CHAPTER 17.

First, I checked the bodies. I did Callum's first, because I wanted to see that asshole's face.

I stared at Callum's corpse for a few seconds with a shit eating grin on my face, before getting down to business looking through his belongings, at least the ones that hadn't been chewed by the beast.

His knapsack was intact and within it, I found a strange ore that felt alive to me, like something was squirming beneath the surface of the ore. I felt a pressure from this strange essence as it began to have an odd effect on my cultivation.

I instinctively closed off my cultivation to prevent any of it from getting into me.

The material was fascinating as I observed the strange essence type within, this is the first time I have observed essence, save for my awakened soul, acting in an unpredictable manner.

If I had to guess, this strange essence was a secondary type and based on its currently observed attributes and the naming convention of the locals, I came to the conclusion that this ore contains fell essence.

Curious, I decided to cultivate, focusing on the ore in my hand.

Immediately, sharp pain lanced through my mind and I dropped the ore on reflex. I was beginning to see some disadvantages to placing my cultivation in my head.

Within me the strange essence began to break down in my center.

My awakened soul did not take kindly to this and instinctively began to resist.

The feedback from the struggle left me gasping in pain. Slowly and with a force of will, I steadied myself through the pain and focused on my center and by extension, my awakened soul.

I couldn't leave the little guy alone when he needed me.

As I focused on my center, I was able to observe the interaction between the two essence types. The foreign essence was attempting to break down the refined essence within my core and only through a great force of will was I able to halt its progress and refine it.

The only thing that saved me from crippling my cultivation was that I had no core and that the essence from the ore was compounded earth and fell essence.

After some time, I was able to bring the rogue essence to heel and refine it, but I could feel a qualitative change in my essence. From what I could observe, I had just refined what I could only assume was fell essence.

So Zalla and Aelia weren't completely right. I could refine other unaligned essence types, but it would be too difficult, painful and possibly fatal making the process prohibitively expensive.

Like eating only celery to gain weight. Except the celery could cause damaging ulcers each time it was consumed.

Although I suspect that absorbing compound essence of an aligned quality might make the process somewhat easier.

I looked within and checked for any changes in my center; querying my implant for any data it had acquired during the process.

First, I observed a slight change in my essence density from refining another essence type.

This change was minuscule and would have been unnoticeable without the analytical capabilities of my implant.

I suspected this was one of the reasons compound cultivators with multiple affinities were more powerful than their counterparts; they were increasing the essence density of their total refined essence by refining more than one essence type.

If I wanted to improve my cultivation, I would need to consider cultivating essences of varied alignments and combinations regardless of my affinity and at risk to my person. I would simply need to mitigate the risk through study and experimentation.

I took my time looting the other men of their limited valuables and provisions; replacing my sword and my knife. After "upgrading" all my supplies with those of the deceased miners, I moved on to skinning the beasts.

As it was my first time skinning an animal, the process was extremely messy and involved a lot of waste, but with the guidance of my implant, I was able to extract the armor and used one of the men's water skins to collect some of the corrosive stomach acid. I also collected meat from the beast. If I was going to spend time here experimenting on core construction, I would need to eat.

With determination and caution warring in my eyes, I reached for the ore and began to cultivate.

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I spent an hour absorbing the free fell essence available in that single ore and the pain from doing so was excruciating. The only thing that kept me going was the manic need for more power. Most of it was inaccessible as it had permanently bonded with the ore.

I finally was able to refine a portion of the fell essence within the ore, and I spent nearly six times the amount of time it would take me to cultivate the same amount of earth essence of the same density.

Fell essence did not behave like any other essence type I had encountered so far. It seemed to be able to alter its density and characteristics per volume in seemingly random conditions.

I had a couple of close calls, but in the end I had absorbed all the available free fell and earth essence within the ore, though not without cost. I had a splitting headache and my entire body was wracked with pain. It felt like my spirit and soul had cuts and bruises.

I was forced to use my recently refined essence to clear my head and body (I had no idea how to go about healing the metaphysical aspects of myself and neither did my implant).

At least the little guy was happy. It seemed to enjoy the treat and sent me pulses to let me know it wanted more.

"Take it easy you glutton, I'll need to recover a bit before I hunt down more of that ore."

After cultivating to center myself (all the time I spent cultivating in the dark had shown me the value of the process above and beyond simply gathering essence), I picked up my "loot"; at least what I could carry, hehe.

