The agency doesn't look impressive from outside—more like a dilapidated inn a mere two stories high. The interior has a counter with dozens of alcoholic drinks in refrigerators behind it, turning the inn into a bar. Brown, plushy chairs line the walls, and in the one closest to the door is a cute little girl with a twin ponytail hairstyle. Intriguingly, she's reading a book I enjoyed a couple of years ago, describing the locations, tendencies, flight patterns, and attack methods of various winged demonic creatures in China. As I walk up to her, she doesn't even raise her head.
"Are you here to commission a task? We only accept payments of at least 300,000 yuan, and further pricing will be evaluated upon assessing the difficulty of the mission."
"... No. I believe Dean Xiao gave you a call about Yang Jianyu? That's me."
"I don't receive calls. Wait here, I'll go get my grandpa. He manages the agency."
She doesn't even mark the page she's reading as she walks up the stairs in a room behind the bar; judging by her adult-like manner of speech, she's intelligent enough to memorize it.
She brings back an elderly man smoking a pipe. He removes it from his mouth. "So this is the young lad Dean Xiao recommended. What a rare sight, a Mage willing to carry a large bow and quiver of arrows around. With short swords strapped to his waist, no less."
"I've got to compensate for my Elements somehow: Light and Water don't deal much damage, unfortunately."
The girl immediately looks disdainful. "Light and Water? Swords and a bow? Grandpa, why are we accepting this bumpkin from the stone age who lucked into becoming an Intermediate Mage? Dean Xiao's brain must have become addled with time."
He gives her a severe look and chides, "Lingling, you are still inexperienced. There must be more to him than meets the eye, and there's certainly a lot that meets the eye."
"Hmph!"
The old man looks at me apologetically. "I'm the president of Clearsky Hunter Agency, surnamed Bao. Call me Old Bao. Forgive my daughter, she's precocious and arrogant because she has a little more knowledge than others her age."
"There's nothing to forgive. I'm not one to bear a grudge against a little kid."
She bristles at the "little kid" remark, about to let loose another scathing retort, but the door opens, interrupting her. A young lady rushes in; she's clothed from top to bottom with rich wear. She glances at Lingling and I, choosing to direct her attention at Old Bao. He points her at the commission registration forms on the table. She quickly fills one out and hurries back to us.
"Please, help me! My husband has become a monster, and I don't know what to do! Every night, he goes out to kill someone."
He squints his eyes. "Did you see him transform? Did you see him kill anyone? Or is this just suspicion?"
She becomes frustrated. "Well, no, but this morning when I washed my husband's clothes, a piece of skin soaked in blood dropped out from his pocket. I was once a nurse so I can differentiate between animal skin and human skin."
"I find it doubtful you'd be here to report this if he really is a monster."
"I really have no idea either! He looks normal during the day, and I rushed here quickly after lying to him that I was going for a facial in the beauty salon. Mister, you have to help me! I can no longer tell if my husband is still my husband or not; his monster side might have won over already. My four year old child is still at home! I wanted to take him back to my parents to hide, but as soon as I brought this topic up, my husband's eyes turned red and thank heavens that I changed my idea right in time. I still have to go back tonight, or I'm afraid that my children will…"
"Have you asked the police?"
"No, I don't think they'll be helpful. Could you assign a Hunter to protect my child overnight? I'll pay immediately."
"I'm afraid all our Hunters are out on important missions at the moment."
Her face turns nasty, having come all the way here for nothing. "You… You all are heartless! Even if I become a ghost, I won't forgive you!" She rushes out the door with tears on her distraught face.
As the door slams shut, I inquire, "Why not take the commission? She seems in need of help."
Old Bao taps his pipe. "Young man, things aren't always what they seem."
"Quit it with the mysterious act; she displayed no signs of deceit. Her pain was legitimate. What information do you possess that I lack?"
He sighs. "Can't you young ones humor an old man like me?" Begrudgingly, he slides a sheet of paper to me. It contains the address of a request made by a man to protect his child earlier in the day. The payment is already made: 300,000 yuan.
[Wait, that's the same address as what she filled out on the form…]
I'm stumped for a moment, but then I suddenly understand the situation.
"So the wife wants to protect her child from her husband, but the husband wants to protect his child from his wife."
He lets out a puff of smoke triumphantly. "Precisely. An interesting request, much better than the boring ones people usually come to us with."
"Then why not just take the wife's money? She did ask for a Hunter to keep the child safe, not necessarily her as well. It's free cash for doing the same task."
