Chương 3: The Elderflower Test

In an event that was becoming a worrying regularity, Jin awoke while lying on the wooden floor of his hut. Despite the implications of this fact on his mental state, he quickly identified the most important factor in his current situation as the sunlight likely tickled at his eyes from the window. The illusion Room. It was done, glowing a soft pink. There was a slight vibration, a hum to the magical instrument. As if it was being played at this very moment. It wasn't, of course.

The exam was today, and Jin hadn't had the time to get the game properly tested. If it could even be called the game. Just one enemy, really. It was very much a scenario in the sense of this new world. He stood up wearily and stretched his sore and abused body, which had been learning the way of the spear with nothing but a broom for seven days straight now. He shortly deluded himself with the idea of getting another outer disciple to test the game real quick.

Elder Qin had said that he would pick up Jin in the morning, but if the man wasn't here yet… then perhaps Brother Lin would be interested in taking a break from his food delivery. However, any thoughts of play-testing the game and thus perhaps working out any of the remaining kinks were abruptly dashed by a knock on his door. Jin slumped in on himself.

"Come in respected Elder," he said. The door opened, revealing Elder Qin in all his sakura petal robe glory. The man's blue eyes briefly swept across the room, his mouth staying decisively neutral. However, while adults were good at hiding irony from children, Jin was not a child anymore.

"I see that you have worked hard, disciple Jin," Elder Qin said, looking placidly at the disgusting mess that the house had become during the crunch of the last week. It had been hard for Jin to believe that his house could become a mess when there was not even much in it in the first place. The outer disciple barely owned five sets of the same beige robes, let alone enough furniture and frivolities to truly make a pigsty. He'd managed anyhow. Somehow.

One of the things that he'd learned to appreciate about this world during his relatively short stay in it was that it wasn't as materialistic. Power was exhibited by how many nations one could crush with a swipe of one's fingers. Wealth was simply another attribute of man, not the single determiner of one's value in society. Jin looked again at the illusion Room, before hesitatingly going over to the small wooden desk it was resting on and picking it up. He sighed.

"It's as ready as it's ever going to be," he lied.

"Thankfully it does not need to be ready for this particular exam," Elder Qin replied lightly.

"It simply needs to be enough." The Elder stepped back from the door frame, the gesture inviting Jin to exit his little abode and to enter back metaphorically into civilization. The social structure that he'd been hiding from while working his ass off recently. Of course, an Elder and undoubtedly a high-level cultivator, the supervisor had not walked all the way to Jin's abode. No, there was a golden cloud parked at the entrance to the young cultivator's green little garden.

Big enough to hold several fully grown men, an artefact likely worth more than all the wealth Jin had ever possessed in his entire life. Which wasn't saying really much. He was poor as fuck. The Elder gracefully walked on top of the cloud, seemingly unconcerned with its potential gaseous form. The cloud seemed to also care very little about physics and obliviously held the man's weight.

While the cultivation path of an illusion game creator was pretty cool, and most importantly, not that dangerous, Jin hadn't actually been doing all that much impressive magic. He was thus quite blown away. The extent of a seemingly magical new existence giving him a much healthier and more resilient body was already a win in itself. The game engine stuck in his head was a cherry on top. Anything more than that? That was just indulgence.

Suffice it to say, eager to make another magical experience, he didn't need much prompting beyond Qin's brief gaze to jump on the nimbus cloud and marvel at the soft sensation underneath his feet. It felt very secure. The cloud slowly raised itself from its perch and ascended into the sky, perpetually covered as it was by its white and grey non-magical brethren.

It was sort of scary to ascend into the air without the usual hum of metal turbines and rotors that accompanied the act in James's previous world, but as he sat down on the soft artefact he decided that he preferred it this way.

"Most disciples with a civilian background are a bit more discomforted by their first ride," Elder Qin prompted. Jin, busy enjoying the view of all the other mountain ranges and the view he had on his little hut replied in a manner that was probably a bit disrespectful for the Confucian society he was now inhabiting.

"If you wanted to kill me, you wouldn't have to go for such a drama about it," he said.

"In fact, I feel safer here than I do sleeping in my bed, considering there is no high-level cultivator watching over me there."

"I hope your enthusiasm stays during the next stages of the examination process," the other replied lightly as they finally reached the white clouds which covered the inner disciple ring of the illusion Room sect mountain.

"I'll do my best," he said as they closed in on the mountain. Close enough for Jin to see the space through the thick clouds. Their destination seemed to be a large stone gate with a thousand steps leading up to it from the previous ring. Behind the gate, from his vantage point in the air, Jin could make out a bustling village in which several disciples who were better dressed than him walked around eating food, talking and generally having a good time.

