CHAPTER 14.

To be honest, I had no idea how I was still alive. Part of it I think was sheer stubbornness, my new cultivation and the fact that the Astrel did not want me dead (I refused to call her mistress in my head, I may be broken but I would never submit to her), at least not yet.

I felt dirty, raw and scraped over. Like my insides had been ripped clean of everything important and all that was left was worthless carcass fit only for scavengers.

For a while, I considered not getting up, just lying here and fading from existence. But even as the thought came to me I knew that falling apart was a luxury I could not afford.

It finally hit me that I was a slave. Like those tourists that end up kidnapped and sold as slaves by cartels. But in my case I was so far from Earth that there was little to no chance at going home.

For a long time I always believed that I could handle anything life threw at me. All I needed were my fists and my wits. Sure life wasn't perfect but at least I managed to carve a place for myself. Even in prison, I carved my place, sure it was as a lonely giant with ham fists but even in that shithole, I had my place.

Since I got here, I've been dragged from one horror to the next, from the High Mistress to my near fatal purification, to my my…….

So far nothing had gone right and I had a feeling that it was just the beginning. Everyone here was vastly stronger than me and despite my physical strength both before and after my purification, I was still vastly outmatched. Like Zalla said, even a young child around here would be stronger than me. I needed to get much stronger if I wanted to get out of here.

With that thought in mind I focused on my center. Anger surged through me as I thought of how my awakened soul had abandoned me to face her alone, still seething at all my failed attempts at resisting her.

But I was shocked out of my one man pity party when I received a pulse of rage in response to my accusation. My center became agitated, and it felt like the essence within me was about to slosh and topple out of me. What did it have to be pissed off about? It's not like it was raped within an inch of its life, mind hijacked by a parasitic rapist.

My implant sent me an image of the attack, but from its, but from some type of third person view. I was forced to relive the assault in crisp high def. as Astrel took me again and again. Tears filled my closed eyes and rushed down my cheeks; I did not want to see myself broken on this blood-spattered bed. But this time, I felt what my awakened soul experienced during the assault. She did not just rape me, she also drained what little essence I had refined.

My anger burned for the little guy. He’d been assaulted just like I had. If the old man was right, he was a unique existence in this world. I felt responsible for this budding new entity, who for some reason was somewhat separate from me. And for its sake, if not mine, I had to get stronger, after all I wasn't the only one in here. My awakened soul was right to censor me, I needed a firm reminder that there were things and people other than myself to think about. This thought made me think of my fellow human slaves, and I wondered where they could possibly be and what they might be going through. I need to find them, I can’t afford to wallow in self pity.

I apologized for being a selfish prick and I received a weak pulse in response. While my awakened soul had grown a bit smarter, it had a long way to go before we would be able to have an actual conversation.

With my resolve renewed, I opened my eyes to see Zalla sitting on a chair beside my bed with her hands on my body; healing me again. This is kind of becoming a trend between; one that was far from pleasant.

This time, with the aid of my implant, I could now observe the essence as it left her body and entered mine and while I could see the essence entering me, I lacked knowledge of any other essence type save for the earth variant (Astrel's weird mind thing for some reason didn't count). My implant detected rapid acceleration of my cells and tissues as my body restored itself.

The essence didn't just flow into me, but changed before entering my body with healing properties. My implant also tries to transmit some kind of data to me. Something about the healing technique required my attention. But all the information was garbled and seemed incomplete.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Instituted administrator privileges.

Title acknowledgement protocol initiated.

Title acquisition failed due to insufficient data and cultivation.

Further data required to complete the acknowledgement process.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Huh? What in the name of all that is holy is a title acknowledgement protocol, and as far as I knew, I was the implant’s administrator, with my soul as the link between myself and the device. The implications of other administrators other than myself was troubling in its right. Regardless, my curiosity was piqued regarding the title system and what it did, but it seemed that my cultivation level was insufficient to complete the process. I would need to observe other essence users in action to learn more.

My mind turned back to Zalla as I thought about her healing technique and I tried interacting with her essence with zero success. Then I focused on my awakened soul and asked it to say hi for me.

Immediately Zalla pulled her hands from my body, like she'd been stunned by electricity. "What did you do?" She said with accusation in her eyes.

"Nothing, you're the one with your hands all over me, I knew you were helping me just for my body." I joked, my voice raw like cracked glass. Zalla blushed red, her cheeks and the roots of her pointed ears reddening with a slight blush.

"Stupid man-child, you've been unconscious since yesterday. I've fed you gruel to make up for the blood you lost and used water essence to cleanse and add water directly into your body.”

