《A witcher cultivator.》 Chapter 1. "Aard" I said as a white bolt of pure energy flew from my hand toward the Harpy in front. The harpy seemed to be knocked out as she fell down to the ground. Using this chance I took my sword, the silver one, and stabbed the harpy in the face, giving it a fast death. I then proceeded to cut the harpy head as a validation for completing my contract. "And this was the last one. Time to go for the payment¡­" This game I was playing was called "The witcher: across time and worlds". It was the fifth? Or sixth game? I don¡¯t really remember anymore. The important thing was that this game was playable solo vrrpg- solo virtual reality role playing game. Virtual reality came about 7 years ago. At first everyone were shocked, no one expected a company no one knew to release a game with technology not even the military had. Soon, by pressure from various countries and big company''s the anonymous and new company had to publicize the way to create virtual reality pod. And so, began the era of virtual reality games. "The witcher: across time and worlds" was centered about a magician which was trying to duplicate the elder blood. The elder blood was a actually a gene giving his holder the power to cross worlds, dimensions, and even time. To tell it short, the mage was given a dose of blood which contained the elder scrolls gene. The story starts with a young witcher which was still in training, me, following the mage out of curiosity and then being transferred with the mage to another world as I am trying to stop him from fully acquiring the elder blood power and in the end controlling the world. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Why I knew that you ask... damn spoilers. Right now I am hiding behind a tree in the boundary of a forest glade. In the center of the forest glade stood an altar and on this altar was the man I was looking for, Verdant Irbi the evil mage. The wind around the place started to blow unnaturally strong as the mage started his chant. The mage chanted for a few minutes with the waves of energy wind getting stronger and stronger. He then took out a syringe containing the elder blood and injected it into his hand. He went back to chant as his eyed turned glowing blue and some sort of blue smoke was coming out of them. "Fus Kren Lein" He shouted those 3 words in a langue I didn¡¯t know, at least not yet in this part of the game. I knew it was my sign and the game would really start now and according to the spoilers I should wake up in a hut after a hunter found me knocked out in the woods. But then something I never expected happened. "Notice: The power source to "The gate" was eliminated, The gate will now shut automatically shut down." Fuck I should¡¯ve saved¡­ now I will probably need to go through the tutorial all over again. I was a bit mad since I never expected a blackout to happen¡­ but another thing I never expected happened right after. I actually blacked out. chapter 2. "Morning? When did I went to sleep¡­?" I woke up a little dizzy and had to scratch my eye for a few seconds before I could look around. Opening my eyes I was a bit confused as I found myself lying¡­ in a cave. "What, where the hell am I?" I stood up and started to look around while trying to recall my last memories. From what I remember I was about to be transferred to another world during the witcher tutorial. The mage had just injected the elder blood into his body as he finished his chant and was about to use the power of the elder blood. From looking at my body, I was still in my character which I created the same as me in my real life the only change was my hair and eyes. A 16 y/o boy at the height of 1.67 meters. Because of the genetic mutations which made me a witcher my hair was white and my eyes were yellow. On my back were 2 swords, one made from enchanted steel and the other one from enchanted silver. On the overall I was wearing the viper school armor. On my wrist were 6 bombs and 5 potions. 3 bombs were of the northern wind kind, a freezing bombs which will freeze an area upon impact. The other 3 contained of 2 dragons dream bomb, which will release a cloud of ignitable gas, and one devil puffball which will release a not ignitable poisonous gas. The potions kind were of 2 superior swallow, 2 superior blizzard, and one thunderbolt. The swallow would make my regeneration speed a few times fast and the blizzard will have the same effect as the swallow but on my reaction speed. The thunderbolt would increase my attack but since it was only of a normal grade it would not be by much. Checking my bag I still had the gold and all items I gained in the 3 hours "tutorial" and the backstory. "Didn¡¯t they say I would awake in a hunters hut?" I didn¡¯t know why I was in a cave and from what I remember the pod said something about self shut. Still confused, I went to open the menu and log out so I can find some information about my situation¡­but "Menu" Nothing happened. "Menu?" I called again but this time with a questioning voice. "Menu, shut down, menu, menu, console, call xxxxx.... open web browser¡­" I tried everything I could but no matter what nothing worked. Just then, I noticed there was no clock for the time of the in game day in the corner of my eyes, no health bar and no levels. If not for the fact I am wearing my witcher gear and could feel it''s my game body I would think that this is real life. I sighed and thought that if something really happened my family would notice after some time and since the time ratio in the game was 1 to 3 then it won''t be long until someone will get me out of the pod. I then searched the cave for a bit and found a way out. -------------------------------------------------------- It was not my first witcher or an RPG vr game. Combining my experience with the super body of a witcher, I had no problem climbing up 7 meters to the surface in a short time. Climbing out of the cave I found I was standing on a small hill. The ground was flat grass field and the cave entrance was a big hole on the gorund. Looking from the high position of the hill I could see a village, a burning one. even if they were a far my sight was greatly better then a normal human sight, i could see some people fighting. If I had to guess¡­ bandits. I started to run and reached the village within a few minutes. Getting a clear picture of what was going on it seemed to be really bandits. There were some man wearing brown and black robes, like they just came out of a Middle Eastern movie. Their face was hiding by galabia of some sort so only their eyes were visible. Although the clothing of those people were not anything I''ve seen before in a witcher game I knew I had to change my way of thinking since this should be another world. