The calm, refreshing spring of the bloodwoods cycled through my body, purifying my soul and repairing my body essences. The fourth layer of my core, the newest layer, was about a third full of water mana. I could've stayed back at the graveyard and continued to absorb the mana there, I figured it was best to break up iterations. After dying a couple hundred times on the same spike, I was due for some change in scenery.

As I focused on the fourth layer of my soul, I reflected on the battle with the wolfbears. In my first fight as a knight, I used more mana than I ever had in all my prior fights. Not being able to rely on a squad was a huge difference-maker. That was the largest ice field I'd ever created, and I could add layers, turning it into a hill. That initially put a lot of strain on my soul. It was the equivalent of doing hundreds of push-ups for a pre-workout. The field was worth it for the advantage it gave me and the new movement skill I developed.

Ice slide was gonna be a life-changing skill. The worst part about being a guide was walking. I declined most jobs because I didn't have the feet to weather it. Once I master snowshoeing, I'll never walk again. I'll glide my way through life, passing all the walking suckers behind with a smile and a laugh.

My summons were also better as a result of my expanded soul. Arrows were created in a split second, my swords were almost the quality of a weaponsmith, and I had enough flexibility to change my weapons on the slide—spears, hammers, and axes were only a thought and push of mana away. Even my ice barrier was stronger and more durable.

The thrill of learning and upgrading skills intoxicated me. For a moment, I let my mind wander down the infinite roads of possibility. Two skills I hoped to develop in the subsequent few cycles were ice armor and clone.

I already had the skill to create a clone. It was by far the most complex ability I had. The ability involved three parts. First, I made the body of ice and invested a portion of my mana in it so it could function. The ice body was then anchored to an illusion of me that covered the entire clone. The addition of scripts and some extra mana made the mirage life-like. Once the host body was finished, the last step was giving it its sentience. I had to split my focus and allow a portion of it to control the ice body.

The split focus took a large amount of training to develop. It was only possible due to the mind essences I previously cultivated. I hadn't been able to split my mind since escaping my cube except for passive focus, which wouldn't be strong enough to control a vessel. Before creating a new mirage, I needed to split my mind again. To do that, I always kept my active and passive mind busy. The passive mind was the key. If I could train the passive mind to become more active, I'd have a new split focus.

Mind cultivation is a messy process, but if pursued properly, it could give cultivators a massive advantage—the same could be said for spirit and body paths. I'd have a powerful mind but miss out on two other essences.

Planning to create a clone and being a clone led to a minor existential crisis. This body I possessed felt so much like me. Like I was myself. Yet it was made no differently than how I intend to make my next clone—ice, mana, illusions, and scripts. I couldn't tell it apart from my original body; I felt pain, hunger, and emotions. I sweated when I ran through the forest. The spring water calmed and relaxed me. I could taste food and enjoy it.

Everything signaled to my mind that this body was me. But it wasn't my body; it wasn't me. I was still dying on a pike. In a week or so, if I managed to survive that long, I would be forced to see the real me. Which wasn't a problem, was it? My soul was inside my clone. Did that not make me whole? What if I couldn't save myself and had to stay in this body to live? Could I accept that? Could Lana?

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Lana would probably have less of an issue with it than I would. She could create three clones. If she kept it to two, she'd have enough skill to cultivate with both of them—increasing her strength at twice the speed of a regular practitioner. Lana would understand, not only because she was familiar with clones but also because she was just accepting of people. Why else would she find interest in a mediocre map maker…

I found comfort in that thought and put my worries to ease. If Lana could accept me, I could accept me. Before any more heavy thoughts could surface, I changed my focus to the skill I'd probably learn before I managed to create another clone—ice armor.

Ice armor was a skill I'd seen many water cultivators pull off during fights. It was always considered a top-tier protection skill in tournaments, duels, or wars. Ice armor was like having an ice dome permanently shielding the cultivator. The quality of the skill also meant that it was a prized technique. The knowledge of creating the armor was not shared freely. If one wanted to learn, one needed a generous water mentor or enough money to buy the technique manual. I never had a water mentor or a manual and wasn't interested in learning about the protective technique then. I had no need for it.

Now that I'd be fighting alone for a while, it felt appropriate to learn the technique. I wasn't ready to leave the Bloodwoods yet. It still had everything I needed. My plan was to try to develop my own technique while I continued to fight and absorb mana.

If I didn't have the technique down by the time I was ready to leave, I would haul out a bunch of cores and pay for the manual. I'd just have to kill a lot of wolfbears. However, leaving the woods for a loop or two to gain the skill seemed a good idea, too. The ability would make body cultivation an easier path to walk down… Things to consider. I didn't have to commit to any plan. I just needed to get stronger.

Besides the skills I gained on the last loop, I made good progress in training my body. Part of the reason I visited the spring was to aid in my physical recovery. During my fight, I improved my strength pathway by nearly a quarter. The gains were incredible, and it was all due to the slaughter on my ice hill. I could do push-ups all day for a month, and I would be lucky if I had managed a ten percent increase in the body pathway.

I was always interested in the way the soul broke down progression. If I looked inward, I could see my soul in its entirety. It was a mix of mana, the essences I'd cultivated, and my channels. It was a beautiful mess that was hard to comprehend until you focused deeper on the energy. The mana inside presented itself as a core; some even said it looked like a record of stats.

My 'core' broke down into the layers I ranked up and had a record of the paths I ranked up in. It included skills I learned and perks I gained from pursuing a pathway. It even had my ranger classification recorded. It wasn't words or text that I read on my core. Instead, impressions and images of information—scraps of memory—created my soul's foundation.

Some scholars believed that if you were to wipe one's soul, you'd be wiping their entire identity. I wasn't so sure about that, not that I considered myself a scholar, but it seemed there was much more to a person than their mana and how they gained their mana.

My core showed me a readable summary of my cultivation, kept track of my current progress, and provided an endpoint. I could see fragments of a layer forming around my core. Each essence cultivated was like a stone being placed to create a new level. Once I had three levels, a foundation was formed, creating a new layer of my soul. Then, it was only a matter of breaking through my existing layers with a bounty of mana to gain my next rank. Conveniently, I already had a lake of mana waiting for me at every cycle. That meant I just needed to gain more levels.

I reached deep into my water senses and tapped into my mana's wide connection throughout the forest. I couldn't cover the entire forest, but I could sense a large enough area that I could reach my restart. The forest was lifeless, but the predators hiding among the trees were not. They'd feast, we'd fight, and I'd gain levels. It was the quickest path to power.