There are quite a few differences between cultivating as a Human Realm cultivator and cultivating as a cultivator in the Ascendant Realm. Where a Human Realm cultivator only had to worry about drawing in as much Mana as they could and using that Mana to add another layer to their Mana Core when they filled it up an Ascendant Realm cultivator had to continue to draw in more Mana, but they also had to do some other things and some of those things were different depending on the specific cultivation technique that they were using. One of the things that every Ascendant Realm cultivator had to do was continue to refine their internal image of their cultivation technique using the Mana that they absorbed when cultivating but that mostly just increased the strength of the techniques that they already had. Another was that you had to continue to add things to your cultivation technique to make it into something uniquely your own and I had a huge advantage there since I had created my own cultivation technique. As for the specific thing or things that Ascendant Realm cultivators had to do to advance their cultivation further, they usually kept those to themselves.

-Excerpt from Telram’s notes on Ascendant Realm cultivation.

“I still don’t understand how it happened,” Telram said to Gerry who was looking at the notes that Telram had given him with a bewildered frown on his face. “I was just checking my cultivation technique and they were there.”

“Well, it’s not like I haven’t heard about weird things appearing in the internal world of someone’s cultivation technique before. But this is the first time that I’ve heard about something like this,” Gerry admitted. “I wouldn’t be too worried about it. In fact, their existence will probably be important to your development.”

“Yeah, I suppose,” Telram agreed. “It just seems weird to me to have people living inside my cultivation technique.”

“You created a planet inside your cultivation technique using your knowledge of this world,” Fergus pointed out. “What exactly were you expecting was going to happen?”

Telram knew that wasn’t entirely true but he kept that to himself and just nodded in agreement.

“Anyway, are you ready to go?” Gerry asked.

“Yeah,” Telram nodded as he glanced at Jai who also nodded in agreement. “We’re ready.”

“Good,” Gerry said as he got to his feet. “I’m just glad that you finally agreed that I should come with you.”

“Well, it wasn’t like you guys gave me a lot of choice there,” Telram sighed. “I just hope that nothing happens while we’re gone.”

“We’ll be fine Telram,” Fergus told him firmly. “You just worry about what you have to do. We’ll make sure that nothing goes wrong here. Hopefully, we’ll even be able to figure out what Affinities Iris and the others have.”

“Don’t forget that Lord Fallar is sending some people to pick up the notes that I promised him next week if we’re not back by then,” Telram reminded Fergus for what had to be the third time that morning making the older man roll his eyes in exasperation.

“Like I said, it’ll be fine Telram,” he grumbled. “You just go and check out that ‘Cradle’ that you’ve been wanting to go and check out since we got here. Diane and I can handle things here.”

“Okay, fine I get it,” Telram sighed as he picked up the journal that he had written his notes in and returned it to his room where he also grabbed the pack that he had left there as he did so.

As Fergus had said he was planning on heading to where he expected the Cradle of the Daughter of the Silent Moon would be with Gerry, Ryu, Lelland and even Warren who much like Gerry had insisted that Telram bring him along. Telram had been a bit uncomfortable with the idea at first but then he remembered what Henry had told him the day after he had Ascended. He had also been worried that Henry wouldn’t be happy with the idea of Telram brining his son to a place that was likely to be incredibly dangerous, but Henry had simply asked his son if he wanted to go and given him his blessing when he’d received an affirmative answer. According to Warren, Polly had been much less happy about the situation, but she hadn’t been able to convince Warren to stay.

When Telram returned to the main room he found Ryu and Lelland and Warren were waiting for him. His friends had excited looks on their faces as he entered the room and Telram grinned as he felt the same emotion rise up in his own chest. He had wanted to explore an ancient ruin ever since he had learned about them years ago and now, he finally had a chance to do just that.

“Alright then everyone,” he said as he returned their excited grins with one of his own. “Are you ready to go?”

“I’ve been looking forward to this ever since you told me about it,” Lelland chuckled as he and the others got to their feet.

Telram and the others continued to act like the excited teenagers that they were until Gerry smacked Telram on the back of his head and reminded him that ruins were dangerous places. Especially ruins that had never been opened before.