"Ah, you see… never mind that for now. Why don't you handle this commission to get yourself acquainted with how things work here?"
[... So either he's messing with me or he was too caught up in his posturing to realize. ]
"Sure, I guess. Do I get a team?"
"Yes, your partner is right behind you."
[Lingling?]
I turn around in disbelief.
"Our Clearsky Hunter Agency usually sends a single person or two partners to complete a mission. Lingling's previous partner died while cooperating with people from the Magic Association, so that's why we accepted you."
"Does she have some unfathomable combat power? What are her strengths? Because if she can't handle herself in combat, why on earth would I bring a little kid to fight demonic beasts?!"
She sniffs in derision. "It's me who's taking a rookie with me to hunt monsters." She fishes out a Hunter's badge from her pocket. It shows the insignia of a Hunter Master.
[Huhhhh????]
Unbelievable. I'm an Advanced Hunter less than an eighth of the way to ranking up to a Hunter Master, yet a prepubescent little girl has gotten there before me.
"We'll meet at the couple's home in the evening around 6."
I compose myself. "Got it."
…
…
The address is in a wealthy residential district just south of Pearl Institute. I enter the tall apartment building with over 20 floors. Reaching floor 13, I find Lingling waiting near the client's doors.
"You're late; I already set up cameras there. Let's watch things unfold from a safe distance on the roof."
[A kid? Breaking and entering? How did she even do it, by picking the locks? Unbelievable.]
We head to the top of the building; it's gushing with chilly wind. She sits down on the edge and pulls out a laptop and a lollipop, displaying the cameras' feedback on the laptop and popping the lollipop into her mouth.
We wait.
The lady informs her husband and child, "I'm going to take a bath."
Lingling frowns and shuts off the bathroom video display.
[Seriously?]
"Please don't tell me you powered off the display for the reason I'm thinking of."
"Seeing her naked body is hardly a necessity; we'll probably hear something if anything awry occurs," she sniffs in disdain.
I snort, raising my hands up in acquiescence. "You got it. Let's just wait here, blind as bats."
She harrumphs. "I won't let you feast your eyes on her figure. We can tell what's happening from audio just fine."
I don't bother responding, which seems to rile her up.
"You know, countless young men and women appear at our doorstep trying to get employed at our agency. Any of them would be inconceivably grateful to be partnered with me. You are a replaceable Intermediate Mage lacking offensive Elements. I am not."
I smirk. "Are you irreplaceable because of your own skills? Do they desire you because they're aware of your excellent reputation? Or do they just want to be part of the agency, and see dragging around a little kid to be worth the trouble?"
She finally has nothing to say, her face contorting as she tries to think of a counterargument but fails. Sullen, she turns the video feed back on.
[Perhaps I was a little harsh.]
"Hey, I'm sorry. That was uncalled for; it's not a big deal anyway. My original intent to have you display the video turned into questioning your qualifications. I apologize."
She sniffles, evidently holding back tears. "Don't bother. Everyone treats me like a child, like someone who doesn't belong in a mission involving danger."
"Look- RRHRTTTPHH"
My attempt at reconciliation is interrupted by the sound of something tearing.
[Damn, so the transformation wasn't silent after all. I'm a loser.]
This isn't the time to dwell on my mistakes, though. Lingling flicks the video back on to reveal a lady shedding her human skin, unveiling slimy scales underneath. She immediately crashes out of the bathroom wall to who knows where. Fuck.
"It's alright, the important thing is to secure the child! What if the dad's also a monster? You've got to save the kid!"
She's right. To her shock, I jump off the side of the building, counting the floors as I fall. I use Shadow Evade: Traverse to jump from my non-illuminated position (it's the new moon) into the shadows between lights on the 13th floor. I dash to the client's door, slice off its hinges, and break in to find the dad already shedding his skin and a little boy shivering in the corner. I don't know whether the transformation is reversible, so I'm at a loss on whether to attack or not. Its lizard-like head with 3 yellow eyes is revealed after he tears off his face, and I decide to at least immobilize it.
I slice at its tendons before it fully breaks free of its human skin, forcing it to fall to the ground. Since it seems like a dark and demonic creature, I try casting Illuminate: Cleanse, amplified 3 times by my Light Spirit, shooting rays of light into its mouth and over its body. It starts shrieking in agony and tears off its own scales, no doubt giving the kid nightmares for years, but then he'd already have those from his parents morphing into demonic beasts. The purification works, leaving a naked middle-aged man lying on the floor amidst lizard flesh and scales.
