I arrived at the building which belonged to the Eclipsed sun guild after only a few minutes. I made my way inside and went to the receptionist from last time, whose name I had already forgotten. I handed him the letter, which he took while looking displeased. He then broke out in a smile, and said, “I have a team which will lead you to…” He stole a glance at the letter again, “to the beast you are looking for. You should be able to depart immediately. Since the letter said to mention it, the mercenaries accompanying you will be allowed to keep the body of the beast, if you kill it.”

  I now understood why he looked so happy, but I didn’t care too much about keeping the body, especially since I would have to hurry back. The receptionist led me through the hall towards the stairs. We went upstairs and I noticed a bunch of rooms lined up next to each other. It seemed like these were the quarters in which the mercenaries could sleep. Perhaps they didn’t make enough money to pay for proper homes. If that was true, it would mean that they were in constant need of money, something which I could maybe use in the future.

  I wondered if these musings would ever be necessary to have, if Master would always just supply me with fights, but I decided to at least keep them in mind. The receptionist knocked on one of the doors and a sleepy looking woman opened the door. He handed her the letter, “Do you want the mission? Otherwise, I will give them to Piul’s team, since they already know her.”

  The woman rubbed her eyes and skimmed through the letter. She then glanced up at me and inspected me for a few moments. She then pocketed the letter and closed the door. The receptionist just said, “She will lead you to your prey. You just have to follow her.” I nodded and waited in front of the door.

  It barely took five minutes before the woman stepped out. She carried a massive axe on her back, which almost reached the floor and that was despite her height which I could finally appreciate. She was almost two meters tall, but she didn’t have a lot of muscles. Instead, she looked more on the leaner side, although something about her still made me instinctively feel how strong this body was.

  Her outfit looked like a simple leather armour which covered most of her body, with the exception of her face and I spotted a lot of secondary weapons, ranging from daggers and throwing knives to a short sword. She still looked tired, but I was guessing that it would not hinder her in the least. After all, I could feel first hand how hard it was to actually become tired as a body cultivator, which I presumed she was. Maybe the current look was intentional, or a side effect of some treatment she was getting.

  We didn’t speak as we left the guild and made our way to the western gate. She handed the guard a slip and we made our way out of the city without any issues. While I didn’t mind the silence, I still wanted to properly plan how long the mission would take, so I took out my notebook and wrote while we were walking with shaky handwriting “How long will it take until we find it?”

  She looked at me for a moment and then said in a soft voice, “Three days.” That would leave one day for fighting and her being slower, carrying whatever she needed from the beast back. We then continued walking in complete silence, since I couldn’t talk even if I wanted and she didn’t seem to be interest in having small talk. I picked up a handful of dirt and began to train what elder Uim had taught me. I mostly focused on the mercenary who was leading me, trying to copy pieces of her armour, her weaponry or parts of her.

  It felt easier, since my mind wasn’t being as distracted anymore. It seemed like the poison had taken more of an effect on me than I had realized. At some point did we enter the forest, but we didn’t leave the road, so the journey continued to be smooth. We continued following the path the rest of the day.

  When the sun set, did the surrounding flora begin to emit light. The mercenary took a look at me, presumably to see if I was tired. I let my dirt fall to the ground and wrote three words into my notebook, “I can continue.” She nodded and we continued walking. I planned to rest shortly before I needed to fight the beast. I had realized after my last rest that, while my body didn’t tire, that my mind still could feel exhaustion without me noticing it.

  I picked up a bit of new dirt, and we followed the road through the entire night. I didn’t even bother trying to remember at which crossroads we turned left or right, or in which we continued forward. It was simply too many, and I was too absorbed in training my control.

  We stopped on the next day at noon. She then began to leave the path, and I left the dirt behind, finally paying attention to my surroundings. We were at the foot of one of the gigantic mountains. I could spot the mountain base through the trees, and it seemed to fill the entire horizon.

  I hoped that we would not have to travel up the entire mountain. Then a new concern came over me. Could I actually manipulate solid stone efficiently? I had used stone before, but I had never tried to pull it out of the ground, when the ground was made out of pure stone. We continued through the forest getting closer to the mountain as we walked. The surroundings became less and less populated, making way to show the glory of the mountain in front of me.

  I wondered how the beast I was supposed to hunt would hide on the mountain. It seemed bare as far as I could see, although I was sure that was mostly because I never hunted before. I stopped when we reached the base of the mountain and tried to see if I could control the stone. Luckily, it turned out that there was not really a difference in terms of difficulty for me. The earth Qi seemed to treat regular dirt and solid stone the same.

  I only noticed that the stone seemed to have a tiny bit of earth Qi as well, which made it a bit harder to manipulate. The mercenary watched me experiment, before we continued on our way. I wrote a short note into my notebook while we walked, informing her of my intention to rest once before fighting the beast.

