As I wake up, once again I realize my awareness didn’t stay on throughout the night. Dang it, well this will just be something I continue to practice on. From what I can tell with the scanning, this will take some time to get used to.

Getting up to start my day, I realize I haven’t washed in a long while. I might have to check with Gon… Okay, maybe not Gong. I’ll have to check with Lin and Ai on how people wash around here.

Since I’m planning on washing up or the equivalent eventually, I might as well work out a bit. Starting things up, I perform a small amount of exercises, just enough to push my limits. From what I can tell, I might have to move to weighted exercises.

As I walk out of the room, I can see Gong down the way coming towards me. Ah, I forgot about the transparent lines. I’ll make sure to keep practicing, to not touch them.

“Good morning James, how ar…” As she got closer, her eyes squints and her nose twitches. I can see her staring at my chest in confusion and then realization. She gulps thirstily. Okay. While this is weird, I think I’m going to let this one play out for a bit. After experiencing her staring for what feels like a few minutes, she seems to snap out of it.

“S-so… you, haven’t washed up recently?” I shake my head. “Okay. I have a bath downstairs, that you can use. A-and if you want, I could wash your clothes for you, while you do so.” The expectancy in her eyes is palpable.

Yep, totally sounds like she doesn’t have an ulterior motive here. Could this be a pheromones thing? She said she was sensitive to smell.

Though, I’m really not sure how to feel about this.

Nonetheless, I need to take a bath.

“Yeaahh… that sounds okay. Though, I’ll hold on to my clothes until we get down there, if you don’t mind.”

I sense a flicker of disappointment, “Okay, that’s fine. Ai and Lin just finished theirs, so we’ll probably see them on the way down.” Taking a cavern branch that slopes down from the main hallway, we head somewhat quickly to the bathing area. Just like Gong had mentioned, Ai and Lin appear to be heading up towards us. A quick look to the ground reveals the same transparent lines that occasionally cross the ground. I wonder how she keeps track of where the vibrations are coming from.

As they come up to meet us, they appear to be discussing something. “Yeah, it’s actually quite nice.” “Yeah.”

Lin looks toward Gong, “Thanks for letting us use the bathing area, Gong!” She is practically skipping about. “That was great, I’ve never actually been this clean in my life,” Ai follows up. Ai looks grateful, but much more mellow. Still moving down, Gong responds that she is happy to have helped. As we pass them, the two women suddenly stop after scrunching up their faces. Oh no. It really does smell that bad. I know that face anywhere. So, it’s just Gong being the weird one that likes the smell.

Without stopping, we continued down the sloping tunnel. With those last reactions, I definitely moved a bit quicker.

Finally reaching the bathing area, we reach a giant cavern, dwarfing the main area near the surface. There appear to be several pools of water with a tiny river running along the edge of the cave. All along the sides, ceiling and floor are the glowing stones that light up the entire cavern system. I really need to ask her about these stones, eventually. However, this underground river is insane. There’s so much water everywhere! I think this is worth scanning.

Doing a quick scan, I come to the discovery that this is only the surface of a massive underground lake. This area is only the surface, though there is quite a bit of rock separating the two. It goes so deep that I actually stop the scan, because of the sheer depth. The water, clear and sparking, is also drinkable. Really, it appears to be similar to mineral water. Considering all of this, this is almost a perfect water source. In the river portion, there are even some fish with glowing red portions ear their gills.

Gong heads over to one of the water pools nearest to the entrance. “This is typically where I wash up. I also wash clothes in that river over there.” There are also some fish in the river, over there, but they always made me feel sick if I ate one.

I wonder why a carnivore like her would get sick? Let me look at these.

Flow-Following Scalefish

Scalefish – Fry (Juvenile)

Fish that is formed from the scales of an ancient fish lineage spirit beast. This fish innately has rampant qi flowing through its body. Dangerous for non-cultivators to eat. Can be beneficial for cultivators, but difficult to process safely.

Hmm… it was likely difficult for Gong’s body to process this, since she had no way to process qi. However, for cultivators, this is a goldmine. I want her to try one of these fish again, though it might still not be the best idea. She doesn’t seem to have a cultivation method, so she won’t be able to circulate any qi. Also, if this fish is a juvenile… why is it the size of my torso?

I guess I should just go with the flow for now.

“Okay, thanks for letting me know. I’d like to check out those fish later, if you don’t mind.”

