CHAPTER 13.

I followed Orla across several twisting hallways and stairs. This place is massive and who knows how far underground the entire structure went. I looked at the large half-orc next to me, somewhat grateful for her guidance.

So far she'd acted professionally and had not abused me in any way. I would have to learn to judge the people around here based on their merits and not on their looks.

The caverns were deep and before long, I had to rest twice on the way to the bloody infernal chapel."

Orla looked down at me with empty eyes, but she did not compel me to hurry. "You'll need to get stronger, and fast human, Zomyr feeds on the stupid, the frail and the weak. Come, the night clerics must not be kept waiting."

Seriously, “night clerics”, where the hell were these guys getting their names from

We finally reached a cavern with the entrance carved in the shape of an open mouthed skull complete with fanged canines. I stepped in, filled with apprehension about what this test would entail. Robed figures moved around the room shrouded in darkness and I could feel power concentrated in the cowled clerics around me.

Curious, I asked Orla about this ability to sense energy, assuming to myself that it was because I was an alien on an alien planet, maybe a little like superman. But she was quick to burst my bubble.

"What you are feeling is the essence density concentrated in each person. It is a rough reflection of their cultivation level and essence volume amongst other things. But all you'll feel are impressions until your body is purified of all corruption and you begin cultivation of your own." Then she stared more intently at me, “it seems your perception of the world is growing, even before your body cleansing. I daresay, your cultivation might be an interesting one.

I wanted to ask more questions, but we stopped in front of a heavy door carved from some obsidian like material. "We are here, you can ask all your questions to the sensitive performing the test. Outsiders rarely survive the body cleansing process. But you've survived so far so who knows." She shrugged her massive shoulders and said all this in an impassive manner, as if she didn't care either way. After saying her piece, she turned around and walked away.

I stepped through the entrance, keeping in mind all that the old man had told me. It was time to put to the test one of the seven things the old man told me.

The room I stepped into had a chair with straps on it. I froze my mind going back to my time with Avery and my forced interrogation at his hands. My hands shook and I began to sweat profusely.

By the chair was a cowled figure in black robes and in front of the figure was a box with strange carvings . "Please take a seat, we will begin your affinity test shortly and I will give you basic directions on how to begin your cultivation." A sweet feminine voice spoke from within the cowl.

That caught me off guard because my idea of a night clerics was a crooked and bent old man. I took another look at the cowled figure and saw that beneath the cowl, was a young lady with a tawny golden skin, a beautiful heart shaped face, big blue eyes and full luscious lips.

I moved to the chair reluctant to sit, but unwilling to be manhandled by yet another beautiful woman. A man's ego can only take so much. Finally I sat down, resigned to my fate, and the sensitive placed the straps on my wrist, waist and thighs. I swallowed audibly, fear spiking through me.

I wanted to run but knew it would do me no good in this world where everyone was a monster. My resolve hardened as I determined I would be the biggest, baddest monster this place has ever seen.

And to do that, I needed to know where my strengths lay.

"Quintessence is energy that flows through all things," The young looking woman said in her best school marm voice "it is the power of the heavens and the earth. Through cultivation a person can absorb aligned essence into their center and refine it to advance the body, mind, spirit and for those with extreme talents, knowledge of fundamental truths and supreme luck; their very souls.

"Qi is the accumulated life-essence of any living being. It is the essence of the self found in everyone and is bound by their spirit. Through cultivation, a cultivator can grow their qi and use the power within to advance on their path."

She pronounced the word "qi" like "key". As a die-hard anime fanboy, I was no stranger to the concept.. It was a Chinese word representing one's life essence. I wondered why an ancient chinese concept for "internal cultivation" was used on an alien planet. Curious, I pointed out the similarities, hoping for an explanation.

"Your world and mine have a longer history than you might think. The path of cultivation was forged here on Zomyr, but through interaction with your world, knowledge of cultivation must have been shared with your people. Although it is unlikely that the knowledge would have amounted to much within your shackled reality."

"Also qi is the word for life-force in the language of the imperials. They were the first civilization to begin cultivation on Zomyr and are still the most powerful cultivators in all the settled human lands."

That reply made me think for a bit. Is there a connection between ancient chinese qi cultivators and cultivators from this world?

Is it possible that not all the myths about magic are wholly untrue?

I thought of the magi Avery told me about and his hints regarding their abilities and powers. I was about to ask her another question, but the slight purse of her mouth made it clear that she was tired of my questions and wished to resume her lecture. So erring on the side of caution, I shut my mouth. Discretion as they say is the better part of valour.

"Cultivation is vital to advancement because it allows an essence user to refine the natural essence around them into the purest form they can manage. It is this refined essence that we need to enhance our qi, forge a core and advance through the ranks and stages of power.

"But first we must determine what type of essence you have an affinity for."

While saying all this, she was adjusting all the straps around every part of my body, even my head.

"Do you know the difference between an ordinary mortal and a cultivator?" She asked after tightening the last strap on my head.

"No, but I assume you're going to tell me," I said in my best smart aleck voice and a smirk on my face.

I was trying to flirt with her in an attempt to counter my anxiety and also because she was freaking hot, creepy cowl notwithstanding.

But the look on her face made it clear that she was unimpressed with my antics.

"While a cultivator has affinity with at least one essence type, usually two. Mortals have no affinity and can never become Cultivators."

I reviewed what I'd just learnt, my mind filled with questions. What is affinity, and why do some people have no affinity?

Remembering the pain when I tried to absorb the strange energy I now knew to be essence, I decided to ask a question.

"What happens if a mortal decides to cultivate without any affinity?" I asked, curious to know the answer.

She listened to my question and looked at me like I was stupid. "Then they'll die, a person can only cultivate and absorb essence of a type they're aligned with."