I call the police to send an ambulance for him, since he seems weak and disoriented. Not taking any chances, I scoop the kid up and take the elevator back up to Lingling. She looks at me, bedazzled.
"I didn't take my granddad seriously when he said there was more to you than meets the eye, but I was completely wrong. I didn't think you had 3 Elements."
[What? Oh, fuck me.]
In the interest of time, I had forgotten that among the Intermediate Mages, only Shadow Mages would attempt such a daring maneuver as leaping off the edge of a building, and I'd already told her I had Light and Water.
I guess revealing this doesn't matter if she's bound to be a long-term partner; it's better that we're familiar with each other's skills.
"Indeed I do, and I don't think I need to remind you not to tell anyone."
"You certainly don't. I'm well aware of how a lot of strong organizations operate: anyone with an excellent Innate Talent, they either recruit them or try to eliminate them."
"Exactly. Anyway, I brought the kid with me in case his dad somehow turns back into a monster. Come with me, I'll take both of you to Clearsky."
She yelps as I place her on my back, likely uncomfortable due to the strapped bow and quiver. It's only for a moment, anyway. I again leap off the building, and she shrieks, losing all composure. The kid is even worse when I go back up to take him down; he faints immediately. We safely land in the shadows next to some bushes, and I set him on the ground. We then take a taxi back to Clearsky.
Thankfully, our smooth cooperation under stress eroded her dislike of me; the atmosphere in the taxi remains harmonious and not tense.
…
…
"Old Bao, we've fulfilled the commission's requirements, protecting the boy. Unfortunately, the mother demon escaped, and we have no idea where she went."
"Satisfactory work. Will you both continue, trying to find the mother?"
"I feel a moral responsibility to, since it escaped under my watch, but I have no idea how. This isn't the jungle where each tree along a creature's trail leaves evidence of its presence; if something disappears into the city, I have no way of tracking it without information to guess where it might be."
Lingling clears her throat. "Ahem. That's why you have me. I'm Mission Control; you're the superhero. I find things and tell you about them, you kill them. Let me handle this, you can go back to Pearl Institute. I'll call you if anything comes up."
"I suppose you may be far better at finding monsters in a city than I am; I've got no technical knowledge. Good luck."
I head to Pearl Institute for a well-deserved rest.
…
…
Next day, in the afternoon, my Water and Shadow Stardusts brighten, leveling up to the 2nd tier. An hour later, my phone rings.
"Hey, what dorm are you staying in? I'm coming over; I've made lots of progress."
…
…
A twin-tailed girl enters my room as nighttime approaches. She pops open her laptop to reveal a map of Shanghai, and zooms in on Pearl Institute.
"I've researched the blood on the shed skin to create a biometric tracker of sorts. In a previous mission, I programmed my laptop to send pulses around the city that pick up on specific DNA sequences, and I've got a USB here with the sequences of the monster dad's blood, not his human blood. If a target's DNA matches it above a certain threshold, we can be 99% sure it's the mother phantom. Once I plug it in, a red dot will appear where it is!"
[No wonder she's a Hunter Master. I might be knowledgeable on creatures, magic, and survival, but coming up with something like this is beyond me.]
"Incredible. You're incredible!"
She swells with pride as she puts the USB stick into the port, but immediately deflates, confused. Hundreds of dots show up, all around us, and not just one.
"Is there a bug in the program?" I tentatively ask.
"No, it worked perfectly in the past, and I fed it all kinds of DNA with no problems…"
"Then FUCK ME! This parasitic transformation is spreading like a disease! Wait, why are all the dots in the girl's dorms and not the guy's?"
"The mother demoness must prefer young female Mages as targets and therefore camped out at Pearl Institute, since I don't see any other dots in the city. Hold on, this means she's hiding somewhere in the girl's dorms or in the school grounds. Also, all the dots seem to be converging at one location. Is there some event happening?"
"I think there's a concert in the school's auditorium that Zhao Manyan told me about."
"Oh, no, the students are in danger! I've investigated the blood and figured out how the parasitism works because the mother is just a variant of a known species. Essentially, the mother demoness will transfer some of its DNA into the girl's bloodstream, usually by licking an open wound. Then, a Parasitic Demon Bug forms from the cells transformed by the DNA and hides in the girls' left thumbs. After the mother triggers its transformation (I haven't found out how that's done), the bug merges back into the girl and forms into what the dad was: a Scaled Skin Phantom unable to infect others."
