Friendly Faces

I held the sack over my shoulder with my left hand while cutting open a path with the glaive in my right. I made a beeline straight back to the open pasture. While I was usually good at spatial orientation, I couldn't see the sun and the forest was a big messy jungle. The last thing I needed was to get lost somewhere on the mountain.But, as I was walking, I soon heard the familiar sounds of screeching rats. I quickly picked up the pace and went towards the sound. Just two more and I would have enough for two Spirit Shards.Imagine my surprise when I noticed a lone Disciple fighting against a pack of four Giant Rats with a sword. He was winning, but I could see he was struggling. The little beasts jumped at him, and no matter how he avoided them or kicked them away, they always came back, sharp claws and teeth at the ready.His clothes were already torn a bit on the edges, but he didn't seem hurt. I decided to lend him a hand and quickly spun my glaive with one hand, rushing into the fray.[I'm here to help, Brother! Hold on!] A Giant Rat saw me, and in its mad bloodlust, jumped at me with a screech. I brought the blade up, and in a single controlled strike, split it in half. No tricks or fancy moves, one hit and it was over.The other guy also finished off one rat by stabbing it in the back as it went for his ankles and then turned to look at me. We both opened our eyes wide in surprise."Gerald?!"[Chity, what are you doing here?] It was my buddy, Chity Boru the warrior."My training ended and I thought I would go and try to make some extra money."Right, he had training till mid-day, huh? I hollered at him to watch out, and he spun around, blocking a sneak attack from one of the Giant Rats. The filthy spawn were tricky to fight alone."What's with them today?! They are so aggressive!" Chity then gathered his Qi, pulled it from his legs, pushed it higher, into his chest where it turned violent and hot, gaining the Essence of Fire, and pushed it through his arm towards his hand holding the sword."Fire Strike!" He flicked his sword and a streak of fire ignited on his hand, traveling along the blade and leaving in a straight line, straight at the sneak-attacking Giant Rat. Nice shot!The streak of fire struck it in the face, exploding into a fireball, singing its fur and burning off its whiskers. But that was about it.Nice move bro, but I don't think that was good enough. It looks like you just pissed it off. [Allow me.] I extended my hand toward the enraged little monster. [Wind Lance!]The Giant Rat was instantly slain under my magic, blood spraying in all directions.The last one, unfortunately, got spooked by that and immediately turned tail to run away."Oh, no you don't!" Chity threw his sword, and it stabbed through the back of the escaping beast after doing a few spins in the air. He then quickly ran to deliver a finishing blow as the first one wasn't immediately lethal.He then slowly drained it of blood and stuffed it into his own sack.[Nice one!] I tossed him the other one he killed and cleaned up my kill."You too." He grinned. "Nice Wind magic, but I thought you preferred Earth since you went for defense?"[I do, but I can't use it here. You know, with the stupid Formation and all...] Earth magic used to be my favorite among all of them in my previous life, apart from Fire. Unfortunately, it didn't look like this was going to be the case here."Oh, right… Makes sense."[Nice magic, by the way.] I grinned mischievously. His Fire Strike was really too weak. Good as a fire starter, but not of much use in combat."Yeah, yeah, just laugh. It's barely been a few weeks since I picked it up, just wait until I get good with it!" He knew I was just teasing him and he took it in good spirit.Right… That reminded me of something.[Where did you find the spell exactly?]"In the library." He gave a me look like I should already know.[The library?] I frowned at that. Was I blind? Was there a third library? I thought deeply about it. No, no there wasn't.Well, maybe it was, but that wasn't the point. I finally remembered the Martial Arts library had another floor! I was always too busy finding Martial Arts techniques that I completely forgot to check out the magic spell section! I just wanted to slap myself for being so blind.[How many times can you use that spell?] I tried to change the topic."My Fire Strike? Hmm, about five or six times I think, why?"Five or six times… I saw the amount of Qi he used, and it really wasn't much. That's probably why it was so weak.If I consider each of his spells as 1 point of Qi, then I would have about 700-750 Qi. And that was after losing about 30% during the resurrection. My regeneration shot up after beginning Cultivation though. I'm not sure how much, but it was a lot. I needed less than an hour to refill the tank completely.[Makes sense. My Wind Lance uses 5 Qi, that's probably why there is such a difference.] And my Cultivation lowered the wasted energy by 90%-ish? So really, it was like 40-50 times stronger. That's crazy now that I think about it."5 Qi? What do you mean by that?"I guess I should explain it, eh? [It's just an approximate for energy. Just imagine your magic spell as one unit of Qi. Mine uses five, meaning you could use just one and be completely spent. It's a spell I knew before joining the Sect.]"Oh, wow… I guess it must be quite draining to use it then?"