I looked around, afraid to see Astrel hiding in the corner. Zalla noticed my look and shook her head “Relax, she is not here, she is the one who sent for me to save your life. Your healing was easier because of your advancement and also, because your will to live is phenomenal, but you must get even stronger. Soon they will send one of the guards to take you to the mine due to your single affinity to earth. I'll give you a few ideas that will aid you in getting a bit stronger."

She looked at me, a speculative look in her eyes before continuing, "you need to learn the common tongue. Unless you can read and write in the common tongue, you'll be unable to gather proper knowledge on cultivation.

I felt my resolve strengthen as I considered asking her to train me as a cultivator. I even asked her, trying to bow from my prone position in my own caricature of obedience to a master.

But my body failed me, and I slumped back on the bed. Zalla smiled at my antics and said, "as I am also an earth cultivator, and I can give you some pointers on how to forge your cultivation path."

She paused to gather herself, a look of foreboding and seriousness on her face. "My cultivation talents lean towards healing and nature, everyone must choose their own unique path in order to advance."

She stopped to gather herself. "First you must not use the cultivation techniques they provide for you in the mine. If you do, when you forge your core, your cultivation will be permanently enslaved to Mistress Astrel. She would be able to control your power and grow in strength as you do, but most importantly she'll be able to control you regardless of whether you are in her presence or not, then you'll truly be her slave."

Her gaze pinned me down, as if she is trying to force my understanding of her words just through her eyes, “ Astrel has been looking for a thrall with a strong potential and other attributes that would be completely under her control Based on her interest in you, if you accept her core formation technique, it will bind you to her permanently. I have seen this happen to many slaves with strong potential”

I nodded thoughtfully, as bad as I had it now, it was humbling to know others had it worse. There was no way I was trapping the little guy and myself in that kind of hell.

"Will you give me a cultivation technique?” I asked with hope in my voice. She was also an earth cultivator? I thought to myself, and assumed she had a cultivation technique I could use but she shook her head.

"No, my cultivation technique was tailor-made for my T'var bloodline and I am compelled by the mana-bound oaths of the main family not to reveal any of our secrets to outsiders, also it would cause you problems as a human if you use it. You'll have to find one in the forgotten library."

"The forgotten library," I murmured. I really need to learn the language if I'm to gain knowledge of magic and grow in power.

I immediately received information from my implant, letting me know it was compiling data on the "common tongue". This surprised me as I had yet to hear the language myself.

Then I remembered that the mind bridges fostered communication by interpreting spoken language in my head, but my ears still picked the actual language spoken and my implant; machine that it was, was all but immune to mental effects.

It seems, I have unwittingly found a way around mental attacks and manipulation. Now I just need to set up stronger countermeasures for whenever my brain is being tampered with. Maybe if I command my implant to send small jolts of electricity through my body, it might be enough to break any future mental compulsions.

"Nobody goes there because it has been sealed for centuries." Zalla continued unaware of the direction my thoughts had taken me, “you will need to find a way into the library in your free time in order to gain information on techniques and magic. Your best bet would be to earn enough redemption points in the mine to earn an unbound request."

"The mine is run on a point system based on how hard you work, the amount of resources you pull from the mine and what quality of beasts you can kill within the mine."

Kill!! Beasts!! What the hell was she talking about, "Wait, what do you mean by I have to kill beasts?" I asked with a fearful look on my face

She looked at me like I was an idiot and then huffed in exasperation. How any woman can do something as unladylike as huffing and still make the act extremely refined and dignified, I did not know, but somehow she managed.

"Sometimes I forget you are not from another world. You can grow in power in a few ways. One is the cultivation of essence into your center for refinement, another is to take refined essence from others by either fighting them and destabilizing the refined essence in their center by causing extreme damage to your opponent's body, mind or Spirit, or by killing another creature and cultivating the essence released at the moment of their death, if you have the fortitude for it. You can also make pacts or deals with others for essence too."

“Refining essence in your environment is the most common method of cultivation, but unless you are in a location with powerful essence, growing only using this method will take a very long time. Most cultivators that use this method tend to find locations high in their essence type”

“Although beating opponents in battle can disrupt their focus on their center and cause their already refined essence to leave their body, it won’t be as much as when you kill them, and you’ll still need to cultivate and refine whatever they release, and that may not be possible depending on your location.”

“Killing is the easiest way to get a lot of essence fast. When you kill any person, beast or monster that rfines essence, their core is destroyed and all the essence that sustains their entire cultivation is released . Although the essence released begins to dissipate shortly after, a small fraction of the refined essence is available for cultivation. This method is only very effective in a dungeon where the energy released at death is contained by the dungeon’s aura.

