[Arrival Day + 9, 12.30pm]

Set has already laid out the ingredients.

“The pace is great, we’ll likely be able to report to the master still this afternoon. Initially I thought we’ll be finishing the assignment tomorrow evening the earliest, or the day after.”

“Is that so? Expected a few more hiccups like the one with the fluid Gusu?”

“Mainly I expected a few more breaks inbetween.” - Set Chuckled - “But yes, and I also expected more mishaps on the material side. Since you’re very fresh, I thought you might be a little clumsy which could lead to some accidents, which would be hard to salvage, but you’ve been awfully collected.”

Jin blushed lightly.

“Don’t you try to get on my good side with such simple attempts, senior. Give me the recipe.”

“Yessir” - Set smiled, and handed Jin the recipe for the shock Gusu.

Jin took the recipe and gave it a read.

Materials:

50g Golden Pixie Dust

5x Shockwolf glands

36x Red Radiant Lantana Flowers

500g Embelwood moss

1x Large Basalt stone (At least 3kg in mass)

Processing:

Take out the glands and put them in a separate container.

Grind down the Lantana Flowers in a mortar.

Add Pixie dust the the flower paste.

Add the paste to the glands, mix so the glands are covered.

Set it aside for 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes, make a fire out of embelwood moss and roast the paste covered glands over the fire.

Bonding:

Eat the roasted glands while having a skin-contact with the basalt stone, and basalt stone is contact with the ground.

Tempering Instruction:

Enter the Aperture space.

Wait for the energies to organize into a form.

Temper the form

The processing steps didn’t look too difficult, Jin started following them immediately, preparing the glands container and starting on the paste.

“Senior, I heard this House didn’t use to be as ambitious as it is now in its goals, do you know more?”

“Not much more than it being connected to the House merging into the Southern Alliance, but this is quite a common knowledge. How the House operated before, or how other Houses operate I don’t really know in a greater detail. The House politics are left to higher ups. Ma Gu knows more, I’m sure, but I never felt a need to inquire. Sometimes we’re doing exchanges with the other Houses of the Southern Alliance, and sometimes we even have small competitions.”

Jin finished working on the paste, now he was covering the glands in it.

“Any special differences between the disciples of different Houses?”

“The clothes.” - said cheekily Set - “The expert’s are not really limited early or guided in specific ways by the House. The differences are much more individual rather than House enforced. Only when becoming a master House’s specific resources become more relevant, as it is progressively harder to find high rank resources for sale in the open market.”

“Really? What highest rank Gusu can be found on the market?”

“Note sure about big trade centers, but in our sect rank 4 Gusu can usually be bought on commision only. Nobody really stocks up on them, since they are quite valuable and there are always people happy to buy.”

Jin was finally done with the paste, he also prepared everything for roasting. Now he just needed to wait.

“Speaking of Gusu rank, have you upgrade-refined your refining Gusu arsenal to rank 2?”

“Not all of them, it’s an ongoing project. As I mentioned, it hasn’t been that long since my advancement. I do have rank 2 Abrasive Gusu and rank 2 Fluid Gusu, but it’s an expensive thing to do, even though upgrade-refining from rank 1 to rank 2 is quite a bit simpler and less costly than refining Not Gusu directly into rank 2.”

“How are the effects increased between rank 1 and 2?”

“The maximum effectiveness is roughly two to three times when compared against rank 1 or lower materials. Of course, against rank 2 materials the disparity becomes even larger.”

Jin raised his eyebrows.

“How so?”

“Because of energy vibrance and density it is doubly hard to affect objects of higher rank. Weren’t you aware?”

Jin shook his head - “So if I used a rank 1 flame Gusu on you, will you just feel tickling?”

“It doesn’t work quite like that. If you conjure a flame, even if it is a normal flame, it’ll still hurt you, since what you’re really affecting with the ability is air where the flame is conjured. Only when the ability tries to affect you directly would its effect be dampened by your energy body’s vibrance. Additionally for living things this sort of dampening effect is even stronger. If you use rank 2 Flash Freeze Gusu, it might be easy to freeze rank 1 material, hard to freeze rank 2 material, but it’ll still be impossible to freeze rank 3 material or a rank 1 expert. If you try to Flash Freeze a mortal beast, the effect would be decent.”

“I see, are positive effects also naturally dampened like this?”

Set nodded.

“If you use your rank 1 Beast Strength Gusu when you are rank two, the boost of strength will be weaker than what you are getting now. It doesn’t mean you will get weaker, with each rank the vitality and strength of an expert also rises, but to truly feel a difference you will need to raise the gusu’s rank.”

Jin sunk into thoughts again. This was an important information.

“I bet this is one of those things that is taught in trainee classes.”

“Indeed it is part of the basic curriculum.” - Set smiled.

