The first expansion of my Dantian was fairly easy, kind of like blowing up a balloon. With a full Ki pool, I squeezed my Meridians and forced more Ki into my Dantian than it could handle. Each point of Ki pushed its boundaries wider. I kept pushing it until it felt like it would tear open, then I let it relax. As the boundaries of my Dantian relaxed, Ki flowed back into my meridians.

When everything settled, my Dantian was slightly wider. It could hold about five more points than it did before. Not much, but it was a start, only four more and I would open my Middle Dantian. I checked the time and the process only took about ten minutes with the pill.

Congratulations, you have advanced from Body Cultivation Rank 8 to Body Cultivation Rank 8-1

You have 2 attribute points to allocate.

These were the first attribute points I could spend as I wished. It was a delightful change of pace. The big question was where to put them. I opened up my character screen to see where they would do the most good.

John Baker c6165

Sapient (Human)

Cultivation Rank: Body 8-1

Strength 23 +/-

Dexterity 19 +/-

Agility 20 +/-

Constitution 27 +/-

Endurance 26 +/-

Intelligence 23 +/-

Wisdom 22 +/-

Free Attribute Points available: 2

Health points: 135/135

Health regeneration: 57/day

Stamina: 338/338

Stamina Regeneration: 47/minute

Ki: 225/230

I started off on this journey focusing on my agility, my ability to move quickly and smoothly, but it was one of my lowest attributes, only my Dexterity was lower at 19. My Dexterity was the only one below twenty now, though. I should get another two attribute points each time I expanded my Dantian, so that would leave me with eight more. I went ahead and brought my Dexterity up to twenty and raised my Agility to twenty-one.

Once I hit accept, Ki flowed out of my Bone and Dermal Meridians and suffused my joints and my skin. It wasn’t as dramatic a sensation as when I first opened my Meridians, but it was palpable.

New points spent; I topped off my Ki pool and repeated the process. Expanding my Meridian was quite easy. The difference between an average Meridian Cleansing Pill and a high grade Dantian Expansion pill was night and day. I shuddered at what kind of cost a high-grade pill was when the average grade Meridian pill was a thousand credits before the second stage of Initialization.

This time I didn’t stop after one expansion to spend points. As soon as each expansion settled, I refilled my Ki pool and pushed on my meridians to stretch my Dantian immediately. Each round grew in difficulty, even with the aid of the pill. By the time I completed my fourth expansion, I had to stop and restore my stamina, even with my body’s increased recovery.

As I waited for my Stamina pool to recover for the final push, I saw Magnus and Koda leave the admin building. They both looked exhausted but jubilant over their new bond. Magnus was talking with Koda, and he showed behaviors that left no doubt that the bear cub could understand. I smiled at their new bond and looked over at the chrysalis that held Rukia within. I was sure she was okay; I could still feel her in our bond. She was deeply asleep, almost like she was in a coma. I couldn’t sense anything of what she was going through, what changes she was undergoing, but she was still alive and safe.

Cody went inside the admin building next as I prepared to push myself into the next stage of my cultivation. I spent my three of my six attribute points on my Agility, bringing it to twenty-four. Two more went into my Dexterity, bringing it up to twenty-two. With the Returning function of my Dragon’s Fangs, I needed better accuracy for throwing. The last point I put into my strength to increase my melee damage, bringing it up to twenty-four.

My Ki pool was up to two hundred forty-five points, expanding my Dantian to hold the last five points was a challenge. My Meridians were aching from the constant strain, my Dantian throbbed from the immense pressure I was putting it under. It was probably smarter to expand it slowly over several days, if not weeks. But I didn’t know how long the Dantian Expansion pill would last, and I needed enough strength that nothing could slow us down again. I was planning on pushing hard once we left and make up for lost time.

With thoughts of my family in my mind, I pushed harder than I had ever pushed before. I nearly collapsed my Meridians under the pressure, and my Lower Dantian stretched that tiniest bit more. At the extreme limit my Dantian could hold, right before it tore like a paper lantern, it touched something else.

Everything stopped for a single heartbeat. A tiny spot opened up and a pale green light shone into my Dantian. My Ki swirled around my stretched out Dantian, turning turbulent as more of the Ki touched the green light. The pinprick opening widened further and further, letting more light through. The turbulence in my Ki increased. I lost all control over my Ki and my meridians, power flowing back into my channels with no control.

