The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac spent another week cultivating. He only stopped to eat, sleep, draw water from the well and do some sword practice.

After a week of work, his Qi Core was 5.0% full and he was mostly satisfied with his progress. However, his cultivation was destined to be slow if he didn't have resources.

He wouldn't be given any resources, since the sect thought it was best to leave the disciples to survive and thrive by themselves. Instead, he would need to earn his resources by taking missions or getting a special job like being an alchemist's assistant.

Isaac was a new disciple who didn't qualify for any of the better jobs. The only thing he could get hired for was doing admin and that barely paid anything, so he decided to check out the mission board.

Throughout the sect were mission boards with different assignments pinned to them, and Isaac didn't have to walk far to find one. When he got there, he saw many other disciples eyeing up missions. However, they were only considering the easy ones with comparatively low rewards.

'They either haven't worked out how to cultivate or they simply don't have Anima, so they can't take harder tasks. A lot of people didn't have enough temp points to take an Anima since they had bad trial scores or decided to improve their talent. Hopefully that means the good missions will still be there.'

When Isaac walked up to the board, he discovered that there were a lot of good missions left.

They were relatively difficult so it was recommended to do them in a group. However, if Isaac could do them with a small group or by himself, he could take several people's worth of rewards just for him. Standing out in the academy had given him the chance to befriend some of the most talented new disciples, so he could definitely find a couple of people to take this task with him.

With his new plan, Isaac went to Johan's house. He knocked on the door but nobody came, so he knocked again harder. This time there was a response,

"Hey, who is it?"

The loud knocking had forced Johan out of his meditation, so he wasn't very happy.

"It's Isaac. Let me come in."

The door slowly opened and Isaac could see Johan's tired face. Isaac couldn't fault his effort in cultivating, but rest was often important to working efficiently. Anyway, he wasn't here to fix Johan's cultivation habits,

"I have a good opportunity for us to earn some resources. There's a group mission on the mission board, but I think we can do it with just 3 of us."

"... go on."

"The mission is to collect some low-level Qi plants. However, the flowers we need to collect only grow in the territory of Rank 1 bone spike bears due to the beneficial effects of the bear faeces on the soil.

"There's no requirement to fight the bears, so I think it's enough if one person keeps watch in each direction while the 3rd one of us takes the flowers."

"Did it also show the rewards?"

"5 merit points and 5 reward points. I think it's supposed to be a mission for 5 people."

"I'm in, but on one condition. We do it with just us two."

Isaac hesitated for a moment and didn't speak.

"You're too cautious Isaac. Out of everything we did in the trials, what wasn't more dangerous than this? If we cut out the 3rd person, we can take 3 points each instead of 2. It's a 50% increase in reward for a low increase in danger!"

After considering it, Isaac felt those words were reasonable.

"Okay, but I we'll go in 2 days. If it's just us, I want to consolidate my cultivation so I can be confident in my own strength."

"What if the mission gets taken before then?"

"Even if the mission is accepted, it'll stay on the board for 1 day. If someone with a higher trial score wants to take it, they have priority over the quest and can take it instead of the original person."

"Alright. I'll go with you to accept the mission tomorrow so we can do it the day after."

With Johan's confirmation, Isaac had no reason to stay any longer. He went back to his house intending to meditate for the rest of the day and most of tomorrow.

*************************

Isaac was woken up the next morning by a knocking on his door. Johan wanted to accept the mission early so the 24-hour waiting period would end tomorrow morning and they could start the mission early.

Isaac didn't mind since it meant he could focus on meditation for the rest of the day. Though, cultivation was incredibly boring so he might take some short breaks to practice with his sword.

Thinking this, Isaac quickly made a breakfast he could eat while he walked. After about 5 minutes, they were on their way to the Adventurers' Hall.

The mission board only showed what missions were available. You needed to visit the Adventurers' Hall to actually apply for a mission.

They had to walk further to get there, so Isaac had ample time to finish his breakfast. When he did, he dusted his hands off and looked around. The streets weren't absolutely bustling, but they were quite lively considering the time.

Isaac wondered what other disciples were even doing outside. All there was to do was cultivate at home, take missions and occasionally visit the market: there was no reason to spend lots of time on the street.

Then Isaac remembered how easy it was to burn out when you were doing something. These disciples were years older than Isaac and they had been cultivating for far longer than him. Maybe they were bored by now – maybe their thoughts were occupied by things other than cultivation.

This was a moment of realisation for Isaac: not every cultivator was utterly devoted to cultivation. There was more to their lives – people, places and things that they enjoyed or loved. Isaac had these things too: he loved reading and swordsmanship. Maybe one day he would become like them – distracted and content to enjoy life's smaller pleasures.

However, cultivation was something he had vowed to devote himself to ever since he was a barely literate child. It had become his greatest goal in life ever since he was inspired by tales of history's greatest heroes and demons in the farm library.

He knew that he would grow as a person in the future, but he would make sure he didn't change. He would keep the promise he'd made to himself as a child: that he would become the main character of his own story. A story of his incredible life which would be recorded and passed down through generations, similar to but far greater than the stories he'd read as a boy.

Thinking of this, he closed his eyes and smiled, and engraved the memory of this moment in his heart.

*************************

Isaac and Johan had rather similar handsome and expressive facial features. Even Isaac's short silver hair was a comparable shade to Johan's blonde shoulder length hair. Isaac was just a little taller than Johan, making him look like Johan's elder brother as they walked down the street.

After about 40 minutes of walking, they finally reached the Adventurers' Hall. It was a simple but dignified building with its name written in large black letters above the entrance.

Isaac and Johan entered the hall and joined the short queue for the missions desk. It was soon their turn and Isaac spoke to the middle-aged woman at the desk,

"Hello, Isaac Dahl and Johan..."

"Friberg"

"Johan Friberg would like to apply for a Rank 1, easy difficulty mission."

There were easy, medium and high difficulty missions which were meant for lower stage, middle stage and upper stage cultivators respectively. There was also extreme difficulty for the absolute experts in upper stage.

"Okay. What is the mission number?"

"1984"

The woman at the desk gave them a friendly smile before looking at the metal filing cabinet next to her. She quickly found the correct draw, pulled it out and flicked through some of the files in it. Then she took one of the files, wrote their names under the applicants category and put it in a different pile for missions which had been applied to.

Then she smiled at them again,

"Thank you. Please return tomorrow to hear the result of your application."

Johan nodded while Isaac didn't react. Then the 2 of them left, returning to their respective homes to cultivate and prepare themselves for the mission tomorrow.