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The bandits to villager''s ratio seemed to be 1:1 but only half of the villagers were in a place to fight and even less with proper weapons¡­ this was a slaughter. Out of the many people I was looking at a one particular fight caught my eyes. A man wearing a white robe which had no resemblance to the villagers clothing, was fighting on his own 5 bandits. The man was using a double edged spear which was the only reason he could fight with those 5 man, he would attack anyone that gets close to him, and while it seemed that the bandits had only sabers which were not very long it was very clear who had the advantage. I was looking at their fight when the white robbed man eyes met with mine. It''s like if he were saying" if you are here to help then help, If not then go!" Damn I was dreaming for too long¡­ but their fight was just too good. I unsheathed my steel sword and started to run toward the white robed man and the 5 bandits. One of the bandits noticed me coming and was ready to block or counter my incoming attack. "Axii" I moved my hand and used the Axii sign aiming at the man in front. Using Axii the man lowered his saber and stood there dazed, it meant my Axii worked. I rushed and stabbed that man in the chest, at the same time the other 4 noticed me and were shocked about their comrade falling down. Using this chance the white robed man used his spear to attack one of the 4 bandits. The bandit was late to react and was impaled by the white robed man spear. The other 3 bandits seemed to be panicking and called the rest of their ally''s, now most the attention was focused on us. 2 man standing aside against 30 bandits, it was like a scene out of a movie. I took and drank my blizzard potion, I could feel my senses getting sharper and my reaction speed faster. The bandits were cornering us against a wooden house in a half moon shape and it looked like none of the villagers could help us¡­ we had no way to win¡­ if I wasn¡¯t a witcher. The distance between the 2 of us and bandits were 10 meters. Not waiting for the other side to attack first I took out a dragon dream bomb and used Aard to spread the gas faster. At this moments the bandits thought I did something so they started to rush to attack us. The white robed man was too alert and was about to fight but I pushed with my left hand back, I then used Igni and everything in front of me was burned. "GO" The white robed man looked at me and nodded, its good he wasn¡¯t shocked or anything. Some of the bandits started to roll on the ground and the others which were not in the range of the gas started to attack us, but they could not do much. Even if not the white robed man I could easily kill them all but I didn¡¯t want to hurt the villagers nor the white robed man.(northen kind would do aoe damage but without the bandits grouping they would kill villagers and bandits alike, same with the devil puffball) Like that we easily wiped the bandits out. ---------------------------------------- Welp That¡¯s my second chapter I guess, I would try to release another one in 1-2 days, is it too short though? Like I said I would like to get tips/comments on my writing and if people want me to continue after the forth chapter I will, btw- he thinks of it as another world inside the game and dont yet know this is truly another world. chapter 3 It was not very long after the fighting ended when the village elder invited us both to his home. The village elder is an old man about 60/70 years old which the rest of the villagers think of as a leader. He said that he wanted to thank us because if not for us they will all be dead. Looking for information, I of course agreed, but the white robed man said he had to go. Before leaving I asked the white robed man what was his name, he said he was called tang xian. I told him my name which is Leo, he nodded and went away. This is some story line material I thought and made a notice on this man in my mind. Anyway, right now I am sitting on a wooden chair inside the house of the village elder, he told me to wait and that he will come shortly with food. "I''m sorry you had to wait young hero" The elder gets into the room with a tray holding some food and tea. "I am sorry for not being able to give you much, but as you can see we do not have much for ourselves. Without food our villa¡­-" "Stop" he seemed to be afraid, probably think I will do something if I get nothing in return. "There is no need to give me anything. Actually, I can''t remember much, only parts from here and then. I think I lost my memories for some reason, all I really want is some information and a place to sleep until tomorrow" What I learned from playing games, not only the witcher, is that if you give up a prize at one point it will surely return to you later but bigger and better. "Of course that¡¯s the least we could give you. Young hero, do you still remember your name?" "Yes, my name is Leo but that is all I can remember. Before we eat, can you tell me the name of this area? Maybe I will remember something?" "Yes, of course. This is one of the many an unnamed villages in the outskirts of the xelos kingdom. Do xelos kingdom tells you anything?" I faked a sigh and answered the elder "Sadly not¡­ may I ask if you recognize those coins?" I took out some novigradian gold crowns, I wanted to know if I can use them here. The elder eyes went open for a slight second but he fastly regained