The Phoenix [Cultivation, Reincarnation, Tower Climber]

Trinity sleeps for most of the day, only waking up when it's time for dinner, so I spend the rest of the day cultivating on my own and experimenting with more transmutation. One interesting transmutation that I've had some fun with lately is magnetism. I have no idea what I would use this for, but it's kind of funny to have metal things stick to me.

At dinner, I talk to the others in my Starter Quest group about what we need to get ready and where we're going to go. We're aiming for the first place prize, of course, so we eliminate the east and west almost immediately. The most dangerous and valuable monsters and plants are in the north and south regions, so that's where we'll be heading. A coin flip determines that we'll be going to the southern desert first, and after that, we start figuring out what we need to prepare.

Vanessa went and talked to Ganyu right after the Lesson, and she got little booklets for all of us to see what's worth the most points, and she even went out to the Quest Hall's library, which I didn't know existed, to get more information on survival tips for each region. With all the preparation that she's done, I don't actually have to put in that much of my own input. They figure out what they need on their own pretty well. The only input I do give is to bring extra bags, since after my experience in the north, I know that the trophies take up quite a bit of space, and a single bag isn't going to be enough if we actually want to win.

They also spend a lot of time talking about strategy, but I think there's a silent agreement between all of us about how I'm going to fit into the group, so they leave me out of those plans. And with Timmy being Timmy, most of their plans just revolve around the other four, Vanessa, Kat, Jacob, and Jenny. The assumption is that Timmy will be doing mostly foraging for rare plants and that I'll be doing my own thing. I am totally fine with this arrangement, but I'm not sure how I feel about not being asked about it.

Apparently, Vanessa and Kat have both been training in archery together, so they'll be taking on more ranged positions, with Vanessa staying in the backline and Kat flanking around the sides. Meanwhile, Jacob and Jenny will be up front with spears. There's a tacit agreement there as well that Jacob will be the centerpiece while Jenny supports him.

It doesn't seem like a bad plan, necessarily, but I don't really see Jacob as the ideal person for that frontline position. He's talented enough he'll probably do fine with it, but based on what I've seen, he would fit better in Kat's position. There's not really a better place to put him though, since Kat is probably better at that spot, and we don't really have a better frontline. Normally, I wouldn't care, but they are my teammates, and while I don't doubt my ability to carry the team, I'd rather not have them be so reliant on me.

"We're going to the sparring hall tomorrow," I say, interrupting their conversation.

"What?" asks Jacob.

"I want to see how this is going to work," I say. "We'll get a bigger private room and practice for a bit."

"Really?" asks Kat, her eyes sparkling. "Are you going to help us?"

"I'm going to judge you," I say. "Whether that helps you or not is up to you."

"Awesome!"

She looks excited. Her spirit is admirable. Most people wouldn't be so enthusiastic, especially not after what I did to her last time we sparred, but I guess she's not the type to hold grudges.

"What time?" asks Jacob.

"Right after the Lesson," I say. "Maybe during the practical portion."

"Works for me," he says.

"Same," says Vanessa.

"Me too," says Jenny.

"Great!" says Kat.

"Timmy, you're coming too," I say.

"What?" he says, looking up from his plant.

"We're going to the sparring hall during the practical part of tomorrow's Lesson."

"Can I bring my plant?"

"Yes."

"Okay!"

With that sorted out, I return to the background of the conversation as they keep talking. Or at least, I try to. Every time they say something else about their strategy, they glance over at me as if for approval. I guess they took my statement about the sparring hall as disapproval, and now they're double checking every new suggestion with me. I try to ignore them, but I guess they take that as disapproval too, so they just end that conversation and move on to new topics. I half want to clarify that I literally just don't know enough about their skills to know if this will work, but they've already moved on, so it doesn't matter anymore.

After the strategy talk, they start looking through the booklet and picking out the things they think they want to target. I almost laugh when they talk about finding 100 year snow ginseng. I correct them a few times and help them manage expectations on that front, which makes them disappointed. Especially Timmy, who really wanted to get a look at the snow ginseng to compare to his own thousand year ginseng, which he still hasn't used yet.

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They end that topic pretty quickly after they get my input as well and move on to more mundane things, at which point I fully tune out. While tuned out, I enhance my ears a bit to listen in on the other conversations. About half our Batch got into groups almost instantly, having already formed cliques, but there is still a large portion of them running around trying to find other groups to join. No one has requested to join ours yet, but there are a few other groups that seem to be pretty popular, as well as a few solo people who look highly sought-after.

The man who is almost definitely a hitman whose name I still haven't learned is one of these people. Despite the way he poorly hides his previous occupation, and how that's made most people avoid him until now, he's still ranked 5th in the Batch. Aside from ours, there's only one other group that doesn't seem to have any interest in him.

Rank 3, Mike the jogger, has his own group made up of the police woman and the firefighter I recognize from the first trial along with a couple others, and all of them give the hitman stern looks when he tries to join them. Their group is probably the second best in the Batch. I haven't been paying that close attention, but I recognize all but one of the members as people I've seen in the halls of the top floor of the dorm, meaning they're all in the top 40.

