Rising Dragon, Hidden Bean 6

There were only ten students going on the expedition and all of them were first years. You, Pola, and Giro made up a trio, but you spotted Kai, Sedit, Makoya, and even Sunshine.

"Kai is in hut number 1. Makoya lives in 2. Bernor is in number 3," Pola whispered, pointing to Kai with his blond hair and pristine robe then to Makoya who looked rather intimidating in a red flowing dress that didn't hinder her movements, and the third boy was one you had seen around but never talked to.

He was a thin looking teen with dark hair and a small book in hand. He looked aloof and even though some people stood chatting nearby him, he managed to make it look like he had a ten-foot space around him.

"Bernor? He's in my taming class and he's never spoken up," Giro muttered.

"Bernor is from a very rich family like the others, he seems to be focusing heavily on taming, inscriptions, and a few elements," Pola said and you shot her an amazed look.

"Uh... Instructor Kie sometimes talks over tea," she explained quickly.

"Who lives in hut 4 and 5?" you asked and Pola pointed to a boy and a girl.

"That's Loarm Cass-" she began and you snapped your fingers.

"Sunshine! Got it. I know him," you said and Pola looked unsure.

"Sunshine?" she echoed. You blinked at her.

"Sunshine!" you repeated.

"Okay, S-Sunshine lives in hut number 4," Pola stuttered, looking appalled at her own words. Soon, she would accept the wisdom of Instructor Bright. The last person was a girl with a long glare that looked like it would sour milk if she aimed it.

Her robes had their sleeves ripped off and tied around her waist, revealing a series of scars along her arm and powerful muscles. Her hair was an ashy color like smoke coming off fire and she had a strange feel to her Qi.

Most Qi had an element or feeling but no matter how you looked with your Revealing Eyes technique, this girl's aura was devoid of any element. It was jagged and sharp instead.

"Merian Gaspler. She's from a famous weapon clan, but I heard she has an issue so she was sent here as a new disciple instead of being trained at her home," Pola whispered. Just as you were about to ask what the issue was, Instructor Kie appeared and clapped her hands.

"We shall be setting off shortly but for those that do not know or understand, I will quickly go over the nature of the Golden Forest and the Emerald Ring," she said and there was silence in response.

"The ambient Qi in the forest has naturally cultivated itself to a unique property over thousands of years. Paths can warp, directions can switch at a moment's moment, and sometimes parts of the forest vanish completely and only reappear years later. We have lost students in such places. The Roads of Lotus are the only safe passage and most of them are hidden for our use with the exception of the four roads leading out of the forest," Kie lectured.

She turned to the trees just beyond the compound.

"Many dangerous beasts live in these trees and even more dangerous secrets. If you're lucky, you'll find some nice treasure you can sell, if you're unlucky, you'll know about it soon. But as bad as I make it sound, compared to the yellow ring? The Emerald Ring is a paradise," she warned and Pola asked what she meant.

"The Yellow Ring's ambient Qi is so much more pronounced that the powers of the forest are even stronger. Fantastic caves of Spirit Stones guarded by mutated monstrosities. Herbs so miraculous you would be a lord if you could cultivate them, but each of them so intense they'd kill a mortal man if he even sniffed them. Even more odd, is that time itself has been affected. Season storms could wash out of the underbrush places and things so old and powerful that can cause disasters," she concluded.

The yellow ring sounded... interesting.

"I chose... to remain at Iron-rank after a visit to the yellow ring. The resources I need to advance only found there unless I became rich. I lacked the conviction to seek the strength that laid within it. I am at home in the emerald ring and there is no shame in that," Kie said with a smile.

"Power for power's sake is meaningless. A dream or goal is key or your wings of desire will fail when it becomes dangerous," Kie said before she walked towards the gate, beckoning for everyone to follow.

The trip began slowly as you stuck close to Pola and Giro. Instructor Kie quickly took you all off the stable road onto a much thinner dirt path that wound unnaturally for any person to have made.