It was the first time that he laid eyes on the middle ring and unexpectedly it seemed to be more heavily populated than the outer disciple one. There were more houses which were laid more closely together and there were even some non-cultivators walking around, if his eyes didn't deceive him. They were recognizable by their shabby brown robes which contrasted harshly to the sleek clothing of the cultivators.

It was likely that it was at this stage of being a member of the Illusion Room Sect that one merited having actual servants. As expected, however, instead of flying into the village, the golden cloud landed in front of the stone gate. The large structure was burdened with a variety of runes and paper talismans. If Jin had developed the ability to sense wards, then he was sure that he would have something to explore here.

However, he didn't, so he rather focused on the two people seemingly waiting for him and Elder Qin at the gates. One of them was a short and stout man with a whiskered moustache and a head of hair with some brown still in it. Jin would have guessed him to be around 50 if he didn't know that cultivators generally lived 10 times longer than their normal human counterparts. The man's face looks like it had been stuck in a perpetual frown since he was born. Thankfully his companion was a sight for Jin's now sore eyes.

A 35-something woman in amazing shape, as one would expect from a cultivator. A sword scabbard hung at her waist and she was covered up to her shoulders by a green outfit consisting of loose pants and a tight shirt. Rather than risk offending anyone, Jin immediately bowed as the cloud dissipated around them and condensed itself into a bamboo flask at Elder Qin's side.

"Greetings honoured Elders," he said, clutching his illusion Room tight to his chest as he tried to touch the floor with his forehead. It never hurt to be polite. Especially in a world where people could decide to kill you if they thought that you had cost them face. Elder Qin stepped forward until he was standing right next to the other two cultivators. It was very symbolic to hold the exam in front of the entrance to the inner disciple ring.

He could even see, through the slight distortions covering the stone gate entrance, the inner disciples and other people moving around in what would hopefully soon become his living area as well.

"Greetings again, outer disciple Jin," Elder Qin said. He nodded shortly at the woman by his side.

"This is Elder Flower and next to her is Elder Lung, they will be my co-examiners today. They are both highly skilled illusion Room cultivators who I have sought out to test you due to the suggested innovativity of your approach." Elder Flower stepped forward.

"I specialise in combat systems and will be the one testing the usefulness of your creation," she said in a clear and pleasant voice before stepping back. Elder Lung didn't bother moving and twirled one point of his long moustache between two fingers while looking at Jin disdainfully. He looked like he was one bad day away from executing a servant for bringing him the wrong tea.

"Well," he started in a loud and nasal voice.

"Let's see first if you even get to that point. Being novel is something usually reserved for people who have mastered the basics. I have yet to see a novice innovate anything, other than a fascinatingly stupid way to fail an exam." He looked Jin up and down, before barking.

"Well? Explain your methodology." The disciple blinked, not having expected the exam to be so informal. Orally defending himself out in the open like this. He saw some inner disciples gather at the other side of the gate and look at him curiously, some of them sneering at his confused expression. However, James had been through enough tough situations where he had to sell himself and quickly regain his footing.

"From my understanding, as comparable as it is to that of a frog sitting at the bottom of a well, I looked for my project at the fact that the sect focuses on scenarios of heavenly beasts and other already researched dangers as a vital opportunity to try something else. After all, one does not begin branching out into new ideas, without first having a solid base." He bowed.

"I was only able to attempt what I did because of the strong and reliable fundaments of all illusion Room creators that came before me." Elder Lung motioned him to go on impatiently but was obviously pleased with the brown-nosery. Elder Flower meanwhile had to hide a smile behind a raised fist.

"I saw an opportunity in the relatively little focus there was being put on the demons of the other half, who are as we know always completely individual. An opportunity to create a game that is not focused on training for a specific scenario, but rather to teach the experiencer how to deal with the unexpected. In the end, while it is perhaps presumptuous of me to create something so non-normative, I hope that it can be seen simply as putting forth an experiment, which wiser heads will judge the validity of."

"So dedicated was outer disciple Jin to his experiment that he refrained from visiting the library too much, to not pollute his originality with already perceived combat styles and creatures present there," Elder Qin commented. It was here that Elder Lung had a derogatory comment to add, although, for all intents and purposes, it had been Elder Qin who had so treacherously elicited it.

"What did you come up with through your hard-working non-usage of library resources specifically put forth to help outer disciples in your situation?" the man asked sarcastically. Jin didn't falter, knowing for a fact that the critique was very valid. He would have gone to the library more as well if the previous owner of this body hadn't fucked him over so hard with his non-preparation.

