old chapel, Bishop stood to his side. The hunters had prepared a barrel
large enough for a single person, full of magically purified water.
Bishop opened the box of Minotaur paste, and Sebastian could almost hear the roar of the minotaur.
The hunter raised an eyebrow. “Eleazer was nice enough to
prepare individual packets, you’re lucky.” He held up an individual
packet of Minotaur paste. It looked almost like a store-bought teabag,
except rather than being half-filled with bits of tea leaves, it was
packed full of a squishy brown paste.
“How kind,” Sebastian said. “So, how does this work exactly?”
Bishop dropped the packet in the water and used a large
wooden stick to stir it. With each rotation of the stirring stick, the
water darkened with swirls of red.
“We mix the paste with the water, and once it’s fully
diluted you get in and stay there until you’ve absorbed everything it
has to offer, good and bad.”
Huh, Sebastian thought, having expected some far more complicated process.
As Bishop stirred, Sebastian took the opportunity to
learn more. “I was wondering, I’ve been told that experience is the bit
of a monster’s spirit that we absorb once we kill it. How do you explain
that we can get experience from a paste made of its remains after the
spirit is already gone?” While he had an idea himself, he was curious
about the official theory amongst the people of the kingdom.
“If it’s a good answer you want, then you’ll have to talk
to some theologian, but I’ve always just looked at it like energy. The
spirit is made of, or at least contains, energy, and as monsters—and we
as humans as well, I suppose—grow and gain more experience and levels,
that energy is spread throughout the body. We gain some of the
experience from the spirit when we hunt them, sure, but even more energy
is contained within their flesh as a result of a lifetime of energy
swirling around in there.”
He pulled the stick out of the tub and leaned it against the corner of the room.
“Now, the bath is good to go. Strip down and get in,” Bishop said as he looked at Sebastian and nodded his head toward the tub.
Sebastian had never been very shy, so he did as he was
told and stripped down to his birthday suit. As he did, he got curious
and used his [Mind’s Eye] to observe the spirit bath. Through the
perspective of the Skill, the water was lit up like a bonfire.
By sheer instinct and habit, he closed his eyes to shield
them from the bright light, but his [Mind’s Eye] wasn’t dependent on
his eyes, and so it did nothing.
It didn’t take long to get used to, fortunately.
Interestingly, he noticed that water gave off a similar
pressure as Bishop and the other hunters, although not quite the same.
It was as if the water was a sparkler, burning intensely for a short
while, unlike the persistent flames of life that were the hunters.
He turned off his Skill and got in the barrel of dark red monster juice.
The moment the tip of his toe touched the spirit bath he
felt the rush of essence entering his spirit body, and he began
receiving [System] alerts.
Essence drop gained: 0.01
Essence drop gained: 0.01
Essence drop gained: 0.02
...
The more of his body that was submerged in the water, the more essence drops he naturally gained.
Soon he was fully submerged, with the exception of his head.
He sat there for just a moment, cross legged, and felt
the wonderful sensation of energy rushing into him, but then he felt
something else as well. Something dark entering his physical body
through his pores.
Bishop let Sebastian get settled before he spoke. “Good,
now don’t move until it’s done. I mean it, don’t even lift your hand out
to scratch your nose. I’ll be back to check on you in a few hours.”
He left the room, and Sebastian decided not to waste any more time.
Drawing breaths according to the [Earthen Cultivation
Art], he quickly entered his cultivative state. The Spirit Realm was far
more chaotic than usual, given the immense quantity of essence
surrounding him, but he quickly honed his intent and began absorbing as
much as he could.
Cultivating in the spirit bath was akin
to opening the flood gates. More essence than he had ever experienced
poured into his spirit body. It was almost overwhelming.
Sebastian’s Sea of Essence at the center of his meridian system couldn’t keep up.
The essence circulated throughout his meridians, but the
incoming essence was clogging up the works, interrupting the
circulation.
Sebastian panicked as the sensations of a heart attack
manifested in his spirit body and were mirrored in his physical body.
Often times he almost forgot that the spirit body and the physical body
were one and the same, simply different aspects of himself that existed
in adjacent realms.
The pressure caused the toxins to push farther into his body as well.
He took a deep breath to fight off the panic and recalibrated his intent.
Rather than absorbing as much as possible, he focused on
the filtering aspect. Doubling, or even tripling, the filtration of the
incoming essence in an effort to take control of the essence that
flooded his meridian system. It worked, albeit barely.
The amount of liquid essence that entered his Sea of
Essence slowly decreased until finally the circulation pushed through.