“Yeah, we know Gerry,” Telram nodded as the mirth left his face. “Don’t worry we won’t let our excitement get in the way will we guys?”

“Of course not,” Ryu snorted. “If we weren’t taking this seriously then we wouldn’t have trained so hard over the past couple of weeks. I was a little worried when we started but we all managed to get quite a bit stronger than I expected thanks to you and Telram.”

“Yeah,” Warren agreed. “I really didn’t expect Telram to get so much stronger than he was so quickly either. Although I guess that I shouldn’t really be surprised either.”

“Telram’s situation is a bit different to most people because he’s working with a cultivation technique and martial techniques that he created,” Gerry pointed out. “So, while he does have some other issues, he knows more about what his martial techniques are capable of since he created them.”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Telram sighed. “Let’s just get going. I want to reach the river that we’re supposed to follow before dark.”

The others nodded in agreement and after Telram had bid his parents goodbye they left the house to find Iris and the others waiting for them outside. Iris immediately ran over and wrapped her arms around Telram who chuckled in amusement as he patted her head.

“Be careful,” she told him firmly as she turned her head to look up at Telram’s face. “We’ve still got so much to learn from you.”

“I will,” Telram promised her. “Don’t you worry about that. I’ve still got a lot more that I want to do.”

Telram and the other bid farewell to the other students before continuing on their way out of town. To their surprise the parents of most of the students and several other villagers had also turned out early to bid them farewell as well.

“Good luck all of you,” Henry said as he walked up the group. “But are you sure that you don’t want to bring more experienced people with you?”

“No, this group will be fine,” Telram replied. “We don’t even know if the ruins are actually where we think they are and keeping Fergus and Diane here will be more useful if something goes wrong than anyone else. Not to mention that they’re the better choice for making sure that the students are still learning. No offence guys.”

“None taken,” Lelland shrugged. “They’ve been teaching them for much longer than we have after all. And that’s even without mentioning how much better they would handle a crisis than we would.”

The others all nodded in agreement. As Telram had told Henry after he’d reached the Ascendant Realm, he had started letting Ryu, Lelland and Warren take some of the classes so that the others could spend more time on research or cultivating but they were still only learning the ropes as far as Telram was concerned. That didn’t mean that they weren’t valuable resources though. The kids all knew Warren well and were more willing to take his criticism than Telram had expected at first. As for Ryu, well the kids all loved him, and his knowledge of Mana Beasts was second to none. Finally, Lelland was the most skilled of all of them with weapons. Not only was he an expert spear-wielder but he also knew how to wield a variety of other weapons relatively well as well. In fact, he had been able to fight Gerry to a stalemate with a sword which had surprised everyone. While Gerry didn’t really specialize in fighting himself, he was a fairly skilled swordsman so Lelland being able to fight him to a stalemate was pretty impressive even though Gerry hadn’t used his more powerful sword techniques.

“Well, I hope you’re right,” Henry nodded as he walked up to his son and lowered his voice slightly. “Be careful Warren. I’m proud of you for wanting to help your friends out but ruins are dangerous. So, whatever else happens out there you make sure that you come home to us.”

“Yeah,” Warren nodded. “I will dad. Give my best to mum too. I know that we’ve been arguing more lately but I still love her.”

“So, do I son,” Henry agreed with an explosive sigh. “She’s just afraid of what would happen if what Telram and the others were doing got found out by the noble families, but she has been coming around a bit recently. Especially now that she sees how happy that you are teaching the kids. Her pride has just been getting in the way.”

“I know dad,” Warren nodded. “I’m a cultivator with an Affinity for Air Mana I can hear you anywhere in the house.”

“Of course,” Henry chuckled to himself. Every Affinity enhanced the cultivator’s body in different ways and Air Affinity was particularly well-known for increasing a cultivator’s hearing and sense of smell so Henry shouldn’t be surprise by this.

“Here are those things that you asked for Telram,” Dale said as he passed Telram a small bag of items. “I’m not sure if I made them correctly though.”

“Yeah, these will do nicely,” Telram said as he opened the bag and peered inside. “Thanks Dale.”