My arms flung out and my back arched painfully as I lost control over my body. The opening to my Middle Dantian continued to widen. There was a storm raging within my body. My head fell back, and I opened my mouth to scream, but instead of sound, the pale green light shout out in a widening column piercing through the scant cloud cover and traveling deep into the night.

Light shone out of my eyes, ears, nose and mouth, then my fingertips. Before long, my entire body was radiating the Jade light. Phantom flames flickered over my skin as my body rose a foot into the air. The Ki in my body ignited and burned with greater intensity than the potions I took to temper my body.

Every drop of Ki in my body combusted into a chain reaction. The opening between my two Dantians continued to widen. Eventually, the opening was as wide as my lower Dantian and they merged into one. The moment they fused together, all the Ki in my body compressed. Essence from all around me flooded into my body, not just through my lungs but passing through my skin, my organs, and came in from every direction. Wind swirled around me like a miniature tornado. The essence within ignited and burned down to tiny specks that joined the raging Ki.

The burning Ki within passed out through my body, igniting more Essence as it came in until it reached my skin. With my skin now filled with burning essence, the essence in the surrounding air ignited and a burning tornado of power, which flooded back into me with more power, quickly surrounded me. energy fluxed in and out of me, rapidly oscillating.

The pain was incredible, but it would have been far worse if I hadn’t prepared even the most basic amount recommended, by refining my body to a rank 1 Fire Elemental Body.

The power within me built up far more than even my newly expanded and merged Dantian could handle. I had to vent it somewhere before it caused my Dantian to rupture and forever end my cultivation journey. The only option I had was to push the excess power through one of my Meridians, and I had little time to consider the choice. So, I made the same choice as I did the first time I opened a meridian, though it was halfway random then. I poured all the excess elemental Ki into my Bone Meridian and let it flood my bones and joints to capacity.

Eventually, the surrounding firestorm died down. The flood of energy into and out of my body slowed and came to a stop. My body lowered until my feet touched the ground and I collapsed like a rag doll. I was unconscious before my now bare ass hit the dirt.

“Bro, are you ok?” Magnus asked while shaking me back into consciousness. “Dude, that green fire tornado was bad ass, totally dope. You’re an energy cultivator now, aren’t you?”

“Ugh,” I groaned softly as I was being jostled. My bones felt like they had been removed, put in an oven, baked until they cracked open, and then someone scooped out all the marrow before putting them back in. I brought my hand up to brush off Magnus so I could get my bearings, but the casual movement blurred past and smacked him hard enough to knock Magnus back on his ass.

“What?” I said, confused.

“Bro, you didn’t have to knock me down like that. I was going to give you some space once you came to,” Magnus said with some annoyance and hurt in his tone.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” I apologized. I tried to stand up, but moved too quickly and over compensated, eating dirt instead of getting to my feet. I slowly and carefully pushed up off of the ground and gradually stood up.

“My body is moving a lot faster than what I’m used to,” I explained. I brought up my attributes to see what all had changed.

John Baker c6165

Sapient (Human)

Cultivation Rank: Body 8-5, Energy 1

Strength 24

Dexterity 22

Agility 36

Constitution 27

Endurance 26

Intelligence 23

Wisdom 22

Free attribute Points available: 2

Health points: 270/270

Health regeneration: 114/day

Stamina: 676/676

Stamina Regeneration: 94/minute

Elemental Ki: 275/375

Defense 30

I slowly blinked at my stats. Everything doubled, well, my health and stamina doubled, including the regenerations. Right now, using no Ki or potions, I could recover one hit point every fifteen minutes. I could sprint non stop for practically forever now. It normally costs fifty-six stamina per minute to sprint, and I was well above that now.

If I remembered my experiments from early on, I could sprint for one mile per hour per point of agility. That meant that I could sprint at thirty-six miles per hour, faster if I cycled my Bone Meridian. I didn’t even know what kind of bonus that would give me now. It was a plus two if I cycled slowly, or plus four if I sped it up to the max. If it doubled like everything else, that would get me an extra eight agility, pushing me to forty-four points of agility.

I cycled my Jade Flame Ki through my Bone Meridian and confirmed my suspicions. A base cycle would do as much for me as a high cycle would previously. I tried cycling through my Dermal Meridian, but it was like sucking honey through a straw. I could do it, but only at the low cycling speed. Trying to push more than that through strained my Meridian and threatened to burst it. I immediately backed off, satisfied with my experiment. I would need to slowly reinforce the meridians over time before they could handle the power of my new Ki at maximum capacity.

