[Arrival Day + 9, 2.30am]

Jin woke up around 2.30AM.

The snake was a little confused as Jin started moving, but quickly regained his vigilance and restarted his duty for the day.

By this time, Shin had returned, and was already sleeping. He probably didn’t look at Jin, he might have woken him up if he’d notice there’s a snake sleeping right beside him. Or maybe Shin knew better, Jin could only guess.

He took the bath, and thought about his plans for the day.

In 3 hours he was to meet with Set and start refining again. There were 3 more common Gusu he needed to increase his refinement capabilities, These were Fluid Gusu, Vapour Gusu, and Shock Gusu. Actually, there was one more, the Flash Freeze Gusu, but he needs to reach rank 2 before being able to refine it.

He decided to spar with the Guardian until the meeting time with his senior. They sparred for 3 hours and the Guardian had his hands full with tempered energy now. The time he was supposed to meet up with his senior was coming up. He took the Gusu Encyclopedia which he planned to leaf through in spare moments and moved out towards the practice room number 7.

[27 stones used]

[Arrival Day + 9, 5.40am]

He reached there a little early, he asked the clerk for the room token, and he got it, which suggested that his senior wasn’t there yet.

He entered the room and started cleaning up for their upcoming session. They left a lot of mess behind yesterday, and they needed to do a lot of work today.

[Arrival Day + 9, 6.30am]

At around 6.30AM his senior entered the room. He was just about finished tidying up.

“Junior, what a nice surprise! You’ve cleaned up the room, I must say I am more and more impressed with you!” - Set exclaimed with a smile, as she was taking her seat.

Jin grinned as he said “If the junior didn't know better, he’d think his senior is tardy for a reason. There is however no way a senior would be so small minded though.” - Jin jeered.

“That is so, my dear little junior. Now let’s get down to business. Come take a seat.”

Jin followed the suggestion and sat down.

“Here’s the recipe for the next Gusu we’ll be refining. It is the Fluid Gusu.” - she handed Jin the recipe.

Jin started reading through it.

Materials:

1x Ice Lizard Gland Crystal

1x Jungle Jumbler Acid Gland Crystal //ludroth?

20ml River Toad Saliva

20ml Twisted Cobra Venom

10g Thundersalt

20ml Green Earth Pond Water

Processing:

Grind down the Ice Lizard Crystal.

Grind down the Jumbler Crystal

Mix the Thundersalt with half of the ice crystal powder.

Pour 200ml of boiling hot water to a container with thundersalt - ice crystal powder, stir it and let it sit for an hour.

Mix the rest of the ice crystal powder with River Toad Silva

Mix half of the acid crystal powder with twisted cobra venom.

Mix the rest of the acid crystal with green earth pond water.

Solidify the venom - acid crystal mixture.

Bonding:

Drink the Toad Saliva - icecrystal powder Mixture .

Wait 3 minutes.

Drink the Green Earth Pond Water - acid crystal powder mixture.

Wait for 3 minutes.

Eat the solidified cobra venom - acid crystal powder ball.

Drink the thundersalt - ice crystal powder mixture.

Tempering Instruction:

Enter the Aperture space.

Wait for the energies to organize into a form.

Temper the form

Jin finished reading the recipe.

“This one has ingredients from two different mana beasts?”

“Yes, two types of lizards. Both lizards are rank 1 mana beasts though, otherwise the cost would be much, much higher. This, and the reason that the Gusu is rarely found in nature makes it have such a high price. It also has good utility outside the area of refinement, so the demand is quite a bit higher than Solid Gusu.”

Jin slowly nodded.

“It looks like one has to be rich to become a refinement expert.”

This time it was Set who gave a nod.

“That is true, but you know what they say. You need to spend money to earn money.”

Jin started working on the recipe by figuring out how to best use the Abrasion Gusu to grind down the crystals.

“Come to think of it, I wanted to ask. How do students earn the credits or the stones? How much can they afford to spend?”

