Samantha began her tale with when she first discovered the fount, figuring she might as well give him the full picture of her situation. How far she had advanced with the help of the Rare nexus, the fateful night when she and Silas made a spirit bond, her encounter with the Iron boar and the loss of her arm, the following week hiding in a cave to regrow it and her discovery of Eduin’s corpse, the battle with the Spitting Viper and brush with death, culminating in the encounter that currently most concerned her: the conflict with the three cultivator brothers from House Braxand.

“…and then this huge beam of light shot into the sky, there was a bright flash, and the three had vanished!” Samantha concluded, somewhat out of breath for speaking so long uninterrupted.

Thomas had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout her retelling, only cutting in occasionally to ask clarifying questions. Samantha had been watching him the entire time to try and gauge his reactions, but his expressions and body-language gave little away.

Currently, his tall frame was leaned over the sitting table, resting on his elbows as he folded his hands in front of his face. Like her, Thomas was more focused on Agility and was covered in cables of lean muscle. Unlike her, however, he was above-average in height and was classically handsome, with strong features, gentle eyes that shone with the greens and browns of emerging spring, and shoulder-length locks that reminded her of the dark, rich honey that she had always enjoyed as a child. Put side-by-side, few would guess that they were related, but he had always filled the role of an older brother in her life.

Thomas suddenly broke out into a mischievous grin, “So, you’re the one who’s got those snooty nobles doing reputation damage control?”

“…maybe? What do you mean?”

“A day or so ago, the Braxand estate lit up with the light of their quick-travel talismans. If the item were used because one of their scouting teams had come back with a new Spirit Beast for their business, that would be huge news since there hasn’t been anything new in recent memory. Since they haven’t made some grand announcement though, that means one of their groups got in over their heads.

“There have been all sorts of rumors going around about what they ran into, some theories much less flattering than others. Their family has been intimidating the people spreading the rumors into silence but haven’t made a statement yet about what really happened. Who would’ve thought that it was actually our little Sammy that gave them such trouble!”

Samantha inwardly cringed at the re-emergence of her most hated nickname but didn’t want to give Thomas any reaction that would encourage him to keep using it, so she glossed over it. “Do you know the position of the brothers in the house? The oldest introduced himself as Liam and Inspect told me he had crippled his cultivation base after some spirit pearl incident. I used Inspect on the twin brothers as well, but the ability didn’t tell me their names.”

Thomas looked taken aback by her words at first, his brows scrunching together in obvious confusion. “Yes, I know of them—they’re a bunch of nobodies from a distantly removed branch who are well known for causing trouble. The more important thing is what you just said at the end there. You’ve been using Inspect… to get people’s names?”

“No,” Samantha said a bit defensively, “normally I can invest a few qi to get some background info on the target and the value of their highest stat. It was my first time using the skill on actual people, so I didn’t really know what to expect, okay?”

“You invest a few qi to…? You know what? I’ll let down my natural qi defenses for a second, so use the ability on me.”

It was Samantha’s turn to be confused, but she obliged the strange request and put 3 qi points into Inspect.

Thomas Cray - High Copper

Thomas is well known in his hometown for being a promiscuous womanizer. His good looks and natural talents as a cultivator ensure that this reputation doesn’t hamper his searches for female companionship too drastically, though he could probably have even better luck if he were more serious about his personal advancement.

Highest Stat: Agility (14)

Samantha rolled her eyes at the notification and passed on the information word for word with lackluster enthusiasm.

“Yeah…” Thomas began, dragging out the word, “that’s not even close to how you should be using Inspect. I guess it’s not too surprising you wouldn’t know since you discovered it on your own.”

“What do you mean?”

“What kind of art is Inspect, Sam?”

“A combat art?”

“Yes. A combat art. How is knowing that I’m a womanizer or good looking going to help you in a fight?” he inquired, with no small amounts of amusement and self-satisfaction.

Samantha didn’t have a good answer for that.

“I will admit, it’s actually pretty impressive you managed to even find out about the art on your own, but you’re wasting its potential by not utilizing it properly. I will train you in the correct method after we’re finished here, but we’ve gotten a bit off topic from what you originally asked me.

“Honestly, I think you’ve been worrying too much. The facts are that you, a completely new cultivator fresh from their cultivation quest, overpowered three more experienced cultivators who should’ve had a decent chance to win, even in a one-on-one fight. If anything, you should be bragging about your achievement and get a jumpstart on making a name for yourself!”

