Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

It’s a real fucking OP MC Treasure! Fuck yes! I’m so goddamn happy! It feels like I just won the fucking lottery! Not that I’ve ever won the lottery. Who the hell cares about the lottery, OP MC Treasures are much more valuable! My luck is fucking great! Yeah! High five!

{The system cannot use any hands to complete your high five.}

Aah… That felt good. Not what the system said, but letting out my happiness. Fucking great! It’s like in Pokemon when you capture legendary Pokemon, that’s how it feels. Except, it’s not Pokemon. I’m sure you get the analogy though, I’m very happy. I gaze at the MC Treasure in my hands. I really want to find out it’s secrets. Well, let’s have the trusty system here help me out. It’s not cheating, I’m just using resources to their fullest potential. Now, reveal to me your secrets, little ring!

{The system is blocked from obtaining all information from the target.}

… I thought you could do it system. I thought you were the best system to ever system. Why have you let me down so?

{The system is not omnipotent.}

Then I’d really like to find someone who is.

“Damn...” I mutter unconsciously.

Wait! System, you said that you were blocked from getting ‘all information’ from the ring, right?

{That assumption is correct.}

Then, what do you know?

{The target’s base ability is storage, you can store up to 100 trillion square miles within the dimensional space inside the target. Currently, 6 square miles have been used up.}

You fucking serious?! 100 trillion square miles are no joke, you know! That’s fucking huge! It’s bigger than Earth!

Damn… This is great. I was let down, but now I was brought back up. By the way, how do I see what’s inside the ring?

{Send a strand of qi into the ring.}

But I’m still in Beyond Mortal Realm, and I haven’t even reached Qi Externalization yet.

Beyond Mortal Realm is separated into 5 subdivisions. The first is the Shallow Cleansing, where you body is cleansed of impurities, but because the qi in your body is insufficient, you cannot fully clean yourself. Then comes Qi Absorption, which is where I’m at. Qi Absorption is as the name says, you gather qi to prepare for the Deep Cleansing. Deep Cleansing comes after Qi Absorption and gets rid of all the impurities that Shallow Cleansing missed. After that comes Qi Externalization. Before this stage, qi is stuck inside the body and cannot exit unless it used in a magical ability or others like it. After you reach this stage, you can finally freely send your qi outside your body. Finally, Qi Spiritualization comes and gives your qi the ability to change attributes freely, and gives it’s own attribute, which is different for each person. Basically, it’s where your qi becomes an individual. It also strengthens your qi so it can be manipulated better outside your body.

After explaining this to no one, I listen to the system explain.

{As long as the target you wish to send your qi into is touching your body and is not separated by any other layers, it will be able to enter your target without any hindrances.}

That makes sense. Following the system’s instructions, I send my qi into the MC ring. The flow of qi gets aggravated between my skin and the ring. The ring forcibly takes the qi that I’ve sent into it, and, basically, eats it up like dinner. It moves my qi through it’s digestive system -although it doesn’t have one- and finally shits it own as an ownership authentication.

… That was a terrible metaphor.

“Uwah…” I let out an exclamation of shock.

It’s understandable. I have never encountered a treasure above the level of an Empyrean treasure, which is a level above Sol treasures and 4 levels behind a God treasure. Basically, something way better than my proudest creation that I’ve ever made before. Inside this MC Treasure is a massive space glittering with countless stars on a black backdrop. Right through the middle is a hazy pink wide line, looping around like a ring through this space. When I put it like that, it seems like it’s the physical part of the ring. Makes sense.

I look in front of me.

What the fuck are those?

{The most likely answer is: items left behind by the previous owners of this God treasure.}

Huh…

I kinda expected that, but what the hell is that one? I point an item that looks like it was made from grinding wheat.

{The closest match to that item is the Soul Grindstone. The effect of the treasure is to temper the strength of heart and Mental Force.}

Ah?! Mental Force tempering?! Hell yes!

Explanation time children! Please take your seats and remember to take notes. Mental Force is an energy created from the mind. It actually comes from the soul, but it is referred to as Mental Force instead of Soul Force because of various reasons. Mental Force is something you cultivate, similar to, well, cultivation. It is divided into 13 major realms, and divided once more into 9 sub-realms. Why 9 and 13? Shit if I know. The 13 realms are, from weakest to strongest, Mortal Soul, Free Soul, Soul Split, Buddha Soul, Immortal Soul, True Soul, Sublime Soul, Dust Soul, Earth Soul, Sky Soul, Heaven Soul and Soul of Ambition. Well, These are all unrelated to cultivation -which I will now refer to as immortal cultivation for convenience’s sake- and rise separately.

Right, back to what I was doing. I move to it, because Mental Force tempering is real nice. It means I don’t have to spend as much time purely rising ranks because this little grindstone will help me out. I stare at it intently, trying to figure out how to use it. The first thing I think of is to use my Mental Force to activate it. Surprise, I actually have some Mental Force cultivation! It’s because all I needed was my soul to start cultivating. Guess what, I had 13 years to give it my all without any distractions. Although, I only used 12 years of that time to actually cultivate. During those 12 years, I reached Soul Split, but reached a bottleneck. I neglected it because Soul Split is already higher than the higher-end average area of Mental Force cultivation on Nephila.

Sending a wisp of my Mental Force into the Soul Grindstone, I probe around it. I only sent in a bit because I was cautious, but do I need to put in more? I try adding more and more Mental Force, eventually reaching the threshold of Free Soul, where something finally happens. The Grindstone starts spinning, and I add more, trying to get it to turn faster. The two wheels on the Grindstone make a clank sound and I feel a reaction from my Mental Force, a sense of connection. Right before the pain hit me.

“Gah!” I let out a chocked shout of pain.

I can’t breathe! Suddenly, I find myself back out in the real world. The pain is gone and all I’m left with is the memory of it. What was that? It was painful as hell! Why was me binding it the trigger for that?

{Due to the Mental Force being inside the Soul Grindstone, the function of it was immediately activated. The pain you felt was due to the forceful and brutal methods by which one’s Mental Force is trained in the Soul Grindstone. It applies the concept of ‘destruction before establishment’ and viciously destroys the owner’s Mental Energy so that it can become more resistant to foreign forces that can destroy Mental Energy.}

That… makes a lot of sense…

Well, let’s get going.

{POV change to Rucia, commencing…} -System

As I open my eyes after a successful session of cultivation, I turn to where Ardven was cultivating as well. I had forgotten that he was asleep since he was so lively, but it seems he was okay. I see him laying down, twitching on the floor. This… doesn’t look good.

“Ardven? Are you okay?” I ask him.

If he doesn’t respond, something must be wrong. I sit and wait for a few moments. He doesn’t respond. Oh no! What do I do? I stand up and hurry over to him. I shake him repeatedly to wake him up.

“Ardven! Are you okay? Wake up!” I shout at him.

His eyes snaps open and he glares at me. His body stops twitching and seems to have calmed down. W-why are you looking at me like that?

“As I though,” Ardven whispered. “She’s an idiot.”

“I can hear you, you know!”

God, he’s such a jerk!

“What the heck were you doing?! You worried me, you know! I helped you out of my own good will, yet this is how you respond?!” I ask him angrily.

“Whatever, leave me alone a bit.” He mutters to me.

Argh! Why is he being such a pain?! Wake up jackass!

“Why won’t you listen to me?!” I demand.

“BECAUSE IT’S OP!!” He roars.

“What?! Is this OP more important than me?!”

“YES IT IS!! RIGHT NOW AT LEAST!”

WHY?!?!