Third Manual

Waking up I felt great, but only while in the bed. The warm comfort from my own body heat is the only thing which made me feel reluctant to get up.

Laying there for another five minutes, that's what I had been telling myself anyway, I got off and stood up taking out the schedule of classes. In half an hour a class teaching about some alchemy would start.

Wondering how the others were doing I went over to my backpack to take out the radio. I haven't touched it since the start of our journey to the sect. Probably should of brought it along for the mission as a back up though.

Flicking the on switch and pushing down on the button on the side I held it close to my face as I began speaking.

"Hey could you guys meet at the entrance after the alchemy class?"

..

A voice belonging to Qiu Tu answered my question a little while later [Sure, I'll round up the others as well.]

[No need, I heard it I'll make sure to bring Hu Daquan. You just get those on the girl's side.] Liang Jia responded soon after

After hearing them I turn it off and begin making my way over to the alchemy class. It should be quite a essential class for some especially those who wanted to make their own pills instead of buying them. Or were just too broke to buy the product to instead try and make their own.

Most pills created are utility products. Such as pills which helped someone breakthrough to the next stage, increased healing speed, or possibly poison. They were almost never used in direct combat with a person. At least that's how they were naturally used in the novels I read.

For all I know the pills of this world could be used as weapons like grenades or something like that.

…

Entering the area it was extremely similar to the beginning class except there were cauldrons set up equally spread out around the area. The area was already beginning to fill up and the people had walked behind the cauldrons. Looking around for an empty spot I found one near the top. A familiar face just happened to be near it as well, Rao Nuan was directly next to the open one.

As I walked up I made sure she knew of the meeting, "Hey, you know about the meeting after the class?"

"Hmm.. Oh yea don't worry about it, I know."

''

I felt like I had to make a little connection with one of the few people I had contact with. "So what made you want to learn about alchemy?"

"I heard that the pills made are an important part of most cultivator's lives and this is also how some people are healed in this world. As the team's medic I feel I should learn how I should preform in front of others. What about you?" She responded as if a matter of fact.

"Yeah, well I'm here to learn how to make these items."

From the sidelines an old man comes onto the stage with a bag of ingredients and stands behind the cauldron on the center of the stage

"There seems to be a few more people today. Hmm?.. You two up there aren't of the appropriate cultivation. You must be at least the second stage to proceed with the refinements please leave." The old man's gaze was focused on looking over to Rao Nuan and I.

'Well shit, oh well maybe in the future then.'

Looking over at Rao Nuan I noticed she was still sitting down, seemingly oblivious to what the elder said.

"Come on Rao Nuan let's go, you can try again later when you get to the second stage."

She turned her head to me closing her eyes before sighing and proceeding to stand up.

As we walk out of the area I decided to go over to the library to turn over the alchemy book in exchange for another and renew my two weeks for the sword and movement books. After telling her my intentions and how we were still meeting after the end of alchemy I started walking towards the library. She had told me she was also had to go there to do something so she walked along with me.

"Hey I'd like to turn in this book and renew these two" Handing over the alchemy one while setting the movement and swordsmanship ones aside.

After he does his thing I turn over to the small inscription section in a corner and head over. There aren't may books in the section nor does it seem like many people use it either, well that's good for me. Quickly I swiped one about the basics of doing it and before checking it out; I made sure that I didn't need a certain level of cultivation.

'I should probably read a few pages at least before so I know requirements are needed to start practicing it.'

Alright, it seems the minimal requirements are just a brush, some special kind of ink, and maybe some inscription paper. There seems to be two kinds body and paper inscriptions. One of the simple body ones seem to increase cultivation speed at Meridian Opening and below. One of the inscriptions seem to add some qi to an object like a weapon.

The first one seems quite useful for a while, but the second had limited use. From the start of Meridian Opening one could use their Qi to empower their weapons.

Satisfied with my find I turned the corner to add it to one of the 3 books I can have at once. Leaving the isle I saw Rao Nuan was already at the counter with a manual. After she left I gave the clerk my manual and went over to the entrance to wait out the remaining time while figuring out how to get started on the inscriptions.

…

While waiting, Yao Ya came over early even though we still had around half an hour before the appointed meeting time. Though I don't think I could really say much considering I was here before even she was.

"Hey so uh.. why did you want everyone to gather up?" She asked leaning on a wall next to me.

"I wanted to get everyone an upgrade for their weapons. The ones we had before were falling apart and I also want to check out the city since we weren't even there for a day before we left. I need to find an inscription store or something to buy stuff for this new manual too."

"Oh ok, we should just explore the city together and experience what it has to offer then."

"Alright"

…

As the others arrived I told them about getting an upgrade as we walked to the city and they told of their mission they took a couple days ago. It seemed an upgrade their weapons were exactly what everyone needed. Along the way over to the city their each told of their weapon's unfortunate accidents.

Liang Jia had broken his spearhead off when he was fighting an opponent with a shield, Hu Daquan's axe head was chipping badly from attacking his opponent's weapons too much, and Rao Naun plus Qiu Tu's swords had cracks in the blade from some ferocious beasts in the wild.

Making it to the city everyone was pretty hungry from the walk, luckily there was a street market as soon as we entered so we enjoyed plenty of street food and snacks along the way. There was all kinds of food from simple barbequed meat on a stick and hot buns to noodles soups and candy sticks. We ate quite a bit before heading out to look for the store that'll sell us weapons.

…

There was a moderate sized weapon store in the middle of the city, one which didn't look too expensive nor made of too low quality of materials. It seemed like just the perfect store for everyone to look around with our budget.

After finding it everyone scattered to the respective weapon categories they were using. The store was fairly large and people were already scattered around inside with a large selection of each weapon type. As they were doing so I left the store to look for a shop selling inscription supplies telling them I'll would be back.

…

After a small while I had found a little humble shop and headed in. Seeing an old man sitting at the counter asleep I decide to quietly look for my items before waking him up. The store was fairly barren and only had a few sets of materials left. The brush was 20 copper while some of the special ink and roughly 8 sheets of inscription paper were 80 together. If I bought this then I'd only have 24 copper coins remaining as the rest was spent on the street food.

They're expensive but must be worth it since the store is so empty right? Normal paper would probably cost a single copper coin for 8-10 sheets. Maybe this'll change my life. Gathering up the items I dropped it on the counter the old man was sleeping at. The old man was still sleeping after I made such a noise next to him. Maybe he doesn't react to noise, but to touch?

Poking the old man in hopes of waking him, nothing happened. A little annoyed he wasn't waking up I told myself while walking away, 'Maybe there is a cheaper place with more selections. There's no need to wake him up if I have to put in so much effort for it.'

Before I could grab the door handle a voice comes from behind me.

"What, you not buying anymore?"

Turning around the old man was now fully awake even standing up from his chair at the counter.

"Oh, sorry I couldn't wake you up earlier so I thought I would just leave." I said feeling a little guilty as I looked at the almost crumbling shop.

"Well, I'm awake now so if you still want to buy it here's your chance." The old man spoke with slight indifference like he really didn't care if his product was sold or not.

I already put the items there so why not. Walking back over I giae him the iron coin required to purchase it before stuffing the items into my robe. I quickly bid farewell to the shop keep before heading back to the weapon store.

…

As I head inside I could hear an ensuing argument playing out, trying to ignore it I looked around for any of the others but couldn't find them. From the shouting I heard a familiar voice in the crowd and began to walk towards it, hoping that it wasn't what I thought it might be.

I went up to where I heard the argument and there were two opposing groups facing off in the middle of the story. One side was the group of people I hoped won't be involved in this and the other had six people wearing similar grey robes.