The last item in the auction closed at 18,000 points and with that Yu was officially earning more than enough points to spend on something other than basic grade 1 skills.

She wanted to leap for joy. Without consciously being aware of it, Yu felt weighed down by skill and point debt this entire time and she could finally get out from under it. She did not miss that the infusion of points was from a random encounter in the forest and her ability to track which she had started learning from another random encounter with a few friendly hunters she met in the forest one day years prior. Things happen in the most unexpected ways sometimes.

Or maybe not so unexpected, she thought as she remembered her visions in the Long Clan crystal.

Yu looked at Ai nervously but she didn’t seem disturbed in the least by her family spending that many points, which was equivalent to a few million silver if Yu had the conversion right.

Either way, she was relieved. She watched while everyone spoke and joked about the auction and the final “battle” between the Gui and Bao when Auction Assistant Mo entered.

Yu stood and smiled as the auction employee spoke to her with a wide grin, “Congratulations on your sales, young mistress. To transfer your points, simply tap your silver badge to your sect badge. The 5% commission has been deducted as was the cost of your new bracelet.”

Yu did as instructed and verified the successful transfer.

The jasmine-smelling woman bowed and wrapped things up with, “Once again, I offer both my personal congratulations and those of the Treasure Pavilion. Rarely has something come up out of nowhere like that litter. Your master surely treats you well. He has never publically participated before according to our records.”

Oh! They thought he was responsible for finding them and giving them to her. It hurt her pride but was probably for the best in the end.

“As I said," Ms. Mo continued, "you have access to this suite any time and can feel free to stay and eat or relax until the crowd disperses. I do recommend that by the way. As a sign of our appreciation and hope for your and your master’s future business, the cost of your food has been refunded and will be free on any auction day in the future as long as you use this suite. Thank you again and have a lovely evening.”

In comparison, the food had been worth little; but two hundred points was two hundred points. The woman bowed and turned to leave the room, but Yu ran over and stopped her, asking in a whisper, “I really like your perfume. Can you tell me how to come by some?”

The woman smiled and told her she would send the details. Yu thanked her and allowed her to leave undisturbed after adding Ms. Mo to her badge’s notification list.

That done, Yu turned around and said, “You know, this is a much nicer place to stay than our suite. And they said we could use it any time.”

“Oooh!" Li exclaimed excitedly. "That would be amaaaazing! If only it had more than one bed. Even as big as it is, it can’t hold more than two.”

Yu shrugged. “We’ll figure something out. Anyone want more food? It’s free.”

***

The next morning Yu was lying in her own nearly destroyed bed next to a recalcitrant Bai. She was staring at a Sign glowing in front of her face with a huge smile, too excited to care about her sleeping conditions.

Sect Points: 80,057 (+4.5%)

She’d done it. In a ridiculous round-about way, sure, but she’d succeeded. Finally, Yu could purchase her skills and be caught up to everyone else in her classes. And that was exactly what she intended to do. Getting out of bed, she told Bai she had an errand to run but the building did not allow beasts, and then she had to head back into the wilderness to hunt again. Still furious at her for leaving him all alone instead of taking him to the auction, he yowled and stomped around making his tiny cute roar sounds.

She sighed. “Fine. We can play for an hour. But that’s it. I’m already losing daylight for my hunt.”

He leaped down and ran out into the suite. Yu rolled her eyes, dressed quickly, and went out after him. Unsurprisingly, the girls were still asleep; they always slept in on Days 4 and 7. The pair went to a familiar grassy area barely lit by the rising sun where they ran and wrestled. Yu tried to teach him to stalk prey, which she created with the Fire Summoning skill. He took to it like he was born to, which he sort of was she supposed.

When the time came to head back, he demanded more playtime but Yu said, “Bai, I want to but I absolutely have to go hunting. You can always try to get one of the girls to take you out again.”

That seemed to excite him so he bounded back to the suite. As soon as he got in, he forced his way into Li’s room. A few moments later Yu heard a screech and a high-pitched, “Bai!”

Laughing, Yu turned around and went to the Skills Library. She immediately headed to the Darkness Aura section. After numerous discussions with her Darkness Warrior instructor and Neng Po, she decided on the skill Black Aura. It was expensive, but so were all darkness skills.