Thomas and the old man he partnered with during the labyrinth trial both have their own group as well, and though most of them don't seem to be the most talented in the Batch, their group is oddly cohesive already. Thomas seems to be a good leader, and the old man has climbed up to rank 7 in the Batch since his initial start at 13.

The last person of note is one who seems to have no group, nor have any interest in joining any. It's the woman who tore her opponents throat out with her teeth during the first trial. She was kind of shunned after those initial trials, and it looks like she's just decided to embrace the lonely life. She's currently ranked 6th in the Batch, so she still has a few groups trying to recruit her, but she's turned them all away so far. I'm not sure what her plan is, since she has to join a group at some point, but it's possibly that she's just so apathetic she legitimately just plans on waiting until the deadline to get automatically assigned.

Now that I think about it, our group isn't full. It's possible for us to get automatically assigned two more people. Should I try to grab the hitman and the throat biter to keep us from getting anyone weird? Or should we just gamble and hope that we don't get anyone? Is there any way to finalize our group to guarantee that we don't get anyone? If not, I guess recruiting them would be the safest option. But I don't want to do that, so I'll just make the others do it.

After the meal and conversation ends and we go our separate ways, I mention this, and I even mention the two higher ranked people who are still solo. Vanessa immediately volunteers to go talk to Ganyu about finalizing the group, and Kat volunteers to do the recruiting if finalizing is impossible. Jacob shoots Kat down and says he'll do the recruiting instead. I also think this is a better idea, given the disposition of the throat biter. She seems like the kind that would get annoyed by Kat instead of liking her.

With that sorted out, I return to my room to cultivate. Trinity is asleep again, so I work alone until it's time to shower and sleep. In the morning, Trinity seems to have her energy back, so we spend about two hours cultivating before breakfast and the Lesson.

At the Lesson, Ganyu goes over teamwork and team tactics, which keeps the rest of my group aside from Timmy enraptured. Speaking of the rest of my group, our group has grown. Apparently, finalizing the group is impossible, and the only way to guarantee no randomly assigned people is to gather a full eight, which we have now done. The hitman joined us without any kind of negotiation, and the throat-biting woman joined after Kat bribed her. Apparently, Kat as a lot of Tower Credits because of her sponsor, so she was able to pay the other woman more than she could refuse.

The hitman's name is Alphonse, but he tell us to call him "Al," and the woman's name is June. Both of them have agreed to join us at the sparring hall, so when we head out after the Lesson, we're a full group of 8. Being in a full group makes the entourage of informants behind us bigger than usual, but aside from Kat greeting a few that she's apparently befriended, they don't otherwise interact with us.

Since I'm not sure where the other halls are, I head for the northern sparring hall again. We turn a lot of heads, but fortunately, there are private halls, so we're able to avoid the prying eyes. The private rooms cost Tower Credits to rent, but Kat happily flaunts her wealth and pays for a full 8 hours, costing her a full 1000 credits.

The reason for the steep price is that we got the highest quality variety of private hall. Not only is it enormous–the size of a football field–it has a wide assortment of rental weapons and armor that we are free to use, and even the ability to generate constructs as test dummies. The most advanced dummies can do a bit of fighting back, but after a bit of early sparring, it becomes clear that their capabilities are very limited, and they generally only move in set patterns.

Still, they work to get a decent warmup in. The first thing I do inside after figuring out how things work is spawn an Early 2 star bear construct in and have the others attack it using their strategy. The two new members just get tacked onto the existing strategy, with Al mirroring Kat on the opposite side, and June mirroring Jenny on the other side of Jacob.

This first test goes miserably. It's all of their first encounter with a true 2 star, so despite the fact that it's predictable and unskilled, it easily tears through them. Jacob falls first after underestimating its speed, followed quickly by Jenny. June actually manages to last a few seconds in a display of superhuman instinct and reaction time before she too falls. It takes out Vanessa next, since she's mostly stationary, then Al before going on a came of cat and mouse with Kat that eventually ends with Kat "dead" too.

The second attempt goes better. Now that they have a better idea of its capabilities, they last much longer, and even manage to kill it. Jenny and Jacob "die" in the process again, but it's a drastic improvement. The third attempt goes perfectly, with the bear construct dying without anyone even getting hit once.

They all cheer when they succeed, and congratulate each other, but that all fades when they see me frowning. I guess it was good improvement from the first attempt to the third, but it wasn't really an improvement in teamwork as much as it was an improvement in understanding the construct's attack patterns. They're only fulfilling their roles on paper, and aside from that first attempt, it didn't really test how well they'd work together.

"So how was it?" asks Jacob, walking up and looking a little nervous.

"...It wasn't that bad," I say.

"But it wasn't good either?"

"No, not really," I agree. "But it's more a fault of the format. The construct is too simple. It's hard to get proper training in."

I walk over to the rack of rental weapons and pick up a spear.

"Starting now, you'll be fighting against me instead."

"Yes!" says Kat, looking excited.

I walk out to the center of the room and turn to face them. Aside from Kat, who is smiling, they all have serious expressions on. Vanessa looks especially nervous.

"Can we begin?" asks Jacob.

"Yes," I say. "Do your best."