The entire process was aggravating. It began to feel like he would probably have better luck trying to thread a needle while blindfolded. But, with the pressure only continuing to grow, Alan couldn't afford to back down. He refused to give up now.
“Focus man, you can do this!” He growled out after yet another failed attempt to build up enough momentum. With a wild look in his eyes, Alan redoubled his efforts. It took determination, a fair amount of Luck, and every scrap of Willpower he could scrounge together on such short notice. But finally, it was the fourth attempt that saw success smile in his direction. Even then, it was a narrow victory. He only just managed to take control over the Celestial Energy trapped in his Tributaries.
Once it was spinning as fast as he could handle, Alan pushed through the pain, and applied as much mental pressure as he could muster up. With a reluctant attitude, the whirlpool of energy begrudgingly followed his guidance. Alan gasped with relief, and shoved the miniature vortex up against the blockage, with plans of using it like a drill.
At first the stubborn obstruction damming up the Delta in his left shoulder was able to withstand his efforts. But under the sustained assault, a tiny breach was made. Free at last, a single thread of Alan's Celestial Energy ripped through the remainder of his arm. It felt like liquid fire was pumping through his veins. He grit his teeth and fought to maintain a steady and even pressure.
His efforts weren't in vain. A wretched-smelling brown sludge was soon oozing out of the thin spaces between each of the countless scales on Alan's arm. The sludge carried with it the stench of aged ass and burnt hair. Although entirely unappealing, his bodily diarrhea also provided immediate benefits.
As whatever the putrid mess that clogged up the grooves between Alan's scales was ejected, the loss of restriction allowed his arm to inhale a flood of ambient energy.
It was a disturbing, and quite honestly unwanted reminder of his uncle. A habitual pot smoker, who would puff on his pipe to the point he could only take a deep breath of air by first hacking up globs of congealed phlegm.
Now free of impurities, the gaps between each of his scales were now taking in a miniscule amount of ambient energy. Once cycled through his core, all contaminants and unnecessary attunements were vented through his scales. Back out into the atmosphere. The process was so fast that each expulsion was synchronized with his breathing.
Each successive inhalation restarted the cycle. With every breath Alan took, new layers were added to the complex network of pathways being created throughout his Tributaries. The only difference was, these newly-created, and fragile channels were traveling in the completely opposite direction. With only one viable option, it wasn't hard for him to guess their intended destination. They were making a beeline for his Cultivation Core.
Though he wasn't sure what exactly Celestial Energy was, there seemed to be an abundance of it in the atmosphere. Countless thin tendrils of energy wormed their way through his arm, and stormed the castle gates that were the clogged up Deltas in his left shoulder. Luckily, they encountered much less resistance than he had feared in the all-out assault
Streamers of invigorating Celestial Energy gathered together in Alan's Deltas and battered down the obstruction. Unbound once more, the individuals became one, birthing a raging river. He trembled like a leaf in a storm, giving everything he had to keep it together. The newly absorbed energy pierced through another aperture located on the left side of his Core, and took the place of what had been consumed to start the cycle. Taking solace in his partial success, Alan's face became a mask of pain and determination.
With his lost energy now being replaced, the process was repeated. After gathering up enough momentum, and applying the necessary pressure, another round of condensed energy beams geysered out of the apertures at the top and bottom of Alan's Core. The additional burst of power applied enough force to the blockage in his right shoulder, that it only took minimal effort on his part to drill through the plugged up Deltas.
Basking in the wretched smell of success, Alan got to work on clearing out the blockages in his hips.
By the time the last bit of resistance finally broke down, every inch of his body was leaking the same foul substance. The stench was bad enough that Alan grew desperate, and shoved balled up chunks of plantain skin into his nostrils. But that only forced him to breathe through his mouth, which actually made it much worse. The odor was so intense that he could taste it.
Fighting to keep down the contents of his stomach, Alan monitored the passage of the ever-increasing streams of energy being ingested by his body. The pain made it easy to follow. They were searing through his flesh and bone, creating thousands upon thousands of new pathways branching off in all directions. Many took a circuitous route, but the majority of them always ended up heading back to his Deltas. From there, they returned to his Core, and were recycled.
By the time the process was completed, Alan's Cultivation Core was in the center of a formation that looked similar to a weathervane. It had a total of six actively-working apertures. One on top, one on the bottom, and four more spaced evenly around it.
The top and bottom were for energy output, and the four on the sides were where the returning energy replenished what was being used. Once the ambient energy that had been absorbed finally entered into his Core, it was added to the growing whirlpool, and underwent fundamental changes. With each revolution, the interior of his Core was purified, and the exterior condensed. Alan snarled at his PSA for interrupting his introduction to the life of a Cultivator. Now on top of everything else, he had to deal with several notices.
*WARNING!* A source of Unorthodox Energy has been detected! (Human) Tutorial Denizen Alan Gerald Robbins has triggered the activation of a Cultivation Core! Now Alerting System Administration… *SYSTEM OVERRIDE*. Alert canceled.
FIRST IN SYSTEM ALERT! *SYSTEM OVERRIDE*. Alert canceled. Remarkable! You are the first entity within the System Database to possess an active Cultivation Core. Due to this potentially calamitous achievement, you have been Awarded with the *Unique* Title Tears of the Multiverse!