"That's all good and well, but how should I handle them? I was afraid of hurting the dad, and I can't promise a good outcome if I'm surrounded by dozens of similar creatures."
"You don't need to worry about hurting the person when killing it; after it suffers fatal injury, the parasite dies, and the human body gets healed as it sheds the outer scales and flesh. Just don't slice off any body parts; try to stab."
"Got it. Cut open the girl's left thumb if she hasn't transformed, and stab her through the head or heart if she has. Alternatively, hit her with a Light spell. Do that for hundreds of girls in the midst of the audience… this doesn't seem feasible."
"I know, but try to help at least some of them for now. I'll notify the Hunter Union about the threat; they'll send people to the stadium. Here, take this earpiece. I'll guide you to each girl."
"Sure."
…
…
I make my way to the first target in the dark of night. It's in the entrance to the stadium, about 20 meters away. Easy kill. I draw back an arrow and fire at it; I can see it clearly because the Shadow Element offers night vision as a passive effect. The arrow veers off into its shoulder, although I was aiming at its heart.
Those two months of practice were enough for me to consistently hit vital regions from a distance of around 50 meters given the target doesn't dodge, since my hand eye coordination is impeccable. Unfortunately, I'm not used to the mechanics of this bow yet—its drawstring is too stiff. That's good for when I'm an Advanced or Super Mage since I'll be able to use all my strength to nock an arrow, but it's hampering my accuracy right now. I'll have to practice more.
The Scaled Skin Phantom hisses at the unexpected pain, claws at the hidden arrow until it becomes visible, and then removes it. In the meantime, I'm already firing another 2, one aimed at its chest and the other slightly to the left where I think it'll dodge. I didn't have to worry; the first one pierces its heart. I underestimated the "hide the arrow" effect of the bow; it's incredibly potent.
The creature dies and tears off its scales, revealing a nude, slimy girl underneath.
"Water…" she rasps, her lips chapped. I cast Water Defense: Guard to summon a wall of water, and she starts gulping it down before it disappears.
"Tha…nk… you." She manages to express her gratitude before falling unconscious.
Lingling's voice buzzes, "Leave her there and cover her with some cloth. The Hunter Union will handle the victims we save."
Seeing no curtains or any protective covering nearby, I take off my shirt and wrap it around her. She's petite, luckily, so it reaches all the way down to her thighs, covering her sensitive parts.
I continue moving into the building.
…
…
"To your left, there's a room with another one."
I slash a rectangle-shaped hole in the wall and step through, instantly spotting the mother demoness hanging a girl against the wall by her wrists, which happen to be slit. It seems to have just finished licking the wound, and it escapes through the door. I decide to help the girl first by cutting open her thumb while she's still dazed: a tiny bug wriggles its way out. I crush it beneath my foot. She slowly regains her mental faculties and her face contorts in horror and pain.
"Ewwwww! I can't believe that thing was in me! Thank you for saving me! I'm Bai Tingting."
She heals her wrists with a Basic Healing spell, glances at my face, and then focuses on my body, gasping in horror.
"What… what happened to you? There's so many scars all over your chest, that nasty one on your forearm, everywhere."
[Oh, I forgot about this.]
I had taken off my shirt, forgetting the reason I usually wore long sleeves and loose sweatpants here: my heavily scarred body was bound to attract attention. I really need to visit the Parthenon; their magic can erase scar tissue.
"Now is not the time. Since you're a Healer, can you take care of the students I leave in my wake? I'm heading for the stage. That bug would have transformed you into a lizard demon, and there's around 200 girls in the 4000 student audience that are ready to shed their human skins. I need to kill them or purify them to revert them back, and they're left naked and weak after the fact. I can't take them out without alerting the audience or the mother phantom who just left, so I'm slowly working my way around the outskirts of the auditorium, reaching the place directly behind center stage in the end. I'd greatly appreciate your help if you could assist the students I save."
"Oh, s.. Sure!"
"Excellent."
I keep going.
…
…
I'm nearly at the center stage when Lingling's voice resounds in my ear.
"Jianyu! I have new, critical information from the Hunter Union. Don't bother saving any more infected girls; the best way to purify everyone is to kill the mother demoness! She activates the bugs through a telepathic connection, and she can control the Scaled Skin Phantoms the same way—she's just a mutant version of them. Once she dies, the connection breaks and the parasites she created die too, but the people taken over by the parasites survive."
"Thank goodness, I was having a headache over what we were going to do about the audience. Have you located her?"
