Chapter 0008

Athena immediately threw away the book on weapon refinement. Weapon refinement = weapon forger = blacksmith = needs muscles. These scrawny arms lift nothing heavier than a briefcase. Athena doesn’t have the physical capabilities.

Beginner’s Art of Alchemy goes into the discard pile after reading the first page. An alchemy in this world makes potions, pills and elixirs. In short, alchemists are drugs maker. Athena has no intention of opening a meth lab to peddle unknown pills to unsuspecting cultivators. Just have a joint, come on it’ll make you feel good, then booms instant addicts in the making. She had enough psychotropic drugs to last her ten life times. The little pills don’t help either. The voices continued to whisper countless tales of intrigue. Athena doesn’t want to touch another pill if she can help it.

Beginner’s Art of Talisman Making goes into the maybe pile. Although the Beginner’s Art of Talisman Making say it is for beginners, it requires the creator to have fundamental knowledge of mineralogy, metallurgy, formations and basic understanding of the intricate interactions of the elements. Athena translates intricate interactions of the elements as basic chemistry.

Beginner’s Art of Poison, discard pile.

Beginner’s Art of Healing, discard pile.

Discard pile.

Discard pile.

Discard pile. Oooh is interesting. Beginner’s Art of Charm Making. Charms are disposable one use items created for a specific purpose. The craft can either be very cheap or very expensive.

Charm making requires charm paper, charm ink and an elemental touch.

Charm paper are either tanned beast skins or ground up herbs held together with a special paste. Charm ink is created from the blood essences of magical beasts. The higher the levels, the higher-quality material required to make the charms.

Magical beasts are hunted down every day. Low-level herbs are planted everywhere. The cost of these two materials is cheap.

The expensive portion of charm making is the elemental touch. Cultivators embarking on the path of immortality has an association towards certain elements. During the charm making process the creator of the charm channels the elemental energy they are associated with into the ink and imprints the energy onto the paper.

However, if the charm creator wants to create a charm outside their affinity, then they must use a medium containing the affinity to the elements they want to imprint. These mediums, be it Fire Ores, Sealed Lightning Essences or a Rainbow Dew Drops, are very expensive.

Most charm makers stick to their elements. However, not all charms have the same demand. Mobility charms have a higher demand than attack and defensive charms.

“Hey, wait a minute. Why the heck am I going through the profession catalogue when I don’t know what my elemental affinity or immortal potential,” Athena berated herself. “Gotta find that information first.”

Athena beelined it for the shelf that contained the [Spirit Orb] and the Rainbow Stone. Dugu Shi Xiao is a cultivator from the Heavenly Mountains. He desired for his fiancée to possess spirit veins, though he did not neglect the other immortal potential since he rather spends an eternity with Asalia rather than the lifespan of a mortal.

Athena dropped her blood on the Spirit Orb and the Rainbow Stone at the same time. Nothing.

Sigh.

“Okay, then I’ll test for the other immortal potential. I know for sure I’ll pass on the soul potential, being a reincarnator and all.”

Athena studied the Soul Linked Pearl. A Soul Linked Pearl is a mysterious pearl found in the ocean, the higher the quality, the deeper the depth a cultivator must dive to find it. No one knows how the Soul Linked Pearl works, only that it changes color in response to the soul force of a cultivator. Again the color of the rainbow is used as a reference with red being the weakest and purple being the strongest.

Cultivators outside the Ethereal Depths use the cheapest Soul Linked Pearl to test their immortal potential. Although the cheap pearls can not accurately measure soul force on the higher spectrum, those in the Heavenly Mountains, Magus Alliance and Mysterious Wasteland agree that if a cultivator can explode a cheap Soul Linked Pearl then their soul is worth cultivating.

Athena grasped the Soul Link Pearl. It was warm to the touch. Ten minutes later, it was still warm to the touch. Ten minutes later, nothing.

“Damn useless pebble.” Athena was about to throw the pearl away before she realized her lack of knowledge. If the pearl can be activated with just a touch then anyone with a powerful soul can never farm them. Since the [Soul Link Pearl] originated from the Ethereal Depths where they cultivate the soul as their immortal potential, there must be another method to activate the function of the pearl.

