《Rob's ascent》 Chapter 1 - Ancestors clean-up Ever since my parents died I''ve been alone, I''m not sure how my father died... but I know how my mother died. As far as I know my father did something wrong which caused the villagers to hate us, so much so that one day a group of teenagers surrounded us and started beating my mother. I was only 4 at the time. She shielded me with her body, I still remember them laughing while they continue beating her. They skin on my face, arms, and legs were chafed off as we were kicked over and over again causing as to slide on the paving. While I was screaming and crying an adult finally came over only to laugh and say "That is probably enough... for today anyway." After another couple of kicks and one spitting on us they left. I crawled out from underneath my mother only to be struck with terror as I saw her not moving at all. I tried to get an adult to come help but... they just kicked me and yelled at me to leave, the nice ones did only that. I sat with my mother''s corpse for hours... until the village chief suddenly appeared, staring at me with an odd face, he wasn''t glad that my mother was dead and that I was in pain like all the other people. Thinking about it now he was probably feeling guilty. He cast a fire spell on my mother''s corpse turning her to ash, waving his hand the ash blew away, and disappeared from my view. He bent down and picked me up by clutching my throat. He took a step forward and we appeared in front of my house. When we arrived at my house he just threw me into the yard surrounded by a small wooden fence, he placed his hand on the soil at the entrance of the fence after which his hand starting glowing blue, he then used his finger to draw some shapes in the soil then he placed his hand on the shapes again, after which a blue-ish bubble similar to the one surrounding the entire village appeared enclosing the yard completely he then stood up and looked very tired. Thinking back now this was probably also done out of guilt. I could still enter and exit as if the bubble wasn''t there but if any of the villagers tried to enter they would be stopped by the bubble. Inside it was completely silent, no voices from the teenagers outside, no noise, nothing. As time went on as it does I adapted, the villagers started ignoring me instead of chasing me away. It could be because I simply stopped interacting with anyone from that day on, when they approached me I would run back to the bubble. It could also be that the chief placed the bubble around the house indicated he was protecting me in a way that required as little effort on his part as possible... or he avoided me out of guilt. Since that day once a week a basket full of food would be placed just outside of the bubble, by whom? I don''t know. Life went on, I was never trained how to be strong, to cultivate, like the other kids but I did learn how to be silent and how to be unseen. It hurt whenever I caught someone looking at me; it pulled me out of my own world and into theirs, where I am the rejected. In my world I am the shadow that observes, their lives and my life was unrelated as far as I was concerned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today I was once again sitting on the roof of my house peering at the life outside my bubble of peace. In front, to my left and to my right are simple stone houses surrounded by wooden fences. All built on the side of a mountain. The higher up the larger the houses are, at the very top of the mountain is the chiefs mansion. Behind me is the edge of the bigger bubble surrounding the entire village, from where I am looking I can see the entire village. In the distance I see the forest that surrounds the entire village bubble which covers the entire mountain. There are only about 1000 people in the entire village, and 300 houses all together, but the houses just below the chief¡¯s house are 20 times the size small houses at the bottom. They only consist of 2 rooms. All the homes were built in the same style, all the roads look the same, everything is the same... as if someone planned the entire town in 5 minutes. At the base of the mountain is a field which is currently occupied by all the children in the village except for me. It is the training field where lectures are given on how to cultivate. I''ve tried going but the teenagers always chase me away. I can essentially go anywhere in the village except the top of the mountain and the training field. I don''t know what is at the top of the mountain other than the chief¡¯s mansion but I do know that the lectures given at the training field teaches you how to cultivate... I can only come to the conclusion that the chief ordered the teenagers to chase me away from the training field for some reason. The top of the mountain is only accessible to the chief and his family members though, is it always guarded, I have checked. I know that they teach the children how to cultivate because I read about it in the books that my parents had. Problem is that the entire collection of books only consist of a couple of books that teach you how to read, a dictionary translating to some language no one here ever talks, a thesaurus in the other language, and cultivation notes from my ancestors. It seems that all the books assume you attend the village''s cultivation lectures. Thus I have some notes about breaking through from a 3 star apprentice warrior to a 1 star journeyman warrior, how to make mana regeneration potions and stuff like that... but there is nothing about how to actually cultivate, how to get started, how to get strong. I think the chief doesn''t want me to cultivate for some reason. As I stare in the direction of the training field with nothing but yearning in my heart a figure appears about 50m into the air. