M20

Morgan continued working on his pathways for the next several days. After waking from that first rest, he was at a loss for how long he had slept. He could only judge the time by how hungry or thirsty he was, and since he’d come to this world, his normal reference for that was skewed; now that Energy infused his body, more and more, as he gained in levels, he didn’t need to eat or even drink as much as he once had. He reached out with this Guardian’s Senses and, once again, felt Issa in the same general area as he had before. She was either still working on her trial or had finished and was waiting for him. How would she know he hadn’t failed and wasn’t dead? All he could do was continue as quickly as he could, but he was limited by his body’s endurance and the painstaking process that his cultivation drill called for. He settled into a routine of waking, taking a few bites of bread with some watered wine, stretching, taking his lotus position, and working on his pathways until exhaustion forced him to rest again.

As he expanded his pathways, his cultivation drill took longer and was more exhausting with each repetition. The first day he was able to get through the drill eight times, resting between each cycle. Now that he had been at it for three days or, really, three periods of sleep, his pathways extended through more than half of his body, and each drill repetition took him hours and left him feeling drained and weak. From the imparted knowledge of his cultivation manual, he knew that once his pathways were complete, he’d be able to passively draw excess Energy into his Core with the drill, gradually increasing his Core’s density and thereby his own power.

At the end of the fourth “day” of building his pathways, he estimated he was nearly three-fourths of the way finished. He lay back, exhausted, and thought about all that he’d seen and done in the short time he’d been thrust into this strange, new world. Things that he would have considered the ravings of a lunatic back in his old life seemed completely normal to him now. The idea that he was meditating for days on end, focusing on guiding a mystical force through his body, seemed crazy when he examined it. Still, he couldn’t deny what he had seen and what he felt: Energy was real, and the things that it could help people or “cultivators” do were real, however fantastical the idea might seem. Though he’d been forced to fight for his life, almost from the first moment he was here, been forced to do horrific acts of violence, been forced to see and hear and smell gut-wrenching acts of savagery, he felt a sense of calm as he lay back, reflecting on his cultivation. How strangely his life had changed!

A big part of it was his connection to Issa. He shuddered to think how alone and lost he’d feel right now if he hadn’t found her so quickly. Thinking of her, Morgan reached out with his Guardian’s Senses again and was startled to feel her in a different direction and a bit further away from him than she had been for the last few days. Now she was somewhere, what felt like 300 yards or so, beyond and slightly above the far end of the pool chamber. Hopefully, this meant she’d passed her trial. Thinking about how relieved he was to know Issa was close by, Morgan had to come to terms with the fact that he was developing strong feelings for her. He’d noticed his attraction to her quite a while ago, feeling a closeness and a fondness for her starting back when they’d first needed to rely on each other to battle the Urghats.

There was no denying how pretty Issa was, but Morgan didn’t know how to feel about being attracted to an alien. Well, that was stupid, and it wasn’t fair; he was the alien here. He sighed wistfully; really, it was stupid to think like that - she was a person, and they clearly had compatible thoughts and emotions. What really mattered was how she felt about him, though; she wasn’t lost on an alien planet. She had a village, and her people were here. For all Morgan knew, she had someone she loved waiting for her. As his thoughts started to spiral, Morgan determined that it didn’t matter - he cared for her, and he felt lucky to have her with him, and he needed to hurry the fuck up and get through this trial, so she didn’t leave without him. Thinking of finishing his quest, he realized that he had a way to see if Issa had completed her challenge. He called up his quest interface and looked at the status of the most recent quest.

***Quest: Survive four challenges in the Marble Halls 2/4. Reward: One Improved Treasure Box, egress from the Crucible.***

Two of four? The battle with the bear-man was one; this Energy challenge was another and incomplete, which meant Issa must have completed her Agility challenge. That also meant that they could hopefully face the fourth one together if he could hurry up and finish this challenge. Those thoughts in mind, Morgan closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift into sleep.

When he woke, Morgan immediately checked on Issa and could feel her in the same general area as before he fell asleep. He ate some bread, drank some weak wine, and assumed his meditative pose. He was determined to get three complete cycles of his cultivation drill before he had to call it a day. He was exhausted by the time he finished and allowed himself to rest, but he’d been successful; he was almost certain that he’d be able to finish his pathways with one more cycle. He checked on Issa, ate a pitiful meal, and then fell asleep, hopefully for the last time in this room.

