Time Since Reckless Self-Endangerment: 0 Days 6 Hours

Goal: Kill 'Baby Boots'

“So…”

Scarlet-Soul Plume. F-Class // Treasure. This feather belongs to a species of birds descended from the phoenix, known for their self-immolation. Despite having lost their ability to reincarnate, these beautiful creatures still build pyre-nests and set themselves ablaze, either out of instinct or some spiritual yearning. Contains a trace of Essence deeply connected to concepts of fire and sacrifice.

“What do I do with this?” The feather sat in the palm of Nic’s hand, flickering around its edges with a fiery golden glow. The inner core was a jet black quill surrounded by flame-red down. Simply touching it made him feel a faint heat saturating his entire body.

“Consume it. Draw the Essence into yourself slowly through meditation and attempt to study it. This treasure won’t give you a large amount of Essence. In fact it barely contains any. Instead, it will allow you to familiarize yourself with the Concept of Fire- the core of all fire techniques.”

Nic had his doubts. So far cultivation had been a simple and straightforward affair. Kill enemies, consume, survive, and he’d grow stronger. This sounded less like that and almost like magic. He settled slowly into the lotus pose, getting ready to meditate, but couldn’t help but mention… “You do know I don’t have any fire techniques, right? Like, zero. The number before even one.”

“Nicolas, if you can learn the Concept of Fire- or even an intermediary concept below it- the System will make sure you learn techniques that make use of it. This could change your whole path. You might even become a dragon someday.”

A dragon… Nic thought. Hopefully a full-sized one.

He closed his eyes and began to focus on his cultivation. His base rotated slowly within him, drawing in Essence from the outside world by the force of its turning. Agitating the energies within his veins he pushed them down into the base, making it turn faster, faster, building pressure. It was like a second heartbeat. It drummed in his chest with a tidal fury.

All of a sudden he could feel the feather responding. It too began to glow brighter and brighter. Even with his eyes closed he could see the radiance glowing in his hand. Motes of Essence broke away, and with a breath he drew them into his own body.

Nic’s eyes snapped open.

The entire world was fire. Not merely burning, but made of flame. The cave was made from interlocking walls of a dull blue fire, while his little wyvern was a bright white spark racing across the floor. Lifting his hands he stared at his fingers, taking in how the tiny fires that made them rippled and flowed.

But-

His concentration on his cultivation base had slipped. With a breath out, the moment was gone. In the blink of an eye the fires were extinguished, and an oily smoke replaced them. The world was made of dust and decay billowing out from the death of a thousand fires, the smoke still holding the shape of the cave, the little wyvern, his hand-

Nic blinked again and everything was normal.

“What-”

“A vision. If you can find the meaning of it, you will have gained the Concept. Nicolas, try again”

He stared down at the feather in his hand. Its radiance had dimmed significantly, but there was still Essence within.

“Maybe later. For now, I have to focus on staying alive. This trippy shit is…” He winced. He sounded like an idiot, but the truth was he worried he’d gain no benefit from absorbing the feather entirely. There had been no meaning to the vision he’d seen. It had been beautiful and that was it. “Well, it’s not for me.”

If this feather was really that valuable, it would be better to trade it than to waste it.

Settling back down he began to tend to his real cultivation.

“Cultivation map.”

“Allow me.”

Essence 3,692 / 5,000

+ 6.37 per Minute

(1.062 Base)

300% Local Modifier

+ Devoured an F-Class enemy (200%)

+ Consumed a G-Class treasure (100%)

+ Rested in toxic environment (100%)

Cultivation Base (Unranked)

V Physical Strength (Locked)

III Mental Acuity (24/4,000)*

Spiritual Clarity (2/500)*

Regeneration (460/10,000)

Poison Mist Shard (F)

Creates and controls poisonous mist from Aura. Excellent attacking Shard, capable of piercing many defenses and inflicting ongoing damage.

(+)

Adhesive Touch (G)

Creates adhesive threads of pure Aura. Middling utility Shard with a need for development, but useful for climbing and for restraining foes non-lethally.

(+)

Hunter-Gatherer Petroglyphs (G)

Creates crude tools from bone, rock, and wood, using Essence to bind them. A low-quality crafting Shard made excellent by the limitations of your environment.

(+)

Nic blinked. The information contained within had been drastically compressed, but as he focused on each plus sign, that segment of the map expanded again. Better yet, she’d marked out the options that would cost double at each step with a small asterisk.

Poison Mist Shard (F)

Creates and controls poisonous mist from Aura. Excellent attacking Shard, capable of piercing many defenses and inflicting ongoing damage.

Increase Toxicity (470/5,000)

Add Aura Efficiency (0/5,000)

Poison Devouring (0/10,000)

Mist Armor (0/50,000)

Secondary Slot (0/50,000)

Not only that but his options had been expanded too. Investing in aura efficiency would mean being able to use the Shard more often, consuming less energy each time. Increasing the Poison Mist’s efficiency was especially tempting because so far it had been his primary way of killing foes. His spear was quick and able to strike from multiple angles, but the actual killing force was nothing compared to a spray of poison for finishing off an enemy.

“Sofia? You can change my cultivation options?”

“Not truly. Adding a Secondary Shard would have far more drastic effects. However, I can teach you to rotate and move your energy with maximum efficiency.”

“Interesting. What do you think of my cultivation overall?”

“The choice to focus on your cultivation base is interesting. It feels indecisive. Like you’re picking the safest option because you’re unsure of your choices. That’s as much as I can say. Long-term guidance on your cultivation would count as-”

“Prescient information? I know.” Digging into his pack, he took out the Shard of the Phantasm. “What about this? Which Shard should I bind it too?”

