When Astrel awoke, a simple, wooden room appeared before his eyes. Rubbing his eyes to refresh himself, he glanced over at a small white wolf, curled into a ball on the wooden floor.
"Wake up, Ruff."
Hearing his cry, the wolf stirred and opened his eyes. He was about 3 feet tall, and between 4 and 5 feet long. He had a soft mane of white fur on his neck, similar to that of a maned wolf. His snow white fur was like that of an arctic fox, conducive to camouflage against snow. However, in the much milder climates in the surroundings, it was meaningless. His body had a few bandaged wounds, and it was clearly limping as it walked over to Astrel
"You think you're all that, don't you? Why don't you pick a fight with a dragon next time? See if I fix you up."
He then looked over at the door.
"Ruggle, appear."
A Black shadowy figure appeared. A Biting Biter. It was tall as a two story building, but thin as a human arm, and had folded itself around the door to fit in. It had two long arms and two long legs. Where it's head would be was a long stick-like protrusion, ending on a hand, creating it's third arm. The entire body of the creature was pitch black, and radiated a frozen air. There were hundreds of mouths scattered around its body and limbs, constantly stretching out and biting thin air. It gave a soft, low growl, and disappeared again.
There was a bedside table next to well, the bed. On the table was a small tank, and inside it, a fish was swimming happily. Astrel smiled and threw in a small rat from below the table into the tank. The head of the fish elongated, into a pale, Caucasian neck, about a foot long, and a human head formed on the end. It bit down on the still squirming rat, and proceeded to devour the rat.
"Good boy, Rushal" Astrel said as he reached his hand into the tank to pet the human head.
As he spoke, Astrel reached to feel the still aching wound on his chest, and clenched his teeth. Yesterday, one of his peers had picked a fight with him, calling him a useless waste of space, and a talent-less human being. Despite belonging to a cultivator clan, and working for over two years, he had been unable to produce even a single spirit pillar. In context, even a mortal, when working moderately hard, wouldn't find it difficult to form 4-5 pillars in a decade. Thus, this fellow was not wrong in his accusation. However, it still hurt.
Although he gritted his teeth, and bared with the humiliation, Ruff was unable to, and struck out. He was swiftly defeated, and his Raging orc beat upon both Ruff, trying to kill it.
"That feral wolf attacks humans. Have it put down."
As the orc swung its club downwards, Astrel stood in front, taking the blow and being smashed into the ground. As he spit out a mouthful of blood, he said through a wide smile.
"Your orc attacks humans. Why don't you have it put down?"
Fearing the trouble resulting from inflicting serious injuries to another in the same clan, the cultivator quickly made himself scarce, the orc disappearing into particles of light as he returned to card form, and the two made their way back to rest and recuperate.
Yesterday’s setback hardly dented his faith in himself because the formation of spirit pillars wasn't the end all to cultivation. After all, a person could only form 9 pillars in his life, and they weren't overly difficult to form either. The true test for cultivators was forming cards, either by taming beasts or calling forth the powers of spirits from terminal world. Since calling out the powers of terminal world was unlikely for a small clan like his, their strength relied entirely on the abilities of tamed creatures. And not a single one of his peers could compare with the 4 beasts he had tamed, White Wolf Ruff, Biting Biter Ruggle, Human-Faced Fish Rushal, and little demon Ramon, who was currently out. Even though that fellow had two spirit pillars, Asteral would be able to dominate him with just one.
If he could form one.
Most of his clan had completely given up on him ever doing so, and some had even set their eyes on Ruggle, one of the rarest and most powerful beasts available to early cultivators. Ramon and Rushal weren't bad either, being easily above average.
There was a knock at the window, and a small, red, pudgy figure lurked outside. It was an ice blue in color, and its confident smile made one respect it despite its small stature. This was especially apparent when said smile took up half its face...
Little demon Ramon. Although Ruggle was the strongest spirit in has possession, he was overly timid, refusing to leave his doorway, while Rushal was confined to bodies of water. Ramon, however, was cunning, mischievous, and overly bold. As of now, he was back, having stolen an armful of spirit fruits helpful in forming spirit pillars from various cultivators in the clan.
One of the reasons Astrel had a hard time forming his spirit pillar was because of his status as an orphan. He was unable to access medication available to the rest of the clan. This was clearly not the only reason, as even a mortal with no resources would have formed a pillar by now, but it was a big one.
Every little bit helped, yet Astrel was more upset than anything at the little demon's gift. While the medicine was helpful to him, it was useless to most of his peers who had access to much better. However, if Ramon was ever discovered, this would give the clansmen the reason they needed to take Ramon away, and if they could put the blame onto Astrel, even Ruggle and Rushal were in danger.
Despite telling him not to do it ever again, Astrel didn't even entertain the possibility of giving the medicine back. It was just as dangerous as stealing the medicine in the first place, perhaps more, with no tangible benefits, and could be taken as an admission of guilt.