The next day, Morgan didn’t have the patience to eat before settling down to finish his pathways. He settled into his meditation pose and focused on his Core. It came into his mind much more quickly now that he’d been practicing for days on end. He could sense his Energy swirling around in a bright vortex right at the center of his being. He traced the pathways he’d painstakingly created over the last several days, marveling at their complexity of purpose. He’d pushed the pathways most of the way through his body, and into his arms and hands, all the way down his legs and into his feet. All that was left was the final push through the distant extremities of his fingers. He began his drill, carefully and methodically repeating the patterns of Energy into each final swirl that ended in the pads of his fingers and thumbs. As he finished the first complete cycle of his cultivation drill for the day, he forced the last bit of Energy necessary to open his pathways out of the ends of his fingers.

***Congratulations! You have improved your Vortex Core to Base 2***

Morgan sighed with relief that everything had gone the way he had hoped. He could feel the Energy in the room much more palpably now; it felt like he could pull it into his body through the open channels at his extremities. Now that he’d built his channels, he could move on to the next step of his cultivation drill - actually cultivating Energy. Morgan moved through his drill; this time, as he cycled Energy from his core through his body, he also pulled Energy from the room into the flow as he channeled it back to his Core. The difference was minuscule, but he felt like his Core flared more brightly in his mind’s eye and spun just a bit faster as he finished the cycle.

However, he didn’t want to waste more time cultivating and decided to put off practicing his drill for another time. He ate a small meal and then gathered himself for another attempt at controlling the Energy in the pool. Now that he could more clearly feel the Energy around him, the pool beckoned even more invitingly than before. He knew that he could resist the urge to pull that Energy in, however, as long as he was expelling his own Energy into the water to control it. He sat at the edge of the pull and focused, cycling his Energy out through his channels until it was just at the end of his fingers, ready to flow forth. Then, he submerged his hands into the water and pushed. Where before it had burned like he was branding himself when he tried to send forth more than a trickle of Energy, now it was painless as he allowed his Energy to surge from his core, through his pathways, and into the pool.

He was instantly more aware of the water and its strange Energy than he had been during his first attempt. After a few seconds of pushing Energy into the water, he knew he could control it, so he did. He urged the blue water to flow up the channel and into the complicated, large, central spiral on the wall. Before, he had run out of steam after a few inches, but now the water surged up the channel into the spiral and tore through it like ocean water coming in with the tide into a child’s sand pattern. Morgan smiled as the first pattern filled with water, and a pleasant chime sounded. He instinctively knew that he’d passed the test and could stop, but why should he? He felt he had plenty of strength left, so he continued pushing the water out of the central spiral and into the first of the outer spirals. This spiral filled even more quickly, and Morgan heard another chime. Still, he continued, and the water flowed at nearly the same pace as when he started. Within moments, he’d filled the second and third outer patterns, each time hearing another chime.

Morgan pushed on into the fourth pattern, but then he noticed something that alarmed him enough that he almost lost his concentration: the water had lost much of its blue tint and was now shining with a golden aura. It was the color that Morgan saw in his mind’s eye when he looked at his Core. Doing his best to maintain his concentration, Morgan called up his status display:

Status

Name: Morgan Hall

Race: Human - Base 2

Class: Hollow Guard - Advanced

Level: 10

Core: Vortex Class - Base 2

Energy Affinity: 9.2

Energy: 65/299

Strength: 15

Vitality: 20 (22)

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 15

Intelligence: 23

Will: 15

Points Available: 0

Titles & Feats: Human Champion, First Hollow Guard, Ardeni Friend

Skills: System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable, Spear Mastery - Basic, Dagger Mastery - Basic, Stealthy Maneuvers - Basic, Backstab - Basic, Energy Drain - Improved, Guard Ally - Basic, Vortex Core Cultivation Drill - Basic

He’d poured almost all of his Energy into the pool. He wasn’t even sure what would happen to him if he allowed his Energy to hit zero. Would he pass out? Die? He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out the hard way. Morgan concentrated on his drill, taking up the meditation at the point where he usually would start to cycle Energy back to his Core. He didn’t know if he could still control the water while cycling Energy to his Core, but he did his best, and he soon realized he was able to split his attention. Perhaps it was an effect of his high intelligence, but he found it almost effortless. He continued to push the water into the final two spirals, rewarded with a chime for each completion. At that point, he stopped pushing the water and instead completed an entire cycle of his cultivation drill, replenishing most of his Energy. It felt glorious as the Energy from the water, intermingled with his own, surged into his channels and into his rapidly spinning Vortex Core.