"Yes, she's right above the idol currently singing on the stage! The Hunter Union is more than strong enough to kill her, but they're worried she'll use the infected students as hostages and kill them. The only way is to send an Intermediate Magician after her in hopes that she won't feel threatened. You're on your own!"
"Got it."
I see the mother demoness about to pounce on the idol, so I tackle her out of the way, barely saving her from the deadly swipes the mother demoness launches. She's incredibly fast, far quicker than when I saw her at the apartment building. Perhaps her strength grows the more victims she infects.
But I can be fast too. I activate Blood Tabi, the dark red boots enveloping my shoes and filling my legs with absurd strength. I've never felt so powerful. I stomp on the stage, splintering the wood and sending me flying towards her, not bothering with the bow because as long as she tries to close the distance between us, her speed would make it all but impossible to land a hit.
It's comparatively easier to engage her in close combat, but my prepared Light Blessing: Painted Wall cracks instantly after one swipe, and shatters altogether after the second. I jump over the next few slashes, but a couple of them barely sweep past me in midair, causing shallow cuts to appear on my legs. Her claws are so fast and sharp that the wind produced by them can tear through my skin. I've never felt so pressured, not even against agility-type Lesser Warriors.
As Blood Tabi wears out, I decide to use the Rabbit Feet, imbuing my legs with swiftness and agility this time. She launches herself at me again, unleashing a small storm of wind as she rakes her claws through the air over and over. I'm able to dance between the gaps and around them, smacking her outstretched claws to the side with one sword and swiping at her neck with the other. Illuminate: Cleanse! I release the spell directly at her face, burning it and stunning it for long enough to make a shallow incision on her neck, but she flexes the muscles in her core to pull her head and upper body back, out of the path of my sword's edge.
We stand apart, wary of each other's combat prowess. Now that she's still, I start firing arrows at her, but she seems to have a threat detection built into her senses and just barely evades each one, even though they're invisible to her. My eyes widen as I realize she's charging up an ultimate skill, and I quickly cover myself with a Light Blessing: Painted Wall, Water Defense: Guard, two accumulated Light shields, and even the Bull Xenon.
She releases an eerie blood magic that looks like a fine net of circulating blood, moving fast enough and in thin enough streams that stage props get sliced to pieces as if they were cut with lasers. It stretches all around me, slowly shrinking to shred me into a pile of scraps. I keep casting Light spells and Water spells to cover me with more defenses, but they all fall apart nearly instantly as the blood net thrums with power, eviscerating each layer.
It finally seems to lose some of its power upon reaching the Bull Xenon's protection, and even more after piercing through the Painted Wall. I try to cast Shadow Evade: Fading to hide in a shadow and Traverse to move away, but neither Shadow spells work: the blood net seems to restrict Shadow magic. I clench my teeth and pray the defenses weakened the net enough that they won't slice right through my body, and I place the swords and bow over my face, nether regions, and neck. Luckily, I guessed right, but unluckily, they did retain enough power to cut half an inch into my skin all over my body, except for the places I protected. Even the swords are badly damaged, almost broken from crisscrossing grooves in the blade.
Blood is pouring from every cut in my body; I'll lose consciousness in less than a minute. But before that, I have to take out this demon; I can't let it kill hundreds of people. After casting the magic, it lies there in a daze. I force myself to approach her and pull an arrow back with all my strength, sending it rocketing into her skull. For good measure, I cast a final Illuminate: Cleanse, and I don't hear a screech. Satisfied, I collapse into blackness.
…
…
It's always a hospital bed in a white room. I dimly recognize it as the Healer's Clinic in Pearl Institute, the place I visited after the Welcoming Ceremony. Bai Tingting is there, looking exceedingly concerned, along with dozens of other girls who have yet to wake. I see several battle-ready men and women, presumably from the Hunter Union. Lingling is next to me, and slaps my cheek upon seeing me wake up.
"You… you bastard! How could you just keep going?! You should have stayed down; the Hunters would have killed her while she was recovering from that attack. But the blood you lost when your muscles flexed to draw back the bow nearly killed you! I was so scared, there was such a big pool of blood around your body that I cried, thinking you were a goner. Luckily, we had several Intermediate Healers going around the area and they were quickly summoned to bring you back from the brink. You didn't have to go so far! You had already saved everyone…"
She begins sobbing again. I pat her head. "I had no way of knowing whether it could still trigger the ability to kill everyone, so I eliminated it myself just in case. What if it had recovered enough to do that before the Hunters got here? Then I'd be responsible for the deaths of over 200 people. I had to see it dead with my own two eyes."
