"One does not accumulate but eliminate.

It is not daily increase but daily decrease.

The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity."

~ Bruce Lee

Minor Interlude POV - Shady Unnamed Thug No. 1

“Arghh! You absolute clown!”

It was infuriating the lack of talent I had to work with.

“I said shake him down. Not put him down.” Cretin. Now we have to write off his debt. The boss won’t be at all happy.

“I am not happy. And you know who else won’t be happy?”

The said cretin glumly stared at his feet. Well, at least he had learnt to keep quiet.

“Yes, She will be furious,” I continued. There was no need to say who She was. Just capitalising Her pronoun was enough to put the fear of the System in him. Even I didn’t like saying or even hearing Her name, but no need to tell this sorry excuse for a henchman.

“And most crucially you make me look bad. And I don’t like looking bad. Sledgrick, look at me man.” Sledgrick lifted his gaze to briefly meet my eyes. “I have a solution. It is breathtakingly simple. Even you should be able to comprehend it.” He met my eyes again this time with a dull spark of hope flaring in them. “We don’t tell Her. It didn’t happen. You didn’t find him. We are still searching for him.”

I paused, looking for some sign of comprehension in his shifty eyes. “Do. You. Understand?” He nodded rapidly. Darnit. He didn’t understand.

“I unnerstan bosh. I dind’d fine dim.” Oh, maybe he did understand after all. He scratched his head with one misshapen paw of a hand. “Hoo wasdit dat I did fine den?”

Sigh. I could work with this I suppose.

“Where do ya wants fat I jeep surchin’ forum?”

Sigh. “Nope. Nope. No.”

“You stop searching for him” I instructed him clearly, totally ignoring the fact that our wayward debtor’s corpse was slumped in the corner behind him. “I've got another job for you.” I shuffled the papers I had just received.

“Escort Ivy down to Level 1. She needs to check out the Library in the southeastern quadrant. You are her minion. She is your boss. You do what she tells you. Exactly.”

“Capisce?”

“Yah bosh, I capeesheth ewe.”

“Get out.” My eye fell on the corpse.

“And take him with you. I don’t want to see him again.”

POV - Nige

It was astounding the lack of talent he exhibited.

Tad spun with a flourish. “Nige!” He gestured grandly and then tried to whirl me around. I wasn’t having none of that. We would get kicked out.

He laughed. “Check this out!” He flicked a notification at me.

A Gold Skill. I flickered with shock. This was incredible. He was incredible. I couldn’t believe it. It was incredible. I was incredulous. How had he wrangled that? I had another Epiphany. I was incredible too. This was addicting, having epiphanies I mean. But after all, I was his mentor. And credit is due where credit is due and some of that credit was obviously due to my expert advice. I was positive. At least a little bit must, surely be. I checked my own notifications. Yes I had several queued up. I opened the last three, oldest to newest.

Oooh-ahhh. Another reward as well. Nice. But here was the one I was looking for.

Waahoo! Green here I come. Hey there handsome, you're looking mighty fine in green. Uncommonly fine, if I might say so myself. I dragged my celebratory thoughts back. Oh look, I was dancing too. Whoops. I flickered madly. But with a lot more panache than Tad though; I defended myself.

And glitchit, here comes a librarian, full of dusty condescension. We were going to get kicked out. I straightened my tendrils and took a deep surge while jabbing Tad sharply in the side.

I apologised profusely, the last thing we wanted was to be booted out and potentially banned even if it was just for a day. I was mortified. I should know better. Thankfully my grovelling apology was accepted and we were let off with a warning. Tad was still grinning madly.

“I feel like I’m back in grade school and my preschool teacher has told me off for chasing little Suzy Muffet with a spider.” He was totally unrepentant.

We huddled up in a corner. The piles of books Tad had gathered, forgotten for the time being. Dom snored on.

I suggested.

“No, first I would like to check out the books on [Basic Cultivation]. You know, in case I start dancing again.”

Ah, that was wise. Tad’s Mind Stat’s were having an effect.

And the pile of books dwarfed his collection on levelling. We wouldn’t be leaving very soon. The path to the door was totally obstructed with books, scrolls and tablets.

“Hey I can’t open this one” he complained. I gave it the once over.

Thankfully the Library had all these useful functions. Over 90% of the texts zipped back into their places with a flurry of rustling pages. Tad grabbed the top one on the pile closest to him. It looked very promising. [A Beginner's Manual; The Joys of Cultivation]

Tad opened it up and started reading.

About halfway through the first chapter he threw the book down in disgust “It's for Invertebrates!”

And the next one was for some sort of Tree Fern species. “There’s got to be something in here. Cultivation was a significant Trope back on Earth. Brash Young Masters, Sects, Hidden Masters. Murder-hobos and the quest for immortal greatness with magical pills and whatnot. You can’t tell me there’s nothing here that is Human specific.” A further 90% flew themselves back.

I picked up one of the few remaining. Ahhhhh. Cultivation by inhalation. Yep, that could work. If you breathed I suppose. Wouldn’t help me, but we weren’t looking for me. He looked at it.

“Well what do you know? A stoner with insights that the System has concurred with and endorsed. Impressive.” He put it to one side. “I’m not ready to be a user. Plus we don’t have any plants to use.”

He grabbed another. “I know this guy!”

“Not personally I mean. I know who he is. He was a legend.”

He settled in for a read, curled up on a legumebag. Dom providing soothing white noise all the while.

While Tad meditated, I opened up my notifications again and revelled in my advancement. I so needed to share this. I was getting back on track. All those pretentious uppity wisps who had looked down on me for flunking out. I couldn’t wait to flare this in their auras. Take that you judgemental gasbags. I rock. I had gotten past my bottleneck. I was going places. Tad was the best. This went so much towards totally offsetting any lingering resentment for my prolonged isolation and stagnation. Again I was super thankful I had looked him up and that I had apologised to him. It had been a spur of the moment decision but I didn’t regret it in the slightest. No Siree.

I opened my Orbsapp social media channel. Let’s skite a bit already. Take that haters.

Wow, that felt good.

Let's do it again. I linked up with my progenitors to pass on the good news. I’m pretty sure they had written me off. Perhaps this might invigorate them and some more benefits and resources come my way. This was going to be new territory. No longer a Zorbling. I was nearly a full grown Zorb. A few more levels or ten and I would be able to procreate myself. Wahoo. In with a grin. Life was wonderful.

Tad surfaced from his meditations.

[Ding]

“Oh. bother.”

“Yes I'm at the Level Cap.”

Sure enough the System notification came through with a ding.

I was confused. Somehow I felt that Tad was the Mentor and I was the one receiving training. He seemed to have an uncanny insight into the System. It was most perplexing.

“Did you note that it specifically refers to ‘free’ Stat points or improving my Base Stats. It doesn’t say anything about Bonus points or the Aspected Stat points that the System grants. I was planning to grind out a few more before levelling up."

Tad had that muleish look on his face. I was briefly distracted wondering what a mule was. The education pack had instilled a whole bunch of idioms but sometimes the context was not quite all there. It was strangely satisfying employing them though. Especially when I wrong footed him. See that was one there. I didn’t even have feet yet I totally related to the expression.

“Let's try it then, and we’ll see who's right.”

Hmmm what's a Padawan? I got the connotations of capable apprentice so it sort of fitted.

Instead of trying to grind out a Stat point Tad pulled up his Award. Ah. Wise again. This wise master approves.

> >

Then he expanded the description and bonuses

Tad accepted the Award.