Skill Name: Black Aura

Grade: 1

Qi Type: Aura

Affinity Type: Darkness

Meridian Requirements: 3 to 18

Qi Requirements: 2 per second per meridian

Price: 21,430

Description:

This skill creates a thin layer of darkness around the wielder. It prevents any light or sound from leaving the bubble. At 10 meridians and above it can cover and quiet armor, and at 16 meridians and above it can cover weapons to silence their sheathing and unsheathing. However, they become visible and audible when drawn and away from the body. This field does not prevent anything other than light and sound from escaping, nor does it offer any sort of protection from physical or Qi attacks.

Yu was quite excited about the potential of that skill and hoped to be able to practice it for her next forest trip. Speaking of, she needed to get a move on.

Next was a stop at the Fire Mana skills. This was much more challenging to choose as numerous viable skills were available and decent. Her Fire Mage instructor gave her general advice, but nothing specific that would actually help her pick out a good skill.

The reason given was, “It’s grade 1. You’ll only be using it for a short time. The entire purpose of those skills is to teach, so just hurry up and pick one.”

With that utterly unhelpful advice, Yu ended up picking a skill she felt might actually be of some value to her while hunting and seemed interesting based on what she saw others perform in the class’s combat time.

Skill Name: Flame Lance

Grade: 1

Qi Type: Mana

Affinity Type: Fire

Meridian Requirements: 2 to 6

Qi Requirements: 10 per lance per meridian

Price: 14,780

Description:

This skill allows a Fire Mage to create very small “lances” of pure fire which can be thrown at an enemy. The size, distance, and power of the lance depend entirely on the meridians invested and affinity strength. These lances are not dense and do explode on contact but without great force. They will do little impact damage to an armored or hard surface and none to a dense or fire-resistant surface.

And finally, she found her last missing skill, a Wood Affinity ranged skill that would, at least in theory, help her slow or disrupt an enemy. Yu had been told it was exceptionally difficult to master but that was okay with her. Challenges that involved training excited her.

Skill Name: Entangling Roots

Grade: 1

Qi Type: Mana

Affinity Type: Wood

Meridian Requirements: 1 to 11

Qi Requirements: 2 per plant per second per meridian

Price: 19,300

Description:

This skill allows the cultivator to send their Wood Qi into the earth and encourage any natural plants in the area to move as directed. This is generally considered a skill that can control a small field of battle. The area of effect is determined by the meridians used. This skill has no use in an area void of plant life.

Exiting the Skills Library with her new scrolls, Yu immediately headed to the flight area. The person behind the desk recognized her and immediately called for 33. She smiled at him and walked right by. Running up to Zhao Minge, who smiled at her, she asked about Jin Kong.

They spoke on the way to the eagle. “Did you hear about the auction last night?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he continued eagerly, “Probably not since you’re an outer sect disciple and not a noble.”

Yu didn’t say a word as he was chatting away, clearly excited about the topic. “Someone captured and sold an entire litter of Illusory Foxes. Can you believe it? Imagine having one of those as a pet.”

Yu looked at him in surprise and asked, “Are you a Light or Darkness Affinity?”

He nodded. “Dual Wood and Darkness. If I wasn’t already poor as anything, I’d totally have tried to get one. But I heard they went for like fifteen thousand points each, which is crazy. Someone told me the last one sold for more than twenty thousand but that seems far-fetched to me.”

Yu nodded while trying to hold in a smile. It did indeed seem far-fetched.

Their entire trip down he talked non-stop about the auction and what he would do once he managed to get a few points saved up. He was spending everything he earned on Jin Kong right now.

Thankfully, he hadn’t been beaten up again since the time Yu healed him. In fact, the Nobility Society had pretty much left Zhao Minge alone since she sent her message. He insisted it was she who caused the nobles to back off but Yu doubted it. If anything, she expected them to pick up the pace since she was such an irritant to them. Something else must have been the cause and Yu had no idea what it was, which concerned her.

Either way, he took Yu where she needed to go. And so Yu arrived back at the forest, if two hours later than her preferred start. She reminded him that she still had more trips down on Days 4 and 7 and to make sure he was around both mornings so he could get the points. Apparently tipping was not allowed or she would have added an extra few points. But the rules were the rules, which made no sense to her given what happened her first week and that Shishi girl. Yu briefly wondered where that ended up, but moved on quickly not caring enough to put any more of her attention to it.

