Chapter 6: True Cultivators
The tavern was bustling; several squads were celebrating their victories in the competitions. Wines were flowing, and cups being raised. With the constitution of cultivators the fermented beverages were akin to flavoured water, and the cultivators of all ages would drink them as such. Among the many groups one particularly excited group was celebrating their first victory in the arena.
Caput raised his cup in the air, "to Caminus, for his courageous defense." Everyone finished their drink and poured another round.
"To Proeli, and his excellent attack plan."
After finishing the second cup Caminus looked over, "What is this plan, how did you manage to defeat them so fast?"
Caput looked excited to tell the story, "We were rushing at the 6 who remained behind on defense, when they used joint defensive techniques to summon two walls. The first was a fire wall which would have stopped or slowed down our charge enough that I would have lost the momentum. The second was a wall of rock, and without momentum I would not have been able to crush it. Right before we stopped to make a plan or go around, Proeli yelled out at us all. He ordered Belli to use her wind sphere to clear me a path and then ordered Dolor to charge forward on his signal, ignoring the walls, and to pick two targets on the left to strike with his axes. Belli's wind sphere gave us enough time to continue past the wall of fire, and I didn't lose momentum. With full momentum I crushed the rock wall and there were Proeli and Dolor jumping through the wreck as it fell. I could see the shock on the faces of the opposing team and kept charging towards the middle of their front line. With how we struck, 4 of us occupied 5 of them and it was a 5 versus 1 for the package, which was no problem. Proeli saved us a lot of hassle with that order."
"Proeli? I thought you just liked to fight, who would have thought you had a head for strategy."
Proeli shrugged, "I like to fight, so I learned to fight smart, no point in dying young."
Dolor raised his cup, "I will fight by your side anytime Proeli!"
Belli watched them embrace, "a pair of battle maniacs."
They continued on for a while, celebrating their win, before eventually preparing to leave. As they were leaving Belli held Caminus back, "Caminus, are you sure you want to continue with this plan? To raise your fame so quickly?"
"Yes, it's the best way to noticed by an elder of the sect; stand out in the group fights and solo fights at stone level and then complete high profile missions after reaching bronze level. It is the usual way for those with such aspirations."
Belli had a concerned look, "It is the usual way, but not for those who cultivate the heart of the mountain. If you haven't noticed, most of the sect members do not cultivate the heart of the mountain, it is usually only a select few, and the elders almost never take them in," Belli looked around carefully before continuing in a quieter voice, "at the higher levels of cultivation within the kingdom there is a group that calls themselves the True Cultivators, they oppose the cultivation of the heart of the mountain. If you stand out too much and do not have a strong backing they will try to kill you, or at the least cripple your cultivation. It would be a much safer path for you to lay low in the sect and when you get strong enough, leave and join the King's army. Becoming a disciple of the mountain you would be able to find a good place for yourself."
While joining the King's army, and becoming a disciple of the mountain, would be safer, Caminus would not be free to leave the kingdom as he chose, and he had plans to leave before ascending the planet. While the True Cultivators were a problem, running from the elite disciples of the mountain would be a more difficult problem.
Caminus looked straight back at Belli with a serious look, "I have my reason for staying out of the King's army. What about you, knowing that we may have to deal with meddling from the True Cultivators, are you still willing to go ahead with the plan?"
Belli gave Caminus a smile, "Definitely, I welcome the challenge. I wouldn't pass up such an excellent opportunity. The True Cultivators will only be after you anyway, I only risk being collateral damage."
The next day Caminus went to the individual competitions. He was given two options, to sign up for the training tier, or ranking tier. The training tier was for those who wanted to put more emphasis on practicing techniques and the fighters could select opponents and fight the same opponent for multiple rounds with the supervision of silver level members to ensure no one got hurt; the fighters would test a lot of explosive, uncontrolled, or corruption type techniques and without supervision it could lead to deaths or serious injuries. The ranking tier was for those who wanted to compete for the arena rankings which granted rewards, the fights would be more intense, the only limitation would be that corruption, and uncontrolled techniques were not allowed as they could lead to death or long term injuries. Caminus chose the ranking tier, he was after fame.
The ranking tier allowed for multiple battles each day, with the number of stone level members it would take too long to get proper rankings if there was a limit of one fight per day. As long as you were not too injured and there was still enough daylight left you could sign up for more fights, the officiating of these matches was done by iron level sect members and they continued for the two full days. The matchmaking was controlled so that similarly ranked individuals would be matched up, and Caminus' first match showed this:
Caminus stepped into the ring, his opponent wielded a spear. The trumpet blared and the battle began, Caminus charged his opponent. The spear was thrust; Caminus grabbed it and closed the distance. Grabbing his opponent's throat with his other hand, his opponent surrendered.
After winning the first match, Caminus signed up for another. Having won the previous fight his next fight would be with a higher ranked opponent. Although he could quickly sign up, the number of officials for the matches was limited and he had to wait through several other fights before he could begin his. Caminus fought another 4 victories before the day ended. After the matches Caminus made way to check the updated rankings to see where that had brought him; out of the 2197 stone level members, 2156 had participated in ranked fights and he ranked 1882 for now.
In the inner areas of the sect a few iron level sect members gathered. They were some of the officials from the individual competitions. After waiting for a while and confirming that they were alone silver level sect member walked in with an air of authority, "report!"
One of the officials spoke up, "There were only a couple notable rising false cultivators, the King's daughter and that Caminus. We can't touch the King's daughter, but that nobody, we need to hinder his rise. Tomorrow, we will pit him against that liquid metal guy ranked 1300."
Another spoke up, "Out of the new sect members there were 3 yellow level cultivators, all following true paths. I scouted the first and he should agree with our cause, the second seems to be motivated by profit, and the third, as you know, is already aligned with the disciples."
A third official spoke up, "There is no one we need to add to the watch list from the existing members. Capra is continuing his upward path and should reveal more of his new strength tomorrow, and Piscator's technique seems to form an invisible net that should be able to trap even a green level cultivator for a few seconds, I recommend further action on this case."
The silver level member considered the reports for a moment before ordering, "Don't touch the third daughter, or her guard. Continue with your plan for the other false cultivator, the disciples have been growing too strong lately; we need to crush the spirit of this new false cultivator. Of the yellow level cultivators, we should pull in the first, treat the second as a mercenary; don't tell him who we are, just throw him a couple missions here and there to get him used to our pay. Move forward on Piscator, I have a place where his particular skills could be useful. I want a further report on Capra and the false cultivator tomorrow. Dismissed!"
The cultivators dispersed and the meeting place became silent as if nothing had happened there.
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