“It wasn’t just me though, Thomas. This whole thing started because of Silas,” she argued, gesturing to the sleeping lump in her lap, “and Silas was a big part of why I was able to win. At the very least, won’t they make a fuss so that they can try to take him away again?"

“Even if the Braxands make a statement and say that you ambushed their scouting party and stole the Spirit Beast they caught, that’s only going to increase their embarrassment in this situation. Then, it really was three-on-one and they still ended up fleeing with their tails between their legs. Not to mention that in that case, even though some people would probably consider an ambush to be dishonorable on your part, you still rightfully won in the end. Add onto that that you’re actually bonded to him, and there’s no denying that by rights Silas is yours. A third party cannot break the bond between you unless you permit it, and if they try and kill you to take him from you, that reflects extremely poorly on House Braxand as being sore losers. In this theoretical situation where they’ve already lost a significant amount of face, they’d lose even more.”

“But they know now that Silas is a viable companion in a fight since they’ve seen him in action! I’m afraid the money they could gain from taking him would outweigh the loss of reputation they’d get for harming me. Not to mention I could get in a lot of trouble if I actually killed that first twin, right?”

Thomas raised an eyebrow, looked down at the fluff in her lap, and returned his gaze to her face, “I think that first portion won’t be an issue. No offense, but as useful as you say Silas is… I don’t think he’ll be that popular with the masses. Spirit Beasts have always been symbolic of strength and prowess—the Void Panthers, the Hemlock Ents, Firestorm Bears—all are deadly in battle and scary as hell. Yeah, Silas can break a few bones and is fast, but look at him, Sam.”

Samantha obediently shifted her focus to Silas’s sleeping form. His brown fur speckled with spots of green was warm, soft, and surprisingly clean despite their many weeks of travel. His ears occasionally twitched and his small nose wiggled as he undoubtedly sniffed some herb in his dreams.

Thomas continued, “Spirit bonds are incredibly expensive considering the amount of effort that goes into researching and rearing them. So, if you were about to spend several years’ worth of income on a Spirit Beast to increase your fighting aptitude and show off, what would you pick? An adorable fluffy bunny? Or an 8-foot-tall flaming bear?”

“Yeah, yeah, I see your point.” Samantha begrudgingly admitted, frowning slightly at his assertion that Silas was not an impressive Spirit Beast to have.

“And the Rank gap can even be a hinderance in your case. If someone bonds with a Spirit Beast at Rank 1, that gives them lots of room to grow or specialize them. With yours already at Rank 4, I don’t know if it’s even possible to advance him further, and—”

“Okay! Alright! I’m worrying too much about Silas. But what about the twin, Thomas? I don’t want to be sentenced to Tower Ascension. No one knows what’s beyond the gate and I sure as hell don’t want to find out for myself.”

“You're right. I got so excited that you managed to win and what that could mean for your social standing that I didn’t fully consider the consequences of a possible death. Honestly, Sam, I don’t know. It’s not unheard of for someone to die after a duel accidentally, but usually the other party was obviously being malicious. There have been a handful of cases I know about where it was genuinely bad luck, and the opponent died from infections or other complications after the fact, and those people weren’t sentenced to ascension. In your case, outside the city limits and with no arbitrator judging the fight…? If it helps, I haven’t heard anything about a death yet, but I can look more into it for you. There’s a few Braxand girls I’ve had my eye on for a while anyway. I should be able to get a feel for the results of your battle and how the family is planning on addressing it, if they even are able to find out who you are in the first place.”

“That would be wonderful! Thank you, Thomas.” Samantha breathed out, relief flooding her. “In the meantime, do you think it would be too dangerous to visit my parents? Or should I lay low until you learn more?”

Thomas debated for a few moments, stroking his non-existent facial hair with an open hand, “Most likely it’s safe, but you probably want to be 100% sure that no one will get blowback from possible repercussions, right?”

Samantha nodded the affirmative.

“It’ll take me one week, maybe two tops to find the information you need, I think. Do you have somewhere you can lay low for a while? Somewhere where the authorities or other cultivators won’t be looking for you and where your appearance won’t stand out too badly?”

She smiled, “I think I know the perfect place… how about the slums?”

Thomas looked positively aghast at the suggestion. His expression went through phases of shock, distaste, and reluctant consideration, before settling on grudging acceptance. “Tell me, is that why you looked like a dirty street urchin in ill fitting clothes when you first came here?”