"Attempting to cultivate unaligned essence or failure to properly refine unaligned essence out of your cultivation can lead to serious and permanent injury or in some cases death."

This information was counter to one of the truths the old man told me, but I decided not to say anything, afraid to offend the only person so far willing to provide me any information regarding cultivation.

"It is recommended that you only cultivate essence that aligns with your affinity or else you risk accumulating taint, poisoning your qi and crippling your cultivation." She reminded me again.

Like the Astrel, she was able to pull objects out of nothing; yet another reminder that what little I had seen of this world only looked primitive, but wasn't necessarily so.

She held a potion to my face, "Drink." She commanded and brought the bottle to my lips.

I drank the potion in one gulp; it tasted like apple cider. After emptying the bottle, I wanted to ask her some cultivation questions, but before I could begin, my stomach began to twist in pain and I tried to scream but the pain was so sharp it robbed me of breath.

The pain went on for a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours before finally, I threw up all over myself. The sensitive looked keenly at me, her gaze unreadable.

"Hmmm, your test results were unexpected, I gave you the potion to confirm what I already sensed." She looked me in the eye, as if checking if I'd grown a third one on top of my head, and a small frown creased her perfect forehead. Then for reasons unknown to me, she launched into another lecture.

"There are eight known essence types and they are divided into primary essence, secondary essence, and fundamental essence."

Earth, Water, Fire, Air essences are primary essence types, the secondary essence types are called forge and fell essences, while dark and light are fundamental essence types as almost any cultivator has an affinity for one or the other." She paused; watching me, for some reason unknown to me, her sharp penetrating gaze stayed on me.

"Primary essence cultivators are the most common after fundamental essence cultivators and make up a large number of cultivators. They have easy access to free essence as their essence type is readily available in the world."

"Secondary essence cultivators can use their essence type to enhance or break down primary and fundamental essence types. They are uncommon and are quite powerful compared to primary cultivators, but unless they have access to a dungeon with their type of aligned essence, find rare and expensive beasts with their alignment or join any of the great associations in their respective kingdoms,, the avenues to growth for these types of cultivators is limited."

"Fundamental essence is found almost everywhere and it is rare to find a cultivator or beast without a fundamental alignment. By implication, this means that almost all cultivators are compound cultivators. Cultivation sources for fundamental essence can be found anywhere depending on level of illumination and concepts associated with said illumination or lack thereof, but fundamental essence is weak without other essence types.

"Contrary to what most people think, or what other night clerics will tell you, and despite the terms used, fundamental essences have no moral affinity, unless assigned one and are neither good nor evil."

Based on the indignant look attempting, and failing to mar her perfect face, I could clearly see that the subject of morality where fundamental essence is concerned was something of a sore subject for her.

She stopped and looked at me but this time it felt like she was looking through me. " You have no affinity for fundamental essence; which is extremely rare, almost to the point of being impossible, you have no affinity for secondary essence of any type. All you have is a single primary affinity for earth essence.

At best you're only useful as a miner or in construction. Your condition is extremely rare and very few afflictions have been recorded."

She had that look in her eyes that said I had the words guinea pig taped to my forehead.

"The last single essence cultivator in recorded history died six centuries ago. He died in a duel against a weak compound cultivator. Your cultivation path is an unlucky one and your growth will be long and hard, but the learning opportunities you will provide will advance our understanding of essences"

Sure, like I'm going to celebrate being the guinea pig/lab rat of demon serving, evil priests.

"Now let us cleanse your body and center of taint, it would be most enlightening to study the limited cultivation path of a single essence cultivator." She continued speaking, her voice tinged with glee.

“Most people who can cultivate are unable to do so from birth and need to be properly cleansed," She resumed her lecture on cultivation

"This is because, without proper direction, their qi becomes tainted over the natural course of a person's life. When this happens, the body is filled with taint making refinement impossible. This is your current level of cultivation and the fact that you are not of this realm will make the cleansing process even more difficult.

That last part confused me, "what do you mean, why will my cleansing be harder?"

She made a soft sigh, clearly tired of my questions," The aperture is only accessible once every five hundred years, so nobody has studied your type of human sufficiently to determine what makes you different, but cleansing and even cultivation is usually harder for your type."

I wanted to ask her more questions, like what was "the aperture," but the look on her face made it clear I was not to interrupt her.

"There are several methods for clearing your qi, but the best cost is too much to be used on a slave and the cheapest would take too long."

"You could swallow a special beast core and let it absorb the corruption, but that's expensive and nobody is going to waste a beast core on an ordinary slave."

You could also take corruption purging pill or potion, but they cost an arm and a leg, literally depending on the seller and again nobody will waste it on a slave"

She opened the box and inside was a starfish-like creature, it's tentacles spread out to reveal suckers underneath them and at the center a row of tiny glistening teeth.

"What are you doing with that thing, get it away from me." I said terror filling my voice. She kept an indifferent look on her beautiful face, like she was used to reactions like mine in the course of doing her job.

"This creature is called a cultivation stealer, they are extremely rare and might be found only in highly tainted ecosystems in the wild waiting to ambush hunters and drain their entire cultivation or in dungeons that have become corrupted. They're pests and if encountered in sufficient numbers can be deadly to a cultivator of almost any rank.'' The creature opened its teeth filled maw and screeched.

"All the essence in your body is corrupt and until it is purged, you cannot refine essence. The cultivation stealer will absorb all the corruption from your body. But take heed, after the creature absorbs all the corrupted essence, it will begin to drain the life-essence in your body necessary for survival.

Once I command it, you must try your best to absorb only aligned earth essence as fast as possible, but also, you must take command of your qi to prevent the stealer from taking all your essence and killing you."

