The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac meditated for several hours with some breaks in-between. He ate an early dinner at 5:00 pm and visited the nearby library to read for a bit.

He spent half an hour reading a fantasy about an orange-haired youth who cultivated possession-style and had undergone reincarnation.

After reading the first few chapters, Isaac put the book down and moved on. He was mostly here to find information on bone spike bears as well as the puchella flower they were supposed to be harvesting.

He found the library section for non-fiction and picked out a couple of books about bears and local herbs. He took the pile of books and walked over to a reading desk. Flicking through the pages of 'An Encyclopaedia of Bears', he found a brief description of bone spike bears in the Rank 1 chapter.

'Bone spike bears are a common species around the world and are easily recognisable by their bone exoskeleton. The bone spike bear earns it name from the armour-like layer of bone covering it. This exoskeleton gives it one of the best defences for a Rank 1 wild beast, but it has very limited methods of attack – its most common move is to charge at an enemy and try to impale them on its spikes. Moreover, it is similar to regular bears in size and power, making the bone spikes on its armour the only true threat to an experienced cultivator.

'Bone Spike Bears are naturally aggressive and regularly patrol their territories to ensure there are no intruders. Due to their aggressive tendencies, bone spike bears are solitary animals which do not live near other wild beasts. However, they may have regular bears living in their territory and doing their bidding.'

Isaac looked through 2 more books about bears before turning to the herb books. What he was most interested in was how to harvest puchella flowers. They had to collect 5 to complete the quest and if the flowers were damaged, their rewards could be reduced.

Isaac read that puchella flowers were often found in snowy areas in spots where the soil had a higher concentration of Qi. The best way to harvest them was to dig up all the soil around their roots then lift them out of the ground carefully. They should also be planted again as soon as possible after being harvested.

Isaac was satisfied with his newly gained knowledge and wanted to sleep well in preparation for tomorrow. He returned the books to where he found them and left the library.

When he got home, Isaac looked through his trash to find some of the empty food sacks he'd thrown away. There were quite a few but he just took the bigger ones and brought them inside.

After doing that, he went to bed.

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

He woke up early in the morning but still felt well rested since he'd gone to sleep early.

The first thing he did after eating breakfast was head to the well and fill his water buckets. Then he went back to his house and had a long bath. Bears had a strong sense of smell so Isaac wanted to minimise his scent before the mission.

Then he went to knock on Johan's door to share some of the information he'd read in the library.

Johan was also awake and was already meditating. He was pretty annoyed when Isaac's knocking broke him out of meditation again, but there wasn't any way to avoid that.

Isaac summarised the key points of his research for Johan, then asked Johan to take a bath as well.

After Johan left to get some water, Isaac went back to his house and meditated for about an hour. Then it was time to visit the Adventurers' Hall. Just before leaving, Isaac picked up the empty food sacks he'd found last night. He stuffed all the hemp sacks into his pockets and brought them with him when he left.

He met Johan in the street so they could walk to the Adventurers' Hall together. Today they went to a different desk, the one for accepting missions. The queue was a bit shorter for this desk and they arrived at the front soon enough.

To their surprise, the middle-aged woman from yesterday was on duty. She'd obviously changed desks as of today and she still recognised them,

"Isaac and... Jacob, right?"

"Johan."

"Sorry Johan." She gave them a professional smile, "Could you remind me of your mission number please."

"1943"

The woman found the file in one of her draws and read it.

"One group did come to apply for this after you, but their best member's trial score didn't exceed yours, Isaac. Of course, newcomers start with 0 merit points so we don't have to consider those. Therefore, your application will be successful so long as you both show me you can use your Anima."

Only Rank 1 cultivators could take Rank 1 missions, which was why they had to prove they could use Anima.

Isaac activated his Spirit Sword Anima, creating a translucent orange blade in his hand. When the woman nodded, Isaac quickly deactivated it to minimise the amount of Qi consumed.

Meanwhile, Johan stood there a little confused.

"I'm using the Ice Fragment Anima. Where do you want me to fire it?"

"You don't need to. Just cancel it right before you shoot."

Johan faced his palm upwards and activated his Anima. Just before it fired, he stopped supplying Qi into it. Unfortunately, his control wasn't good enough and he stopped too late.

With a glow of blue light from his palm, a very small icicle was fired into the ceiling.

Johan got a little anxious, but it seemed the woman didn't plan on making him pay for it,

"Don't worry, I doubt that tiny icicle would seriously damage our ceiling. Marcus cultivates plant-style so I'll ask him to patch up that bit of wood later.

"Anyway, congratulations on your successful application! You must now choose to accept or decline the mission. If you accept, you will have 1 week to return here with 5 puchella flowers, otherwise the mission will be considered a failure and you will be fined a total of 1 reward point and 6 merit points. If you decline the mission, I will offer it to the other group who applied."

Isaac and Johan spoke at the same time.

"I accept."

"We accept."

The woman looked at them with her ever smiling face and continued,

"Good. Here is a map with the location of the flowers. However, I don't think the map is very accurate so I wouldn't rely on it too much. You'll also need to show the guards this mission pass when you leave and return to the sect."

After handing over the map and pass, the woman stamped the mission file with a unique seal to show it had been accepted.

"Good luck on your mission."

"Thank you."

Isaac gave the map to Johan, who claimed he knew how to navigate, and they left.

The Adventurers' Hall was just a 5 minute walk away from one of the sect's gates. When they reached the gate, they took out the pass and handed it one of the armoured guards.

There were 2 sections on the pass: 'Outgoing' and 'Incoming'. The guard stamped the 'Outgoing' section and wrote the date beneath.

Then she told them the password for this week and said it would be changed in 4 days, so they had to return before then. If they still needed to complete their mission, they could be told the new password and leave for 3 more days.

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

Outside the sect, Johan pulled out the map. Isaac looked over his shoulder at the map and saw they were several kilometres away from the black 'X' marked on it. Thankfully, the contour lines showed they would be moving downhill.

Isaac had been taught map reading and the theory behind navigation when he was in the academy. However, they'd never been brought outside the sect so he hadn't been able to practice these skills.

On the other hand, Johan had grown up outside the farm. He'd received a better education and probably got opportunities to practice navigation and other skills before even doing the trials.

Isaac saw this mission as a great learning opportunity where he could pick up some of Johan's practical skills.

He watched all the navigation tricks Johan used to guide them towards the 'X', and even though Isaac wouldn't remember or use all of them, he learned a considerable amount.

Isaac only stopped observing Johan when they began approaching bear territory. Now he had to focus on the surroundings and make sure they avoided any bears.

Isaac knew that there were regular bears here as well as the bone spike bear. If one of those bears discovered them, it could alert the bone spike bear which they couldn't deal with at their level. Furthermore, the weather had changed quickly in the last 15 minutes and Johan wasn't happy about it,

"Damn. This flurry of snow's going to reduce our visibility. We won't be able to see a bear until it's practically on top of us, and it'll have smelled us by then. We have no way of avoiding them."

"You say that, but think about the direction of the wind. We're walking into the wind, meaning the wind will carry our scent back in the direction we've come from. Only bears behind us will be able to smell us, so we should be alright."

Johan thought about it for a second, then nodded. The two of them got ready and prepared to enter bear territory.