“But you shouldn’t despair my junior brother, as you can see your magnanimous senior is willing to contribute her exceptionally valuable time to explain such vital information to you.” - Set jeered.

“I wasn’t aware that idling while watching over junior’s refinement is an exceptionally valuable time.”

“What can a senior do when a junior doesn’t understand the value of things.” - Set shook her head..

An hour quickly passed and it was time to start the roast.

Jin started placed the glands over a grate. Then he took some moss over a direct flame, once it fired up he placed it so the rest of the moss catches the fire as well. Finally, placed the grate over the flame.

Within 20 minutes, the fire has gone out.

Jin moved the great to the spot where the bonding will take place. He placed the basalt stone underneath his ankles, and started consuming the glands.

Finally, he entered the aperture.

He looked at a spot towards which the energy was moving. There were yellow and light blue waves slowly centering around, some strings already started weaving a form.

“This is likely going to use some sort of lightning. I wonder if it’s wise to try to physically attack it. Perhaps it’s best to try to use abrasive Gusu to deal damage and additional strength could be used just to help my agility” - thought Jin

The Guardian was beside him, they barely exchanged the nod when Jin entered the aperture.

Finally the form appeared. Jin was half expecting a wolf, but no, it looked more like a porcupine, with dangerously sharp spikes and electric charges coming off of it.

Jin wanted to try something. Maybe he can use fluid Gusu to dampen the porcupine’s needles? They looked like the main offensive weapon of the form.

He approached the beast and once he was close enough, he started using fluid Gusu on the spikes.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work. He wasn’t very surprised. There could be many factors why it was so, he didn’t want to dawdle investigating.

He checked the abrasive Gusu.

He saw some scratches appearing on the Porcupine, but they were too small really to deal any damage.

Again, he wasn’t very surprised. These Gusu wouldn’t be considered almost exclusively for refinement if they were effective in combat.

He could only rely on the irreplaceable Beast Strength Gusu. This porcupine didn’t really want to attack, it was on the defensive. It was exposing it’s back and a thousand sharp needles to threaten Jin. The buzzing sound and occasional discharges between the ends didn’t help Jin’s resoluteness. He was very wary of hitting these spikes, and if he got close, he was sure that the beast would slap those needles right into him.

He tried sidestepping it and other methods to position himself in such a way that he could catch the front of the animal without taking the risk, but inspecting its agility, it was impossible. He needed either a weapon or a shield to take care of this one, and he had neither. He thought of Blade Gusu, stone skin gusu, wall gusu… all these would be greatly useful. Alas, he doesn’t have any, he’ll need to risk it. Risking it might’ve been a wrong word, Jin was quite sure he’s going to be in a lot of pain looking at the porcupine’s countenance.

“Guardian, can you conjure some kind of weapon for me? Shield maybe?”

The boy just smiled and shook his head.

“You should know that is impossible. Don’t worry, you will not die, at most the essence will be depleted. If things get mighty bad I’ll just pull you out so you don’t lose consciousness.” - Kasm reassured.

Jin sighed, he wanted to pull himself out before things get might bad anyway.

He ran at the porcupine and kicked it with all his might. Then, a terrible pain jolted through his body as quills pierced his leg.

Jin opened his eyes. He was not hurting, but he felt the aftermath of the pain and shock in his nervous system. Thankfully, it dissipated very quickly.

His mana essence supply was dry. He recovered it. Apparently he went from “good” state to “mighty bad” in one attack.

Jin sighed, and re-entered his aperture.

“Did it work?” - he asked as Jin didn’t know if he did any damage to the porcupine

“In a sense. The tempering was quite good, but not good enough taking into account the damage you sustained. The good news is, looks like the spikes won’t regrow, and you cleaned up quite a hefty amount. If you target the same spot, perhaps it will not deal as much damage.” - Kasm concluded, as he was still focused on the beast.

Jin looked at the porcupine.It really had a bald spot where he kicked it previously. He nodded.

The porcupine was fully aware that some of its spikes were gone, so it was shifting and rotating itself defensively taking it into account. Jin pounced onto it doing a little sidestep before he actually launched a kick.

That didn’t help much though. He again opened his eyes outside. He recovered the essence and tried again.

[2 stones left]

He thought to just jump on the porcupine and take as many spikes with him as he can, but he discarded the thought. The Guardian told him that at worst he will faint, but he didn’t want to lose who know how much time by trying this tactic. He continued with the previous one, aiming for the bald spots.

This time he managed to do 3 hits before he needed to recover.

He used the rest of the stone, and smiled.

“My dearest senior sister, I am out of essence stones.” - and he reached out both hands to Set, hoping she would acquiesce.

She threw him a sack with 10 stones.

“Thank you senior, I’ll repay them as soon as we meet our beloved master.”