Yu started her journey into the forest the same as she always did—with armoring and weaponing up, getting her nocked bow ready, and heading deeper in. That day she planned to move towards the grade 2 area. Yu really wanted to get back to the deeper portions of the grade 2 area so she could find and turn in the more expensive meat. Yu decided to take a different path to familiar areas in an attempt to improve her chances of finding herbs, which gave a surprisingly decent amount of points.

Three hours and many herbs and grade 1 beasts later, Yu arrived at an area that was close to the grade 3 marshy area. The smell in the air was much mustier and, well, stinky. She wrinkled her nose but decided to walk adjacent to the marsh line. If she was lucky, she might find some grade 2 beasts exiting or entering.

What she found instead was a bunch of picked herbs and no beasts. There were signs of battles, but nothing left for her to hunt. Obviously, folks came here before she did. Frustrated, she decided to back away from the marsh and head back towards the grade 2 area and see if she could find anything left. What she found were more signs of battle and no beasts. She decided to examine one and see what she could determine. It was pretty obvious that a group of people, at least three, had been hunting quite heavily and recently in the areas she was hoping to.

Disappointed, Yu turned further inwards, finding the same thing.

Alright then. She decided to head back out towards the marsh and try her luck there. Yu figured she could always flee if it was untenable. Trying to approach the swampy area carefully and fully attentive, Yu found herself getting distracted by the stench of rotten eggs and mold, pretty much making her nose a useless tool for hunting.

Yu could feel the ground beneath her feet turning into soaking wet mud which her leather boots sank into. The splashing and sucking sounds felt loud in Yu’s ears. She eventually came to an area with grasses, weeds, and other plants so tall she could barely see over them. Feeling like her forest training was not at all helpful in this environment, Yu stopped moving. She froze still, and just listened and watched. The wind blew, causing the tall plants to wave together and the water to slosh around. There was no way she could see anything in all the plant-life so she put her bow away and withdrew her swords. Then she continued her stalk forward, even slower than before.

Suddenly to her right, the grasses moved against the wind. Yu froze. Watching that area, she saw it again. It was moving away from her, seemingly randomly around the marsh. Then Yu felt the wind change directions and the creature’s movements stopped. Yu scanned the area around where she saw the last motion but found nothing. Deciding to take the initiative, she twisted and took an agonizingly slow step towards what she hoped the creature was. After another movement of the wind, Yu saw the grasses move again as they did before but directly away from her at a high speed. Yu growled, gave up on stealth, and ran after it. Unfortunately, with the ground being as it was, she was more sinking and splashing after it than running and that slowed her to the point of losing the thing in the brush.

Aggravated, Yu scanned the area but completely lost sight of the creature. As a side benefit though, she ended up finding a break in the grasses. It led to a raised mound that was still muddy but not submerged. She climbed up and using it to scan her surroundings she was able to mostly orient herself with the mountain, sun, and forest as primary landmarks. Yu quickly updated her map with her charcoal pencil and then searched for areas with the potential to hold beasts.

The ground beneath Yu suddenly shifted dramatically and she lost her balance on the slippery mud, falling onto her butt. None of her research said anything about quaking ground in the marsh. Changing position to be more secure on a knee, Yu pressed into the ground and found it to be a thin layer of mud on top of something solid. Using one hand as balance and the other as a cleaner, she wiped away the mud, attempting to expose what was beneath. After a few minutes, Yu saw a hexagonal shape about twice as big as her full hand with a green and blue swirling pattern in it. More sweeping showed more of the same. Using her knuckles, she knocked and found it was hard but had a slightly hollow sound.

Thinking she figured it out, Yu stopped moving. She stayed still without disturbing the demonic beast she had confused as a small hill and tried to determine what to do so as not to make it angry. Scanning the size of the “hill” and assuming it made up the shell of the creature, Yu did some quick math and determined it was definitely a grade 4 beast.

What in the hells was a grade 4 creature doing in the early area of the grade 3 marsh? Was the creature responsible for managing the other lesser beasts in this area? Either way, Yu needed to leave. She slowly rose and, as softly as she could, walked off of the hill-sized creature and left the area.

Yu needed to recognize that she was unprepared for hunting in a marsh. She had no way of spotting, catching, or killing what lived in the tall brush. So back into the forest it was. Yu’s aggravation was obvious as she returned to the recently hunted forest areas and punched a nearby tree with her leather-covered fist. What a wasted day.

“Disappointed?” Yu looked up as a familiar voice sounded out through the trees.