Molting the Mortal Coil

Sage had gathered his things and was issued some housing. Finding his way down the streets he found that other than varying types of restaurants there weren’t many other types of businesses spread throughout the city. Just as Bi Shunfu had said, most business seemed to be conducted at the Central Plaza. Making his way to his new home, Sage stepped into the listed address and found himself in a walled off yard. Within the outer walls was a large building that had its own courtyard, four bedrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, and a pair of common rooms. Behind the building and still within the walled off yard was a large training area with training equipment set up on racks and shelves.

Sage was exploring the place when he heard the sound of the gate opening along with voices and footsteps. Walking back towards the entrance he saw three teenagers and greeted them with a clasped fist. It was a gesture used by martial artists and cultivators. The hands were put in front of the chest like a christian prayer except one hand was clenched into a fist and pressing into the other palm.

“Greetings Elder Martial Brothers, I am Lang Sheng.”

It was quite strange to use these titles, especially when he knew he was at least five years older than each of the three boys in front of him yet still had to call them Elders since he was brand new to the Sect. Chuckling the three introduced themselves as Yuan Hu, Geng He, and Qiu Hou. After learning that these three were his new roommates, Sage was eager to learn more about them.

“As our new roommate, we need to welcome you to our Holy Flame Sect with a feast! Let’s go out and get some drinks!”

Sage always forgot that in this world drinking was completely acceptable as soon as someone was a teenager so their offer was not unreasonable. Accepting the invitation he walked along with them as they pointed out the houses of famous people in the sect and chatted about what streets the most beautiful girls lived on. They walked into a restaurant called ‘Delicious Dream’ which the three told him was named after their favorite wine that was only served here. After the four of them had been drinking and learning about each other for a while Qiu Hou, who seemed to be the most rambunctious of the three, asked for Sage’s age before making a joke.

“You’re so old, Junior Brother Sheng. We joined the Holy Flame Sect last year but you’re still so much older than us!”

Sage wasn’t insulted by the joke, but instead turned it back onto Qiu Hou. He’d had more than a few cups of ‘Delicious Dream Wine’ and it was quite good, so his answer was a bit shameless, “Since I’m so much older than you should call me Senior, Fourth Brother Hou!”

The other three had set their seniority long ago, Yuan Hu was the elder, then Geng He and last was Qiu Hou. With this announcement, all three of them frowned for a second before Yuan Hu and Geng He started laughing. Yuan Hu pointed his finger at Qiu Hou, “Haha, you’ll have to keep waiting to get that Junior Brother to pick on like you wanted!”

Yuan Hu was happy to give up the title of Eldest Brother among these roommates just to see the look on Qiu Hou’s face as he was pushed back down to the most junior among them. Brother Hou crossed his arms and sunk back on his seat, staring at the ground with a disgruntled look on his face. This position caused his large ears to poke out to the sides giving him the look of a monkey. This look only made the other three laugh even harder as Yuan Hu added fuel to the fire, “Brother Hou, I only just now realized you really fit your name!”

Sage blinked and then nearly spit out his drink as he suddenly saw the resemblance. Brother Hou’s name meant ‘monkey’ and right now the way he was sitting and the look on his face combined with his short light brown hair really fit!

Sage learned more about the Holy Flame Sect over the next few days, learning that one hundred contribution points per month was nearly nothing. Just his meals would use up ninety points if he ate at the cheapest restaurants every day. Even if he bought raw ingredients and prepared them himself it would still use forty or fifty every month and he’d spend hours a day just cooking. It would work well if he wanted to be a Chef but Sage wasn’t so sure of what he wished to do.

Realizing he would need to sign up for some duties in order to earn more contribution points, Sage returned to the Outer Hall the next day. One of the walls inside was covered with large pegboards from which hung small wooden slips covered in writing. The boards were divided up by difficulty and timespan. There was short one time missions to harvest certain materials from out in the mountains and wilds, or to hunt certain types of beasts for capture or materials. There was also short contract style work doing certain jobs for a few months, or even long term duties like manning the herb fields for a number of years. The long term ones seemed to have a set amount of hours of work per month but most of them Sage looked over required moving out to one of the smaller towns in the Heaven Stone Valley.

Sage wanted something stable and not too time intensive so the long term jobs would be his first choice but he had just joined the Sect and didn’t want to immediately move out to the remote areas. Aha! Here’s one!

Grabbing one of the wooden slips, Sage took a closer look. Stock Boy at the Alchemy Hall. The pay was a full five hundred contribution points per months but it also required thirty hours a week of labor. Most of the other jobs only required sixty to ninety hours a month and paid around three hundred points per month. It seems most people would rather move to an outer town and have monthly instead of weekly work requirements.

Even though Holy Flame Sect focused on Professions, most cultivators still like to have uninterrupted periods to train, concentrate on a breakthrough, or craft something complicated. Having such high weekly work requirements made this position undesirable, especially since the pay wasn’t any higher than other jobs. Bringing the job up to the desk, Sage was happy he wouldn’t have to move. He’d just met the other three and was starting to warm up to them already.

Making his way over to the Alchemy Hall, he was greeted with a sneer, “Oh great. Another clueless yokel, and he’s old too!”

Sage was about to introduce himself when the disciple in front of him shook his head, “Don’t even bother, you probably won’t even last a week so I don’t need to know your name. Your job is to properly sort, categorize, weigh, measure and store all of the materials that are brought here on a daily basis.”

He took Sage to the storeroom, each of the walls was covered by massive cabinets with innumerable drawers each with a glowing stone attached to the front that listed a name and quantity. The man was known as Ma Yuzhu and he was a clerk at the Alchemy Hall. There was more than one clerk and stock boy at each of the Halls, Sage just seemed to have got unlucky enough to run into this guy first. Yuzhu did not seem too happy about having to explain the duties to Sage and he was quite concise.

“Each drawer is like a storage bag that requires no owner. Since you took this job you’re allowed in, but the times you’re here are recorded so don’t think about stealing anything! All you have to do is put the materials into their proper drawers. Now pay attention, you may think you have to work thirty hours a week but that’s not really true. This job has a task requirement, not a time requirement. Thirty hours is only an estimate for someone who knows their stuff. An idiot like you will probably take a hundred.”

Pointing over to a set of long tables covered in small boxes and baskets, Ma Yuzhu laughed, “Here’s your first task! Put it all away. Make sure to pack each portion properly and update the storage containers when you add them in. Don’t screw it up or you’ll not only get no pay, you’ll owe us contribution points!”