Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

Sorin did not read the book he obtained at the Wish Fire Festival. At the same time, he couldn't quite get himself to throw it away. Unsure of what to do with it and worried that others might discover its secrets, Sorin decided to tuck it away in his Hero Emblem. In case he had trouble sleeping or something. Yes, that was the reason.

There was much to prepare for their trip to Delphi, and a lot to adjust, given the rewards from the Wish Fire Festival. Their group decided on two weeks of preparation before setting out.

A quick evaluation of his current needs and abilities revealed that Sorin lacked spells to use on the road. He therefore opted to study with Daphne at the Mages Guild and even took out a loan to purchase another gag spell, Spear in a Haystack. It was basically the two-star version of Threading the Spear, and included enhancements to handle two-star mana, an increase in the maximum number of needles, and naturally, an increase in the maximum size of any given spear. Because biggest spear was best spear.

While Percival and Clarice packed up his belongings, Sorin ran about tying up loose ends. First up were his debts, which totaled 15,000 gold after accounting for his Mages Guild loan and the poisons he'd purchased to craft his original ten-poison.

He managed to pay off 5,000 gold by selling his share of materials recovered from two-star demons during the demon tide, bringing the debt down to 10,000 gold. Though he did his best to work of his debt at the Alchemists Guild, there was a fixed demand for poisons in peaceful times. He was only able to pay off 3,000 gold of debt by the end of the two-week period.

In the end, he decided to have the debt transferred to the Adventurers Guild for later repayment and was about to complete the paperwork when a large stack of gold cards landed on his table, directly atop the incomplete paperwork.

"What's all this?" asked Sorin, looking up at his teammates.

"Money, obviously," said Stephan. "You should have told us it was expensive for you to break through. It's a good thing Lawrence found out about your situation before we decided to buy anything after selling off our old equipment."

"My debt, my problem," said Sorin, pulling the incomplete forms out from under the stack.

"Don't be dense," said Daphne. "According to my calculations, we're still several tens of thousands of gold indebted to you."

"And where exactly did you incur all this debt?" asked Sorin.

"If you use your brain a little, you'll doubtless discover that you've been performing an atrociously expensive meridian opening service on us, free of charge," said Gareth. "From what Stephan's told me, these services don't come cheap."

"I know for a fact that they don't come cheap," said Daphne. "I had my agent in Delphi look into it."

"That's only if you can get someone to do it," said Stephan. "It's very difficult these days. So, as you can see, Sorin, your debts are our debts. Also, here's a gift." He handed a package over to Sorin.

"Boots?" said Sorin, opening the bundle.

"Courtesy of Mr. Sanderson and Mr. Watchmaker, the cobbler," said Gareth.

"These are too expensive," said Sorin, pushing them back.

"Quite the contrary, they're not expensive enough," said Stephan. "Gareth, give him the rundown."

"I explained to Mr. Sanderson and Mr. Watchmaker that your movement skill, while flexible, is a little too straightforward," said Gareth. "You have trouble breaking through ranks and getting to where you're most needed, which is a huge problem since you're one of our primary damage dealers, and in all honesty a secondary tank.

"You don't strike me as the stealthy type, so I approached the Adventurers Guild to purchase Wraith Hare Leather, which is very suitable for spatial enchantments. Mr. Sanderson and Mr. Watchmaker shaped the boots and treated the leather, while the Vice-Guild Master of the Mages Guild personally enchanted them."

"Spatial enchantments?" asked Sorin. "You mean teleportation? Isn't that extremely rare? Rare enough that it qualifies as Haley's heroic ability?"

"Her ability is much better than the one stored in these boots," said Stephan. "For one, hers costs practically costs nothing to activate. It can also break through mana interference and teleport her away when she's entangled. The Spatial Hopping Enchantment on these boots has nothing on it."