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Home sweet home, it has been too long." I muse to myself as reach the nexus point in Gold hearth city. A nexus point is where an immortal made the connection between the alpha world and his microcosm. An anchoring point of sorts. Once one gains a sufficient amount of power and breaks free from the ravages of time you gain the power to make a microcosm, a miniature world, well miniature compared to the alpha world. The alpha world is the origin world, where everyone came from, it is endless. I''ve been alive a long time and I''ve never met anyone didn''t agree with me on that point. We immortals tend to place our nexus points in large cities. We have absolute control over entry and exit into the microcosms thus safety isn''t really a problem, so the more the merrier. I appear in the air above the training field, a little over 300 years and everything is still the same. It is good to be home. I peer down and look at the young-ins who are busy practicing body reinforcement, none of them are any good though... doesn''t look like there are any good seeds this generation either. ''Someone is looking at me?'' I look in the direction I feel the gaze from only to see something odd. Sitting on a rooftop is a boy probably about 8 years old. Purple hair and purple eyes? Could it be? I move to the boy as fast as possible, barely feeling as the protection formation placed around his house shatters as I speed through it. As I appear in front of the boy he simply raises an eyebrow as if watching everything as an observer? Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I place my hand on his head, scanning his body and soul. ''Space affinity! not just space affinity, water and wind affinities as well? no, it is an ice affinity!'' "Marvellous! You have affinities for space and ice! What is your name boy? why aren''t you training?" he didn''t have any cultivation, he should never have trained... "Robert and they would not let me to train." he answers curtly, as if getting bored with me he looks in the direction of the forest. Odd though, I gave Dirk the order to train all the children, all of them. I send out my consciousness and tell him to immediately come here. I remember a protection formation shattering, was it placed around this child''s house? was he imprisoned? Dirk rushes from his mansion at the top of mountain down here, an ecstatic look evident on his face until he notices the child? now he seems flustered, uncomfortable, guilty? "Master, disciple pays a visit!" he bows to me only to once again glance at the child when he stands up straight. He hovers in the air a couple of meters away from the boy. An ability a warrior gains when he gains a sufficient level power. "What is going on here Dirk!" I ask him with a raised voice, which echoes throughout the village. "I...I...I...can explain... his father killed a dragonling and was promptly killed by the rest of the hunting group, my grandson was the one that struck him down. He didn''t want to waste the dragon corpse and considering that the dragonling core''s affinity matched my grandson''s he consumed it and managed to breakthrough, becoming a 1 star champion! He is very talented." The warrior rankings are 1-3 star apprentice, 1-3 star journeyman, and 1-3 star champion. Once one breaks through 3-star champion rank you achieve immortality. What sets magical beasts apart from sentient races is that they have magical cores instead of dantians. When they die cultivators can harvest the cores and use it in various ways, one way is to directly consume it increasing your chances of breaking through... at the cost of making future progress more difficult. I growl as I listen to this obvious bullshit, "I wanted to know why this child hasn''t been afforded the opportunity to cultivate but since you want to delve into past matters I shall oblige, SHEN!" he pales upon hearing the final word I called out... Why did he mention his grandson''s potential? In the distance I can see a radiant blue 30 meter long dragon rise into the air. Gigantic wings, long slender body like a snake and 4 claws, in a flash accompanied by a clap of thunder the dragon is only meters away from me, shrunken to only a few meters. The boy perks up at the presence of the dragon, observing it with interest. "Big brother, it has been too long!" my magical beast companion, whom I personally hatched when I was in my early 100''s. He achieved immortality before me but chose to stay with me, such a good brother. Suddenly Shen looks at Dirk and starts releasing his mana and pushes down on him. "Brother, this man''s descendant killed one of my offspring..." he talks slowly, enunciating every single syllable. I think he might be enraged. "He claims it was this child''s father that killed your descendant, he says his grandson only consumed the dragonling''s core because it happened to be have the same affinity as he does... After he killed this child''s father for apparently killing the dragonling." "Truly? When my descendants reported to me what occurred it sounded a bit different, it was more along the lines of a this man''s grandson wanted to hunt the dragonling only to be stopped by whom I assume to this child''s father. He was then killed by the combined effort of the hunters after which this man''s grandson slaughtered my descendant and consumed his core. A few days later this man appeared before trying to negotiate something; I decided it was better to wait for you. Especially since I remember you making a rule that no one was allowed to slay my descendants." At this point Dirk is pale as snow, visibly shaking. The boy, Robert, on the other hand has perked up a bit and is staring at Dirk as if he gained some understanding... he probably didn''t know, the villagers on the other hand... they probably knew from the start and went along with the lie for some reason, has Dirk and his family been acting rampantly in my absence? But where is the child''s mother? grandparents? "Boy, where is your mother? Grandparents?" I ask out of curiosity, his father was killed, but his mother should be alive. This is my descendant village, it is safe. At the same time I tell Shen "Little brother, call some of your descendants to sniff out dirks descendants and bring them all here." He simply nods and growls in the direction where he came from. I flick my finger in the direction of Dirk''s dantian, shooting out a lightning bolt. His dantian is instantly shattered, he drops like a stone into the ground, he is uninjured considering the strength of his body, he dropped to about 3 star journeyman rank? I ignore is his wails, he must