The gamer in me was wishing for a bag of holding right now, but I settled for hiding the loot in one of the more hidden holes made by the drillworms entrance into the shaft. I would have to move my stashed loot overtime.

Before leaving, I decided to check my profile to confirm how much I've advanced and what changes my improved qi had made to my body.

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Biometric Profile.

Name: William Izu

Race: Human

Age: 24

Height: 6 feet 8 inches

Weight: 302 pounds

Cultivation Rank: Essence Absorption Stage (Rank F)

Essence Affinity:

Earth: 10%

Fell: 0.05%

Soul Awareness: Conscious (Primal)

Essence density: Air

Attributes.

Strength: 135

Dexterity: 85

Agility: 80

Perception: 110+(100)

Reflex: 90

Resistance: 30

Regeneration: 25

Constitution: 60

Intelligence:?

Charisma:?

Skills.

Utility

Improvisation

Combat.

Hand to hand Combat (Basic)

Melee weapon proficiency: Sword (Basic)

Melee weapon proficiency: Knife (Basic)

Melee weapon proficiency: Pickaxe (Basic)

Professions.

Mechanic

Engineer (Computer, Electrical)

Programmer (Game developer)

Essence Techniques.

Seismic-sense

Mission.

Escape Blòtvarda

Gain Power

Objectives.

Get rid of slave collar

Learn more about cultivation

Find the other enslaved humans

Protect Zalla.

Get the f**k out of Zomyr

Optional Objectives.

Kill Avery

Kill Ivelina

Kill Astrel (slowly and painfully)

Kill Tinuviel

Destroy blòtvarda

Save Suu, Melody and Minnie.

Inventory.

1 Woven shirt (Poor Quality)

1 Woven Trousers (Poor Quality)

1 Iron cutlass(Low Quality)

1 Small knife

1 Mining Pickaxe

4 water skins

1 bottle of corrosive drillworm stomach acid

Rations

Drillworm meat

Currency: 0

Points: Undetermined

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It seemed to me that my physical attributes had improved with the increase in my essence quantity. If I forged a core, how much more powerful would I become?

I was also now into the F rank of the essence absorption stage, not much of an achievement considering that the stage requires only a constant cultivation of essence until I reached my capacity.

But now I have encountered Cultivators of approximately the same rank as myself, I was able to determine that my progress, though minuscule to me, was somewhat of an anomaly.

These men had a weak command of cultivation as evidenced by the comparatively low essence density of their refined essence compared to mine.

I was curious as to what could be the cause of the rapid growth in my cultivation.

My money is on the hungry mouth masquerading as my soul.

I queried my implant for data regarding the issue and discovered several factors.

My quick rise in ranks in a relatively short time, and even the sight attribute boost per rank was mainly due to my gluttonous soul, but to my surprise, my implant also played a role in enhancing my cultivation.

By modulating my brain chemistry during cultivation, constant attempts to optimize my focus via direct control of my vitals during cultivation and even budding attempts to optimize the refinement of essence within my body.

Basically, each time I settled down to cultivate, I did so with something akin to the equanimity of Buddhist monk and my refinement effectiveness is several times that of Callum and his gang.

My implant's effectiveness as a cultivation aid was not perfect, clearly a work in progress and I'm sure it has its limits.

While I was grateful for the boost in strength, I was also uncomfortable with the idea of the implant tinkering with my mind and cultivation, without gaining my express permission. Even if it was supposedly under the complete control of my awakened soul.

I decided to ignore my strange cultivation for now and look to my other gains.

My strength, dexterity, agility and reflex had grown considerably, in relation to my rank.

Probably due to the influence of my center's location, my awakened soul and the influence of my implant on my mind.

My biggest gain was my perception, but that attribute might be skewed right now, seeing as I'm still using seismic-sense (I felt this was much better than essence-sense), to expand my range of awareness.

My resistance , recovery and constitution were flagging behind, with constitution my biggest gain amongst the three attributes. Mostly due to my essence type and rank.

I'd picked up a couple of basic weapon proficiencies, but I suspect that that's all it will ever be, unless I somehow get quality training from an experienced trainer.

I had to remember that this wasn't a video game, I wasn't going to gain mastery over a skill by repeatedly doing the same thing over and over again.