his composure "n-no¡­ I don¡¯t think I''ve ever seen those coins or sigil. You are probably not from around here." "Amm ok. Let me ask you another question. Do you know what a witcher is?" "A witcher? No I do not know what are you talking about, can you perhaps specify?" Ha, a witcher is sitting right in front of you and even wearing a witcher gear, yet, you do not know what a witcher is¡­ it looks like there are no witchers in this world. "Witchers are warriors with special powers¡­ you could call it magic. They have signs which are like spells and are stronger than the normal humans." I choose not to include the 2 swords and the mercenary like behavior since I''m not sure how he will react. The elder thought for a second before answering back. He took a sip of the tea then proceeded to answer. "Can you be talking about cultivators?" Cultivators? Are they not some people from Chinese stories? Wait, the white robed man was named tang xian...and his robe too¡­ "Can you please explain what do you mean by cultivators?" "Do you not know what cultivators are?" the elder was a bit surprised by my response. Does everyone know what cultivators are around here? "Cultivators are people who use the energy of the world, qi, to strengthen their own bodies in the way to ascension to immortality. Are you not one?" "No, why did you think I was one?" "The fire created out of nothing¡­ and your eyes, they glow¡­" "Did you happen to watch our fight?" "Yes¡­" He seemed to be sorry, probably because no one helped us. "No, sadly I''m not one. By any chance, do you have books on the cultivators you are talking about or a book about the history of this kingdom? I will probably need a map too." "Yes, I will get it right away." He went out of the house for a few minutes before returning with 2 books and a scroll. "This book is some basic information about cultivation, and this one is talking about the kingdom of xelos. Ah I found a map to give you but¡­ it might not be up to date¡­" "Its fine, all I want to know is where the closet city is. Did you find a spare place for me to sleep in?" the elder again relaxed. He nodded and told me to follow him¡­ in the end we didn¡¯t even eat anything. Walking around the village I could see bodies of bandits and villagers still laying around. People were crying and mourning on their loved ones who died. Some fires were not even off yet. With a number less than 30 I''m not sure how can this village keep going. I kept following the elder until we reached a house, the one I will probably sleep in. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings."This is the house of a man who died in the bandits hand¡­ I hope you don¡¯t mind?" He again seemed afraid of my answer, but it''s not like I can''t deal with a ghost if it appears. "Its fine I don¡¯t mind it, I will now go to read the books you gave me so if nothing is of importance then don¡¯t mind me. Ok? "Yes, of course." He said and left me alone. -------------------------------------------------------------- Walking into the house I could see a simple wooden bed, chair, and table, the house had nothing special in it. I sat on the bed and took one of the books the elder from before gave me. The time was late and I could see the sky turning dark so I decided to read the shortest book I had. The book was like a child story, it was only a few pages long. "Cultivation" In the game as long as the language isn¡¯t counted as "forbidden" or "ancient" you could instantly talk and read it. It was made so players moving areas in the game will not have problems understanding and communicating with the npcs. So basically, it was English for me. .. Page 1: Qi is the essence of this world, an energy bound to every living things and every corner of this world. Without qi there is no life. Even if a person have only miniature amounts of qi in his body he still have some. In this world there are some people and beasts capable of using this energy, drawing the qi from the heavens and earth to strengthen their own body and reach immortality. Those man and beasts are called "cultivators." Page 2: In the human body there is a limb called "the dantian". The dantian is like a lake that is not filled with water, but qi. To fill the dantian with qi humans need to draw the qi from the heavens and earth through their meridians and finally to their dantian. Every time the dantian will be filled to a certain amount of qi he will "evolve" by a rank, every rank the dantian will change his capacity and purification ability of the qi that stored in it, every time by small amount When a cultivator break through 10 ranks, not only his dantian will "evolve" by a large sum and his qi will transform, but the qi he will be able to draw from the surroundings will be a qi of higher level of purification. The ranks go as such: Warrior, Halfling, xiantian, master, true warrior, king, emperor, ??? - There are probably more ranks but they are unknown for this day. Page 3: "Simple breathing technique" The page had 4 pictures: 1: a man sitting in a lotus/meditation position. The picture had nothing else 2: the same man was still there, but now you could see through his body, you could see some blue lines that seemed like veins. It was said that they are the "meridians" 3: the picture showed the same man from picture 2 but with blue aura around his body, some of his veins started to glow. 4: the same man from picture 2, but now with other veins glowing. Those veins were located near the low abdomen where the dantian, a round crystal like limb was located. It was actually a Routh, a Routh to lead the qi across your body and to your dantian. Filled with curiosity, as this might be a new option/power of some sort, I immediately sat cross legged as I was used to in order to regenerate my health. (Witcher thing) I tried to remember the pictures, and imagined myself as a dry lake and the air as water that flowed in. quickly, I felt the energy the book was talking about. This "qi" was like the energy I feel when I use my signs, but to compare those energys will be like comparing the first plane to a space