Jin returned to the aperture, and continued his assault. He landed outside twice more, and finally he managed to overcome the beast.

Jin sat down flat in the aperture. At this point, he really felt it. His energy was really consumed today. To the point, where he started thinking that this whole cultivation, training, refining, all this is just not worth it.

Jin rubbed his eyes. He knew it was likely some kind of self preservation instinct kicking it, trying to save him from burning out. Or perhaps his composure was simply slowly degenerated, and all kind of negative thoughts and feelings were free to attack him.

One way or another, he didn’t need to do anything anymore today, much less think of any training of refinement, so he dispersed his thoughts as he shouted.

“GUSU CHEER ME UP!” he called his little friends over, as he needed to recover a little bit of sanity after this masochistic feat.

The gusu came and keenly inspected Jin.

Jin just admired them within his heart for a minute.

It was a little like having your own mini-pet zoo.

Finally, he conjured the Not Gusu and placed it on the porcupine. Unlike the other forms, porcupine wasn’t really that big. It was still way bigger than a normal animal, but nothing like the python, hog or the slime. He’s lack of tools was too apparent though in this matchup. He should’ve gotten the Blade Gusu before jumping into these refinements. That alone would save him a lot of hassle.

Soon, a new little Gusu has joined the band of all the others around Jin. It looked like a chubby green-yellow caterpillar. It had a black column of spikes on its back. An electrical charge would jump between the ends of these spikes.

“Shock, welcome to the family.” - said Jin, grinning.

The caterpillar was inspecting everything curiously, and the other gusu were inspecting it too.

Jin smiled.

“I’m off Guardian, I leave this bunch with you.”

Kasm nodded.

Jin left the aperture.

He opened his eyes and lied down on the spot.

“Senior, you said the cultivators get bonus strength with each rank?”

Set gave him an amused look.

“What about it?”

“I was thinking how nice it’d be if I were carried around for the rest of the day by senior.”

Set smiled.

“Junior, senior is here to educate you about the importance of carrying your own weight.”

A sour smile appeared on Jin’s face.

“I wish at least this damn snake would loosen its grip a little.” - an annoyed hiss was the only response to his plea.

Jin closed his eyes.

The combat with porcupine took an hour and thirty minutes. It was 2pm now. Jin was really exhausted, the stones could restore his essence, but there was a fatigue that wasn’t recovered together with the essence, and he felt a strong need to sleep it off.

[Arrival Day + 9, 2.00pm]

“Junior, what are you planning? Don’t tell me now we’re ready to go and claim completion of the assignment, you’re just going to sleep and make your dear senior wait?” - Set asked straight, a little stumped.

“Senior, I’m just resting my eyes for a few minutes. Have mercy.” - Jin muttered in a sleepy voice

Set didn’t pursue. At least that’s what he thought as his thoughts began drifting away.

And suddenly a bucketful of cold water splashes on him. Jin jerked awake, his senses restored.

“Come on, let’s go. You can take a nap right after. If we go right now we might get a nicer reward for the assignment.” - said calmly Set.

Neither him nor the snake appreciated the gesture. Well, he might as well take a proper bath as he is wet anyway.

“Uhh, give me minute senior, I’m going to freshen myself up.”

“I thought this would freshen you enough, but be it your way. Chop chop junior, hurry it up.” - Jin noticed that Set had no mercy in her heart at all.

Soon, they were on their way to Ma Gu’s house.

Set knocked on the door.

“Come in.” - voice resounded.

She opened the door and Jin followed her in.

There stood Ma Gu, in all his solemnity, though he was a little surprised to see them for a second, but his wits returned to him right after.

“Tea?” Ma Gu asked as they entered the hall.

“With pleasure.” - Jin said, while Set only nodded.

They sat down, Ma Gu was quite a hospitable host, His mood inside his house seemed a tiny bit warmer than what he displayed outside too.

“Show me the Gusu.”

Jin summoned all the 5 Gusu he refined over the last 2 days. Solid Gusu, Fluid Gusu, Vapour Gusu, Abrasive Gusu, and Shock Gusu.

Ma Gu inspected them one by one.

“Success. And a quick one at that. 5 credits for each of you.”

Ma Gu took a sip, and raised his eyebrows.

“I didn’t expect you until tomorrow the earliest. I *do* appreciate the urgency in completing my assignments. Were there no accidents during the refinement?”

“We were quite lucky on that front, everything went rather smoothly.” - Set confirmed.

Ma Gu nodded.

Jin wasn’t actually sure what they were talking about, he didn’t think what they did had much to do with luck, but since they were on that topic…

“Yes master, I think all the luck from this lucky charm has been used up. Perhaps you could consider taking it back?” - Jin said as he petted the snake.