“Blood?” Athena pondered. Athena brought the pearl closer to her face to scrutinize it. It looked like a normal pearl. A drop of blood was placed on the pearl. The blood was immediately absorbed into the pearl and before Athena could react, it exploded, leaving a layer of dust on Athena’s face.

“Stupid pearl, making a clown out of me!” The easily aggravated little girl looked more like a ghost than a clown though a few comedians back on Earth will say the old pie to the face is a clown classic. Either way, the caked face midget was glad no one was here to see her blunder.

However, the dust on her face proved her soul is powerful. Not that she doubts the power of her soul since she IS a reincarnator.

After wiping the dust off her face with the sleeves of her clothes, Athena examined the set of Mental Essence Stone, though not as close this time around. She learned her lesson once already.

Mental Power is measured by how many stones a cultivator can lift. This time, blood is not the medium cultivators use to test themselves. Testers channel their will into the stone to move them. Athena figured she might as well act like those fake telekinetic back on Earth. She placed the stones on the table and stared at the stones, will them to move. Nothing.

Ten minutes later, nothing.

Athena sighed.

Even though she had the information provided by the newbie beginner collector’s edition starter package space, there so much left out.

Athena palmed the stones, playing with them like marbles. The rhythmic movement of the Mental Essence Stone in her palm relaxed her. The muscles in the little girl’s body became almost boneless. As the tension was released from her body, Athena allowed her mind to drift.

She woke up in a strange new world with a wounded body with little to no background information on her environment. She enters a mysterious space that provided her with the basic, but the information provided left out the common sense of this world. Of course she was stressed. But now, those worries don’t seem too bad.

This new world Athena reincarnated into have a very diverse population and as many cultures as there are people. If Athena acted a little strange, no ‘concerned’ parents will send to the insane asylum… ahem, psychiatric ward… ahem, hospital.

Even though this body did not come with a support system in terms of family and friends, this body does not have said obligations to family and friends. Sometimes the obligations to family are heavier to bear than anything else. The greatest burden in her previous life was placed upon her by family.

Furthermore, Athena doesn’t have to act like Asalia. Athena can just be herself. No one is around to notice the difference.

The cheat Athena has can be used in this world without fear of persecution.

Athena has nothing to worry about. She has food. She has clothes. She has a whole new world to explore and all the time in the world to do it. She is going to be an immortal.

By all that is holy, Athena is going to live the good life in this world and no one will ever get her down. World, hear me roar!

Bam.

Bam.

Bam.

Three of the ten Mental Essence Stone in her hand flew up to smack her in the forehead.

“This damn world is against me,” scream a very frustrated little girl. “Every freaking time I get my hopes up, something happens to knock it right back down.”

Athena patted the three lumps on her forehead while muttering death curse at no one in particular.

“My Mental Power is three out of ten.” Athena had mixed feelings with the result. The black hair little girl was satisfied she had Mental Power. It would be stranger if it was higher. Athena is a child from Earth. She neither has the sensibilities nor the same thought process of this world. Since Mental Power is developed, then it made sense that Mental Power will be developed according to the laws and logic of this world.

Despite accepting the result of the test, Athena was also a little disappointed. “I am a reincarnator. I lived one life already. All those books about reincarnators or main character getting transported to a different world having a cheat is all baloney.”

The little girl examined the situation further. Unable to come up with a satisfactory answer, Athena threw the question to the back of her mind and move on to the next test never realizing it was lack of focus that reduce her Mental Power score.

Athena looked at the Blood Nurturing Ore and bypasses the blood immortal potential immediately. Blood = fighting = killing = vector for disease = I got HIV, now I am going to die in the most horrible manner possible and I am STILL a virgin.

No thanks.

Heart. Affinities.

The Elemental Heart Stone measure the affinities of a cultivator in two different ways. When a cultivator touches the Elemental Heart Stone, different color orbs appear, visible to the naked eye. The color of the orbs represents the different affinities. Red for fire, green for plant, blue for water and so forth. The number of orbs appearing represent the strength of the affinities with the maximum of a 100 orb per element.

In order to become a mage, the cultivator must have a minimum of 50 orbs for each of their elements.

Athena held the Elemental Heart Stone for 10 minutes. Nothing.

“Not again damn it. If it’s like the other test, then something stupid will happen.” Two of the four immortal potential test Athena undergone resulted in humiliation. Cake face and lump head.