rocket. Felling the energy flooding my body I remembered the 3 pictures from page 3. I tried to target and move the energy by the Routh I was seeing in the pictures... but I couldn''t. It felt like the energy was blocked, like I tried to move through a door that was not even there. After 10 minutes I just gave up but that¡¯s when a much unexpected things happened. The energy moved by itself into the place where my dantian should be. It didn¡¯t follow the Routh I saw in the book but was moving by its own inside my body. When the energy reached my dantian I felt an explosive powers, like the one released when I drink my potions. Did I just¡­ breakthrough? I wasn¡¯t sure If broke through or not but I loved this feeling of explosive power. So I kept meditating, absorbing this energy until morning quickly came and when I broke through to the third level of the warrior stage. ------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4. The sun went up and I knew that morning came. During the night I was meditating cultivating this new energy, qi, and I think I broke through to rank 3 of the warrior stage. Well, at least I think I did. At first when I stopped my hold on the energy inside my body and gave it to rush inside my body I felt explosive power coming from where my dantian should be. I kept cultivating and after 2 hours I had the same feeling of power, same thing happened 5 hours after. It seem to be getting longer time after time, or in other words I need more energy to breakthrough. It''s really like those stories and movies¡­ I was about to get up and explore the village for a bit when I noticed, why am I still in game? Including all the hours I was playing from first starting the game to this morning, it should be around 12 hours. Looking at the ratio of one to 3 in real life it meant 4 hours passed. If not the game alert I made for dinner my mom or brothers should get me out of the pod. Can something really happened to the pod? Sigh¡­ I can''t really do much about it and worrying would not help. That said I went out of the house and went to explore the village. The village was stinking out of corpses, some were no buried yet and those who were, it was not in any way a propel burial. I was aiming to walk to the village elder, ask him a bit more before going down to one of the city''s when an old woman holding a big bowl of water crashed into me. "Well, that¡¯s a way to wake up. Here let me help you" The woman caught my hand and got up. It looked like she were about to say something but as she saw who I was she immediately bowed and started to apologies. ???- "ahh, young hero I''m very sorry, please forgive me" Leo- "its fine, it''s actually quite nice that it woke me up. Please stop bowing it makes me uncomfortable." I lied about the first part. After night of cultivating I could never feel better. It seemed that my words worked as the woman stood normal and went to take the bowl back from the floor. Leo- "anyway why were you running with water this early, and what is your name? Zhu- "my name is Zhu and i am in charge in taking care of the injured, I was just about to bring them water¡­" Injured? When I think of it I still have my swallow potion I could probably help a bit. Leo- "Zhu, I come to get water with you, afterwards please show me where all the injured are, I think I may help. I could see the hope on her face as she asked Zhu- "Are you perhaps a doctor? Can you help us heal them?" Leo- "no, I am not a doctor, but I can help you heal them." Zhu- "ok I will trust you young hero." We then went back to the river on the end of the village and back to when the injured were. The place they used as a hospital was basically a house without anything in it but beds. Inside the house were 7 beds and I could see different people with different levels of injury''s. Aside from the people I could see a little girl, the little girl around the age of 7 were feeding one of the slightly less injured man. Little girl- "who are you? Why are you here?" Zhu looked at the girl with an angry look Zhu- "I''m very sorry for the girl behavior, she doesn''t know who you are" Leo- "its fine, after what happened with the bandits I''m not surprised if she will be wary about strangers." At first I thought she was some kind of helper to Zhu but she won''t stay away from this man even after she was done feeding him. Leo- "is this your father?" I asked the little girl, she nodded and went back to the sides of her father. Leo- "Zhu, I can help you heal of them with a potion of mine." Zhu- "do you mean exiler? No, we can''t make you use that precious thing! After all you did fo-" Leo-" no, it''s fine. It''s not a very important thing to me and I will only use few drops, more and it might kill them." Zhu gave up and listened to my plane. The plane was to mix a few drops of my superior swallow potion in the water she brought. 2 drop for each glass of water. It might not heal them completely and those who were crippled will still be, but at least they won''t die. We made the glasses of water and made each drink. It took around 10% of my potion. Leo- "I will come later to check if it worked. It might not heal them completely but they will surely not die." I went out in the way of the village elder house. During my walk I could see some people looking at me, some with fear and some with recognition, recognition was something a witcher never got. It''s nice. As said before the village was not big so I quickly got to the village elder house. "Knock knock" The door slowly opened and I could see the village elder Village elder- "oh, young hero pleas come in" We went in and i sat on the same chair form yesterday. Village elder- "I will quickly make some tea and food"(srsly, xianxia novels have some connections to Britain.) Leo- "no need I already eaten, and you know you can call me Leo right? There is no need to call me young hero" Village elder- "how can I not? This is the least of the respect I could give you." He came and sat in front of me Village elder- "what did you come for today young hero?" Leo- "actually, I have few more questions to ask." Village