“Rank 1 experts don’t have many means of acquiring money. Usually the necessary amount would be provided by the master, but that would be only so far as the necessity goes - unless you do exceed expectations. That’s how you earned 2 credits for your last assignment. Students also would be bailed out by their masters if they had no resource to feed their gusu, but that was more on a loan basis, they’d make sure the pupil pays it back. What’s left for them to do is usually take on posted missions from the contribution hall. These ranged from material gathering, to processing, to some mundane jobs or clerk duties that needed to be filled in. Needless to say, none of these were particularly profitable. All that being said, the rank 1 experts don’t need many resources to progress their cultivation at a good pace. With blade Gusu they can temper their rank 1 energies quite quickly. Of course, this doesn’t stop them from doing their best to acquire additional resources, but between cultivation and instruction from their masters, there’s also not that much time to pursue it. The last option is competitions. Usually a large amount of credits is there for getting high placements - that’s how you earned your first 120 credits. It’s hard to call this a reliable source though.”

Jin nodded. He was getting a hang of using the abrasion. He was testing it on some normal stones,and strike after strike it was crumbling on the surface and turning into dust.

“So it’s rare to see a rank one expert with many stones at hand?”

Set thought for a second.

“I wouldn’t say that. It is very rare to find a rank one expert earning for himself is a better way to put it. After all, many students have received at least some backing from their families, and even if they aren't rich, in case of emergencies they are not empty handed."

“I see. What about experts at your own rank?”

Jin has put a pot of water on a high flame to let it boil. Once the water was being prepared, he started working on crystals. He started from the ice crystal first.

“At rank 2 the job becomes much easier. For refinement experts, again processing materials and refining gusu on commission is a very viable method of earning money, and a lot of the students do that. At the beginning it’s also a good way to gain valuable experience, and hands on materials that you’d otherwise not get your hands on for one reason or another. The more capable you are in the field, the tougher commissions you can take, the profits are bigger. Rank 2 disciples can also take on some stone-earning tasks from their masters, as I am currently doing for example. Those also tend to be quite profitable, as House credits hold a very good value. The last option is to gather materials and sell them in the trade hall. I’d say on average a rank 2 expert that is not completely fresh could earn around 50 stones each week, which in many clans would make him a rich man. Of course, because of an ongoing cultivation and instruction taking, the amount they earn is usually quite a bit less, it varies depending how much they want to work on their economics. Usually direct cultivation takes precedence over the money making, unless somebody has a very good use for extra resources.”

“I wonder how much senior has earned from the master by taking on this task.” - Jin smirked

“Why, 60 stones and no less my dear junior.” Set replied with a grin - “It is a very juicy assignment for me.”

“But no wonder master paid such a price, look how much work I have to do overseeing and correcting my foolish and inexperienced junior. I haven't been able to relax for a minute since coming here.” - she added, her grin only widening.

“Senior, I feel you are a true swindler here. Not only has the master paid you, I also am now obliged to repay you in the future, and you don’t even lift a finger to help your lovable junior.”- Jin said, as he continued grinding the crystal. It was very tough.

“I told you junior, you should be careful so others don’t take advantage of you, it is not your senior’s fault that you are such an easy target”.

“These crystals are very tough to grind.” - Jin complained to his senior.

“Think how people without the Abrasive Gusu to help them would respond to such remarks. You, my spoiled junior, should be happy that you can grind them at all.” - Set jeered chuckling.

Jin gave a sour smile, finally finishing the grind. He proceeded to add the thundersalt to the now powdered ice crystal.

“How much was the material cost for this Gusu by the way? I remember you said the Gusu was 140 stones?”

“That’s correct, and the materials amounted to 110 stones, so we’re saving 30 stones.”

[Arrival Day + 9, 7.00am]

Jin poured the boiling water into a glass container with the prepared powder. He stirred the mixture for a minute - an hour from now the mixture would be ready for the bonding step. Next, he moved on to grinding the acid crystal.

“How many pupils does the master have?” - Jin asked after a few minutes of silence

Set shrugged. “I’m not sure, I never asked him. I know of 4 others. There’s a rank 2 student that’s almost a year longer under Ma Gu than I am, and two rank 3 students.”