My new technique was now visible on my profile, but there was no information on its level of proficiency. I would have to figure that one out like everything else.

My optional objectives also received an update to save the human women that were kidnapped like me from earth.

Must have gained that objective after finding out about Ainsling.

I also noticed that my implant did not factor in my loot stash when listing my inventories, only stuff I had on me were noted.

I decided to head deeper into the mine to avoid others, leaving the bodies where they lay. Before leaving, I pondered various strategies to deal with drillworms or other monsters I had yet to encounter and I wondered if I could make some rudimentary protection with the drillworm armor or even traps.

I reached the end of the shaft and using my new seismic sense, I scanned the room with my senses, using hands stretched over the walls as sensors. I set my pulse at frequencies between 20 - 40 KHz; adjusting the pulse with my implant.

I observed that although the essence cost and strain rose incrementally as I increased the oscillation of my essence, the cost was minimal to the benefit of having a constantly updated 360 degree map of my environment.

With my seismic-sense, I detected several metals and precious stones; my implant, giving me approximations of what they could be. I detected abyssal ore in the walls like the one I cultivated and several other stones I would need to eyeball and hold to properly identify.

I resumed my scan across the entire space and halfway through the room, I detected a fissure that led to a small unexplored pocket of space.

Although the space was small, as far as I was concerned, this was my best find since I first entered the mine. I finally had a place to stay and to keep my loot although I'd have to watch out for encroaching drillworms.

Holding my pickaxe, senses stretched to their maximum, I began to strike at the rocks between me and the fissure. I tried to be careful, in the event that the space behind the fissure was a small gas pocket. My seismic-sense allowed me to detect weak points in the rock face giving me the best points to strike with the greatest effect.

Soon I detected vibrations of a drillworm moving towards my location, and I prepared to carry out some of the strategies I had prepared.

The first and simplest method was to determine where the drillworm was going to attack from. I doubted a trap would work as the drillworms could map their environment in a similar method to my seismic-sense. They would be able to avoid spots they considered obstacles to movement, plus I had insufficient materials to create even the simplest trap designs I had access to from my implant.

But my strategy session was not exactly fruitless. I'd considered my ability to vibrate earth essence at ultrasonic frequencies and wondered whether it could be used in an offensive manner.

I accessed my implant for information on ultrasonic weapons and was disappointed to discover that ultrasonic weapons had limited applications even back on earth. Then I remembered a machine tool that was used in factories to make perfect cuts.

I requested the schematics and any other information available on an ultrasonic cutting tool. And the data I received put a smile on my face.

Although most ultrasonic weapons on earth had limited effectiveness on a modern battlefield, in a medieval society, even one with cultivation, it would give me an "edge" few can match.

My implant had sufficient information on ultrasonic cutting tool designs as they have existed back on earth for nearly a century and were used to cut materials of varying density from pastries to diamonds.

Basically an ultrasonic cutting tool is a blade of almost any sharpness (it can even be blunt without reducing a blade's efficiency) connected to a transducer; a device that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. An oscillator can be added to regulate the frequency of the blade and prevent the transducer from overloading.

First I infused a thin film of earth essence on the edge of my sword. With my rank in the middle tier of the absorption stage and my slightly improved essence density, I was able to extend my essence farther from my body. I also observed that I needed less essence to coat an earth based material than when I simply pushed my essence into the open air or water.

Using my essence as a transducer, I made the essence incorporated in the edge to vibrate at ultrasonic frequencies. My implant was tasked with maintaining the frequency of the improvised technique.

I applied the edge of the blade to the rock face with a gentle pressure and the rusty almost blunt sword went through the wall like butter.

If someone could see anything in this darkness, they would have been blinded by my 1000 watt smile.

I had just created my first technique or at least effect, patent pending.

I used my new "technique" on my knife and pickaxe and even now I used the "Vibroaxe;" a nod to the star wars franchise to cut easily through the rock.

I observed that the cutting power of the pickaxe was limited in comparison to my sword or knife and more heat was generated during use. Based on the information provided by my implant, blade geometry (the shape of blade) also played a pivotal role in its effectiveness. It would take time to fine-tune the technique across various weapon types.

The drillworm burst out of the wall to slam into where it thought I would be standing, but I had also accounted for the vibrations made by my movement.