Walking in the thick Qi forest was disconcerting to your senses because despite your best efforts, you sometimes ended up ten feet from Pola or Giro only to be by their side the next step. The air shimmered in a way only your newly Qi practiced eyes could detect. The only reason the group didn't splinter into different directions was that Instructor Kie's Qi cut through the haze like a spearhead, dispersing the worst of the effects as she passed through.

An hour into the trip, Instructor Kie turned to look at something, causing everyone to do the same. On a tree, a fair distance away, a yellow bird with long elegant tail feathers rested on a branch and you stared as it emanated Light Qi. Its head had a regal swoop of green feathers. It gave a short trill and took off into the mists of Qi.

"Most fortunate. To glimpse a Morning Dew Phoenix is a sign of great luck on a new journey," Instructor Kie said with a smile.

"Is it powerful?" Sedit asked and to your surprise, it was that boy Pola had pointed out that responded, Bernor.

"The Morning Dew Phoenix is a Low Iron-Rank creature. It could kill most of us Stone students without much trouble, but they are not aggressive or territorial," he reported, his voice cool as early frost

Low Iron? Wasn't Instructor Kie Iron ranked?

Still, it was a little intimidating to know such beasts existed but an hour away from the North Compound.

In another burst of travel, in which you had to marvel how your body could keep pace with others on a near constant run, your group emerged from a tree line into a massive open space where a cerulean blue lake glistened as it reflected the sun far above. The way the Instructor had taken the group had you all emerged on a high cliff where signs of previous camps could still be spotted.

From this high up, the lake's shape was almost fully visible. It revealed the lake was actually two lakes separated by a thin curving path. If you squinted, the two lake sides looked like people in the fetal position trying to curl around one another.

"Now, each of you are to bring back at least one material or useful resource to the sect. Anything extra may be submitted for points or to keep for yourself. If you need guidance you may seek me out or hand your items to Pola here," Kie said and Pola tried to sink into the ground as everyone stared at her.

"You aren't going to show us where to go?" someone asked and Kie smiled, a bit oddly.

"I shall stop any of you all from experiencing a most harsh death from inexperience," she said and sat on a rock as if to meditate.

"The requirement for this little trip," Kai Winters spoke up as he began to descend the hill, "was for each of us to be able to seek out basic resources. Do you expect the instructor to tuck you in at night as well?" he said with a scoff.

Pola mouthed 'good luck' to you and Giro before she began setting up containers for the materials that would be coming in along with fresh water and snacks for the other students.

You and Giro paired up as other students did the same.

Kai and Makoya had even formed a four-way group with Sunshine, and Bernor.

"No guessing which group is going to get the highest amount of points," Giro mused, not looking too bothered.

"There aren't any actual groups. They'll need to split their gains four-ways which evens it out," you said calmly.

Before long, you and Giro decided to get some Lakeside Hops. You got close to the lake and watched as another student who you didn't know the name of walked over a patch of bare dirt between two bushes.

You snatched the back of his robe with lightning-like reflexes as the soil burst forth with a dozen Blood Snapper heads right where the boy was going to put his foot. In the distance, Instructor Kie had one foot off her rock before she slowly sat back down.

"What are those!" the boy squeaked.

"Blood Snappers and quite mature. Some of those heads are practically bursting with Snapper juice. I think this is a Prime Snapper! They're the biggest and meanest Snappers around and can swallow a man in seconds or other beasts," you said excitedly as the boy turned pale.

You moved closer, moving in between the savage attack of the plant as your eyes locked on to the juiciest heads. There were well over a hundred little snappers but you stunned it with a sharp kick to the ground at its core-root.

While stunned, your hands moved like a blur and you leapt back in a single motion, hands filled with Snapper Heads.

There was something else and once you bagged the heads, (chewing one for the delicious taste) you stared at the weird little blue round stone that emerged from the plumpest Snapper head.

The boy you had saved went bugged eyed and got on his knees.

"Senior brother! Please, I'll trade you all my merits for next month if you give me that stone!" he said with wide-eyes.

"What-" you began but someone snorted.

"Talk about cheap. That's Middle Stone-Rank Water Qi Stone. It costs 50 Merits in the store to just buy," Sedit said as he strolled over, a massive dead fish with craggy stone-like fangs emerging from its pink mouth.

