AN: Thinking of fleshing out some events before this when I have time. Going for college soon and haven't had much time to do so this month. =/

In the dark of the night, the forest was beset by near complete darkness. There were only pockets of light that managed to filter through the tiny holes in the trees’ foliage. Three figures were moving silently in that darkness. A faintly glowing strip of luminescent plant was wound around each person’s upper arm to identify each other’s location and a slim male figure was leading them on through the most even part of the forest to prevent any stumbling.

The way the slim man knew the even ground was uncanny, as if he could see perfectly within the near impenetrable shadows of the night. Slowly, the trio crept closer towards an unshaded portion of the forest. The unshaded portion was fairly wide and silvery moonlight shone down upon this area of the forest. In the middle of this unshaded portion lay a single flower. It reflected the moonlight in all its glory and was like a single brilliant flower amongst a field of grass despite the many flowers that were clustered around it.

This beautiful flower was precisely the target for the trio. Knowing that all roses were not without its thorns, the other two members of the trio began circling the bright enclosure in search of any signs of danger.

Soon, the two of them circled about three times before returning to the slim man. The duo shook their head, signaling that they found no signs of inhabitants around the vicinity of the flower.

Just then, the slim man heard something from above and immediately felt that something was awry. He quickly tugged on his two party member’s waists and jumped backwards as he pulled with surprising strength. He had moved just in time as two giant figures fell onto their previous position from the treetops. A resounding blast interrupted the calm and silence of the night.

The impact on the ground sent slight shocks to the roots of the surrounding plants, shaking the foliage above. Light penetrated through the gaps in the foliage and revealed bits of a couple of bear-like creatures that had black scales instead of fur. These beasts were called black mambears. They often inhabit the treetops, balancing with amazing precision despite their weight and large, muscular size. They also moved with surprising silence when they wanted to. They also housed deadly poison that could easily kill intermediate cultivators in mere minutes.

The slim man could feel his two party members shudder through his hands that were still encircled around their waists. The slim man freed them from his hands and one of the party members began to glow a silvery sheen like a beacon in the dark forest. The glowing man walked cautiously towards the two giant beasts. This glowing man was Eron. Due to insights into the advice that Braiten had given, he had made rapid improvements the past week and quickly advanced to the intermediate cultivation tier from the hundredth level of basic cultivation.

Presently, his qi had a silvery color due to him finding his natural elemental affinity, which was metal. After he had learned of his natural attribute, Eron began to fight up front instead of constantly mingling in the middle ranges of close combat. He started taking advantage of his qi’s naturally high defensive capabilities to draw attention away from monsters and beasts by pressuring them from an extremely close range. Furthermore, he had been forced to correct the flaw that most martial artists had. An extremely fatal flaw that made following the martial path seem ridiculous if there was no benefit to the higher cultivation levels that martial artists are able to achieve.

“!” A tender voice called out as streaks of flames ran along the arms of the final member of the team, revealing a thin female with flaming red hair.

This was precisely the weakness of almost every single martial artist. They shouted their attacks when they wanted to concentrate on using them. Saying it was something like a mantra or a spell’s chant to put themselves into a state of focus to use their skills. However, this manner of constantly announcing your attacks was absolutely ridiculous in an actual fight. It takes too much time to use on the fly and enemies would be well aware of how you were going to attack.

Braiten felt a strong urge to smack his own face in embarrassment as he took a quick glance towards the final member of the party. It looks like it would take more time for her to get used to carrying out martial skills without announcing them aloud in a panic.

Rather than interrupting the girl, Braiten enchanted his body with a simple overall physical enhancement. He then shot towards one of the black mambears and stabbed towards the bear’s eyes. Braiten’s speed exceeded the black mambear’s expectations and reaction speed. His dagger easily sunk deep into the eyes of the black mambear, reaching the brain.

Before the black mambear could even cry out, Braiten sent a pulse of mana using the dagger as a medium. He formed a mana bullet that shot towards the bear’s brain. With the brain crushed, the bear immediately stopped moving and dropped to the floor heavily.

In the meantime, Eron was doing his best to parry the bear’s attacks with his metal-attributed qi layer and shield. The single handed spear in his right hand ever so ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

Just then, the flames that the third member of the party was gathering had finally gotten as big as a fist.

“Eron! Watch out!” The woman shouted as she threw the pitiful fist-sized ball of flame at the black mambear.

The ball of flame harmlessly smashed into the black mambear and the flames splashed towards Eron, who barely managed to move out of the way of the initial shot. Fortunately, Eron’s shield was placed in between himself and the flames. However, the flames temporarily blinded his sight due to the difference in light. This allowed the black mambear to smash directly into Eron, sending him careening off to the side and into a nearby tree.

“Eron!” The woman shouted out as she desperately tried to gather another fist-sized ball of flame.

The black mambear turned to charge at the woman. Just as that happened, Eron suddenly leapt from his prone position and struck with his spear like a viper. His spear pierced right through the eye of the beast as metal-attributed qi flowed along the spear and condensed at the tip. A moment later, the condensed qi exploded outwards and destroyed the brain of the black mambear.

Exactly in the same way its fellow beast died, the black mambear slumped onto the ground. Confirming that the beasts had indeed been finished off, the trio walked cautiously into the clearing to claim their prize.

***

“Is she still sulking?” Dashurie asked with a small, impish grin on her face.

