In order to reach your middle Dantian, you must use the elastic nature of your meridians to force more Ki into your Dantian than it can normally hold. Be warned, your Lower Dantian cannot be stretched in this way until you have fully opened and cleansed all eight of your Meridians. Before the last Meridian is cleared, the Dantian is far too rigid and fragile. Trying to force an expansion too soon will cause it to fracture and possibly shatter, ending your progress and forever preventing you from ever holding a drop of Ki again. Well… unless you have tens or even hundreds of thousands of Credits for the proper treatment, even then there is no guarantee.

Now that you have been fully warned of the consequences, I am sure you have all Eight Meridians opened and fully cleared. With that out of the way, there is one more thing you should realize before expanding your Lower Dantian. Once you open your Middle Dantian, your Ki will flow into it rapidly. It will come in contact with your Soul Element and your Ki will undergo a significant transformation. You will no longer have normal Ki at your disposal. The moment one unit of Ki is transformed into elemental Ki, matching your Soul Element, it will cause a chain reaction that will transform all the Ki in your body. As your Ki transforms, your Middle and Lower Dantian will merge, becoming a True Dantian capable of holding a more potent form of Ki without suffering damage.

This is a traumatic process. Your body will struggle to contain this new stage of energy and will cause extreme pain, organ damage, and disruption of your Cultivation Base. It may even lead to death if your failure is more violent. To prevent such complications, it is best to not only cultivate your Ki system, but to cultivate your actual body. This is one reason the first stage is called Body Cultivation. To reduce the potential risks in unlocking your Middle Dantian, it is recommended to achieve at least the first stage of your Elemental Body. To learn more about the Elemental Body, consult chapter two before expanding your Lower Dantian.

I was just reading my copy of “Beginner’s Guide to Cultivation (Elemental)” when I came across an apparently vital piece of information. I needed to gain this Elemental body thing, and I needed to do it soon. I only had one and a half Meridians to go before I needed to expand my Dantian, which would unlock my Middle Dantian. I couldn’t afford to have my cultivation stall. I needed to be as strong as possible by the time I reached Colorado. I didn’t know what kind of situation I would face when I finally reached my family. I couldn’t afford to fail and possibly die from a backlash in opening my Middle Dantian.

I jumped to the second chapter to figure out this elemental body I would need to gain.

An Elemental Body is important to any Cultivator who wishes to grow to the heights of power. Not only will an Elemental Body reduce the risks of advancing to the Energy Cultivation Stage, as well as reducing the recovery time from advancement, it will increase your own natural resistance to your Element type and increase the Potency of your Elemental Ki.

It was a good thing that I bought that Soul Scanner when I did. I already knew that I had the Jade Flame Soul Element, and that it was ninety percent fire and ten percent earth. I continued my reading.

Resources used to forge your elemental body come in too many forms to count, let alone list here. However, speaking in generalities, one can find herbs, minerals, beasts and environments rich in the elemental essences needed to form your unique elemental body. Each of these resources, commonly referred to as Natural Treasures, are grouped by the concentration of Elemental Essence into 5 Tiers.

Each Tier of a Natural treasure can advance your progress to an Elemental body by a certain percentage range listed here.

Tier 1: 1%-5% progression to elemental body Rank 1

Tier 2: 6%-10% progression to elemental body Rank 1

Tier 3: 11%-25% progression to elemental body Rank 1

Tier 4: 26%-50% progression to elemental body Rank 1

Tier 5: 51%-100% progression to elemental body Rank 1

Speak with your elders to find the appropriate natural treasures containing the elemental essence you need and likely locations where the essence naturally takes on the appropriate elements.

The author obviously assumed the reader would be part of a sect, or something. I didn’t have any “Elders” to consult. We would have to find these natural treasures ourselves, or spend even more Credits at another Settlement, if they didn’t shaft us the hard way… without lube. The problem was, I didn’t remember seeing anything like that, except for maybe the Embersteel Ingots, which had the essence of fire, or the Embershard crystal things, but they were filled with mana. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be compatible with cultivators like me.

I couldn’t just jump straight for the higher tier ones either, according to the next bit. I would have to start off by slowly tempering my body in mostly fire and a bit of earth.

Each Tier can contribute to tempering your body in the chosen element. Be warned, however, if you use higher tier natural treasures, they will progress your Body Cultivation faster, but there is a danger in using them. The raw elemental power contained can damage your body and cultivation base if you are not careful.

Using more potent Natural Treasures can impart extra bonuses upon the completion of each Rank of Body Cultivation. These potential bonuses vary from one resource to another, Alchemists can distill the Essences of Natural Treasures, increasing the potency and if they are skilled enough, influence the final results of your Body Cultivation.

