[Choose Reward: Offensive Skill, Defensive Skill, Support Skill. NOTE: Skill is guaranteed to be of Middle Quality or better]

  The good times continued when he saw the next reward. As much as he wanted to experiment with whatever the support skill would be, he knew he couldn’t afford it. Between his body, skill and robes defenses were fine, which meant it was time for offense. The prompts disappeared as the healing sensation abated. A moment later he was back in his apartment. He looked around for the skill slip but found nothing. Before he could complain, a burning sensation began on the back of his left hand. It only lasted a moment and wasn’t too painful. If anything, it was refreshing when compared to the cold he went through. He passed his mental gaze over the area and found a new skill symbol waiting for him. A moment later, the accompanying prompt appeared.

  Severing Disc–Proficiency: Early. A perfect cut brings finality. Upgradeable

  The new skill was upgradable, which improved its rating in Maximilian’s eyes. If he understood the explanation, it meant he could keep it when he was ready to evolve or advance. That was a long way away. The skill was high quality as well, which meant that everything had worked out in the end. He pushed his worries to the back of his mind and focused on what he could control. He had a new skill to test. He pushed spiritual energy into the symbol. When the skill was ready, a razor-sharp disc of golden energy formed just above his left hand. It took less than three seconds to activate and consumed about the same amount of energy as his defensive skill. He could tell that it had far more destructive power than Static Bolt though it lacked any additional effects. He resisted the urge to throw it at the wall, not wanting to risk it cutting through the metal. He cancelled the skill and checked the cooldown timer. It wasn’t bad at all. Static Bolt was still faster by half, but he couldn’t complain. He activated it again. This time, he formed the disc above the other hand.

  The more he experimented with the disc, the more he liked it. The skill was easiest to use if he physically moved it around, but he could control it with his mind. Further he could use both offensive skills at the same time. Quest five had been the most beneficial so far. He stopped wasting his energy and got cleaned up. He should have several hours to spend on cultivation, which would make up for some of the energy he lost. An hour later he was dressed, his robes had repaired themselves, and he sat in his cultivation chamber. He put his original plan on the back burner as he reviewed his last few battles. He wanted to gather energy, but something told him he could advance his skill. Prismatic Barrier had been instrumental in his survival multiple times now. Which meant that if he could upgrade it, then he had to take the chance. He closed his eyes and calmed himself .

  When he was ready, he focused on the skill symbol and tried to understand more of it. It was complicated, but he could see more of it than before. As if it had been hidden behind a fog of war and all he had to do was illuminate it. That was easier said than done. He pushed his energy through it so he could watch how it spread through the symbol. It reminded him of an electrical diagram or of the puzzles that were popular in older video games. The major difference being the energy flowed where it was supposed to without his influence. From what he could tell, he couldn’t interfere at all. He even checked his other skills and found the same thing. He had limited control over the process. He could slow the flow, and he could decide not to activate the skill, but that was it. He stopped the flow of energy and just meditated on the symbol. He understood it meant something, and that something was related to the Dao.

  He also assumed the shield was based on the Dao of light or radiance. He wasn’t sure why that would make a shield, but it was a path that he could follow. He was just about ready to give up when something changed. He hadn’t noticed the change at first. It was so minute. The darkness was being pushed back! His breath caught in his chest for a moment right before the sigil popped into focus. The change made the symbol more real than before. As if it were a pale imitation, and now he could see the real thing. Of course, he knew that wasn’t the case. He was closer to the full symbol, but it the skill was at middle proficiency. He tried to advance it again, but it was like pushing against a brick wall. He was sure that he understood the basic idea of advancement. He could spend all his time in this room advancing by understanding, but it was inefficient. He would be a hundred years old by the time he advanced everything. Battle was like a stimulant. It would get the juices going and reveal the way forward.