“Well, that’s good then,” Dale nodded with a relieved look on his face. “Make sure you come back Telram. There’s still a lot of things that I want to learn from you. And you have even more things to teach Cameron.”

Eventually Telram and the others managed to get away from the many people who wanted to wish them luck in their endeavors. Telram appreciated that so many people wanted to see them off but now they had to make up for lost time.

The group followed the same route that Telram had taken when he was looking for the materials for his Kanabo. Since they were all in the Ascendant Realm, they were able to make incredible time and Telram’s mood improved as he realized that they might be able to reach the river by nightfall after all. Another thing that made things easier for them was that they didn’t have to deal with attacks from Mana Beasts like a group of human cultivators normally would thanks to the presence of Ryu.

“Wow, this is so much easier than the last time we were out this way isn’t it Telram,” Jai chuckled.

“What happened last time?” Lelland asked curiously.

“We had to fight a Metal Scaled Baboon,” Telram explained with a sigh. “We only managed to beat it because it had only recently become a Metal Scaled Baboon and we worked together better than it expected. It also wasn’t expecting my Mana Claws technique to be able to penetrate its scales. It did manage to hit Jai pretty hard though.”

“Yeah, those broken ribs were not fun,” Jai admitted. “If Telram hadn’t been stronger than it was expecting we would’ve died. He could take it down on his own now though.”

“Don’t worry Jai, you’ll be able to defeat a newly evolved Metal Scaled Baboon yourself in about a month,” Ryu chuckled. “I suspect that it’s because of Telram but your soul energy is even stronger than normal compared to other members of your species at the same cultivation level as you.”

“Really?” Jai asked. “I mean I kind of expected that I was different from most Blood Tigers because of Telram but I don’t really know how different I am since my mother died when I was pretty young, and I was captured by hunters before I found another of my kind.”

“Well, you’re not that different really,” Ryu replied as Lelland frowned slightly at the tiger’s words. “Blood Tigers have stronger souls than just about every other type of Mana Beast after all. However, you’re far more intelligent than normal which we know for a fact I because of Telram and your soul is even stronger than a normal Blood Tiger’s is. Honestly, I’ve never heard of a Mana Beast being able to speak before becoming an Elemental Beast before.”

“Neither have I,” Gerry agreed. Despite how much older he was than the rest of the group Gerry’s Air Mana allowed him to keep up with ease which didn’t surprise any of the others since all of them except Jai and Ryu also had an Affinity for Air Mana and they were both Mana Beasts. In some ways, it was actually more impressive that Telram could keep up with the rest of them while carrying his Kanabo but that only showed how much he had grown into his strength after entering the Ascendant Realm. “But like I’ve said many times before I expect weird things to happen around Telram, so nothing really surprises me anymore.”

Following this conversation, the group fell silent as they continued running across the grasslands towards the river that Telram was hoping would lead him to the ruins that they were here to explore. As Telram had hoped they arrived at the river just before sunset and they stopped to stare in awe.

“I’m going to be honest,” Telram admitted. “That river is a lot bigger than I was expecting.”

“Is that bad?” Warren asked worriedly.

“No, it just surprised me,” Telram replied with a chuckle. “It’s just that I’ve never seen a river anywhere near this big before.”

That was only mostly true since he had seen larger rivers than the one in front of him on television during his previous life, but this was definitely larger than any that he had actually seen in person. The river in question wasn’t just wide, it appeared to be deep and judging by the swirling water around the few rocks that still poked up out of it, the river had a strong current as well so Telram hoped that they wouldn’t have to cross it if something went wrong. Thankfully as they had already found Ryu’s presence was enough to prevent most issues which meant that it was pretty unlikely that they would have to do so.

“Shall we follow it for a bit and see if we can find a better place to camp or do you want to just set up here?” Gerry asked.

“I think I’d like to find a better place,” Telram decided after looking around for a bit. “This area is pretty low-lying, and I don’t know what the weather is like out here. Besides, I’d like to get a view of the Mana Zone so that I can take some notes and get an idea of what it will be like inside of it if we can.”

“That makes sense to me,” Gerry nodded.

