The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise. He hadn't expected to receive a mission so soon.

"How long do I have until this mission? What's the mission objective?"

This time it was Olivia who answered,

"The mission will be in 10 days. Several people have been found dead in a certain area of the ice caves, and we strongly believe the culprit is a nest of Carapace Bugs, so we're sending six teams of four people to exterminate them: one team from our faction, one from the Bakke faction, two from the Goodman faction and two from the Aalto faction."

"How large is the nest?"

"We don't have a definite size, but intel suggests it is a medium scale nest."

"Okay, I'll accept the mission."

Ordinarily, 24 Rank 2s would have difficulty dealing with a mid-scaled nest and this would be a tough mission. However, Rank 2s from the great factions were a different story. Even if they were interns instead of full members like Isaac, their skill would still far surpass the average cultivator and they wouldn't have much trouble exterminating the nest; it seemed like a rather easy mission.

However, Isaac still added,

"But taking a mission so soon after reaching Rank 2 is a problem: I have very little Qi and I'll run out quickly during the mission."

Both Olivia and William knew what he was implying: he wanted Intermediate Qi Pills to quickly improve his cultivation. They both wore pensive expressions as they considered what to do.

All of a sudden, a female voice spoke in Isaac's mind. His eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected voice, but he quickly calmed his expression and did his best to look natural as he listened to the voice,

"Don't be alarmed, I'm speaking to you directly through a will-style Anima; William can't hear us. Now, I know you're close with Johan Friberg – I'm linked to the half of the Friberg family which supports him, so I have a proposition for you: if you include Johan in your team for this mission and help him accumulate achievements in the future, we will give you all the help you need. The pills this time are just a sign of goodwill, you can think it over and answer later.'

Soon after the voice in his head stopped, Olivia spoke in real life.

"It would indeed be problematic if you had limited Qi. I'll gift you five Intermediate Qi Pills, so make sure to use them all before the mission."

William watched on with mild surprise as Olivia handed Isaac 5 red-tinged pills. Isaac gratefully accepted them and replied,

"Thank you very much. I'm sure you're both busy people who have things to do, and I also have a number of duties including cultivation," Isaac gestured towards the pills in his hand, "so if you'll excuse me, I need to take a brief trip to the Rank 1 district."

William was slightly confused, and wondered why Isaac had told them where he was going, but Olivia smiled. She responded quickly,

"Then don't let us keep you. You're right, we all have places to be."

Isaac shook hands with William and Olivia, then they all got up from their seats and exited the café. When they got outside, everybody left in different directions.

*************************

A while later, Isaac was leaving Johan's house.

He'd already explained the situation to Johan and told him about how the mission was a great opportunity to prove his strength. Johan had agreed to join the mission and even thanked Isaac for continuing to think of him despite advancing to Rank 2 and joining the Sundersen faction.

Isaac smirked as he thought about this. His decision wasn't made out of consideration for Johan at all! Even if Olivia didn't approach him, he would've found Johan's supporters and tried to join them since this was the scenario which offered him the greatest benefits!

On one hand, the Friberg family had great resources and influence and were one of the Sundersen faction's biggest players. Isaac would surely be rewarded well for helping their eldest son.

On the other hand, this put Isaac in a position where he was very close to Johan. This would let him keep doing jobs for Lara and earn money from her as well. This was the meaning of 'playing both sides'!

Now that he'd told Johan about the mission, he needed to go and prepare for himself. However, it was too late to start cultivating so he went to do some more swordsmanship practice.

The longer he practiced, the more slippery and unavoidable his strikes became. He was adjusting to his new understanding of the sword at lightning speed and was constantly finding new ways to improve his fighting style.

Isaac practiced until the end of the day, making huge strides of improvement along the way.

When the day was over, he returned home and started remodelling his new house. He removed some decorations and arranged his own personal belongings. Then he moved the empty bookshelf out of the room's back corner so he could pull up the floorboards where it used to be and dig a hole.