As the pressure subsided, Sebastian was overcome by a great relief. He
maintained the increased filtration and only adjusted it slightly until
he found a good balance.
By intensifying the filtration of the incoming essence he noticed not one, but two unexpected advantages.
First, the essence that finally made its way through into his Sea of Essence was purer than ever, more powerful than ever.
Secondly, slowing down the incoming essence seemed to
also impact the incoming toxins. They were still there, and they would
still cause trouble, but it wasn’t as bad as before.
He hadn’t noticed until then that the [System] had
stopped giving him alerts about gaining essence drops. As soon as he
began cultivating, the [System] seemed to considered the new drops as a
natural part of cultivation. Not getting any detailed information about
his progress was a bummer, but he was glad to avoid the constant
distractions.
A few hours later, Bishop returned to check on
Sebastian’s progress. He opened the door and was immediately stunned.
The previously burgundy water was completely clear, as if taken from a
perfectly pure spring well.
Sebastian opened his eyes slowly, awakened by Bishop’s gasp of shock.
“The spirit bath is completely absorbed! How? It’s only
been a couple of hours, that packet should have lasted almost half a
day.”
“I don’t know,” Sebastian said innocently and shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I just absorbed the experience faster than most.”
Bishop left the room shaking his head in disbelief yet still happy that his client seemed to be leveling faster than expected.
Once he was alone, dry, and dressed, Sebastian took a look at his Status after having completed his first spirit bath.
System status
Name: Sebastian Moore
Level: 27
Skills
- ★Mind's Eye
Cultivation status
Name: Sebastian Moore
Cultivation method
- Earthen Cultivation Art
Cultivation stage
- Essence Consolidation
- → Minor stage: Middle
Physical cultivation stage
- Leather
Titles
- Blessed
- Sole Cultivator
Talent
- Akashic Connection
Techniques
- ★Spirit Union
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
In just a couple of hours, he had gained the equivalent
of a full level. Cultivating at the [Essence Consolidation] stage had
been quite slow. Even with diligent daily cultivation, Sebastian had
only gained 6 levels in about as many weeks. Now he gained an entire
level in just a few hours.
He did the math and was almost as shocked as Bishop.
Cultivating in the spirit bath was almost 20 times as
efficient as normal. If not for the toxins present he would continue
with the next packet immediately. Sadly he would have to spend a day,
maybe even more to clear them from his system.
Sebastian spent the rest of the day
trying to clear out the toxins. At his current level, and with his body
cultivation, he didn’t feel too much of the effects of the toxins. The
only side effect was a slight headache and a general feeling of internal
discomfort.
He did, however, feel confident that if he continued with
more spirit baths in quick succession he would no longer be able to
ignore them.
With the restorative effects of cultivation and his
increased physical resistance, he expected to not need very long to
clear the toxins out of his system.
He was wrong.
His cultivation made him absorb even more than what most
would by simply sitting there doing nothing. As the hours went by, his
headache turned to something akin to a fever. It wasn’t until late the
next day that he finally felt the last trace of the toxins be cleansed
from his body.
Once he was fully cleansed, he had his second spirit bath.
He continued for the next 2 weeks to use another packet every other day, with a day of rest and healing in between.
Not every packet was identical in essence density. And as
his cultivation increased, and he grew ever closer to completely
filling his meridian system with liquid essence, the efficacy dropped
some. Even so, he gained almost a level a day so by the end of the two
weeks he had gained the equivalent of 10 levels, and his Status now said
level 36.
During the past two weeks, Sebastian had spent a lot of
time with the hunters. Since he now lived with them, and most of them
rarely left the church, there was no avoiding them if he wanted to. Not
that he did. He fit in quite well, and they got surprisingly close for
what was supposed to be a simple transaction.
He also spent a good deal of his time with Silas, training his swordsmanship.
After to two weeks of training, he had gotten pretty good.
Silas had continued teaching him the foundation of his
own sword style. Sebastian learned that Silas used the sword style
taught by most military academies in Lumeria, the [Imperial Sword].
While he wasn’t permitted to teach Sebastian everything, he could show him some of the basic moves, stances, and general ideas.
With his leveling done, Sebastian took an afternoon to
explore his newfound know-how in how to properly wield a sword. The
others were out—doing whatever hunters do when they aren’t hunting—so he
had the training room all to himself.
He stood in the center of the room, sword in hand.
One by one, Sebastian performed every move and stance that Silas had taught him over the past weeks.
As he moved, he kept Silas’ teachings in his mind while
trying his best to incorporate what he had learned about intent and
manipulating his essence during his cultivation into his every action.