“I still don’t like that we’re going into a Mana Zone, but I definitely agree that we should get as much information about it that we can,” Lelland agreed. “What do we know about this Mana Zone anyway?”

“Well, it’s the same Mana Zone that poisoned Iris’ parents,” Warren explained as he glanced at Telram who frowned slightly at his friend’s words. “As far as I know it’s an Air Mana Zone, but I don’t know much other than that. Come to think of it I don’t know much about Mana Zones in general.”

“Mana Zones are the most dangerous places on Nerrus with no exceptions,” Gerry said as they started to move once again and everyone else fell silent so that they could listen to everything that the older man had to say. Even Ryu who was interested in seeing just how much Gerry actually knew on the subject since despite the fact that he actually knew quite a bit himself. “This is because of many things ranging from Mana Poisoning which we shouldn’t have to worry too much about unless we end up spending several weeks in the Mana Zone and the more powerful Mana Beasts that live within Mana Zones which we also shouldn’t have to worry too much about because Ryu is here with us. However, there are several things that we should be worrying about. The first is the inclement weather and other strange phenomena that commonly occur in Mana Zones. The other is the presence of beings known as Elementals. Elementals are beings created from Mana itself. They are quite rare and powerful Elementals are even rarer than weak ones. We don’t know that much about them but if we do encounter any, I would advise that we run.”

“That’s actually more than I expected you to know,” Ryu admitted once he was sure that Gerry had finished. “As far as I’m aware your noble families control as much information on Mana Zones as they can because of the Natural Treasures that can be discovered within.”

“What else can you tell us?” Telram asked curiously.

“Well like I said Mana Zones occasionally form something that we call Natural Treasures,” Ryu said after a few moments. “Every Natural Treasure is slightly different. Some increase the rate that you can cultivate, others can produce resources or strange phenomena. As for Elementals I’m afraid that I’m going to have to correct you on something. Elementals are only considered rare because most of them don’t even last more than a day before fading away. The real problem is that they usually form in groups during one of those ‘strange phenomena’ that you were talking about. Well, that and even the weakest among them is only slightly weaker than I was before I met Telram.”

“What else can you tell us about their abilities?” Telram asked while the others processed what Ryu had just told them.

“Well, being beings created from Mana they can’t use physical attacks,” Ryu replied. “This means that most of their attacks are ranged ones. It also means that only our more powerful Mana-based attacks will affect them. That or soul-based attacks, actually Telram could probably destroy elementals easier than the rest of us.”

“Well, that doesn’t actually sound so bad,” Telram shrugged. “How many Elementals usually form at once?”

“It depends how strong the phenomena that created them was,” Ryu replied after a few moments of screwing up his face like he was trying to remember something that he had learned a long time ago. “But I think the average is about ten, but I also recall my father telling me about particularly large phenomena forming over a hundred before as well.”

“Well, we’ll do our best to stay away from anything that might count as one of these phenomena,” Telram said in a somewhat regretful tone. “But if you remember anything else about them let me know.”

The group continued running for another hour or so before they finally found a place that they decided would be a good spot for them to camp. The site in question was at the top of a small rise that was high enough that they had a good view of where they would be travelling tomorrow including the Mana Zone that Telram had been hoping to see.

The Mana Zone had a massive mass of storm clouds above it that were constantly shifting as what looked like small tornados formed and disappeared. Ryu also told the others that he could see the forms of other Mana Beasts moving around inside the Mana Zone which according to the Divine Beast was a good thing since that meant that it was quite likely that there weren’t any Elementals nearby because most Mana Beasts had difficulty dealing with them.

After they finished eating their dinner, they all sat down and started cultivating. Since all of them except for Jai were in the Ascendant Realm or equivalent, they didn’t need much sleep and cultivating would restore the Mana that they had used on the way here. Eventually they did decide that they would need to have some sleep though and after a few moments deliberating it was decided that Gerry would take the first watch while the others got some sleep.

Telram gazed up at the starry sky above him for a few moments as Jai curled up next to him. He didn’t sleep outside like this often and whenever he did, he was reminded once again that this world was vastly different from Earth. After a few moments of introspection, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.