AN: Alright, I'm back, and yeah, while some of you might be wondering if I'll also post the next chapter of Quincy DxD, well, I have some good news, and some bad news.

I'm going to assume that you'd like to hear the good news first.

I have started writing the chapter, and I do have a very special part planned out, let's call this "Point B", but I am having trouble planning Points A, C, D, etc, ect...

And so, I am in the need of a beta reader/soundboard to bounce ideas with. And as some of you may remember, my previous Beta, Lliono left due to complications on his end, and while I have been slogging through despite the lack of a beta reader, I do feel that one is necessary, so congrats, we have a spot open!

Anyway, onto the story!

"Regular speech"

"This is a «spirit skill» understand?"

'Thought'

"a Spirit Beast speaking"

[Game Data]

(Author Note)

Disclaimer: I don't own Gamer by Sung San-Young and Sang-ah or Douluo Dalu by Tang Jia San Shao (Light Novel) and Mu Fengchun (Manhwa). Please support the Official Releases

'I-Is that bloody Yian Kut-Ku they're fighting? What the bloody hell is going on here?!' Shen thought to himself as he looked into the clearing where him and Tan Bai had arrived to. The 6 students that had come with them were in a rather basic formation, Beast Spirit masters in the front, while Tool Spirit users were situated at the back providing support.

Out of the four Beast Spirit masters, half were Rank 30, while the other half were 20, and the two Tool Spirit users were of the same percentage, one Rank 30 Bow Spirit user, forming arrows to shoot at the Yian Kut-Ku, while the Rank 20 Support System trumpeter was playing a bombastic tune, and as he listened to it, Shen couldn't help but feel pumped up, so perhaps it was an attack-boosting skill.

"«Second Spirit Ring Skill: Crystal fortification»!" A 21-year old Defense System Spirit Master with crustal-encrusted armor covering his body, and a singular horn upon his head stomped the ground, a crystal wall spring up from the ground, just in time to block a blast of fire from the parrot-like wyvern.

"Everyone, get clear, Lu Fu's almost ready to unleash her second skill!" Yang Ho shouted, the Beast Spirit users heeding his words, jumping away, and leaving the Yian Kut-Ku as the only thing directly in front of the two Tool Spirits users.

"«Second Spirit Ring Skill: Sandman's call»!" The tune from before changed from the bombastic and energizing tune to a more elegant and relaxing tune, although the sound was faint, ripples of sound flying straight at the Yian Kut-Ku, which took the full brunt of the attack, visibly knocked back, as its eyes rolled to the back of its head, before slumping forward with one final squawk, slamming into the ground, dead asleep, deeply in the domain of Morpheus.

Knowing what to do, Weng Ji dismissed his Flame Viper Essence armor and transformation, the slightly muscular half-man-half-snake turning back into a thin, almost feminine young man, withdrew a knife from the depths of his robe as he approached the downed Yian Kut-Ku, his knife glinting as the blade approached the soft, tan portion of the neck.

"Stop right there!" Weng Ji jumped back in shock as a female voice shouted, a voice that caused Shen to widen his eyes in surprise as a small group of four emerged from the thicket, all dressed in orange. At the forefront was a grown woman wearing a long dark brown robe with orange accents, but Shen's attention didn't stay on her for long, nor the two young adults who stood behind her, but the teenage girl who stood to their left, looking at the bound Yian Kut-Ku.

It might've been what, a quarter shy of a decade since he last saw her, but Shen could still recognize Wang Shu, as she still hadn't changed her hairstyle all that much from the spiky wind-blown look, although now she looked far less like a tomboy-ish girl.

Although the name hanging above her head also helped in identifying her. And speaking of the data that hung above her head, congratulations were in order for reaching Rank 20, at like what, 16, add in a month or two?

"If you would be so kind as to introduce yourselves, so that we may hold a proper conversation." Hong Feng said, walking to meet the group from Blazing Academy, as the title of «Blazing Academy Instructor» which floated above the woman's head, although her name, level and system remained blurred.

The woman walked forward, looking Hong Feng dead in the eyes, before a small smirk made its way to her lips. "Of course, where are my manners? Huo Ju, Rank 61 Spirit Emperor, instructor of Blazing Academy greets you." The woman did a small curtsy, an all-too-sweet smile was plastered on her face as red light, spirit essence floated off of her body, forming above her head to form a red and orange circular symbol depicting a humanoid figure with plumes of fire coming off of it, like the petals of a flower.