At your glance, he pondered something.

"You're not like Winters or others. You're not a bad sort. So, I'll tell this for free," he said and the boy on the ground glared at Sedit.

"I could have gotten that stone for cheap," he accused Sedit who glared back and made the kid go quiet.

"Qi stones come in elemental form and pure form. Using one to cultivate improves your result, doubly so if it's your innate element. It has limited uses so it's a bit of a waste. A lot of really good alchemy potions and Inscription equipment needs materials like that stone there," Sedit said and smirked.

"Of course, you still need the recipes, the skills, and the practice to make use of the stone. Maybe you should sell it, some people like to blame anyone but themselves for their lack of progress in their cultivation," Sedit said and walked past the pale boy on the ground.

Sedit was a little weird. You didn't think he spoke up so much to explain things to you compared to being willing to expose a suck up.

Gained x10 Snapper Heads.
Gained x 1 Middle Stone-Rank Water Qi Stone.

Giro and you soon walked the lake side, eventually coming upon what looked like bushes of plants in the shallow shores of the lake that grew up with drooping pollen-laden flowers that shimmered with an amber color.

You began to harvest a few of them, spotting another student curiously sniffing one on the safety of the shore and their balance rapidly going out the window as their friend had to catch them from tumbling on their butt.

"Look, that's some ripe Hops!" Giro said as he waded over to a bushel that occasionally bobbed on its own. Thankfully, you had Instructor Bright's warning in mind so you grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Salmon," you said quickly at his puzzled expression.

As if it heard you, a shadow darted from the roots of the plant to the dark depths of the lake. It seemed the fish were ambush predators, much like the Blood Snappers on land. With some careful checking, you helped Giro collect another bunch of hops.

While you ruined the first few you tried to harvest, you soon learned the trick was to pinch the flower and twist sharply for a clean removal.

Lakeside Hops x 8 gained.

Lakeside Hops Mastery: 1 of 3 gained! A medicinal flower that dulls the senses if inhaled raw. Always get at least 5 when harvesting.

"We could try getting some Concentrated Clay? I saw some people harvesting from that small cliff under the camp hill," Giro offered and you saw the day was still young. You could easily do another three activities like this before you had to hand anything in.

You let Giro gather on his own for a moment as you took a look around the area with your Revealing Eyes, trying to see what 'stood' out with more potent Qi.

At first, you only spotted a few interesting plants that looked picked by others, but suddenly you took another Snapper head to chew on and as if a fog lifted.

The world expanded and you turned as if magnetized to a certain direction. Just where the lake's shallow waters turned murky and deep, a blazing unmoving aura of Qi was hidden beneath the waves. You couldn't tell anything about it other than it was quite unique. Bringing out your wooden scythe and carefully moving closer to a murky part of the lake that was devoid of any hops so no other student had explored this part. You jabbed the area, but despite shifting the aura with a few bumps, the thing didn't react.

Hesitating only for a moment, you reached in and plucked the item, pulling your hand out of the water to reveal a golden ring amongst the muck and dirt.

"May I see that?" Kie's voice said from behind you and you turned in surprise to see her standing on the shore with a curious expression. You didn't see any issue so you handed the ring over and she held it on a special cloth.

"You have excellent eyes. I didn't spot this amongst the large Qi auras of the lake. Forgive me, but this isn't anything to be concerned with it seems," she mused and turned it over once or twice before she channeled Qi through it.

On the side, letters that looked awfully like Inscription shone for a moment, but it was partial and incomplete.

"A Lover's Ring. It has a partner somewhere in the lake. It's an old tradition that those who wish to bind their souls together make matching rings and toss one into each side of the lake. Once brought together, the word on the rings will reveal a secret," Kie passed it back with an amused look.

"This one has an Inscription spell on it. Looks like a partial Wind Barrier Inscription tool. Might be worth your time to find the other ring," Kie said and you eyed the ring for a moment.

"Should I take the ring? Feels a little disrespectful," you admitted.