"You should be more concerned about yourself! Be more selfish! Help others when you are strong enough to do so without almost dying like this!"
I gently stroke her hair. "I am strong enough to do so. How many Intermediate Mages can claim to have killed a Great Warrior?"
The leading official from the Hunter Union coughs. "I'm Senior Hunter Du Xiao. I believe that when you were fighting her on the stage, she had collected enough blood to nearly advance to the next stage. Her physical abilities were slightly above those of an agility-type Great Warrior, but that ultimate blood magic could have at least severely injured, if not killed an Advancing Warrior. That's why she kept fighting you, a mere Intermediate Mage with a single Nebula. Any Advanced Mage would trigger her danger senses, and she would kill every parasitized student. She felt threatened by you the more you fought, but it didn't rise to that threshold because of your low absolute strength. This was an impossible situation; anyone significantly stronger than you might have incited a danger warning, and anyone weaker than that couldn't have killed her. All 258 girls and one middle-aged man owe their lives to you."
At that, I exhale in relief. "I was the one who let it escape from the apartment to begin with; it's only right that I finished it off. Thankfully, it was Healing magic that erased these wounds. I was worried about permanently looking like someone who had run head first into a wire mesh gate."
"Speaking of which, Yang Jianyu, how did those scars appear on you? They must have something to do with your gift in close combat, I'm assuming," Du Xiao curiously asks.
"Suffice it to say, I was orphaned from a young age by the Black Vatican. I escaped into the jungle, where I lived for the next 8 years, continually moving east. During that time, the skills for survival, mostly fighting, were drilled into my body through repeated, bloody battles, where I gained these scars. Eventually, I found civilization: Bo City in China."
I'm not uncomfortable revealing my past now, but I definitely won't give more detail than necessary. The Hunters wear expressions of understanding, and Lingling and Bai Tingting look up at me, shocked.
To break the solemn atmosphere, I ask a question: "So, where's my compensation? What's my reward, Senior Hunter? It better be good for saving 250 people."
His face darkens. "That… you'll have to take it up with Pearl Institute. I believe Dean Xiao wants to see you."
"Fine, but can I get some clothes before you go?"
…
…
As I walk through the campus, people still sneer at me.
[Not without reason, I did take their resources. Though they must be poor indeed to miss 20,000 yuan, unless they don't need it and are merely jealous. Which most of them are.]
I enter Dean Xiao's office for the second time in 3 days; I had slept through the night. It's the first day of classes, but I guess I really don't need to attend.
Dean Xiao fixates his eyes on me. "You seem to be involved in every commotion on campus as of late."
"I went looking for trouble outside of the campus, yet somehow I ended up here again. My apologies."
"No need, I was merely jesting. Instead, I believe I owe you yet another reward."
"I considered it on the way, but I realized the Chaotic Piercer is incredibly valuable. Dean, it wouldn't sit right with me to take anything more; I'd call it even."
He shakes his head. "When I gave it to you, I did not attach any strings or place you in my debt. It was truly useless in the armory because no one wanted it, and therefore of no value until you picked it up. That and this are two separate circumstances. In light of your request, however, I've decided to alter your reimbursement. How does another 4 weeks in the Three Step Tower sound?"
I perk up. I'm seriously feeling the lack of potent spells hamper my combat prowess. "I'll take it. Dean, I was curious about attending class. Are there exams or assignments? Because if it's just lectures, I'm confident I know all the material."
He waves his hand. "Feel free to skip class as you wish, we do not use such things to grade your progress. Plus, the rewards for a high monthly ranking in the Outer Campus are pitiful, not even worth your time spent battling your fellow Light majors to obtain the rank. You'd be better off solving commissions until you get promoted to the Main Campus; if I were you, I'd barely stay in the Institute at all."
"I understand, Dean."
I take my leave. There's several things I want to accomplish. First, I don't want to stay in the dorms anymore. The high concentration of students and poor soundproofing irritates me when I meditate. However, the flat I bought, while indeed relatively close, isn't ideal either because I don't want to disturb Uncle Mo's love life. I need to find a nearby apartment building.
Second, I want to raise my Water and Shadow Elements to the peak of the Basic stage before heading to the Three Step Tower. If possible, I also want to get my Light Element to the peak of the 2nd tier.