Samantha was a bit embarrassed as she confirmed his suspicion, “I had to steal some farmer’s clothes from outside the wall to sneak in, and then I spent the night in the slums before I came to you. By the way, I still feel bad about the whole stealing thing… at the time I thought it was necessary but after talking with you I probably over-reacted. Is there any way to discreetly send them money or a new robe or something? It was one of the southern farms, and they had this big orchard with a wooden two-story house. There was a 2nd story window on the western side of the house that I snuck in through.”

Thomas let out a deep sigh, shutting his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose like Samantha often found herself doing. “It’s always something with you!” he dramatically lamented, “Yes, I will work with that incredibly vague description and take care of that too. It’s low on the priority list though considering…” he paused, gesturing ambiguously to her and their surroundings, “…everything. What else do you need?”

“I’ll need to offload the equipment I’m currently carrying and stock up on some more supplies before I head out. Is that something you can help with as well?”

“I am Thomas Cray!” he declared magnanimously, “I can handle anything you manage to throw at me. Show me what you’ve got.”

Samantha carefully transferred a still-sleeping Silas onto the cushion of a different chair, then proceeded to fully unpack the enchanted bag and lay out each item on the table or the floor. She pointed to each item in turn as she spoke about it.

“I was hoping to get this Iron Boar Pelt made into leather armor, and these tusks made into a new spear? I’m willing to trade the excess materials for some of the labor and have some money saved up at home that can probably cover the rest if it’s not enough. I don’t have a ton of boar steaks left, so I was thinking of just gifting some to you and my parents, if you’re interested. I don’t know how useful some of these survival tools will be inside the city, so I’ll probably leave most of it here and just take the bedroll and extra rations. Then, there’s the matter of the things I got from Eduin, which I’d like your opinion on. These cultivation tomes were meant to be learned while taking some elixirs alongside them, but you still might be able to get something from the techniques inside. In addition, this pack has been useful but it’s too distinct for the slums. I’ll trust your judgement on whether to sell it to get it off my hands or to keep it for the future.”

“All of your requests sound reasonable,” Thomas said, examining the quality of the pelt and tusks, “I’ll take these down to one of our Family’s branches to get a discount on the work, and I think the excess material will be more than enough to cover costs of labor. Everything is in fantastic condition, and the high rank makes it even more valuable. You’ll probably even get a few gold pieces back after everything.”

Thomas picked up the boar steaks and placed them into one of his qi-powered cool boxes. “I gladly accept these steaks as partial payment for all the effort I’m about to be expending for you,” he joked, giving her a sly wink, “and I’ll save a couple for your folks, too. Don’t worry. As for these tomes…”

Thomas lifted the books gingerly and skimmed the first few pages of each, nodding his head as he silently read. “Yes, I can see where the elixirs are important. I might be able to mimic the medicinal effects with some other combination of pills, though it won’t be as good as using the original recipe. Even if not, the information could still be useful to me. I’d be honored to study the secret cultivation techniques of the Granvich family!” his grin turning a little greedy at the promise of hidden knowledge and the potential for more power. “This one though,” he said seriously, pointing to Eduin’s journal, “what were you wanting to do with this?”

“First, I considered returning it to the Granvich estate to give them some closure—”

“And then you very wisely reconsidered because that’s an objectively terrible idea, right?” he pressed.

“I admit I’ve been having some doubts since then,” she admitted, “but what do you think I should do with it?”

“For one, never tell anyone else that you have this or the manuals. The ‘Big Three’ are very touchy about their techniques, and if you give them even the slightest reason to suspect that you may have seen something that you shouldn’t have? You may just find out what’s on the second floor even if that Braxand boy didn’t keel over.”

Samantha paled at his words, “But, why would having these manuals garner the same reaction as potentially ‘stealing’ a Spirit Beast or killing a cultivator?”

“I don’t think you’ve properly evaluated the value of the knowledge here, cousin. This is the foundational work for all their later cultivation techniques! This tome is only the Low Copper version, but they have updates for the following levels too. If there is some weakness in their technique that could be exploited by challengers or strengths that can be stolen by competitors, it would be found here in these books.” he explained gravely, resting his hand on the cover. “I’ll bet that you’ve only scratched the surface level of what’s hidden here during your week or so with them, but I’ll have to take a look myself to know for certain.”

“Isn’t that dangerous for you too? Wouldn’t it be better to destroy them before anyone else has a chance to find them?”

