The morning sun was already high in the sky as Alex strode out of the Quest Hall, a fresh pouch of spirit stones and contribution points. Inside, the clerk he had spoken to the night before watched him go, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Finished two of them already?" she muttered to the empty counter. "Took him less than two days. That boy is either a genius or completely insane."
Outside, Alex found a quiet spot under a plum blossom tree and pulled out his two remaining quest parchments, the ink still crisp.
Quest 1: Eliminate the aggressive Glimmerwing Finches at the Western Orchards.
Quest 2: Subdue the matriarch Stone-Shelled Tortoise, disrupting the river flow.
He traced the simple map on the tortoise quest with his finger. The Silverstream River flowed down from the mountains to the north-east, snaking its way past the sect before feeding the farmlands. The finches, on the other hand, were plaguing the fruit orchards on the far western edge of the sect's territory. The two locations were on opposite sides of the mountain.
'Okay, two problems, two different directions,' he thought, his mind already working like a logistics manager from one of his old part-time jobs. 'Going back and forth from the cabin is a waste of time. But if I head to the river first, I can follow it downstream and then cut west across the foothills. That path leads directly to the back of the orchards. A big, efficient circle. Minimum travel time, maximum beast-slaying.'
He chuckled to himself. 'Look at me, planning my route like a supernatural exterminator. My old manager would give me a raise for this efficiency… actually, probably not.'
With his plan set, he tucked the finch quest away and started the journey northeast. The path was less travelled than the one to the southern farms, winding through bamboo groves and past quiet meditation clearings where senior disciples sat in silent contemplation. The air was cool and filled with the gentle sound of rushing water long before he saw the river itself.
The Silverstream was not a gentle brook. It was a powerful, twenty-foot-wide torrent of churning white water, its banks lined with smooth, grey stones the size of his head. But as he reached the spot marked on his map, the roar of the water faded into a strange, gurgling trickle.
The sight was jarring. The riverbed was a wide, ugly scar of damp, cracked earth and exposed, algae-covered rocks. A pathetic stream of water, no wider than his arm, was all that remained.
'This is worse than a simple disruption,' he thought, his earlier lightheartedness evaporating. 'This thing is starving the farms downstream.' He followed the trickle of water upriver, and in a few hundred paces, he found the culprit.
It was a boulder. A massive, moss-covered, breathing boulder that was wedged perfectly between the two narrowest points of the riverbank, creating a near-perfect dam. The Stone-Shelled Tortoise was even bigger than the quest description implied, its shell easily ten feet across, a dome of dark, scar-covered stone that looked like a piece of the mountain had broken off and come to life. The trickle of water was just what managed to seep around its colossal frame.
Alex stood on the bank for a long moment, sizing up the problem. The quest was to "subdue" it, which he took to mean "get it to move." Killing it would leave him with the herculean task of trying to break apart and move a ten-ton stone carcass.
'Okay, Plan A: ask nicely,' he thought, only half-joking.
He hopped down onto the rocks and approached the massive shell. "Hey!" he called out. "Big guy! You're blocking traffic here. Mind moving it along?"
The only response was the sound of trickling water.
'Alright, Plan B: assertive persuasion.' He walked up to the shell and pushed. It was like trying to shove a mountain. Nothing happened. He pushed harder, channeling Qi into his arms, his Ironbone-forged muscles straining. The shell didn't budge a millimeter.
He let out a frustrated grunt and gave the shell a solid, echoing kick.
That got its attention.
Faster than anything that large had a right to move, a head shot out from the shell. It wasn't a normal tortoise's head. It was a vicious, beaked maw on a long, leathery neck, like a snapping turtle from his old world that had been fed nothing but growth hormones and anger. The beak snapped shut with a deafening CRACK, missing his leg by inches.
Alex scrambled backward, his heart hammering in his chest. 'Okay, so talking and kicking are out. Good to know.'
The tortoise's head, its eyes small, black, and full of ancient malice, remained out of its shell, tracking his movements. It was waiting, daring him to come closer.
He needed a way to force it to move without getting his leg bitten off. He thought back to the badger fight, to the wild, uncontrolled blast of his experimental technique. It had been clumsy, but the idea was sound. He needed ranged firepower.
He backed up, giving himself plenty of space. He raised his hand, channeling the pale green wind Qi in the air, compressing it into a shimmering, unstable ball at the tip of his finger. He aimed for the center of the shell. 'This time, focus on the rotation. More spin, more penetration.'
He fired. The wind bullet shot forward with a sharp hiss and struck the shell dead center. It didn't explode. Instead, it dissipated with a pathetic poof, barely strong enough to blow the moss off the stone.
