Two vs two

The group went out for a very late lunch after their singles duels. It was already 3 pm when they left to eat. The day was split into 12 hours in the morning and 13 hours in the evening on planet Castian. You would think that this would make the planet colder overall but the planet was actually quite hot most of the time. Sej did not know the reason for this but he figured that it had to do with the experts of the sect.

After a short lunch and rest. They went right back to training. This would be the last battle of the day. After that, it will be back to the forest tomorrow. The teams were set as Sej and Henry vs Cara and Sam. Even though this arrangement was slightly in favour of Cara and Sam's team, it could not be helped as if Cara teamed up with Henry, they would be unbeatable. Cara alone would be able to hold back Sej and Sam. Henry would then be free and could just relax and fire arrows at will.

The teams started 50 meters away from each other. Henry needed the initial distance as a beginner archer. The battle commenced with a shout from Sej.

Arrows started flying, the main target of the was Sam as he was the weaker link of the two. Simultaneously Henry started retreating, he was given instructions by Sej to move away from the other team and to just keep firing arrows. Henry had 25 arrows in his quiver and could fire an arrow every 2-3 second so his combat effectiveness would only last about 1 and a 15 seconds. But he could slow down the pace of firing to get more accurate shots at more strategic moments in battle. That is exactly what Sej asked him to attempt to do.

As the arrows flew towards Sam, he dodged to the right, separating from Cara as she kept her forward charge. He wanted to flack from the left of Sej and Henry.

"Henry goes right and stays away from Sam, I will hold Cara in the centre. When the fighting starts, try to take her out" Sej proposed his very simple plan.

Sej also charges at Cara and attempts to hold her advance. If she manages to take out Henry, the spar would be over very quickly. Soon the battle between Cara and Sej was in full momentum and everything seemed to be going well for Sej and Henry. But Sam was coming fast and hard towards the centre of the battlefield.

As time was short, Henry did not have the time to find any mistakes in the fight between Cara and Sej as Cara had the upper hand.

He took a shot at her anyway as it was better than nothing. He aimed for her chest as it was the largest and easiest target.

Whoosh

The arrow flew true to its target but at the last second Cara slammed Sej away allowing her time to shift and cut the arrow in two.

Seeing this Sej's jaw dropped and he was speechless, in his momentary lapse in judgement, Sam approached from his left and smacked him with his spear on the back of his head. Sej was knocked out.

It was not long before Henry followed. He did not surrender. The reason for this was simple, he could be beaten up by Sam but would never surrender to him. Even if it was Cara who did the heavy lifting in the fight.

Sam carried Sej to the barn house while Henry limped his way back with bruises covering his face. Soon nightfall and the team was sitting around a self-made fire and reflecting in what they had achieved today.

The training session was very useful to the group as not only did they find the stiffness in their body's lesson but they also managed to train their ability. Henry became a better archer, his arrows were far more accurate and he took less time to fire them. Cara and Sej had great improvement in their sword arts. Sam, on the other hand, did not have as much improvement, but he still adapted to his body.

After sharing their knowledge and insights gained from the fight, the crew also made another observation that cultivation levels are very, very important. Cara clearly had the most combat absolute in the group, mainly due to cultivation. On understanding this, the group decided to spend more effort in cultivation in the future. But just effort was not enough. They also needed lots of resources, and the best way to get that was hunting.

Currently. Cara, Henry, and Sam needed to complete 4 missions for the sect, while Sej only needed to complete 3. That meant that the group collectively had to hunt 45 same level beasts. They could also choose to hunt 15 beasts above their level but for them that was suicide and grade 2 beasts were way out of there league.

The equivalent, sect points that they would gain from the beast would only be 450 sect points which could buy a total of 15 body tempering pills of 70% purity as they cost 30 sect points each. That was also not mentioning the need to use the points to trade for skills or lessons from more experienced cultivators on cultivation and occupations.

For example, Cara had wanted to learn how to refine pills. To be an alchemist would be very, very expensive to learn about and even more so to practice.while the basic knowledge can be found cheaply, the price for intermediate knowledge started at 1000 sect points per book. Lessons cost as much as 1500 sect points while private lessons cost 5000 sect points. The same held true for Sej who wanted to learn formations

These were the cheapest costs as the more experienced disciples and elders charge much more. Now that was not to say that the group had no hope. The reason that they only got so few sect points per beast was due to it being part of their mandatory missions. If they traded more they could earn 20 sect points per beast but that was still not enough.

"Guys lets not worry too much about this now. First, let us get some rest. We still have to hunt tomorrow. The first thing we need to do is finish this month's missions." Sej realises that the atmosphere is becoming slightly depressing.

"Sej, this is important. We need to plan for the future to earn money quickly. While common items are easy to get a hold of, anything related to cultivation is very expensive," Cara replied. Having come from a relatively wealthy family background, she understood the importance of money at a much younger age.

" I agree with Cara on this, we need to come up with a plan" Sam was not as in-tuned to such matters but earning more money could not be a bad thing. Henry, on the other hand, did not express an opinion, he was bruised all over and was in no mood to participate. Only applying medicine to himself.

Taking a look around at his friend's Sej replies "Look guys it is not that I don't want to earn money as well but I have already considered this matter. And I am sure you have too Cara otherwise we would not be here right now."

Cara was silenced by this. She knew this better than anyone. They were too weak to earn resources themselves. This would slow down their cultivation. So they would stay weak for a longer time and a lot of time would be wasted. What she did not know was that this was not true for Sej as he had lots of resources that he had not used yet.

"Sam, what about your brother in the sect, can he help us out," Cara asked as she was just grabbing at any possibility of speeding up the growth of their strength. But was soon disappointed again.

"No sorry, he is not exactly wealthy himself. He is only a grade 2 essence gathering cultivator. My spear was about all he could afford to give me as a gift." Sam was also not pumped about the idea of asking help from his brothers after all his brother came here with no support and still has to work hard to support himself. It would not be fair to him.

"Look, go to sleep. When we get back to the sect, I will see what I can do. At the minimum, I should be able to get my hand on some skill books for Sam and Henry. As for resources, I will figure it out." Sej was tired of this pointless discussion. He had already made up his mind to ask Emily about this when he returned to the sect. Maybe she would have some ideas that could help out. She did offer to help him if he needed it after all.