Shen raised an eyebrow at the Spirit Mark. 'So, is she Huo Wu's mom or something?' he pondered, as Huo Wu's «Fire Shadow» Beast Spirit was the only one that, to his knowledge, looked even remotely similar to the mark. Not to mention that she certainly had the looks, the alluringly pale skin, the long dark red, almost maroon hair, those smoldering, mischievous silver eyes, and even the robes she wore couldn't quite hide the figure they hid.

Hong Feng nodded, bowing return as pale purple light emanated from him, a spirit mark depicting seven serpent heads reaching for the skies.

"Hong Feng, Rank 66 Spirit Emperor, vice-principal of Blue Tyrant Academy greets his junior." He introduced himself, a confident, bordering on smug, smile on his face as he looked at the Blazing academy's group, now nervous with the reveal of Feng's Rank, but not nervous enough to back off.

"So, then, Ms. Huo, what pray tell is the issue here?" Years later, Shen would still swear that a small, teeny tiny aura of mischief was present in Hong Feng's voice and demeanor, not that the old hydra would admit it.

Feng's inquiry seemed to break Huo Ju out of her stupor as she cleared her throat, ready to present her case. "Well, we were hunting a Spirit Ring for young Wang Shu here." She motioned to Shu, who stepped forward and did a small curtsy, Feng bowing back slightly, a bit happy that the current generation had at least some people who had proper manners.

Next to Shen, Tan Bai sneezed. 'Ach, damn pollen.' She thought to herself as she rubbed her nose.

"And then we stumbled upon this 766-year-old Sprinting Dragon Bird." Huo Ju motioned to the downed reptilian Spirit beast, which Lu Fu was still keeping asleep with her second Spirit Ring ability. That's some amazing lung strength on that girl.

"But then it escaped from our grasps, and well, I do believe that what happened afterwards is clear to see." Her explanation finished, she waited for Hong Feng's response, knowing that while both of them were Control System Spirit users, all she had for back-up in the forest were two Spirit Elders, as she wasn't foolish enough to drag her younger students into the fight.

Hong Feng stroked his beard, dissecting the words of Huo Ju for any hint of deceit, not that her story was unbelievable. Sprinting Dragon Birds had earned their name for their tendency to run away from unfavorable fights, flying away if that was an option. However, it wasn't like he could simply acquiesce the beast after his students had managed to subdue it.

"And do you have any proof of this?" Hong Feng asked, deciding to tread the middle line on the subject. If they lacked proof, then that would be the end of negotiations, and if they did, then there would be further negotiations.

After all, since Spirit Rings could be absorbed only be the person who killed them, or whose spirit energy last made contact with it, as was the case with natural disasters, like cave-ins, it was frowned upon to steal someone's prey. And while some…less than morally-upstanding spirit masters would conclude arguments like that with their fists, Academies couldn't, and shouldn't simply engage in a brawl to decide something like that, partially due to the risk of attracting other beasts, other, more sophisticated methods were employed.

"Gladly my good sir." Huo Ju responded with a smile, before motioning Wang Shu to step forward.

As she did so, Huo Ju addressed Xu Guo and Weng Ji "You two, if you would be so kind as to turn the beast so we can see its abdomen." With a nod from Feng, the Diamond-back Rhino and Flame Viper Beast Spirit users moved over to the Yian Kut-Ku's (Shen refused to refer to it by the mouthful of a name Huo Ju said.) sleeping body, gently moving to reveal its belly, where a quartet of cauterized claw marks laid, and Shen recognized it as the type of marks he had seen on the training dummies from Shu's practices.

The serrations, not to mention the blackened area around the wounds weren't something that Weng Ji's Agility Attack System Flame Viper could do, lacking the pure destructive power the Power Attack System Salamander possessed.

"So as you can see, the beast was from our-?!" Huo Ju paused as she noticed Shen standing next to Tan Bai. Why exactly did they have a small boy like that in a hunting party that was composed of Spirit Masters and Grandmasters searching for Spirit Rings to break through to the next Rank, especially a small boy who couldn't have been more than a couple of months older than her own daughter.

"Something the matter Miss Huo Ju?" Hong Feng asked, before giving a quick glance to where her eyes had strayed to, and from there, he understood her confusion, or intrigue. While he had hoped to keep the Principal's little gem hidden for a little longer, there was no use crying over spilt milk.

She shook her head. "It's nothing, I was simply wondering why you have a small child with you." She answered. While there was one possible explanation for why they had brought a small child along to a Spirit forest, she'd rather acquire more information before making any plans.