It is recommended for Cultivators to acclimate their bodies to the elemental energies with lower tier natural treasures will reduce the dangers of using higher tier, and more powerful natural treasures.

Higher attributes can also reduce the dangers of higher tier natural treasures. It is recommended to have opened all 8 body stage meridians before attempting to attain the elemental body. Improving your body through the consumption of Ki rich foods can also aid in preparing your body for cultivation. The stronger your foundation, the safer it will be, the better the results.

Why couldn’t I be like most cultivation protagonists and be suddenly gifted with alchemical skill? While I’m at it, I might as well wish for a floating castle, a magic sword I can fly on, and a legendary dragon as a companion. There is no point in wishing for what I don’t have. It is better to use what I have to the best of my abilities and make do for the rest. I shook my head and finished reading the guide.

The guide wasn’t very long, even compared to the Body Cultivation guide. The intro said it all.

By this point in your cultivation journey, you should know all about opening your Meridians, controlling the flow of Ki, Ki’s many uses, and creating your own techniques. It is at this stage that many flounder on how to progress any further. After all you have opened and cleared all eight of your meridians, your body and mind are stronger, faster, and better in every way. Where do you go from here? This is a question you might ask yourself. Well, fear not Cultivator, for I will guide you on how best to proceed.

I already learned all the basics of cultivating. I just needed to learn about the transition to the second cultivation stage, and what I needed to learn to prepare myself to make it as smooth a transition as possible.

Once I finished reading the book, I looked up to see if Magnus was still awake. He was. He had the guide to raising spirit beasts open and was studying it. While it sucked to be interrupted, I knew he would want this new information as badly as I did. So, I stood up and walked over to him.

“Yo, Magnus. I just learned something rather important for us,” I said.

He looked up from his reading and asked, “What’s that?”

“There is something we need to do before we advance ourselves to the Energy stage. We need to cultivate our bodies.”

“Bro, what do you think I’ve been doing with those Manticore Quills? I’ve already increased my poison resistance by ten percent,” Magnus said.

“This is similar, but different. Here, look at this,” I said before explaining to him everything I had just learned about Elemental Bodies and advancing.

After digesting the information, Magnus had a thoughtful look and said to me, “We should talk to Kiara in the morning. She knows a lot more about plants than anyone I’ve ever met. She also has a spell that gets her a lot more information about plants than the Identify skill gives us. She was gathering all kinds of plants and mushrooms as we traveled today. She normally couldn’t carry much, so she could only gather the essentials before. But with our storage rings, she gathered a shit ton. Maybe she will have something already, or could keep an eye out as we go.”

I nodded my head. “That is defiantly a good idea. The book mentioned alchemists who could distill the essences down, but having a herbologist should be the next best thing. I’ll definitely talk to her about it in the morning. We need to gather enough for each of us to get this elemental body before we advance.”

With a little more chitchat about Koda’s training and things Magnus learned from the Spirit beast guide, we went our separate ways and I decided to clear more of my Heart Meridian while we were still in the bounds of the Wellspring, we would probably be out of it sometime tomorrow.

By the time I settled in to get some sleep, I managed to progress my Heart Meridian to the Seventy-five percent mark. Even with having to periodically clear my other Meridians, it was remarkable progress. Some part of me was going to miss the wellspring. Other parts couldn’t wait to leave it behind.

With the Energy cultivation guide fresh in my mind, I thought it would be a good idea to switch our meals over to the most Ki dense food we had. The Bear meat we got from Koda’s mother. The only downside was that unlike the pork and snake meat, it wasn’t yet cooked. I turned on my Ki forge and pulled out one of the camp frying pans to cook some up for everyone’s breakfast.

“Do you have the cooking skill?” Kiara asked.

“No, not really, just the regular cooking knowledge from before Initialization,” I answered.

“I have it at rank three,” Magnus said, “But haven’t figured out the whole cooking buff thing.”

“I’m at rank 5,” Rowan added. “But I don’t know how to get buffs either.”

“My Cooking is at rank 7, and I figured out that if I add some Herbs I gathered, I can get a couple buffs out of the food. Usually adding to Stamina Regen or boosting healing speed. I managed to find some good wild sage and spring onions in this forest yesterday. They are both rich in essence and should help make a decent buff for everyone,” Kiara said.