Athena sighed in resignation. Even knowing the road leads to abject mortification, Athena still have to walk down the embarrassing path. With absolute resolution, Athena drop blood onto the Elemental Heart Stone.

Nothing.

Ten minutes later, nothing.

“Damn p.o.s. making a fool out of me!” There was one enraged little girl in an unknown space. Athena wanted to throw a temper tantrum like a five-year-old girl.

The red face midget thought about for a bit then immediately rolled on the ground, crying and screaming her head off while slamming her clenched fist on the cold hard floor. No one will know if she acts like a spoiled child. Even if they knew, this body is approximately 13 years old. In the eyes of the people in this world, 13 years is still a child.

Dignity be damn.

Athena didn’t have any.

Whatever dignity she had was destroyed after the first immortal potential test.

After venting her frustration, the still red face little girl went about researching her affinities failure. She was sure she had an affinity. She lived with her cheat for 21 years.

After reading a book called “The Commoner’s Handbook for Immortal Potential” Athena was able to understand her blunder. Testing for affinities requires for a cultivator to be near their elements or at least in an area which the spirits have access to.

Although spirits are attached to their humans, they have limitations in regards to manifestation. Spirits can and do lend their power to their cultivators through a link they form when the said cultivators uncover their affinities. This is also the reason why affinities are tested for at birth and also why the progress to become an immortal is faster for mages in the beginning. They literally start cultivating from the moment they are born.

In order for a mortal to gain immortally through affinities the spirit must first manifest into this world and bind themselves to the human. The binding process is performed through the Elemental Heart Stone.

Asalia did not gain the growth advantages for mages because she never tests for her immortal potential.

Athena ponders the issue but can’t decipher the clues presented to her. Lisa was not rich, but she earns enough to live comfortably. From the way it was described in Asalia’s diary, Lisa can purchase an immortal potential testing set easily yet she did not. Why?

Dugu Shi Xiao tests for his immortal potential later in life was explained by this line of thought. Lisa wasn’t going to test her own daughter’s immortal potential, so she wasn’t going to pay for someone else.

The little girl spectated on the relationship between Lisa and the Dugu family. It seems harmonious on the outside. However, what was the real relationship between the two families? Asalia lived in her own little world with Dugu Shi Xiao at the center, so Athena did not expect any clues from the original body’s diary.

Athena sense there is more to Lisa than she was telling her daughter. If Lisa was keeping a secret, the Athena wholeheartedly understand why she never told Asalia. Everything Asalia knew, Dugu Shi Xiao knew.

Athena smacked the side of her head with her hands. “Damn it. No time for trivial. I need get outside to test for my affinities.”

The passage from “The Commoner’s Handbook for Immortal Potential,”The passage from “The Commoner’s Handbook for Immortal Potential,” “Spirits can only manifest in a world where the wall between the spirit world and the existing world are thin. Dimensional space, personal space, pocket space and the space in a dimensional ring or space bag create a barrier in the void and link it to an item or person. Since there is a barrier to isolate the space for the cultivator to use, the spirits are unable to manifest in the blocked off area.”

The passage was added to “The Commoner’s Handbook for Immortal Potential” because there are many pocket dimensions connected to the Cardinal Realm. A whole world exists in these pocket dimensions. Cultivators in the pocket dimension must either use a Spatial Void Stone with an Elemental Heart Stone to test for affinities or journey into a world where the barrier between the spirit realm and their realm is thin.

Because the initial limitation for a human to become a mage is higher than the other immortal potential, the path to become a mage is easier. Affinities are the easiest immortal potential to cultivate.

Athena was enthusiastic to test her affinities before she remembers her luck with each test. She carefully wrapped the Elemental Heart Stone in a handkerchief then exit the space.

The cold night air blast against her body.

“Damn, I was in there longer than I thought.”

The black hair girl intended to enter the space to retrieve warmer clothes but the thought became inconsequential. The frigid night air became gentle and warm as a summer breeze.

“Now or never.” Athena sighed. She unwrapped the Elemental Heart Stone and held it in her small hands.

Nothing.

“Blood huh.” When a drop of blood touch the Elemental Heart Stone, a mass of spirits in shades of blue, green and yellow mobbed her.

“I am not a member of a boyband!” Athena yelled as she was knocked out by a swarm of brilliant lights trying to get a hold of her.