"Little Shen here is my pupil, so I brought him along to see how you hunt for Spirit beasts." Tan Bai answered, ruffling Shen's hair playfully. Technically not a lie, as the original plan had been for Shen to stick with the main party, in case things got out of hand, but, well, hindsight is 20-20…

Shu flinched a bit at the name, looking at the small boy standing next to the older woman, the Power System Spirit Master's thoughts going back to her late little brother. While the name wasn't unique or rare in the least, she couldn't help but compare the young boy to the brother she had lost, along with the happiness of her childhood, burned away by her grandfather, among other things she'd rather not think about.

There was that look of annoyance the light brown-haired boy was giving the woman who was still ruffling his hair, the same look her younger brother gave to his older brother Jiang, almost identical, and if she didn't know better, she'd have thought that the boy was her brother, but her brother had died a little over eight years ago, and the boy before her couldn't be more than eight years old, not to mention the other physical differences.

"Well, as I was saying, the beast escaped from us, and we ask that you relinquish the beast to us."

Hong Feng nodded, but a frown was present on his face. "That is true, your students were the first ones to encounter it, but it was my students who subdued it, and so, I'm afraid I cannot simply hand it over to you."

"I'm sorry, but is the Blue Tyrant academy resorting to stealing the prey of the Blazing Academy?" Huo Ju asked, an all-too-sweet, yet venomous smile on her lips, an expression that promised nothing but pain and vicious revenge. "No, my ears must be deceiving me, so would you be so kind as to repeat what you said."

"Miss Ju, be reasonable. My students were the ones who brought down the beast, while all yours managed to do was inflict a single wound before it escaped, that could hardly be counted as staking your claim." Hong Feng replied, hoping that she'd see reason.

Now, if her students had managed to inflict more significant damage to the beast, then yes, he'd be more willing to let them take the beast, of course after an obligatory argument, as Blue Tyrant academy couldn't be seen as bending over backwards to the whims of other academies.

But alas, the Sprinting dragon bird was fit as a fiddle when it ran into their path, and so, he couldn't and personally wouldn't let the work of his students be so easily stolen away.

"And my student needs it to strengthen her essence spirit." Huo Ju retorted.

"Then you shouldn't use this beast, and use a better one, rather than an overgrown naked chicken." Shen said, drawing the attention of everyone, the students looking at him with confusion and some slight disbelief, Hong Feng and Tan Bai with shock, and some small amount of anxiousness, while Huo Ju had nothing but contempt in her eyes.

"And why should we let you lot take the Spirit Ring of the beast we found first?"

"Simple, the Sprinting Dragon Bird is an Agility Attack system, while Salamander is a Power Attack system, which means that the Spirit Ring's boost will be poor, as will the skill." Shen began his explanation. "And so, you'd honestly be better off hunting for a Power Attack System Spirit beast that is fire-attributed, rather than a random reptilian Spirit beast that has a fire attribute."

Huo Ju raised an eyebrow at his explanation. "And what, pray tell, makes you think that we are looking for a Spirit Ring for the Spirit you described?" she asked. She had only said that they were hunting a Spirit Ring for Wang Shu, nothing about what her Essence Spirit was, and so, she was highly curious about how this little boy knew the exact parameters of Shu's Essence Spirit.

Shen merely smirked. "I'm afraid that I'm not at the liberty to say how I know her Essence Spirit and Spirit System, but do feel free to test me." While he did have a fancy little magic show planned, now wasn't really the time to let her know how exactly he did that, lest he gets his eyes ripped out by some numpty who thinks that his actual, physical eyes are the key.

Despite what Naruto might lead you to believe, eye removal or implantation are NOT something that you can do all lickety-split, and that was in a world where the medical science, well, pseudo-science really, had flourished due to medical ninjutsu, but here, the medical science was still at the pill-popping and weed-eating stage, or to put it bluntly, human births that took place in a bloody barn of all places were still common, if not perfectly normal, and deliveries done in a clean, sterile environment were for the rich and influential.

But alas, he was going on a tangent, a first in quite a while.

When he came back from his tangent, Huo Ju was looking at him with narrowed eyes, trying to pick him apart for any tells, or anything else that was unusual.

"Miss Ju, if you are done glaring at my colleague's pupil," Hong Feng spoke, stepping in-between the two. After they were back in the academy, he'd question him for how exactly he had known the Essence Spirit of the little miss, not that it was all that hard to figure out, after all, a wound had been inflicted to the soft underbelly, which could potentially kill such a beast, but he'd rather be certain, and the same could no doubt be said for the Principal and Tan Bai.