“My pupil, you clearly don’t understand the difference between rank 1 and rank 3 yet. This gusu has much more luck stored than you can comprehend. It’ll be of great help to you, your master is *certain*.” - Jin thought that at least it was worth a try.

“But let me do a little… check up. Just in case. Better safe than sorry.”

The snake let go of Jin, returned to Ma Gu’s hand and disappeared, as it was recalled into the aperture, most likely.

“Master, I actually had multiple blocks along the assignment. All of them were caused by the lack of defensive and offensive Gusu. This caused unintended loses in the essence stones. I ended up borrowing 4 stones from my senior sister. I hope you can repay your pupil’s debt.”

Ma Gu thought for a second.

“4 stones is a small matter. I will add 2 more credits in Set’s name.”

“What did you think of Jin’s performance?” - Ma Gu asked Set.

Set thought for half a minute.

“There weren’t any mistakes within the process but one, overall it went much more smoothly that I expected. I didn’t need to help with anything. The only obvious mistake was not refining or purchasing an offensive and defensive Gusu to help with the rest of refinement, but nobody can call it a clear mistake without knowing another’s economic situation.” - said Set plainly and firmly.

Ma Gu nodded, he seemed satisfied. He sunk into thoughts.

The pair of disciples enjoyed the tea, while waiting for his next words.

“Refinement is a basis for an expert. Without it, every little thing seems like a big obstacle on the cultivator's path. Nobody likes to travel on a bumpy road, and many sturdy cartwheels have been wrecked by nothing but the bumps on the road.” - Ma Gu finally said.

“Now with these Gusu, you’re half a rank 1 refiner, with experience and more knowledge, intuition will start sprouting as well. To be precise, it is my hope that it will sprout, as it is quite an individual thing whether it happens or not. You can’t afford any slack, and must water the seed generously.” - he continued.

“Set, with Flash Freeze Gusu you will be half a step away from rank 2 refiner. I hope you learned from your mistakes during the last competition. Being my pupil, *5th* is a disgrace, not only to you but to *me*.”

Set Nodded.

“I will not disappoint.” - Set said resolutely

Ma gu looked at Jin again.

“Most of the rank 1 recipes should not block you anymore. Refinement is not only Gusu refinement, and you lack a lot of fundamentals. Here’s a booklet, prepared for my pupils. Whoever completes all the exercises and recipes within the booklet is without a doubt a rank 1 refiner. Take it. Every 3 days I want to hear a report on your progress, and if there were to be none, you better have a House head with you when you beg for forgiveness.” - He handed Jin a booklet.

Jin bowed and accepted it.

“The knowledge inside is not secret, if you feel so inclined you are free to share it with anybody within the House. Do *not* share this booklet with anyone else, or sell a copy of it nor any of its contents. Understood?”

“Yes, master.”

Gu nodded.

“Set, see to it that he joins the refinement study, and do keep an eye on him there for the time being as well.” - Set nodded - “Have you gathered the resources for the Flash Freeze Refinement?”

“Nearly sir. I lack less than a hundred stones worth of materials.”

Ma Gu nodded.

“You can visit me tomorrow to claim another assignment then, I’ll have something prepared by then.”

After another moment of silence, Gu spoke to Jin again.

“My friend has started to miss you already. Take good care of it.” - He conjured the snake which slowly climbed itself up Jin’s body.

Jin felt it wrapping around his throat again. He gave him a pet and received an annoyed hiss to which he started getting used to.

“No wonder, we really grew on each other over the past two days.” - Jin said.

“I think this can conclude the report. This assignment is finished. You two may go.” - Ma Gu said, dismissing both of them.

“Wait, master. I need essence stones. I have already used up all of them.”

“Right” - Ma Gu messaged his temple - “Here’s 100 stones, it should last you for a while. I do want you to register all expenses from now on.” - he added.

Both Set and Jin left Gu’s house.

Set whistled. “100 stones just like that. Aren’t you lucky my junior!”

“Senior, you’re happy to point out the wealth but omit the slave’s collar over my neck. That is just not fair towards your junior.”

Set smiled.

“Man sees what he wants to see, you can’t change nature junior brother.”

“Only and only on others my senior sister. No matter how much he doesn’t wish to see it, he cannot miss a collar on his own neck, as it tugs on him and dangles around in constant reminder.” - said Jin, petting the snake. “Not to mention the hissing.”

“Wait for me in front of the Refining Hall tomorrow at 8am, and I’ll help you sign up to a study group. You heard the master, it is not an optional activity for you anymore.”

Jin nodded.

“I’d ask you how it all works, but all I can think of is laying down and falling asleep. I’ll bombard you with questions tomorrow then.”

“You earned your rest, junior. Here’s my building and room number in case you’ll need to contact me in the future. The assignment is over, but you can still make use of our little deal.” - she handed Jin a slip of paper.

