Starlight Life Of The Sage

Patrols returned to the main bandit camp one by one. None of them ever left. Cara was a lot of things, but she wasn't one to take half-measures. This forest was now her home, and she wasn't keen on having such unruly neighbors. Her actions were swift and none of the bandits suffered long. That was the only mercy she could afford. She felt like a saint for giving them that much.

For three days Cara waited, killing those that returned to the main camp like a grim reaper, her efforts unrelenting and machine-like. Finally her patience was rewarded. The six men who left for the city returned. The warrior at the 10th Houtian Rung was among them, still. He walked and moved like an expert.

Cara was happy that her cultivation was ahead of his. He looked competent and she didn't want to take any risky fights after her encounter with the mage. She still didn't know enough of this world.

Cara ambushed the small group. She waited in a treetop until they approached the final bend before the camp. The moment the cultivator was beneath her she dropped. There was no grand technique or insightful fight. Cara landed on top of the man's head with both her fists interlocked. She smashed his head down through his neck and crushed his spine in one blow. He never had a chance to display his techniques.

Cara's right eye still burned a bit from where she took the mana bolt three days earlier. She wasn't about to repeat her careless mistake. It had been a very long time since she ever had to fight seriously, but she still lamented her initial recklessness.

With the cultivator taken care of, the remaining five bandits were child's play. Each died within the next few seconds, all of their deaths instant.

Cara dragged their bodies back to the bandit camp and tossed them into the pile. She would need to burn the corpses soon or the stench of their rot would attract beasts.

Before she lit the pyre she searched through the cultivator's robe pockets, and she found a few goodies. Two small bottles willed with red liquid were her first spoils; she could smell the mana emanating from them. Three scrolls and one book also came from his pockets.

With her spoils earned, Cara used her Dragon's Fire Breath to spit out a small spurt of flame and ignite the mound of bodies. She moved upwind and into the Mage's cabin, the place where she had her first real fight since coming to this world just three days prior.

Cara sorted her spoils.

From the mage she found numerous scrolls and medicines. One scroll detailed the mage's strange cultivation technique named 'Inherent Spell: Mana Force, Grade 2'.

She wasn't certain what the name meant, but she could caution a guess. The term 'Mana Force' probably referred to the bolts of mana the magician formed in the battle earlier. It was probably the 'type' of magic the cultivation technique would allow the user to use. The term 'Grade' probably referred to the quality of the technique, but Cara had no idea whether Grade 2 was good, bad, or average. She ventured that, since the bandit was so weak and living as a minor bandit on the outskirts of a city, it was probably of a lower class.

Still, the concepts within it would prove useful to her study. She didn't need to cultivate the scroll to learn about the basics of the Mage Path, as she dubbed it in her mind.

Oddly, she was excited to discover a new path. The Mage Path, from Cara's observations, seemed to run parallel to Dantian Cultivation. If that were the case then she could probably convert a few of her more powerful Inner Cultivation techniques into Mage Path techniques.

Of course, all this would take time and careful study. Ideally, Cara wanted to see more mage cultivation techniques first so she could compare them. She also needed to find the bodies of more mages to dissect so she could study them for any negative side effects to their methods… Something about gathering such a volatile force such as Mana within the brain made Cara uneasy.

-

With the bandits of Tin's Soldier Garden being subjected, Cara felt a weight leave her shoulders. She could tell that the soul from this body's original owner was appeased, if only by a little. There still remained another culprit the remnant soul wanted dead: the monsters that ate her parents' bodies.

Cara smiled at the thought. Taking out the bandits gave her a lot of benefits and information. She also had an example of this world's alchemy now, too, from the potions she pilfered. Her growth would, assuredly, accelerate from this point forward.

It wouldn't be long until she had enough confidence to move towards the Tin City in the north, to rejoin society.

-

Cara eased into her routine again. Without the bandits, traders and caravans started using the main road again. Human activity in the forest increased.