"You can also gain essence by making binding pacts with other cultivators. These pacts would have to be bound with essence, and if conditions of the pact are not met, the results can be catastrophic to the oath breaker, so I do not advise gambling your hard earned essence."

"Another way is to kill beasts and after their death, absorb not only the refined free essence released upon their death, but by also cultivating the essence within their extracted "beast cores" that some higher level beasts use to store essence. This method also comes with some risks as not all beasts can forge beasts’ cores and they are usually found in powerful beasts. Also the process of extraction can be dangerous to the cultivator."

I wondered about animals here on Zomyr, like people, did they also cultivate? I wanted to ask Zalla, but she must have preempted the question by the look on my face.

"While sentient cultivators use essence to build cores where they can store essence, animals instinctively store essence in a core forged from calcified essence that grows over time as the beast grows in power and that serves as a kind of second heart. For this reason, unlike people, beasts with cores do not lose much essence during battle or upon death. I recommend you grow stronger before following this path."

"But beast bodies are used by alchemists and other craft practitioners for their work. You will earn many points bringing rare beasts bodies and rare plants to them."

"I suggest that you form an alliance with other slaves if you wish to take the path of beast hunting. You must focus on earning enough points to request access to the library, only then will you be given access. I advise you to refrain from forging a core until you can find information on how to forge one that fits your cultivation path. Also the library might have information on spells and techniques. Although it is considered dangerous and illegal to learn spells without first ascending and without the proper permissions.

"Techniques! Do you mean like simple martial art techniques or like in anime? And what do you mean by ascending?" I asked in excitement.

She looked at me like I was dropped on the head. Even though she did not know the meaning of what I said, like most women, she had a nose for when a man was talking nonsense.

She continued like I hadn't spoken. "I'm sure the sensitive made it seem like cultivation was the only path to power," she raised her eyebrows in a dainty but mocking lift. "But there are others not freely spoken of and some of them that even allow one to impose effects without cultivation."

"Techniques are skills that allow cultivators to shape essence into effects. Techniques require the use of only aligned essence type or refined essence. These effects are limited by the cultivator's level, skill and the Strength of their cultivation.

"With a spell and through the manipulation of runes, you can access any essence type and can create any effect complex or otherwise save for the divine, regardless of your alignment."

I felt excitement shoot through as I thought of the possibilities, I needed to reach this library and find a way to learn these runes. I'm sure my implant will be able to decipher these scripts if I could find their common tongue equivalents. With spells I would be able to overcome my single affinity limitation.

"Where is this library and how can I gain access to it?'

She smiled, encouraged by my enthusiasm." Spells are extremely difficult to master. There is a reason techniques are preferred to spells. You must temper your enthusiasm with patience and dedication." there she goes sounding like my mom again. I thought, exasperated.

"Although I cannot aid you in forging your core, I can give you directions to the best of my ability on how to use what little power you have."

"Techniques are preferred to spell work because they are tied to the Cultivator's core and body, increasing the cultivator's control, while decreasing their chance of failure due to interference.

"To perform any technique, you must think of your essence as an extension of yourself. You’ll need to learn the stances needed to direct the flow of essence in your body in order to direct your essence towards an effect."

"Even if you know some techniques, they will not be very effective until you can forge your core, you will have to rely heavily on stances to direct the movement of essence within your body. Until your core is forged, it will be difficult to retain and control essence, especially when it is used outside your body. This also means that the range at which you can extend an effect will also be limited until you forge your core.

"But most importantly without a core, you will be unable to properly refine essence to increase your power and further enhance your cultivation."

"My second advice is to teach yourself to rely on your essence more than your senses, block your ears and cover your eyes if possible, in order to increase your sensitivity to the earth and fine tune your control. It is a method of earth cultivation that is common with my people, but not so common amongst humans. It allows us to boost and strengthen our essence-sense."

Most earth cultivators are usually more interested in crushing their problems as opposed to subtlety. Move bare-feet and listen to the hum of the earth let it guide you in ways that would be impossible with all your senses combined."

"Remember, your essence is precious and hard earned, use it sparingly and wisely. Understanding of your element and how it interacts with the world around you is important to using your essence to its fullest potential. With proper insight, you'll save essence while possibly achieving greater effects than your rank would ordinarily allow."

The question on my tongue was what she meant by insight?

I put the question to Zalla and she gave me one of those proud smiles that teachers give their outstanding students.

"I'm surprised you picked up on that, most cultivators, especially martial practitioners are rarely interested in gaining insight."