  The system was perverse in that it wanted you to fight, which wasn’t safe. Most people would die, and the survivors would change. His heart fell at the thought. He would change. It wasn’t like Earth was a haven of peace and love, but this felt different. He wasn’t sure if it was the tutorial or life in the multiverse. He shook his head and banished the thought. He knew it wasn’t true. Thrawn mentioned that practitioners were the ones who went out and fought, so there had to be normal people. People who wanted to live simple lives away from conflict. They just needed to survive long enough for that to happen again. He shifted focus and started up his cultivation technique. He watched the spiritual energy for a while before he focused on his meditation. He let himself slip into a trance for several hours. When he decided it was time to stop, he had recovered more than half of the energy he lost. Assuming things stayed the same, he should gain another level either during the cultivation day or the quest. He would prefer the former if he had the choice. He got to his feet and stretched. It was time for him to get some rest.

  The next day he woke and headed toward the main hall. It wasn’t until he encountered others that he realized something was off. At first, he thought he was being judged by his fellow humans for being antisocial, but that was wrong. It wasn’t that they were angry with him. If anything, it was the opposite. It was like they were afraid. After a few minutes, he stopped someone. The unfortunate target was a man who looked like he was still in high school. He had short dirty blonde hair and wore dark blue robes that reminded Maximilian of the ocean. The boy tried to run, but he might as well have been moving through water with how slow he was.

  “Hold on a minute.” Maximilian began. “I don’t want to hurt you. I have questions. Why are you so afraid? I haven’t done anything?”

  “You feel like a monster.” The boy whined as his fingers twitched toward the dagger at his hip. “I don’t want any problems. You can have my—”

  Maximilian held a hand up, but the boy flinched back so hard he almost knocked himself to the ground. At that point, Maximilian decided it was better to move on. There was a crowd of onlookers, who all looked ready to bolt. Everyone except for the lizardfolk who stared at him with a weird hunger. Like they wanted to fight or kill him. He made a mental note to find out if violence was allowed during the tutorial. The way the boy acted made him think it was. Or that people could threaten each other at least. Maximilian got to the hall as fast as he could. The situation got worse the more people he encountered. It was so bad that people avoided sitting anywhere near him as they waited for the dwarves. He attempted conversation a few more times, but they all ended the same way. By the time Thrawn and the others appeared, he was thankful for the distraction.

  “Greetings, fledgling.” Thrawn’s voice bellowed as his gaze passed over the crowd. “Some of you have gained some real fangs. Good, good. The subject of today’s lesson might be the most prominent for the strongest among you. You see, every action you take has a consequence, and I don’t mean karma. I mean, your aura.” Thrawn paused as murmurs passed through the crowd. Maximilian remembered the topic from a yoga class in college. He never paid much attention to it, but that would have to change. Assuming they were the same thing. Before he continued his explanation, he snapped his fingers, and evolution pills appeared. Maximilian placed his inside his bag and then focused on the lesson.

  “Now, before you get yourselves twisted up, I am going to explain it to you in simple terms. Your aura is your weight on the world, your presence. There are many ways of saying the same thing. It isn’t people who have auras. Treasures, weapons and beasts have it as well. Your old world shouldn’t have had many people that could detect auras. Though we’ve been surprised before. You all should have noticed by now that you feel a bit more dangerous. Those of you putting your lives on the line in battle, anyway. That’s your aura and your killing intent. Killing intent, for those of you not able to put the pieces together, is the intent and ability to kill made manifest. People who do a lot of killing have a more powerful killing intent. In the right hand, it can be a mental attack or other purposes. The same thing is true for your weapons. Fear not, there are ways to purge your aura of killing intent should you not want to be a walking, talking battlefield. There are other things that influence your aura. Healers have auras that feel good, same for karmic cultivators, though we won’t get into that subject.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Maximilian looked down at his hands, though he was confident he wouldn’t see any signs of his aura. As far as he could tell, he was the same person as always, but that didn’t seem to be the case. He forced the worry and anxiety that gripped his heart down. The tutorial was halfway over, which meant they would get sent back soon. They would have to keep fighting, which meant either everyone would have a horrible aura or there had to be a way to deal with it. He doubted the Network would provide a way to do that for free. He was about to raise his hand and ask when Thrawn reached that part of the lesson.

