“Adam? Where are you?” I hear Jess shouting.

I continue to ignore her while trying to meditate. I have been trying to feel KI around me. I've read a few books in the church’s library about KI, but there is very little known in this tiny town. I would call it a village, but I've been told repeatedly that villages don’t have a church, which is supposed to be a big deal.

On a child’s 10th birthday, they go to the main city to be tested for a core, which tells them their talent, elemental affinities, and level of sensitivity towards KI. Talent was explained by Andrew as something everyone is born with, from White (meaning nothing) to Black (meaning highest talent). Talent determines how well you can comprehend and how quickly you can absorb KI. Elemental affinities are how easy you can influence that element with your KI. No one has ever had more than one which makes me worry about standing out as I have 2. KI sense, which I take to mean spiritual sense, is something you train over time. The 10th birthday is the date used for testing since this is the age when your core is fully developed, so almost everyone starts with a 1.

Now the reason I am trying to sense KI early is because of the notification I got on my 3rd birthday:

Cultivation System (all tabs are locked till First core is formed)

Stats

Shop

Crafting System

System Quest

Unlock Core before 10th birthday to get 500p to spend in the shop. Failure to complete this quest will result in a penalty of 500p. Please note if your point balance becomes negative you will be punished.

When I saw the notification, I panicked. I don’t know of any way to form a core, and this village -sorry, town - is in the middle of nowhere, so I have been meditating, as they did in my old books, hoping that I would be able to sense the KI to form my first core.

I have found out, from reading the little information that I have, that the first 3 stages of cultivation are:

-KI Building: this is where the core takes the outside KI and floods your body with it, making it stronger. There are nine levels and levelling up depends on talent. The average time for medium talent is 5 years, good talent 3, amazing talent 1, and genius 5 months.

-Core Refining: when your core first forms at 10 years old, it is white. Similarly to KI building, there are also 9 levels and at the final level, the core is white with black specs. As the levels progress, you learn to use the KI outside of your body, with techniques similar to what certain wind affinities can achieve.

-Soul Refining: this part of the book was damaged. I could only seem to put together bits and pieces, but this seems to be combing your soul with your core. There were also illustrations of men and women flying.

I can't wait to be able to fly! The sky won’t even be my limit; this world will be mine one day.

“Adam you look so silly! Just sitting there with your eyes closed making humming noises!” Giggled Jess.

“Shhhhh,” I hiss.

I then felt myself being picked up - I hate being picked up. I am a grown arse man!

“Put me down Jess, please!” I say with the cutest face I can pull, staring into her blue eyes and her dirty-blonde hair. Her face is a bit chubby for a 15-year-old, but her eyes make up for it. They instantly show anyone the bubbly attitude she within when combined with the constant smile on her face.

She puts me down and says, “go on then, you can walk. We’re heading to grandpa Andrew’s office.”

“What does that old man want now? He never has time for us, so why is he bothering me now? I'm busy,” I groan.

Jess starts laughing and with half-serious eyes, she says “don’t call him an old man or he’ll get stressed out again.”

I promptly shut my mouth and rub my eyes, but bloody old man thinks he can do what he wants because I'm in this body - just wait ‘till I'm older, old man!

I look up at Jess as we walk. I use my cute face that seems to work at any time and say “Jess, when can we go to village Liberty? You’ve been promising for ages!”

“Hahaha, you just don’t give up do you, Adam? I will ask grandpa if I can take you tomorrow, but you have to be on your best behaviour. There are some bad people around,” she says with a strict voice while pointing at me.

“I promise!” I shout while running up to her and hugging her leg. I have her wrapped around my finger.

As we walk, I see Kyle heading towards us. His robes, his short black hair, and his defined face make him look like a hero, juxtaposing with his bug-eyed glasses. They don’t suit his face at all. It always makes me smile when I see them – it’s like seeing a bodybuilder wearing geek glasses. It just doesn’t work.

“There are you two, The Father has been waiting for a while now.” He says in a disapproving voice.

“It took me forever to find this rascal! He was hiding away doing that weird humming thing again,” Jess moans at him.

“Hey little guy, you okay? If you wanna talk about anything, I'm always here. You don’t need to do weird stuff by yourself,” his tone changes while speaking to me, with his voice switching to the role of a caring older brother.

“I am fine, Kyle. I just like relaxing my body, okay? Nothing to worry about,” I say while giving him a big smile.

“Brother Kyle,” he gently reminds me.

Apparently, if you serve as a church mortal or cultivator, you must be called by the title you have. It shows great disrespect to ignore church titles.

Pompous ass, you haven’t even gone through your holy order yet.

The holy order is a test where the Immortal King sense that has been placed into every church scans your body and mind to confirm whether you are a true believer.

“Come on, let’s hurry!” Jess shouts while jogging.