“How did you meet them? Are there any shared classes or anything of the sort?”

“No. At least I haven’t participated in anything like that. Sooner or later you’ll bump into some others. Any master makes use of their more experienced pupils to do some babysitting assignments on the fresh ones.” - she said plainly and then smiled - “What, you think your senior sister is not good enough for you?” - she jeered.

Jin shook his head.

“There must be a lot of masters in the House, for you to know only a few of fellow pupils. Or is the number of pupils our master takes unusually small?”

“The number of pupils each master takes under his wings usually ranges between 5 and 10, so there’s not much variance to behold. Apparently years ago that was not the case - a master could take 20 to 40 students, but the House has changed its approach and went with a quality over quantity approach. The master’s position is quite fluid in the House, if there is an influx of new disciples, there will be another Gusu Master to take a position and have pupils assigned to him. If there’s not enough pupils, a master’s position will be revoked. All I know is that a master’s position is a good opportunity for gusu masters to gain big profits from the House, though I must admit I have no clue what sort of temptations the House uses to make men such as Ma Gu to teach.”

Jin nodded, pondering for a second about that too.

“Are all our fellow pupils refinement experts?” - Jin continued to ask as he was finishing grinding the second crystal. This one seemed a little more brittle than the other one,

“Yes, it is a master's speciality after all, and pupils rarely have aversion to studying refinement as it often provides a very good support. The refinement part of YEFCO always has master’s pupils in high, if not top placements.”

“YEFCO?” - asked Jin raising his eyebrows

“Oh, you haven’t even heard of that? Yearly evaluation festival competition.” - Set smirked - “Junior, it’s as if you really just crawled from under a rock.”

Jin didn't answer. He took out a vial and poured the toad's saliva into it. He dropped the remainder of the ice crystal dust into the same vial.

"It's nothing out of the ordinary, it is a festival that celebrates all the improvements we did over the year. It lasts two weeks, there's a lot of different kinds of events, in the spotlight though there are competitions. There is a martial competition - this usually takes the cake as it is the most interesting one to watch. The second one is the refinement competition and the last one is the formation competition."

"Interesting. Does everyone have to join the competitions?" - Jin asked, as he was repeating the previous procedure but this time with the pond water and half of the acid crystal powder.

"No, usually the masters decide who enters, and which competition."

"Is it split by ranks?"

"Yes - though, the age must be within the norm. You probably won't have an option to attend the next competition. Though you are rank one, but you’ll be younger than everyone else, and with the least experience. Unless you get on Ma Gu’s bad side, then he might get you in just to get embarrassed." - Set chuckled.

"I see." - Jin was mixing up cobra's venom with the leftover acid crystal dust.

"So senior, why don't you brag to your junior, I want to know your placements." - Jin grinned

"I bet you would." - Set sighed - "I was 5th at last year's refinement competition. Needless to say, I didn't attend the other ones."

“5th? That quite something, were you not happy with it?”

“You’re lucky that master is not here. After I got 5th I thought I’m going to be disowned by him and become a stray. He is *the* refinement master. If his pupil is anything less than first, that’s a flunk. And 5th is a big flunk.”

Jin ingested the information. He foreboded his participation to be quite stressful at this moment, as he gulped.

Set sighed again.

“He tends to remind me of it whenever he finds an opportune moment, and I know there’s warning in his reminders, so I’m a little under pressure for the next YEFCO.”

"Do any of the master's pupils join the martial competition?"

"All the boys. All that I know of, at least." - Set answered plainly.

Jin smiled. He has finished with the material processing for now.

He sat next to his senior, looking at Set. He could relax a little. It was not as easy as it seemed to carefully prepare the materials and keep up a conversation at the same time. His companion on the other hand was completely relaxed, leafing through a book and patiently answering his questions.

She finally looked at him, an amused expression on her face saying "What?".

Jin started laughing.

"You really have struck gold with this assignment, my dear senior."

