Chapter 9: Mercenary Work
In a decadent room of the Li family manor...
A priceless vase shattered against the richly painted wall as Li Daoming angrily tore through his room, smashing every bit of furniture he could get his hands on.
The Li family servants simply stood there with their heads bowed, not daring to make any movement.
"Worthless. All of you are worthless!"
He vented his frustrations on his surroundings, no thoughts given to how expensive everything was. That freakish gorilla had made a fool of him!
How could he be so powerful while still in the Qi Gathering realm?
It should be known that Qi Gathering experts still had trouble circulating their Qi, which greatly reduced their strength and durability compared to those in the Foundation Establishment realm.
Without quick and agile circulation, their strikes wouldn't have enough Qi at the point of impact, and they wouldn't be able to gather Qi quickly enough to block strikes against their own bodies.
So how did that fool take the Zhang brothers' fists like it was nothing? And beat them so handily, as well?
It couldn't be that it was just the power of his physical body?
"...Looks like I'll need to call in some favors."
He calmed down a bit as he thought about how he could teach Ryker a lesson. The more powerful experts of his family wouldn't move for something as trivial as this, but he did have some connections to some itinerant cultivators.
A golden core expert would do just fine. He just had to come up with something tempting enough to get them to make their move...
--
Back at the inn...
{You know, I've been wondering.}
Bestie popped up on Ryker's holoscreen as he was fooling around with his sword in the inn's backyard.
It had been a few days since they had first come to the inn, Ryker receiving free food along with his room, as well as a small stipend of funds. Wang Yuhan also came over every now and then, sometimes to show him more of the city and sometimes for some Q&A sessions.
In the interim, Bestie had familiarized herself with many of Mini C's functions, having fun moving herself through the holoscreens or experimenting with all of the spells in his database.
Mini C just begrudgingly let her do as she pleased, so long as she didn't try to access any critical functions.
{Why are you called Mini C? Is there a 'Big C' out there?} she asked, curiously.
[*That's* what you've been wondering about this whole time?]
Mini C raised a metaphorical eyebrow as he went about analyzing the effects cultivation has had on Ryker's body, so far.
{Well you won't tell me anything about the world you came from!} Bestie said with a pout.
{And Ryker's explanations are always bad!}
"Sorry..."
Ryker rubbed his head with an apologetic smile.
Mini C just sighed, crossing his arms and looking at Bestie in annoyance.
[...'Mini C' is a moniker coined by Ryker, since my appearance and personality are based on my creator, Caelus, who is usually referred to as 'C'] he explained, relenting.
[My official designation is 'Ryker's Arcane Intelligence Support Unit', or R.A.I.S.U for short.]
{R.A.I.S.U? Like rice?} Bestie asked, tilting her head curiously.
"Haha, that's what I said!"
[I also think it's a somewhat silly acronym,] Mini C stated, going back to his analysis task.
{Hm, but this 'Caelus' person must be pretty powerful,} Bestie mused.
{I think you'd have to reach the Ascension realm before you can create new life.}
"Well, not to brag, but C's kind of a genius," Ryker boasted, nodding his head in conclusion, "I'm pretty sure he won some kind of award for it...?"
[And why are *you* bragging about that?] Mini C asked with a wry smile.
[Anyways, I wasn't 'created' in a conventional sense so much as 'copied' from Caelus' consciousness. And feel free to refer to me as you wish.]
{Hm... I like Mini C, it's cute!} Bestie said after some thought.
"Same, same," Ryker agreed, flourishing the sword in his hand and getting ready to run through the movements of the Yujian Sword Art, again.
Before he could return to his sword exercise, however, a voice suddenly sounded from the inn.
"Sir Ryker, good to see that you are well!"
"Hm? Oh, it's the captain!"
Ryker turned to see Long Meiling's stocky guard captain approaching him, dressed in civilian clothes.
"It's been a while," the captain said, giving him a salute.
"Sure has. How's it been?"
"So-so. I believe we've never been formally introduced, so allow me to do so, now," he continued.
"I'm Cheng Hui, Captain of miss Long Meiling's personal guard. An honor to make your acquaintance."
He bowed and saluted again, to which Ryker returned the gesture, though his salute was a little off.
"Uh, Ryker Hartavia. Freeloader, I guess?" he replied with a grin.
"So, what's up? Yuhan not coming today?"
"Yes, she's currently busy on another assignment," Cheng Hui said.
