The spirit of the drowned dead had a body made of grey, frothing water and a face of pale white, with eyes that were nothing but voids. It stood there, unmoving, rising from the waters of the bath and staring down at Nic with terrible empty eyes. It said nothing. It did not move.

Nic flinched back and kicked away, instinctively. The cold water in the tub went sloshing over the side.

“Holy shit.” He gasped out, his heart throbbing painfully. “What do you- why did you creep up on me like that?”

“Aaaaas you have asked us, weeeee have done.” The wraith held out a dripping hand. Clutched within the palm was an incredibly small marble of black glass. Tiny lines of white ran in concentric circles around the circular bead. Inside, Nic could see a fiery sylph, curled in slumber.

Nic nodded slowly. He reached out and took the bead- a faint shiver running down his spine as he touched the pale, dead surface of the wraith’s body. “Are you free to go now?”

“Yessssss.” The wraith actually smiled, a faint, sad expression. “To whatever isssss next.”

And then it collapsed, becoming nothing more than water. Cold, white froth splashed in all directions, bubbles roiling in the tub as the tile floor was thoroughly soaked.

Nic was left holding the glass marble. There was a faint heat to it, like living flesh.

Volcanic Ur-Heart. E-Class // Medicine. Created by the death of an ancient elemental that lived within the magma rifts at the bottom of the sea, this heart of obsidian contains its final will, and the strength of long forgotten times. Consumed whole it will allow the new body to push beyond its limits, opening additional levels of body cultivation and increasing the gain of Essence.

It was a true treasure. Something that would enable his growth to continue for the entire tier, and beyond.

Nic was just about to settle back into the bath when another thought shot through his skull.

He’d overslept. His cultivation would have been wasted for hours, putting him behind his self-imposed clock to leap forward and evolve. In a panic he snapped open his cultivation map- only to be taken aback.

His cultivation base was still several hundred points short of full.

And his progress towards Poison Mist’s secondary slot had advanced while he was sleeping.

“I did it.” Sofia’s voice rung out.

“You- what? You assigned my Essence for me?”

She had taken control of his cultivation once before, when he was escaping from the Guardian of the Valley. That time, Nic had asked her to. This was…

“I shouldn’t have, but, you needed to rest. And…” Her voice was shaky. “I waited too long. I was planning to help, if you struggled to create the Bloodline Gate. At every moment I was waiting to jump in and help you. But you were so close- and I was so sure you’d get through- I waited too long, and your heart stopped…”

She actually sounded almost like she’d been crying. He doubted she could actually cry, but-

“Sofia, it’s okay. You were right. I did do it.” He grinned weakly. “I get it. You didn’t want to step in because I have to be able to do this myself. I understand. You trusted me, and you were right...”

Sitting up in the tub, Nic grasped his bag from the floor nearby and searched through for the nodule of amber that was the Ageless Shard.

“Let’s do this.”

Pushing the last of his Essence down into the nodes of the Poison Mist Shard, Nic felt the last resistance crack and give way as he surged through the milestone. A void opened, like his meridians were trying to drink in new energy, waiting for him to feed in the new Shard.

He lifted it to the base of his neck and pressed the jewel through his skin, feeling it dissolve into piercing threads of energy that wove into his veins. It was like a key fitting a lock. The amber boiled away into pure Essence and filled with a powerful, surging electric strength. The nodes bound to his Poison Mist chimed out, shivering, the seal they were connected into reorienting to incorporate the new energies of the Ageless Shard.

And as the key fit into the lock, a resonating sound swept through his entire body. Then again, and again, his Totemic Petroglyphs and Mire-Caller Shards exuding the same boundless chime of resonant power. His whole body shivered, every meridian line filling as the Essence he’d built up within the Shards over countless hours of cultivation poured outwards again, washing through his body.

Nic began to glow. Golden light flooded out from every cell of his body as his cultivation base surged and began to rotate on its own, forming the maelstrom-core of a blazing sea that ignited him.

The light broke away, pouring out of his skin.

Golden runes floated out of his body, surrounding him in a cloud of orbiting characters, each a word in a strange and beautiful language that Nic somehow understood.

The bathroom glowed with a hundred runic stars.

Finally, three huge runes broke away from his three Shards, shooting up into the air to blaze like suns. The entire array of runes began to rotate, slowly, forming a maelstrom that matched the empty, hollow void of rotating hunger in his core.

Something snapped into place and the first rune plunged back into his body like a descending comet, striking into one of his nodes with a crystalline chime of sound.

Then another, and another, a starshower flooding his veins with light as each rune shot down to fill a node with energy. It wasn’t the crude, turbulent Essence that Nic had so often struggled to control. It was as pure as water from melting mountain glaciers, as powerful as a waterfall. It roared through his veins of its own accord.

As Nic watched- along for the ride- he spotted something strange.

Seven runes made of dim, almost invisible starlight hid among the cloud of bright stars. They were strange and secretive, and made his nascent spiritual sense shiver with a feeling of power.