“As long as the Meat keeps its Ki levels, I’m fine with you cooking,” I said to Kiara as I placed the cooking implements and seven pieces of meat on a workbench. If this worked, everyone, including Rukia and Koda, would get a nice buff. I knew it was a kind of wrong to feed Koda some of his own mother, but I also knew that Bears were naturally cannibalistic, even including their own cubs.

While Kiara prepped the food to cook, I asked her about what Magnus and I had talked about the night before. “Hey, Kiara. Have you come across any plants or something that was particularity rich in one kind of essence? Like Fire or Earth?”

She paused in her cooking to think back before answering. “I have found some like that. There was a grey fennel that had a particularity stiff stem. When I used my Analyze Spell, it contained high levels of Metal Essence. Why do you ask?”

“I’m Sure you know by now that Magnus and I are cultivators. We just found out last night that we both need to consume Natural Treasures that are high in Elemental Essence that match our Soul Elements. Herbs and plants are one type of Natural Treasure. We were holing you could help us find what we need to advance,” I said.

“What’s a Soul Element?” Kiara asked.

I explained the whole Soul Element thing as I understood it and told her how I learned of it. I then pulled out the Soul Element Scanner to show her. It still had Magnus’s and my own results stored in its memory. “I can scan yours if you like, Cody’s and Rowan’s too, if they like. I’m not sure what effect it has for those on the Path of Mana or Faith, but it couldn’t heart to learn.”

They all agreed, and Magnus wanted to Scan Koda as well, not seeing a problem with that. I scanned everyone one, starting with Kiara.

Soul Element Scan results

Core Elements: Light- 20%, Air- 0%, Wood-80%, Water- 0%, Dark- 0%, Earth- 0%, Metal- 0%, Fire- 0%

Soul Element: Garden

Soul Element Traits: Growth, Healing, Restoration, Nutrition, Life

Next, I scanned Cody and showed him his results.

Soul Element Scan results

Core Elements: Light- 0%, Air- 0%, Wood- 50%, Water- 0%, Dark- 0%, Earth- 0%, Metal- 50%, Fire- 0%

Soul Element: Iron Oak

Soul Element Traits: Defense, Resiliency, Toughness, Strength

Rowan Came next and got her rather interesting results.

Soul Element Scan results

Core Elements: Light- 50%, Air- 0%, Wood- 0%, Water- 0%, Dark- 0%, Earth- 50%, Metal- 0%, Fire- 0%

Soul Element: Luminescent Opal

Soul Element Traits: Creative, Transitional, Balance, Empowerment

And lastly, Koda’s results.

Soul Element Scan results

Core Elements: Light- 0%, Air- 0%, Wood- 0%, Water- 0%, Dark- 0%, Earth- 65%, Metal- 0%, Fire- 35%

Soul Element: Magma

Soul Element Traits: Fluidity, Fierce, Indominable, Imposing

“Well, it looks like we have polar opposite animal companions, Magnus?” I asked with a chuckle. “One deals in ice, the other magma. They will either get on with each other famously or be at each other’s throats.”

“Oh, Koda’s a good boy, aren’t you, Koda?” Magnus said, while giving Koda a good scratch. “How awesome is that? He has volcano powers? I want volcano powers.”

“Who doesn’t want volcano powers?” I asked with a laugh.

“I don’t,” Cody said in a small voice. “I like healing, and protecting, not destruction. If anything, I want to be a Paladin.”

I sobered up with Cody’s statement. “And you are well on your way to becoming a Paladin. You have the armor, the healing, and the desire to do good and help others. I think you make a great Paladin.”

Cody blushed a bit but gave me a big heart-warming smile. He was a good kid.

“Foods up” Kiara called and I could suddenly smell the rich aroma coming from the pot she used instead of the frying pan. The sage and spring onion blended well with the meaty scent. Kiara had me bring out bowls instead of plates, and I brought out the spoons. She made a bit of a breakfast stew, cubed bear meat seared, with sage and onion diced up with a bit of water and a can of diced tomatoes mixed in.

While my pre-apocalypse stew was leagues better, in my humble opinion, in the post-apocalypse world with what we had on hand… the meal was pretty damned good. We all ate everything in our bowls, along with Koda and Rukia.

The rich Ki in every cube of meat, far surpassed even the body rank five snake meat. If it wasn’t for my Stomach Meridian being open and cleared, I wouldn’t have been able to process all the Ki it contained. As it was, I had to cycle my Stomach Meridian to contain every drop of energy it had. I could feal the power suffusing my muscles, settling in my bones, rushing through my blood and firing through my synapses. It was amazing, and after my last bite, I received this prompt.

Congratulations, you are well fed.

+25% Stamina and Health regeneration for 4 hours.