As I looked through my internal Ki system, I noticed two new Meridians. They were dark, like the blocked off Meridians I had to open before. These two spiraled through my body, one clockwise, the other counterclockwise, and connected with every other meridian at some point. I thought back to the beginner’s guide to energy cultivation. These would be the Yin and Yang Meridians. One would increase my offensive Ki techniques, the other would increase my defensive techniques. So, I would have to reinforce all my Body Meridians and open these two Energy Meridians.

I dropped my last two free attribute points into my dexterity, bringing it up to twenty-four like my strength. Aside from my Agility, most of my attributes were in fairly good balance, with Constitution and Endurance at the highest. Even with considering the training of my attributes, it would seem cultivators were meant to be hardy and long lasting, with more points from opening meridians going to those two than any other.

It was nice getting those ten free attribute points to help customize your character a bit more. Those on the Path of Mana and the Path of Faith could fully customize their attributes as they went. I couldn’t do that as much and had to resort to physically training my stats and only between cultivation stages would I get free points to spend.

I looked at some of my other stats and saw that my fire resistance went up to fifty percent, which would help with my new title. Twelve and a half percent of fire damage would go to improving my elemental body now. My natural defense was thirty now.

My skin, muscle and bone were all as durable as that guy’s steel plate armor I fought at the weigh station just before I met Magnus. I hadn’t tried to activate my Dragon’s Scale Armor technique yet, but I could already tell from the burning potential in my Ki it would be even stronger than it was before.

Did I even need to wear leather armor anymore? It wasn’t the most comfortable. My Agility is high enough to avoid almost any attack now, and if they did hit, that’s what my Ki armor is for. There was a reason most cultivators in those books wore combat robes instead of armor, especially the high-ranking ones. They could block a sword with the edge of their bare hand. We already got a couple of spider silk shirts and a cloak each. But damned it. I need new pants. Boots too, or do I really need boots? My feet are stronger than any leather boot. I’ll think about it.

“Hey, um… do you happen to have a spare pair of pants I could use?” I asked Magnus. We were about the same size; I was only a bit shorter.

Magnus pulled out a black pair of sweatpants with a drawstring. “This work for you? They are my emergency pair and are a bit more forgiving of size differences.”

“That would be awesome dude, thank you,” and saying that I immediately put them on so my junk wouldn’t be swinging in the breeze any longer. I looked around and saw Kiara’s amber-brown skin turn a darker shade as she blushed with her head turned away. Rowan was beat red as well, fully turned away from my previous nudity.

“You know, with my barbarian ancestry and the whole Berserk bloodline ability, I might just switch it up. Instead of going with pants, I might just start rocking a leather utility kilt. What do you think? I have my Clan Donald plaid back home. If it’s still intact, anyway.”

“Dude, that would be totally dope. I don’t know if I could pull it off, though. Ill stick to my armor set. Mine shouldn’t burn away like yours did,” Magnus said.

“How close are you to reaching the Energy stage yourself?” I asked.

“My Mind Meridian is almost there. Maybe about ten percent left to clear. That will be my eighth Meridian. Then I just need to expand my own Dantian and go through that fireworks show,” he answered.

“Damn, you are almost there. Think you can finish it by tonight? As soon as Rukia breaks free, we need to move and move fast.”

“I guaran-fuckin-tee it.” Magnus answered with total confidence.

“Well, I’m going to go talk to the tailor real quick. Keep an eye around here, please?”

“Will do.”

With that, I turned and jogged over to where I spotted the arcane weaver who just watched the spectacle I put on.

“Hey, Chris, do you, by chance, work with leather as well as cloth?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ve made some leather clothes and armor. What do you need?” he asked back.

“Could you make me some leather pleated kilts? Preferably with some innate fire resistance? I wouldn’t want to burn them with my own Ki. I have some Fire aligned mana crystals that might help.” When I saw his interest in the fire mana crystals, I pulled one out for him to see.

“Does it need to be leather? With one of these crystals for each kilt, I can make something fantastic with my loom. It would have the Fire element worked into the very thread, instead of just having an enchantment laid over it.”

“As long as it’s durable, I don’t care. I just think of leather when thinking of durable garments.” I said.

“How many kilts did you want? And preference for color?”

“I think four would be good. I prefer earth tones, so a dark green and maybe a good tan or light brown color would do fine.” I said as I pulled out three more crystals.

