Cooking?
Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, so, if you spot a mistake or something that could be a plot hole, please do make a paragraph comment about it; I check them all and they're really appreciated.
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https://discord.gg/fm2YPaf
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After walking and running for around 7 to 8 hours, including a short rest and dinner break around halfway; Claire finally arrived at the Blue Flame Sect, hours after the sun had set. She could faintly see multiple tents scattered around the road, some of the tents had small fires lit in front of them, with silhouettes of people around the fires.
She walked past quite a few of the tents, until she was at a place with no other tent within 50 meters of her. 'This should be good enough, hopefully no one will notice me here.' After finishing that thought, she entered her sub-space to set up her tent there, as there's better lighting in there, even though she doesn't know where it's coming from. She reappeared a few minutes later, and after she looked around to see if there were people who walked closer, a set up tent appeared in front of her.
Using the very dim moonlight to see, Claire was able to fasten the tent to the ground with some pegs. She entered the tent and had a sleeping bag appear on the ground. After crawling inside of it, she quickly fell asleep.
Claire was awoken by the sounds of people moving around and talking together in the distance. She got up while a yawning, and straightened out her clothes, as she had decided to sleep with them on, in case something would've happened. After getting out of the tent, she packed it down, before sending it back into her sub-space, after she had confirmed that no one was looking.
Once she had finished packing up, she walked over to one of the bigger groups of people, whom she presumed to cultivators. When she got closer, she saw them doing a few different thing, some were fighting with one another, some were taking care of their weapons, others were socializing with other cultivators, and a good bit of the rest seemed to be cooking? Something that she wouldn't have found all that weird, if it hadn't been for the serious expression on many of their faces.
She approached one of the socializing cultivators, a young man looking to be in his late teens. "Excuse me, can I ask you a few questions?" "Huh?" The teen shook his head, as if he had been in deep thought about something. "Sorry, but what did you say?" "I asked if I could ask a few questions, and sorry for disturbing you." He did a 'no matter' motion with his hand. "No matter, now, please tell me what I can help a beauty like you with." He said with an almost playful tone to his voice.
Claire was a little taken aback from being called a beauty, and just stood "stunned" for a quick second. 'That's a first, but I did wish for this, so I guess I better get used to it.' Before quickly recovering with a shake of her head. "I just wanted to ask why those people are cooking with such seriousness." "Oh?" He sounded a little surprised, as if it's supposed to be common knowledge. "I'm guessing that you're not from around here, or have been living alone, because everyone knows that the disciple examination requires you cook something, but the recipe changes every time."
"Thank you, is it known what the other tests are? And if so, can you tell them to me?" "Sure, it's not like they're some greatly kept secrets anyway." He answered with a smile. "The first two tests are a compatibility test and an affinity test respectively, whatever that actually means." He laughs a little awkwardly, before continuing. "The third and final test consists of three parts, one where you cook over a fire you started, one where you spar against an examinator, and finally a part where you're judged based on cultivation level and age."
Once his explanation was over, Claire thanked him for his time and left. As she knew that it can sometimes be easier to process information, if it's spoken out loud; she spoke to herself in a low voice. "I know very little about the context of the first two tests, but I doubt I should worry too much about that, as it should be explained with time. Then there're the two first parts of the third test, the cooking shouldn't be the biggest challenge, my experience from home should come in handy. I just hope that the ingredients aren't too out there."
She smirked to herself with a little confidence, before heaving a sigh when she thought of the next part. "The real problem is the spar; I'll probably get my ass handed to me in that one. For the last one I just need to hope that I'm good enough as I am." With the thought organization over, she decided to spend the remaining time socializing, to try and figure out what compatibility and affinity actually mean.
Around half an hour later the tests were announced to start in half an hour, which resulted in people starting to group up in big group close to the sect walls. In the half an hour she spent asking around, Claire was able to figure out a little of what compatibility and affinity actually mean. Compatibility is how compatible one's body is to a specific element, meaning that a better compatibility results in reduced energy costs when using techniques of that element; on the other hand, affinity is what determines how easily one can learn techniques of the affinity's element, and seems to have an effect on the techniques power.