He gave her a cheeky smile, “I didn’t become a cultivator to play it safe, did you? Possibly untold strength lies here in my grasp that may never come again, for all I know! I’d be a fool to not even look. I will definitely burn this journal though. I’ll read through it once to see if it offers any insights on the manuals, but it’s too much of a risk to keep it around for virtually no rewards. As for the bag, I’ll look it over for any family insignias or identifying features, but it’s likely that it’s just a bag with some preservation enchantments they purchased. It’d be good for you to keep around in the future if that’s the case—things like this always end up being useful.”

Samantha nodded along with his responses. If Thomas felt the risk of studying the tomes was worth it, then that was something he could decide for himself.

As for everything else, she trusted his judgement on how to handle the various messes and potentially incriminating items she’d accumulated. Throughout their lives, they had always been in each other’s corner, and she was happy that the transition to being cultivators hadn’t changed that in the slightest. She felt like a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders after speaking with him, and she was glad that she’d chosen to come here first.

Thomas and Samantha then proceeded to pack a less conspicuous bag for her that Thomas had lying around. Her bedroll, hardtack, and some other supplies that she might need in the city were neatly packaged with some space left for Silas to hide in. Thomas also gave her a handful of coins in case she needed to buy something, but not so much that it would draw attention or be a great loss if it were somehow stolen.

By the time they had finished talking, packing her bag, and making plans to meet up in 1-week at a neutral location to update each other, afternoon had rolled around, and the artificial sun hung high above in cloudless skies.

“Before you go, let’s fix your Inspect technique and I’ll try and teach you how to suppress your cultivator’s aura so that you can more easily pass for being mortal in the slums. I have a sparring ring out back that we can use.”

Samantha’s heart skipped a beat as she followed, both nervous and excited to have her first round of proper training as a cultivator. No fighting for her life or deathmatches, just learning from someone who genuinely wanted her to succeed. The stark contrast from her experiences the past several months made her almost giddy.

Thomas took up a relaxed position on the far edge of the training circle, so she mirrored him. Once she had stopped moving, and Silas adorably took up a position beside her, Thomas began speaking.

“The combat art Inspect was originally made by cultivators in times past to assist in analyzing an opponent’s movements in battle.” he began, entering a loose unarmed sparring stance and gestured for her to do the same. Once Samantha obliged, he began walking around the edge of the circle towards her, and she moved away from him to continue keeping the distance. He occasionally switched directions around the circle as he spoke.

“You discovered that releasing the qi at once without any specific focus gives you results of varying helpfulness. While not a utility art, it can function as one with enough qi investment, though it’s incredibly inefficient and wasteful. You would be better off learning an actual utility art for such things, like ‘Identify’. The right way to use Inspect is to release the invested qi slowly over a period of time while observing your opponent. It will draw your eyes to unusual movements or inconsistencies that can be exploited in combat, from limps remaining from old injuries, to weaknesses in armor. The low cost of the skill is necessary because it should be activated continuously throughout the fight, as the conditions of your enemy will be ever changing and there will be new things to find.”

Unexpectedly, Thomas shot forward towards her at blurring speeds, and before she could move her leading leg back it was swept out from under her and she tumbled into the dirt.

“Ha! He got you good!” Silas heckled from beside her.

“For instance, I noticed with Inspect that while strafing to the right you lean too much on your dominant leg. As soon as I took it out from under you, you didn’t have enough traction on your back leg to keep you upright, causing you to fall.” Thomas explained, surprisingly without even the slightest trace of mockery. He wordlessly held out a hand to help her up, and once she was on her feet again, they began circling one another once more and he resumed speaking.

“One of the reasons that duels between cultivators often look so spectacular is because usually, both cultivators are constantly trying to capitalize on the weaknesses of the other using information from this skill. Inspect can even help you predict what kind of movements your opponent will make based on any physical tells they’ve revealed in the fight to this point, such as foot positioning before a weapon swing. In short, the more familiar you become with your target over time, the more helpful Inspect can be.”

As Thomas was speaking, Samantha was trying to use Inspect on him in the way that he had been describing. At first, nothing happened, and she began to fear that she was doing it wrong. However, when a miniscule pause in his stride stood out like a red flag in her vision, she trusted her gut and jumped. Like before, Thomas’s shape blurred with speed and he executed a low sweep for her dominant leg, but this time she had preemptively dodged. Unfortunately, Thomas just used the momentum of the kick to transition into a palm strike. He hit in such a way that he tilted her body in the air and she couldn’t get her feet back under her in order to land well, and again she ate dirt.

