Early in the morning, I head to the Phoenix Guild’s camp. They’ve been quick in setting up a camp: the tents have already been laid out, and logs have been dragged around a fire to serve as makeshift stools. The adventurers are gathered around the fire; Vofola is cooking something above the fire pit. Lucien is the first to see me, breaking into a smile and waving enthusiastically. 

“Hey!” Lucien greets me. “Do you want to eat breakfast with us?”

“I would love to,” I say, sitting down. It’s nice that they have American food, which I’ve missed for a long time. Vofola plates some scrambled eggs and sausage, and hands it to me. 

“So what are you doing today?” Lucien asks around a mouthful of food. “How long do you train with your teacher?”

“It depends on the day,” I reply. “Sometimes he lectures us for a minute and then lets us do whatever we want for the rest of the day and sometimes he works us from dawn to dusk.”

“Your teacher sounds eccentric,” Alduin, ever the pessimist, scowls. “I wouldn’t want to learn from such a fickle person.”

“He’s actually not that bad,” I say. I’m actually quite curious about how their magic system works, so I ask, “What about you? Do each of you have a specific role in the guild?”

“Yes,” Vofola says. “Well, we each have roles assigned to us based on our specialities, but we don’t always stick to them. I’m the blacksmith, but I also double as a mechanic, cook, and sometimes I use a machine gun to mow down our enemies.”

“Wait, machine guns exist in this world?” I’m thoroughly confused. I had thought that they were only invented in the late 19th century, which is nowhere close to this time period. 

“Of course they do,” Alduin says, rolling his eyes. “Do you not know anything about Anglia?”

“Anyways, Lucien is a warrior, Alduin is a sorcerer, Horacio is a marksman and Perrine is a tank,” Vofola continues on hastily. 

“Perrine is a tank?” I repeat, looking over at Perrine’s thin form. She’s not even wearing any armor, and the shield she has is barely big enough to cover her torso. Her clothing isn’t even fit for battle. Perrine is wearing the type of clothing you’d wear to a party: tank top, short skirt, decorative boots. Tanks in video games are usually tall buff dudes who can take all the damage that is thrown on to them; essentially, they’re a human shield that everyone else hides behind. 

“She’s not a typical tank,” Lucien laughs, noticing my confusion. “Perrine has this ability where she can dodge everything, and the thing that’s been dodged can’t hit anyone behind her either. And her shield can absorb magic damage. You’ll understand when you see it.”

“Huh. Nice to know,” I say, somewhat reassured. “How do your magic systems work anyways? I know you don’t have qi cores to cultivate from.”

Lucien pulls out a thin card from his cloak. On it is a picture of him, his name, and several bars that are partially filled in. “For one, we have guild cards. There’s a magic device that determines our speed, intelligence, strength, magic, luck, and other things.”

“Everyone wants to be part of a reputable guild,” Perrine adds. “That way, it’s easier to rank up.”

“Rank up?” I ask.

“Yeah, there are different ranks: F, D, C, B, A, and S. Everyone starts out at D rank, but if they mess up really badly they fall to F rank, which basically ends their career as an adventurer. The Westlands Guild Association determines the ranks though, and they can be bought off, so it really isn’t a determinant of strength.”

“Lucien was a D rank adventurer when he defeated the Obsidian Prince,” Vofola explains. “But he leveled up really high.”

“The actual way we measure strength is through levels,” Perrine explains. “Every time you kill a monster, you get XP and it levels you up. When you level up, more items you find in guild raids are available to use and you can unlock more abilities.”

“So basically this is just a RPG system,” I murmur.

“What’s a RPG?” Lucien asks. 

“Never mind.”

Lucien continues on. “Anyways, our guild is A rank, so it’s pretty high up on the list. There aren’t many S ranked guilds since that depends on the majority of your guild being S rank, which is really hard to earn. You have to defeat a big threat or monster in order to get it.”

“So did you earn S rank for defeating the Obsidian Prince?” I ask. 

“Lucien is S rank, and everyone else is A rank,” Vofola says. “Alduin is the informal A+ rank though, since he was there when Lucien defeated the Obsidian Prince.” 

“Really?” I ask, surprised.

“Yeah, I was,” Alduin says dismissively. “Anyways, Lucien fought the Prince by himself, so it doesn’t really matter anyways. I was just there to clean up some of the minions.”

 “Cool,” I say. Their magic system sounds much more like it’d be in a light novel than the cultivation system that’s basically a standard wuxia plot element. I guess that’s to be expected, because the light novel seemed to be originally set in Anglia. 

Suddenly, all five members wince and close their eyes. 

“What’s happening?” I ask in confusion.

Lucien opens his eyes again. “Once in a while, the Guilder’s Association sends us some messages to update us that appear in our mind. But they don’t usually hurt as much.”