He put 4 Intermediate Qi Pills in his iron box, then buried the box in the hole, put the floorboards back and returned the bookshelf to its original place.

With that done, Isaac ate dinner and went to bed.

*************************

The next day, he woke early and got ready quickly.

Then he took the single Intermediate Qi Pill which was placed under his pillow and immediately began to cultivate.

Several hours later, Isaac opened his eyes after absorbing all the pill's Qi. He sensed the puddle of Qi in his core and felt that it had slightly improved.

Then his stomach rumbled loudly. He went to make a large meal and wolfed it down.

After he was done eating, he visited the training grounds to practice swordsmanship, staying there until late into the night. Then he came back home, ate another large meal, and slept like he was dead.

Rinse and repeat. Isaac persisted with these same actions for the next 5 days until he had used all of the Intermediate Qi Pills.

By now, his Qi Core was a barely satisfactory 6% full. The announcement about him joining Sundersen faction had been made 5 days ago and the news would've already spread by now.

Isaac had been waiting for this to happen, so he had something else to do now.

He paid a visit to the rank 2 district main marketplace. Spectral Hand Anima and Ravenous Phantom Anima; he found some good buyers and sold them both!

They were both rare, top-tier Anima from the extremely popular ghost-style and, since they were ghost-style Anima, they were also easy to advance to Rank 2. This made them very sought after and both fetched well over a hundred reward points. In fact, the Spectral Hand Anima was sold for nearly 200 reward points, close to the price of a Rank 2 Anima!

With pockets full of his new earnings, Isaac visited a couple of other shops. Now he was buying, not selling: he purchased a Controlled Breeze Anima which replaced the Ravenous Phantom Anima in his tongue, a Gilt Rain Anima which took up residence in his right forearm, and a second Spirit Sword Anima which dwelt in his left palm. Then he went to acquire some materials, mostly special metals.

The Rank 2 district had a much better marketplace than the Rank 1 district. Most shops were run by established merchants who had decades of experience and many connections. This meant there was a wide selection of Anima and the prices were slightly lower than the Rank 1 district – at least for low-end goods, that was.

The Spirit Sword Anima was cheap, the Gilt Rain Anima was a slightly popular material for advancing Anima but had no use in battle by itself, so it was also inexpensive. Only the materials and the Controlled Breeze Anima were somewhat valuable, and Isaac paid just over 170 reward points for everything.

Thankfully, he'd used his 2 Anima selections wisely and picked valuable Anima which he could resell at a high price. After selling the pair of ghost-style Anima, he could easily afford this type of purchase.

He'd also waited for the news about him joining Sundersen faction to spread, so it was unlikely somebody would be audacious enough to rob him.

Possessing wealth without strength is a crime; it is like asking to be robbed. However, background is also a form of strength! With a huge organisation led by a Rank 5 backing him up, nobody would steal from Isaac and risk their entire future for some minor immediate gains.

With the confidence that he wouldn't be robbed, Isaac carried his precious materials in a bag as he walked down the middle of the street. He kept his hood down and his chin up so everybody could see his face.

In this manner, he left the Rank 2 district and went back into the Rank 1 district. He walked all the way through the Rank 1 district and out the other side, emerging near the Academy.

The Academy and its grounds were on his left, but he walked right and headed towards the labour area of the Sect. There were special farms here which grew normal crops and Qi herbs, and reared both normal livestock and specific wild beasts.

Many of these areas were restricted, but Isaac had no interest in them either. He walked past all the farms to arrive at a row of 5 smithies; 3 had plumes of grey smoke rising from their chimneys, indicating the blacksmith inside was hard at work.

Isaac picked one of the smithies without any smoke and opened the door without knocking.

The burly, grey-haired blacksmith was sitting on a stool with a well-designed, probably self-made bronze pipe sticking out of his mouth.

He jolted in surprise when he heard the door open and saw Isaac walk in. He adopted an angry expression, removed the pipe from his mouth, and was just about to get up but Isaac spoke first,

"I want to rent your forge."