Set flushed a little and smiled.

“That I did. That I did, my junior.”

This was a perfect moment to start checking out Gusu Encyclopedia which he brought with him. He did use it before to check some information on particular Gusu, but never did he leaf through it to broaden his knowledge.

Having a big passion for Gusu, this was unacceptable. He should know about every Gusu there is. At one point in the future, at least.

He started leafing through the encyclopedia, reading snippets of information about different kinds of Gusu, and there were a lot of different kinds and varieties.

A lot might have been an understatement.

Time went by.

Soon, the thundersalt - ice crystal mixture was ready, and it was time to continue.

[Arrival Day + 9, 8.00am]

Jin placed all the ingredients near himself. First, he refined 1 stone to fill up his essence reserves, then proceeded to solidify the venom mixture. It took a minute to take it to the right consistency.

[28 stones used]

Now the proper bonding could begin.

He drank the toad silava, ice crystal mixture.

Waited 3 minutes.

Drank the Pond Water, acid crystal mixture.

Waited 3 minutes.

He swollowed the venom crystal powder ball, and chased everything with the thundersalt - ice crystal powder mixture.

Finally, he entered the aperture. He was greeted there by his Guardian and all his Gusu.

Jin called the Beast Strength Gusu to him and pet it once it was close enough.

It was the only Gusu that had a big impact on his strength, it’d be really hard to do much without it so far.

The snake never followed Jin into his aperture, so he placed the beetle on his now free shoulder, waiting for the refinement energies to form.

Once they did, a big blob of ooze creature materialized in front of him. Jin furrowed his brows.

“I’m not sure how or if I’ll be able to damage this.” - Jin said truthfully

“Just go and pounce on it, I’ll see if the energy gets refined or not.” - Kasm answered with an assuring smile

Jin did as advised. He activated the Beast Strength Gusu, and without much thought, started pounding on the ooze. His attacks seemed to swish the the ooze around, he didn’t feel impact of his own fists much though.

He tried to claw the ooze with open fists to try and grasp it’s body or puncture the elastic skin.

He managed to do that, but the ooze suddenly shifted it’s fluid body under him, jolting his hand between his own legs and landing on his back. The ooze immediately was on him, gluing him to the ground and trying to crush him by conjuring immensely strong current within its own fluid body. He couldn’t move an inch.

He decided to leave the aperture and come back to try again. Thankfully, nothing stopped him from doing so, but he felt that a lot of the essence had been depleted by the damage received by the ooze.

Jin fully recharged his essence, and immediately went back.

“Did the last attack temper its energy?” - Jin wasn’t entirely sure.

“Yes. The first attacks were barely doing anything. The last one you managed to hit did a decent damage, much better than before, though still on a low side compared to the other forms we fought before.”

Jin nodded.

He looked at the ooze. The ooze was just moving around peacefully in quite a peculiar manner. It didn’t look wary of Jin, or any of its surroundings for that matter. Jin sighed, and approached it again, hoping to avoid the oozes advances this time.

In the end, he managed to beat it, but the ooze has pounced on him and dealt the damage more times than he hoped it would.

After 2 hours, the ooze’s form flapped down on the ground and stopped moving.

“All done.” - Kasm announced, and then whistled. “This was a tough one.” - he added.

Jin summoned one of his leftover Not Gusu, and placed it on the body of the ooze. Not Gusu sunk in, and the form started to unweave the ooze from existence and entangle the Not Gusu instead.

Finally, the transformation has ended, and the Fluid Gusu was formed successfully. It’s form was not unlike the form the energies took. It was a small, green slime shape of a dew drop, with two big eyes. At the top of its head, a little behind where the dewdrop shape begins, hangs a small slime bobble as-if attached on an invisible string.

Jin picked it up. Indeed, the consistency was very similar to the ooze he just fought. This one was much happier to be in contact with him than the other one though - and Jin reciprocated the feeling. He played with it a little, getting used to its touch. It was quite pleasant.

Jin finally smiled.

