Chapter 017

He watched as a progress bar popped up, then quickly filled, and disappeared again, just to be replaced with another window.

- - - - -

Are you sure you wish to absorb [Adamantium]?

Y/N

- - - - -

Well, he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Did his soul and subconscious designate this as a dangerous thing to absorb? Or was it just one of those: Are you really sure that you want to permanently destroy this incredibly valuable resource?

He clicked “Y”.

The lights actually dimmed for a moment before another notification popped up saying that the process was complete.

He sat there for another few minutes, staring off into the distance as he contemplating life, the universe, and everything.

Then he stood up and flipped his desk, arms flying above his head. “Why the hell did I get myself so worked up?!” He yelled, then stood there panting, knowing that he was just a mental construct here and that breathing meant absolutely nothing.

After a few more minutes of “breathing”, he concentrated, then watched the room right itself, everything going back in its place.

“I should have remembered Altaea’s experiences when absorbing things,” he muttered before closing his eyes, then opening his physical eyes.

Avi was still standing there, a bored look on her face.

‘All done, then?’

His eyebrow twitched.

‘Glad it went so smoothly,’ she sent, a smirk on her face. ‘Have a good sleep!’

With that said, she faded away like mist on a hot summer morning.

Scratch that, she bloody well ran away! She knew!

He closed his eyes again, focussing on calming breaths. He was almost three and a half, emotions got big, hormones were doing their thing…

Light, I hate this! I need to grow up faster!

Deep breath in… deep breath out…

Now that that was done, he looked down at himself and realized that things hadn’t gone as smoothly as he’d thought.

His pj’s were soaked with… filth. Some sort of black, slimy, sludge stuck to everything. Sending a mental “thanks!” to Aunty and Uncle, he activated his ring and watched as the filth was [Cleanse]d away. It never quite got old watching as filth disintegrated into smaller and smaller motes of light until the divisions were so small that you could no longer see them.

Then a thought occurred to him as he looked at his clean hands. So, he reached over to his right hand and gave it a pinch.

Pain.

Hmmmm…

Maybe this was like the tabletop game he used to play with his buddies back home, where a creature could always bypass its own damage reduction. Biting one’s tongue would still be a painful experience.

“Sounds legit,” he mumbled to himself as he concentrated for a moment and summoned his old hunting knife from his storage space. He stared at the old leather sheath that his dad had bought him about thirty years ago. It seemed much bigger in his tiny hands now.

With a sigh, he popped open the catch and slid the knife out. It wasn’t anything huge, just a five-inch blade, just a bit more than an inch wide with a black and steel grey grip. He then brought it to his right hand and paused.

Now, he wasn’t a masochist by any stretch of the imagination, so the thought of deliberately cutting himself wasn’t the most appealing thought, even though he could just heal himself afterwards. There was just something about a knife and an aversion to wanting it too close.

Like, you’ve been told all your life to be careful with knives or something, he thought wryly.

With a deep breath, he brought the knife’s wickedly sharp edge to his right arm and tried to shave the peach fuzz there.

The knife jumped.

He paused, then with a determined look on his face he tried again, this time pressing harder.

Nothing.

A smile slowly crept onto his face as he stared at the knife. It wasn’t anything super expensive or anything, being made with just average steel, more than good enough to do anything you’d need a knife to do… normally.

He tried again, this time pressing harder and was rewarded with a couple of sparks jumping off the blade, as though he’d struck a flint or something. Which caused a minor problem in the form of his blanket starting to smoulder.

A few pats and a [Reconstruction] later, and all was well in the world...

He then poked his arm with a finger but found that it still felt like normal. To him, anyways. He wondered if anyone else would notice anything. He sure hoped not, as it would be somewhat awkward explaining things.

As he lay there pondering the implications, he re-sheathed his knife and stored it away. He’d need to test just how resilient he’d become, to see if there were any differences in effectiveness of the technique due to his young age. Most techniques had been designed for people who’d already mostly grown, not for toddlers. Had Altaea anticipated that he’d likely start cultivating as soon as possible?

Probably.

He closed his eyes again, concentrating on the feeling of the mana circulating through his body, paying attention to any changes that had taken place.

For one, he noticed that there was an extra… weave throughout his skin. Upon further investigation, he found the same weave going through every part of his body, from his hair to his organs and bones. Each cell seemed to be fortified, each one forming a sort of bond with those surrounding it. It was a bit hard to explain, but the end result meant that his durability had increased radically.

That was more than OK with him, as he very much wanted to avoid being one-shot again in the future. He still wasn’t sure how “tough” he’d become, but if the manual was anything to go by, he’d be able to take a hit from someone almost a full Tier higher than him and not suffer too badly, never mind anyone from his same Tier.