“Glad to hear it. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” - Jin smiled.

Set waved and left in her own direction.

Jin found a patch of grass a little distance from the road and entered the aperture there. His Guardian should be soon done with the tempered energy, so it’s best he provides some now.

[Arrival Day + 9, 3.00pm]

Soon, the Guardian appeared.

“Let’s temper some more energy” - proposed Jin

Kasm nodded, as they proceeded to spar.

Jin tried using the charge Gusu, soon the Guardian realised and started doing the same. The additional shock that was coming with a punch had plenty of kick in it. This made the whole process go faster, and Jin also learned how to use the shock Gusu at the same time.

“How did it go?” - asked Jin, curious about the results.

“Good. The speed of tempering has increased greatly. The efficiency also increased, but only slightly. It took 30 minutes now to deplete the essence, and the amount of tempered energy was enough for 4h and 30 minutes instead of four.”

Jin was happy. That means instead of 5 hours of sparring a day, he could get away with 2.5 hours. This was a huge difference.

Jin recovered his essence and sparred again, tempering enough energy for the rest of the day.

Then, he stopped at the trade center. He had three new aperture tenants he needed to feed. The Shock Gusu’s core food were Stormpine’s Laves, Vapour Gusu’s food was the Turnoak Sap, while the Fluid Gusu’s food was Heavy Water. Aside from filling up on these every couple of weeks up to a month, they could be fed almost anything for daily energy.

Stormpine leaves were 2 stones per 50g, Jin bought 200g total. Turnoak sap was 2 stones per 10g, and Jin bought 40g total, while heavy water was 2 stones per 500ml, Jin bought a litre.

Jin gave the clerk a little weird look when he was handed heavy water. It looked just like water from afar, but when he caught the bottle in his hand he knew it was not. One thing was, it really was heavy, and the second, he felt one of his Gusu is hungry for it, so it must’ve been a genuine material.

He spent 20 stones just like that.

He proceeded to feed the Gusu. The caterpillar very meticulously chomped through the pine leaves. The gecko slowly licked up and consumed the sap in an elegant manner. Fluid Gusu, funnily just kind of kneaded the water into itself, bouncing around in a container with it.

After all the gusu were fed, he felt satisfied and sent them back to the aperture.

[Arrival Day + 9, 4.30pm]

It was 4.30pm now. Instead of going to bed at this awkward hour, Jin decided he’ll push through the day.

Now that the gusu were fed, it was time to feed himself. He quickly found himself in the canteen, getting his plate filled up with all sorts of goodies.

He looked around to see if there’s anybody around he know eating their meals. He spotted his favourite pair of siblings. He put on a big smile and joined them, it looked like they were just starting to eat too.

Jin sat down unceremoniously together with them and gave the two of them a greeting wave, after which he started eating.

Both of the siblings were startled by the cobra hanging around his neck.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t bite. It’s not defenseless though, it is rank 3 Gusu after all.” - Jin explained quickly, as he petted the cobra which slowly was stopping hissing at him and was trying to ignore Jin’s antics resulting in some sort of annoyed expression combined with mouth opening and closing multiple times. Jin raised his eyebrows and proceeded with his food after the remark.

“Actually we heard from somebody else that they’ve seen some eccentric student with a cobra wrapped around his neck. I had no idea it had been you. It’s a rank 3 Gusu? How did you get it?”

Jin chuckled.

“Yuan, my naive brother. It’s a rank 3 Gusu, how could I get it? It is not mine, it is my master’s leash that’s supposed to prevent me from getting into too much trouble.”

“Speaking of, I found a solid backer of my own. Thank you for your loan Yuan. He’s your stones back.” - Jin took out and passed Yuan 10 stones.

Yuan nodded and took the stones.

“If you find yourself in need, don’t be shy coming to me seeking help. You know I wouldn’t be.” Jin said with a grin.

Yuan nodded slowly.

“And you found a backer too?” Yuan was a little dumbfounded.. So was Chi.

Jin nodded.

“That is right. you are no longer looking at a country bumpkin. I have risen to the heavens and I must be the most affluent person under rank 2.” Jin grinned as he jeered.

“Congratulations brother. Now I’m afraid that even despite differences in aptitude, it will not be possible to catch up.” - Yuan said after a couple seconds, as he was thinking about these circumstances.

“That might be so, junior brother. Both you and junior sister Chi are close to my heart, so you can feel free to ask for guidance whenever you feel lost.” Jin smiled.

Yuan smiled too, but Chi had a sour expression.

“I’m sure little Chi would be excited for the opportunity, and eagerly make use of it when the time comes.” - Jin added, hoping to get some reaction. To his disappointment, Chi was stoic.

“You guys fixed her up too well. She’s no fun now.” - said Jin plainly with a sigh and continued eating.