“Kasm, you will love this one!” - Jin shouted to the Guardian, who was approaching. Once he heard Jin, he immediately teleported beside Jin.

The boy inspected the new Gusu and started playing with it too, testing its physical properties. “Wonderous” - he muttered. “What gusu is this? It is fascinating.”

“It is Fluid Gusu. It can help densify gaseous substances into fluid, and also fluidify the solids, to an extent of course. It is just rank 1 Gusu after all. It appears that its main uses are in refinement, but that’s not where its utility ends, apparently. Don’t ask me what other uses it has though. I haven’t inquired that much.”

The boy nodded.

“Good Gusu.” he said.

Jin left the aperture space.

[Arrival Day + 9, 10.00am]

Jin opened his eyes, and started stretching.

“Senior sister, after a gruelling fight the refinement is a success. Please complement your junior.”

Set chuckled.

“Well done my junior brother, Ma Gu himself wouldn’t be able to repeat your mighty accomplishment.”

Thankfully Jin wasn’t drinking anything at the moment, as he was sure the contents of his mouth would inevitably escape him hearing such a compliment.

Laughing, he went to the bathroom to empty his stomach bag and took a bath. When he returned to the room, he used essence stones to recover his reserves and.

[40 stones used]

Out of 50 stones that he received from Ma Gu, only 10 were left. He hoped the next skirmishes will not be as tough.

Jin closed his eyes to recover his resolve. The sooner they complete the tasks, the better. The pace he had taken on seemed a little inhuman and crazy, but it is what he wished for, so he has only himself to blame. He brewed the drink so he needs to get it down, one way or another. And it’s probably better to do it with a smile rather than get defeated, so he did just that.

“I’m starting to think I am getting refined into some sort of refining machine myself. Senior, what is the next recipe?”

She blinked.

“No break?”

“Nope.” Jin smiled.

Set’s brows jumped up.

“Well then, next up is the vapour Gusu. We’re leaving the shock Gusu for last. Here’s the recipe.”

Materials:

1x Sweetstalk Maw

100x Valerian Leaves

10g Red Cross Spider’s Web

1kg Goldenseal roots

10g Turnoak Sap

Processing:

Boil 1.0l of water.

Grind the Maw down and add it the the boiling water.

Let it cook for an half an hour, add the turnoak soap to it, and let it sit for another half an hour.

Juice the Goldenseal Roots, measure out 400ml of juice into a container.

Liquify the spiderweb and add it to the juice, once it’s thoroughly mixed in, stop the liquefaction process.

Let the Maw soup cool down to consumable temperature.

Bonding:

Light the Valerian Leaves on fire, and make sure you inhale the fumes throughout the process.

Drink the Goldenseal Roots juice.

Drink the Sweetstalk maw soup.

Tempering Instruction:

Enter the Aperture space.

Wait for the energies to organize into a form.

Temper the form

Jin read through the recipe. There’s also another one underway. It’s better he makes sure there are no accidents.

“Senior sister, do you have any essence stones on you?” - He asked, as he prepared a pot with water and proceeded to place it over a flame.

She nodded.

“Why? Did Ma Gu not give you enough?”

“I’m not sure yet, I have 10 left out of the 50 he gave me. I’d rather be safe than fail an almost complete refinement, wasting all the materials, so it is going to be the easiest to rely on you if that’s the case, since you’re anyway here. If it’s enough then treat it as if I haven’t said anything.” - He asked, as he started to prepare the sweetstalk for grinding.

She slowly nodded...

“You spent 40 stones already?” - she was a little dumbfounded -”Just on recovering the essence?”

“Not entirely, I spent 7 stones to buy the food for the new Gusu we refined yesterday. I refined 9 stone worth of essence just for the last refinement”

Set sighed.

“Don’t mind me, I’m just not used to spending hard earned stones like that. *Yours* weren’t really hard earned though.” - she jeered - “I also vaguely remember you mentioning your aptitudes not being great to Ma Gu.”

Jin nodded. He found a proper container for the sweetstalk maw.