elder- "go on then I will answer you to my capabilities." This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Leo- "first, if you have a cultivation method why not let the people use it? They could surely fight with the bandits if they did." Village elder- "could it be that you successfully cultivated from the technique I gave you?" The village elder leaned a bit to me, it was if he was greedy for an answer. Leo- " yes, I am not totally sure but I probably reached the warrior stage rank 3, why?" The village elder eyes went open and he just looked at me without answering. Leo- "is it that bad?" He laughed in low voice which looked very creepy to me. Leo- "is everything fine?" Village elder- "yes! Yes! Come let me check your pulse!" He took my hand and I could feel a small wave of energy entering it. Since it was weaker I could just reject it but I knew he had no reason to harm me¡­nor he could. Village elder- "you are a genius! No! A monster!! Hahaha" He started to laugh like a crazy man and my I had no idea why Village elder- "you see, most people will not be able to cultivate, actually, it will be only 1 out of 10000 people. Then comes the matter of talent, with a better talent you would be able to cultivate faster, which means rise faster in ranks. But do you know that even for the geniuses from the big clan it will take a least a month to get to the third level of the warrior stage and this is with the help of precious exilres." So this was good? Reaching only the third rank with so many stages beyond felt somewhat bad. If not for the power up which came with the ranks I would not see the point of cultivating that long. Leo- "so the problem here is about talent? But you just checked my level, doesn''t it mean you are a cultivator yourself?" He stopped laughing and sighed but the smile was still on his face. Village elder- "my days are gone, I only reached the warrior rank 2 and I can''t seem to make a breakthrough. But you, you have unlimited potential!" Leo- "ahem well to my second question. In case I go to a near city, do you know where and if I can exchange my gold coins for money? And any tips for what I should do after reaching the city." Village elder- "yes, the closet city to here is green lotus city. Inside the city you could find a branch of the sleeping gaint auction house, they might exchange your coin and even identify it for you. After you should go to the capital and join the annual tournament of the kingdom, a lot of clans will send their representive to check for new talents. With you talent I recommend you to stay in here until you reach seventh rank in the warrior stage only then you can be called safe" Leo- "ok, I will take your advice in there and stay here for a bit." Just as he was don¡¯t speaking a woman rushed into the house looking for the village elder ??? "Old man! Old man! You have to come something wonderful happened." Just as she got into the house she noticed Leo Leo- "Zhou?" She immediacy bowed and said "Thank you young hero! Thanks for you now the injured are fully healed! I can''t thank you more for using this magic exile for us!" Village elder- "exiler?" he looked at me and had no idea what was going on? We went to the house where the injured people were. On our way Zhu explained everything to the old man Old man- " If only I had more to give you I would, trust me when I say that even our dead are thankful for you." Leo- "there is no need to be that thankful, I only used a bit of my potion." Old man- "even a bit of an exiler might worth more than a mountain of gold." I just then understood that I underestimated this world worth of things, first I thought me reaching the third rank of the warrior stage was bad, then I just gave them a bit of the potion without thinking and it seems its worth a lot. I should be more careful when I get to one of the cities since not everyone will be like the people here. We walked into the healing house and what I was seeing amazed me Those 7 people who were just 1 hour ago sleeping on death door are now standing and walking without any difficulty! A guy whose left hand were cut did not regrow it, but new skin were already covering the wound. This should not be swallow doing... I think? By Zhu it seemed she ordered the 7 man to stay in beds for the time being¡­ but they had no need for it. And here it comes again¡­ ???- "Zhu told us what you did, we can''t thank you more! Everything you want and we have we will give you! I will even marry my daughter to you when she reach adulthood" They all bowed to me like before. It surly getting awkward. The man who was talking was the father of the little girl from before¡­ wait, when he said my daughter did he mean? Leo- "like I said to Zhu and the old man there is no need to thank me since I only used few drops, and there is no need to marry your daughter to me¡­ she should choose a man who truly love her when she grow up¡­" This¡­ engaging a little girl as a reward. This seriously never happened in any game I played. I know it must be a thing around here but still¡­ Leo- "actually I was not expecting this poti, ahem, exiler to work so greatly, it was supposed to only save you from death door. I truly don¡¯t know what happened. If you want to thank me so just tell me your name. Chao- " my name is Chao, and even if you didn¡¯t know it will work so grealy you still help killing the bandits and saved our lives. You should not be ashamed of such deeds hahaha" Ok¡­. Leo-" Leo " I said and shaked his hand. The little girl from before was hiding holding his legs the whole time. Leo- "I will now go back to cultivating if you need anything just come and ask." As I mentioned cultivating Chao looked at me then at the old man, the old man just nodded and he said nothing more. I then went away back to my house to cultivate. --------------- chapter 5 Taking the old man advice I stayed in the village for one week. Most of the time I didn¡¯t actually cultivate but went from place to place help the repairs and doing some tasks, once a witcher always a witcher, but I was really just bored. During the third day of my stay I found