Tears of the Multiverse- +20 All Stats +5% increase to Effectiveness of All Stats.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Remarkable! You have reached 100 Points in All Stats! As the first denizen of the (Human) Tutorial to reach 100 Points in All Stats, your Title Entry Level Adventurer has been upgraded to Novice Level Adventurer!
Novice Level Adventurer- +5 All Stats
*WARNING!* Due to stepping upon the path of Unorthodoxy, you have been Branded with the Title Heretic. Be warned. This Title marks you as the enemy of the Elven Empire and their their allies. You are unconditionally banned from all Elven planets and outposts.
Heretic- No Stat gains.
"Fuck me. Gaea wasn't kidding…” Alan hid his face under his hands and groaned. It just keeps getting better and better...
Alan assumed the enemies the System was referring to were the Elves. And all of their allied Races. Of which he assumed there were a lot. But he had no idea who, or where they were. So he tried to get some additional information.
"Um... Excuse me?" Alan asked cautiously
"System?? First, thank you for the help. I'm sorry to interrupt, but you said who and where. I'm confused. I guess I partially know the who. And I'll do my best to avoid any Elven planets, but where are they at? And what about their allies, and outposts? Are there Elven Outposts in the Tutorial? Or on Terra?"
Celestial Essence? Aspect? Neither of these were terms that Alan was familiar with. The Word Celestial was enough to lead him to believe that the Celestial Essence had something to do with Cultivation. As for the whole Aspect thing? He had no clue what that could be. "Yeah... Ok. No problem boss. I'll look for it. But uhh, is there any way you could tell me what a Celestial Essence looks like?"
Alan grew silent, anticipation steadily building up. Finally, he couldn't remain quiet any longer "Uhh... System??"
Yet the answer he sought never arrived. Having said all that it deemed to be necessary, the System was no longer present. Or at least not in any way that was noticable. Either that or it was purposely ignoring him. There wasn't really any way for him to tell. Alan rolled his shoulders. "Well, if I don't find that Celestial Essence, you'll only have yourself to blame."
So there was good news and bad news. The bad news; apparently Alan was now the enemy of the entire Elven Race. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he now had to worry about figuring out which Races were counted among their allies. But the good news was that now that his Cultivation process had been started, it was almost as instinctual as breathing to keep it going. Within ten minutes, Alan was confident enough in his abilities that his mind began to wander.
A Celestial Essence must be some pretty good stuff if the System itself is showing interest... Just my Luck. Something else to worry about...
"You know what?" Alan suddenly spoke our against his worries, "Fuck it. If I find it, I find it. There's no point worrying about it right now. I've got enough to handle as it is. I'll worry about it when the time comes."
And with that, Alan shoved it to the back of his mind.
As he stared at the lake, Alan got a sudden, and somewhat shameful idea. He flung the peel out into the lake, and watched the surface of the water explode into motion while quickly picking another plantain. This one as well was tossed out into the lake. Only he made sure it landed a little closer to the shore. He repeated the process three more times. Until finally, the school of apparently-starving fish were close enough that he could reach out and touch them.
Hoping that they weren't going to turn out to be picky eaters, Alan took a deep breath and cannon-balled into the center of the out of control feeding frenzy. The press of bodies immediately pushed him deeper. He was under heavy assault, but didn't bother to fight back.
Thanks to their toothless mouths, combined with the protections set in place by the Safe Zone, they weren't actually able to cause him any damage. As the sludge began to wash away, it stained the water around him the color of a strong tea. It was as if he had decided to turn the frenzy dial up to one hundred percent. Hundreds of tiny, slippery bodies gathered up in an ever-shifting, silvery cloud around him.
Acting on instinct, Alan activated [Examine], and was greeted with a wave of vertigo. Worse than last time, it felt like his body no longer knew how much energy the Skill's activation required. So much was applied that his eyeballs began to glow, which dimmed his surroundings considerably. Worst of all, the Skill took way too long to activate.
Lvl 1 Silver Lake Chub HP: 12/12
After spending well over a minute underwater, an unexpected side effect of having a Beast form made itself apparent. He wasn't feeling even slightly pressed for air. With nothing better to do, and plenty of time to kill, Alan sat crosslegged on the bottom of the lake and tossed out one [Examine] after another. With each activation, the Skill saw noticable improvements. By the tenth successful activation, his body had adjusted to its new power source. Once [Examine] gained a Skill Level, it finally started working as smoothly as ever.
Remarkable! Your Skill (B)[Examine] has grown to Lvl 9!
Alan's worries decreased considerably when he activated, and then deactivated [Tenacious Concentration]. It worked without issue. With one less problem to worry about, Alan started trying to locate the boot-fish he'd seen. It was no use. Try as he might, he was unable to see passed the hurricane of Silver Chubs swarming around him.
The greedy little swimming stomachs sucked the slime off of his scales, swam out into the swarm, and came back around for seconds and then thirds. Not only was it just about the most awkward situation he'd ever been in, it was hard to stay still because they were tickling him like crazy.
Nearly as fast as it started, it was over. Once his scales were clean, and the remnants of fruit floating around the lake had been consumed, the swarming fish seemed to lose interest and drifted away. With a final look around, Alan swam to the shore, and pulled himself out of the water.
It felt great to be clean. The feeling of his body seemingly inhaling and exhaling the atmospheric energy without any input on his part made it that much better. Alan saw a flash of brown out of the corner of his eye and tossed out another [Examine] before his elusive quarry could disappear.
The results were… Unsatisfying to say the least.