With a smile on his face, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

- - - - -

Time was flying, and it had taken him another week to be sure that his foundations were where he wanted them to be. But also to convince Grammy that he was indeed ready to step into the Second Tier.

That there had been quite a shock for her. She had been astonished at his progress, insisting on testing him to be sure that he wasn’t mistaken. So, between the physical testing and her feeling out his aura with hers, she was finally convinced.

She had then gone over what he needed to do to form his centre/core (it was a weird translation), or as the traditionalists called it: his dantian. He’d been more than glad to hear her explanations and her experience condensing her own.

That said, the Encompass the Universe manual had a somewhat different method. While the traditional way was to take all of one’s mana and pressure it until it condensed into a liquid from its gaseous state, Encompass the Universe went a bit further, and had a much higher standard.

One needed to rely on having an exceptionally high mana region, or a pile of mana crystals nearby, as the mana required was absurd. During the condensing stage, one also had to divide up the “gasses” into as many clumps as you could while simultaneously keeping them stable while pressuring them into a liquid state. All while drawing in enough mana to sustain the process.

Now, that wouldn’t have been much of a problem, except that Avi’s prediction that Grammy would want to oversee his ascension to the Second Tier herself had proven true. He was then particularly glad that he was able to draw from mana crystals that were in his realm, so there would be no need to explain to Grammy where he’d acquired a small mound of wealth.

So, there he was, sitting in Grammy’s personal cultivation room. It was… spartan. Grammy had removed the cushion that she used when cultivating and had replaced it with his own. The walls were stone, which wasn’t terribly surprising given the fact that this room was deep inside the mountain that the clan had been built on. The walls were also bare except for one wall hanging that had a single character representing the word and concept of “Focus”.

Well, that’s not going to be distracting or anything, me mentally groused, then rethought it. Maybe it could actually help if he got some insights from that character, allowing him to further hone his ability to, well, focus.

He then “glanced” at Grammy sitting in the corner through is sphere of perception. Ah, [Touchsight] for the win! She had also equipped an aura shroud of her own, a simple silver necklace with an aquamarine as the centrepiece. He supposed that was for his benefit, so as not to distract him with her “presence” while he tried to break through. Too bad that didn’t work on him very well.

With a slight shake of his head, he said: “I’ll start now,” then closed his eyes, focussing on his core.

Well, not an actual core like one of the monsters, but his centre where his mana reserve would be found. Well, besides the stuff that had infused his physical body, anyway.

Once there, he found that a few whisps of mana had already made it their home. That was a good sign, as that meant that he was already a half-step into Tier 2. He watched it for a bit, admiring the whorls and eddies that played throughout the small cloud, causing it to shift from colour to colour. It was very much iridescent, almost like the polished insides of the clam shells he used to find in the little river by his house growing up.

Then it was time to get to work.

Remembering the instructions given in the Encompass the Universe manual, he extended his will through his body, pulling in mana from the outside and circulating it through his body until it eventually arrived at his core. Once there, it joined the small cloud, causing it to grow at a visible rate. He smiled.

This process continued for a while until he noticed that the amount of mana coming in from the outside was slowly dropping. So, he then concentrated, focussing on his realm and the small mountain of mana crystals stored away there, and began to draw from them to supplement his intake.

As this went on, he realized that he could draw more than what he currently was. With another thought, he increased the pull on the crystals in his realm, flooding his core with torrents of mana, swelling the size of the cloud.

He didn’t have the spare mental capacity to watch the cloud anymore, instead choosing to concentrate on the process of drawing in and refining the mana. Draw in, refine, deposit. This cycle continued, never ending, never slowing down.

He didn’t know how long he spent doing this, but when he eventually felt a bit of fatigue setting in, he once again lessened how much mana he was drawing in and took another look at his core.

His jaw dropped. He wasn’t sure if his physical body copied the mental one, but the shock was such that it wouldn’t have surprised him.

His centre, core, dantian, or whatever you wanted to call it, had undergone a drastic change. The small cloud had swelled to titanic proportions, now more resembling a vast nebula than anything else he could think of. The scope was simply mind boggling, to the point where his concentration nearly broke.

‘Are you done pulling all that mana in yet?’ Avi sent, concern and annoyance coming through.

‘Yes?’ He sent back, not knowing where she was coming from with her tone.

‘Good, because I’ve spent nearly two weeks keeping your body from breaking down due to the strain that it was putting on you.’

‘Excuse me? What?’ He must have misheard.

‘I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but your consumption rate had been on a level where most people would have exploded due to the pressures involved, nevermind the damage it would do to them as a cellular level even if they didn’t explode.’