be having a mental breakdown considering he was 1 step away from immortality. Most people wait till the end of their natural life spans before trying to break through to the immortal realm since the chance of success is so low, the extra time can only increase your chances. The boy looks away from Dirk to face me with surprise evident on his face, "They killed her, the teenagers. We were walking down the street, they then surrounded us and started beating her. She shielded me with her body. They didn''t stop until an adult said ''That is probably enough... for today anyway'' if I remember correctly. She was dead. Chief burnt her corpse, brought me back here and made the shiny bubble. I don''t know about my grandparents, never had any?" Rage starts boiling up in me... what has happened to my peaceful home... what has Dirk and his descendants DONE! Did he think I would be gone for far longer, giving him time to do as he pleases and then by the time I get back he would either be dead or be an immortal? I don''t know what he was planning but I owe a debt to this child and his family. Letting trash like this into my microcosm, I will have to visit Dirk''s family in Gold Hearth city after this, collect some debt. At this time all manner of dragons fly over here from the direction of the top of the mountain, each carrying one of Dirk''s descendants. Some of whom look worse for where... they thought they could fight Shen''s descendants? Magical beasts life spans are tens of times longer than humans, this is especially true for dragons. Their top ranked experts tend to build up over time... it comes at a cost though, when the world''s order gives with one hand it takes with another. Magical beasts that reach immortality do not gain the ability to make their own microcosms. This is probably why Shen stayed with me ever after he achieved immortality before me, though I would never say it out loud. This is getting too complicated, and this child''s mentality is odd to say the least. "HA! I Know!" I have a brilliant idea of how to solve all these problems in one fell swoop. I just have to cut my losses and start over. Flashing around the entire village I place composite formations directly onto every single resident''s soul except for the boy and those under the age of 10 and are not descendants of Dirk. Teleporting all of them out into Gold Hearth city, but not before shattering the dantians of all of the Champions with Dirk''s blood in them. This earns a slight nod from Shen. Shen seems to have guessed what I''m planning and motions for his descendants to depart with their now empty claws. He knows me this well? Well it isn''t as if something like this hasn''t happened before. I do feel better knowing none of those scum are in my microcosm anymore and I can spend my time fixing the children. I look back at the boy who has been staring at everything with a certain degree of detachment. I take out of a transparent orb I picked up a couple of millennia ago, some crafty mage developed it. Still holding it in my hand I press it against his forehead while he is still just curiously staring at me. The moment the orb comes in contact with his forehead purple stars explode forth. Looking around in a diameter of at least a hundred meters the air is filled with purple stars interspersed with a far smaller number of ice shards. Well this is a surprise... He is a mage? If the purple stars and ice shards were on the inside of the orb he would be a warrior, the brightness of the light would have indicated the level of his affinities but since it is on the outside he is a mage where the diameter and concentration determines the level of his affinities. The difference between warriors and wages are that warriors have a lower dantian in their abdomen and mages have an upper dantian in their forehead. The simplest difference would be that warriors use skills with their body and mages use spells with their consciousness. Mages can use skills and warriors can cast spells but... the power of a warrior''s spell would be a mere tenth as strong as a mages spell of the same rank. This is problematic, I could probably train a mage with an ice affinity but a mage with a space affinity... it would be detrimental to his future if I were to try and teach him. "Good news, bad news, and good news boy. You have a supreme space affinity and an exceptional ice affinity, I couldn''t possibly be your master as I don''t know enough about space element spells, but I know a guy that does, who just so happens to owe me a favour! Lucky right?" This little bastard is just staring at me again, still the same detached curiosity. "Shen!" I take out one of my inter-spatial rings from my necklace around my neck which is filled with them, place a tracking formation on it, take out everything, fill it up with superior mana crystals, from what I understand the materials needed to help a mage gain a greater understand of the space element are quite expensive... Shen arrives with his characteristic flash and bang. "Take the boy to Leeroy and tell him teach him everything he knows." Shen nods. I toss the ring at Shen. "Give the ring to Leeroy and tell him that once the boy has some mana he has to give him the ring." Shen catches the ring with one of his claws. "Boy once you have learnt everything from Leeroy you can come back here for the tracking signature of all those that I kicked out, you can then take your revenge as you please." Finally I see a spark in his eyes but it disappears instantaneously. "I placed a composite formation on all of them that will halt their cultivation. You don''t have to rush, train patiently. I will be waiting." Shen motions with his claw at the boy who floats up onto his back. Shen then teleports out of my microcosm, I gave him free reign to enter and exit as he pleases ages ago. Literal ages. I look down at the now near empty village except for the 20 or so children who are clearly panicking. The population is a bit small; I''ll have to go catch a couple of talented children again... I should start enforcing the rule that no one above journeyman rank is allowed in here again, unless this mess repeats itself. It is time to go visit Dirk''s family as well as go capture