“I’ll tell you what, I can have them all done for you before morning, and ill even give you a discount. I won’t try to enchant them. That young man of yours has a higher enchanting skill out of everyone around here, so he would do better work than I. ill get it all done for one thousand credits. I’ll even be using some of that Glimmersilk Spider thread. So, I guarantee a high-quality result.”

Trusting the man to keep his word, I shook his hand and willed the thousand credits to him. He was surprised to be paid in advance, but just shrugged and, after taking my waist measurement and measured from the top of my knee to my hip, he went off to get to work.

I turned around intime to see Cody walking out of the admin building, face redder than his brothers was, but with a cheerful grin as he admired his newly bound shield. I walked up and checked it out.

Paladin’s Burning Retribution

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 100/100

Defense: 40

Weight: 3lbs

Traits: If the Shield holds absorbed Fire, Shield bashes deal +30 fire damage.

Magic effects: Fire resistance +50%, Fire damage resisted is stored. Stored fire damage can be released in one burst in a 15 ft long, 15 ft wide cone. Max Fire stored = 100 + Shield Skill Rank.

Soul-Bound: all effects gain holy subtype, Burning Holy Strike, Divine Bulwark.

Divine Charges: 6/6

Not too shabby, the durability went up by thirty points and corrected any durability loss from the last few fights, increased the defense by five points, gained the holy subtype to its fire effects and gained two new abilities. I clicked on each one to see what they did.

Burning Holy Strike

Channel the power of the Divine into a pillar of holy Fire to damage your enemies. A pillar of holy fire, as wide as the shield erupts forth and extends to 100 feet, damaging everything in its path. Can be combined with Retributive Fire attack. If added to Retributive Fire attack, instead of 100-foot pillar of fire, increase Cone Range to 30 ft x30ft. Damage = Bonded Intelligence x Faith Rank +30%.

Cost: 1 Divine charge.

Divine Bulwark

Upon activation, create 10ft x 10ft wall of solidified holy fire affixed to shield. Defense of wall = Shield +20% per Divine Favor Rank. Durability = Shield + 20% per Divine Favor Rank. Duration: 5 minutes per Divine Favor Rank.

Cost: 1 Divine Charge.

I clapped Cody on his back in congratulations. My arm accidentally moved too quickly and a loud smack echoed out from my palm, striking the leather. Cody staggered, and I quickly apologized and explained my agility increase and how I was learning to control my movements again. He forgave me and watched as Rowan entered the admin building for his turn.

While we waited the hour for Rowan’s ritual, I practiced my movements. First, getting the hang of just walking again. I figured out that if I cycled Ki through my Mind Meridian; I learned to control my movements quicker and more smoothly, with less embarrassing mistakes.

Once I had basic movement down, I started practicing the basic forms of dual axe I got from absorbing the martial art back at the weigh station. The moves weren’t the most advanced. I could only afford the basics at the time, but they would make for a great foundation for developing my own style. Moving slowly and carefully, I went through all the forms. Then went through them again. I had to keep reminding myself, slow is smooth, smooth is fast. By the time Rowan came out with his Soul-Bound Robes, I had a good handle on my new Agility.

Arcane robes of Abundant Mana

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 40

Defense: 14 (1/level)

Weight: 1lb

Traits: +20% enchantment effect

Magic effects: +41% Mana Regeneration, Self-Mending, Self-Cleaning

Restores durability at a rate of: 1.65 per hour

Soul-bound: 1 Defense/Level +2% mana Regeneration/level, +2% Light Damage added to Arcane spells/level, Arcane Vortex 1 per day per 10 levels.

Arcane Vortex

When activated, 2% per level of all mana-based damage is absorbed by the Arcane robes of Abundant Mana, converted back to Mana, then funneled into Bonded’s Mana Pool. Duration 30 Seconds/ Level.

Kiara went inside while we congratulated Rowan on his new Soul-Bound item. He waited with the rest of us for Kiara to go through her ritual. Then we would all go to bed. We needed all the rest we could get if we were to travel quickly tomorrow.

With my movements handled, I practiced my least destructive abilities. It was time to get a handle on my new, more potent Ki.

Cycling the Ki through my meridians felt like it was moving slower than usual. If Essence was a gas, basic Ki was a water, and my elemental Ki was a syrup. It was thicker, heavier, but when it moved, it imparted more force.