something that finally changed my way of thinking. I could feel pain. Well, it wasn¡¯t like in the game a player would not feel any pain, it would be bad if a fighter couldn¡¯t feel pain since why not running into a dragons den then? But at the same time player in such world with real pain could get people mad¡­ so there was a pain limiter. The pain limiter was set to 10% by slowing the nerves communications of different parts in the body. Like that the player could play and fear but at the same time enjoy everything. I thought about the swallow effect on the normal people and wanted to check it myself. I was thinking on cutting my hand and drinking few drops of swallow, if the cut will be closed immediacy then it means the swallow potion isn¡¯t the one I know anymore, or something is different with this world. But when I took a normal knife and used it to cut my hand, the pain was not 10% I remembered, it was 100%, the real pain I always knew. Because of that with the game elements all disappearing I had some crazy thoughts¡­ I chose to treat this place as" real" until something happened to the me outside¡­ if there is one. Anyway, while doing the tasks around the village I grew close to the villagers and they told me some information about the country and the surroundings, the book the Old man gave me really helped too. The Xelos country. The country had a population of 370000 hundred thousand with one major big city, 6 normal sized cities, some towns, and villages spread all around the farmland. The major city, the capital, and the city which I was aiming for was called "Green lotus city" and had a living count of around 200000 people. This is the city where the royal family lives in and where the annual tournament is taking place in 2 months. The Xelos country made the annual tournament so anyone can enter as long he is under the age of 21 and above the warrior stage rank 5. Because of that many great power, such as clans, will send their young generation strongest people to participate. With the fact that many clans will be there to watch, a lot of wild cultivators, cultivators with no clans or cultivation families, will be there to show off their powers and hope that one of the clans will invite them to join. A clan will give them more recourse and a better ground which will end in greater potential. . . . . . . I couldn¡¯t find much more information but I didn¡¯t really need anything. Since I reached the seventh rank in the warrior stage I was planning to leave soon so I can go and ensure my place in the tournament. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I am in the northern side of the village, about to start my way to the Green lotus city. The old man came to say farewell before I go. He said by feet it will take 6 days until I see the walls of the city. Old man- " ha, I actually thought it will take you more time to reach the seventh stage and leave¡­but guess I couldn¡¯t keep you here Leo." During my stay I grew closer to the villagers and they finally started to call me Leo and not young here. Leo- " its fine, after the tournament I will come back to visit. Who knows, I might even win." Old man- "yes, giving you 2 months to train... ugh, I only dare to think what will be of you later." Leo- "why won''t you come to watch the tournament 2 months later?" Old man- "even if I wanted¡­ there is no one to protect me from the road bandits, and even If I could I don¡¯t have the money to pay as the entrance fee" I sighed but didn¡¯t try to convince him and further. Leo- " fine, but don¡¯t worry I will surely come back to visit." Old man- " yeh yeh that¡¯s what they always say¡­ hahaha" And so I started my way to the green lotus city. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. I have been walking for 3 days now¡­ I got lost¡­ You would think that a witcher, a mercenary by blood, would know how to navigate with a simple map¡­ well, you are right if you are talking about a digital map, a map with a red dot pointing you character location and have clear roads and landmarks. Even by looking at the sun location I can only know about if it is morning, noon, or evening. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be¡­ Right after I walked out of the village I entered a forest. The old man told me I would be able to cross the forest in 2 days if I follow the map. But after the first day when I woke up from my meditation, I lost all sense of direction. Luckily, I found some fruits and mushrooms I could eat since I did not take a lot of supplies. Even if they were poisonous, I had no problem eating them since my body had poison immunity as a witcher. At least while cultivating at the night of the second day I broke through to the eight rank. I sighed and was just about to get going as I heard the sound of swords clashing from afar. I must say that even if I didn¡¯t get a chance to test my new powers in battles my senses all greatly improved with me getting to the warrior stage rank 8. I could hear see and react a lot faster, it was like I was under the effects of my superior blizzard but the thing is that I wasn¡¯t. and that was just talking about my senses, what about my actual power? If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Following the sounds I heard I quickly reached the place and saw a weird scene. ???1- " You really think you will be able to beat me? Even if you broke through I am still one rank above you." ???2- " what I just showed you is nothing. Words are nothing but words" ???1- " words are nothing but words indeed." I was hiding behind a tree as I found 2 guys fighting a mock battle near a camp. Aside from the 2 fighting I could see a girl sitting under a tree reading a book and another guy sitting on a branch from above watching the fight. At the same time I could feel someone walking behind me. I unsheathed my steel sword and turned to face the one behind me, pointing my sword at his throat. Leo- "amm what are you trying to do with this knife?" I said it loud so everyone could hear. The whole group became ready to fight. ???