As the cloud of runes poured into him, Nic followed the secret runes with fascination. When the cloud was half-exhausted the first one began to shake, and then abruptly shot out of the air, forming a thin stream of misty light that vanished through his skin.

Unlike the others, it wasn’t heading for any meridian node Nic knew of. It simply plunged deep into his body and vanished as Nic lost track of the thin energy.

As the cloud of runes continued to enter his body in a shower of stars, flooding him with energy so powerful it felt like a warming, glowing fire had entered his veins, the six remaining hidden runes began to fall one by one.

As each dim rune entered his body Nic tried with all his might to follow their paths, but was met with nothing but frustration. One by one they disappeared into the dark between glowing nodes.

It was only as the last shot downwards, entering near his heart, that Nic was finally able to trace its path. The rune headed deep into the center of his heart and struck against a point Nic hadn’t noticed, not even in all his time struggling to feel out the meridians there and construct the Bloodline Gate.

A tiny hollow, waiting to be filled with energy.

A hidden node.

As that revelation made Nic grin in triumph, the last of the runes sealed itself against his nodes. So much energy was pouring through his body now he almost felt like his flesh had been overwhelmed, and would be shaken apart by the rampaging Essence trapped within.

Only the three major runes remained in the air above him, each the size of a clenched fist.

With a howling wind of power building in the air, they descended, becoming a trio of blazing spears that pierced deep into Nic’s flesh. They dove towards the clusters of nodes that corresponded to each of his three shards, and made his body undergo a final transformation.

At the core of each node cluster, a crystalline hollow formed like the crystallized cave within a geode, or an organ of white-blue gemstones. The tyrannical powerful Essence flooding his body began to pour into these new reservoirs, emptying his meridians once more as the overwhelming sea of power was finally tamed, swirling down into each crystal gate.

He was left gasping, panting, his entire body feeling-

Not exhausted. Anything but.

He felt like he’d been born anew a second before. He was as energetic and as focused as he’d ever been, as if all traces of weakness had been wiped from body and mind. All of the bathwater that hadn’t sloshed out of the tub had simply boiled away, his kneeling legs leaving burn marks on the bottom of the tub, his skin glowing like newly-forged metal.

Congratulations, Nicolas Winterhome, he who walks the starry path.

You have stepped into the E-Class. The will of the world is crushed within the palm of your hand, and a hidden sun burns in your left eye.

Slowly, the most brilliant smile spread over Nic’s face as he clenched his fist in triumph. Winning the Lottery and being vaulted into F-Class via his monstrous new form had been sheer luck, a kindness given almost by accident.

But this?

This had been him.

The first step of his own power.

“Cultivation map.”

Essence 359 / 12,586

+ 25.69 per Minute

(3.212 Base)

300% Local Modifier

+ 200% Node Dominance

+ Devoured an E-Class enemy (200%)

+ Consumed a F-Class treasure (100%)

+ Rested in toxic environment (100%)

Titles -

Hunted Beast (Rewards 5,500 First Wave Credits to your killer. Increase bounty by 500 with each Native you kill. Each dawn, gain credits equal to one tenth of your bounty.)

Cultivation Base (Unranked)

VII Physical Strength (0/4,500)

III Mental Acuity (3,114/4,000)*

II Spiritual Clarity (1,061/2,000)*

I Regeneration (2,273/15,000)

Primordial Mist Shard (E)

Creates a mist that contains the weight of the ages, stealing life and weakening those who survive. An almost truly unique Shard, with few if any defenses existing to its power.

III Increase Toxicity (73/8,000)

Add Aura Efficiency (0/5,000)

I Secondary Slot (0/100,000)

Poison Devouring (Complete)

Mist Armor (0/50,000)

Petrified Warriors (0/200,000)

Jewel of Ages (0/500,000)

Mire-Caller (F)

Calls to and creates binding masses of mud, sludge, or tar. A powerful Shard for binding and controlling that requires work and imagination to master.

II Base Enhancement (216/2,000)

Add Aura Efficiency (0/1,000)

I Secondary Slot (0/50,000)

Mire-Drowned Remnants (0/50,000)

Futile Struggle (0/50,000)

Mire-Dweller (0/10,000)

Clay Idols (0/50,000)

Totemic Petroglyphs (F)

Creates tools of bone, rock, and leather that contain the spirits of the fallen, calling them to your aid. A high-quality magical shard.

V Base Enhancement (Complete)

I Add Essence Efficiency (0/2,000)*

Additional Secondary Slot (0/50,000)

Summoning Limit (0/50,000)

Spirits of the Earth (Complete)

Shard-Crafting (0/100,000)

- Primary Slot Empty -

Techniques (17% Capacity)

Eight-Eyed Mantle (1,914/11,700)

Inner Sacrifice Cauldron Technique (0/5,850)

Concept of Sacrifice

We get only one chance to die. We must make it count.

Converts Essence to aura. Rate of conversion doubles when seriously wounded.

(1% of Essence gained as Spiritual Essence.) (1,000/1,000 Spiritual Essence stored.)