“They must be really angry,” Horacio remarks. “I can almost hear the inquisitor's yelling.”

After seeing my confusion, Perrine explains, “When you register to become an adventurer you get an implant that lets you see your rank, XP, and messages and also lets you store your loot from raid battles, among other things.”

“And the Guilder’s Association can also send messages through the implant. Usually it’s stuff about new threats or stuff that’s sent to everyone. They don’t usually directly contact you,” Vofola adds.

“Why did they have to yell at us so much?” Alduin complains. “We’re the only guild actively trying to stop Vindicta and they think there’s a problem?”

“Exactly!” Vofola agrees. “They said, ‘Roaming out of quest zones to pursue a non-adventurer associated organization goes against the conduct of the Guilder’s Association. Please return immediately.’ but a thousand times louder than the tone I’m using right now. We’re literally doing this to stop the organization that wants to take over the Guilder’s Association!”

“Well, we’ll just have to ignore them,” Lucien says, cheerful demeanor back again. 

Alduin blanches. “You’re just going to let them off for yelling at you? You’re the hero of the entire Westlands. Just yell at them back or something.”

“Well, what else would you want me to do? They obviously won’t listen to us anyways. Yelling at them will only give them more incentive to bother us,” Lucien replies serenely.

Alduin contemplates this for a moment, before flipping his hand. “Whatever. If that’s what Mr. Hero of Light wants, I guess.”

“I’m so glad we came to an agreement,” Lucien smiles blithely.

By this point, everyone has finished their breakfast. I stand up. “I need to go back to Master Xia for our training today.”

“Go ahead. We’ll see you later!” Perrine chirps. “Also, isn’t Lisu also training with Xia? Can you bring her with you next time?”

I force a smile and nod. I’d hoped that the Mary Sue powers weren’t affecting them anymore, but apparently not. 

—

“Your task,” Master Xia says dramatically, “Is to defeat three yao by the end of today. I don’t care what kind. The person I deem to be the best yao-hunter will get a reward.”

We stand at the top of the mountain in a circle around him. Lisu isn’t here today, thank goodness, as she needs to purchase clothes loose enough for her to move around in. So for the last time, it’s just me, Zhiqiang, and Qiao. The wind is strong up here, blowing our hair in our faces. The mountain peak provides a breathtaking view of the rest of the mountain range, which seems to stretch on for eternity. Gold and vermillion red trees dot the horizon, painting the mountains in a reddish-orange hue and great eagles circle around the peaks, swooping and diving. It’s a tranquil place to train, if not for Qiao’s constant stream of complaints. 

“What’s our reward? And don’t say it’s a single peanut like the last time we did this,” Qiao grumbles.

“Don’t worry. I will teach a new wugong technique to the winner. It is a very famous and powerful technique that I myself have devised.”

“What is it?” Zhiqiang asks enthusiastically.

“It is…” Master Xia pauses for dramatic effect, “The Sunbathing Lizard technique!”

“The Sunbathing Lizard?” Qiao groans. “What kind of move is that? I want to learn something cool, like a phoenix or dragon move!”

“It is very useful,” Master Xia assures us. “I think. I’ve only used it twice.”

Everyone shakes their heads, already used to Master Xia’s shenanigans. Zhiqiang pumps his fist. “Let’s go, guys! The real reward is the process of getting there!”

Qiao, realizing a chance to compete with me, immediately brightens up. “I’ll become the best yao-hunter there is! Eat my dust!”

Then he flies off into the distance. Zhiqiang turns towards me. “Good luck.”

After he’s also flown off, I consider my task for a moment. This mountain does not have a lot of yao; we’ve killed most of them in our training and as a task in order to protect Fulian. To find one, you’d probably have to go deeper into the mountain range, perhaps even out of the mountain I’m currently on. Although flying could help the process go faster, it’s also hard to maintain for a long time and I would probably have to walk the way back. So randomly going around hoping to find a yao isn’t going to work. Eccentric as he is, Master Xia doesn’t give us these tasks for no reason. In the end, we always learn a lesson from doing it.

Master Xia interrupts my line of thought. “Aren’t you going to go? The clock is ticking.”

“No, I’m fine,” I reply. “May I ask for some clarification?”

“Sure, but make it quick,” Master Xia agrees.

“Was there an influx of yao on this mountain recently?”

Master Xia strokes his beard. “Well, some say that a large number of plants have recently gone missing near the cave system.”

I jolt up. This is what he wants us to find. The plants must have cultivated into yao, then fled into the cave to further their cultivation without being discovered by us. And it has worked pretty well, since we never go into the lower caves. 

“Thanks!” I call, flying away. First I need to find the Phoenix Guild. I don’t know how many plant monsters are down there, so I probably need backup.