  “As for controlling your aura, you can pull it within yourself. That is to prevent others from sensing it. People have varying levels of success at this, so don’t worry too much. The process isn’t easy to put into words, but it’s akin to taking a deep breath and holding it. You will need to form a proper connection with your aura first, which is something I suggest you get to working on now. That way we can get on with the discussion.”

  Maximilian took a deep breath and tried the same trick as when he learned to cultivate. The explanation wasn’t as good, but this one was much easier to get. Thrawn’s explanation was adequate but not complete. It felt more like his aura was a field around him and that he could compress that field down until it was inside his body. Keeping it there required constant mental effort, but it should be something he could do without too much effort. Once he was sure he had it down, he opened his eyes and looked around. He still couldn’t see the aura, so he couldn’t tell if it had worked. The closest people to him didn’t seem as bothered by his presence, though he couldn’t tell if that was his fault or if they were just distracted.

  “Alright, I believe that’s enough time. Those of you who have succeeded. Great, those of you who haven’t, keep practicing. There are some treasures that can do this for you, though they are expensive the more powerful your aura is. Cultivation is expensive enough as it is, but time is more important, so it’s up to you what you choose to prioritize. Now that you have control over it, I will provide you the only warning you will receive. If the difference in power between two people is great enough, their aura can be lethal. It is not uncommon for practitioners to introduce themselves by blasting each other with their auras.”

  Maximilian wanted to complain about that last part, but it made sense. He wasn’t sure if it was the Network or if it was the people that caused these problems. It was possible that the Network was growing alongside the multiverse and just providing what people wanted in a perverse version of democracy. Either way, there was nothing he could do about it. He made a mental note to keep his aura suppressed as long as he could so he could avoid accidentally killing anyone. That was the last thing he needed on his conscious. Thrawn went over a few more things that we needed to know before the trio disappeared. Maximilian waited for the others to leave before he moved. When he confirmed that most people weren’t avoiding him anymore, he considered it a victory, albeit a small one.

  When he reached his apartment, he continued his normal ritual and consumed the ancestry pill. This time, there was a change. His body temperature soared as sweat poured out of his body. He tried to wipe it away only to discover that it wasn’t sweat. It was a horrid black bile. The smell became nauseating as he ran water across as much of his body as he could. The horrible feeling lasted less than ten minutes before it was replaced with a power. His body had transformed into a vortex as his cell drained spiritual energy from the environment at a speed comparable to his cultivation technique. He closed his eyes and let the process take care of itself. When his body returned to normal, he pulled up his status screen and laughed. He had done it.

  He wasn’t sure what “Formation” referred to, but that was something to worry about later. He dealt with the first major hurdle. He would need to focus on the Dao after this, but he relished the minor victory. That sentiment lasted for less than ten minutes before the smell got to him. He circulated his spiritual energy and washed himself as fast as he could, but it made little difference. After a while, he wasn’t sure if he was still dirty or if he was imagining it. He kept at it for another ten minutes before he got up and got dressed. The changes were more or less what he had expected. The upgrade hadn’t made him any stronger. Instead, he had even better control over his body. He was also skinnier. His build was closer to a martial artist, which was strange. Even with the attributes he had a base level of fat he couldn’t get rid of before now. Part of him wondered if that was the black gunk, but he decided not to search for that answer. He was also sure that he would have to go through the process again. That thought was pushed to the back of his mind as well. He took a few more minutes to get used to the changes before he sat down in his cultivation chamber. He took a breath and started his cycling method.

  He spent the rest of the day and the next gathering his energy until he broke through to level 5. He divided his points between Intelligence and Strength, bringing each attribute above fifty. He waited a moment to see if he would get a title for it, but there was no luck. He grinned to himself and shook his head. He knew he was being greedy, but considering what was at state he gave himself a break. He focused on intelligence from here on out. It made less and less sense to spread himself out. The beasts were going to get stronger from this point on, and he needed to give himself the best chance. With any luck, he could rely on his titles to make up the slack. He reviewed his stats again and then got back to cultivating. He needed as much energy as he could get before tomorrow’s quest.