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Chapter 39: Just Rewards
🕑 Added 2023-07-19 07:00:04 +0000 UTCThe honor commissary was a square building seemingly cut from a single giant piece of granite. There were no windows, save a series of arrow slits. As far as Ren could tell, there was just the one door—also stone.
A pair of armored military guards flanked either side of the entrance. Ren flashed his merit badge, and they nodded him past. He pushed. As it turned out, stone doors were heavy. But he managed. The inside didn’t quite match the exterior.
He’d expected a dark, cold cave. Instead, he was greeted by the steady light of aether bulbs and carpeted walkways that snaked through neat wooden shelves and display racks containing all manner of scrolls, jars, bags, armor, and gleaming weapons. A goateed and wiry man, gray except where white was coming in, sat behind a counter.
“Badge,” said the man, looking up from a book.
Ren passed his badge across the counter.
“Hmmmm.” The man pushed up his spectacles and set the badge on a metallic construct built into the desk. It glowed briefly. “You’ve got four points to spend.”
“Four? I thought I only earned three.” Ren cursed himself. What kind of fool complained about having extra?
“Hmmmmm,” the man hummed once again. It was a whiny sound, and Ren didn’t envy the commissar’s habit. He had the air of one whose boredom was at constant war with their annoyance. “Three for the trials. One for a score over ninety in the selection.”
“Thank you.” Ren started to bow, but decided to salute instead.
The commissar just looked at him with dead eyes before turning back to his desk to sort through some papers.
It would have been nice to have someone to share his excitement with, but–as the saying went–a man takes the world as it is. Ren practically hopped past the desk, pocketing his badge as he went.
The place was well organized, weapons by type on the west end, then the armor. Ren ran his hands along the different grades of chainmail, rapped his knuckles on a shining breastplate. Shelves of rucksacks; water skins that wouldn’t freeze, or that would keep the water cool no matter the heat; bandoliers and belts of many pouches; healing herbs; high grade rations of spirit beast jerky; pills of awakening; fifty-year-old nine star fruit; rings that did everything from generate an air barrier against projectiles, to softening the impact of a fall, to sharpening the senses. There was even a ring that made it harder to move the body and spirit for training. Aisles and aisles of scrolls and booklets—fighting styles, combat and movement techniques, spirit arts, affinity guides, path manuals, tactical treatises. In the back corner was a collection of what looked like paper slips with precise calligraphy and strange patterns painted on them. Talismans according to the sign above.
He made his way back to the techniques aisle and pulled out a scroll on the Soaring Phoenix Step. At six merits, he couldn’t afford it, but he was curious. And, of course, it was sealed with wax.
He went back to the weapon racks. According to the dangling white and red tags labeling marked down prices, the swords were on sale this week for those graduating from basic training and ready for a non-standard sidearm. A stack of tablets sat on a table by the rack under a sign.
Made to Order - Custom Swords built to fit your body type and martial style. Take tablet to attendant for more information. Cost 3 - 30 merits.
Tempting, but he didn’t have a martial style beyond the basic strokes. Besides, a sword wouldn’t do much good for a forester.
As Ren turned away, a glimmer caught his eye—an ornate short sword with pommel shaped like a roaring dragon holding a ruby in its mouth and mystical symbols etched into the spine of the blade. Usually six merits, today, only four.
Ren’s eyes widened. But the image of himself slicing through a horde of barbarians quickly faded, replaced by a pile of gold. How much could he get for that sword? He could cut years off the debt. Who knew when or if he’d ever get more merits.
Azam’s words echoed in his head. ‘Think long term,’ he’d said.
Long term. What would help him distinguish himself? If Azam was really a captain of the scouts, Ren might not be stuck as a forester. He just had to follow the right path. This choice could be the key that turned everything around.
Ren returned to the shelves and found a display he’d missed previously. On the shelf was a pile of satchels. They were simple, which was how he’d glossed over them previously, but that simplicity belied the fact that they were containers for a much greater treasure.
Cultivation Start-up Kit — Everything you need to take you from awakening your dantian to core formation. Included: Golden Awakening Pills and Guide, 1 week personal mentorship, Cultivator Combatant License, Choice of Manual: Yellow Sun Spear, Yellow Sun Sword, or Yellow Sun Axe. Cost 10 Merits (marked down from 30 for those graduating from Basic)
That was the prize kit for finalists in the trials! But he couldn’t afford it even with the discount.