I couldn’t quite activate my Grace in Combat; the Ki flows were uneven, and it threw off the whole balance of the technique. With a bit of effort, I could activate my Jade Dragon Scale Armor. The previously earthy golden yellow scales were now green. It wasn’t all just one shade of green either. It varied from a green that was almost a creamy white to a green so dark it was almost a forest green. It created a rippling pattern over me like a vibrant, opalescent serpent.

With the Armor on, my Fire resistance increased to one hundred percent, and gave me a ten percent earth resistance. It also gave me a fifty percent resistance to curse like effects, which could include most debuffing abilities. The protective power of jade at work. The Cost dropped drastically, from thirty Ki to ten,, the Defense bonus increased by twenty points to fifty and the duration increased from five minutes to twenty-five minutes. I couldn’t push any more power into it like I could before. The limits of my Dermal Meridian prevented me from doing so until I reinforced it as well. But the bonuses were more than worth it.

Congratulations, your Ki Technique “Jade Dragon Scale Armor” has increased in Rank

“Jade Dragon Scale Armor” Rank 10

Bonuses: +10% durability, +10% Duration

Bloody hell, activating the technique with Elemental Ki jumped it up by an entire seven ranks. This was the first technique to actually get a bonus for it as well. Even Magnus hasn’t gotten a technique up to rank ten yet. They were much harder to level than skills, unless you use a more advanced energy, it seems. I wanted to try out my Ki bullet, but it was late and we were in the middle of the village, so it would have to wait until we were far enough away on the following day.

By this time, another hour had passed, and Kiara came out with an exhausted-looking Laura. The High Priestess looked totally wrung out after five hour-long rituals. Her hair was limp from sweat and she walked in a slump in her loosely draped robe.

The High Priestess mustered up her reserves and addressed us as a group. “I wanted to thank you again for your help safeguarding our village. If you ever return this way, or if things don’t work out where you are going, you will always find a welcoming home among us. And that being said, I’m about dead on my feet. I’m turning in and getting some sleep. I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow.”

We all thanked her for her kind words and the Soul-Binding then let her get to her rooms and sleep it off.

I checked out Kiara’s new Soul-bound staff while I had the opportunity and was fairly impressed with it, as I had been with everyone’s items.

Gardner’s Staff

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 60/60

Damage: 30

Weight: 3lbs

Traits: Mana infused Ash Wood, Mana Crystal

Magic effects: +41% plant magic spell effect, +41% mana regeneration, +41% durability

Mana Pool: 400/400

Mana Pool Regeneration: 20/min

Soul-Bound: Wall of thorns, Natures domain.

Wall of Thorns

Rapidly grow a wall of thorny brush that extends ten feet tall and up to twenty feet wide. Creatures pushing through Wall of thorns receive damage from magically enhanced thorns. Wall of Thorns will last until the Brush Dies. Damage on forced entry: 1/second /rank in plant magic. Ignores 2% Defense/Rank in Plant Magic.

Natures Domain

Creates a domain of nature magic equal to 2 feet per level that will cleanse disease and poison, neutral or allied creatures regenerate 1hp per minute and gain +30% mana and stamina regen. Any Herbs Growing within gain a permanent +10% potency per use. Multiple uses stacks up to 10x, further uses will have no effect on herbs.

Mana cost: 400. Duration: 1hour. Cool Down: 24hrs

The staff itself increased to masterwork, increasing its damage, durability and special effects, which was nice. The Thorn Walls ability was cool too, but what impressed me the most was Nature’s Domain. As Kiara grew in level, the area it would cover would increase. Not only did it cleanse poisons and disease, it also regenerated health at one per minute. Even with my incredible health regeneration now, it was still fifteen times better than my natural recovery. It amazed me how it didn’t just affect everything in its area of influence either, enemies would get no benefit from it.

It was quite expensive, at four hundred mana per cast, and a full day cool down. But even with those limitations, it was phenomenal, especially since it gave permanent bonuses to herbs growing within the area of effect.

Once everyone finished gushing about everyone else’s Soul-Bound items, we all turned in and get some sleep. Rowan also agreed to enchant the Kilts Chris was sending to me and Cody was going to make me a new belt with the loops to hold my axes. I had to keep them in my storage ring for now. I was lucky it didn’t take any durability loss during my whole green firenado scene.

I settled in and was drifting off to sleep. Just before the darkness consumed me completely, I realized I never checked the prompts I got from advancing. I had enough time to think, gods damned it, before I was out cold. I would have to look it over the next day.