Lassim walked away from the lightning pools, feeling a mix of anger, frustration, hopelessness and a tinge of guilt.
The Sect Master’s harsh words echoed in his mind, and the intensified storm influenced by Famthar overhead had lessened, leaving only the usual thunderstorm clouds that perpetually hung over the Lightning Sect.
Despite the harsh rebuke, Lassim knew he couldn’t give up. He needed to find a way to advance, whether that be grinding out missions for the next year or getting lucky and coming across another way.
Returning to his quarters, Lassim sat on his ditation mat, trying to clear his mind, but also hide his face a bit. He felt embarrassed to be rebuked so heavily and especially in front of so many other disciples. Though most had dispersed, he had seen a few others had stuck around and watched the whole situation play out.
He was sure there would be more gossip added to his story when people saw him walk through the sect again in the future.
Shaking his head in hopes of letting the embarrassnt fade, he decided to focus on his visualization once more, refining the image of the Leviathan breaking free from its chains. He felt a bit of similarity to the Leviathan in this mont where he wished he had the power to influence and break free from the decisions of others.
He knew his similarity ended there compared to the Leviathan’s eternal punishnt for its slaughter, but he still felt a slight kinship to the beast.
If he couldn’t shatter his soul crystal yet, he could at least ensure his visualization was perfect for when the ti ca.
After around an hour since he began his ditation, he suddenly felt a gentle but insistent pull co from sowhere, like a whisper at the edge of his consciousness. It was faint, almost imperceptible, but it was there. He opened his eyes, interrupted and puzzled.
"Zaphy, Mari, did you feel that?" he asked his elental spirits out loud.
"[Feel what?]" Zaphyrella chirped, her electric tinged voice buzzing from within him.
"[It was like… a faint whisper, or like a pull. Sothing calling to ,]" Lassim explained.
Marinelle’s soothing voice responded, "[I indeed feel slightly sothing pulling towards the south, but it’s as you said—faint.]"
Lassim nodded, but then it seed to stop as he tried to focus on it. Try as he might, it seed to have disappeared fully. He decided he’d pay attention to it again in the future if he could, but he wasn’t sure when that’d be.
Since he was out of his ditation, it was ti for him to make a decision. There was really only one option available to him in the short ti to get access to the God’s Trial realm—grinding missions.
Determined to prove his worth and find a way to advance, Lassim decided to focus on earning rit points for the ti being. If he wanted to earn enough points for next year’s trial, he had to start now to safely secure a position.
He didn’t want to lose hope on other avenues, so he planned to keep his ears open for possible rumors of secret ruins or new discoveries of elental planes that might provide him with a way to advance. He believed that missions might be able to fulfill both tasks at once.
He could accept missions repeatedly that might take him to new places within the Southern Continent or interact with traveling rchants and guards that may have the information he sought.
Leaving his room, he quickly made his way over to the mission hall as discreetly as possible, trying not to draw attention to himself. Yet, he was certain the glances that ca his way had changed slightly and he knew others had already heard what happened. Most of the glances held a tinge of disgust in their eyes when they looked at him.
It seed they also knew he had begged to take the spot of another disciple that earned their place.
He hoped they wouldn’t look down on him if he started doing missions and earning rits.
Arriving at the sect’s mission board section for initiates, it was filled with tasks that required imdiate attention.
Lassim scanned the board, selecting missions that would challenge him physically and ntally, but also earn him a lot of points. The best part was that he was excessively over-powered compared to the requirents for most initiate ranked disciples.
His first mission was a border patrol, a task that required vigilance and endurance in the harsh desert environnt surrounding the sect as the goal was to clear out dangerous beasts along the routes leading to and from the sect. The sect’s purple robed and red accented guards mainly only patrolled within the sect and its adjacent resource areas.
This left the paths to and from the sect and the furthest edges of the sect’s borders open to lots of wild beasts that may cause issues for new disciples traveling or weaker rchants.
This was a similar mission to the bandit hunting mission, the only caveat was that the previous mission had a single target but this one was very open ended and rewards depended on what proof of kills you provided. Lastly, this one was a ti mission that lasted an entire month with no early clearing. He would need to serve the entire mission ti out before he could take the next.
The only benefit was that the more he killed, the more rit points he could earn.
After accepting the mission and leaving the sect, the vast, scorching sands stretched endlessly, and the relentless sun bore down on him. Despite the oppressive heat, Lassim pressed on, determined to complete the task with excellence and earn as many extra points as possible on top of the 30 points he’d receive for serving the ti.
The month-long patrol took him across the endless dunes and rocky outcrops, where he encountered various desert creatures. So were harmless, like the small sand lizards that scurried away at his approach, while others were more dangerous.
He once had to fend off a pack of brown furred desert wolves. The battle was fierce, due to the sheer number in the pack—roughly 60 in total, but Lassim’s skills and decently high cultivation strength despite his apparent level saw him through.
He completed the patrol without incident and earned his first set of rit points. He received the base 30 points and an additional 63 for all the trophies and beast carcasses he brought back. That, plus the 5 he had from his earlier mission, put him at 98 in total.
It was a good mission for escaping the gossip of the sect, but it didn’t really bring him any new information for ways around his dilemma, which he regretted. He was happy to earn so many points, but he decided he’d try and get a position next that would allow him to chat and hear whispers of potential items that he could search out.
His second mission involved assisting as a greeter for an auction house run within the sect. He hadn’t even realized the sect had an auction house, but it was unsurprising since auction houses were so commonplace in the Aurora kingdom. He’d even brokered the relationship for a possible new auction house within his own hotown during the Rohese family party he attended.
This was a short, two day event where he was forced to wear a unique suit and tie provided by the auction house. This had a slightly more involved mission acceptance process at it involved an interview portion to make sure he was able to speak to high profile rchants and nobility without passing out from the stress or sweating like a tomato in the sun.
Thankfully he was raised as a noble, currently a noble of two great families, and had no shyness in talking to strangers.
This event went well, but none of the items sold that event were even remotely divine and none had properties advertised that could possibly be used to weaken a soul crystal. What was extra bizarre to him was that there was a potion that was sold that could strengthen the soul crystal so that the soul dust lasted longer after the shattering.
When used, the soul dust could be more powerful and hold its luster for nearly two hours longer to have more ti to make the constellation perfect. Too bad that was the opposite of what he needed.
This made him first think there may be a potion that could solve his issue, but he mumbled to himself. "...Who would invent a potion to make a soul crystal weaker?"
Ultimately it was unsuccessful in providing him with so information or even a tiny crumb that could lead him to an alternative for his issue. However, this mission did provide him with another whopping 45 points! This was mainly due to most of the sect disciples applying being country bumpkins or crazed battle maniacs that didn’t know or respect the etiquette required of nobility interactions.
This brought his total to 143 rit points as he searched for his next mission.
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