He very nearly blanked there for a second, regaining control just in time to avoid having the mana flowing through his system from going out of control and causing untold damage.

‘Thank you for that. I really didn’t notice.’

‘Well, just let me know before you do something like this again. It’ll be easier if I’m able to prepare for it.’ She sent, sounding a bit mollified.

Then something caught his eye. He again focussed on the nebula in his core and noticed that the eddies, swirls, and whorls, were getting more and more chaotic and violent. The lightshow was also increasing to the point where any rave-goers would have been impressed. For him, though, it was a cause for concern.

‘Avi?’

‘Yes, Joram?’

‘I think I’ll need your help again right away,’ he sent, sending the image of the increasingly chaotic nebula along with his words.

He only got a mental nod back, but he felt his body being reinforced shortly after. It was very nice to have such an amazing friend who was able to watch his back.

With a nod to himself, he got started. The first step was to extend his senses into the nebula and to begin separating it into smaller clouds. The process wasn’t easy, nor smooth, as each separated cloud wanted to rejoin the main body of mana, causing no end of work for him.

He paused for a moment to chide himself for thinking that he could do this without using his “mental strength” to keep the clouds divided. Well, it was worth a shot, he thought with a wry grin.

Soon enough, he’d managed to divide the nebula into two equal sections, both kept separate by being enclosed in a box of psionic energy. Once that was done, he repeated the process for each box, resulting in two additional boxes of mana. He then repeated the process four more times, reaching his mental limit. Well, the limit he was comfortable with, anyway. He thought that he might be able to repeat the process once more, but the strain of maintaining the barriers would likely have proven too much, especially since he still needed to “condense” the gaseous mana into a liquid from.

Next, he activated [Schism]. With his second mind running he was then able to have it keep the barriers up while his primary mind was able to solely focus on condensing the mana. He had, in part, divided the nebula so much because he didn’t think that he’d be able to condense such a large volume of mana by himself.

He realized then, as his will began to bear down on each of the gas clouds at the same time, that he’d taken this task far too lightly. The amount of pressure needed to condense a core wasn’t negligible, as was evident by the number of people who failed at condensing their core on their first try. Well, if they were lucky, it was the “first time”. If they weren’t, well, they burnt themselves out, resulting in a crippled cultivation.

He didn’t know, but his body began to sweat as the mental pressure continued to rise. Inside, however, he continued to apply pressure to all sixty-four clouds, causing them to flash in many amazing colours. That was, unfortunately, not quite enough, as he began to feel some of the ones on the edge of the group begin to slip from his control.

Mind racing, he came to a decision that he wasn’t sure was brilliant or mad. Before he could lose control, nevermind regret his decision, he acted.

With a titanic effort of will, he pulled each box out of his centre and over to his Knowledge Star, placing them in orbit, causing them to experience the intense gravity of his Star. Well, that solved one problem, but caused another, larger, problem. Yes, the pressure on each cloud was now sufficient to begin their brilliant collapse into spheres of shining liquid mana, each a unique colour from the deepest black to the most brilliant white and every colour in between, but they were now also in a degenerating orbit and would soon fall into his Knowledge Star.

Well, ain’t that a kick in the pants, he thought as each orb began to inch closer with each passing orbit. Was he going to become the first cultivator with so many cores just to become another casualty of a failed ascent?

He was more than just a little bit unwilling.

Thinking fast, he came up with another crazy idea that just might work. Sure, the gravity of the Star was intense, but what if he could add momentum to each of those cores? Speed them up so that their orbits would stabilize around his Star?

Only one way to find out, he thought as both is primary mind and his secondary mind each took thirty-two orbs and began to exert their combined wills upon them, drawing heavily on the stocks of mana crystals in his realm.

With the extra, desperate, push, the orbs slowly began to speed up. He watched as they went from a slow and lazy descent to a very fast, but gradual descent. He pushed harder, speeding them up and actually began to enjoy the show, for each orb was now going so fast that each had developed a tail of light, making for an awesome lightshow.

But the best part was that the orbits began to stabilize. Yes, it looked rather chaotic around his Knowledge Star with its huge ring divided into smaller concentric rings, with the cores trailing light and making it appear as though a rainbow cage had been formed around the Star. It somewhat resembled the Bohr Model of an atom of Krypton, with an added doughnut…

Hah, Krypton, he laughed to himself, a little bit of relieved hysteria creeping in.

Then he paused. As a practitioner of Mental Strength improved their Knowledge Sea, it would eventually form a “small world” where there was a chance for life to grow. Now, the number of those individuals who had managed to reach such an extreme level were able to be counted on one hand. But if he managed to cultivate that far, what would his Knowledge Star look like?

