"Where's my gift for the adventure? I thought you would give me something."
"I'm not that stingy, of course I have something."
He gave Maxwell 3 tokens. Each one of them were filled with his aura and intent.
"These will save your life once you use them. They will summon a clone of me made of qi. The clones will last 10 minutes, and they can do nearly everything I can, but weaker and worse than me."
"Woah, I can wipe out any assassin with this."
"Use it only when you are out of options. You are smart, I'll trust that you won't waste it."
"Of course, I won't." Maxwell assured his master.
"Okay then, good luck. I remember fighting Brown Rhinoceroses in my younger days."
"Thank you master, bye! I'll see you in a few months."
"Bye."
'He reminds me of my young days. It was quite fun. Alas, most of them are all gone now.'
Maxwell's master let out a deep sigh as he reminisced about his memories as a young adult. He had too fought Rhinoceroses with his friends, and he had gotten a lot of wounds from their drill like horns that were extremely tough.
***
Maxwell was waiting with the others in the group for the final member of their group. Even after Maxwell asked, they didn't reveal the identity of the final member and they told him to wait and see when they arrived.
After a long 10 minutes, she finally showed up. It was a girl with long Light Blue hair that glistened like the sea. She had jewel like, green eyes, that sparkled like a dazzling polished emerald. Her skin was extremely fair and clean. She wielded 2 short, curved blades, with each having a sheath attached to a brown leather belt.
"Who's that?" Maxwell asked with no tone of interest. He had expected an acquaintance or somebody he had heard of.
"What! You don't know her? She's one of the top beauties of our sect." The black-haired man, who was slightly shorter than Maxwell and had brown eyes with an above average appearance commented.
"Thank you." The girl replied with a hint of red on her cheeks.
"Okay, let's introduce ourselves. I'm Arnold." The largest of the group, who also was going to be their leader said. He had a boisterous voice and a huge build. He was also intelligent and a capable leader, based on his interactions.
"I'm Mira." The girl that had just arrived introduced herself.
"I'm Jeffrey, you can call me Jeff. If you don't know anything, just ask me. They call me the All-Knowing Senior Brother." The man who called Mira a top beauty of the sect said.
"Nobody calls you that." Another girl in the group bluntly stated.
"Come on, you don't have to be so mean. Let me leave a good impression on our junior."
She ignored Jeffrey and introduced herself as Serena. She had long hair that was as dark as the night and it was tied with a ribbon. Her black eyes were blank and devoid of any emotion, it was like she was staring into darkness.
"I-I'm Ka-Kara." A soft voice came from the shortest girl among them, who was looking away from Maxwell in nervousness.
"Welcome to our group Maxwell, I'm Daniel, but everyone here calls me Danny."
He was the most handsome member of the group. He was tall and had a handsome face along with an excellent cultivation base and strength. He had many people looking up to him and he even had a fan group who had fallen in love with him at first sight.
"I'm Maxwell, I hope we can all be friends."
After introducing themselves, they departed for their destination. They were going to travel there by the sects airship till the edge of the forest that the village suffering rested in. Traversing through the forest was another trial for them.
The airship was being steered by an Inner elder since a single airship costed a lot, even to a top sect like theirs. In their world, there was nobody capable of creating one since all airships were Heaven Grade Artifacts and higher, even one only big enough to carry one person would cost thousands of Earth Spirit Stones.
The one they were riding didn't have any place to sit inside, so everyone was left on the deck. There was a storage below, but it was very small. Due to the speed, they were travelling at, their voices wouldn't reach each other so they communicated with their divine sense.
Maxwell didn't reveal that he could use Spiritual Sense since the possibility of using it as a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator were only legends. After 2 hours, they reached the edge of the forest. From the sky, they could see the span of it, all they could see ahead was green tree tops. Normally you wouldn't find a Rhinoceros in such a dense area, but it was ravaging the area. They would easily be able to find it once they found a damaged area of the forest.
As they descended, they noticed all the vines and shrubbery that made it even harder to traverse. It would make travelling through it hard since only one of them had a Wood Affinity since Maxwell hid his. On the other hand, they would for sure hear or find the damage caused by their target.
They bid farewell to the inner sect elder and then they split up into 2 groups. The first group was Arnold, Kara, and Daniel. Maxwell was grouped with Jeffrey, Mira, and Serena. Arnold led the first group and Mira led the second group. The 2 groups communicated with a talisman that the group leader held.
Serena was the only one with an affinity for wood qi, so she manipulated the vines and shrubs into parting for them. In the other group, they would take turns cutting a path through the forest with their qi.
The forest brimmed with nature. Everyone could smell the nature strongly and they could hear different insects and small animals. It was very humid and cool under the shade of the trees.
Maxwell was in the center surrounded by the other 3 as he was the weakest. He had the spatial rings with all the supplies on him. He would be able to protect any of the 3 in case someone they didn't detect attacked them.
Their group was quite close to the village so they would head there for the night. In case the Rhinoceros returned they would be there already to fight against it. The forest was relatively safe in the areas they were delving into. They made sure to not enter the territory of the stronger beasts as they would be in trouble. The Rhinoceros would anyways not venture into a strong beast's territory.
Maxwell was also in charge of collecting any herbs that were valuable and useful as he was the one who had the vastest knowledge of them. Most of what he had found were common herbs.
Towards the end of the day, the sound of insects became louder. They started heading towards the village. They could hear the howls of wolves in the distance.
They exited the forest into a giant cleared area. There were destroyed farm fields and broken houses. The village was dimly lit.
"That uniform, they are core disciple from the Roaring Dragon Sect." an old man walking around the village noticed.
He approached the group who were looking around for any danger.
"Welcome to our humble village, Core Disciples from Roaring Dragon Sect. I'm the village head."
"I hope you can prove us some accommodations for the night. We have friends in a different part of the forest. We have come here to subjugate the Giant Brown Rhinoceros that has been plaguing the area."
"We can't offer you much, but these are the best rooms we have." He directed them to a 2 roomed house. Each room had 1 bed with a 2 layered mattress that was of the highest quality the village could offer.
"I will tell everyone to not bother you. I hope you have a good rest." He quickly left with sweat dripping off his forehead. He knew that any wrong words that angered them would result in his death and his village being left to perish.
"Here, I have some bedding for everyone." Maxwell said while pulling out soft mattresses for everyone along with a pillow.
"Why do you have those in your spatial ring. Isn't it a waste of space?" Serena asked.
"I have more than enough space in them, there's a lot more useful stuff in these rings."
"That must have costed a fortune." Jeffrey commented while checking out the bedding.
"Nope, I made it myself."
"What! You have the crafting techniques for spatial ring!?" They all exclaimed.
"I stumbled upon it by chance."
'There's no need to reveal more about its origins.'
"Okay, after our meal head to sleep. We need to be at our best when facing it."
Maxwell got out the precooked meals from his spatial ring. He quickly devoured some and started setting up formations to stop intruders. In case the Rhinoceros attacked it would be able to sustain a blow.