  To my surprise did we not continue walking up the mountain and instead began circling it after we were only around a hundred meters up. There was little to see on the mountain itself, outside of the view of the surrounding forest and the other mountains. I quickly began to practice again, after I pulled a piece of stone from the ground. Though I couldn’t fully focus on training, since I needed to pay some attention to not stumble on the uneven ground.

  When night began, did the mountain fall into darkness. We still continued our journey, though my guide slowed down significantly. As it got darker, did I remember how I had kept track of the wolves and began to feel the stone around us. While it was a strange sensation to keep track of the uneven ground like this, it worked. The biggest problem was that I didn’t just see the surface. Still, we gradually began to pick up our pace again, since my guide apparently had no issues with the darkness. I wondered if this was because of the Qi sense with the neutral Qi Master had told me about.

  We came up on a plateau, since the ground in the distance felt softer and was flatter. The mercenary stopped when we got closer and sat down. I sat down next to her, since the beast would probably live on the plateau. I ate a nourishment pill and then lied down. The ground felt comforting after I shaped it around my figure.

  Falling asleep turned out easier than I thought. I simply had to slow down my heartbeat and breathing down. It was a surprisingly pleasant experience, at least until I fell asleep. The moment I fell asleep, did I get ripped out of it immediately by pure panic. My heart had stopped beating. The panic washed away any sleepiness I might otherwise have. My heart began beating as soon as I was awake and I took a few moments until I calmed down.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The calming down was easy, which felt alien to me. Having complete control over your heart rate and breathing made it practically impossible to panic outside of the intellectual level. The mercenary just watched me in silence as I gathered my bearings.

  Since I couldn’t sleep, did I decide to just relax in some other way. I sat up and leaned against the mountain wall, just staring into the darkness in front of me. Some part in me wanted to practice and not rest, but I decided to keep these urges under control. I had already committed to sleeping, so resting without training sounded like a good idea.

  I enjoyed the view of forest below us, as some of the light from the ground managed to escape through the leaves of the trees. It almost looked like a star filled sky. I wondered if anybody in this world had travelled to their moon already. Cultivators lived longer after all, it wouldn’t be surprising if they manage to develop technology with all that time. That did make me wonder why the technological level of this world was medieval. I continued my idle musings about the world until the first rays of sunlight rose over the peak of the mountain we were on.

  I stood up and stretched myself, although it was more so out of habit instead of sore muscles. I could finally properly see the plateau my prey would be in. It turned out it was a swamp, which almost immediately caused me to panic slightly, since I was unsure how well I could manipulate wet dirt. After all, I couldn’t control water.

  The mercenary also stood up and began to make her way towards the plateau. We reached the edge of the swamp around half an hour later and then the mercenary pulled out the letter from Master again, presumably checking something. She then turned to me and asked, “I will lead you to the beast, do you want any information?” It seemed like Master was offering me a chance to make the fight easier, by getting information beforehand. Still, resolutely shook my head and we made our way into the swamp. Before I completely entered the wet area, did I pull some stones up and covered my chest, arms and back with them.

  I made the layer slightly thinner than usual, as to not increase my weight too much. I tested out how well I could manipulate the earth in the swamp as we entered. It was slightly harder, mostly due to the fact that the water forced the earth to be bloated. We continued through the swamp, while I kept a lookout by feeling the earth around us for any suspicious dents. After I almost fell headfirst into the swampy water, did I make the earth around me solid by compressing it.

  It was like a baby version of the technique I had been trying to develop. The solid ground under my feet made the journey easier. The mercenary seemed to know where the prey was, since she led me through the swamp in a completely straight line. After we had travelled for around an hour did, she stop and point forwards. She then said, “Currently not moving, just a dozen meters more.” Then after a brief moment of hesitation, did she add, “Good luck.” She then turned around and disappeared into the swamp.

  I took a deep breath and then made my way forward through the foliage, trying to feel anything strange on the ground. I crept around a tree, still not feeling anything special in the surrounding earth.

  Then I felt it. A lot of dirt under the water was moved in an arc. I trained my eyes on the spot where I had felt the disturbance and realized that it might have been something like the twitching of a tail. As the thought crossed my mind, did I feel the dirt in the surrounding area stop moving, including the dirt that was still floating in the water. Whatever was in the water clearly had spotted me and could control the earth as well.

  I still didn’t know where the beast was and just stared into the water. I barely noticed that the dirt in some parts of the water began to be pushed towards me with ever increasing speed. I threw myself to the side in the last moment as a giant maw appeared from the water snapping close around the air I had just stood in. The water almost forced its way into the rocks on my body, as I landed in it.

  I finally saw the beast. It was a deformed looking crocodile. It was bigger than any crocodile I had heard of, and the face alone looked like it was easily over a meter long. The head was covered in brownish scales with four beady eyes that I could see lining the sides of its head. All four of these eyes were focused on me, as the giant beast crashed into the tree I had just stood in front of. Which broke without even giving the slightest bit of resistance.