She was about to place the cultivation stealer on my chest when I stopped her, “Wait, how will I be able to absorb earth essence when I have no idea what it is.” But she ignored my question and continued reaching for my chest. Clearly the time for answering questions was past. Regardless, her silence put me on edge.

She placed the cultivation stealer on my chest where it immediately latched on to me. I felt a sharp tug as essence began to leave me.

My gut twisted, it felt like a hot poker was shoved into my stomach. My face twisted in agony and unable to hold in the pain, I screamed.

"You must find calm amidst the storm, otherwise you will be unable to compel the essence around and worse, you will be unable to separate the different essence types from your affinity when you do."

I grit my teeth trying to calm myself even as pain filled me and I watched something I didn't even know I had within me leave my body.

How do I separate my aligned essence from the other types?

As if reading my mind, she answered my unspoken question, " you'll know which essence type you are aligned with as it will be the only one that does not cause you pain to absorb."

"But remember, don't try to absorb essence until I tell you to."

My implant filled my mind with warnings, but all coherent thoughts scattered against the pain. I hoped that the stupid thing would aid me but all I got were warnings concerning the host viability; like a parasite.

My body seized and all I could see was red. I knew I wasn't going to survive the purging process at least not before the stealer was done removing the corruption.

I reached clumsily within myself for what I assumed was my center, attempting to control the inferno raging through me. At first I got nothing, but slowly my flame appeared before me. The same flame that burned within me when I faced the High Mistress.

But this time, when I tried to compel the flame to grow, it resisted my attempts. Like last time I sent all my rage and anger trying to force the flame to grow, but it remained unchanged. All I got was a weak pulse at my attempt to assert control of the flame; which I now knew was my awakened soul or “sum of authority,” and all my attempts to mentally resist the corruption stealer were also unsuccessful

As the pain intensified and I received warnings of organ failure from my implant, I began to panic.

This cannot be where or how it ends. In desperation, I remembered one of the seven truths given to me by the old man.

Essence elevates all things.

If the old man was right then there was one more place I could turn to for help. I mentally reached within myself for assistance. So with everything in me, I asked for help. I promised strength and power; to cultivate better than the greatest cultivator in existence.

But all I got in response was a pulse from the flame. Stronger than before, but I also instinctively knew I'd yet to receive a positive answer.

I can't believe I was bribing my own soul to save my own life, this world was just crazy.

But I kept making promises in desperation, no matter how outlandish it seemed and while the pulse grew stronger and stronger as my desperation grew, I had yet to receive an affirmative response.

Just when I had resigned myself to my fate, I Immediately felt heat spread through every part of me and my implant began to send even more warnings. I couldn't deal with all that now, all my focus was locked on my center. It had acted with a pseudo-autonomy that shocked and horrified me.

My awakened soul had roused itself and began to inhibit the harmful effects of not only the cultivation stealer's attack on my body, but the deleterious effects of the malfunctioning implant in my head.

Corruption was rapidly pushed out of me and in a few moments, my body was more or less free of taint.

Soon I heard a voice telling me to draw essence but it felt so very far away. I tried drawing in essence, but unlike the last time I was able to pull essence into my body. But I still felt a sharp pain in my chest.

"Filter out the other essence types and absorb on the earth essence type." The voice called out to me from somewhere far away.

But this is easier said than done, maybe if I had grown up in this world, used to feeling all the different types of essence all my life, I might have been able to do what she asked. But I've only known about essence for a little under a week and hence lacked the subtlety to detect the variations in essence.

I felt my body slowly accumulate corruption again, if I did not do as she asked, I would not only damage my body, I might even die.

The ever useless implant kept blaring warnings on how the rogue energy was more or less killing it. Selfish piece of crap.

"The key to stable essence absorption is in your breath, master your breath and you will be able to command the essence around you"

Her talk of breath reminded me of a meditation tutorial I attempted once online.

The master in the video also advised managing one's breathing and stabilizing your pulse.

But he also mentioned using your imagination to perceive the essence and corruption as separate colours as they are refined by the body.

For some reason, this idea stuck with me, even though at the time I considered the advice useless.

But now, I imagined the earth essence around me as an earth brown color, while I imagined the corruption as gray in colour.

At first nothing happened and my body continued to fill with corruption.

But as my breathing and pulse stabilized, the pain began to lessen and I felt some of the corruption begin to slowly leave my body.

"Quickly, begin to pull all the absorbed essence into your center,"—she placed a hand on my stomach. ""here" draw all the essence down here and as you do so, circulate the essence, pulling it tight as possible."

I considered her words even as I pulled. The old man's words have shown me that there was no single correct way to cultivate and that I may have been transported to a world where every way might very well be the right way.

Remembering his words, I began to see essence in a new light.

Every idea, concept or goal was possible with an energy like essence. Maybe in ancient times, it was assumed that the core would be in the stomach or heart as they were considered the center of the body, but science has proven these concepts unfounded.

Maybe what I was about to do was a mistake and I would implode in shower of gore, but the positive result I received from my essence inspired me. Instead of focusing my essence in my gut as directed, I did so in my brain. Immediately pain filled me and new warnings flashed through my mind from my implant.

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Warning; Rogue energy detected. Implant structure has been compromised. Successive attempts have been made to contact the nearest medical facility in order to preserve the host; probability of success is zero.

Warning; implant nano-structure compromised. Implant failure will disrupt all neural function and lead to organ failure and eventual brain death.

Warning; implant nano-architecture has been compromised beyond sustainable parameters. Implant failure will occur in three minutes.Successive attempts have been made to contact the nearest medical facility; probability of success is zero.