[It is…] Not. I barely even felt it. Compared to flying, this was nothing. That was a constant drain, especially if I wanted to go fast.We chatted for a bit as we went together, hunting Giant Rats. In two it was much easier. Though for some reason, they really liked to attack Chity, while they avoided me. In a way, I was using him as bait. I didn't want to do it, but I had no choice.Maybe it was the confidence I was exuding or something, but none of those animals dared to attack me. Instead, they ran away if I didn't sneak up on them. I don't know how they knew, since I had my Aura completely contained, but it may be that higher Cultivation gives off a certain smell that they can pick up? Cells in the body start to drastically change, especially in the Spirit Accumulation Realm, so maybe that was the reason.I honestly had no idea.But, by the end of the day, Chity had 10 Giant Rats, while I managed to get 15. The sacks were really full and heavy by the time we came back.He was the first one to go and deposit his catch. Two Spirit Shards for an honest day of work.My sack of loot was nearly bursting at the seams as I carried it on my back. Even though the rats were quite small, they quickly added up to at least a couple hundred kilograms. We were really slow since Chity had trouble carrying his load even though it was lighter than mine. And that was after I secretly helped him with Telekinesis."Junior!" Senior Disciple greeted me with a grin. "I nearly thought you got lost in the woods!"[Hello, Senior Brother.] I pretended to struggle to pull the sack behind me, and he came to help me, lifting it up with one hand."Woah, that's pretty heavy!" He threw it over his shoulder with a grin and I followed him back to the building. "You caught quite a bit of these little monsters, huh? You should consider joining the hunters." Senior Brother said as he was counting the catch.[I was just lucky.] I said. [I found a bunch of them eating a carcass and was able to take them out easily.] It was better to be humble here, I already noticed this in the Sect. Besides, nobody liked people that were constantly boasting and tooting their own horn."Ah, so it was like that… Well, you are still too young to join anyway. They only accept those that already reached Spirit Accumulation Realm. This is your first year here, right?"[That's right, barely a few months.]"Hmm… Next year perhaps. Oh, but don't go rushing things, you need at least Earth-grade talent if you want to join most of the well-paying professions."[Two refinements?] I asked."That's right. It should take just a bit over I year if I remember correctly, but there is no rush. Take your time and squeeze out as much as you can. It's not that I'm trying to scare you, but if you wish to remain in the Sect over the age of thirty, you need at least Earth-grade talent. So, work hard."[What… Why would I need Earth-grade talent? What do you mean by that?] What was he saying? Was there a limit to how long you can remain in the Sect if your talent is poor? But why not just make it so that only those with Earth-grade talent and above can join? Unless there's a way to radically increase a person's talent?But Senior Disciple just smiled at me. "Don't get distracted by my words. Just focus on your Cultivation, for now, everything will be revealed when the time is right."He then unloaded all of the Giant Rats and put them in a pile, counting them once more while he did so. "15 Giant Rats, that has to be a record for one day. I'm surprised you managed to drag them all the way here!"[Yes, it was really heavy.] I wasn't going to get anything more out of him, it seemed. Too bad…"I bet!" He grinned and opened a notebook and wrote down a few things. "What's your name, by the way?"[It's Gerald, Gerald Fireborn, Senior Brother.] Be polite, keep friendly relations with everyone if possible, and have an easy life. It was a good philosophy if I say so myself.Senior scribbled a few more things into his notebook and then stored it away."Gerald Fireborn, an interesting name. I'm Bao Taon, pleasure doing business with you."[Likewise!] We shook hands and he gave me 3 SSS for my work. [What are you going to do with those by the way?] I meant the Giant Rats. I could use them to extract a bit of Essence from them if they didn't need them."Oh, these? Probably turn them into fertilizer and sell them to the herb growers. The same thing we do with the manure and waste bodily fluids." He gestured to the building behind him, the big one I saw earlier in the day. I just realized it was most likely a slaughterhouse. My Soul was tingling the entire time I stood there.[You process a lot of meat here?] I asked. I was just curious."Yup, from noon till the evening. A few hundred Gisons each day. We are just about to finish actually." Bao said. "What, you interested in buying some meat?"That… wasn't a bad idea actually. [You know what? Sure! I could really use some.]***Well, that was a haul. My little Space Pouch was filled to the brim with quality Gison meat, and it cost me just 2 SSS. Sausages, smoked ribs, ground meat, and nice steaks, all for a cheap price. Then again, one animal could probably be sold for at least 50 SSS in terms of meat. And they were just Mortal animals.Those that had higher Cultivation were raised by Core Disciples and Elders, I was told, and the price for their meat went up from a Spirit stone. 100X the price at least.This was just one of the ranches that produced meat in the Sect, and Senior Bao Taon was just one of the Inner Disciples that worked there and was also the one in charge.The task of hunting the Giant Rats remained since one day of work wasn't nearly enough. Senior Bao Taon speculated there had to be hundreds of these beasts and at least ten or fifteen nests in the woods. But the area to comb through was large, and they couldn't do it alone. It also wasn't worth their time.So, I decided to do this for a while. Kill the rats in the morning and absorb their tiny Souls, I would probably need thousands of them to reach the Nascent Soul, but every little bit helped. I was going to reveal the nest tomorrow, after bringing another haul in to not be too suspicious.I can imagine some people wouldn't be too happy if they suspected someone was raising Giant Rats just to bring them in. I couldn't afford to raise that suspicion.Oh, and I could hang around the farm during the day, absorbing the Souls of the slaughtered animals. A few hundred a day, huh? Mwheheheh!Gerald, you genius! Who said Cultivation was supposed to be hard? Hahaha, life is going to be easy from now on!