Chapter 18 #3
Lao Tie positively beamed at those words.
“None of us daring the delve by your side on this day will forget the grace you have just shown us, friend Alex. For the first thing you mentioned wasn’t locking in your share of the profits from the sale of our future cores, but the welfare of the city.
” He gave an approving nod. “I knew there was something I liked about you, from the start. Even if your odd jewel path mirrors the body cultivator’s arts so well that it’s almost uncanny! ”
“Isn’t it?” Linnea chipped in. “Just like a fire jewel like me mimics wujen like yourself!”
Lao Tie’s eyes widened, before he gave a rueful chuckle. “You can sense my affinity so clearly, can you, fire sister?”
This earned a cheeky smile. “Oh yes, I absolutely can! And don’t worry. I’m used to blending my flames with their spiritual counterparts. The Crimson Corkscrews we’ll summon together will turn our enemies to ash and flame!”
This earned a blink. “Crimson Corkscrew?”
Linnea frowned, tapping her forehead, before smiling a heartbeat later. “I believe my former wujen companion called it the Fire Spirit’s Spiral?”
Lao Tie gave her a curious look. “Your former partner was a disciple of both Flame and Spirit Qi? Such a rare combination!”
Linnea shrugged as the cooler moist air below mixed with the hot dry air above to tousle her red locks.
Far less than if the temperatures and humidities had been reversed, but their path along the lip of the ancient caldera was where countless drifting air currents liked to play.
“Honestly, I have no idea. All I know is that she was good at controlling her flame. Almost as good as myself!”
This earned an approving nod from Lao Tie. “Wonderful to hear. And what are the affinities of our other Ruidian companion?”
“I have absolutely no idea!” Linnea smiled at Rachel Lu’s flushing cheeks. “Her jewel doesn’t glitter in the hues I’m most familiar with. But clearly she’s of healthy stock, so I know she’ll be an excellent addition with a high Vitality that doesn’t require deviating from her ideal build at all.”
Alex winced in sympathy, realizing that his dear friend would always be a tiny bit eccentric and outspoken, even if her enhancing her key attributes involving good health and cognition meant that it was just a quirk and not a crippling social handicap. At least, not anymore.
Yet surprisingly, Rachel Lu nodded in solemn acknowledgment, forcing Alex to examine his own cultural prejudices.
Maybe being so outspoken was normal amongst their kind, and it was only the exquisitely socially sensitive, like Linnea’s cousin, who understood the importance of taking on a completely different mien when socializing with city folk? Either way, Rachel was quick to answer.
“I’m attuned to sand, dirt, and plants,” she solemnly declared, earning a number of curious blinks.
Linnea looked fascinated. “Multiple elements? That’s incredible!”
Rachel grinned despite herself. “Centuries ago, my clan crossbred with genuine druids. Back when things were a bit… greener than they are today? Anyway, that led to those among our tribe with dark amber jewels blossoming upon our brows to be particularly attuned to the elements of both Wood and Earth, to put it in cultivator’s terms, though for us, it’s simply being aware of the soil and all its forms, and the creatures living within and being nurtured by the soil.
” She then bit her lip in sudden worry. “But, um… I should probably say this. I don’t have the most experience in the world? So… yeah. There is that.”
“That’s okay!” Linnea quickly interjected.
“You can form a gestalt with me and Alex. You’ll learn so much that your head will spin and you’ll absolutely shoot up in levels.
Best of all, you’ll feel the flow of our mastery and, like a tutor guiding your hand through the motions, you’ll get a sense of how to apply it all to enhance the efficiency and mastery of your own arts!
” Her guileless smile turned into a thoughtful frown.
“I mean, I think it will work that way? Earth is quite different from Fire. But still, I’ll bet it will all work out. ”
“So, what exactly is a gestalt?” queried the largest of the cultivators absolutely covered in talisman-reinforced steel plate armor, wielding a guandao radiating fearsome cutting power.
Yet before an anxious Linnea could look Alex’s way, realizing that maybe she had been a bit forward, he quickly spoke on.
“My name’s Wu Xien, by the way. I’ve ascended twice in both might and resilience.
So I will serve as our tank. A pleasure to meet you all. ”
“Names Kuaisu!” said a woman dressed in enchanted spirit beast leathers with a nimble-looking spear in her hand and a pair of gladii sheathed at her hips.
Additionally, she had a recurved bow strapped to her back that was obviously enchanted, as well as a seemingly empty quiver that radiated powerful spiritual energy to Alex’s senses. “I’m our scout, sniper, and flanker.”
The final unfamiliar cultivator making up their group clapped his finely made lamellar hauberk that was strapped tightly to his chest, wearing the same type of open-faced helm that wouldn’t hinder the senses at all that each of his companions did, even Lao Tie.
“Name’s Tang. I’m not as fast as Kuaisu or as strong as Wu Xien, but I’ve ascended in all three attributes, and you’ll find my naginata to be sharp enough to cut through mortal steel. ”
Alex’s eyes widened. He grinned, truly impressed. “It sounds like you’re a powerful Metal specialist,” he said at last, earning a pleased snort from the man.
“I’m just a fool who somehow managed to break through to Silver after too many delves over too many years.
” Tang gave a soft chuckle as they approached the one intact waterfall in the entire caldera.
It sprayed far less water than it should as they headed straight for the rift they could all sense just underneath the lip of the overhang adjoining the falls.
“All right, it looks like we’re here,” Lao Tie declared, giving a nod to both Sun La and Ren La, who had accompanied them, and much to Alex’s surprise, both bowed low, almost a kowtow, making it startlingly clear just how high their polite young master stood in the pecking order of either the Spring sect, or perhaps the citywide aristocracy.
Alex had time only to flash an apologetic smile a cool-eyed Nili’s way.
There was so much he wanted to explain, and maybe apologize for as well, but there just wasn’t time.
She tilted her head in Lao Tie’s direction, making it clear that Alex should pay attention to what was effectively his new team captain, before fading from Alex’s sight in the blink of an eye.
“Now, before we enter, I think it’s best that we all get a sense of where we stand in the group.
” Lao Tie dipped his head toward Alex’s companions.
“Rachel and Linnea, you’ll both stay with me, in the heart of our formation.
We’ll no doubt get a chance for some basic practice coordinating our strikes as we begin our delve.
Alex? Am I correct in assuming you’ll take a martial role as part of our front lines? ”
Alex smiled and dipped his head, having no problem playing a low-key auxiliary role, having pushed so hard to force a confrontation that he was increasingly certain had been nothing more than a misunderstanding.
A realization that had embarrassed him so acutely he had to hide it in a storyteller’s bravado, as if a glorious ascent or at least playing the role of a larger-than-life Ruidian dreamer would wash away the terror he had seen in Sun La’s eyes when a wild, fierce part of his soul had been so ready to wash the school in her blood.
So ready to kill after his fearsome trials of martial combat and wholesale slaughter.
It had been so easy to slip into that role…
Only to find that the ruby ring upon Sun La’s finger had been a perfect match for her husband’s.
Alex shuddered to think what he would have done if he hadn’t snapped out of his furious haze when Sun La seemed so clueless, utterly out of her depth when Alex had whispered his threat in YanTu’s aristocratic dialect.
A language she clearly couldn’t even fathom.
And then he had caught sight of the jewel upon her husband’s finger… and it had suddenly all clicked.
He had been looking for traitors ripe for slaughter. Instead, what he had found was an insecure woman new to her position who was guilty of nothing more than the fear of being taken advantage of.