"Every technique or spell requires a certain level of insight into the properties of the effect in question. The greater the insight or understanding infused into the action, the greater the potential effect."

I nodded, sensing the truth in her words.

"Sure, you can perfect the stances necessary to perform an earth based technique or know the hand seals to empower complex high techniques, but someone with greater knowledge of how the earth works and the effects of their techniques will be able to create complex effects at a lower essence cost and backed by more power. This is why insight is so important."

She paused to catch her breath before continuing. "But you must be careful, knowledge is jealously guarded and hunted for on Zomyr. Commoners are not allowed formal education, to limit the amount of insight they can place in any action. Most kingdoms, especially the human ones, tend to restrict and obscure knowledge, punishing any serious attempt at inquiry. Again you must be careful when hunting for insight."

Again she made sure I was paying attention to her warning before moving on.

"Another important factor to remember regarding essence cultivation is strain."

I sat up, noting the seriousness in her voice, I leaned forward, eager to learn more about this unknown aspect of cultivation. Even though I know my implant was perfectly recording the moment for later review

"Strain is the pressure placed on the body when it conducts essence. When you exceed your body's strain capacity, you'll begin to take internal damage, especially around your core and in excessive situations, you may cripple your cultivation or even kill yourself. You'll need to figure out your strain threshold, it's different for everyone and your physical attributes and race also factor into strain capacity. Try not to go over your limit."

I took her warnings to heart and promised her and myself that I would be careful.

I knew that the next step to cultivation was to refine essence as best I could and after, begin to forge a core. But I was also interested in how cultivators were ranked in this world. I put the question to Zalla.

Unlike a lot of my teachers and lecturers back on Earth she did not respond with anger at my questions but simply smiled. She only huffed when I said something stupid.

"This is a very dangerous question you have asked, knowledge of cultivation without sufficient rank, wealth or social standing, on Zomyr, is closely guarded and defaulters are almost always punished with crippled cultivation or death. You must promise never to reveal the secrets I'm about to reveal to you."

She stopped talking, waiting for me to properly ponder her words. But without the slightest hesitation, I swore on my cultivation to guard the source of the information with my life.

I felt a pulse from within my soul as my awakened soul acknowledged my oath.

There was a look of shock on her face. Clearly she was surprised at what I've just unwittingly done.

"You must be careful when making oaths, the future can never be fully known. Do not make oaths that you may come to regret, watch your words."

I nodded, this time taking her seriously as the acknowledgement of the oath clearly scared the crap out of me.

I just hope my soul was able to distinguish when I was serious and when I was not. After a brief awkward pause, She smiled that calm beautiful smile at me that felt like a balm on my rough trodden soul. Then she resumed speaking again.

"There are several paths to power, but cultivation is most common and the only commonly approved method across the first pillar."

When I opened my mouth to ask another question, she raised a dainty hand to stop me and I marveled at her elegantly shaped fingers despite the faint calluses from physical labor.

"I know you want to ask what I meant by the "First pillar," and I'll answer your unspoken question just as soon as I'm done answering your previous one."

Seeing that I was slightly mollified by her promise, she continued.

"As far as I can tell, every great power in this world cultivates essence to some degree and in conjunction with other paths of power so the information I'm about to provide you may aid you in varied situations."

"All the levels in the stages of cultivation are ranked with the first seven letters of the alphabet in the common tongue. This means that there are seven ranks per stage."

She then proceeded to list the seven letters which I noted but unconsciously filed as ranks G, F, E, D, C, B and A.

She continued, unaware of my internal musings. “You are currently at the lower end of rank G in the essence absorption stage, and you would need to absorb and refine more essence to rise within the ranks. At higher ranks, your essence will grow stronger. After reaching the peak of the A rank of this stage, your essence will be dense enough to forge a stable core"

"After the absorption stage, the next stage is the core creation stage, it takes time to complete a core as it is a complex construct necessary to further absorb, refine and also store essence."

"Creating the structure places you at rank G of the core formation stage, setting up the nodes that link all aspects of the core from the center to its very edges are carried out at rank at E and F and your core is fully formed at rank D."

"The remaining three ranks are used to fill and empower your newly formed core with essence. At the height of this stage, core infusion infusion becomes possible, allowing you to temporarily store techniques, spells and concept energy into your core"

She paused to catch her breath, while my mind spun with the wealth of information she was giving to me at great cost to herself. I was once again grateful to whatever deity placed her in my path, it was not an exaggeration to admit that I would be lost and more than likely dead without her. I was also curious as to how a common slave could know so much about what was supposed to be a hidden topic. My eyes narrowed as for the first time, I was forced to consider the possibility that there was more to Zalla than a kind, generous and beautiful face

But I dragged my mind from that line of thinking. Zalla deserved the right to keep her secrets whatever they may be. Turning my mind back to the information I was receiving, I was curious about concept energy, how was it different from essence? I had to know as much as possible about cultivation.

