Wanderer's Realm, somewhere...
“Alright, could you let me know what will be in those private quarters?” I asked, this time looking directly towards the fog-woman. [I will actually bring you there to show you. After all, we spent some time to plan a few important things, and now it is time to improve your cultivation a bit. Otherwise, it might pose some problems in the near future.] I could hear the smile in her voice. Of course, a smile also appeared on my face when I heard about this exciting news. Cultivation world, here comes the awesome Manager Lucas!
I soon felt a weird sensation, as if reality was shifting. And instead of being in the previous room with the weird flowing grey lights, I found myself in a new room, this time as white and empty as my fridge right before I get my paycheck. That's very depressing, to be honest. But I shoved that thought in a corner of my mind and instead asked my personal magic genie. “So, Ali. Where are we again?” Her voice sounded in front of me where I could vaguely discern her foggy shape. [We are in the training room. As the name implies, this is where I will train you when you are not working at the bar, whether it be because it will be closed or because there are enough staff to man it without your help. Although the latter will not be possible while the bar is at the Ungraded Level.]
“Is it not possible, or you don't want to?” I asked, doubts lacing my voice. [Secret.] She said with a playful tone. Alright, I could guess the answer to my question. Not that it mattered in anyway, but oh well. “So, could you tell me more about this room?” She replied. [Sure. First, once the bar will be 'built', you will be able to access this room yourself without me having to teleport you manually. It will be the same for your personal quarter and those of the future staff members. Note that one will need the authorization of the owner of the quarter to be able to enter it.] “Protection against perverts. Understood.” [I have seen your browser's history, so I thought it was necessary...] “You did?! *Cough* I mean, I have no idea about what you're talking about. My mind is as pure as the thousand years old snow, and my innocence...” I kept going for a while until I had no more idea as how to defend my honor.
[Are you done?] She said, the exasperation in her voice clear to me. “Yep!” I said, slightly laughing. [Alright, so I would not believe a single word about what you just said, even if I could not feel you lying the whole time through my power and our bond.] That made me roll my eyes at her. “Fine! You got me and I am a pervert. But those things I watched or read are not real. In reality, I still have my moral principles and would stop all those things from happening. My motto is: 'As long as it is between consensual adults, then it is fine.' Of course, the word consensual can be vague depending on the person's situation, but I'm not an omniscient god, so I can't plan for every situation.” When I noticed that I was digressing, I added.
“Anyway, what I meant to say is that, although I have nothing against your arrangement, I would not do the things you seem to be implying I would do.” Defending my honor was important, as I didn't want my new partner to think that I was deranged. Having urges were one thing, but acting on them was completely different. And to me that was where I drew the line between being a pervert and a deranged human being. Period.
When I finished trying to justify myself, I noticed something and said. “Wait a second. How would you know that I would choose only female staff?” That prompted a chuckle out of her. [From your browser history. That was not too hard to guess.] “Fair enough.” If you were to live for an indeterminate amount of time while working at the same place the whole time, then you might as well have beautiful women around you instead of handsome men, even if it was just as colleagues. Well, that's for me though. You could have different tastes.
“Anyway. This room, then?” [Right. It is empty for now, since you haven't started cultivating, which means that you would have no way to channel the energy that will flood it later. That could be very dangerous. Even lethal, to be honest.] That worried me a bit. Despite my lackluster life so far, I still didn't want to die. “That sounds a bit scary. What kind of energy is that? Is it like in the novels, a kind of spiritual energy?”
[Mmhh... I guess you could call it a superior version of it. The spiritual energy you are talking about would be what most cultivators in the Wanderer's Realms would call mana. By the way, the Wanderer's Realms that I just mentioned is the universe you live in, which is composed of three Realms linked together: the Mortal Realm, the Immortal Realm and the Divine Realm, where we are currently. Although, at the very edge of it.] I was focusing deeply on her explanation, since I wanted to understand more the world I had just joined.