With a serious look, “Sure. Though, make sure to keep all of this a complete secret. The caverns, this river… everything. It’s taken a lot of work and caution to make sure this hasn’t been discovered by others. Please, take that into account.”

Responding in kind, “I understand, I’ll make sure to not let out a word about this.” She gives me a dubious look, which makes me feel uncomfortable.

I continue, “Uh… I know I don’t have the best track record, but I’ll definitely keep this one quiet. For sure this time.”

She gives me another long look and then moves on. She heads to one of the pools edges and I can practically see the increasing excitement roll off of her.

Another gulp before she opens her mouth. “So. Are you, uh, going to give me the clothes?” Squinting my eyes at her, I ask her to turn around, which she obliges.

As I prepare to remove my clothes, I see my phone, wallet, and keys are still intact. I put those off to the side, since she likely won’t know the difference. Just as I get to my buckle, I see the stains of blood on my pants. My eyes traveling down to my shoes, I see the hint of something that looks like pink meat on them. My hand practically vibrates, as I slowly pluck that thing off of them.

With a gulp, I close my eyes and attempt to disassociate what I just saw.

I’ll have to get used to things like this. I’m okay. We’re okay. This is okay.

With a deep breath, I manage to get my emotions under control.

Gong peeks a look back, in what appears to be concern. She probably smelled my anxiety. I smile at her and nod. I think back to her silly actions with my clothes, that makes me feel a small chuckle come on.

Yeah. We’re okay.

She takes another sniff and smiles back. Her eyes still squinted in concern, but recognizing my apparent change in emotions.

As I hand over the clothes, her smile grows larger and larger. She doesn’t even notice the blood, as I see her sneakily take a whiff.

From there she takes the clothes happily away, as I step into in the cold water. I try my best not to yelp. Being a soft modern man.

As I wash myself, I didn’t realize the number of layers of sweat, dirt, and grime on my skin from my workout. In fact, I peel a thick layer off of my skin, like a second skin. Is this all really from my workout? This amount seems kind of absurd. Maybe I should check into this.

James Delinion

6 Rose Man–Spiritual Root

Mana: 138985/138985 (163840)

Taming Maintenance 1 mana/ 1 human biomass – insects, no cultivation 1 mana/ 1 human biomass – arachnids, no cultivation 50 mana/1 human biomass – bacterium, no cultivation

Transferred Gifts:

Passive Scan: Max

Active Scan: Max (Increased Strain)

Healing Aura: Level 3 Exp: 159/160

Beneficial Taming: Level 12 – Exp: 4385/20480 rounded down

1 xp per 1 human sized biomass – no cultivation, tamed

Current Direct Tames

No cultivation/no contract Cockroach – 1 – under 1 human biomass Insect Horde – 97 human biomasses worth (232.8 cubic meters) Spider Horde - 24757 human biomasses worth (59416.8 cubic meters) Bacterium – 1 human biomass

Healing Constitution

Proficient Languages: Common Speech (English)

Literate Languages: Common Speech

I can’t believe it. It looks like my spirit root has increased. Is this due to just my healing constitution? Or is it because of the combination of that and my workout?

A quick review of the deeper information reveals that the spiritual root is the foundations of the body and soul, culminating into a person’s innate talent. From what I can tell, the healing constitution automatically improves this aspect of myself. It seems every aspect of my body and soul are being refined. Eventually, my spiritual root will reach the peak of what is possible for myself.

Please nerf.

This means some layers on my body are actually impurities of some sort, confirmed by some streaks of black ooze within the layers.

With this discovery made, I lay back against the side of the pool to relax in the cold water.

Hmm… maybe I’ll be able to mimic this process with my healing aura, as I see what it improves. A quick check into my healing aura reveals I need to reach a certain proficiency/level until I can “optimize” other people in that way. From what I can tell, that will be level 10 for Healing Aura. However, once I reach that level, I can do it near instantaneously. Lucky them.

Not only that, but I think I’ve realized how bonkers my mana regeneration is… It might even get higher with more levels.

I hope the numbers for my levels don’t continue like this. It will get truly insane, if they increase exponentially like this. As they say, tall trees attract the wind.

I’ll leave that for another day, though.

With this in mind, I relax in the pool of water, in an underground cavern made by a giant spider. All while I can softly sense in the distance, SNNIIIIFFFF.

What a world this is.