51st of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

  If Newt had to describe the previous day, he could summarize it in two words - surprisingly smooth. While fighting the hadrosaurus he realized how much tougher his body had gotten compared to the time he fought the frostworms. Even without relying on techniques, he could physically overpower third realm spirit beasts, and the roaming monsters of the Valley of the Lost’s outermost layer were no match for him, let alone for his group.

  During the three minor skirmishes, there were no injuries, nor was there need for Roselilly to shoot an arrow or lift a hand to heal anyone. Even Newt was mostly a bystander, focused on damage control, letting Obsidian and Jasmine smash the monsters, Obsidian with his stego mace, Jasmine with her heavy, two-handed broadsword.

  The brother and sister made a good pair. On their own, they were wide open and full of vulnerabilities, but they watched over each other’s weaknesses and shored them up, keeping the spirit beasts at bay.

  Unfortunately, the group’s effort yielded zero cores, but vastly improved everyone’s confidence, and boosted the party’s morale to the point that it was incomparable to before they stepped into the danger zone.

  Unlike the fights, Newt found the mist infinitely annoying. Once they had entered the zone at a certain depth, he had a weird feeling whenever the four of them stepped at the same time. It seemed like each of them tended to choose a slightly different direction when advancing.

  They naturally followed Roselilly, who kept the compass in her hands at all times, but each step Newt took felt like the wrong one, like he was out of place, walking into danger which he could have evaded simply by moving a little bit to the left, away from the direction indicated by the pesky, life-saving device.

  For the first time, he realized how dangerous and useful befuddling spell formations could be. All it took was getting trapped inside one.

  I should devote some time to spell formations, it’s obviously useful knowledge, but when? Even without sleep, I have four hours of daily training sessions with my teachers. I need to find some time for spars and improve my combat ability, catching up with all the knowledge I’m lacking is taking a huge chunk of my time, then there’s cultivation…

  Newt felt overwhelmed with the amount of things he needed to do, then glanced at Roselilly and corrected his direction by an irksome fraction of a step. Again.

  She’s got even more on her plate.

  Newt bit his lip. He wanted to ask Roselilly how she managed all her obligations, but she already said she thought she was failing at it, and then there was the whole festering wound of her boyfriend’s death and the year that followed. She was far from fine, and equally far from managing herself and her time.

  In the end, Newt kept his mouth shut. Starting a casual chat on the topic would have hurt the young woman more than it would help either of them.

  At least I don’t have to meditate to expand my realm.

  Newt wondered for the heavens knew which time how Magmin, a common snake, had such a brilliant idea. Was it that idea that propelled it to evolve until it became the majestic dragon from his vision?

  Mid-thought, Newt’s skin crawled. His instincts screamed at him, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He could see almost two hundred feet ahead, mist twisted and oozed around the thick, gnarled trees, giving off a surreal yet ominous tone to the scene.

  Before he could think, he pushed Roselilly to the ground. The woman toppled over just as a thick spine, the length of Newt’s forearm, whistled through the air and pierced the empty space which Roselilly’s torso had occupied a moment ago. The spike zipped by and exploded against the soil, spraying a shower of earth from the crater it had created.

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  Newt traced the missile’s path back to its origin and barely spotted the spirit beast braced against a tree ten yards away. It was indigenous to the Valley of the Lost, the fattail shooter gecko. The lizard’s dark brown scales matched the tree’s bark, with lighter twisting and swirling patterns to better blend in with the flowing mist. Its fat tail ended with five foot-long spines, one short of the full set of six.

  The fattail shooter gecko was a nearly invisible, seven feet long ambush predator, killing its prey with sharp, massive tail spines, flicked at its target at high speed. The spirit beast assassin rarely missed, but when it did, its specialized physique worked against it.

  Its short, stubby legs excelled at gripping and finding purchase to allow the gecko to shoot its spines at absurd speeds, but they were lacking when it came to quick movement.

  Newt sprinted towards the camouflaged beast, ten yards covered just as the gecko flicked its tail again. Newt cleaved the limb in two with his glaive. The lizard hissed as its tail fell to the ground, but Newt cut the sound short with a well placed slash, which beheaded the gecko.

  “What a dangerous beastie!” Newt grinned, radiating nonchalance he did not feel. Had he been a moment slower, Roselilly would have suffered a heavy injury. They had healing pills, and the odds were Roselilly would have survived without suffering lasting harm, but the injury could have offset all the work on restoring the team’s morale.

  “Thanks.” Roselilly patted the damp earth off her butt as she stood back up.

  “How did you spot it?” Jasmine asked while patting her friend’s back. “Is the compass all right?”

  “It’s fine,” Roselilly whispered in response as Newt struggled to answer the former question.

  “I didn’t see it. I felt something, like someone was watching me, and then I just moved.” Newt’s words made no sense. He had trouble understanding what had happened, let alone explaining it to others. He just felt something would attack them, then reacted to that perceived threat.

  As expected, Jasmine gave him a blank look, and Newt shrugged.

  “That’s what happened. I don’t know how to explain it. Something in this mist is putting me on edge, and somehow that resulted in me sensing the attack just as it happened.”

  “Heavens,” Obsidian laughed. “I wish it worked like that for me. The mist gives me the creeps, and that’s about it.”

  Newt nodded, his roommate had been forcing himself to act like a cheerful bubblehead. His laughter was too loud, came way too often, and outstayed its welcome every time. The fakeness of it bothered Newt, but the girls did not mind or maybe even appreciated Obsidian’s effort.

  “Do you want to do the honors?” The big man offered Newt yet another chance to practice butchery.

  Newt nodded. He was improving rapidly, and even though the fattail shooter gecko was easy to butcher because of its small size, he could make things more challenging for himself by imposing additional rules. The most practical one being, having to keep the body as whole as possible.

  Man, life is so much easier when you have a spatial pouch. I wonder how much those things cost?

  The thought brought back the matter of his debt and realization that he would not have the ability to have anything nice in a long, long time. Distracted, Newt jerked his arm too hard while carving the tough, scaly hide.

  Granite Crust sprang into existence just in time to deflect the slash.

  “Are you all right, Newt?” Concern seeped into Obsidian’s voice as he kept vigil over Newt’s work.

  “Yeah, sorry. I was thinking about something, and my hand slipped.”

  “You should focus on what you’re doing, especially when you’re working with blades. You almost broke our streak of no injuries.”

  “Stop jinxing people, you big kidney stone!” Jasmine grumbled from the side.

  “What’s the deal with the kidney stone? I mean, I get it, it’s an elemental joke, but I don’t get the joke.”

  Obsidian sighed, his false smile gone, replaced with something more genuine. Mirth mixed with sorrow or nostalgia. Newt failed to figure it out before the man started talking.

  “Back when we were kids, Jas didn’t think it was possible to have two babies at once. She thought our mother was making up the story, so she decided I was a kidney stone infused with enough spiritual energy to become a boy. You know the children’s stories about people being made from wood or springing out of stone? She thought I was like that.”

  Newt remained silent, processing the nonsense he just heard.

  “How old was she? If she knew about kidney stones?”

  “Fourt—Ow!” Obsidian yelped and jumped away, revealing Jasmine pinching fingers.

  “You were forty?” Newt faked shock, but burst into laughter a moment after Roselilly.

  “I was fourteen, all right? Fourteen! And I didn’t believe it, I was just making fun of him, and he was too dumb to figure it out! Now, drop the subject.” Jasmine cleared her throat. “Wrap up with that gecko, we’re a couple hours away from the geyser field. Hopefully, they spat out enough misterium for us to complete our mission.”