With every stroke of the sword, he thought back to every
time he had wielded a blade: the goblins, the kobolds, the gnoll, the
cepids, and now Silas.
With every stroke of the sword, he circulated his essence and focused its flow along the path of the blade.
With every stroke of the sword, he attempted to bring
forth his intent as he considered the purpose behind each move, what he
expected, or rather intended the end result to be.
As he moved from one maneuver to the next, the room he was standing in, the church, and city itself disappeared, melted away.
In his mind, he stood atop a hill beneath a starry sky, surrounded by mountain peaks on all sides.
With every swing he felled an entire peak, split a mountain range in two, or formed massive fissures in the ground.
The world itself was severed.
Sebastian completely lost track of time and space. It
wasn’t until he was interrupted by a [System] alert that he stopped and
found himself back in the training room again. Sweat dripped onto the
mat beneath his feet, which had several new cuts and abrasions. His
breathing was heavy and with every exhale, his muscles shivered.
He blinked the sweat from his eyes to look at the alert, even though he technically didn’t need his eyes to read them.
Analyzing
Analysis complete
New Technique created: Unnamed Sword Art
Please provide a name for the Sword Art
Whoa… OK, that was cool. I gained a
Sword Art of my own, huh. Why? How? Haven’t I been using mostly the
moves Silas taught me? Shouldn’t I gain his sword style instead of my
own?
Sebastian took a deep breath to calm down. He returned
the practice sword to the rack and plopped down on the floor, leaning
his back against the wall.
Calm down. I’m not gonna get the
answers to any of those questions. The only thing that matters right now
is that I get to come up with a name for my own Sword Art.
What should I call this? Do I name
it after my cultivation? My cultivation method is called the [Earthen
Cultivation Art], but I suppose my own version is based on a black hole,
based on the infinite potential and power of the universe. He chuckled to himself. Yeah, that’ll work. The Intergalactic Sword Art.
Technique gained: Intergalactic Sword Art
Consolidating
Skill consolidation complete
Skill gained: Swordsmanship
Title gained: Swordsman
Adjusting status
System status
Name: Sebastian Moore
Level: 36
Titles
- Swordsman
Skills
- ★Mind's Eye
- ★Swordsmanship
Cultivation status
Name: Sebastian Moore
Cultivation method
- Earthen Cultivation Art
Cultivation stage
- Essence Consolidation
- → Minor stage: High
Physical cultivation stage
- Leather
Titles
- Blessed
- Sole Cultivator
Talent
- Akashic Connection
Techniques
- ★Spirit Union
- ★Intergalactic Sword Art
- → Stage: Foundation
- ? Proficiency: Low
The [System] continues to impress.
It must have taken my practice with
intent and deemed it unique enough to create an entirely new Technique.
It even seems to have divided it into stages, just like my cultivation,
and added a proficiency counter. I guess with my [Blessed] Title and
[Akashic Connection] Talent I have a bit of an unfair advantage. Even so
I’m still just at Low proficiency of the very first stage out of…
however many there might end up being. Still, this should give me a
better chance when I spar with Silas tomorrow at least.
After the others came back, Sebastian joined them for
dinner before his nightly cultivation session. He felt it was important
to remain diligent and cultivate every day, even though the experience
wasn’t quite as satisfying after having used the spirit baths.
POV Kevin Vane, one week earlier
A majestic dark green wyvern flew across the terrain,
over the enormous outer wall, past the vast fields of crops, and finally
through an opening in the inner wall to land in a military outpost on
the edge of the city of Luxendorf.
Kevin, the hero candidate, was escorted to the city guard HQ where the commander of the city guards received him.
He was an average man, in almost every regard. Average
height, average build, average face. It was to the point where it had to
have been intentional. Kevin had a feeling that if the commander wasn’t
required to wear his blue uniform, he would be wearing nothing but
grey.
“Welcome, Sir Candidate!”
Kevin winced at the title before returning the greeting with a simple nod. “Commander Wadley, what’s our status?”
“My men have tracked the target ever since he entered the
city, but we have made no attempts to engage him, as per our orders. He
has joined a group of high-level hunters. We have yet to ascertain what
they have been doing within their base due to the high levels of the
hunters, unfortunately. However, one of the party members is a known
half-demon,” the commander said, letting the words hang heavy in the air
for just a tad too long. “As such, we have determined that they are
likely a hidden cell of demonic affiliates, if not outright
infiltrators.”
Kevin’s eyes darkened. “I see, well done. Now it’s time to engage.”
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