"I focused my design concept of the enemy, of which there is one, on the material reality and context of the world we live in. Through this focus I invented a weapon, armour and combat style of which I have not heard of, and which should, by the laws of our world, not exist." He tapped his chin wondering how to best explain.

"Can you be more specific?" Elder Flower asked while Elder Lung nodded in understanding. Jin struggled for a second before starting.

"Well, due to the suffusion of heavenly energies into organic matter, metallic materials have naturally been relatively unused in the creation of armour. However, due to the consistency, the feel the material gives when being struck… Fighting someone in metal armour should be a completely different experience than fighting someone wearing either the traditional robe or the leather set that is so popular amongst warrior sects.

I used the fact that scenarios do not have to conform completely to reality and made the metal armour my enemy is wearing as sturdy as any enchanted counterpart.

"And you think that the novelty of such an armour transcends the usefulness of a warrior training against something they might at some point in their lives actually see and fight against?" Elder Lung asked.

"I am not trying to give definitive answers, but simply propositions to be mixed into the current dialectic of the subject matter. I'm trying to refrain from claiming knowledge until I at least see Mount Tai," Jin said respectfully.

"The weapon?" Elder Flower asked.

"I assume you're making a human-type enemy. Which is fair, considering most demons are in some way shaped after us."

"For the weapon, I considered the fact that the best weapons are made out of a single material, for ease of enchantment, and thus have been historically relatively small to save on costs. If one truly considers it, it would also be possible for a human figure to wield something as tall as themselves. It is just wasteful, however, considering the costs." Elder Flower crossed her arms at this point and tilted her head doubtfully.

"Several sects use staves." Jin helplessly shrugged.

"I created a combination of two materials, wood and metal. probably something impossible to channel anything through, however something that should not have been seen before. It most resembles a spear, but even to that the design is quite different. Two-thirds of the weapon consist of wood, while one-third consists of a longer blade with a cross guard."

"You would have had to design an entirely new combat system. Build something that takes generations of heritage tradition and learning, from scratch." Elder Qin concluded softly.

"I did my best," Jin said.

"Curious," Elder Flower stated.

"Yes, but we're not done yet," Elder Lung interjected, turning to Jin from where he had been watching the interplay between him and the female Elder.

"What about the surroundings? Using a template with an enemy so "novel" would ruin parts of the immersion which the skill transfer relies on," he said, somewhat triumphantly. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I created an architectural surrounding myself. Something that I considered to fit the aesthetic choices made for the enemy. In addition to everything I also made music, an art form which will hopefully elevate the emotional state of the experiencer," Jin replied. Some inner disciples listening in from beyond the gate laughed and looked at each other incredulously.

"Music!" Elder Lung exclaimed.

"As you have deduced," Jin said.

"I needed to experiment to raise the level of immersion lost by creating a never before seen enemy and combat style." Elder Lung didn't say anything to that and simply frowned.

"I must admit," Elder Qin once again chimed in.

"I can generally imagine what kind of illusion I will be entering from the theoretical discourse held at the beginning of the exam session. However, in your case, I cannot truly imagine anything, really. Which, I guess is the point. Nevertheless, I think it might be time to start looking at the scenario. Elder Lung, Elder Flower, which one of you would like to begin. The underpinning theory, or the combat system?" Flower stepped forward, looking curiously at the Room clutched in Jin's hands.

The disciple was holding it quite desperately, standing on the grassy terrain, his view distorted by fog. Despite knowing that the Room could survive probably anything that he could throw at it, he was still afraid of it simply falling to the ground and breaking.

"I'd like to start," the woman said.

"After all, if the combat system is too bad for words, which is a real fear this time around, then there's no point in wasting Elder Lung's time," she rationalised. However, it was clear that she simply couldn't wait to sate her curiosity and wanted to go first for completely personal reasons. Jin held up the room for the Elder to take. She gently received it from his hands, their fingers brushing against each other for but a second. She had rough hands, like that of a warrior.

She stepped back to stand once again amongst the Elders.

"I'm going in," she said. -/- POV: Elder Flower Flower had been born into the Illusion Room Sect. But had never actually really cared for the cultivation techniques and the products that they sold. She'd wanted to be a warrior, in fact. But, one was blessed in this world to be born to a father who was an Elder in a well-established sect, and one was definitely foolish if one disregarded this privilege to go be a neophyte in someone else's. Especially since there would always be a suspicion of espionage.

It had been the correct decision as well. With the resources of her family, she'd become the youngest sect member to form a nascent soul, at age 65. And, she still became a warrior anyway, just not one with access to special and secret techniques of a sect that actually focused on martial cultivation. It had ended up being a shrewd career move.