  The tree fell down on the beast, but it didn’t seem to care as it began to reorient itself. I used that brief moment and tried to circle around it. Only to feel as the earth beneath me gave in. I had just reinforced the upper layers of the dirt, and the beast had just made a bigger hole underneath. I managed to stay upright with the control over my body. Still that manoeuvre had cost me the advantage I had as the beast now slowly came closer with an open mouth.

  I stabilized the earth around me in a big circle and watched the beast come closer. As soon as its face walked over the circle I had created, did I try to shoot an earth spike through the bottom of its skull, only to feel more earth Qi coming from the beast supressing the spike before it even formed.

  I had already expected for the spike to not even pierce through the hide of the beast, so I managed to dodge to the side in time. I wanted to use the chance while I was by its side to climb on its back, when the tip of its tail hit me in the side. It sounded like a whip was being cracked, as it shattered my armour of stone and some of my ribs alongside with them. I was flung across the swamp and crashed heavily into a tree. I managed to cushion my crash enough to not break my arm as well.

  I took short breaths as I tried to orient myself. I felt the stabbing pain of my broken ribs with every breath I took. I made the ground under my feet solid again and spotted the beast charging towards me again. The only saving grace for me was, that I had been flung into shallower waters, which made moving around easier. I sprinted to the side and began circling the beast for a safe distance outside of the range of its tail.

  It came to a slow stop and then began to watch me. I wondered how it had moved its tail fast enough to throw me and break my bones. After all the water should still be a hinderance, at least to a certain degree and while it had displayed a lot of raw power, it still seemed strange to me. I then got an idea, as to how it could have worked. What if the beast had control over two Qi types? What if it could control water as well? It could explain the movement of its tail.

  The crocodile finally seemed to have enough of turning in a circle and finally lunged towards me. I pushed myself to the side performing a spin, making sure that I didn’t get trapped in another hole. I was not fast enough though. The teeth ripped the remaining parts of my stone armour apart and leaving deep gnashes on my chest and stomach. I did my best to ignore the searing pain and focused on this one chance I now had.

  I used my bodies rotation and formed a spike on the top of my stone covered fist, ramming it clean into one of its eyes. The eye exploded under the almost blunt spike, I had created in the limited time. I hit the bones behind the eyes and felt my spike begin to crumble against the bone. But before I could pull out the spike from the eye socket did the momentum of the beast catch up with me again.

  The spike broke off and almost pulled me down into the water as the crocodile shot past me. It turned around at the end of its sprint and let out a loud roar that felt like it shook the whole forest. I closed the distance the moment it began to roar, since it could not see me with the mouth completely open. I had almost reached its still open mouth when the roaring stopped, but it kept its mouth open and I felt to late that the water around my ankles had become thick. At the same time did the beast begin to move towards me again.

  I had fallen into the trap of a beast. I acted before I could further contemplate this failure and pushed the earth under me upwards, hoping to not get eaten in one go by the beast. The water around my ankles got pulled up alongside of me, but it was not enough. The beast managed to lift its body upwards, by performing what looked like a jump.

  Its maw closed around my hip, and I felt it break as I got ripped into the water. My organs began to rupture under the pressure of the maw of the beast. I tried to claw at its face in an attempt to somehow still kill the beast, but my arms were not long enough to reach anything except the scales, on which my fingers just slid off. Then my hip gave in completely and shattered and the maw closed around my body, and I felt myself being bitten into two pieces.

  In a moment of pure panic, did I wonder where my mistake had been to die not even half a year in the new world. Should I not have picked the most dangerous looking elder as my teacher? Should I have trained more and not immediately jumped at the opportunity to fight something I had no knowledge about? My brain felt like it was buzzing as the blood left my body.

  I saw the treeline of the swamp. Apparently, I would die without seeing the sky again. I faint feeling of regret filled me. I wanted to be stronger.

  The buzzing in my head felt louder and everything stopped.

  I woke up with my back leaning against something hard. I saw a woman in front of me as she did something. It took me a few moments to notice that I was completely naked and that she was doing something to my stomach. I remembered being ripped into two.

  My legs should not be connected. What happened? I tried to speak, but I could still not manage to produce anything resembling a word. The mercenary looked up from whatever she was doing and gave me a relieved smile, “Almost done fixing you.” She then turned her attention back to whatever she was doing to me, and I leaned my head back.

  It became clear to me that this probably had been a lesson from Master, though I was unsure what exactly she wanted me to learn. I let out a sigh, which also sounded a bit off, since I still couldn’t control my vocal cords properly. I spotted the letter Master had given me right next to me and picked it up.

  “From: Heavenly Base Sect – Elder Garlou

  Lead my disciple to the earth devourer that lives on the lower end of the Perni mountain. She will lose the fight. In that case, intervene and make sure she survives.

  Offer her to tell her about the earth devourer, if she refuses, let her fight.

  Don’t mention the name of the beast beforehand, as to avoid giving her any information. You can tell her that you were supposed to save her afterwards.”

  Guess I can only promise one chapter per week (for now, maybe it will change).