Morgan didn’t stop there, however. Knowing he’d finished the challenge, he decided to take advantage of this opportunity and continued his cultivation drill, completing two more cycles. When he finished and opened his eyes, Morgan was surprised to see that the water was still infused into the patterns on the short marble wall. More than that, the water was no longer vibrantly blue but sparkled in a more subdued shimmer. He looked inward to his Core, and it seemed a good deal wilder and denser than before. He’d taken a lot of Energy from the water, and if he had to guess, his Core was close to ranking up again. That was fast, but Morgan couldn’t imagine that opportunities like this were common outside the Crucible.

Morgan stood, taking a deep breath and steadying himself. As he looked around, he realized the room was no longer as dark beyond the pool and behind the short, patterned wall. Light flowed into the room through an open doorway, where a section of the marble wall had disappeared. Next to the doorway were five green lights, about the size and shape of a finger, and below the lights, a shelf had appeared from the wall. On the shelf was a small, blue chest with silver filagrees. Morgan walked up to the doorway, noting that brightly lit stairs climbed upward from just beyond the opening. The chest, upon closer inspection, looked much like the treasure chests that the System had rewarded them for completing quests. Morgan could only assume that the five green lights had something to do with the five patterns on the wall that he’d filled with Energy. Perhaps the chest was meant as a reward for those able to push the Energy infused water further than just the central pattern.

“One way to find out,” Morgan said out loud, flipping the chest open. He felt pretty sure that it was a reward because of the styling of the chest and so didn’t think it was likely to be trapped. Luckily he was correct, as the lid flopped open, revealing a glass vial, about twice the size of his thumb, cushioned by a silky, blue lining. Morgan could see that the vial was filled with a thick orange liquid and that it had a label affixed to it by a length of blue ribbon. Morgan picked up the vial and found it warm to the touch. Morgan held up the label and saw, in what he figured was standard System script, but what looked like English to his brain:

***Distilled Argent Emperor Fruit Sap - known for permanently enhancing the intelligence of those who imbibe.***

“Bottom’s up!” Morgan grinned as he popped the cork and drank the extremely sweet syrup. He felt a rush, almost like a burst of adrenaline, and found his scalp tingling in a strange, electrical itch. As his heart rate normalized, he took a look at his status sheet:

Status

Name: Morgan Hall

Race: Human - Base 2

Class: Hollow Guard - Advanced

Level: 10

Core: Vortex Class - Base 2

Energy Affinity: 9.2

Energy: 280/364

Strength: 15

Vitality: 20 (22)

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 15

Intelligence: 28

Will: 15

Points Available: 0

Titles & Feats: Human Champion, First Hollow Guard, Ardeni Friend

Skills: System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable, Spear Mastery - Basic, Dagger Mastery - Basic, Stealthy Maneuvers - Basic, Backstab - Basic, Energy Drain - Improved, Guard Ally - Basic, Vortex Core Cultivation Drill - Basic

Morgan immediately saw that his intelligence had gained five points, and his maximum Energy had taken a nice bump. He wondered at the idea that in order to get this reward, one needed to be already good at manipulating Energy, which almost surely meant an already high intelligence. In other words, the strong got stronger. In a way, it didn’t seem fair, but Morgan was used to life not being fair, and for once, he was glad to have things going his way. He pulled up his current quest log:

***Quest: Survive four challenges in the Marble Halls 3/4. Reward: One Improved Treasure Box, egress from the Crucible.***

Then he used Guardian’s Senses to locate Issa and saw that she was roughly in the same area as before and that the stairs that had opened up for him ought to take him in the right direction. He smiled at that, turned to look one last time at the pool that had been his home for almost a week, and then started to climb the steps.