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I panicked as pain flashed through my mind. I'd made a mistake and now I was going to die for my arrogance, thinking that I knew better than the cultivators of this world who had been cultivating since the beginning of time.

Now I would be unable to avenge my parents death and keep my promise to my soul.

As I thought of my soul, it felt my desperation and in response, it attacked the implant; trying to destroy it before it could take me with it.

Suddenly hope and gratitude moved through me and I focused with all my strength, mentally pouring all my will into my new center, giving it strength to destroy my implant. Soon the implant ceased sending warnings but I could still feel the structure in my head pulsing with energy. My newly purified center pulsed strong and using it's earth aligned nature, started to place great pressure on every part of the implant; slowly breaking it down.

My mind flashed to the smug smile on Avery's face as he put that thing to steal my memories and torture me. I wanted to rip it from my head and shove it down his throat. I also wanted to somehow use it against him.

But the thing had never responded to my attempts to command it.

I came to the conclusion that while Avery lacked admin access to the device, I on the other hand had near zero access or understanding of how to operate it. Even with my limited biometric access, I still had no clue on how to use the thing.

But another unorthodox idea occurred to me. Like my idea to appeal to my essence for aid and to put my core in my head and not my stomach, I felt that this too could work. I restrained my essence to stop the total destruction of the implant.

As soon as I reduced the pressure, I felt the implant through my newly expanded essence-sense begin to repair itself. I had almost forgotten that it was a nano-machine and unlike the ones Avery's scientists had been able to create, this one could self repair. I felt my essence flow through my entire body and pool in my head as I waited and cultivated; essence slowly building up in my body.

I also kept an eye on the implant. For what I wanted to do, it needed to complete all self repair necessary for it to function. After some time, notifications began to trickle regarding the repair process and new countermeasures designed to combat the rogue energy.

So it was capable of learning, I mused within myself, but I had no plans of letting the implant have complete control over my mind again. I roused my essence and in concert with my awakened soul, I called up all the essence I cultivated since my body was cleared of corruption and used it to take over the implant.

This might have been impossible without my awakened soul, but due to its unusual properties, I was able to suppress and overtake the implant.

Moving as one with my center, I attacked the implant, burrowing into it. It was easier than I expected because as complex a device as it was, to my earth aligned essence it was a collection of extremely tiny and loosely grouped rare earth metals and synthetic quartz.

Although the process was easily accomplished, the drain on my essence reserves were substantial, almost all my newly cultivated essence had been drained.

I also felt drained in a way that seemed different from just my use of essence. I couldn't place a qualitative definition on this loss but it was evident to me that I lost something. My qi capacity and depth had grown during our assault of the implant; deepening and expanding.

I could now feel my center ; which to me felt a sea of energy within my mind. Living power suffused me and all my senses felt greatly enhanced.

The process took mere moments and once it was done, the implant was a part of me; no different from my hands and feet. I now had complete access to the device and I was shocked to discover that through interaction with my qi, the device had been altered.

Information began to flood my senses via the implant’s augmented reality setup. I could now quantify essence within and around me based on essence density, volume and type. My control of the implant was absolute and it now reacted to my commands at the speed of thought.

I also now had access to the massive store of Earth data within the implant.

From what I could tell, this thing had a near infinite storage capacity and had somehow stored most, if not all of the internet within a fraction of itself. Some of the information in this thing would have been considered classified back on Earth.

While the implant was Earth’s smallest quantum computer, with an extremely powerful processing speed and cognition, it’s fusion with my qi, and by extension myself, has fused the device permanently to my brain. As the implant was now merged with me, it now had access to every part of my body at a fundamental level as opposed to before where it only had access to medical metrics transmitted from other parts of my body to my brain. The device, using my brain's natural neural network as its base quantum framework, now had access to more processing power in magnitudes of what it had before our merger. The connection between my mind and the device was almost seamless and I felt that my intelligence had also grown in leaps and bounds due to the fusion process.

Almost instinctively, and with little thought, I commanded the implant to generate a profile of my current status and abilities. Helpfully and with little prompting, it generated a profile for me that showed my cultivation rank and progress.

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Biometric Profile.

Name: William Izu

Age: 24

Height: 6 feet 8 inches

Genotype: AA

Blood Group: Type AB

Blood Pressure: 120/70

Heart Rate: 90 bpm

Weight: 305 pounds

Fat Percentage: 12%

Body Mass Index (BMI): 21.5

Muscle Mass Percentage: 30%

Bone Mass Percentage: 17%

Body Water Percentage: 25%

Motor Reaction Time: 80 msec

Eye……

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Wait!! TMI, at this rate I'll be here all day before the implant gets to the stats for my essence level. I was curious to see if the implant could now measure my qi and the pool of essence within me.

I focused within and sent focused requests to my implant; I could now claim the stupid little thing as my own, slowly guiding it on what stats I wanted to be shown on the profile sheet. It took a while to properly instruct it in what I wanted.

I had assumed that since the implant was now bound to my soul, it would give me total understanding of all the implant's processes.

But for some reason, while I could send commands to my soul and access the device, I could only do so externally; like a gamer with a controller.

It seemed to me that the assimilation process was incomplete leaving me with a limited ability to control the device.

My soul could only make commands that implant fully complied with, but like me, it also had no real understanding of the device.

I came to the conclusion that my soul did not have an instinctive grasp of the device because I did not. We would have to learn the best way to use the device together.

After a while, we settled on the best information to be expressed on my profile sheet.

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Revised Biometric Profile.

Name: William Izu

Race: Human

Age: 24

Height: 6 feet 8 inches

Weight: 305 pounds

Cultivation Rank: Essence Absorption Stage (Early)

Essence Affinity:

Earth: 10%

Essence Density: Air

Soul Awareness: Conscious (Primal)

Attributes.