"Like Haley's ability, you can use these boots to teleport to a location within thirty feet every minute," continued Gareth. "But it comes at a steep mana cost that rises exponentially with distance. Furthermore, you'll be hit with a physical recoil every time you teleport. That also scales exponentially with distance."

"That sounds like a lot of downsides," said Sorin.

"Yes, what terrible downsides," muttered Daphne. "You know what, I think we should return them. Pay a hundred thousand gold to somehow find a two-star item enchanted with a stored three-star blink spell."

"To be clear, Daphne's body wouldn't be able to handle these boots," said Stephan. "And neither would Lawrence's." By extension, Haley wouldn't be able to use the boots either.

Given how much effort they'd put into all of this, Sorin could only accept the boots. "Thanks," said Sorin. "I'll put them to good use."

"I told you he'd eventually give in to peer pressure," said Lawrence, giving Sorin a thumbs up. "And now, we can take off without worrying about loose ends."

"Speaking of loose ends, did you have any luck with Haster and Barbara?" Gareth asked Stephan. "Both of them fix our need for another melee fighter."

Stephan sighed and shook his head. "Unfortunately, both of them are unavailable, despite having successfully broken through to the bone-forging-realm. Barbara because she lost 9 team members and wants to go kill monsters on her own for a while, and Haster because he decided his calling isn't adventuring, but brewing. He's apparently putting a lot of effort into it and is even collaborating with the Alchemists Guild and Mr. Primrose for his first batches."

With these last few details taken care of, only a few preparations remained. While Haley finalized the details of the missions they would accept between Bloodwood Outpost and the next city, they caught up on each other's activities over the past two weeks.

Daphne had naturally learned her new spell, Concussive Fire Blast. The spell was only useful within twenty feet, but it had a very short cast time and could target enemies in a fan-shaped area. Any enemies struck by the spell would be sent flying backward and stunned for three seconds.

Gareth's skill turned out to be an upgrade to Power Shot called Crushing Storm Arrow. It was a wind-based skill that matched his attribute, and it could be charged for greater damage and further empowered to drill through an enemy's mana defenses. Overall, it nicely shored up his lacking single-damage offense.

Stephan's new ability was impressive. "So basically, it's a wide area taunt, except it also makes my opponents go berserk, increasing their physical damage and magic power but reducing their physical and magical defenses."

"Isn't that risky?" asked Sorin.

"It would be, if not for this new armor I crafted from a two-star plated armadillo's scales and my new transformation, Silver Spine Grizzly Bear."

"Wait, you made that?" said Lawrence, inspecting the hybrid plate and scale armor Stephan was wearing. "Very nice. And it'll adjust to your size when you shift?"

"Of course," said Stephan. "It'll also take on the properties of my transformation, which is why it's so expensive to make and repair. Unfortunately, the trade-off is that it can't be enchanted. I need to rely purely on the materials and my own craftsmanship."

"That explains the hammer," said Sorin. "Sorry, but I never took you for a smith, Stephan."

"I'm a terrible smith," said Stephan. "Another reason why my repair costs are so high despite doing it all myself."

"Why don't you just outsource it?" asked Lawrence. Gareth tossed a pebble at Lawrence using a toned-down version of Crushing Storm Arrow. " What was that for? I though we were done with all this physical harassment."

"I just got annoyed by your lack of knowledge," said Gareth. "You do realize a beast shift warrior is a subset of the druid class, don't you? Typically, they wouldn't even be able to use metal. Stephan's using a workaround, am I right?"

"That's right," Stephan confirmed. "The workaround is that I needed to invest in a skill, one that takes up quite a bit of space. I also need to make anything I wear."

"Then why not just use leather armor and save some time?" asked Lawrence.

"That's a very stupid question, Lawrence," said Stephan. "Armored bear is best bear."

This time, Lawrence doubled down on the argument, and it ended up turning into a brawl. They took the fight outside, with the spectating cultivators keeping ordinary mortals at bay.