The remaining half an hour passed slowly, with not much happening between the cultivators, the only exception being when the sect moved out something like a podium and two tents. That resulted in most of the cultivators moving over and surrounding that. Once the sun reached its highest point in the sky, a man appearing to be in somewhere his sixties landed on the podium. Although he looked to be old, his body looked filled with energy and vitality.
The old man clapped his hands and cleared his throat. "The Blue Flame Sect disciple examination will now commence." He held out an arm. "We will do the first two tests at once, so, everyone to the left of my arm, please move to the tent on my left and form a line, while everyone to the right does the opposite. Once you've been tested, please form a queue on the backside of the tents." The old man then walked down the podium and took a seat on a stone.
At the instant the old man stopped speaking, the group of cultivators split in two and went their separate ways. Claire followed along the left group, and to her surprise, the cultivators were all quiet as they just formed a long line; no one even tried to skip in line, which is weird with a queue this long. The queue moved along at quite a fast pace, and even though she started in the last half of the queue, it didn't take much more than 15 minutes before it was her turn. Claire entered the test with a curious mind.
The tent was really simple, besides a man and a woman, only a crystal was placed on a table. "Please come and place your hand on the crystal, that will measure your affinity." She had only stopped for half a second to look around, but the man already had a displeased expression on his face, while the woman called her over. Once Claire was over at the crystal, she held her hand over it and looked up at the woman. "I just need to touch it, right? Nothing more than that?" Before the woman could respond, the man just rolled his eyes and nodded with a heavy sigh. "Yes, that was what we just told you." As Claire placed her hand on the crystal, she noticed the woman elbowing the man in the side.
--chapter over—
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--nope—
A second after the palm of her hand contacted the crystal, a very, very, weak red light lit up inside of it. She looked up at the two disciple and found an indifferent expression on the man and a disappointed one on the woman. "What's your name?" The woman asked. "Claire Turner." As the man jotted down something on a scroll, the woman started talking once more. "Alright, you can move over to the next test." She pointed towards an opening, that Claire immediately walked out of.
'I think I got a bad score, so, let's hope that my compatibility is better.' She enters the queue for the other test. This time the wait was around the double of before, as all the cultivators from the right group had to finish before the left group could start. The inside of this tent was nearly identical to the other, with the exception of the two disciples, both were male this time. Before they could open their mouths to say anything, Claire said something first. "I'm Claire Turner." She then walked up and put her hand on the crystal.
Unlike earlier, this time, the crystal shone with a really bright red light, causing everyone to instinctively close their eyes. She quickly pulled her hand back in the hope of stopping the bright light, which was successful. "Miss, please place your hand on the crystal once more, we need to confirm that it was not a mistake." She did as asked and put her hand on it once more, causing the light to fill the room once more. "Thank you miss, you can leave the tent now." A hint of respect seemed to have entered the disciple's tone of voice, but Claire didn't care as she left the tent.
The old man, who had started meditating once he sat down, suddenly opened his eyes wide; something unnatural had occurred in the compatibility tent. He had seen the bright light from the crystal, using his spirit sense. The sheer amount of light caused cold sweat to form on his back, but instead of taking action, he chose to just see who left. 'luckily, my spirit sense was blocking the access to the tent, it won't be good if the other sects know about this monstrous talent.'
He then felt the light once more, something he had expected the disciples to ask for. A few seconds later, he saw a female teen with long black hair exit the tent. 'I need to make sure that the other sects don't discover her, and we need her, no matter if she can pass the other tests or not. But for now, I should just let her finish the last test, it'll be good to see what she can do.' He then used his spirit sense to check her cultivation stage. 'Hmm, Body Refining stage 3 at that age isn't too bad, especially if she's a rogue.' He called another person over, before heading into the sect to do something.