Yuan chuckled in response. He looked quite proud of his sister.

They continued to eat for a while.

“What’s happening in trainees’ classes anyway? Anything interesting to share?”

“Not in particular. We’re mostly getting information about the cultivation, Southern Continent, and local area hammered in our heads. There’s some other supplementary classes on non-cultivation related subjects. Other than that, all that’s left is physical training, sparring and mental exercises. It’s still just the start of the 2nd week, I’m sure things will ramp up and become more interesting, be it for the better or the worse.” - Yuan smiled gently.

Jin nodded. Not having an aperture opened really did limit students’ possibilities.

“I wonder if there are some sparring sessions for rank 1 experts. It sounds like a good idea to attend.”

Yuan nodded.

“There are, I’d often see rank 1 students sparring in the Spire area. Not just dragons too. I’m not entirely sure if it was organized through a House, Dragonsort or just the students themselves.”

“I see… there are no mandatory classes for rank 1, and that is likely to give masters as much freedom as they want with their pupils, but that doesn’t mean there are no organized activities.” - Jin pondered aloud. “I should check them out, especially the combat one that you mentioned. I don’t want my junior to keep being able to kick my butt.” - Jin winked at Yuan.

Yuan smiled and flushed a little.

“Now with the Beast Strength Gusu, I doubt I’d be your opponent.”

Jin continued to chit chat with the two, and waved the two goodbye after finishing his meal.

[Arrival Day + 9, 6.00pm]

Jin returned to his lodgings. Shin was sitting there, leafing through a book.

Jin waved.

“Finally found some time to relax?” - Jin smiled.

Shin looked at him. Then looked at the snake.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t bite.” - Jin had put a finger in front of the snake to test it, and although the snake was tempted, it didn’t do anything.

Shin was apparently dumbfounded enough to not let out a word.

“I heard already, but seeing it in person… this snake looks dangerous.”

“Your intuition serves you well - it is dangerous. But in a way, it is also harmless.” Jin smiled. “Give me a minute to freshen up.” - Jin said, as he proceeded towards the bathroom.

After the bath, he lied down on his bed afterwards. It was a long day for him.

“Is it true? About who jailed you?”

“My master. Yes, it is true.” - said Jin with a sour expression.

“I made a deal with him to become my backer. He just doesn’t trust me much, so this is one of his safety pins for this deal.”

Shin was a little even more surprised and just looked at Jin for a while.

“What does it mean? He’s going to back you up more than other pupils now?”

“That’s right. I’m receiving more support and more attention. I’m on a fast track running straight to hell now.” - Jin smiled.

Shin gulped.

“How did I manage to entice him? I’m not quite sure to be honest. Skill, my friend, and dedication is what I’m telling myself. Even the hard to please Ma Gu couldn’t resist my seductions and clever scheming.” - Jin smiled - “Maybe he is just gambling, hoping that my early advancement was not just any fluke. I really have no clue what’s going through that man’s mind, but all said and done, I am happy I have his attention.” Jin smiled.

“...” - Shin didn’t exactly know how to respond to that.

Shin sighed.

He closed his book, and started staring at the ceiling.

“I might be a little jealous.” - muttered Shin

Jin smiled.

Jin chuckled.

“You’re looking at it wrong, my friend.” - Jin said sleepily, as he began drowsing off. “Your roommate getting attention from a master might spell good things for you too. And without reducing yourself to being Ma Gu’s slave, nor any other hassle associated with it.” - he closed his eyes - “I am utterly defeated for the day, wish me sweet dreams of freedom.”

Shin chuckled.

[Arrival Day + 9, 10.00pm]

*Knock* *Knock*

Jin sleepily opened his eyes.

*Knock* *Knock*

He realized that somebody was knocking, and he unknowingly jolted awake.

“Who in the seven hells…” - thought Jin. If he had more control over his own body, he’d ignore the knocks and keep on sleeping. That was difficult now that he was awake.

He opened the door.

Nobody was there.

Is this a prank? Jin craned his head outside the doorframe to see if he can find a prankster.

“BOO!” - It was Eru. He is the prankster.

Jin got jumpscared and he was totally awake now. Now, Jin couldn’t be angry. He had to admit Eru got him good.

“Well played, sir. Well played.” - Jin muttered.

Eru was beaming with his Eru aura, as usual.

“Newbie, I heard some interesting things but somehow didn’t manage to bump into you since. It is only natural that I come and check up on you personally.”

Jin grinned.

“Are you a fan of snakes, Eru? I have an especially cuddly one right here. Jin closed in the distance between them, trying to shove the snake as close to Eru as possible.”

Eru involuntarily moved back and back, up into the windowed wall. To add to the effect, the cobra wasn’t at all happy with Jin’s attempt and started hissing angrily.