Silas howled with laughter in her mind as Thomas extended a helping hand up.

“That time,” Thomas started, “you got too distracted by the excitement of successfully executing the technique that you didn’t defend properly. If you twisted towards my strike and made a guard with your arms, you would’ve been pushed back, but not so unbalanced that you fell.”

Samantha let out a small huff as she stood up, “To be fair, my specialty is spear fighting! I’ve never been especially good at hand to hand like you.”

Thomas’s previously stoic expression transformed into something so roguish that even a trickster god might tremble before it. “Oh? Would you prefer working with some training weapons then? I have a blunted spear on the rack over there, and I’ll even stay unarmed if you like.”

And, just like that, Samantha found herself being further humbled over the next hour as she tried to hone her usage of the Inspect skill. The spear didn’t help at all.

“Phew! You got tough in the forest Sam! I’m quite tired after all that, to be honest,” her tormentor complimented as she lay heaving and sweating on the ground.

He wasn’t wrong. Though she had been knocked over and lightly pummeled repeatedly, there were only a handful of times when “As One” activated and turned any light wound such as a shallow cut into nothing more than a scrape or a bruise. She was tired, but not much worse for wear.

“Thanks,” Samantha said, deadpan.

“I think you’ve got the hang of it, for the most part! You’ll have to practice more, but at least you will know how to do it correctly. Since you’re out of qi, it’s the perfect time to show you how to suppress your aura for when you go back to the slums. Your bond will need to learn how as well, since he’ll need to pass as a regular ol’ pet rabbit. Can he understand me, or is it only you that he can talk to? I don’t want to assume.”

Samantha had never actually considered that before. She had gotten so comfortable talking to Silas out loud or in her head that she felt like he should understand any human, but reflecting, was it really her words that he was hearing? Now was as good a time as any to ask.

“Hey, Silas?” she sent silently, looking over to where he was resting in a patch of noticeably chewed grass.

“Yes?” he said, looking innocently up with a stray blade of lawn hanging from his mouth.

Samantha mentally sighed at the sight, “Is it only me that you can understand? Or can you understand what Thomas is saying too?”

Silas responded with an incomprehensible string of squeaks and clicks, before pausing. “Samantha, did you understand what I just said to you?”

“Uh… no. Not at all.”

“Right, that’s what you and Thomas sound like to me. But, when you talk, you automatically send your meaning at the same time to me, so I’ve learned how to understand you. Like this!” Silas then repeated the exact same squeaking sounds, but this time Samantha heard him clearly say: “Samantha is a big dumb naked howler!”

“Hey!” Samantha said defensively.

“What?” Thomas asked curiously.

She shot a glare over to her laughing brat of a bond and answered, “No, Silas can’t understand you. We can only talk because we share concepts and ideas mentally.”

“Looks like you’ll be playing the middleman for this exercise then! Here’s what you need to do…”

Thomas spring boarded into a small lecture in how other people could tell people like them were cultivators. Once qi was unlocked, there was a sort of invisible aura that would surround that cultivator until they died. You could increase the intensity of that aura to affect others, commonly known as releasing “killing intent”, or you could try and draw the aura within the confines of your body so that it couldn’t be detected easily by others, known as “stealthing”. As cultivators were typically prideful, very few practiced stealthing unless they had reached the higher ranks of Bronze, at which point the lack of stealthing could potentially cause panic in any mortals they approached. The technique was also somewhat difficult for people to maintain because it required a portion of your attention to always be focused on the aura compression. Samantha wasn’t too worried about this challenge though, because she had an ability in her repertoire that had similar requirements.

Using her prior experience of learning Sage’s Rumination as a baseline, she mastered the concepts quickly. It really was quite similar, and within a few hours she was able to compress her aura to the point where she was nearly indistinguishable from any other mortal. The only downside was that while stealthing she was unable to use Sage’s Rumination at the same time, but she figured if she was pretending to be mortal then she likely wouldn’t be using very many arts that would empty her qi pool. Silas also took to the teachings quite quickly, since as a prey animal in the forest he frequently had to hide his presence from stronger predators. This was a natural progression to an already stealth-focused existence, in his opinion.

With these things completed, she stored Silas in her pack and left Thomas’s to return to the slums. She really wished that the next week or two would be uneventful for her, but with her track record she didn’t dare get her hopes up.