This time, I did not need to reach ultrasonic frequencies, merely channeling earth essence at frequencies between 2 - 5 Hertz (the average frequency of the human footstep; I confirmed the information with my implant.

Suddenly I had a way to simulate human movement and guide the drillworm wherever I wanted it. I no longer needed rocks to fool the worms and I could even mask my movement using this method.

As soon as the worm slammed into the wall I lashed in an overhead swing with the pickaxe and slammed the weapon down on the armored segment on its head.

The blunt pickaxe sheared easily through the plates and right through the opposite underbelly of the worm with ease, although I had to increase vibrating frequency to account for resistance.

Soon enough I had cleared the rocks leading to the enclosed underground pocket, but not before accumulating a lot of drillworm corpses. I had to look up data on preserving meat without electricity.

I had to make sure it didn't go bad or I would starve down here. I had no salt, there was no way I could properly preserve the meat

I moved all my loot, even the ones I got from the dig crew into the small space. The space had dimensions roughly equal to a small apartment bathroom and could not contain most of the materials I was able to harvest from the drillworms.

I was also afraid the smell of the drillworm corpses so close to my layer would attract more of them or even other predators I'd yet to encounter.

So I used my seismic-sense to find a deep crevasse in the next shaft and dumped the uneaten meat within.

It was impossible to tell night from day in this new world because I've spent all my time here underground and never seen the sky. I did not know if I was actually on another planet, galaxy, universe or even dimension.

All the data that the implant had at its disposal, and it couldn't even tell the time. So it still relied on an earth based 24 hour system.

I began to laugh at the absurdity of it all; my hands clasped over my mouth, trying to stifle outburst. The stifled giggles turned maniacal and then I began to cry. Still laughing; unable to stop, huge sobs wracked through me.

For the first time, I was keenly aware of the fact that I was alone and without supervision since I locked the auto-shop, filled with anticipation for the dungeon raid.

In that small space, surrounded by alien monster carapace and my meagre loot, covered in filth and biting my palm to keep from screaming, I finally let myself fall apart.

My near silent sobs were lost in the darkness, all thoughts of possible danger forgotten. I was just too tired to worry about drillworms or any other threats.

My seismic-sense required concentration and without the ability to focus all I could do was curl up in a ball, trying to purge the images that flashed through my mind.

After a while, I cried myself to sleep; too tired to remain awake. For the first time since I got here, I slept the dreamless sleep of the mentally exhausted, thoughts of safety forgotten.

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When I woke up, for a moment I almost believed I was safe back in my place, getting over this nightmare. But the hard earth and smell of death all around me brought me back to reality.

Sooner or later, I would have to get back out there; either to submit loot for points, or to escape the constant danger of the mine. But just thinking about leaving the mine made me shudder. I'll put it off for as long as I can, better to focus on killing drillworms and mining.

Yes, just keep mining.

I went some ways away from my hidey-hole and used my seismic-sense to find rich veins and then continued mining. Following my previous strategy, I slowly built up another pile of drillworms.

I also stopped filtering the essence type I cultivated and found that I now absorbed dark, earth, fell and tiny amounts of other essences I had yet to define from drillworm corpses.

Not long after, I had a pile of ore and drillworm corpses. The ores gave essence; far from the amount provided by humans and drillworms, but every little bit helped.

I got some normal-ish iron ore; rich in earth essence but otherwise not unique, some small precious stones, quartz and another ore with compounded earth, dark and a small amount of fell essence.

This ore was extremely cold to touch and curious, I turned on my headlamp to observe the ore, but to my surprise, as soon as the light hit the ore, it was almost completely absorbed.

The ore had perfectly absorbed not just the light directed at it but all the light around it. I could tell that my headlamp was turned on as I was still sending essence to the glow stone. But the room had become very dim and became even colder than it already was; as if the ore was feeding on the light to amplify its effect.

Throughout all my time mining, I only found one "dark ore" shard as I now called the strange metal. I considered cultivating the ore but it occurred to me that the ability to remove light from my surroundings might be a useful trump card to have when planning my escape.

I shoved the ore into my bag, proceeded to skin the drillworm corpses and remove their armor. The number of drillworms had reduced as I mined, until none appeared no matter how much noise I made.

Feeling refreshed from my rest and somewhat high from my recent gains, I decided to strengthen my essence identity by cultivating more fell ore.