“My bad, my bad, I apologize for that jump scare.” - Eru admitted defeat with his hands up.

Jin waved and invited Eru in. Shin was gone again at this point.

“I’ve become awfully popular thanks to that snake, you know.”

Jin started.

Eru laughed. “Haha, who can blame our fellows in showing a little curiosity with a bauble like that around your neck. And it is our rank 1 newbie, who skipped his preparation stage altogether, earning a whopping amount of credits the first day he landed in the House.”

Jin sighed. “Fair is fair.”

“No time for sighing. I don’t come empty handed.” Eru said, smirking. “I think I have your transformation student.”

Jin’s mouth opened.

“Really?”

“Jian Risu. I am almost certain. I’ve found out she’s been practicing Navy Mistdwell transformation recently, and in general she’s a bit of a lizard, wyvern and dragon lover. She’s rather short, blonde hair, usually sporting a ponytail. Fit. She’s a rank 2 student under Ren Song.”

Jin was rubbing his chin as he was digesting this information. He couldn’t really remember ever seeing this person, but he might take a lookout sometime in near future. Jin grinned at the thought of his petty revenge.

“That is a very interesting piece of information to me. Anyway you want me to return the favour?” - Jin asked straightforwardly.

Eru waved. “I found out about it mostly by accident, and also because of my own curiosity. Don’t worry, there likely will be a time when I will nag you for a favour - if you still feel indebted in any way at time, feel free to entertain it.” - He smiled as he was finishing.

Jin nodded.

“Now, what do you think I should do regarding the transformation senior?”

Eru thought for a couple seconds.

“Make friends?” - Eru finally said, grinning. “It is up to you - but don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Jin chuckled.

“I have to be on my way now, good luck newbie!” - Eru said as he opened the door and left the room.

Jin still had a smile on his face. It was hard for him not to like Eru. Even when he wakes you up in a middle of your well deserved sleep.

Jin still felt tiredness, so for now he jumped back to his bed.

[Arrival Day + 10, 3.30am]

Jin woke up a couple hours before the sunrise. It was 3.30am right now.

It was quite some time since he took such a full rest. Altogether he must’ve slept almost 10 hours.

Jin stretched and took the bath, and started organizing his next steps.

His priorities would be:

Tempering his energies. Starting on Ma Gu’s Refinement Booklet. Join the refinement study - Jin pondered how that would go. Borrowing the books from the long list Ma Gu has given him at the time he struck a deal with him, and slowly going over them in spare time. Getting combat oriented Gusu, both offensive and defensive. Finding out about other study groups to see which ones suit him.

He wondered how organized the study sessions that Ma Gu mentioned are. Aside from refinement and combat, there ought to be one for herbology, formations, artificing and that’s likely just scratching the bottom of the barrel. It’d be good to at least visit some of them, and see what they are about.

Jin started the day by sparring with Kasm. With 6 Gusu inside, the aperture didn’t look as empty as before.

Kasm had a little disgruntled expression though.

“You’re late.” - he announced. “I’m done with a tempered energy for a while now.”

Jin scratched the back of his head.

“I overslept. Truth be told, the last two days seemed to have put a toll on me. Was there no way for you to wake me up?”

Kasm shook his head.

“At the moment, at most I can nudge you, and you should have no problems believing that it was not enough.” Kasm grinned. “We should temper more energy on sessions now that we’re more efficient.”

Jin raised his brows.

“How much tempered energy can be stored anyway?”

“It starts losing its quality after around 72 hours.”

Jin nodded.

“You’re right then. We shouldn’t ever be depleted if this much can be stored. We can slowly add to the bank and then make sure it never drops below a day’s worth.”

[Arrival Day + 10, 6.00am, 100 stones, 7 credits, 32h energy]

The energy was tempered for the whole day and then a little more, the tempering took around 3.5 hours and it was 6am now.

13 stones were spent just on recovering his essence reserves.

Jin took a bath again, and started studying Ma Gu’s refinement booklet.

It was in a hand-down state, and likely it had more than just a couple previous owners.

The booklet consisted of many recipes, starting with potions. For each recipe, there were exercises for the student to complete. The goal of exercises was to create a modified version of potion.

Jin looked through the potion list.

Salve Potion Cleanse Potion Constitution Potion Strength Potion Vitality Potion Relaxation Potion Growth Potion Heatscan Potion Stoneskin Potion Paswall Potion

Apparently, these were common rank 1 potions. The recipes were of varying complexity, but none of them were half as intricate as refining Gusu. It was in completing the exercises where the challenge lied.

Jin looked at the modifications for the Salve potion. The first one was to remove one of the ingredients, while still maintaining at least 50% of the potion’s efficacy.