Strength: 60 (Repetition maximum, Bone density, Muscle mass, Essence-body infusion, Essence-mind infusion. 1 strength stat = 10kg)

Dexterity: 40 (Grip strength, Motor reaction time, Muscle memory, Active implant analysis, Essence-mind infusion, Essence body infusion. 10 stats = Standard human)

Agility: 40 (Reflex, Strength, Hand-eye coordination, Balance, Speed, Active implant analysis, Essence-body infusion, Essence-mind infusion. 10 stats = Standard human)

Perception: 50 (Essence-body infusion, Essence-mind infusion, Passive implant analysis, Neural activity level, Essence sense. 10 stats = Standard human)

Reflex: 40 (Perception, Dexterity, Strength, Essence-body infusion, Essence-mind infusion, Active implant analysis. 10 stats = Standard human)

Resistance: 20 (Innate bloodline immunity, Adaptive immunity, Tissue and Cellular regeneration, Essence-body infusion, Essence-mind infusion. 10 stats = Standard human)

Regeneration: 15 (Tissue and cellular regeneration, Stem cell count, Essence-body infusion, Essence mind infusion 10 stats = Standard human)

Constitution: 20 (Bone density, Skin Strength, Muscle mass, Resistance, Essence-body infusion, Essence mind infusion. 10 stats = Standard human)

Intelligence: Subjective, requires more data

Charisma: Subjective, requires more data

Skills.

Utility

Improvisation

Profession

Mechanic (Motor Vehicles)

Engineer (Computer, Electrical)

Programmer

Improvisation

Combat.

Hand to hand Combat (Basic Proficiency

Basic Melee weapon proficiency

Mission

Escape Blòtvarda

Gain Power

Objectives

Get rid of slave collar

Learn more about cultivation

Find the other enslaved humans

Optional

Kill Avery

Kill Ivelina

Kill Astrel

Kill Tinuviel

Inventory.

Woven shirt (Poor Quality)

Woven Trousers (Poor Quality)

Currency: 0

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I tried several metrics before settling on my current profile information. Even though I know I'm not in a video game or in one of my favorite LITRPG light novels, it still felt right to use a gamer profile as a nod to my dungeon clearing past.

Even with all the information available to the implant, it was not a perfect metric for measuring one's ability. I decided to limit the number of factors that contributed to my attributes due to information overload.

For Strength I used Repetition maximum (the maximum amount of weight a person can lift overhead in one go), Bone density (mass and minerals per volume of bone), Muscle mass (weight and size of muscle), essence-body infusion and essence-mind infusion. Based on my analysis of my body via my implant, it seemed to me that clearing the body of corruption optimized it, giving me peak human attributes. I also suspected my mass and pre existing muscle mass also played a role in my current strength stat. There was also a possibility that my essence type played into my strength stat too. Essence infusion was an odd one, it seemed that my implant had detected a slight but qualitative change to my mind and body just for having some refined essence within me. Essence within my body improved not just my strength but my senses, regeneration, resistance and essence conductivity. That last one threw me for a loop, but according to my implant, essence infusion primed my body to become even more receptive to essence. This would increase the ease with which essence moved through my body and grant greater control over the illusive substance, improving my ability to reason, since I chose to place my core in my head rather than my gut.

For Dexterity I used grip strength (strength applied by the hand to pull on objects, motor reaction time (electrical activity level in the muscles), muscle memory (amount of repetitive action per skill), active implant analysis, essence-mind infusion, essence-body infusion. I was now 4x times faster than the average human, but I suspected my implant and essence infusing my body and mind, played a huge role in this stat and the stats value would also vary based on my skill level in any action I undertake.

I already knew that the implant was actually a quantum computer, and that it had constantly updated itself via access to the internet. Obviously its last update was roughly around the time I stepped into a swirling circle of death with Countess Bathory.

Through my implant, I now had access to a substantial amount of much of humanity's collective knowledge. It would take me an eternity to sift through all this info; if I was ever interested in doing so. The implant also had an advanced VI (Virtual intelligence) that had become even more advanced with our merger. It is this intelligence that directed most of its processes.

After assimilation with my soul, the implant's previous commands were now overwritten by my now somewhat conscious soul. I suspect that as my soul grew in identity, my ability to use the implant would also advance.

Active implant analysis allows my implant in conjunction with my cultivation to provide qualitative analysis of any situation. This ability was only available to me because of the assimilation and I was again grateful to the old man for awakening my soul.

For Agility, my Reflex and Strength stat played a huge role, because all the attributes in a human body are linked to one another. Hand eye coordination to maintain the control of the body at higher speeds or during course corrections. Balance to stabilize my body through complex motions, although I suspect this stat relied heavily on my implant, because I was kind of a klutz before my cleansing. Speed was determined by the twitch muscle ratio of all muscles in the body and general movement speed. Active implant analysis is also vital for my agility as I would react even faster than standard if I can gain sufficient situational awareness. essence mind and essence body Infusion.

For Perception, I used essence-body infusion, essence-mind infusion, passive implant analysis (passive analysis of all sensory data), awareness (my alertness in any situation), essence-sense. This stat was jacked up because I placed my center (My accumulated pool of essence) in my head. My implant also provided additional information about my surroundings. This was a difficult quality to quantify and I suspect that It would require more fine tuning over time.

For Reflex, I used perception, dexterity, strength, essence-body infusion, essence-mind infusion, active implant analysis. My reflex was jacked up for the same reason my perception was.