some children. Chapter 2 - A start As I am lifted into the air by some force controlled by the dragon I look at the person who changed everything... a man who looks to be about 30, athletic build, with brown hair and eyes. He currently has a very self-satisfied smug grin on his face. I can¡¯t really blame him for making a face like that; he did after all help me a lot. He uncovered the truth about the events that led to my father¡¯s death, he punished those that were directly involved and he is even giving me the opportunity to take revenge personally in the future. I¡¯m not so sure about whether or not I should personally take revenge though, they all had their cultivations halted, and they were kicked out. I¡¯m guessing that those are probably bad things. I think when I get back from wherever he is sending me to learn I¡¯ll track down the people who wronged me, if they are living happy lives perhaps I¡¯ll act... As I land on the back of the dragon the space surrounding us changes and we appear in a place with many buildings surrounding us. We appeared in the centre of a huge square filled people who are appearing and disappearing at random locations. The buildings vary in height but some of them must have at least 10 floors. All of them in different shapes and forms, very different from the uniform and apparently very little village we came from. Off in the distance see a group of people screaming at each other; appearing as if they are going to tear each other apart any second, they look remarkably familiar. Before I could properly observe everything around Shen flies away with me on his back at a speed faster than I believed possible. We are travelling way too fast for me to see anything interesting, less than 10 seconds of flight later we halt. We came to a stop in front of very plain looking shop, 2 large windows on the sides of a plain wooden double door, and a signboard above the bore with a simple ¡®The Enterprise¡¯. The surrounding buildings are far more majestic than this shabby looking thing. Shen moves into the shop at a leisurely pace before stopping in front of the counter. The shopkeeper having finally having noticed us stares wide-eyed as we slowly make our way to the front of the counter. ¡°Call Jerry, tell her The Hunter has a request.¡± The man starts sweating when he hears Shen¡¯s request but still quickly nods, he then taps a couple of places on the shining symbols in front of him on the counter. A moment later a middle aged woman appears out of thin air as her eyes swiftly pass over me a shiver runs down my spine as those calculating eyes pass over me before landing on Shen. A second later her head swirls right back to me, wide eyed she turns to the shopkeeper then says to him ¡°Take the day off.¡± After which she moves to the centre of the counter passing by the shopkeeper who bows then moves to the place she appeared from after which he disappears. The moment the shopkeeper disappears she leaps forward and places her hand on my head and drags me off of Shen, carefully placing me on my feet she stands motionlessly in front of me while focussing on something with her hand on my forehead, the same way the ancestor did. ¡°Jerry, I¡¯ve been sent to deliver the boy to you for training, The Hunter said that you have to teach the boy everything you know. He also mentioned that you owe him a favour.¡± Shen says as a he flicks the ring at the middle aged woman. The woman spectacularly ignores Shen, she is just motionlessly staring at me with one hand on my forehead while with her other hand she catches the ring without looking. ¡°This is wonderful, a supreme affinity for space and an exceptional affinity for ice. Luckily that fool hasn¡¯t taught him anything otherwise it would¡¯ve been a bit problematic AND MY NAME ISN¡¯T JERRY IT IS GERALDINE! OFF WITH YOU, YOU OVERGROWN LIZZARD!¡± The ancestor had to use the orb to determine the grade of my affinity; apparently this woman is better than him at whatever they did. Shen doesn¡¯t hesitate for a second before he disappears, all I could see was a shadow shooting out of the shop, leaving me behind with the woman with a somewhat fanatic look in her eyes. She doesn¡¯t say anything and simply grips my arms then she drags me to the circle of shining blue symbols, the moment we step onto the circle we appear in a vast square in a different town? The square is at least ten times the size of the one me and Shen appeared in, the weather is different too. The entire square is littered with shining blue circles with odd symbols in them, I can¡¯t determine whether or they have any specific arrangement or not. She continues dragging me by my arm in a specific direction. The woman; whom I only now take a closer look at is about 1.5 meters tall, purple hair and eye, and looks normal? There is nothing out of the ordinary except for her purple hair and eyes that seem to shine with an ever present radiance. ¡°Will you perhaps explain to me what is going on? The ancestor and Shen didn¡¯t really explain anything to me at all, nothing.¡± ¡°He calls himself ¡®The Ancestor¡¯? Fool. I¡¯m taking you to the headquarters of my enterprise in the Alpha world. Then once you have settled in and gained a sufficient amount of power and knowledge I would consider teaching you everything I know as your ancestor requested. If you do not prove yourself to be sufficiently determined I won¡¯t bother. Oh and you can forget about getting this ring, I¡¯m taking this as apprenticeship fees.¡± She finishes as we arrive in front of a specific shining circle, pulling me into it. The moment both of us are on the circle we disappear and reappear behind a counter in a small dusty shop? This shop has a remarkably similar design to the one we just came from. The front of the shop consist of two dusty glass windows which you can¡¯t see anything through with a double door in the centre. There is about a 3 metre gap between the front door and the counter that spans from wall to wall. The counter is about 10 metres in length all together. About 4 metres behind the counter is open space then there is a wall with a single door. Other than a couple of empty shelves on the wall behind the counter it is all very plain, wooden floors, wooden walls, wooden doors. Considering the lack of cleanliness you would think the wood would be rotting? She pulls me away from to the other side of the shop behind the counter, away from the shining circle whilst speaking absentmindedly ¡°This will be your home from now on; I will send someone over with all the necessary resources to get you started and explain everything to you. Before I leave though, you need to take your first step into the world of cultivators. Sit down on the floor in a comfortable position.