"I would like to offer you a deal." While getting into a small argument with a respected teacher of Blazing Academy hadn't been in his expectations, that didn't mean that the meeting couldn't be beneficial.

Huo Ju motioned him to continue.

"My colleague, Tan Bai's third Spirit Ring from a fork-tailed ghost cat granted her a unique ability to sense Spirit beasts and the nature of Spirit Rings they would create upon death, and if you would be so gracious as to allow my student" Hong Feng motioned to Weng Ji. "to absorb the Spirit Ring of this Sprinting dragon bird, we would be more than willing to work together with you on acquiring a fitting Spirit Ring for the young miss." He finished his diplomatic speech.

Huo Ju was silent, mulling over his words. While spectral species of Spirit beasts were rather rare, almost as rare as Spirit Bones, the documented cases of someone acquiring a Ring from such a beast did grant a sort of sensory ability, so the possibility of a grand academy such as the Blue Tyrant wasn't completely out of question. And they also had someone with such an ability, but sadly, they were out on another assignment.

And the extra help would allow them to enter the habitats of some of the more vicious Spirit beasts without much worry. Not to mention that perhaps she'd get the chance to observe the small curiosity that was the sensor's pupil.

Finally, she came to a conclusion.

"Very well, Huo Ju, grand-teacher of the Blazing Academy accepts the offer of Hong Feng, vice-principal of Blue Tyrant Academy." With a slight bow, she stepped back. And with a nod from Hong Feng, Weng Ji walked over to the downed "Yian Kut-Ku" and slit its throat, the wyvern showing no response, even as its breathing became less frequent, the pool of blood growing.

And they didn't have to wait long for the Spirit Ring to form, the yellow ring caught by Weng Ji who moved away from the bleeding corpse, and sat down into a meditative pose, his red spirit essence slowly but surely devouring the ring.

Taking the opportunity to recuperate, at least a little bit, Shen reached into his sleeve and withdrew a small forest green pill, about the size of a marble from his «Inventory» and popped it into his mouth, grimacing as the sour taste of the pill hit his taste buds like donkey.[+57 SP. 64/229]

'Blech, seriously need to start researching on improving those Esssence restoration pills, they taste like shite!' Shen thought as he wished that either one of his «Gamer's» skills would do something about the taste, or even just make his body ignore the bloody taste.

Seriously, he knew that medicine wasn't meant to taste good, but bloody hell, why in Popo's name did it have to be so damn SOUR?! Seriously, none of the ingredients on their own were sour, so how in the bloody protestant hell did the pill taste like it had been mixed in vinegar, and then left to soak in said vinegar for a better part of a month, and then coated in pure, concentrated lemon extract, and just for that final "Fuck you" to the taste buds, pissed on?!

Well, at least it healed his SP by 25% of his MAX SP, which was honestly the ONLY reason he even kept those pills, instead of pawning them off to some poor numpty, and then keep stealing them from the Wang family's medicinal storage. Well, he had stolen a few to analyze them after his initial success, so he could compare a professionally made one to one of his own, and hopefully fix the taste issue…

But no, they were god-damn identical, well, identical in the sense that the production method and ingredients were the same.

Well, at least he didn't get an itchy throat anymore, so that was at least better than his initial attempts. Thank the goddamn heavens that the ingredients were super cheap, the ingredient cost for a single pill was less than 10 copper coins.

However, in the meantime of trying his best to ignore the… "taste", he focused more on the fact that the two Spirit beasts he had seen so far were, at least partially based on monsters from video game monsters. First there was the Chorok, which admittedly wasn't that odd of a creature, although the name felt like a straight-up reference to the Final Fantasy series' mascot bird.

And then there was the bloody Yian Kut-Ku, a monster he had hunted more often than not, since he needed to grind some material for armor and weapons… and because it was one of the few monsters, along with the Dromes and other lower-grade monsters in MH: Freedom Unite, due to feeling secure in being able to kill it.

Seriously, fuck the Khezu and the Tigrex!

He really h-NOPE, not tempting fate on this one! Murphy's law was always creeping around the corner, waiting for you to drop your pants, before it decided to fuck you over!

'Aah, too bad I can't harvest the Kut-Ku's corpse, not with this many people around…' he really didn't want to try and explain how he made the 4-meter corpse just go poof. And he just knew that there was some prime crafting material there, the scales would've made for some great starting armor, especially for a possible (read: inevitable) fight against Blazing Academy, the bones would've made for some great weaponry, either to sell off, or to use for grinding.