I sat down on the floor, resting my back on the nearest wall to cultivate, using most of the fell ore, and absorbing more fell essence. This took a long time; 10 hours earth time by the implant's estimates.

The gains to my essence identity were small and I noticed that it got harder to absorb the fell essence the more of it I cultivated.

Regardless, the gains to my essence although small were visible. Flush with earth, fell, dark (I must have absorbed some of it from all this time in absolute darkness) and to my surprise a small amount of other unknown essence types.

I began to refine the essence using the standard centrifugal process, but without a core and with my body filled with too much unaligned essence, my cultivation came to a crawl and my entire insides felt raw as the opposing essence types struggled against my attempts to refine them.

Soon my cultivation halted; it felt similar to when I still had corruption in my body. My body began to weaken and I slid bonelessly on my back, unable to maintain my meditation posture. I queried my implant for my biometric data and to my shock, I saw that all my attributes were plummeting.

My strain capacity had also fallen sharply and every single attempt at accessing essence caused sharp pain due to strain overload.

Panicking I sent a pulse to my awakened soul for help, only to discover that my essence density was falling rapidly.

What was going on? Has my need to chart my own path doomed my cultivation?

Zalla was right, I should have waited to reach the library before taking any risks with my essence.

I focused on my "corrupted center" and tried to discern the problem, but I now observed that even my fledgling essence-sense had grown even weaker.

It took hours to gather the necessary information that would have taken me minutes before, but I was able to come to certain conclusions.

First all my attributes had fallen to my previous human levels even though my body was flush with essence.

My essence absorption had dropped sharply; blocked by the thick molasses of earth, fell, dark and miscellaneous essence types.

Any attempt to cultivate now caused me so much pain that it felt like I was being dipped in boiling oil.

But despite my diminished attributes and essence density, my soul-identity remained unchanged. Why? If my cultivation was blocked, then my soul-identity; which represented the consciousness of my awakened soul should have fallen like all my other stats.

I focused on my center, trying to get answers but it felt so far away. I did not want to return to being an ordinary human, this was not a world where ordinary humans could survive. I had to figure out a way to process the tainted essence within me.

I closed my eyes, while at the same time wrestling with the panic that flooded my body.

The way out of this problem, lies through what I considered humanity's greatest invention. The scientific method.

First, why was my center tainted? What is corruption? I needed to look at this problem from a deductive angle. What makes essence corrupt and unmanageable? If my center was partly a mental construct used to control my personal pool of essence, then at a minimum it meant that essence responded to mental commands. Maybe the solution to the problem was a change of perspective.

Why did I need to refine essence? Did I really need refined essence to build my core?

I queried my implant for help. At least it was still working or my essence still had access to it. This just reinforced my belief that the problem was with my inability to interact with essence and not with essence itself. I received information from my implant regarding known eastern cultivation paths like alchemy (Neigong), moxibustion (acupuncture), feng shui and internal martial arts like kung fu, but none of it could help me. This was a situation where experience and I had to grudgingly admit wisdom may be required.

I had no access to whatever alchemy was, nor did I know kung fu or understand how to use feng shui in this situation, no way was I trying acupuncture with a blunt knife. Basically I was fucked with a capital "F".

My mind kept going back to one question. Why did I need refined essence to build my core? I tried to arrange essence from the sludge that had become my qi-pool into a facsimile of a core, but the sharp pain I felt quickly dissuaded me from that option.

Then the answer hit me, or at least a very strong theory. It was the reason for my pain and discomfort, the reason I was so weak. Cultivators refined essence to improve their minds and bodies. It is the reason my attributes increased just by being a container of refined essence.

The body contains so many elements and compounds that no single essence type can adequately represent the human body. Like stem cells, refined essence would adapt and take the affinity of whatever element the body needed, the same way it did when I used it as a substitute for earth based effects like coating my weapon or my seismic-sense.

My guess was that the only way to use non refined essence to enhance my body is if I had essence representing every element in the world and the knowledge to perfectly assign the accumulated essence.

I closed my eyes trying to think of a way out of this. "If I get out of this mess, I promise to be more careful in the future." I prayed to whatever deities back on earth and whatever called here home to help.

Immediately I felt something respond, something overwhelming in its intensity. It felt cold and hungry and as it reached out for me, I immediately pulled back afraid of what entity waited in the shadows.