Well, if the “gravity” continued to increase, it would likely collapse into a “black hole”. He was about fifty percent sure that that would be a terrible thing, but at the same time, he wondered what kind of energy it would give off after it stabilized.

He mentally shook his head, not willing to go down that rabbit hole just yet, and continued to observe the orbits of the cores, making sure that they were indeed stable.

He let [Schism] lapse as he watched, not wanting the draw on his psionic reserves anymore, for fear that it might somehow affect the orbits. He watched for a long time, becoming entranced with the sight of so many colours whizzing about, leaving trails of light in their wake. Every now and then, he’d give a mental nudge to a core, adjusting its orbit just so, making the whole that much more stable.

Joram wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but he came to realize that he was now fully exhausted, so he reluctantly withdrew his gaze from his Knowledge Star, content with its stability, and returned his awareness to his physical body. As his awareness returned, he realized that he was no longer sitting, but laying down on something soft.

Information began to flood in from [Touchsight], letting him know that he was no longer in Grammy’s personal cultivation room, but was instead laying on his bed, Grammy seated beside him on a comfortable looking chair, reading a book.

As his senses sorted everything out, he also realized that a mana gathering array must have been set up because the ambient mana was much higher than he was used to.

Just what had happened? Why had he been taken back to his room?

As he went to open his eyes, Grammy noticed the movement, slid a bookmark into the book, then set it aside. By the time he’d managed to open his crusty eyes, she was leaning forward, an intense look on her face as she examined him.

The world seemed much brighter than before, causing him to squint then rub his eyes in discomfort. He then realized that it was nighttime, and the only illumination came from a small crystal lamp on the bedside table that Grammy must have brought in with her. He really liked those lamps, as they didn’t burn oil or anything, but instead had a crystal that glowed brightly enough to illuminate a small room, its light diffused through frosted glass to avoid blinding someone.

Back to Grammy, he was surprised that she was there. Upon closer inspection, he could see faint signs of fatigue around her eyes, a wisp of hair that wasn’t in line with the others. He took a deep breath, then frowned as the gentle breeze from his open window carried in a heavy scent of autumn.

What-the-what?

He reached for his connection to his parents in the Network and realized that every connection had been dropped. His heartrate increased. Did they think that something had happened to him? Had he worried everyone unduly? What were they now thinking? Were they OK?

All of these thoughts passed through his mind in a few short seconds. He was once again brought back to himself, this time by Grammy asking him a question. He blinked, then went back a moment and realized that he’d been so engrossed in his worries that he’d completely missed the question.

“Sorry, what was that?” He croaked more than asked. He blinked. It wasn’t that he was dehydrated or anything, just that his voice had gone unused for too long.

“I asked how you are feeling,” Grammy said, reaching out a hand to test his forehead.

Her fingers were cool and smooth against his skin, leaving a tingle behind.

“Just a bit confused is all,” he replied, blinking as he reached up and rubbed away the accumulated sleep he’d missed from his first rubbing.

She regarded him for a few moments, a look that he couldn’t quite place on her face, then she spoke.

“You’ve been unconscious for one hundred twenty-eight days,” she said, that same look on her face. “After you collapsed on your fourteenth day of cultivation, we brought you back here to recover. The only signs that you were even alive were a very faint heartbeat, only once per minute, and the occasional trace of mental strength from you. Even your connection to everyone in your Network had... dropped, causing many people to think that the backlash of your cultivation had been a fatal one.”

He blinked at that, then pushed himself into a sitting position, with more effort than he’d care to admit. He sat there, slightly wobbly, as he stared at Grammy, not quite believing what she’d said.

“I am very glad that you’ve woken up,” she said with a smile. “Don’t worry, you’ll be well cared for,” she said, once again touching his forehead delicately, then tracing her fingers across his brow to move some errant hair out of the way.

“I’m glad…?” He said, gratified, but also confused.

“You needn’t worry, your status in the clan won’t be affected by your… disability,” she finally said, the look of such tender kindness in her eyes almost made him miss what those words meant.

He blinked, then blinked again.

“Disability?” He asked, his mind blanking.

Grammy’s eyes turned moist, causing her to turn away and blink a few times before she was able to look at him again, this time with resolve.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m sorry that your ascent went so poorly. You’ve completely burned out your ability to cultivate.”

His jaw dropped; his mind stunned. What exactly was she talking about?

Joram closed his eyes and went back to his “core” and realized something that might have been a bit more than a little bit important: it was empty. Where one’s liquified core would normally be was instead occupied by a vast emptiness.