Dashurie was observing the trio from start to finish as they completed the task. Of course, she was aware of the presence of the black mambears the moment the black mambears had started stalking the trio. She was happy that Braiten had finally shown that he was lacking something. His strong sense of danger allowed him to detect when opponents ambushed, but he was still too inexperienced when it came to noticing when he was being stalked by the beasts and monsters of this world.

The trio had been stalked by 4 different groups of beasts before being chased away by the pair of black mambears. This called for a lesson for the trio once the girl has stopped sulking.

“Well, I think it can’t be helped that Isolda had panicked. She’s still new to all of this and joined us just when the task difficulties had gone up. She still needs to learn the ropes which you had learned this past week since you started,” Braiten gave his opinion in an attempt to comfort the depressed woman.

Isolda Fiammetta initially thought that Eron was being very foolish. He had stuck by his original plans of tackling adventurer missions to grow stronger instead of just cultivating. On the first day after she had scolded him, he came back to the inn too tired to cultivate. Isolda looked on at him with ridicule in her eyes. However, Eron soon made rapid progress in both his cultivation and martial ability.

Eron officially partied with Braiten after his first day of mentorship. With that, a load of burden was taken off his shoulders as he could just focus on the role that he was given for the task. Braiten never did interfere with his role and seemed to trust his judgement fully when he gave his opinions as whatever role he had, allowing Eron to properly learn the different skills of an adventurer. Dashurie focused on correcting Eron’s mistakes and at the end of the day, he had learned a lot. Braiten would also approach him and discuss how to apply what he had learned to his martial arts.

Then, when night came on the day they partied, Braiten voiced out his opinion about the embarrassing yet fatal flaw that martial artists had. Eron could only sheepishly admit that it was only the great elders that were capable of using martial skills without shamelessly announcing them. Braiten suggested announcing his attacks once, and then feeling the flow of qi and then trying to replicate the feat. This was a shot in the dark, but maybe it just might work.

That attempt turned out to be total failure. Eron said that he could mimic the flow of qi as he utilized his martial skill, but the resulting effects were that the qi dissipated upon reaching the end instead of exploding out as it should have. However, thinking about the close relation of announcing the attacks while carrying out the techniques, Eron attempted to say the names of the techniques in his mind as he followed the flow of qi that the martial skill required. That turned out to be a success. However, the speed was still not satisfactory to the duo.

The two experimented for a few days and finally managed to find out that they just needed a concrete image of the technique at the last moment just before the technique was actually performed while circulating qi in the technique’s pattern to pull it off without announcing its name. Eron excitedly began to fix his habits and ended up being able to use his martial skills without announcing them at a moment’s notice. All of his training was seen by Isolda from afar, and soon, she started wanting to join Eron with his training as an adventurer.

“Braiten, those words are taboo. It just does not cheer anyone up at all,” Dashurie said as she unashamedly reached out to brush against Isolda’s inner thighs.

Isolda blushed and pouted as she turned her head to face away from the three of them.

“Jokes aside, let’s review how you three performed for this task.

Firstly, movement in the night was surprisingly good. Braiten led well and kept the three of you over relatively even ground. However, Braiten, you were not aware that there were 4 other groups of beasts that were stalking you even though there were clear signs. I will give you a lecture on what those signs are later.

Secondly, the three of you are completely oblivious to whatever is above you in the forest. You must remember that enemies don’t come at you only from the front and below. They may come from above as well. The two black mambears had long since been observing your movements before you reached the clearing with the moonchild flower.

Thirdly, Isolda and Eron’s sense of danger is still lacking. Were it not for Braiten’s quick actions, you two would be beast food by now. Fourthly, Braiten and Eron, you had good movements throughout the fight. Keep up with the decisive blows and continue taking advantage of the moments of weakness that your enemies have.

Lastly, Isolda, you should not have used carelessly flung flames in a forest. You could very well burn your surroundings and trap your allies in the aftermath. What you could have done to be more effective in the fight was use the flames as a source of light for your allies to see better. At least they would not have been so handicapped by sight throughout the fight when facing the black mambears which have better night vision.

Reflect on these points. Braiten, we’re going to have that lecture now,” Dashurie said in a professional, serious tone.

Braiten’s lecture went for slightly over an hour, with Dashurie explaining the various signs of each type of beast and monster in the region when they hunted you down. She made sure not to gloss over any information and Braiten listened to all of it seriously as he absorbed the information like a sponge.

In the meantime, Eron was reflecting over what he could have done in the fight to quickly finish off his foes like Braiten as there would be less chances of mistakes occurring.

Isolda was reflecting over her mental state after being unnerved by the ambush. If she was in the right mind, she would have been able to support her teammates better instead of rashly flinging balls of fire that could potentially harm those around her. She would not have needed to declare her intents to attack as well. Isolda resolved to keep a cool head as much as possible from then on.

Unknowingly, the reflections and resolves of these two would give them the nicknames “Stronghold” and “Frostflame Prison” in the near future.

===

Author’s notes:

Trying a slightly different ending for the chapter. Also trying to set future involvement of Eron and Isolda with the main char. Please tell me whenever I do get carried away and end up making a someone act out of character. I just hope that I have enough room to show different facets of the current cast that we have.

Also, more time skips will be used. Time skips are important. Time skips are life. They also provide a way to expand various characters’ developments indirectly through summaries of events happening in time skips. I know that character development is better if you go in detail, but I wanted to use a different way of setting the initial character personalities. I hope that you readers would be able to appreciate it.