Third, I want to practice using my bow. I'll leave my swords sheathed on future commissions with Lingling, only hunting the targets with arrows. The Chaotic Piercer has several grooves, allowing multiple arrows to be loaded at once. That's a difficult skill to master, but I'll try to obtain a rudimentary skill level of multi-firing arrows.
…
…
I set out to accomplish the first task. The Golden Origin apartments a minute's walk to the west of the campus are my target. I take the elevator to the 12th floor and execute several crisp knocks on the door of my desired apartment to rent. A middle-aged landlady auntie answers, peeking her head out. She beckons me to come in.
A spacious living area contains a table surrounded by 4 plushy gray chairs and a couch. To the left and right are hallways leading to two sets of two bedrooms and one bathroom. I wanted to co-rent a place, since being all by myself is pretty lonely. I got out of the dorms only because of surrounding distractions, not because I wanted to isolate myself, and the landlady assured me noise is minimal here at night when I called her to inquire about a visit.
Occupying two of the chairs are gorgeous girls. By some twisted coincidence, one is Mui Nujiao, and the other is her friend famous for being ditzy, Ai Tutu. The former knits her eyebrows, and tells the landlady, "I wasn't aware I'd be co-renting with a guy; I thought you knew I implied girls when I asked to share the apartment."
She blinks, and laughs, "Oh! My mistake, it was a misunderstanding on both ends. Still, now that you're here, couldn't you get to know each other? He's a nice young man."
[Doesn't want to lose customers, I see.]
Mui Nujiao takes a closer look at me, and her brows lift in surprise.
"You don't want to share an apartment, Mui Nujiao? That breaks my heart."
"Ya… Yang Jianyu?! What are you doing here?!"
That… wasn't the positive reaction I was expecting.
"Woah, I'm sorry. I'll take my leave, the two of you can perhaps find another pair of girls."
"No… No, wait! That's not what I meant! You can rent with us, it's fine."
"Jiaojiao, what? He's a guy. We can't have him in the same apartment as us."
"Not just any guy. He's the one who saved all those girls in the concert, one of whom was me!"
"Huh? You weren't a lizard though… At least, not that I could tell."
"When he killed that creature, I felt my thumb twitch and then relax. After the Hunters came in, I asked them about it, and they cut it open to remove a dead bug! I wanted to wait a day before telling you so that you didn't freak out. The point is, I might have become a lizard if not for him."
"Ohhh, so that's why they paused for a bit next to us before moving on…" Ai Tutu then directs an incredulous gaze my way. "But there's got to be some mistake. This guy, the menace who stole everyone's starting resources, the greedy pig? He probably killed that thing for a hefty reward."
[What the fuck? Is there something I'm missing?]
"Hey, Miss Ai, what did I ever do to you? Is it really so difficult to believe that I'm a good person?
The landlady looks on, amused. "So I assume there's no problem? Unless you want a fourth person?"
Ai Tutu faces me, her hands on her hips. "No need, this guy can pay half the rent and take the right side. It's his blessing to live with two beautiful girls, anyway! Jiaojiao and I will live in the two rooms on the left side. Right, Yang Jianyu?"
"Sure."
Laughing, they head to their rooms. I hope I didn't lock myself into a terrible housemate, but I think Ai Tutu just jokes around with Mui Nujiao and won't cause a ruckus at night. I sink into the couch, my body still sore from the battle with the mother demoness. I close my eyes.
And open them to hear the door open. Two delicate-looking guys come in, carrying a huge bunny under the orders of Ai Tutu.
"Yes, put it on the couch. Riggghhhttt… there! Perfect, now off you go."
They head to the door, then glance back at me enjoying my rest.
"Oi, you dumbass! She told us to go!"
I lazily look up, then at Ai Tutu. She deviously smiles and plops down in a chair, evidently having no intentions of resolving the misunderstanding.
"I live here," I firmly state, staring at the two intruders.
Their inital reaction is to incredulously scoff, but then one of them narrows his eyes, scanning my face. He pales and elbows his friend, who recognizes me a moment later. They hastily escape. Ai Tutu appears disappointed at the lack of confrontation, and wanders back to her room.
I shake my head. "Ai Tutu..."
…
…
Two months have passed since that day. My Stardusts have broken through the third tier and began shifting restlessly, showing signs of breaking through. My arrows have become accurate enough to nail foes over 200 meters away: I'm finding my decision to start using a bow to be more and more salient. Lingling has commented several times on how boring commissions have become: she finds the target, tells me about it, and I hit it with an arrow it doesn't see coming. On the rare occasion that it dodges, I begin firing three arrows at once, and at least one of the resulting storm of projectiles finds its mark. This is novel; I'm so unaccustomed to not risking my life with each slash, evade, and counterattack. I believe this is what it feels like to have offensive Elements.