“Mmmhh... From those names, I'm guessing that the different Realms have something to do with cultivation level? But then, why would humans on Earth not be able to cultivate? I may be completely wrong about that since I'm only basing my assumption on what I read before, but the Divine Realm is supposed to be a 'haven for cultivation', right?” I used finger quotes to show my doubts.
[I will start with your first question. The simple answer is that each Realm limits its cultivators to its corresponding layer and has a different clarity of Laws. The former means that a cultivator who is in the Mortal Realm will never be able to surpass the Mortal Layer where he is. If he does, he will automatically ascend to the Immortal Realm. The same is true for a cultivator trying to reach the Divine Layer there. As for the Chaos Layer, you would be able to leave the Wanderer's Realms completely to access the entire Multiverse. AS for the latter, it means that depending on the Realms that you are in, the Laws will be more or less clear to comprehend. There are differences even in the same Realm, but the general rule still applies.]
She stopped talking to let the enormity of what she implied with her explanation sink into my tiny Mortal brain. I didn't want to undersell my vision of the world, which, in my opinion, was very broad, but that made me feel like a 'frog at the bottom of the well'. And that was without really knowing the capacity of each cultivation's Layer.... It's probably better not knowing too much for now.
Once I was done wrapping my mind around everything, I repeated to make sure that I understood. “So, if I got this right, a cultivator starts at the Mortal Layer, then goes on to the Immortal, Divine and Chaos Layer. I'm guessing there should be differences between cultivators from the same Layer? Like Levels or something?” She replied to my question. [Yes. Although you can think about the first three Layers as cultivator trainees instead of true cultivators. In the multiverse, they are seen similarly to a Divine Layer cultivator looking at an athlete from Earth. Slightly stronger than a Mortal, but the difference is minimal. But I guess, since we will start ou path here, we should take them more seriously.]
She stayed silent for a few seconds before adding. [Each Layer before the Chaos Layer is divided in three Rank and nine levels. Three for each of the former. And each Level is again divided in Early, Mid, Late and Peak sub-levels. It sounds complicated, but since your cultivation will be different than them, you do not have to waste too much time thinking about it.] I nodded to her suggestion and replied. “I'll follow your advice. Even if that wasn't the case, I'm not sure that knowing too much would be useful anyway. And I'm guessing I will have a lot of time to think about all of it.”
[You are right. Now, onto your second question. Why can't humans on Earth not cultivate? Well, your question should have been, 'why can't humans on Earth not be able to cultivate mana?' Because, thanks to the clarity of the Laws in the Divine Realm, there are many people on earth capable of understanding the Laws. There is one problem though. The lack of mana. Since your planet is Ungraded, it cannot generate enough mana for people to reach a high level in cultivation. A few may reach Level 1 if they were very talented and the utmost genius could maybe attain Level 2 with the help of many magic plants, pills, treasures, etc. But that would be it.]
“So what you're telling me is that there are some cultivators on Earth right now?” I asked, very surprised. Was it like some secret martial art society? [Yes. Not a lot of them, but there are. It would also be a good idea to use them as our first customers.] I completely agreed with her. After all, if we publicized the fact that we had many resources for cultivation to the same people who severely lacked them, I could guess the end result. Of course, if I didn't have Ali's protection, there was no way that I would risk doing that. It would be like a little sheep dangling an unlimited amount of meat in front of a pack of starving wolf. Non merci, monsieur! [A/N: No thank you, sir.]
“I'm wondering something. You said that some earthling could use the Laws but not cultivate. I'm a bit confused.” I continued, my voice laced with puzzlement. [You misunderstood. I said 'understanding the Laws' and not using them. There is a huge difference. To explain it, you can think about the Laws as your phone and the mana as the electricity used to power it. If you lack one of those two, then you would arrive nowhere. It is a symbiotic relationship where you need your Laws comprehension to be high enough to progress your mana cultivation. But to progress in the former you would also need the mana to improve your being enough to succeed. Of course, everyone is different and if your Law comprehension Level is high enough you would be able to improve your mana cultivation, despite the lack of ambient mana. However, that is so rare, even in the Divine Realm with its uncountable number of beings that it is useless to think about it.]
