their plans for the day. 20 minutes later, Sam and Cara can go back. They were in clean armour Anaheim and looked refreshed, valiant even as Sam came with a spear in hand almost like he was ready to fight anyone in front of him to the death.

Cara approached and said" Sej I think you should be our leader. As in the leader of the group. Of the few of us, you were the calmest and effective in this battle. On top of that, you managed to inspire us and raise our morals which a good leader should do. Sam agreed with me and I am sure Henry will as well." She paused to look at Henry as if asking if he agreed. Henry nodded his head when he saw that and agreed.

Sej, on the other hand, was taken aback by the thought of becoming the leader. However, he was not apparent to it as it would make his life slightly easier. He had already taken a kind of leadership role anyway and it just made sense to make it official to avoid potential arguments in the future.

"If you agree then I see no problem in taking up the leadership role in this group of ours." It this like a permanent role or is it just for when we are out hunting"

At this the rest of the group became confused. Knew what he meant but they did not actually have an answer to give. Cara quickly signalled to Sam and Henry to discuss this in private, before shooting an apologetic look at Sej. He did not take it to heart though as it was a major decision. Soon the group came back and Cara spoke " we have decided to have you as a permanent leader as we live together and are quite close to each other anyway. We hope to take care of each other.

Even though a sort of division was formed in the group they drilled could be friends. The dynamic of the group would just change a little in certain circumstances. As for why they decided this, well they thought that Sej was a born leader. Little did they know that Sej just lost another half a constellation of destiny.