What had he done?

His mind raced so much that he became dizzy, causing him to nearly fall over if not for Grammy reaching out to hold him up in time.

Once his mind cleared enough to regain his sense of balance, he concentrated on his Knowledge Star and was relieved to see the lightshow continuing around it. OK, so that was fine. But what did that mean for his cultivation?

He came back to himself, seeing Grammy’s expression. His heart filled to overflowing at the love she was showing him, so he reached out and embraced her, hugging her fiercely. She responded in kind but held back so as not to break him in half, which he appreciated greatly.

After a moment she stiffened up, then ended the huggles by holding him at arms’ length, a look of utter shock on her face.

“How are you so strong?” She asked, incredulity thick in her voice and plain as day on her face.

He concentrated for a moment to send her another invitation through the Network, then smiled as it was accepted as soon as it was received.

‘You remember how I described working on my Knowledge Star?’

‘Yes?’

‘Well, I found it a bit too difficult to condense the mana, so I kind of brought it to my Knowledge Star so that the gravity there could help in the process,’ he sent, realizing that this was likely the reason that she thought that he’d burned himself out in his attempt to condense his core.

Her jaw dropped.

He took a moment to commit that sight to memory, not wanting to forget such a rare and wondrous sight.

‘You what?’, disbelief practically flooded the Network, causing him to blink.

‘Well, I was losing my “grip” on the mana, so I pulled it to my Knowledge Star to help the process along.’

She sat there for a minute in stunned silence before her eyes lit up, then they began darting back and forth as her mind raced, her mouth moving as though speaking, but no sound came out. After another few minutes of that never-before-seen spectacle, she once again focussed on Joram.

‘I don’t know if what you did was incredibly… unwise, or if it was the most brilliant thing performed in the history of cultivation,’ she sent with such seriousness and awe that it almost felt like a blow to the head.

‘I don’t know what this will mean for your future cultivation, as this in an entirely new path you’ll need to tread on your own, but I hope that you’ll let me share this journey of yours and record it for future posterity.’

That gave him pause. He wasn’t willing to let her know that he’d raided the Heavenly Archive and was using cultivation methods left behind by Altaea. He was sure that that would cause an eruption that he might not survive. That said, if he left out the fact that he had condensed more than one core, he might just be able to share his progress with her.

There was a thought. He had formed sixty-four cores that were now zipping about his Knowledge Star. Each one, according to Altaea, had the same growth potential as a single core formed in the traditional way. That meant that his mana reserves would be monstrous… But that also meant that he’d consume that much more while cultivating, as the manual was very clear that to keep progressing through the Tiers, he’d need to make sure that each and every core was developed equally. In other words, they all had to reach the same point before he could advance.

That meant that all sixty-four cores would have to be condensed into a solid before he could reach Tier 4.

He felt a headache coming on. This had gone way too fast, surpassing his expectations and causing not a little bit of uncertainty.

‘Yes, Grammy, I can share my progress with you as I cultivate,’ he sent. Then had a thought. ‘It may take longer than normal now that my core isn’t at the centre of my body. I’m not sure how that’ll affect things.’

He really hoped that she’d buy that explanation, as he knew that it’d take him a very long time to solidify all of his cores. He also knew that he’d need Avi on almost constant resource acquisition mode to help sustain his growth. Then another thought occurred to him that really did cause a headache to come on.

Each cultivation method that Altaea had left for him, and every other one on the planet, assumed that his core would be at his “centre”, meaning that he would have to research how to rework the paths that mana needed to circulate through his body.

His headache quickly slid to the realm of migraine, causing him to close his eyes with a wince.

‘I think I need more rest,’ he managed to send through the pain. It was better than speaking out loud, as that would cause a whole other level of pain to blossom in his head.

Grammy caught on quickly, merely nodding as she helped him lay down and tucked him in. She then leaned forward and kissed his forehead, as light as a feather being blown across his skin. He smiled, then mouthed the words: “I love you” before letting his consciousness fade.

* * * * *

Tatia watched as Joram’s breathing evened out, sensing through the Network that he had fallen asleep. She could feel just how much his head hurt, as the pain managed to reach her through their connection.

She sent a silent prayer to whatever gods may be listening, asking them to keep him safe.

She didn’t know what the future would hold for him, but as daunting as the thought of how difficult his cultivation would be now, she also felt a thrill of excitement run through her body. He had managed to completely pass through the Second Tier and condense his core, leaping straight to Tier 3. It was simply heaven-defying.

He was breaking new ground here, potentially pioneering a whole new cultivation method.

Tatia didn’t know what his results would bring, but she very much looked forward to the future.