"When a ring washes up on the shore it means the souls bound together called it quits. Even the most devoted couples might get a bit bored after two or five hundred years together," she laughed and walked off to help someone who was arguing with a salmon.

You eyed the ring that looked to be made for a slightly larger finger.

"You got dumped," you said with a pitying tone.

Gained: Wind-Crossed Lovers Ring: +1 Wind Rank while Equipped.
Four rings may be worn at any one time.

Once you showed Giro what you found, Giro's own hands covered in a wet dirt that tingled to your senses, you both agreed to look for some Snake Vines. The issue was that they blended in very well with normal vines and you would have completely missed the first signs of the Coiling Snake Vines that Bright had taught you.

Near the base of a tree, a rabbit stumbled about, its milky eyes unmoving as it seemed to be trying to make itself as appealing as possible to a predator. Once you pointed it out, Giro got ready to draw out the actual vine as he threw some meat near the rabbit and you noticed the meat was dusted with something.

"I noticed how those Hops affected others, I wondered if the vines would also be affected," he explained as something from the tree above began to shift and struck at the meat. The creature did look like a normal vine, once it began moving 'segments' of its body bent, revealing a dark red flesh under the green.

It pulled back as the meat seemed to confuse it. The rabbit corpse toppled over as the vine escaped its body and rejoined the main body. After a moment, your eyes went wide as the vine fell out of the tree in a manner like coiling rope.

The thing had to be easily twelve feet long with leaf-like protrusions.

You looked around in a distant tree, another snake vine was visible and if you were looking right, it was well over fifteen feet. These plants were not small things.

"I asked Instructor Weo Jung and he said they don't actually have any means of harming us once they fall out of the tree. They depend on strangulation to kill while their prey is confused," Giro explained as he hauled the Snake Vine away from the tree and into the open where people began to stare.

"It doesn't have a head?" you asked as you studied the creature up close. Both ends of the vine looked identical, but there was no 'mouth'.

"It waits until its food rots and then it eats the nutrients out of the soil which also help grow fruit which draw in herbivores which it strangles and puppets which lets it trick bigger predators that rots into the soil," Giro said brightly as if he found the plant cool.

"It's a giant intestine, really," he added as he grabbed one drunken end and got comfort as he prepared to open his Dantian to tame the creature.

You suppose if it could create a cycle, all Giro had to do was plant some meat in the soil and let it rot...

Snapford required fresh blood everyday.

Giro clearly had a talent for taming because in no time flat, he had the Coiling Snake Vine dancing and swaying to him, a string of Qi forming between the two.

"Your name shall be Shadow Knot'," he intoned.

...You would need to teach Giro how to name things.

It could have been Whipper or Shakeysnakey or Sir Hugsalot.

Still, this taught you a lot about the species as a whole!

Coiling Snake Vine: Mastery 1 of 3: Lowers the DC from escaping these plants ambush from 10 to 4.

Needing to get a few for the expedition, you found another vine and managed to get it to strike a rock you threw before you reached out and yanked hard on the vine, pulling it free of the tree as it struggled, writhing in your hands to try and get some of its body around your neck, but without the leverage of a branch, it didn't do much more than leave a bruise on your arm.

You hit more than a few times with your scythe before it stopped moving entirely.

You were about to study it when you noticed the trees around you suddenly 'grew' vines all around you so you took your prize and went back to hand it in, not knowing how to prepare it yourself.

X1 Average Snake Vine handed in. Rewards to be added to end of expedition.

Not wanting to get too far from the group, you returned to study the Lakeside Hops again, interested in them after Giro's usage of them. You collected another few and spotted Makoya nearby, turning a bunch of them into a wreath as if she wasn't really bothered about handing anything in.

She looked oddly lonely at that moment but when she saw you looking, she walked off without a word.

Odd girl.

Instead, you turned back to the hops where you studied how the pollen was produced at a very wasteful amount, but the plant didn't seem to be suffering for it. You frowned and rubbed the pollen between your fingers where it smeared like grease.

You found a smaller bushel and pulled it completely out to examine the roots and found the same 'pollen' exploding out of the lakebed where it obscured all vision of the bottom in a cloud. You dug around and found the 'bulbs' of the roots were like sacs and you ruptured quite a few.

