Fate Shift - Chapter 7

Starting the day after the incident with the mirror demon, D’Gedda began setting his plans for the future in motion. The first thing he did was to focus on gathering information, mainly about the Seven Powers Sect and his body’s past. He did this primarily by observing and listening to the other novices who stayed in the same dormitory as him.

D’Gedda had initially thought learning the things he’d need to know without drawing suspicion to himself would be hard. It was actually quite easy though. For one thing, the Seven Powers Sect had a very hands-off approach to novices. From the sect’s perspective a novice wasn’t worth the effort of teaching. Instead each novice was freely given a few uniforms, a novice level cultivation art, novice spells, and not much else. Basically, novices almost couldn’t be considered part of the Seven Powers Sect at all. It was only by entering the fourth cultivation realm, Soul Inception that one would begin receiving the sect’s attention. That was, after all, the first cultivation realm in the apprentice rank.

D’Gedda wasn’t too clear on how things changed for the Seven Powers Sect’s novices once they became apprentices but he figured he’d learn about that once he became an apprentice himself. What mattered to him at the moment was that he was effectively free to act as he pleased. This was a great boon for D’Gedda, one he intended to take advantage of.

One of the first things D’Gedda decided to do once he had a fair grasp of the sect was to visit Falcoun. Near as he could tell, D’Gedda’s body didn’t have any close friends in the sect aside from Falcoun. The two were slightly infamous due to some pranks they had pulled but weren’t the types to draw that much attention to themselves. They were basically loners that couldn’t have entered any of the novices’ little cliques even had they wanted to. That meant that the only person likely to notice D’Gedda acting strangely or differently from Kosh would be Falcoun.

Rather than killing or threatening Falcoun, D’Gedda planned to convince Falcoun he’d had a change of heart after the demon incident. If that worked he’d be careful to remain cordial with Falcoun while keeping a distance. Even if it didn’t work D’Gedda planned to find a non-violent way to deal with Falcoun. The fewer eyes he drew towards himself the better, at least for now.

Four days after the demon incident D’Gedda approached Falcoun in the same hallway he’d met him originally. Before he could even bring up what he was planning to discuss Falcoun said “I know what you’re going to say Kosh. The demon scared you and now you’d rather focus on cultivating instead of lazing around with me right?”

D’Gedda was shocked by Falcoun’s statement and paused. Falcoun read Kosh’s expression his own way and said “I figured that was it. Look it’s fine; there’s no need to feel bad for wanting to focus on cultivation. I knew you were keeping me company this whole time because my older brother asked you to but it isn’t like he’d have expected you to delay your own progress for me. You’ve already done enough so there’s no way he’ll give you any trouble. Don’t worry about me and focus on yourself for once Kosh”

D’Gedda simply nodded his head, turned around, and left. Internally he couldn’t have been more enthused. How often did he have a problem that practically solved itself? This was great! He could finally focus wholly on cultivating!

With that issue sorted D’Gedda headed to the Seven Powers Sect’s Art Repository. This was where the novices went to get their spells. Although most novices only came here once before advancing to become apprentices some would come multiple times. Thankfully this meant there was nothing odd about D’Gedda showing up. Better yet, D’Gedda wasn’t restricted in terms of what types of spells or how many spells he could pick up. As long as they were novice-level spells he’d be allowed to look at any he wished. Naturally D’Gedda’s plan was to memorize each and every spell he had access to.

In truth memorizing these spells wouldn’t allow D’Gedda to cultivate any easier in the Meridian Opening Realm. Considering he’d have access to the apprentice-level spells once he hit the next cultivation realm, it might seem redundant to visit the Art Repository now to another novice. To D’Gedda it made perfect sense though. So long as he was in this body D’Gedda would need to be as familiar with Seven Powers Qi as possible. In other words he needed to practice employing it and casting spells was a great method for that. He also wanted to use his practice with spells to further secure the idea that he’d had a change of heart. Aside from those reasons there was another thing that motivated D’Gedda to collect all the spells he could. It was exactly that: he could take them, so why wouldn’t he?

The Art Repository was positioned rather close to D’Gedda’s dormitory. From what he now knew D’Gedda understood this was because the Art Repository only held cultivation arts and spells for low-ranking cultivators. Only novices and apprentices would come here to learn new spells. As for where higher-ranking cultivators went, D’Gedda didn’t care.

The building itself was an unassuming structure of stone and wood with a rustic appearance. Unlike the building itself the surrounding area was an idyllic scene. Gardens ringed the Art Repository on all sides, boasting an artistic array of flowers common and rare. From what D’Gedda had learned in bits and pieces of overheard gossip the repository was managed by a guest elder from the Verdant Thorn Sect. D’Gedda suspected if he were to look into the situation he’d find politics at play but it was none of his business.

Upon entering the building D’Gedda inserted a strand of Qi into a scroll placed on a podium that faced the entryway. A line of text materialized on the scroll as D’Gedda began browsing through bookshelves. Aside from the occasional novice he didn’t see anyone else around. The repository had two floors and most of the visitors to the repository, apprentices, went straight up the staircase leading to the second floor, which was where the apprentice level spells were kept.

As D’Gedda explored the repository he found that stone tablets were the only means used to record spells here. In his time such tablets would’ve been rare treasures but it seemed the manufacture of tablets like these, which could store information with such clarity, weren’t considered particularly valuable. It was yet another reminder that he now lived in a different age.

D’Gedda systematically sent a thread of Qi through each tablet in the room, one at a time, with great care. None of the other novices he saw acted with the caution he did when using the stone tablets. On the rare occasions D’Gedda had interacted with these information-storing treasures during his first life he’d discovered that they weren’t perfectly efficient when used hastily. While the data corruption one might experience from using such tablets quickly was negligible, almost nonexistent really, it did exist. That was all the reason D’Gedda needed to take his time.

Once he’d finished looking through all the stone tablets D’Gedda headed back to his personal quarters. He was now ready to start focusing on increasing his cultivation.

I’ve been thinking about which terms need capitalization and which don’t. Once I’ve decided I’ll go back and edit all the currently released chapters so everything is consistent. If anyone has any opinions on the topic feel free to comment. I may not follow advice given but I won’t ignore it either.