It's time to enter the Three Step Tower for three weeks. High rankers of the Main Campus only get one week per month there, but as an Outer Campus rookie, I'm staying there for triple that time!
…
…
The tower does not live up to its namesake. It's a closed off metal structure of irregular shape barely 5 stories high. Two guards stop me at the entrance, and I show them the three papers indicating one week each. They inspect the sheets for validity, then shred the papers and walk me inside.
The interior of the building is far larger than the exterior appears; I suspect Space magic at work. There's hallways everywhere, since this place isn't just used for cultivation. It's the roots of Pearl Institute: all true valuables, records, and everything else of momentous concern is stored here.
We zigzag through the maze of corridors before arriving at a gate shielding a spiral staircase with no column in the center. They send me in, closing the stairs off behind me, and reminding me that food in the form of pills and drinking fountains are available on each floor.
I'm left at the bottom of the steps. The primary obstacle of the Three Step Tower is its spiritual gravity. On each successive floor, the elemental energy concentration grows exponentially, but so does the force needed to keep it condensed. This force, the spiritual gravity, is sealed off in each floor and can only be felt when climbing the stairs: the higher one goes, the more pain their Spiritual World experiences. Most people have their mana subconsciously drained to provide a shield of sorts that withstands the pressure; they can't handle the pain, so they protect their Spiritual Worlds. I'm hoping I can do better.
And I certainly can. A splitting headache resonates through my skull after reaching the first floor, whose elemental energy concentration has reached 20 times that of my room. I keep going, and the pain begins to feel like a white hot knife twisting and stabbing my brain as I clamber onto the second floor. Cultivating one day here would be worth 100 days in the apartment. However, I continue climbing. It's starting to feel like the worst thing I've ever experienced, almost on par with that day the wolf tore into my 6 year old arm. I clench my teeth and bite my lip so hard it draws blood, but I don't stop walking up until I collapse onto the third floor. In the last stretch, I used up all my mana to protect my Spiritual World. Luckily, the rich energy here flows into my Nebulas and Stardusts, which greedily suck everything up at a rate 500 times faster than in my room.
A mere hour later, I feel the searing mental pain of my Stardusts expanding into Nebulas.
24 hours since the beginning, my Light Nebula swells to the 3rd tier. Like all such potent sources of cultivation, however, the speed wanes as my body becomes accustomed to the tower's energy. The boost has already lowered from 500x to 400x, and will likely drop to 100x by the end of the week.
7 days fly by, and my Shadow and Water Nebulas rise to the 2nd tier. The Light Nebula has swelled considerably, approaching the peak of the Intermediate level.
I spend another 7 days bringing the Light, Shadow, and Water Nebulas to the peak of their respective tiers: 3rd, 2nd, 2nd.
In the last week, I stop meditating and focus on control. I have 84 new stars to wrest into place, and the tower's incredible boost to my Spiritual Force allows me to constantly maneuver them. By the 3rd day, I finish constructing each Star Pattern for the first time. By the 7th day, my cast speed lowers from 7 seconds to 5 seconds.
I finally plod down the steps, exhilarated at my transformation. I went from having one Element in the Intermediate level to nearly being a peak Intermediate Mage. Of course, I know such speed won't be possible in future rounds of cultivation here; otherwise, those high rankers of the Main Campus would have become Super Mages by now!
…
…
Another month flies by as I break into my newfound power and spells; I continue solely using my bow on missions with Lingling. We've developed quite the camaraderie and familiarity with how one another operates, and my bank account has received similar upgrades: around 23 million yuan now.
Xinxia has been getting along swimmingly with her peers at Zhejiang Institute, especially after she revealed her excellent Healer talents. Uncle Mo often brings friends from work to his flat to chat and drink the night away. Some of them are women, though he gently glares at me when I prod him about this.
On top of visiting Xinxia and Uncle Mo, I find myself accompanying the two princesses Mui Nujiao and Ai Tutu to restaurants and other outings, where they humiliatingly use me as a shield! Of course, they never take things too far and don't request my presence when I'm exhausted from a tiring mission.
I've also been staying in contact with Zhang Xiaohou, who's in the military in Shanghai.
Overall, I've found considerable enjoyment and relaxation over the past month, but it's about to come to a head with Dean Xiao's new announcement.