The pollen in the bulb smelled more rotten, like sulfur.

You now smelled quite like a corpse!

Lakeside Hop mastery 2 of 3: This plant produces flowers and bulb sacs. This plant feeds off a mixture of dead tiny creatures in the lake and a subterranean supply of some unknown mineral that is inert in the water. If injured, the plant releases a pungent smell to attract a swarm of Rocktooth Salmon.

You stared out at the lake as the surface of the water began to churn messily and a dozen Rocktooth Salmon surged forth with eagerness. But they were upended as a much larger form broke the surface.

A thing that looked like a horse with the tail of a fish and the head of a long-snout lizard rushed at you, mouth already filled with half-chewed salmon. Its gray mottled skin was only less distracting than the horrible smell of something like a sealed barrel of rotting fish.

It was fast, like a blur that parted the waves. It wasn't drawn here by the plant it seemed, more a bad luck case of the salmon sending it into a frenzy. It had its massive jaws open like an animal trap on either side of your body before you could even take a single step.

Then its head was gone. There one second and simply gone the next.

A spray of grayish blood filled the lake and oddly smelled like perfume. Instructor Kie stood at your side, a massive guandao in one hand. It looked a little like a giant ink brush, but the 'brush' was drinking deep of the sweet blood like it was thirsty.

"These shouldn't be here. Extra credit for discovering an irregularity with the lake," Kie said and gently led you back to the shore where others were staring with awe and some shock.

"What was that?" you asked and the instructor looked back to see the body was already being torn apart by other fish.

"A Youma. Nasty things, they are also known as 'Child Takers'. They usually haunt rivers for prey," she said quietly.

"Is it an animal?" you had to ask and she shook her head.

"No animal hunts for the sole purpose of inflicting pain and watching others suffer. These are monsters," she said and called an end to the expedition.

---
X1 coiling snake vine corpse.
X10 Ripe Blood Snapper heads.
X5 Lakeside Hop flowers.
X1 student saved.
X1 mystery revealed.

Rewards:
Inner Soul Flow Technique: 0 of 5. A sea of consciousness technique that allows one to mimic flowing water to improve their mental clarity. Requires Water rank 1 to use. Improves sea and water to a max of rank 2.

A Curving Grass Sword: Sword: Low Stone-Rank: Adds +1 to all attack rolls. If the foe is a plant, this sword has increased defense cutting powers. It has a single Inscription on the side. Requires Sword 1 to use. Requires Inscription 2 to study.

1 Mistwood Pill: Adds +5 to the next two cultivation roll for any training under rank 2. If water innate nature, it is +6. (Does not add to the training result, only the training roll)

Rankings:
1: Sedit
2: Kai Winters
3: Dei Nhatz.
4: Makoya
5: Loarm Sunshine

On the way back, Pola looked extremely flustered by something. Giro eventually let you in on the secret with a smile.

"She accidentally dropped one of the top 5's resources into the lake when they were rude to her. I heard it had some pretty good Concentrated Clay gems and might have affected the rankings," Giro grinned.

"I didn't meddle with the rankings. Senior Dei didn't need such underhanded help," Pola said, looking red-faced now.

"Aren't you stronger than him? Why is he senior?" Giro blinked and Pola looked down at the ground, face devoid of emotion as she recalled something.

"I saw him eat two of those snappers in ten minutes. I can only bow to such strength," she whispered.

Aw, you didn't mean to hold out on her. You presented the biggest and most juiciest snapper head you found on the trip to Pola who looked at it with amazement and something that looked a little like terror...

No, must be excitement!

"I c-couldn't possibly," she tried to decline but you insisted!

Your friends would never go without their daily healthy snacks.

Giro nibbled once, looking bemused but unaffected by their fantastic taste. Pola slowly bit into a corner and her face turned white from the sheer energy.

She even began to walk so fast she ducked around trees and swigged three bottles of water!

"I wished I liked them as much as she did," you told Giro with a smile.

"Mhm..." was all your friend said back.