For Resistance, I used innate immunity (basic immunity level), adaptive immunity (immunity gained over the course of my life), recovery (ability of my cells to self-replicate and repair), essence-body infusion, essence-mind infusion. With refined essence moving through me, I now had an improved immunity to diseases. My implant confirmed this by analyzing my newly improved cell structure and other biological information

For Constitution, I used bone density, skin strength, muscle mass, resistance, essence-body infusion, essence mind infusion. Essence has improved my entire physical structure making me slightly more durable than the average human. I suspected my essence type also played a role in this stat

For Regeneration, I used resistance, constitution, regeneration, essence-body infusion, essence-mind infusion. My implant has detected subtle but noticeable durability to the strength of my cells caused by the cleansing of my body and my new cultivation rank.

I had no data on Intelligence as I did not think just imputing my Pre-Zomyr IQ would be sufficient to compute the qualitative nature of essence within my mind. I now had instantaneous access to a massive amount of data. The intelligence trait is very subjective, and while I had access to a boatload of information from my world, I knew almost nothing of this one. Also I had yet to determine whether or not intelligence affected my ability to harness essence.

I added Charisma for laughs as I didn't see how useful the stat would be given my current situation. As much as I want to pretend I was inside one of my MMORPG's, I knew that was not the case. I'll need more information on whether or not to use the stat or scrap it

The information provided by my implant on my cultivation rank was based on the information I'd been given by Zalla and the sensitive. My essence identity was based on a seven level ranking system I found in the implant's database to measure awareness. I allowed my soul to set this metric itself because I had no idea on how to rank the consciousness level of an abstract non-physical entity. The seven level ranking for soul identity are (Primal, mass consciousness, aspiration, individual, discipline, experience, and master)

For essence density, I chose the density of various substances from gases to solids. Based on the information provided by my assimilated implant, essence changed density based on identity, affinity, amount refined, essence conductivity of medium and so many other factors that were as yet undefined. So I chose to set rankings based on if the essence within and around me has an approximate density to a certain material. The essence density ranks I came up with were (Air, Oil, Wood, Water, Blood, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Gold and Platinum). Although the possibility of having an energy that had the potential to be denser than blood in my body terrified me in no small way.

Essence affinity was simple since I was a single essence cultivator. It meant that my cultivation was compatible with only earth essence. But according to my evolved implant, whose powerful computing ability now guided my essence-sense,, the human body is primed to receive all primary essence-types, and maybe even more than the primary types. I felt it was possible to access other affinity types but knowledge of how to do so was currently beyond me.

Most of my stats were jacked up thanks to the processing power of the implant now that it was linked directly to my soul. I suspect that I may have accessed an unknown function of the device due to the unorthodox method I used to gain control of it and the changes made to the implant due to the direct infusion of refined essence. Further experimentation may be required to fully understand what these changes actually are.

I sent a command to my implant to shelve any experimentation regarding essence alignments and implant alterations aside for later review. A notation was made on an already populated to-do list that I was unaware of. It seems that the implant has been outlining my needs since I was able to wrest control of the device.

The implant had also summarized those goals I considered important into missions and objectives. My eyes went over my optional objectives. I would love to say that it was too murdery for my taste, but it seems that my soul and by extension my implant, really knew me.

I now had the ability to give myself quests, yay.

Throughout all this I was still cultivating. The act of pulling essence, separating the earth essence from other variants and attempting to refine it was a bit exhausting, but each time I tried to stop or simply forgot I felt rebuked from my center and was forced to continue. 'Slave driving glutton,' I muttered in my head.

I huffed in exasperation, feeling like a tired father with a recalcitrant child. It seems my awakened soul has infused my qi with sufficient awareness to pull off snark, just what I needed, a snarky life-force.

I was now past the essence corruption stage, had total control of my implant via my awakened soul and a quantitative measurement of my attributes.

I was sure there were some other important metrics I had not included, especially regarding intelligence and charisma, but until I had more data, my current profile would have to suffice. Time to wake up and see what changes have been made to my person. Time to see how far I've grown.

———————————

Slowly I opened my eyes only to see the sensitive in a different robe and without her cowl staring at me.

She now wore a red embroidered robe and without her cowl she looked beautiful with long dark lustrous hair, big blue eyes and thick luscious lips.

"YOU! ARE! AMAZING!." She said in a breathy voice that totally went to the wrong place as I watched her, my thoughts lost in her sparkling gaze.

"I have never encountered a cultivator that can do the things you've just done with essence. The amount of information I've gathered these past three days has been illuminating."

I ignored her excitement, my eyes drawn to her lips. And then my mind went back to her last statement. Wait three days!! I've been cultivating for three days, little wonder my head felt like a grinning evil gnome was using a jackhammer in there.

"You must let me study you, just observing your first attempts at cultivation has altered nearly every theory of cultivation I know of." She ignored my shock at losing three days, excitement coloring her voice.

Suddenly she sobered up, a look of despair on her face. "If they find out what you can do, if they have a hint of the possibilities you represent, they'll either lock you up, send you to the pit or kill you immediately."

She wrung her hands in worry as she struggled with something that was clearly beyond me.

"Nobody can know what you are, whatever you are. You must promise me." She looked into my eyes, concern etched on her face, but I suspected it had more to do with my strange cultivation than anything else.

"Okay, I'll do as you say, but I don't understand what is going on? Am I in danger? Why are you helping me and who are you?"

She didn't answer for a while, as if she was struggling with what she could tell me and how much to reveal. Then her face took a determined set, as she came to some kind of decision and began to speak

"My name is Aelia, and like you I'm a slave but one with more freedom. I was taken from my village as a child because of my high sensitivity to essence. How they found out about me I do not know; my parents had been very careful to hide my disability from the rest of the village. But somehow they found out and in the dead of night, the night clerics came with a squad of cursed riders to destroy my village and capture me."