“Few can match me in spending now, but don’t be too jealous of my affluent status senior sister.” - said Jin grinning, and petting his lucky pet snake - “Not everyone in this world can be rich after all!” - he jeered.

“Not an attitude that someone who might need money from me soon should sport.” - Set jeered back.

Jin bowed down.

“Apologies, apologies my senior”

“Good.” - Set exclaimed with her arms crossed.

Jin started to use the Abrasive Gusu on the sweetstalk. The process was going very quick compared to the crystals from the previous recipe.

“What are your methods of tempering the bonded energies sister? In my last attempt, I found my Beast Strength Gusu quite inadequate, even though the main reason was my lack of martial skill.”

“Depends on the form, and what it is weak against. You don’t really have much choice, funnily enough the only Gusu that’d help you in tempering would be the shock Gusu, which we’ll be refining last.”

“*Most* humorous development indeed. How would you temper a huge ooze creature? What are those weak against?”

“I hear Using Flash freeze and Quake gusu in succession can work marvels on these creatures, in terms of doing damage. However, I wouldn’t be much better than you. I’d probably just use my Blade Gusu to slowly temper it. It should be quite a efficient in this case, it is difficult to beat the oozes and other slimy creatures with physical strength alone. Blade Gusu might’ve been useless against some other form you already defeated without much trouble. Having many Gusu certainly gives an expert a lot more options, so it is an area that theoretically gets easier with time.”

“Theoretically?”

“Let me warn you - it does not get easier. The forms when refining higher tiered Gusu are more and more dangerous, and tempering them is very difficult, unless you’re equally skilled in combat as you are in refinement. There are different recipes for any one Gusu, and each recipe may result in different form. Generally an expert needs to decide, whether he is willing to spend more resources on more complicated recipe which is easier to temper, or take the most efficient option and deal with a more difficult tempering process.”

Jin nodded slowly, thinking deeply about the subject. At the same time, he just finished grinding the Sweetstalk. The water was already boiling, he lowered the flame and put the blended sweetstalk inside.

“Senior, speaking of recipes, can you tell me more about them? They don’t seem to be as free flowing as some other knowledge is.” - Jin finally asked. He was preparing the roots for juicing now.

“That is correct. Many recipes are held close to the chest by refinement experts. If the recipe for a particular Gusu is not known, its price would be largely dictated by Gusu’s availability on the market, not the materials that are needed to refine it.This means that an expert can likely earn a much larger profit on his refinement. That being said, you can find a lot of rank 1 Gusu recipes for free in the House library, but even if there is a publicly known recipe, if an expert discovers a different recipe which uses cheaper materials, he’d still be able to increase his profits from the refinement. Of course only to the point, since the price is a balanced thing - the rule of supply and demand applies to Gusu same as to any other thing that can be found on the markets. If there’s many individual people that have a recipe for a particular Gusu. The recipe itself can be sold at a good price, once the recipe is circulated enough, usually it is just made available to the public, since its value becomes much much lower.”

“That makes sense. Is master willing to share his recipes with us freely?”

“Usually yes, so long as we really plan on refining the Gusu, and have the necessary skill to do so. If it is just to see the recipe out of curiosity then he’s not going to entertain you.”

Jin nodded.

The juice was extracted and measured. It was time to try using Fluid Gusu on the neatly spun spiderweb.

Jin had to give it a few tries. The web was slowly transformed into a thick, molten, homogeneous mass.

“Is this right?” - Jin asked.

“You can try to thin it a little bit more, it’ll mix in better.” - Set noted

Jin continued using the fluid Gusu, and the mass did become thinner. It looked like some sort of silvery honey now.

Jin looked at his senior for her to judge again.

Set nodded.

“Good enough.”

“Can I touch it?”

“No, It’s sticky as hell, it’s not easy to get it off. And we don’t have more so we’d need to go and grab some from trading hall.”

“So you tried?” - Jin asked jokingly.

Set flushed.

“By mistake I put a couple fingers in it once. I don’t recommend it.”