Jin furrowed his brows. The task did not seem complex, but it definitely was of different nature than just following the recipe. And he knew very well that this was not a matter of finding a recipe for a “lesser salve”. It was about understanding what he was doing - well, that might be too much, maybe “starting to understand” was a better expression.

Jin immediately held the little booklet in higher regard. He also came to realize that being a refiner, even a rank 1 refiner, was quite different from just being an expert who only manages to follow recipes.

Jin looked at the recipe. It wasn’t very complex, but it differed quite significantly from the Gusu recipes he followed earlier.

Rank 1 Salve Potion

Materials Per portion:

100ml Crystal Water

5g Bluestam Bulb pollen

12g Levander flowers

12g Spearmint leaves

2g Aquamarine

Steps:

Put in Levander and Spearmint leaves into the Crystal Water.

Take out the leaves after 2 hours.

Powder the aquamarine and put it inside the concoction.

On a day or night of the full moon, put in the Bluestam Bulb pollen into the mixture.

What made it awkward, is this recipe indeed had a time requirement, it seemed to only work - or at least work best when the final step was done on the full moon night.

Jin pondered over the recipe in context of the exercise. He took his material encyclopedia, and investigated the ingredients.

Bluestam Bulb pollen and Crystal Water were rank 1 materials. Bluestam Bulb had strong healing properties on its own, so it must be the most active ingredient of the potion. Crystal Water is used in a lot of potions of the same grade. It is a good absorber of many kinds of plant properties. Lavender and Spearmint were quite common herbs, with some medicinal benefits, though they are not strong on their own. And then finally, aquamarine. Jin looked it up and it is supposedly had a cleansing effect, but it’s impossible for Jin to know how it really interacts with rest of the materials, and what is its precise role.

After checking, Jin had more questions than answers, but he knew the next logical step would be to concoct the potion. He will get more insight from that. Actually, the more variants he’ll concoct, the more insight he will be able to get. This would be sort of cheating the first exercise, but that’s not as important, it is only with experience he will get a better intuition on how different elements play with each other in making of a potion.

He remembered the multitude of steps that were required for Gusu refinement, all the queer methods of ingesting the materials and finally how energies were forming. Who in the hell of heaven could come up with this sort of thing and make any sense of it? Jin was totally dumbfounded when thinking about it. Respect was the wrong word, perhaps reverence was more apt to relate to the figures who tamed the art of refinement.

Jin started to feel as if he was facing the tallest of mountains. He started feeling the pressure of what it actually takes to reach anywhere in the refinement. He didn’t even know how far the rabbit hole goes, what sort of exotic and advanced refinement rituals could one perform, without any knowledge or feeling for what is really going on. What makes it work. These were two completely different dimensions.

Jin laughed, and his gaze sharpened. Some realization has already entered him, and it was a good step forward. There’s no need to feel the weight of all he will need to learn in the future. He has a master who will guide him, step by step. So long he doesn’t trip, he can slowly scale the mountain. His path needs not be difficult, after all, the pathway has already been carved by the predecessors, so he can safely use it without stumbling upon roadblocks.

[Arrival Day + 10, 7.30am, 87 stones, 7 credits, 30.5h energy]

Jin lost track of time, he’s supposed to meet up with Set in half an hour in front of the refinement hall. He freshened up, while he had the means, and moved out.

While still in the stormy peak area, he noticed a swinging, blonde ponytail crossing his path a little in front of him.

“Hey!” - Jin yelled, as he started jogging towards the person.

“Hey, wait up!” - he yelled again, as there was no response.

The girl turned towards him. She was a little shorter than Jin, though she seemed to be quite a bit more fit than him, with more pronounced musculature while still being very lean. She also had a rank 2 broach clasped around her waist.

She had a certain weight to her movement, and her expression was stoic, rather than just calm. She definitely was giving off a feeling of confidence in her skills, and Jin also instinctively knew that this person is not to mess with.

Jin gave off a surprised look.

“Senior, my apologies, I thought it was somebody I knew.” - Jin explained and bowed immediately.

“No issue.” - the girl replied shortly, her voice having the same stoic quality as her countenance.

“Excuse me then.” - Jin bowed again, and directed himself back towards the refinement hall.

He couldn’t be sure, but he had a feeling that this is the person Eru was talking about - the transformation student that got in Jin’s way a couple times earlier. Jin couldn’t pick up on any cues that’d suggest that the girl had recognized him. He also couldn’t think of a good excuse to ask her for a name. It might have been just another person fitting the pretty vague description - but if he was correct, then he can forget about teaching her a lesson in a direct manner. He actually felt that he got off quite easy, if this person really wanted to bully him, he’d be way worse off than he ended up being.

There’s no use overthinking it anyway, he hadn’t had a problem with the troublemaker for a good 3 days now. All that being said, it’s better to know how your enemy looks rather than not, so this wasn’t wasted effort in Jin’s book.