Cara kept a careful eye on the passing people. She watched and analyzed any that went by that gave off mana. Over the next six months she picked out seven Body Cultivators from the trader groups, but never once did she see a mage among them. One time, though, she did come upon a weapon cultivator. The man gave off a dangerous aura and was in the Xantian Rungs just like her. She avoided him and never made contact. While she wanted his sword, it wasn't worth taking the risk for it. The weapon wasn't high enough quality for her taste, either. It would never go past the third tier, Zong.

Cara collected monster parts. She tore down all the metal from the bandit camp too. Slowly she build up her resources. Occasionally she would follow trade caravans through the forest and pick up any garbage they left behind as well, often finding useful things like old tin cans or in some cases even glass bottles.

She lived a careful and frugal life as she cultivated.

Cara didn't know, but whispers and rumors were spreading in the Tin City, rumors of a powerful monster living in the Soldier Garden that wiped out an entire tribe of bandits. Even if she did know, though, Cara probably wouldn't care. What the city thought of her didn't matter so long as they didn't bother her.

-

Time passed. Cara's cultivation grew. She broke through the 2nd and 3rd Rungs, but the 4th proved tricky.

Months stretched to years. Cara turned 15 years old. She grew much in the last few years. She stood about 5'6'' and her long hair fell past the mid of her back; she kept it tied in a single loose braid behind her. Her eyebrows were sharp like swords and her face had a domineering look, with a sharp chin and jade-like skin. She was beautiful, and she resented it.

"I was a man, dammit," she cursed aloud as she looked at her reflection in the pooling waters beneath her. She had finally broken through to the 5th Rung, and her aura had grown alongside her raw strength. Now she could have plucked those mana bolts from the air with her pinky finger alone.

She regretted her actions against the bandits. She acted foolish due to the influence of her young body. To jump into the bandit camp without first confirming the true strength of the leader was, to this day, her biggest failure.

She didn't regret killing the bastards, though. She just regretted her rashness in the matter.

-

Cara wore a wooden badge with intricate carvings pinned to her c.h.e.s.t, just on the lapel of her makeshift robes. The small badge started to glow and began beeping like a fire alarm.

Cara's eyes went wide and she touched the badge, silencing it. She focused her mind and sensed where the mana signature came from. The moment she locked in on the aura she froze in place. There were at least 15 people, all with mana signatures, walking into the Soldier Garden.

Cara moved, silencing and hiding herself. Her aura muted itself and vanished. She ran through the woods, her feet bouncing off tree branches without leaving a mark; she passed like a ghost.

The group came into view and Cara hid herself high up in the canopy. She watched with careful, pensive eyes.

There were ten men wearing full plate armor. Each wielded a large sword and they were currently fighting a small contingent of the Crocodile Apes. Each knight was around the 5th Houtian Rung. They weren't weak, but they weren't strong at all either.

Behind the ten knights were five robed men, each of them were mages. Cara watched in awe as they drew in clouds of mana from their surroundings. She hadn't had much progress in her study of the mage technique she earned from the bandit before, so she didn't want to miss a single second of the battle below her.

Each of the mages had different mana pathways in their brains, and all of them cast similar spells. The magic pathways seemed to be something innate to each of them, but they all cultivated the same technique. Two of them created a gout of fire that washed over the ape-creatures and scattered them.

Cara clicked her tongue at the sight. Thankfully, due to its lush and damp nature, the Soldier Garden didn't run much of a risk of forest fire… But it was still risky. Cara didn't have much room to criticize them, though, considering her own history with her study of Dragon Breath.

Behind the knights and mages were about fifty scholarly looking people, several dressed in white robes and carrying notebooks. At least half of them were writing things down during the battle while the other half were picking up flaura and recording things about that, too.

Some were collecting pieces of the defeated Croco-apes, and others were picking up plants.

It looked like an expedition.

Cara licked her lips. She decided to skip her afternoon and evening training. Instead, she opted to follow this expedition through the forest. She wanted to watch the mages cast more spells. She needed to see them cast more spells.

She could feel her understanding of the Mage Path growing with every moment. It excited her to no end!