“Right.” - Jin proceeded to mix it in the juice.

Soon, it was time to add the sap into the sweetstalk soup. Jin did so. What’s left is to let it simmer for another half an hour and let it rest some more.

[Arrival Day + 9, 11.00am]

“Senior sister, what are you going to spend the stones you earned on?”

“Flash Freeze Gusu, or rather materials for its refinement.” - Set said lively enough, that Jin got startled. - “I advanced to rank 2 not too long ago and didn’t have a chance to get it yet. I still lack a few stones but soon enough I’ll have enough saved.”

“I see. It really must be a good Gusu since senior covets for it so. Wouldn’t it be easier to just ask the master for the materials though? Wouldn’t he support his pupil?”

She looked at him, a little amused.

“Why do you think he’s given me this assignment? You think he’s just going to hand them to me? Your little deal wouldn’t be half as good if any pupil could just get Gusu materials from the master. The master will provide at least some of the resources, but he will not just hand them to us, he will make us work for it. That is so with any master, the extent to which they will help their pupil’s is up to them. If they see a pupil is doing something they do not approve of, they will not support him. They’ll give a pupil an assignment which is to the master’s liking, and will unlikely budge unless you do as they want you to do.”

Set sighed.

“That makes a lot of sense. I wouldn’t want my senior sisters and brothers to be like newborns who can’t fetch for themselves. You, senior, seem very resolute and responsible.” Jin said smiling.

Set smirked.

“Don’t you try to get on my good side with such simple attempts junior. You better watch the time now, you’ll need to remove the flame in a couple minutes”

“Yes ma’am.”

In a moment, Jin removed the soup from the flame. He started arranging everything for the bonding step.

In 30 minutes, the soup has cooled off enough, Jin sat cross legged, the leaf bundle already burning and a pleasant smell was expanding into the room.

[Arrival Day + 9, 11.30am]

He proceeded to drink the webby juice. The spiderwebs seemed to have dissolved into the juice by now. Afterwards, he consumed the sweetstalk soup, and entered his aperture.

His guardian was in front him.

Jin bowed.

“Excuse my intrusion, another refinement entered the bonding stage.”

The Guardian was more than fine with such greetings.

“Be at ease. What Gusu is it this time?”

“Vapour Gusu. It’ll allow to change the state of fluids into vapour.”

The Guardian nodded, and both of them observed the energies condensing into a form. The form was that of a carnivorous plant, with a big flower adorning a big jug-like open-ended body.

Jin approached the plant, activating the beast strength gusu at the same time. The plant wasn’t moving, just swinging gently as if in a breeze. When he was close enough, he poked it and immediately retreated. There was no reaction. Next time he decided to put in a lot more force, and the plant visibly reacted to it, tensing up and suddenly emptying the contents of it’s jug in Jin's direction.

Jin was paying attention, and retreated further, seeing how the liquid splashed in his direction, the range of the attack was around 5m. Together with the liquid, fumes were pushed out, and they kept lingering for a dozen seconds as they finally dissipated.

Jin decided to use this hit and run tactic again, and again, he stopped when the Guardian announced that the form has been fully tempered.

This went much, much better than the previous tempering.

Jin summoned another Not Gusu, and with a light step he put it inside the plant’s jug.

After a spectacle of lights and energy, the energies fully weaved into the Not Gusu and transformed its appearance.

It looked like a small gecko, with big eyes. It was expanding its throat like a toad, conjuring little misty clumps of air. It was light greenish blue.

He let the gecko climb on his arm, inspecting it a bit closer. It looked really adorable.

The Guardian approached him, curious about the new member of his castle. Jin handed him the Gusu.

“There’s one more Gusu we’ll refine today. I’ll be back soon.”

Jin left the aperture and opened his eyes.

“It’s done, it went pretty smoothly this time around” - he smiled, notifying his senior.

“That’s good. There’s only one left” - Set announced.

“Let me clean up and we can get to it immediately.” - responded Jin, as he was recovering his essence.

[8 stones left]