According to his uncle’s note, more of the Broken Path manual would be available to him once he formed a core. Ren scoured the aisle for something he could afford that might help. Golden Awakening Pills, which, according to the signs, contained enough Qi to flood the dantian and provide an opportunity to form a core (though the sign was careful to point out that this was not a guaranteed outcome), cost four merits a piece on their own—and that didn’t even include the guide on how to use them which was an additional two merits. Given that even with the guide an awakening wasn’t guaranteed, the odds didn’t look good if he just popped a pill and ‘tried his best’.
More searching led him to a dusty top shelf directly above the starter kit display, and the sealed booklets that sat upon it. Empyrean Three Chamber Breathing Manual. Core formation resource. 2 Merits (usually 6). There were only two on the shelf, and Ren had to stand on his toes just to tickle one down with a coaxing finger. It wasn’t particularly big compared with other manuals he’d seen, but it said ‘core formation’ on it.
Unable to find one of the attendants mentioned on so many signs, he took the book to the commissar.
“Excuse me, sir.” Ren saluted.
The man sighed and ran his eyes across the page he was reading a few times before putting his book down on the desk with a finger plastered to the page to keep his place. “At ease. Just so you know, custom blades are on backorder and won’t be ready for at least four months, and the starter kit prices are non-negotiable.” The man was a master of blending into his voice a perfect balance of authority, annoyance, and disregard. “Does that answer your question?”
Ren dropped his salute and held up the manual. “No sir. I was actually going to ask about this.”
The commissar looked around the desk and selected a scrap of paper which he carefully placed under the word he’d left off at. Pushing up his glasses, he reached out and took the book. “Where did you find this?”
“Um- I found it on the top shelf at the end of the aisle with the starter kits. Just above the display.”
The man frowned. “I haven’t seen one of these in a long time. My records say…” He flipped through the pages of a giant tome full of tables. “Nine months! These spirit-touched attendants can’t do a damn thing right.”
Ren didn’t know what to say, so he said, “Oh, so there are actual attendants.”
That earned him a sharp look. “So, what is the question?”
“Um- What exactly is it?”
“A breathing technique for cultivation. Can’t you read? I swear, the recruits these days.”
“I mean, it says it’s for core formation on the shelf label, but all the other manuals I saw had more information and required other resources to work. Do I need a special pill or anything?”
“Oh, a real question.” The commissar closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair for a minute. “Ah, yes, I’ve got it. This is an old empyrean technique that draws ambient Qi from the lungs and compresses it to build a core. It even works to grow the core once formed. But we stopped producing this particular manual because it is so unpopular. It is very slow, and requires a much higher level of Qi control than the standard methods available. Most of the volume is probably a broad overview of attunement theory and meditation, since the technique itself is supposed to be rather simple.” A twinkle appeared in his eye as he spoke. “I remember reading somewhere that this technique was foundational for many paths trained by the Red Dragon military because it could be used with almost any Qi source. That was, of course, ideal for their fighting forces since the old empyrean martial paths traditionally advanced based on affinity rather than alchemical resources and spirit bonding as we do here in modern day Ardus. It made sense since every warrior trained in cultivation from their first steps—or so the romanticized accounts claim.” The man seemed to return to himself, snapping his mouth shut before shoving the book toward Ren and turning back to his own, carefully replacing the placeholder slip with his finger.
Ren struggled not to hold the book too tight and risk damaging the text in his excitement. He still had two merits remaining.
Irah had said that there were no combat techniques in his manual, so that was probably the best thing to look for next.
To his dismay, there was no secret shelf hiding an affordable manual for a full martial art. But a few single techniques were in his price range. As much as it pained him, anything that involved swords or spears or battleaxes or some obscure and exotic close quarters weapon wasn’t likely to help him as a forester, so he discounted all of those.
After about an hour of deliberation, he was down to three options.
Falling Star Archery- Elemental Arrow Technique. Can be adapted to match various elemental affinities.
Silver Fox Meditation - Maximize observation and interpretation of sensory data. Part of the lost Silver Fox style, specializing in finding and exploiting weaknesses in prey.
Leaping Lynx Movement- Movement technique for rapid ascent and descent of trees and vertical structures. Includes foundation building exercises for tree running.
To his personal taste, the arrow technique and the movement technique were definitely the most exciting. But from talking to Gunney, he had a sense that most of his time would be spent reading and interpreting signs in the wild and tracking prey, not leaping from branch to branch, firing off shining elemental arrows at Aether Beasts.
Silver Fox Meditation it was.
Comments
lmao, no idea how i missed this one!
tethra
After about an hour of deliberation, he was down to four->three options.
