The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

"By the gods, that fucking hurt!"

"Are you wearing a magisteel helmet beneath that hood?"

Johan quickly shook his head, but Isaac's train of thought wasn't too far from the truth.

"Not armour, a defensive talisman. You heard my surname when we visited the Adventurers' Hall, so you probably realised who my parents are."

The sect didn't allow Rank 1 or 2 disciples to have children since it would distract them from their cultivation, so every child who wasn't from the farm had notable parents. Even then, Johan's parents were more notable than most: sect elder Sven Friberg and core protector Maya Friberg.

The sect had 48 known Rank 4s, but not all of these Rank 4s could be elders – only 25 of them were. The identity of a core protector was even more stunning. There was a mere 6 in the sect and all of them were Rank 4 upper stage.

Being chosen as a core protector meant you were trusted to protect the most critical areas of the sect. It was the third highest position in the sect behind only the Rank 5 senators and the ancestral elders who were decided by merit and experience rather than cultivation.

Friberg was actually Maya's maiden name and it was Sven who'd taken her surname when they married. The Friberg family had a relatively long history within the sect and one of Johan's grandparents was even an ancestral elder. Unfortunately, the other grandparent on his mother's side was deceased.

In regards to his dad's side, Sven was born in the farm so Johan didn't even know who his grandparents were on that side of the family.

Either way, the Friberg family held considerable influence within the sect and it would be easy for them to procure a defensive talisman capable of resisting a mere mortal bear.

Seeing that Isaac didn't have anything else to say, Johan approached the bear corpse and unsheathed the hunting knife strapped to his waist. Then, he meticulously looked over the corpse,

"A lot of holes in it, but this pelt should still be sellable. The eyes, claws, nose and teeth should also be worth something as alchemy ingredients."

After giving his assessment, Johan began to expertly skin the bear. Isaac watched intently since this was another thing he'd learnt about but never practiced. The way Johan did it made it look rather easy, so Isaac felt he could do it after a few attempts.

After Johan removed the pelt, he asked Isaac to fold and prepare it while he surgically removed the teeth, claws and nose. Lastly, he took great pleasure in gouging out this hateful bear's eyes.

Isaac had already folded the pelt, so he went to retrieve the flowers. Thankfully, Johan had put his down gently and even Isaac's weren't really damaged when he dropped them.

When Isaac brought the bags back, Johan put the various claws and others inside them. Then he draped the pelt over his shoulder, picked up his bags and began walking away quickly,

"We need to leave; the bloody smell will attract other animals. After we get far enough away, I'll work out where we are and we can get back to the sect."

They knew the general direction to head in even without looking at a map, so they quickly fled the scene.

They walked until they reached the border of the forest, then Johan decided to take out the map. He tried using the curvature of the tree line to find where they were, but like the lady at the Adventurers' Hall said, the map wasn't too reliable. It wasn't detailed enough for Johan to locate them based solely on the shape of the forest, so they walked randomly for almost an hour until they saw a frozen lake and used it to find themselves on the map.

Navigation in this featureless winter wonderland was incredibly difficult, so they'd wandered quite far off course. It took 2 more hours of trekking with all their baggage before the colossal Lunar Tower appeared on the horizon.

Winter was filled with short days and long nights, so the daylight was already fading by 2 pm and the temperature was dropping like a bowling ball that'd been thrown from a third storey window.

Thankfully the wind had died down and it stopped snowing halfway through their walk, else even their coats would be insufficient against the biting cold. Johan had even wrapped the bear pelt around him despite all the blood on its inside.

When they finally reached the sect gates, they showed the guard their pass and entered. Turning in the mission was not their priority. Instead, they hurried home to change into drier clothes and keep their body temperature up.

Then they both headed to the Adventurers' Hall together.

Isaac had considered going ahead and claiming the mission reward alone, but he decided against it. His relationship with Johan would benefit him much more in the future than a couple of reward points would benefit him now, especially since he knew Johan was from the Friberg family. Besides, Johan had 3 of the flowers and Isaac didn't have a discreet way of stealing them.

When they eventually arrived at the Adventurers' Hall, they were a little warmer than before but still damn cold! However, you got used to that on the continent of Northern Tundra, where it snowed even in the summer.

Forcing his teeth to stop chattering, Isaac placed his bags counter and spoke,

"Hello, Isaac Dahl and Johan Friberg have completed a Rank 1 easy mission. The mission number is 1943."

This was a different desk to before, the one for completed missions. The man sitting at the desk was slightly too old to be called middle aged, but he gave off an amiable impression to those who looked at him,

"I'll assume that mission was to find 3 puchella flowers."

The man recognised the fairly common plants as he searched through his desk to find the mission file. Compared to the woman's orderly filing system, this guy's workplace was a mess so it took him a while. He was so occupied in his search that he didn't notice Johan place the other 3 bags on the counter,

"The mission was to collect 5 flowers, but we have 6."

This time Johan spoke, and his implication was clear, 'What do we do with the last flower?' Despite his distracted expression, the man was paying attention and quickly gave Johan the answer he was looking for,

"I should probably check your flowers aren't damaged, but if they're all good, then you've obviously completed the mission. As for that last flower..." he paused for a moment to pull out a file triumphantly, "Found it! Anyway, you can either keep the last flower or hand it in with your mission for an extra reward and merit point."