By becoming a warrior in a sect full of people who were decisively not, she had something unique to offer to the creation of combat systems and to the testing of illusion Rooms. This unfortunately also came with the fact that she became the go-to person to bother, when an outer, or an inner disciple needed to be tested for their aptitude.

She was planning an entire expedition in a few weeks just to get away from this one responsibility, as it was very exhausting to spend so much time going through illusion Rooms that offered relatively little, for the time they consumed in having to be properly reviewed. Thus, today was going to be her last review before she left the sect on a diplomatic mission to the Mad Monks Sect. In reality, she was just going there to exchange pointers with some martial cultivators and for some time off.

The cultivators who came to their mountain to look at their scenario library weren't generally interested in sparring, having to pay an hourly fee to be present in their library. As she entered the illusion room, she leashed the heavenly energies strengthening her body to the level that was achievable by a low-level cultivator and the end of their qi gathering stage. She found herself at first, as was common, in a blank space. For her it was white, but she knew that for others it was sometimes black.

Entering an illusion Room didn't immediately bring one into the scenario, but simply brought one to a mindscape from which one could enter it if one so wished. Different scenario designers created different methods of access, but this outer disciple seemed quite traditional in that he simply created a visual cue of what seemed to be a helmet made out of metal crossed by two of those spears he was talking about.

Without any preamble she directed a mental probe at the icon, causing her surroundings to violently change from one second to the next. No transition, she noticed. Elder Lung would probably be unhappy with that, the outdated elitist. However, any thoughts of what Elder Lung would think were blown away by her surroundings as they materialised around her. It wasn't a space that resembled anything she'd ever seen before.

Large grey bricks laid the foundation of a square room interspersed with pillars of what she recognized as marble and worked in with elaborate designs that seemed decisively non-imperial in nature. She frowned as she looked around the dark space seeing also the high glass windows which let in the minuscule amount of light that suffused the room. It was large, the space, but also small, due to the pillars. However, she wasn't that interested in architecture.

What she wanted to know was where this enemy was supposed to be. A scuff, an unfamiliar sound of metal on stone came from behind her, above her, she spun around drawing her jian made of dragon fang and sprang back just in time to avoid a downward stab from a large golden figure wielding a long spear with an extended blade which had jumped from a balcony that she had previously not perceived. By lowering her overall strength she'd also constrained her senses.

Instead of pursuing her immediately, the gigantic figure, towering over her by at least four heads, simply pointed his weapon at her, letting her admire the intricacy of its design. It was beautiful, in a way. The golden armour with its spikes, ridges and fins. A red plume of feathers extending out of the lion-themed helmet gently waved in a non-existent breeze.

It looked completely inefficient, however, since Flower knew that the metal was useless as a defensive armour, and the lance made of wood and metal was also a complete enchantment black hole. But, this was a fake world, not bound by the rules of reality. Before she could consider taking off points from the examinee for the fact that the figure was not moving it suddenly began to speak.

"I've slain dragons and monsters that you cannot even imagine, do you truly think that a mere human can best me? Dragonslayer Ornstein will show you the foolishness of your ways," it spoke in a raspy metallic voice with vocal cords that sounded like they'd never been used. Music suddenly started belting out from all corners, not particularly loud, but just enough to generate an atmosphere of unease at the alien sounds being created.

Before Flower could think too much of it, the now-named Ornstein suddenly pointed and hefted his lance in her direction, crouched down and shot forward at a speed that she hadn't expected from this level of a scenario. A golden blur holding a silver point directed exactly at her torso. She sidestepped the move, which she was thankfully able to do with the pathetic amounts of energy she was letting course with her body.

Ornstein stopped in place after the charge, gripped his lance differently and swung it sideways, the blade instead of the point now coming directly for Flower's head. She reluctantly parried the blow so it struck above her but was surprised that Ornstein simply stepped forward as it was struck aside, gripped the lance closer to the blade and spun the butt of the weapon at her. Flower was forced to jump backwards, again, and reconsidered her opponent.

She narrowed her eyes, puffing a strand of her long black hair out of her face. This was turning out more difficult than expected and the lance was a much more flexible weapon than she could have imagined. It had all the diversity of a staff, but also had a blade, a sharp point, and a cross guard. Ornstein didn't seem interested in letting her consider her options. He dashed at her again this time with a swing instead of a thrust.