Well, he should probably be glad that he had managed to acquire his Chorok corpse rather easily. After all, the materials from that could result in some gear that would boost his electric-based skills, or maybe just eating the meat would boost his stats?

The heart would more than likely give him more vitality, the legs might give more agility, and maybe dexterity, but that was for later.

"Alright students, it's time to move, Tan Bai, take the lead." Hong Feng instructed, breaking Shen out of his thoughts. As Tan Bai left from his sides, Wang Shu and Weng Ji moved to his left and right respectively, the latter eyeing the former, who was giving momentary glances at Shen.

A quick observation told him that they were getting low on SP, so he handed them both a pill. "Eat these, they'll help your recover your spirit essence. A word of warning though, they're bitter." He warned them, Weng Ji inspecting the pill with a critical eye, possibly trying to check whether it's safe for consumption.

After a while of inspection, he nodded and gulped the pill, followed by Wang Shu, who had an all too familiar look of dread upon her face, already familiar with the taste of that type of pill. She merely closed her eyes as the taste kicked in,

However, Weng Ji was not prepared for the kick of the taste, as face scrunched up, and his eyes almost shout out of his eyes as he started trying to throw it up, only for nothing but pitiful whines to come. Yeah, that had been his first reaction too, it kinda took a while to get used to the taste.

"What the hell did you put in these, concentrated VINEGAR and PISS?!" he angrily questioned, finally finding his tongue. Perhaps due to his snake-species Beast spirit, his tongue was more sensitive to the taste?

"Believe me, I've tried coating them in honey to fix the taste issue. Long story short: Didn't work, only made it worse." Sure, the honey negated the sourness upon initial consumption, but give it a few minutes, and BAM! The sourness boomerangs back, twice as sour. Hell, that shit was so sour, it actually did some damage!

Sure, it was only a single HP, but still, the damn thing actually did damage! Thankfully, that wasn't the case with the honey-less version, so eh, he'd rather suffer a bit of sourness, rather than take a double whammy, and lose HP for his troubles.

"…Wait, you made these yourself?" Wang Shu asked as the words actually registered.

"Yeah, but for some reason, they're sour as all hell." Shen admitted, drawing a look of surprise from Weng Ji and Wang Shu, and a small amount of respect. The effect of those pills hadn't been all that bad, although the taste was pretty damn horrid.

"Have you tried adding in water and sugar? That should fix the issue." Wang Shu suggested. In her experience, soaking the pills in sugar water actually fixed the taste.

…

J-Just sugar water?

…

…

SMACK!

"Why did you just slap yourself!?"

AN: So, how was the chapter? Yeah, it was shorter than the previous one, but not going to lie, I will probably only do these 4K chapters for this fic, well, unless I get to a point in the story where cutting it off at 4K-ish would be bad, but we'll deal with that once that happens.

And, what, did you expect Shen's previous family to just be forgotten and left behind? HAH! Fat chance! Even from the get-go, I planned on Shen crossing paths with his previous family.

And as some of you may have noticed, there's a distinct lack of Gamer stuff, well, that's because this isn't a Shen-centric chapter. But yeah, this chapter kind of gave a little hint on the relative ages of the more important players, and a small hint towards what kind of Spirit beasts will pop up in the future.

Also, no Stat sheet for this chapter, since Shen didn't get any EXP, or a stat boost.

Quest reviews answered:

RikuKage {Jul 2]: Well, I did have some Spirit bones like that planned out. And as for the Darkening, no, none of that in here. Although, Shen might get something similar, much, much, MUCH later in the story.

Also, yeah, I need a beta reader/sounding board, and here are a few criteria for that:

-Needs to have Good grammar

-Needs to have Internet

So, with the "must have" criteria done, here are the optional, brownie point features that well, might help you get a leg up on the competition.

-Multilingual, aside from English, preferably German, Italian, Korean and Japanese

-A lot of good ideas for different stories

-Has watched a lot of anime/manga/manhwa/manhua/video games, preferably from the more action-fantasy side of things.

Until I find someone whom I deem good enough to fill the role, I'll be making One-Shots, so...yeah, ciao...

Alright, so now onto the question of the chapter:

Alright, so if you could use Nen in Legend of Korra, what would your Nen type, and Hatsu be? And here's a hypothetical situation for y'all: You appear in the underground of Republic City, a month or two before the events of the first episode happen.

And please, don't go the obvious route and say "Specialization, I can has ALL the abilities", because A: that's bullshit, and B: It's boring.