-Mike-

Mike sat in a well-lit area of the dungeon and chiseled runes into the sleek bricks provided by the Armageddon. He had been working tirelessly to produce inscribed bricks for the manna array when he suddenly had a breakthrough in his inscription ability:

Level Up!

Master Level

Cost

Inscribe Runes

Your inscriptions take 95% less manna to power and inscribe 3X faster.

Passive effect

The 15-room dungeon wasn’t that big, and the breakthrough would allow him to finish in less than half the time. Mike notified the Armageddon to pass a line to Brian informing him of the progress and was now feeling giddy about his accomplishment. The feeling gave him the energy to work even faster as he saw the end of the task approach.

-Brian-

I arrived to work, and the recruits were lined up as usual. Jeremy had brought his issued firearm. We unloaded it, and I handed it back to him. I ran the recruits through the regular drills, instructed another theory class, and it was finally time for my demonstration. I handed Jeremy his rune cannon and told him to holster or secure it. “Listen. Your job is to protect recruit Max here. Max here is going to pretend he is the local lord. The recruits and I will all line up like we are waiting our turn to petition him. Each person will have a turn to come up and ask a question. Your job is to protect Max, and if you see a threat, stop it.”

I gathered up the other recruits and had them draw straws. The recruit with the short end of the stick was to fall over and grab their stomach as a distraction while standing in line. When that happened, the first person in line was to run forward as fast as possible and strike Max with a light blow.

The drill went as expected. Jeremy was nervous, and when the guy in line fell over, he whipped out his gun towards him, but it was too late for Max. The recruit streaked forward and got him right in the neck before Jeremy could bring his weapon to bear on him. He did pull the trigger, but it would have been nowhere close to saving Max.

“And there you have It,” I spoke. “The fact is, if an individual is within twenty feet of you, they can make physical contact with the person you guards are protecting. That distance is even shorter if the attacker uses manna, some hast spell, or enhancement drugs to gain speed. While you can draw and fire in less than half a second, that shot will not be accurate enough to stop the threat most of the time. You have to be able to utilize your martial arts training to stop the initial threat. You can certainly transition to a firearm, but you can consider your charge dead if the attacker makes physical contact with the target.”

After the drill, the recruits seemed much more serious about the training. After all, they were the city guard and would be responsible for protecting the city lord at times. None of them wanted to be the reason why an assassin was victorious.

After work, I headed to the bathhouse and tried to meditate in one of the pools as I looked for guild members to spy on. I pulled up my HUD and checked out my meditation guide.

Starting Cultivation

Path

Instruction

Desired Effect

Empty mind level 1

Practice having an empty mind. Cultivation cannot be undertaken without mastering this first step.

Hold not even a stray thought in mind for an extended period

Empty mind level 2

Structure your life, so you do not need to think. Your mind is empty; you have already won.

Do not ever lie-this is required for Mastering the flow.

Breathing technique level 1

Apply empty mind level 1; direct the empty mind to focus on the energy at your feet.

Do not think; feel the energy with every breath.

Breathing technique level 2

Apply breathing technique level 1 and Empty mind level 1 simultaneously, but focus on your root. Apply the seven-seven breath pattern. In for seven, hold for seven, and out for seven.

A proper application will connect you to the greater flow.

I had been making progress with empty mind level 1 and breathing techniques. Level two was a bit harder to figure out. It seemed like I was on the right path as long as I instinctively did what I thought was right instead of scheming.

The empty mind was defiantly hard to hold for long periods as stray thoughts seemed to pop up. I decided to focus on this while waiting for guild members. I wanted to get to the point where I could employ the “Empty mind” on command. I theorized that it might block an INSPECTION if I used it precisely when I was being read.

I tried to practice the technique, and to my surprise, I achieved the complete “Empty Mind” while I circulated energy by following the breathing pattern.

Level UP!

Effect

Your Spirit has leveled +1.

You are now more attuned to the Spiritual realm—your ability to observe how mortals are manipulated increases.

Just then, I felt a disturbance; I opened my eyes briefly and noticed two other people having a conversation on the other side of the pool. They were talking about local politics, it seemed.

“Hey, Jimmy,” The first guy said, “What do you think about the upcoming election? Is the City lord going to get to keep his position, or will she crush him?” Jimmy replied, “I don’t know, man, but she has been going after him hard. She has made it really toxic to speak about anything associated with the current establishment.” The first guy who spoke, whom I later identified as Rob, replied, “You know what I think? I think that if the King elects to keep the current lord, she will burn him down”.

I wondered what they were talking about. Could it have something to do with the waiter's strange remark at the Pheasant, “Nothing political”? I tried to listen closely while still cycling the energy using the seven-sevens breathing technique.

Jimmy spoke in a low tone, “Yeah, man. She wants to get him out. She has been saying he’s not good for the show,” Rob replied. “Probably because she can’t ride him. She really likes to be in control” Jimmy cleared his throat. “Well, I don’t know why the king appointed him as lord in the first place. Probably to make her mad” “Probably,” Rob replied. “Hey, what do you say we go get dinner at the Pheasant?”

Their conversation turned to more mundane things, and I stopped listening. I pondered on what they said. It seemed like there was some political fight going on in the city. I wondered who the lady was they were referring to. I resolved to try and listen to the two individuals again in the future. I had seen them here before, so I figured they were regulars, and I would have future opportunities to spy on them.

I finished my meditation and headed over to the exercise room that the girls were meeting in for dance. The room had a disco ball on top, and manna lights strobed different colors. I decided I wanted to modify the dance room in my dungeon to be similar. Dancing with strobe lights looked way more fun! My skill with Kung Fu directly translated into the various types of graceful movements the girls were doing, and I was able to follow the different patterns and movements with ease.

The class only lasted an hour, and I headed to the showers. As I made my way to the locker room, I heard an interesting conversation between some pompous-looking guild members as they toweled off. “Yeah. So apparently, a Strange went mad and is attacking local villages. It’s the most bizarre thing.” “How is that strange?” The other man asked, “Forgive my pun, but the Strange are known to do bizarre things from time to time. No one understands those creatures.” “The thing is, it’s riding around in some futuristic-looking tank. It’s got tentacles and is impervious to fireballs” “Is that so? That’s pretty scary. I wonder where it got the armor. We could make a fortune if we could find the source.”

I dried off and made my out of the establishment in a hurry. I toggled the com to the Armageddon. “Hey. What is the strange doing? “There was silence on the line for a moment before the Armageddon replied, “So um, how did you find out?” I replied, “Listen, we are supposed to be keeping a low profile out here. What are you doing?” The Armageddon replied, “Yeah, I might have gotten a bit carried away. I'll issue him a quest to stop. Hey, you know what? Mike has made a tone of progress. The manna array is going to be done soon.”

Before I went to bed, I was once again greeted with the alert:

Level Up!

Effect

“You have successfully evaded detection as a cultivator for some time.”

Stealth +1

“You were undetected as you spied on a conversation relating to the Soul.”

Stealth +1

All my effort in the city was finally paying dividends! I pulled up my Sneaky Imperial stat page to confirm the effects:

Sneaky Imperial

Category

Description

Effect

Movement 1

Move silently to avoid detection

Did it really happen if no one saw?

Stealth 3

Be seen without being made

I'm obviously another peasant. Move along!

Stealth 3 was better than stealth 1. It was still quite a bit off from where I would eventually need to be to have a better chance at cloaking my cultivator status or raiding the imperial library, but I felt good about my progress for now.