Flower ducked under the move and extended her arm with her sword to try and pierce through the giant's torso, however, the vibration that ran up her arm at her strike almost made her drop her weapon. While she was doing this, and Ornstein's lance passed over her head he stepped forward into her weapon, pushing her back through the solidity of his armour, reversed his grip on the lance and swung it down diagonally from the other side.

Flower threw herself to the floor and rolled away, but received a swift and brutal kick to the face as she did so. Her face stung and her nose felt broken. She once again retreated, only to be hunted down as if she were a rat being chased by a cat. A blur of white bone on silver and wood commenced, every single move from the enemy being something that Flower had never seen before. As her green-clad form fled from the golden giant she realised the true threat that dragonslayer Ornstein represented.

He wasn't perfect, nothing was. But everything was novel and it gave her the feeling that she was permanently off balance. Flower had never fought against a demon, but she could very starkly feel the danger of facing a never-before-seen enemy as cuts appeared on her body, slowing her down more and more, while her own strikes failed to penetrate the dragonslayer's armour.

"Novelty indeed," she muttered distractedly as she was forced to jump in the air and spin over a brutal sideways swing of the lance. Her jian shot forth aiming for the very narrow eye-holes in Ornstein's armour, but the knight simply tilted his head forward so the sword scraped by uselessly. He kicked out at her torso. She didn't have enough energy, being barely more than a basic human in this form, and thus she was unable to dodge. She was kicked into the air.

The lance swung from below, leaving a laceration on her torso before the damned weapon was pulled back and thrust straight at her chest. She tried to deflect it, but Ornstein struck her weapon out of the way with a twist of the crossguard, which had caught her sword in one of the spokes. The lance continued onwards to stab her in the lungs. Flower could only grit her teeth as the tip of the lance exited her back and the two tips of the cross-guard buried themselves respectively in her chest and into her stomach.

"Fuck," she grumbled as she fell on the floor, Ornstein roughly placing a foot on her face to dislodge the lance from her body. Rather than finishing her, the bastard took a step back and dispassionately watched her bleed out on the floor. Flower ended the instance and reappeared back in the blank space. A frown spread across her face as she compartmentalised the pain she'd just finished experiencing. She'd never actually died from a monster created by an outer disciple, or an inner disciple for that manner.

After all, usually, she'd fought several of those monsters already in slightly different scenarios created by other illusionists. The argument that what they needed in the sect was more original creatures wasn't a new one, the issue was that it was hard to actually make something like that and that most cultivators preferred to stick to the safe route. She was about to enter the game again when a slight hesitation in her mindset made her pause.

"Something original, can be so terrifying?" she asked herself quietly as she noted that her hands were shaking. Sure, she'd reduced her own power a lot and refrained from using any spells or techniques, but... even if she knew that she could blow Ornstein away if she used her true power, it truly was a horrifying experience to face something and know that one had not even scratched the surface of its abilities yet.

The thought of slightly powering up, enough so that she at least matched the oddly well-developed physical strength that her opponent exhibited flitted through her mind. But then she gritted her teeth and decided that she didn't feel like admitting defeat to an illusion made by an outer disciple. She went to face Ornstein again. Green and gold danced in the dead cathedral while dark orchestral music played in the background. She went to face Ornstein again.

Bone-white and silver flashed in a blur as if they were differently coloured flies trying to mate in mid-air. She went to face Ornstein again. Tried systematically dismantling his armour, but failed. She went to face Ornstein again. Tried to enter her sword through the slits in his helmet, but failed. She went to face Ornstein again. Succeeded in cutting him in the weak points of his armour, the joints, but traded in her life for success. She went to face Ornstein again.

Slowed him down by stabbing his joints, and tried to go for the eye-slit. Impossible, a simple tilt of the head and the sword went askew. She went to face Ornstein again, managed to disarm him and dismantled him slowly and efficiently as he weakly slapped at her with a pathetic unarmed fight. All extremities bleeding out, a sword through the eye-slit She realised that the disciple hadn't programmed Ornstein in any unarmed fighting because there was no point considering his philosophy of focusing on novelty.

She went in again and faced Ornstein as he was meant to be faced, with a lance. Died. Through the head, torso, loss of legs, loss of arms, head smashed against a marble pillar. So many ways to die. But Ornstein was only an algorithm in the end, she became used to the new and it became comforting. She developed counter-strategies and found the flaws. She won, but it wasn't enough. She had to pay back the suffering she'd gone through. She went in again, and again, winning, losing, faster and faster.

In the end, when she had the golden giant kneeling at her feet, a lake of blood growing under Ornstein as he tried to lift his lance through nearly severed arms, Flower realised something. A bright and contagious laughter filled the cathedral, accompanying the orchestral music with its ominous vocals. She was having fun.