“So in other words, the Realm we are in is great but the planet is complete shit for cultivation.” [Relatively to the other two Realms, then yes. Although I would not have used those words.] I noticed her slight discomfort and said. “Right, sorry about the language. I was just overwhelmed by the fact that one could be so lucky and unlucky at the same time. It feels both funny and sad. Thankfully, I met you or I would have no way of knowing all those things.”
“Mmmhh... If we stick to Earth as the sole source of customers, wouldn't we be quickly limited? I mean, you just said that the strongest cultivators are only Level 2, right?” [Yes, to your second question. And yes but no to your first.] Exasperated by her antics, I said. “That was not helpful at all.” I heard her chuckle to my reply. [I was just teasing you. Anyway, you would only be limited to Earth until you Grade up the bar. And, as the base of your civilization, I decided to help Earth itself Grade up at the same time. That way, all your people would have access to a lot more cultivation resources and would not stay as the weak barbarians that they currently are.]
I felt stunned by the fact that she could literally improve a whole planet. A. GODDAMN. PLANET. I looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, wondering if I was going mad and if everything until now was just a dream. Should I pinch mys... “OUCH! Ali! Why did you have to pinch me so hard?!!” [You looked a bit lost, as if you felt you were dreaming, so I pinched you and, TADAA! You are not dreaming.] *Sigh* I haven't even started working and I'm already exhausted. Not wanting another pinch of death, I said, numb to the crazy idea in what I said. “So you can Grade up a planet... Is it normal? How is it even possible?”
Her tone changed from mischievous to neutral when she said. [Chaos energy of course. Planets cultivate chaos energy unlike cultivators under the Chaos Layer who cultivate the local energy which is the watered down version of said Chaos energy.] “But if the planets are able to cultivate chaos energy, then why can't humans do the same? Wouldn't it be better for our cultivation since mana is only its watered down version?”
[Well, you would be right, except for one thing. Let me us a analogy to make it easy to visualize the problem. Mmhh... What do you think would happen if.... Let's take electricity, since that is the energy that earthlings use. So, what if the amount equivalent to a million nuclear plants' energy was stuffed into the battery of your smartphone?] So it had to do with the amount of energy that exceeded our physical storage. I started to understand where she was coming from. “I'm guessing it would explode? Since the amount of energy was too much for the battery to deal with.”
[Yes. But it is not only a question of quantity, but also of quality. Every species has their advantages and disadvantages. Some have a lot more of the former and some, the latter. Humans are in general too weak to support that kind of energy, unless their parents reach the Chaos Layer. But in that case, they are not really considered as mere humans anymore.] She paused for a brief moment and then resumed her explanation. [Planets in this universe can absorb Chaos energy through a certain link to the Realms' origin. In exchange, they can produce the ambient mana that cultivators use to cultivate to increase their cultivation bases. Also, the breakthrough of multiple cultivators helps improve the planets' spirits, which in turn helps the planet absorb more chaos energy, etc. It is a symbiotic relationship.]
“So, does that mean that, if we waited long enough, Earth could Grade up on its own?” [Yes, but also not necessarily. Similar to other cultivators, planets have lifespan and talents, or potential if you will. That means that some planets would never Grade up unless they met a lucky encounter, like me for example.] I nodded and mumbled. “Right. Otherwise, there would be an infinity of high graded planets in every Realms.” After contemplating the idea of a living planet, I refocused on what was important. “So what about me then? How should I cultivate?”
[By using Chaos energy, of course.] She said with what I perceived as schadenfreude as if she didn't just tell me that I would explode if I used that same energy, a few minutes ago. “Fuck me!” I just couldn't help myself.