- "shouldn¡¯t you be the one to answer? You were spying on us" The guy I was pointing my sword at sounded nervous as he talked. Leo- "no need to fight, I was just watching the nice battle here. Anyway, I was lost as I heard your friends fighting, all I need is some directions and I go. What''s your name?" I said and sheeted my sword in. the group also seemed to relax and but didn¡¯t lower their guard. Ting lei- "my name is Ting lei." He then pointed to the other and named them one by one. "This is Ting Yun 20 years old, he is the strongest of us and at the tenth rank of the warrior stage. The one who was fighting him is Ting Bao 20 years old too and is at the ninth rank of the warrior stage. The others are Ting dan and Ting Yin which are both 19 years old at the warrior stage rank 8, same as me. We are all heading to the tournament in green lotus city." It was pretty obvious that he was trying to scare me by calling their ranks in case I wanted to do something. Leo- "my name is Leo 16 years old at the eight rank of the warrior stage. Btw, are you all brothers and sisters or something?" They looked a little surprised probably because of hearing my rank? Ting lei- "no, we are coming from the same family. 16 years old at the eight rank, are you coming to register in the tournament?" Leo-" yes, I was just on my way to green lotus city and got lost around this forest after I lost my map, I hoped you could show me the way to the city." It was too shameful to tell them I could not navigate with a map¡­ Ting lei- "sure, you know what? Why won''t you come with us since we are going in the same direction?" Ting yin, the girl, was just about to say something as I talked Leo- "it''s fine, I don¡¯t want to bother you guys. Just show me which way to go and it''s all good." I had no actual reason to trust them. I believed I had no problems fighting each head on but if they were to jump on me¡­ I still don¡¯t know how much my power improved. They pointed me to where the city his and told me to keep going until I get out of the forest. Apparently I was only a few hours from getting out. I thanked them and went on my way. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 1: I stopped using kingdom and changed it to country since I think it¡¯s a better word. i will edit the last chapters later and change it in them too. 2:Amm I tried to think what will happen if an actual guy will get transported from our/game world into the real old times, not sure if I got it right though. At the end of the second chapter as a note I said something about a "rank one" country. Well, I decided not to use ranks and since I didn¡¯t impaled it inside the country I think its fine. But I too hope I won''t tell wrong notes like those anymore. And don¡¯t worry you will see some fighting soon. Anyway enjoy. btw, when i write fights, should i do it in 3rd pov? or keep going with the mc pov(which is what i aim for)? " chapter 6 It''s been 3 days since I got out of that damn forest and I can finally see the walls of the city from a hill I was standing on. I have to say, the capital is not called the capital for nothing. From the place I was currently standing at I could see the entire top of the city. I could see the palace which was obvious looking by its fancy big look, but there was another building which looked just as big, like a cathedral of some sort. This was truly a beautiful sight to see from a far. The skies were dark and there were no people at the gate aside from the guards. The 2 guards were wearing full metal armor holding a spear. They were both standing unmoving at the sides of the giant metal gate which were 4x6 meters in size. As if I walked on some sort of a trap as soon as I reached a certain distance of few meters from the gate the guards "came to life". Guard 1- " hold, state your business of entering the city." Leo- "I am looking to join the annual tournament. Guard 1- "you have to pay a fee of 1 silver" Shit, I knew I had to pay a fee but the thing got out of my mind¡­ should i use the crown? No, I might look like a spy or something... Let''s try something else. "Axii" I moved my hand in a way of "now you can''t see me" magic and used Axii. It seemed that my Axii worked as the guards didn¡¯t respond to my weird action. Leo- "you will open the gate right?" Guard 2- "yes, OPEN THE GATE" He turned and pushed some mechanical click, I could hear the sounds of gears as the gate started to open. Axii is my favorite sign. It will work to charm on weak minded people and even animals. I can tell them to do whatever I want until a few minutes of time pass or a big shock waking them up. Leo- "thank you" I walked a distance inside and could hear the guards mumbling something about why did they open the gate. It was bit far but my hearing was far from ordinary people. It was funny to think about what their faces looked like. The city was quiet with little people going around, they were mostly a sleep. I walked around for a bit until I found a place which had light from its windows. I could even hear some music coming from the inside. Finally, found the inn. Inns were a places which all travelers treasured. For a sum of money you could eat sleep and even bath. At most inns there would be a bar open all day and night for people to drink at and a second floor of bedrooms to sleep. Getting in I was welcomed by a strong fragnence of perfume and loud music. A lot of people were sitting telling stories while drinking something that looked like beer. Some things never change no matter in which world. I made my way to the bar looking to rent a room as I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. Some things truly never change. ???- " hi there kid, those 2 swords look heavy, let me take them from you." Talking about things that never change. This guy holding my shoulder looked overly muscular, he was bald and had some scars rolling on over his face. ???1- "Poor kid, looks like boss found a new play thing for the night¡­" ???2- "Yeh, kids shouldn¡¯t be walking at night to places like those¡­ although I have never seen such an armor... he sure looks weird" They didn¡¯t even try to say it low¡­. Boss?