Although I was wary of falling for another sob story; again. I mean come on, how can I trust a person whose fashion choice leaned towards dark cowls and blood red robes. Also why was a high sensitivity to essence considered a disability?

But I was moved by her story and that compelled me to know more. "What makes sensitives so special and why would they destroy an entire village just to get only you?"

She paused, trying to gather herself before continuing, "you see, although sensitives can detect the smallest, most minute fluctuations in essence, we cannot cultivate. Attempts have been made in the past to solve this problem with little or no result. Our aura is simply too porous and any attempt to pull or hold essence simply slips through our fingers."

"But this handicap is the reason why we are so valued. We are not overwhelmed by the flood of essence that constantly bombard most cultivators. This allows us to sense the essence fluctuations that might be overlooked by the most powerful cultivators."

"We can detect minor fluctuations in a person's aura and can determine whether or not they're lying or hiding information. This ability also makes us good inquisitors as we can perceive minute essence fluctuations that are tied to a person's feelings that even powerful cultivators might miss."

"We also can perceive information about a person's cultivation, their rank, and affinity and essence strength at any time, and sometimes even when they are actively trying to cloak their cultivation. Only those with a strong aura or at the ascended rank can block our clairvoyant abilities."

"But those are benign uses for my talents. Those with loose morals use us as assassins. Because of our porous aura, it is very difficult to detect us using essence-sense, making it easy to surprise-attack even powerful cultivators."

"Some use us as tasters to avoid essence based poisons. Others use us to find and kidnap rare essence cultivators."

"But sensitives are extremely rare and you might only find one in every 1,000,000 people."

"Because we cannot cultivate, we remain mortal and die early, at least in comparison to a cultivator. Because of our rarity, there is a need to provide us with some form of cultivation that does not affect our abilities, but at the same time extends our lives, but to be honest, I wish that never comes to pass, I don’t want to live longer if it means being a slave forever.

“The Night Mistresses; demons and demon-hybrids, seek those with fell alignments to propagate their dark curse, and it is with sensitives like my that they are able to do so. They have us scout cities and towns on the surface to find those with the “right,” and then arrangements are made to kidnap them son that they can begin indoctrination and conversion into the order of night"

I stayed quiet and listened, my mind going through all she had told me. I had so many questions, like. Why did the mistresses need an army? Who was their enemy? Did they need a particular essence type to turn a person into a vampire or succubi? I thought demons came from hell but it seems here, you can make them from people. What's “aura”? What's the next step on the path of cultivation?

There were many questions moving through my head, but before I could ask a single one, the door to the room opened and Orla stepped in.

"Mistress Astrel would like an update on the essence cleansing of her new slave." She said before she noticed I was awake. "Good you're awake, your mistress will be pleased. She has been impatient for your presence."

She gazed at me but I had the impression that she was looking through me at my cultivation, beside me Aelia stiffened at Orla's last statement. I pondered the change in demeanor and wondered what could have caused it.

Immediately I got a ten second playback of the entire conversation in 3D from my implant and observed that she stiffened when Orla mentioned my "mistress" was impatient.

While I was surprised and impressed by my qi's ability to react to my desires, I was now on my guard. What could the mistress need me for? Was I about to be conscripted in this army Aelia mentioned?

Like my forefathers before me, was I about to risk my life in a war that meant nothing to me, to serve the selfish interest of others? All these thoughts went through my mind in mere moments including the playback; approximately 0.72 seconds.

"I did not expect you to live through the cleansing process, most outrealmers rarely do, especially those from your realm. Come, we mustn't keep the mistress waiting." Orla grunted after saying her piece and headed towards the door with the expectation I would follow.Aelia looked at me and I detected a hint of panic in her big blue eyes "Tell me, what your name is?" She asked quickly, desperation coloring her voice.

"William, my name is William."

"William, you need to survive, your ability to manipulate essence is beyond anything I have ever known, I have never seen anyone do a fraction of what you can with essence," she cut herself short, looking towards where Orla was standing by the door. "No matter what, just survive, I'll try and create a reason for us to meet again, I know you have many questions and I'll try and answer any you may have then. For now you must go, but remember "survive."

All this talk of survival had put me on edge and like a farm animal somehow aware it's about to be slaughtered, I remained guarded as Orla guided me across the twisting hallways.

"Where are we going?" Silence.

"Where are you taking me?" More silence.

Now my guarded state had been elevated to "losing my shit".

I tried to ask more questions but was yet again ignored. Then I decided to take a stand, refusing to move another inch until I got some answers.

"I demand to know where you're taking me." I said with anger and frustration in my voice. It seemed I would be putting my new essence enhanced physical attributes to the test. I focused within my center, trying to prepare myself for battle. One minute I was prepared to fight, the next, a deep pain lanced through my mind. I screamed and fell to the ground, my body wracked with spasms.

"Foolish man child, you still think you're somewhere you're not, or maybe you think you're asleep. If that be the case, you better wake up because this place will crush a slave that does not know his place." She said, looking pointedly at me.

I assumed she would attack me physically because she was a green brutish beast but instead she used the collar via her own mind bridge which I now noticed through the strange essence pulsing through the bracelet on her right wrist.

That's what I get for close minded speciest profiling. I equated her size and looks with being stupid and now I was paying heavily for my oversight

"Now get up before I send so much pain through your collar that would make the first one seem like a love tap."

Reluctantly I stood, mumbling about unfairly strong women in this place and the clear gender inequality.

"All I wanted was answers to a few simple questions, you didn't have to use that thing, '' I said sulkily, rubbing my head.

Orla pressed her hand to her face, a smattering of expletives in a language I did not understand leaving her in bursts. Obviously she was not communicating with me or she would have used the mind bridge.