The tortoise just stared at him, its expression a perfect mixture of reptilian boredom and contempt. Alex could almost hear it thinking, 'Was that it?'
'Okay, that was embarrassing,' Alex thought, his cheeks flushing. 'Not enough power, I need to add a bit more oomph.' He tried again. This time, he poured more Qi into the vortex, making the ball denser, tighter. He fired again.
WHOOSH! The second shot was stronger, striking the shell with a solid thwack. It still didn't leave a scratch.
The tortoise let out a low, rumbling hiss, a sound of profound annoyance. It was done waiting. Its massive, tree-trunk-like legs began to shift, preparing to move, not to leave, but to attack.
'It's not about just pushing air,' Alex realized, a flash of insight from his countless hours of alchemy hitting him. 'It's about balance and structure! Like weaving ingredients in a cauldron!' He didn't just need a cannonball of wind like Kai Jin he needed a bit more finesse.
He had one last chance before the beast was on him. He raised his hand, but this time, he didn't just gather the wind Qi. He used his other affinities as a guide. He pictured the unyielding stability of Earth Qi, using it as a mental framework to give the wind a solid, piercing core. He visualized the fluid, swirling power of Water Qi to make the outer layers spin faster, more cohesively. He even added a spark of Fire Qi's explosive intent to give it a payload.
The air around his fingertip warped. The shimmering ball of wind was no longer just a ball. It was a tight, spiraling cone, its tip so compressed it glowed with a faint, white light. It spun with a high-pitched whine, a miniature hurricane ready to be unleashed.
The tortoise lunged, its beaked maw open wide.
Alex fired.
There was no hiss this time, only the sound of tearing air. The wind drill shot across the riverbed and struck the tortoise's shell, not with a thwack, but with a high-pitched, grinding screech.
The spinning cone didn't dissipate. It burrowed. Cracks, like a spiderweb on glass, exploded across the seemingly impenetrable shell from the point of impact. The tortoise froze mid-lunge, a look of pure shock on its face. It let out a pained, gargling roar and immediately retracted its head and limbs into its shell.
It stayed there for a long, tense minute. Then, with a low, mournful groan, the massive creature began to move. It didn't charge. It turned, slowly and deliberately, and began to lumber its way downstream, a clear gesture of surrender. The giant wanted no more of the tiny, annoying creature that could break its unbreakable defense.
As the tortoise lumbered away, the dam broke. A roaring torrent of water surged through the freed riverbed, the sound a triumphant return to life.
Alex watched it go, a wide, disbelieving grin spreading across his face. He looked down at his hand, then back at the retreating tortoise.
"Holy shit," he said to the empty riverbank. "That actually worked?"
He stood there for a long moment, the roar of the freed river filling the air, his mind replaying the final moments of the encounter. He finally did it, after trying to forcefully recreate what Kai Jin's move unsuccessfully he finally made something completely his own. Using the principle of Earth for a stable core, the motion of Water for the spiraling rotation, and the intent of Fire for the explosive impact. It was alchemy, but with combat. A new door had just been blown wide open in his mind.
He let out a short, exhilarated laugh. The frustration was gone, replaced by a thrumming, electric excitement. He had so much to practice, so much to learn.
Shaking his head to clear it, he refocused on the task at hand. One quest remained. He turned from the now-thriving river and began his journey west, following its downstream path as the sun began its descent, casting the foothills in a warm, golden light.
The terrain shifted as he traveled. The smooth, grey stones of the riverbank gave way to rolling hills covered in tall, sun-baked grass. By the time twilight began to paint the sky in shades of deep violet, he could smell his destination on the breeze, the sweet scent of ripe fruit.
He arrived at the Western Orchards as the sun was beginning to set. It should have been a peaceful place, but it wasn't. The neat rows of plum and pear trees were scarred. Branches were stripped bare, and half-eaten, pecked-apart fruit littered the ground in a sticky, rotting mess.
And then he heard it. Not the gentle chirping of songbirds, but a cacophony of sharp, metallic calls, like a thousand tiny bells being struck discordantly. He looked up. In the twilight gloom, he could see them, dozens of shimmering, iridescent forms flitting between the branches, their wings glinting in the fading light. The Glimmerwing Finches.
Alex stood at the edge of the orchard, the scent of ruined fruit thick in the air, the grating chorus of the finches echoing around him. He pulled the final quest parchment from his ring looking it over one last time. His work here was not yet done.
He took a deep breath, a grimly determined smile on his face.
"Alright," he murmured to the gathering dark. "Time to deal with the pests."