-"come, let me take those swords from you." He was trying to unsheathe my silver sword from my back. I only moved my hand aiming backwards at his chest. "Aard" Without anyone even knowing what happened the man suddenly flew backward. To them it probably looked like I pushed him with a touch of my hand. ???- "protect the boss!" A man deeper inside the inn called and half of the people went up from their sits, they were all ready to fight. A gang. Leo- "if your boss can''t do much to me you think you can?" I took unsheathed my steel sword and was ready to fight, just at then another voice was heard out over the inn. ???- "you drunks fools you can''t beat him he is at the eight rank of the warrior stage. Other than that, you are fucking annoying." I didn¡¯t know who the guy was but it seemed they all looked at me with fear after the man talked. He then stood up and walked to me. ???- "hi, you can call my Bao Leng, what is your name friend?" Leo- "my name is Leo. Tell me, how did you know my cultivation level?" He looked at me for a second and laughed. I''m pretty sure he is a bit drank too¡­ Bao Leng- "so I was right. I at the seventh rank of the warrior stage and since I could not feel your level you had to be a rank above me. You don¡¯t look like you''re from around, did you too came to participate in the tournament?" Leo- "yes, I would like to rent a room for the time being." Bao leng-" oh I''m sorry for stopping you then. If you need anything then I will be here in the morning, I can show you around the city. He moved away and by the time we stopped talking the people in the inn didn¡¯t even dare look at us anymore. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.Leo- "I would like to rent a room for 2 months, how much will it cost?" The innkeeper was a midget man. Innkeeper- "60 silver, 90 for meals included." I couldn¡¯t use Axii since there were too many people around. I took out one of my gold crowns and placed it in the innkeeper hands. I then whispered quietly: Leo- "Its gold you can be sure of that. I am out of money but found that on my way to the city. I am pretty sure this is worth more than 90 silver coins." He thought for a bit and gave me a key Innkeeper- "your room is the third one from the right on the second floor, you can call up to 2 meals at a day either in the morning or evening." Leo- "thank you" I smiled and went to my room After renting the room I went up to it. the room had a bed, a cloest combined with a commode and a table surrounded by 2 chairs. Classy. - - - - - - - - -- - - -- - - - - - - - I woke up from my meditation hearing a knock outside the door. ???- "meal is ready, should I send it to your room or you are eating outside?" The voice was not of the innkeeper from yesterday but of a woman. Probably his wife. Leo-" yes, I will eat in my room" ???- "fine, you will have to wait 10 minutes" I did a quick check of my items waiting for the meal to come. Right now I had: One devil puffball bomb, 3 northern wind bombs, and one dragons dream bomb. My potions consisted of one blizzard, 2 swallow which one was 85% full and one normal thunderbolt. 90 gold crowns my viper school armor and 2 swords. ???- "open the door, the meal is ready." I opened the door and saw a midget aged woman around holding a plate. On the plate was a bowl of soup and some bread. Leo- "thank you" ???- "if you want another meal now you will have to pay more. Another regular meal will be served at the evening." She said that and got out. Business must be hard? Finishing my meal I started to think on how my day will be. First, I need to get to sleep giant auction house exchange my coins if it is possible. If I can''t exchange my coins I will probably have to sell my silver sword since I didn¡¯t see any monsters and even if there are some I wouldn¡¯t know if they hold a weakness to silver. Since the silver sword is enchanted, I believe I can get a lot for it. Going down I saw a familiar person sitting on one of the tables eating his meal. Bao leng- "oi Leo, come sit with me I will invite you for a meal in case you didn¡¯t eat one" His table was filled with empty dishes pilling up on each other. Damn, how much can this guy eat? I went and sat down in the opposite chair to him. Bao leng- "so, did you eat anything?" Leo- "yeh, I got my meal in my room. I am looking to go for the sleeping giant auction house, do you know where it is?" Bao leng- "are you looking to participate in the auction?" Leo-" no, I am actually looking to sell some things directly to them. This is possible right?" He finished his last dish and left some copper coins then stood up. Bao leng- "ok then, I will show you the way to the auction house but first let me show you the city a whole." We then walked out of the inn as I followed Bao through the city. Walking with Bao I found out he is a 20 years old at the seventh rank of the warrior stage. He told me that he comes from a small village controlled by his family far from the capita, he was the only one able to join the tournament. It seems that most people without a cultivation or noble families will not have a second name. Along the way I asked him some questions and he answered all of them. He told me about the city and about the big cathedral looking building which was actually the auction house. He told me the people who tried to attack me were a small gang with low cultivation level. He said that he could feel others cultivation level by using something called a divine sense and was surprised that I didn¡¯t know how to use it. Afterwards I started to ask questions about the tournament and the people who usually participate in them. Basically, what is "strong"? He said that in his family he is quite the genius but from the rumors about the young generations of the big clans they will be able to reach the Halfling realm by the age of 17 and for the real geniuses they might even reach the 5rd rank of the Halfling realm by that age with the help of exiles and pills. The sun was in the highest point in the sky and it meant it was noon, I think. Bao leng- "and finally the auction house you were so looking for."