"What the fuck was that!!!" I shouted in the dark fear in my voice. "Did something or someone just answer my undirected prayer?" I said in the dark, fear lacing my voice.

This had never happened before, the only thing I could think could be the cause was that there were possibly spirits, gods or godlike beings on Zomyr.

Compared to all the crazy magic shit I'd seen so far, this one was unlikely to break me but it finally hit me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore and I had to be careful about what I said and did in this world.

As desperate as I was, religion had always been a last resort, reserved for moments of frustration and abject lack of control. I had no idea what a god would want in return for aid so I decided to hold off on requesting divine intervention for now.

But the encounter renewed my desire to solve this problem myself. I had no idea what entity had responded to my cry for help and I had to recover before whatever I had foolishly called upon decided to pay me a visit.

I sent pulses to my essence, but they were getting fainter and fainter. At this rate, I would need to spend some time with a cultivation stealer.

I had no idea what that would do to the little guy. I knew he was still there because I still had access to the implant and my soul identity rank was still at the conscious level.

There was only one technique I knew and that was the ability to vibrate earth essence at varied frequencies.

Suddenly I had a light bulb moment. The problem wasn't that my essence was corrupt.

The problem was that the current state of my essence was incompatible with my body. I needed to find a way to separate them and like any other substance of varying density and attributes, there are other ways other than centrifugal force to achieve separation.

Using all my focus and desperation, I sent requests to my awakened soul through my implant to rapidly vibrate the earth essence within me.

Oscillating upwards from resonant ultrasonic frequencies similar to powdered chalk, the earth essence within me began to pulse with increasing intensity; not moving in a circular manner, but vibrating in a fixed position.

With the small movement in my essence, I began to slowly take over the effect spreading it across the surface of my cultivation, after all at my soul's level of consciousness, there was only so much it could do.

The effect spread across all the various essence types and grew in frequency as the vibration increased in amplitude as the vibrated essence came under my control and propagated more of itself.

Soon my entire body was humming on the ground, and there was a small part of me that considered the possibility that this method of manipulating essence could be harming my body. But I needed this to work, my survival depended heavily on a constantly growing cultivation.

As my earth essence vibrated, it became loose from other essence types, transferring energy between them. Essence was not a physical substance, but it tended occasionally to act like one, why I did not know? But I was going to take advantage of this.

The fell essence within me had begun to vibrate, writhing and twisting in strange and bizarre ways. For an instant I nearly lost focus as I watched the essence type move in response to the vibrations moving through it. The other essence types began to respond at varied frequencies, but I still needed more information before I could properly define them. The dark essence remained more or less unchanged no matter how high I increased the frequency.

But finally, I achieved what I sought; all my essence types were moving at different frequencies. Now that they were somewhat separate, I began to spin, applying centrifugal force to my accumulated essence; while maintaining the vibrations of my entire essence pool. I grit my teeth under the strain of maintaining the effect.

It spun slowly at first, then it began to pick up speed, moving faster and faster until my center returned to its previous working order. The refinement process was even faster than before and in no time at all, all the essence within me was refined.

This vibration of essence not only allowed me to refine essence faster but also vastly improved my ability to absorb unaligned essence. A cocky grin spread across my face as I thought of how far this cultivation technique would advance my progress.

Suddenly, I began to feel sharp pain in my head and all over my body and I passed out.

I woke up after some time with a giant headache, and my body wracked in pain. I tried to stand, but slumped back to the ground. It seems vibrating energy in your body at high frequencies can be detrimental to your health. I was lucky I didn't implode or that the process did not release massive amounts of radiation or I'd be dead. I was once again grateful for the wierd non-conforming nature of essence.

I was covered in a slight film of gunk, not as much as what came out of me when my body was first purged of corruption, but not too dissimilar.

I had a splitting headache that stayed with me and I decided that this technique would have been less stressful if I had my center in my gut and not my head.

I began to vibrate my absorbed essence; reducing the frequency, as I now had mostly earth essence moving through me. While it was moving through my body and then spinning in my center.

This new vibration method of cultivation was only possible thanks to my soul and my implant as my mind was currently incapable of calculating and balancing the relevant frequencies necessary for the process even though I had the necessary insight on how to do so.

I was once again forced assess the irony within the simple fact that the tool of my torture and death had turned into one that aided my progress.