“Adding it to your poison would create a hallucinogenic effect, which could be deadly. However, I’d advise attaching it to your Hunter-Gatherer Petroglyphs Shard. Combining a dreamlands Shard with that particular base is a well-known path that results in Dreamcatcher Petroglyphs, a powerful spiritual expansion to your crafting, and it would set you on the track to create a Shamanic Cultivation Core.”

That… definitely sounded like Sophia trying to nudge him towards another question. “Okay, you win. Cultivation core?”

“You advance from F-Class to E by binding a Secondary Shard to each of your techniques. You advance from E-Class to D by forming a Core. Think of it this way. Right now, your body contains untyped Essences that are being pulled three different ways by your three different Shards. This creates disharmony and waste.”

“But by drawing all three Shards into alignment and fundamentally changing your Essences to a manatype that suits all three, you would drastically increase your power. This is forming a Core. It’s far easier when your Shards already share some basic trait or function. So for instance, if you added dreamlands to Hunter-Gatherer Petroglyphs, you might want to add the element of curses to your Poison Mist, causing both to gain a spiritual element. Adhesive Touch would still be an outlier in this case, and I don’t know of any well-trodden paths with that one, but even two aligned Shards would make your job vastly easier...”

“In that case…” Nic mulled it over for a moment. He turned the sparkling Shard over in his hand. “I won’t use this one at all. It would lock me into a path, and spiritual stuff isn’t going to be my strong suit, not ever. Actually. Can you add a mention of which Cores each Shard works with when I find one?”

He could actually hear Sofia beaming as she replied. Like a teacher who’d finally broken through with a stubborn pupil. “Absolutely. I agree with your decision; the Shard is low-quality in any case and would hinder the resulting skill’s growth.”

“And Sofia? Thanks. You’ve been very helpful.”

“You’re welcome Nicolas. You are an interesting case to study.”

He paused. Something about that… “Sofia, you’ve been attached to people before me, yes?”

She spoke very, very carefully after a short pause. Instantly he knew his suspicion was right. “Yes. I can’t tell you much about them. That belongs to a restricted class of information.”

“Does that mean none of them have survived?”

“Nic...” There was an uncomfortable pause. “Sophonts are given to cases deemed ‘interesting but problematic.’ Candles who burn twice as bright but half as long. We’re here to study you - because the System has determined you won’t survive much longer.”

“Ah.” So she’d seen dozens like him burn up and out.

“Does that bother you?”

Nic almost laughed. “No, not really. Honestly. For the first time, me and the System agree on something.”

Opening his cultivation map again, he examined Hunter-Gatherer Petroglyphs.

Hunter-Gatherer Petroglyphs (G)

Creates crude tools from bone, rock, and wood, using Essence to bind them. A low-quality crafting Shard made excellent by the limitations of your environment.

I Base Enhancement (126/1,500)

Add Essence Efficiency (0/1,000)*

Secondary Slot (0/10,000)

Metallurgy (0/100,000)

So far the Petroglyphs had easily been his most useful Shard. There were doubtless other Shards that could’ve filled Poison Mist’s role of attacking, but Hunter-Gatherer had been uniquely useful in letting him craft objects from his crude environment. It would be the first he’d invest in.

Efficiency was very tempting. Even with the cost doubling it would be trading Essence now for Essence later by enabling him to spend less on each crafted object. Some basic monkey greed in his brain wanted to nab the option immediately.

But thinking about it…

Essence later was no good to him yet, but Essence now would make him stronger and more able to seize opportunities. If he lost even one treasure, one kill, because he was just short of the goal-

All the gains from Efficiency would be undone.

In the end he chose to invest two levels in Base Enhancement.

The worst part of that choice was having to meditate for several minutes to get the last dregs of Essence he needed. Meditation that became much harder because every few minutes, he was struck by the needling urge to open the cultivation map and see how far along he was. After trying and failing for long enough he simply threw up his hands and went outside to gather.

The rain had stopped and the earth was soft underfoot.

Dozens of small treasures had ‘popped’ their bubbles, and he filled his sack with flowers and mushrooms, each giving somewhere between ten and a hundred Essence. The real prizes were the ones with healing properties.

“Sofia? Why were these marked as valuable? Honestly they’re not that much better than the ones that didn’t get a shield at all.”

“Simple. These ones can be used to make spirit medicines. Even worthless ingredients gain value when they can be used to form cultivation pills.”

Cultivation pills… Nic had tasted them only on Distribution day, when a single low-level pill was crushed into a barrel of cheap and acidic wine. Every citizen of the city was entitled to a ladleful, faintly permeated with Essence.

He wanted to taste the real thing. “Add that to the Recall information?”

“Very good.”

Stowing away all the ones that could be valuable in medicine later, he ate everything that couldn’t as soon as he picked it up. In minutes his Essence was skyrocketing and there was even hope for getting an additional level in Hunter-Gatherer by the end of his foraging session.

All the while he was edging closer to the territory of the insect-faced monkeys. He wanted to get a read on how long was left on the barrier surrounding their treasured flower, hopefully using Archive Recall to learn from a distance rather than having to brave another fight with the mob.

As he did so, an axe made of stone bound to a heavy stick dropped from the trees and landed blade down in the mud. A monkey screeched above and held up a leaf satchel full of bright, ripe spirit fruits.

It was offering… A trade?

It pointed to his spear and he understood. It wanted him to enchant its weapon.

The scent of the fruits was fragrant and sweet. Nic licked his lips. He was in business.