¡± I do as she asks and she moves around my placing small blue crystals all around me in some kind of formation, when she has placed around 100 around me she pushed her hand on down on the floor after which blue lines start connecting the crystals together, when they are all connected she lifts her hand up only to reveal a weird shining blue symbol. A shining blue bubble forms around me... ¡°Your ancestor really splurged with the amount of superior mana crystals he put in the inter-spatial ring he sent, the fool hasn¡¯t had enough contact with the mortal world for too long apparently. This formation will increase the purity and density of mana in the formation when you sit there and meditate, it should last about 50 years depending on your natural talent. If you can deplete it before then I guess you would be qualified to be my apprentice. ¡°She says offhandedly after finishing her work before standing up and preparing to leave? ¡°Wait, wait, wait, aren¡¯t you forgetting something? You haven¡¯t actually told me how to cultivate! Never mind everything else you haven¡¯t told me.¡± She freezes momentarily after hearing me after which she lifts her hand up palm facing upward; a book appears in her hand which she promptly throws at me, afterwards she quickly moves to the teleportation circle and disappear... I could¡¯ve sworn her ears were just a bit red before she left. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I reappear in at the teleportation hub at the headquarters I feel like I need to kick myself, I was so close to perfectly playing it cool with my new little apprentice, it was a rookie mistake, definitely a rookie mistake. The excitement just got to me; I hope I gave him the right book! I quickly check only to release a breath I didn¡¯t realise I was holding when I am sure I gave him the right book. A supreme space affinity and an exceptional ice affinity, it has been hundreds of years since I last saw someone with a space affinity, never mind a supreme level. Never mind the fact that the wunderkind has a bloody exceptional affinity for ice as well. Supreme affinities are the stuff of legend; you can go for thousands of years without encountering a mortal with a supreme affinity, never mind a supreme affinity for one of the greater elements. A person with a supreme affinity for a greater element and an exceptional affinity for a fusion element occurs maybe once in a couple hundred thousand years. Affinities are categorized as minor, intermediate, upper, exceptional, and supreme level affinities. Naturally this is just a way of assigning rank, there can be a slight difference between the strength of the affinities of two people with upper affinities, one person can be closer to an intermediate level whilst the another person can be closer to an exceptional level but the difference would be fairly small. Greater elements include life, death, light, darkness, space, and time. Fusion elements are elements created out of the combination of two normal elements which are wind, fire, water, and earth. The fusion elements are wood, magma, ice, thunder, sand, and steam. I am positively giddy with the idea of him being my apprentice; immortality is a certainty if he survives long enough with that technique. As this thought occurs to me I immediately increase my speed by a factor of a couple thousand... As I arrive at the centre of the teleportation hub I immediately step onto it teleporting out of the teleportation hub and into the main offices of my enterprise. As fast as possible I track down the general manager. A short stubborn little Halfling immortal that has been trying to get people to call him ¡®The Manager¡¯, though his title of ¡®The Goblin¡¯ has just about been set in stone due to his miserly nature. Immortals are given titles from fellow immortals based on their identifying traits or habits, my little apprentice¡¯s ancestor¡¯s title is ¡®The Hunter¡¯ because of his habit of trophy hunting, I still remember how shocked I was when he showed me his absolutely vast collection of trophies... but nowadays even most immortals have forgotten about his existence, difficult to find new trophies to hunt I suppose thus he has turned into a bit of a recluse. My title is... ¡®Jerry¡¯, The Hunter thought it would be funny to call me Jerry at an immortal gathering... everyone else thought so too. It has been thousands of years since then and they are still at it, bastards. ¡°Goblin, I just received a wonderful gift from that old fart The Hunter! He sent one of his descendants to become my apprentice! I¡¯ll leave all of the arrangements you; I dropped him off in the Hope Town shop to keep him away from everyone else, I don¡¯t want him getting all arrogant and full of himself like the rest of those bratty little shits that call themselves geniuses with their laughable elemental affinities. Just remember, if he dies I doubt The Hunter would be very forgiving...¡± He just stares at me, grinding his teeth... must¡¯ve been because I called him Goblin, what did he expect? He always calls me Jerry. Hastily I turn around and run away, I have much work to do and so little time in order to prepare everything needed by my little apprentice. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I open the book ¡®Geraldine¡¯ threw at me before she left, only to see big bold words literally slapping me in the face. Ignoring the ¡®GERALDINE¡¯S SELF CREATED BEST IN THE WORLD CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE¡¯ I immediately flip the page. To summarize what the rest of the book says which is a grand total of the first page with her grand claim, the second page with 3 instructions, and a third page densely clustered with very small text. The rest of the book consist of blank pages... this hardly necessitates a hard cover; why not simply make it into a pamphlet? The first instruction tells you to sit down in a comfortable position, the second tells you to meditate until you feel an itching sensation on your skin. The third and final instruction tells you to resist the natural mana seeping into your body which caused the itching sensation. After reading the instructions it felt like something was off... I began reading the 3rd and final page hoping to get a proper explanation.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Apparently the cultivation technique is only possible with the formation she created with the blue crystals which are apparently mana crystals. The formation consists of a mana concentration formation which extracts the mana from the mana crystals, which is covered by a mana purification formation that decreases the amount of impurities in the mana. These two formations are then enclosed with a mana isolation formation which is the blue bubble that prevents the purified mana from leaking or being mixed with the ambient mana. The itching sensation referred to in step 2 of the cultivation technique is the mana seeping into your body, after it enters your body it will naturally gravitate to your dantian, whether or not you are a warrior or a mage doesn¡¯t matter. Step 3 of the cultivation technique is referred to as ¡®a revolutionary discovery by the greatest mage of all time¡¯ because as long as you cultivate accordingly you are virtually guaranteed to achieve immortality. During the process of resisting the mana seeping into your body and subsequently your dantian you actually utilise your consciousness to strain the mana, this adds another layer of minor purification which in the long term makes a drastic difference in the success rate of breaking through from the 3-star champion realm or the 3-star sage realm into the immortal realm. The so-called impurities that this cultivation technique makes every effort to get rid of are essentially elemental manas. Once mana has been naturally or artificially converted to an elemental mana it can¡¯t be used to breakthrough to the immortal realm, you can apparently still use it to cast spells and use skills of the specific element the mana has been changed to but when attempting to breakthrough to the immortal realm the impure mana essentially becomes useless. This is also why most people who have arrived just one step away from immortality wait as long as possible before attempting to break through, they try to remove as many impurities from their dantians as physically possible before the end of their life spans then one step away from death they try and breakthrough to immortality. The ambient elemental mana would with time revert to normal mana but the time span makes this knowledge only useful to immortals. Almost like an after note the 3rd page notes in even smaller text at the bottom of the page that as long as you follow the instructions all future cultivation will be bottleneck free and all level advancements will occur naturally. It also mentions something along the lines of if you don¡¯t have at least an exceptional elemental affinity your training speed would be to slow and you would die long before reaching a point in your cultivation that would allow you to attempt achieving immortality. I shouldn¡¯t have bothered reading the 3rd page... I should¡¯ve just followed the instructions and kept my nose down. As I throw the book out of the formation I change the position I am from sitting cross-legged to lying down on my side with my head leaning on my hand with my elbow propping up my head. Before I get to close my eyes and start meditating a miniature person appears on the teleportation formation. The miniature person wears a black robe that goes down to his feet and long long sleeves, he has a bald head, a black moustache twisted upwards at the ends, and verdant green eyes? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I arrive at the shop in Hope Town I am treated to a blatantly suspicious stare from Jerry¡¯s new apprentice who appears be preparing to start training, as my eyes wander around the dusty shop my eyes stop on a book with a plain brown hardcover. Walking over it I pick it up and flip it open to the first page to see what it is, ¡®GERALDINE¡¯S SELF CREATED BEST IN THE WORLD CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE¡¯. ¡°Off course she gave you this technique.¡± Sighing as I see the formation the boy is lying in, the boy who I might add is still giving me his best suspicious glare. At this time I notice the boy¡¯s suspiciously purple eyes and hair, finally I realise why Jerry was so giddy with her new disciple. Walking over to the boy I place my hand on his forehead in order to determine his exact affinity... affinities? He has a supreme space affinity and an exceptional ice affinity, now I understand why she has dropped him off here away from the so-called geniuses. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t just for him; if those geniuses knew of his existence they would be crushed. The warning regarding his safety makes a lot more sense now, I can think of quite a couple of people that would try to kill him the moment they find out about his existence, even though the list is a lot longer because of the number of people that would kill him out of pure jealousy. Breaking out of my stupor I step away from the boy, ¡°Your name?¡± I ask him, wondering to myself whether or not Jerry ever actually asked him. ¡°Robert, what is your name?¡± he asks me with narrowed eyes. Immediately I realise I can make him call me the manager! Ha! ¡°My name is The Manager. A pleasure to meat you Robert. I am the general manager of The Enterprise; I am here to give you a brief introduction. This is your shop from now on. I¡¯ll have someone come and install a messenger in the centre of the counter and connect it with the teleportation formation to get your shop ready for business. Do you have any questions?¡± Robert just stares at me as if I¡¯m a fool, ¡°What is The Enterprise? What is a messenger? Where are we? What are you? What does my shop sell? Where can I get food? What are formations? How does teleportation work?