"Zalla, what is concept energy?"

I'm glad she has the patience of a saint. To be honest, if I was in her shoes, I would have lost my shit with all the interruptions.

"Concept energy is essence aligned to a particular idea or concept. While it is possible to infuse concepts from within into your qi using hardworn insight, concept energy can be absorbed from external sources, although it is recommended that a cultivator at least reach the core compression stage before cultivating external concept energy."

"An example of concept energy is sword energy, it's usually found on the battlefield or where the sword arts are being performed."

"Concept energy is usually invisible to the naked eye and barely perceptible with essence sense, so it is unlikely you will be able to perceive it at your level."

"You must not absorb concept energy that is incompatible with your alignment or path or else, it may damage your body or core. It may even kill you."

After a slight but pregnant pause, she continued her lecture on the ranks. "After the core creation stage is the core compression stage to properly fold and compress not just your core but the essence contained within, making your core stronger and denser. All effects are amplified and strengthened and essence can now be used to forge semi-permanent effects.

"Core compression quality depends on core creation techniques and number of compressed layers but the true value of a properly compressed core is that it grants the core the ability to permanently absorb concepts and insight of the cultivator to shape and empower their path to power." Rank G to E usually requires you to create an external layer around your core as many as your core design can allow without falling apart. At rank D and C respectively, all the layers are compressed and infused with even more essence to create an even stronger structure, at rank B, all nodes are properly linked to the center of the core forming what are called essence channels. To improve the speed of techniques and provide greater control over essence. At rank A, the cultivator's core is fully formed and essence is now once again used to fill and solidify the entire core, strengthening essence channels and properly empowering the nodes. "

Core creation and compression are a lot more complex than I thought and without access to another's core or guidance from another cultivator, I had no idea how to begin to create one.

"I'm sure you're probably going to forget much of what I've just told you, just remember the main points and hopefully if you survive and prove yourself valuable to the mistresses, you might be sent to a trainer for training or at least be given access to some cultivation scrolls."

I didn't have the heart to tell her that thanks to my implant, it was impossible to forget a single word that fell from her soft succulent lips, especially with the adorable school marm look she put on while lecturing me. It was soooo hot.

"After the core compression stage, a cultivator must now decide on what aspect of the laws their cultivation will focus on. The laws are the overarching principles that guide all reality. This new stage is called the law alignment stage, and at this stage, a cultivator becomes one with a law and is transformed from a being of essence, into a being of mana. Those who focus on fighting and martial actions become battle-ascended. Those who focus on projecting and manipulating essence around themselves become magic-ascended, or as they are commonly known, mages.

But before ascension, the body must be properly optimized to amplify the benefits gained from ascension. Therefore, the proper step to take after core compression, although not compulsory, is the body infusion or body strengthening stage. To reach this stage, it means that you have compressed your core to the point that your essence density is strong enough to be infused permanently with your body without essence loss or damage to the body."

"There are twelve meridians in the body and they are Brain, heart, spine, bones, stomach, lung, small intestine, kidney, arms, legs, skin and the sensory meridians. Body strengthening is dangerous, because it is almost impossible to stop once started, it requires a massive amount of essence for each meridian and it's connected organs. I would only provide more information once you have made more progress as this step should not be taken lightly or alone."

Her penetrating gaze tried to pin me down in order to reinforce her words and I wanted to burst out laughing at her futile attempts to form a serious frown on her smooth and perfect forehead.

"The only other sub stage before ascension I know about is the aura stage, but there is little I can tell you that is not bound by manaoaths. Not many Cultivators reach this level as it requires one to detect the subtle but unique energy field that surrounds a living entity and then actively expand and empower it. Not many cultivators can sense their own aura, much less actively empower it."

That's all I can offer you for now, from the excited look on your face, I think I've already said too much. If you need any more information on cultivation, you'll need to get stronger."

Then her expression turned grave and then took my hands in hers and said with a deeply serious tone. "And my final survival advice, avoid the fighting pits, do whatever you have to do to avoid being sent to the pits. Because no amount of cultivation tips will save you in the pit. You would last less than a few seconds in there."

She stood up and straightened her rough spun dress, her final advice finally issued. "Quickly you must eat, and get dressed. The mines are not kind to the weak."

I hurried to obey, quickly forgetting my last question regarding the "First pillar" at the thought of food.