"I've actually come today to ask if you'd be willing to help the young miss with a request."
Ryker dropped the Snow-Rimed Sword back into his dimensional pocket, crossing his arms as he smiled.
"Sure! What'd she need help with?" he asked.
Cheng Hui nodded in thanks, taking a rolled up piece of paper from out of his robe and handing it to Ryker.
"Excellent. The young miss is looking for a Firespike Root, and was hoping you could help her find one. Here's a map of the area we'll be searching in, please familiarize yourself with it."
Ryker took the map and unfurled it, looking over it's contents. It detailed a vast forest with a few bodies of water and rivers interspersed within.
"I'll be going with you to help in the search. We'll be heading out tomorrow," Captain Cheng said.
"Please get some rest before then, and thank you again for your help!"
With that, Cheng Hui gave one final salute, leaving to return to his duties.
[Looks like it's time to pay the piper,] Mini C observed.
[Shall we take this opportunity to try those pills we received from the system?]
"Hell yeah," Ryker said, grinning.
"Oh, let me check if Captain Cheng gave me anything as a system bonus, first."
Ryker lifted his holoscreen, checking his system notifications. They had learned a few things about how the system worked while they were here, most notable being that a person had to introduce themselves or be introduced to him with their full name to be eligible as a 'friend' for the system.
Sure enough, an entry for the captain popped up in his logs:
| Relationship with Cheng Hui became: Favorable |
| Received: Five-Star Shelled Tortoise Egg x 1 |
"Oooh, an egg. Can we hatch it and get a pet?" Ryker wondered aloud, taking the egg out of his storage. It was around the size of an average person's head, and he cradled it in his arms while rubbing it, as if to try and hatch it now.
[Hold it. I have to analyze it, first.]
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
Ryker grumbled and let the egg go, letting it get sucked back into his storage space.
{I don't know why you always have to analyze them, first,} Bestie murmured as Mini C put the egg away, {Everything from the system is totally safe!}
[I'll be the judge of that,] Mini C responded, [I still have my doubts on the intent behind such a convenient arrangement.]
{Booo!}
Bestie stuck her tongue out at him, to which he just gave her a dangerous looking glare, making her lose her nerve.
{W-well, better safe than sorry, I suppose!} She said, letting out a shaky laugh.
Mini C ignored her and took the pills out of Ryker's subspace storage. There were a total of five pills, one Body Tempering Pill and four Qi Gathering Pills, all with perfectly smooth surfaces.
Body Tempering Pill, which would harden the flesh and bones while keeping them pliant and flexible. One would be enough to gain the maximum effect; any more would be redundant.
Qi Gathering Pill, which would increase the cultivation of a Qi Gathering expert by a certain amount. The magnitude of the effect varied based on the user's cultivation method, but it would give an average of a year's worth of cultivation per pill.
[My current analysis suite isn't able to detect anything special about these, but there isn't anything that we know would harm you in them, either,] Mini C reminded Ryker.
[We'll have to see if we can find more information on this 'alchemy' method that was used to create these pills, but they should be safe to consume, for now.]
"So, do I just swallow them?" he asked, holding the small pills in his hand.
[Yes, but--]
Before he could finish his sentence, Ryker popped the pills into his mouth and swallowed. Mini C just gave him a deadpan look, sighing deeply.
[...Not all at once.]
"...Oh."
Ryker shrugged his shoulders sheepishly, making his 'sorry-I-screwed-up' face.
[That's on me for not leading with the warning,] Mini C said in resignation.
[Just brace yourself, I suppose. Our favorite parasite informed me that the Body Tempering Pill would be rather painful to refine, and who knows what the effects of taking in four years of cultivation at once, are.]
{I-I have a name, now, you know...} Bestie trailed off, timidly, twiddling her thumbs together.
[I refuse to refer to you as 'Bestie' for as long as I'm operational.]
{Waah!}
"Huh," Ryker said, looking at his hands that were beginning to glow, "I guess the pills are starting to kick in--"
A sudden pain near his dantian caused him to buckle over, clutching at his stomach. What felt like fire flowed through his veins as the excess qi from the Qi Gathering Pills flooded his body, while at the same time the Body Tempering Pill got to work repeatedly destroying and reforging his flesh and bones, further exacerbating the pain.
All he could do was slowly fall to his knees, eyes watering.
"Oh yeah," he muttered through clenched teeth, shivering as he struggled to endure.
"This is gonna hurt."
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