¡± He finishes his tirade of questions but it looks like he still trying to think of more... does he know nothing? The Image of Jerry laughing at me appears in my mind. ¡°Ah yes, all of those questions will be answered in the tutorial provided to new employees on the messenger and if not the information should be available... somewhere. Ahem if that is all I¡¯ll be going now, time is money after all.¡± Hurriedly I walk to the teleportation circle and leave. Appearing at the teleportation hub I quickly move to the teleportation circle that sends me to the main offices of The Enterprise. I immediately go to my office and promptly call the assistant general manager. As I wait for her I quietly sit behind my desk thinking about the disaster Robert will cause when his existence is inevitably discovered by the rest of The Enterprise, clans, guilds, and sects. After Jerry invented the messenger and teleportation formations it took many years for people to realise that trying to deconstruct the formations has certain very specific requirements the most important one being that at the very least you need a space affinity to be able to truly see the formations that make up the messenger... never mind the enigma that is the teleportation formation that only functions when teleporting to and away from Jerry¡¯s teleportation hub which is an indecipherable mess to anyone but Jerry. Every single messenger consists of a ¡®black box¡¯ which is simply a small low grade mana crystal with formations etched onto it and inside of it with a trick or two off course. In the past there were a couple of brave immortals who thought they could break into the teleportation hub in order to decipher it only realise the complexity. Naturally they tried running away but every single one was either killed on sight or systematically hunted down. Jerry had to make some concessions thus she disseminated the formations involved in creating the messenger but to this day only she is capable of making a teleportation formation that works. Naturally others have tried copying the plain teleportation circle in the shops but without its connection to the teleportation hub it is useless. Naturally the messengers without access to the teleportation hub have to be physically connected. There will be quite a number of people that will try and use Robert to recreate the teleportation hub, as they have been trying for thousands of years. Immortal mages with an affinity for space are beyond rare, the others out won¡¯t dare to interfere with Jerry as she is the only one with a Just in time Ashley arrives bringing me out of my morose thoughts. She crawls into my office on all fours due to the size of the door and height of the ceiling; I had this done a couple hundred years ago. I got tired of the big chairs, the big tables, the door handles I had to stretch to reach, thus I had my office remodelled. Much to my delight I get to see my visitors suffering a similar injustice I have to suffer when I visit them in their offices. Ashley arrives in front of me and sits down in the chair that is clearly too small for her. She is a freshly minted immortal, not more than a couple thousand years old. The only reason she is still working for the enterprise, the same with a sizable number of other immortals, is for certain resources we have access to that would be very useful in the development of their microcosms. ¡°Jerry accepted a new apprentice; he has a supreme space affinity and an exceptional ice affinity. She dropped him off in Hope Town, that little frontier town. I need you go and install a messenger, teach him how to use it, and just in general answer his questions. The boy is a bit ignorant and Jerry wants to keep it that way for as long as possible. I also need you to organise a group of general employees, definitely not crafters, to move into and take over important positions in Hope Town in order to provide the boy with a layer of protection. He is a descendant of the hunter, if he dies you die. Also alter the teleportation formation to Hope Town that gives you full control over it, we don¡¯t want just anybody discovering Robert.¡± I feel almost giddy dropping this mess in Ashley¡¯s lap. She narrows her eyes at me as if telling me she knows Jerry ordered me to do this before she can say anything I say ¡°Naturally you and all the guards will be more than fairly compensated.¡± I definitely do not want Jerry knowing I pawned the boy off to Ashley. Ashley slowly moves out of the chair then... leisurely starts crawling out of my office. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I watch as the miniature person squirrels back to the teleportation formation, disappearing. Why couldn¡¯t he just answer my questions? Closing my eyes I start meditating, whatever that is. I just lie here and think about something, nothing? As I contemplate exactly what meditation is, I relax my body and let my mind wander about the events that has occurred today. I¡¯m still not quite sure what happened but it would appear I¡¯ve had a bit of luck when taking into consideration my current situation; at least I get the opportunity to cultivate. As my mind wanders and my body is relaxed ever so slowly my skin starts itching, first here and there, slowly increasing in concentration until the itching sensation covers the entirety of my body. Slowly it seeps deeper and deeper beyond my skin and into my body. This is when I¡¯m supposed to resist the itching sensation, thereby using my consciousness in order to further purify the mana. How exactly do I do that though? First I¡¯ll start small; I choose to start on my nose. As I concentrate on the itch on my nose I try imagining pushing it away in my mind, the effect is absolutely minimal but there definitely is an ever so slight decrease in the severity of the itch. That was... simple? I slowly increase the size of the area that I am resisting the itching sensation on, first my face, then my entire head, I continue increasing the size until I am resisting the itching sensation on my entire body. My efforts reward me with a slight decrease in itching sensation I¡¯m experiencing. I figure I¡¯ll continue until I feel hungry or thirsty then I¡¯ll try and find a way to sustain myself... considering my circumstances I¡¯ll probably end up having to beg. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I leave the goblin¡¯s office I¡¯m still reeling at the shock I received, a supreme space affinity AND an exceptional ice affinity! Though I think his concerns about safety is a bit out of proportion, wait; The Hunter? Isn¡¯t that the person that was the main force behind Jerry¡¯s systematic slaughter of everyone who tried to steal her design for the messenger? I quickly sent out a message to all my trusted subordinates to gather in the meeting room adjoined to my office. I immediately inform Jerry of my plans for Hope Town in light of its new resident, the plan boils down to transforming the town into a hunting outpost of The Enterprise. All current residents will be paid off to leave after which we will quickly occupy the entire town with trusted employees that will at least be partially informed of the boy¡¯s identity in order to ensure there are no slip ups. Within minutes of informing Jerry via my messenger she gives me the go ahead as well as authorizing access to the necessary funds to get it all done. At this time the first of my trusted employees arrive in the meeting room, I make an agenda for the next couple of days while I wait another couple of minutes for the rest of them to arrive. As I walk into the meeting room it quietens down as all eyes fall on me, the room is filled to the brim with people, and the scant 20 chairs aren¡¯t even a fifth of the amount of people. ¡°A task has been assigned to me by Jerry herself; this task requires me to gather a number of employees who would be willing to relocate to a certain town for the foreseeable future. The crux of the mission is the high level of secrecy, thus if you participate we would prefer for you to have your families relocate along with you as leaving the town will be very difficult once you have settled into your new positions. Everyone who wants to join just stay, the rest of you go to the Goblin¡¯s office for reassignment. I will be participating too. Keep in mind that participating means resigning from your current positions.¡± As I finish the silence continues until the first person decides to leave, after which 80% of the people rush out. With me and the left-over people effectively resigning our positions it will create a nice thank you gift mess for that ratty goblin to fix. There are all together 27 people left excluding me, 5 mages whom are all in the sage realm and 22 warriors who consist of 18 people in the champion realm 4 people in the journeyman realm. All together there are 9 people at the peak 3-star champion or sage realm. Sending them off, I gather everything I need and permanently leave for Hope Town. The reason I decided to make Hope Town into an ¡®outpost¡¯ of The Enterprise is mainly to get away from the organisation, this way I¡¯ll be able to gain the resources I need, I¡¯ll be able to build a relationship with a possible future immortal with a supreme space affinity, and I¡¯ll get a town so far away from all other civilization that life would finally be peaceful. As I appear in the dusty little shop, we¡¯ll have to change that, I notice an eight year old boy meditating in a formation. My eyes almost fall out when I see the mana crystals powering the formation. What an absolute glutton! What is that formation? It is a combination of a mana isolation formation, a mana purification formation, and a mana concentrating formation? I spot a book lackadaisically lying on the floor near the formation. I walk over and open it... ¡®GERALDINE¡¯S SELF CREATED BEST IN THE WORLD CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE¡¯... after I finished reading it I¡¯m left frozen. Does Jerry have any idea how much it would cost to cultivate with this technique? The success rating of achieving immortality vastly increases but at the cost of slowing down the cultivation speed dramatically, never mind the cost of the necessary resources in the later stages would probably cost a couple years worth of profits of the entirety of The Enterprise. Why would she spend so much on this boy? It can¡¯t be to simply test out this cultivation technique or affection for a disciple, there is more to this. Noticing that the boy is not going to finish cultivating any time soon I start installing the messenger and connect it to the teleportation device. Immediately I message the other that will join me in Hope Town to quickly come before the boy wakes up, this will make it a lot easier to keep him from knowing the lengths we are going to in order to protect him. Over the next couple of hours the boy continues to quietly cultivate as everyone arrives with their families and move into town. I quickly take over the mayoral position of town which allows me to organise everything else without any hindrances. When everyone is organised, the town taken over, the nosy people kicked out, I head back to the boy¡¯s store and wait for him to finish. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I continue meditating the passage of time seems to fuse together as I lose myself in simply resisting the itch, I haven¡¯t gotten any better at it from the start but it still requires constant conscious effort to resist the itch. After I don¡¯t know how long my I start feeling a warm sensation in my brain, not a burning sensation but a nurturing one. It is concentrated right behind my forehead and radiates out. As time flows by the nurturing sensation becomes stronger and stronger, my mind starts feeling fresher and faster. I can literally feel my thoughts speeding up. I start having that my mind is slowly expanding, growing into something more. This must be the consciousness that the book referred to? Tentatively I try and take control of my consciousness, the moment I do I jolted out of my relaxed meditative state. ¡°Congratulations on officially becoming a make, you are now officially a 1-star acolyte.¡± I hear a bemused voice when I wake up. I open my eyes and see a very attractive red haired blue eyed woman sitting leisurely on the counter a couple of metres away from me observing me closely. ¡°I¡¯m a mage?¡±