At first, Stephan was unable to catch Lawrence due to the slow and lumbering nature of his Silver Spine Grizzly Bear form, but that changed when Stephan switched to his Pigmy Shadow Bear Form, a diminutive bear little larger than Stephan himself, with stealth capabilities and high speed, all obtained at the cost of reduced offense and defense.

Eventually, their fight was broken up by an annoyed Haley. Her arm was in a sling, and she was still quite pale from her injuries, but even so, she was able to knock them down with relative ease.

"If you battle maniacs are about ready, I've finished communicating with other branch guilds," said Haley. "You have a pile of requests that you can fulfill as convenient. Most of them expire in about two weeks, though, so you'll need to collect the next list in the outpost or city I include at the end of the list.

"Also, you should all note that as two-star adventurers, one-star demon bounties can no longer be claimed by your party."

"What? Seriously?" said Lawrence. "That's a lame rule."

"It's the only way to make sure bone-forging cultivators don't get greedy for one-star mission, unfortunately," said Haley with a shrug. "Besides, you still get to keep the demon cores of the things you kill. We're just not incentivizing you to go clear out entire dens of one-star creatures when one-star adventurers could easily accomplish the same thing."

"Thanks for the trouble, Haley," said Stephan. "We appreciate the effort."

"No thanks required," said Haley. "It's all part of the job, though it seems I'll be switching to another one soon."

"A transfer?" asked Stephan. "Where to?"

"Who knows," said Haley with a smile that was not a smile. "All I can say is that you shouldn't get too used to my absence."

Two hours later, their party exited the city through the west gate. Percival, Clarice, and Mr. Primrose were there to bid Sorin adieu. Lawrence's father was there and had even brought them all packed lunches for the next three days.

Gareth's father also made an appearance, but like Gareth, he was a man of few words and came off as unimpressive despite being a bone-forging cultivator.

There were a few notable absences, including Haley and Daphne's parents. Sorin wasn't sure about Haley, but in Daphne's parents' case, she said that her parents were busy and couldn't make time to see her. There was a story there, Sorin was sure, but he didn't pry. It would be up to her to bring up the matter when she felt ready to.

Sorin's memories of the outpost weren't all fond, but he would miss it, nonetheless. He would miss the clinic, which would soon be receiving a two-star physician from the Kepler Clan to replace Marcus, and he miss his old patients, whom he hadn't seen much of since becoming an adventurer.

Lastly, Sorin would miss the many acquaintances he'd made since becoming an adventurer. There was his tutor at the Mages Guild, Mr. Primrose from the Alchemists Guild, and Mr. Sanderson, the enthusiastic leatherworker. There was Guild Master Roy, and Vice Guild Master Thomas, and even Vice Guild Master Victor, who didn't seem to like Sorin very much but had always protected his interests.

The snows near the Bloodwood Outpost were deep. Given their high cultivation, mounts would be much slower than simply traveling on foot.

Besides, it wasn't like they'd be sticking to the main roads; there were two-star bounties aplenty to claim along the way. Some missions involved eliminating troublesome demons, but there were a few two-star material collection missions, and an investigation to conduct on a small cave that may or may not lead to a pocket dimension.

"I, for one, am super-excited to be leaving the city," said Lawrence, rubbing his hands. "And now that I know about the trick you used on my fasting potions last time, I'll actually get to enjoy drinking them."

"Who said anything about fasting potions?" asked Stephan. "Two-star fasting potions are expensive. I didn't pack any."

"Neither did I," said Gareth. "I assumed we'd just be hunting demons. They're fine eating if you purify them."

"Eating… demons?" said Lawrence, looking a little horrified. "Wait, can I turn back now? Ask my dad for a few more packed lunches? And what about vegetables? What about bread? What about cakes? We'll be eating cake, right?"

Sorin chuckled at the exchange. With friends like these accompanying him, the journey wouldn't be boring.