"What part of you're a slave do you not understand, the sooner you get that through that thick skull man child, the easier your life will be. Now move." She said pointing ahead of her.

I mumbled quietly “how can I be ahead when I don't even know the way." At least I thought I was quiet until I received a jolt from the collar on my neck.

"FUCKING SHIT!!!" I screamed and with the severe look in her eyes, we continued the rest of the journey in silence.

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What did Astrel want with me? I mean why did she choose me?

What was so special about me that she broke into a building secured by Avery's people to get her hands on me? There was so much I did not know, so much I needed to find out.

I wanted to ask Orla about this, but I was afraid to have my ass handed to me again; by yet another woman.

How did anyone procreate in this place if the women treated men this poorly, maybe I was biased but I was tired of these Amazons pushing me around. I needed to level the playing field and with my new status as a cultivator, maybe a guy can start to earn some respect around here.

We reached a familiar door and I discovered that she led me back to my room. Why would I need an escort to go back to somewhere I'd already been to despite the fact that I did not know my way around this mausoleum?

I sent a query to my implant to create a map of all the places I've already been to.

Orla stood in front of the door, a cold and ominous look on her face. "What's with all the doom and gloom." I asked, finally fed up with being afraid.

"Get in," she said with a commanding tone, but I stood still, my new cultivation giving me a measure of courage. I remained defiant, at least for one moment.

"I said get in, I won't repeat myself." Orla said with a flat emotionless gaze that told me I was in a world of pain if I didn't comply.

Reluctantly, I stepped in and she immediately slammed the door behind . Looking across the room, I noticed Astrel sitting on my bed.

"That's Mistress Astrel to you worm, even your thoughts are filled with defiance."

Was she reading my mind?

Her smile was feral, “Your collar binds you to me, and your thoughts are mine to command." Stretching out her hand in a similar manner to when the High Mistress took control of my collar.

I felt the collar tighten on my neck and I struggled to breathe. I felt my feet leave the ground as I was pulled towards her and before my feet could touch the ground again, she wrapped her fingers around my throat and sank her teeth into my neck.

I screamed, struggling uselessly in her grasp, even with my newly gathered power, my strength was insufficient to stop her. I tried to gather essence and attack her, but without knowledge of how to do so, my essence washed over her; wasted to no effect.

No not again, why is this happening? Slowly she pulled her fangs from my neck and began to lick the puncture points in a slow sensual rhythm with her tongue.

I felt myself rise as my body betrayed me. I tried to focus on the hate and anger I felt towards her but she simply looked into my eyes and my mental walls began to crumble. My implant began to take countermeasures and to my surprise unlike last time she used her ability on me I began to resist.

"How odd, how are you able to resist me?"

"Hmm it seems you've learned some tricks since you purged your form of corruption, I daresay, you will make a most interesting pawn in my plans, after you have been properly broken in of course.” Then she continued to lick my neck, moaning sweet nothings into my throat and saying, “but why do you resist, I know you want this, I can feel the weight of your desire."

I looked down to see my pants already pushed down around my feet, my erection palmed in her hand. When did that happen? What is going on? It felt like my mind and body were no longer my own as she easily subverted my will.

She squeezed me slowly and my breath caught as blood filled my lower regions. I tried to focus on my hate for this monster who was about to take me against my will. Looking up into her beautiful face, with its perfect features and symmetry, I realized a simple truth. That no matter how beautiful or handsome your assailant is, there is nobody that enjoys being taken against their will. Sure you can play at being raped, or enjoy being taken forcefully. But all these options allow for consent. When someone takes your choice by removing the ability to choose from your mind either through violence, threats of violence or in my case, direct mental manipulation, it affects your perception of everything. It changes how you see yourself and by proxy the world.

I felt myself break in that room not just because I was about to be used as a living vibrator by a beautiful monster, not simply because the arousal I was feeling was at odds with the knowledge in my head and anger burning through my heart.

No, in the end what really broke me was that even in my head where I thought I could escape this beast, she couldn't even allow me the small mercy of hating her.

I screamed in pleasure, tears streaming down my face as my body exulted in impulses that turned my stomach. I wanted to scream, a prisoner in my own body. But I could hear my own voice moaning in pleasure, begging her not to stop.

I never believed I was a person that could consider suicide as an option and to be honest, before today I mentally derided those that considered the act, but in that moment, I just wanted to die.

By the time she was sated, I was emaciated and pale from blood loss, my body writhed and shivered from multiple orgasms. When she stood up, like an addict I reached out for her.

I, who had avoided taking drugs while I lived on the streets, had in the span of a few moments become addicted to a monster against my will.

My body slumped back on the bed and slowly, my consciousness began to drift. Throughout all this my awakened soul was silent. I wanted to scream at it, to know why it abandoned me, why I was left all alone, why nobody ever came to save me? My insides felt raw as my body writhed in the aftermath of the pleasure flowing through me.

"Rest pet, you performed absolutely well, but I need to attend to my other duties and I can't spend all my time with you, as much as you want me." She smiled knowingly, aware that what she just said, could not be further from the truth.

She bent over me and kissed me, a spike of arousal rushing into me as our lips met. "Now you need to build your stamina for next time. From now on when I call on you, you will come with ardent fervor and need." She said the 'come' with a hint of mockery in her voice, her double meaning clear.

"Soon you'll be begging me to take you. By the time I'm done with you, you'll slaughter the ones you claim to love without hesitation just at the promise of my heat. That pitiful defiance you nurture will be burned away by your fanatical desire to love me. And then you will be mine, body and spirit"

My vision began to blur as I struggled to stay awake, I had lost so much blood and my mind felt all but broken under the assault. As my thoughts faded into the unrelenting dark, the last thing I saw was her triumphant smile.