1 reward point was a nice amount above the puchella flower's market value, which was usually around 8 iron pieces. Since they got a merit point as well, there was no reason to refuse the man's offer.

"We'll hand it in with the mission."

"Good. Isaac Dahl and Johan Friberg, right?"

They both nodded. The man just did a quick check of the petals and stem of the flowers, not even bothering to check the roots. Then he read aloud as he wrote on the file.

"Mission completed by disciples Isaac Dahl and Johan Friberg, extra reward and merit point awarded for... excellent completion and an additional puchella flower. Alright, sounds good! Here's your 6 reward points, and I'll register 3 merit points for each of you!"

The reward points came in the form of small octagonal wooden pieces. One face of the piece had an intricate pattern on it and possessed a unique Qi signature which a cultivator's will could faintly sense. The piece itself was easy to fake, but this Qi signature was very difficult to replicate without using the same Anima that made it.

Isaac and Johan obviously split the 6 reward points evenly. After submitting their mission, Isaac and Johan had to go to a different desk.

According to sect rules, they had to report each animal they killed. This was to help the sect keep accurate records of the number of animals in the area. There was also a limit to the number of animals each person could hunt per season.

For example, Isaac was allowed to kill 2 bears and 5 wolves every season. This prevented over-hunting of certain species, stopping disciples hunting them to extinction in the nearby area.

After reporting their kill, Isaac and Johan's next stop was the market, where they would sell the loot from the bear.

The first thing they wanted to sell was the heavy, cumbersome pelt. Bear furs were mostly used for coats, so the pair found a clothier to sell the pelt to.

The pelt was probably worth 2 iron pieces and 50 bronze, but the clothier used the damage on the pelt and their inexperience in haggling to drive the price down. In the end, they sold it for 2 iron pieces and moved on.

100 copper pieces equalled 1 iron piece, and 10 iron pieces equalled 1 reward point. Therefore, 2 iron pieces was still a decent price for something that had no use in cultivation.

On the other hand, their other bits and pieces were mostly alchemical ingredients – though a skilled craftsman might also want the claws to make spear or knife tips. However, alchemy was much more profitable than smithing (if you were good at it) so they could probably get a better price from an alchemist.

They found several alchemy stores in the market, but everybody offered them significantly below market price. To be honest, it seemed like nobody lacked these common resources.

Then, to Isaac's surprise, he spotted a small blackboard with 'Buying any animal claws' written on it in green chalk.

"Come on, let's ty to sell here."

Isaac brought Johan to the small store's entrance and they opened the door, only to be hit by the pungent smell of mixed herbs and other ingredients. When the door opened, a small bell above it rang to tell the disciple at the counter she had customers.

She wasn't like the middle-aged woman or older man working at the Adventurers' Hall. This girl was wearing green and white alchemist's robes, but she was undeniably a disciple just like them. She was likely helping to run this shop whilst being taught alchemy by its owner, a more experienced alchemist.

This meant that this girl – maybe 20 years old – had higher cultivation than them, knew alchemy, and actually had some authority over the shop they were in. Isaac and Johan were in a position where they had treat her respectfully, not the other way around. Therefore, Isaac addressed her politely,

"Hello, miss. We were passing by when we saw your sign, hopefully we have some ingredients which will satisfy you."

"Oh? You have some animal claws? I've been learning to concoct a new pill aimed at improving the effectiveness of beast-style Anima, and these claws are the key ingredient. I'm willing to offer a generous price for any you might sell me now or in the future."

Alchemy was immensely profitable once you were proficient at it, since cultivators would pay almost anything for miraculous pills capable of increasing your cultivation, healing supposedly fatal wounds or giving a boundless variety of other helpful effects. However, most things in the world were truly balanced. Learning new pill recipes – let alone studying alchemy in the first place – cost a colossal amount of resources since an alchemist could fail hundreds or even thousands of times before successfully creating a single pill from a new recipe.

Nobody could afford to learn alchemy alone, which was why the sect gave budding alchemists and inscriptionists financial support. Because of this, Isaac was confident this woman could afford anything they had.

He took out a dirty bag which once held a flower in it, but now had other things. He took a pair of eyes, a nose and a set of claws and teeth out of the bag and put them on the table.

"How much would you be willing to pay for this?"

"I don't really need the eyes or teeth, but I can pay a total of 50 copper for them... I do have some use for the nose, though, so I'll offer 1 iron, 30 copper for that. As for the claws, I can give you 5 iron pieces. I will pay 5, 4 and 2.5 iron pieces respectively for the claws of a bear, wolf, or arctic fox. If you can bring me all 3 of them, I'll pay 1 reward point and 5 iron pieces."

Isaac was a little suspicious of the excessively high price, but if a pie fell from the sky, he'd eat it first and question it later.

He tried to haggle over the eyes and teeth, but the woman insisted she didn't really need them and wouldn't go any higher. They'd tried other stores already but they all offered less than this, so they agreed to sell them.

Johan saw some success as he took over and bargained the price of the nose up from 1.3 to 1.5 iron pieces. However, neither of them dared haggle over the price of the claws. It was already noticeably above market price, so to try and push the price even higher would be greedy and disrespectful.

In the end, they left the store with coins clinking in their pockets.