I spoke as I stood up from the floor I somehow was laying on. “When did I fall off the bed?”
That was when I noticed my clothes were totally shredded and I was completely naked.
“Man, I don’t have many pants that fit me anymore!” I complained as I grabbed one of my remaining good pairs of jeans from my suitcase and put on a simple T-shirt. I wasn’t planning on going outside just yet so figured I could worry about socks and shoes later. Regardless of what I was planning best to protect my important bits and not just have everything dangling out there.
It was just me and my roommate back at my place. I wouldn’t call us preppers, but we had plenty of emergency food and water. Sadly, that was several hundred miles away as I had decided to rent this cabin to get away from it all. My original plan was to get some time for myself on my birthday. I loved nature and going hunting, but doing both wasn’t really an option in Southern California, hence my current location in the middle of nowhere.
Of course, I still brought my laptop along as the place had satellite internet even though I was in the middle of a forest. I mean come on I’m good at roughing it, but there are limits. Plus, this allowed my friends and I to still have our raid nights.
After unlocking my door, I left my bedroom. There were three bedrooms on the top floor and downstairs held the living/dining room, a kitchen, and doors leading outside. He had an attached garage that was converted into a faraday cage protecting everything inside from any electromagnetic interference. The guy knew how to plan for the end.
I listened for any response to the noise my door opening made. After hearing nothing for a few moments I made my way to check the remaining bedrooms upstairs. Both rooms were clear, so I made my way downstairs to check the doors and Windows.
The man who built this place was smart. Paul was his name, and he was more of a prepper than even my buddy and me. He built this place to last. It was heavily insulated and even though the place was a log cabin that was by external appearance only. The foundation and walls were solid concrete re-enforced with thick steel rebar. Logs were placed across everything to give the appearance of a simple log cabin. Heck even the windows were thick bulletproof glass with steel shutters that could be closed over top them. It had a direct line to an underground well and both backup generators and solar panels with batteries. The waste system even funneled to a greenhouse garden to provide fertilizer. It truly was an impressive construction.
Paul let me use the place periodically after I met him at a gun show in Texas. We hit it off as my cousin and I started talking about archery and hunting. My cousin was a skilled bowman and marksman. The older man offered up the place if we were ever interested. This was the first time I came up here on my own. Of all places to be while in the middle of nowhere, this would work as a decent base.
As I expected the place was secure. I’m pretty sure the place could withstand a bear assault without taking anything but superficial damage. My immediate safety addressed, I decided to fix some food as I was starving. Good thing I stocked up before coming here.
I cooked up some elk steaks as they still are my favorite meat. After I devoured four large cuts, I started to feel better. I knew I was hungry but man that’s a lot of meat.
Now that my mind wasn’t distracted by my stomach I could start experimenting. If I was going to explore this new reality, I was going to need to have some offensive and defensive spells, for that matter, a few utility spells wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Starting with offense, my go to would naturally be ‘Fireball’ but probably not the best idea in a forestry area. My next best solution...
——————
ZAP!
“Ha, ha, ha, ha! Success!”
Congratulations! You have learned the known spell Lightning Bolt!
“Sweet!” I said after reading my notification.
“Well looks like I’m going to have to replace that lamp.” I commented as I looked at the results of my Lightning Bolt hitting my target.
It had taken me some time to get a feel for, and visualize, what I wanted to do. After a few inquiries to the System, I learned how to manipulate and move the energy within me. This was referred to and allowed me to learn a skill called Mana Manipulation. That gave me a better feeling for how to move the energy around within both in my core and what I learned were mana channels or what Eastern medicine called meridians.
According to the System, Mana Manipulation wasn’t a required skill for non-casters, instead they could get a skill called Energy Circulation, which allowed them to move the energy through their body and begin to develop and strengthen their channels. Magic casters had to learn to move their mana outside their bodies to cause actual effects in the real world. Body enhancement or what some martial artists and cultivation stories focus on is Chi or Ki, which is just learning to draw in and enhance yourself so you can accomplish superhuman effects. Most of those effects are body related but not all. An offshoot of this second set of beliefs was Spiritualists, who were a hybrid of both a caster and body enhancement, but most stories I read typically portrayed this hybrid approach as having great utility but weaker than the other two options.
This reminded me that what we visualized and our focused on drove much of our results. Plus, I refused to believe learning both made you weaker, casters are physically weak and body enhancers are not as smart or can’t cast, UTTER NONSENSE! Some could not see past popular beliefs even if those beliefs were flawed or missing information. As I got older, I learned to have a flexible mind to help see different perspectives, critically think about them and compare it to facts, then take the nuggets of truth buried in them and apply it to give me greater understanding of life and how things really were.
That was when I asked the System a question and got an ‘AFFIRMATIVE’ in response. In most cultivation stories characters could move energy to their fist or foot to deliver a powerful punch or kick. In most magical stories, casting certain spells required specific movements, incantations, or materials to act as catalysts. Most of this was a combination of a mental ritual that focused your mind and magic in such a way that you got the same outcome and using mediums as the body could not always survive acting as a catalyst itself. If I added the aspect of channels, that made even more sense why a caster had to use their hands, their channels were more developed from constantly moving power from within you to your hands, after all we use our hands for everything. I knew I was on the cusp of a greater understanding, but it wasn’t completely solidified just yet.
With all of those realizations in mind, I spent time to gain the Energy Circulation skill. This helped me gain greater awareness of my channels and I knew I was going to strengthen them to get the type of results I wanted. The challenge was figuring out how. That was when my knowledge of biology and our circulatory system gave me an idea. We have both arteries that move precious blood to every part of the body and then veins that circulate the blood back into the heart and that also helped me recall other systems and other organs that helped purify and remove waste.
With those things in mind, I spent hours creating dual connections to my channels and my core. Each channel would split its connections. One connection allowed energy to flow from my core into the channel. This proved the easiest as a initial connection was created after I gained Mana Manipulation. The second connection was to the spiral that was now my core. This would allow me to better draw power not just directly through my spiral but also my whole body. The Energy Circulation skill partially helped but my imagination and focus on purifying and transforming the power created a third connection that seemed to surround and infuse my channels and connections. Funny enough this last part along with some related memories for past D&D campaigns I was in had gained me a new ability called ‘PURITY!!!’ What an odd name for an ability, it was all caps and emphasized too. Funny how the imagination works.
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That is when the System prompted a new notification that was literally glowing with golden white script and borders.
Congratulations! Your creativity, imagination, and critical thinking have allowed your Divine Infinitum to create a new ability. Abilities are greater than skills as your mental space, physical body, or spiritual signature also changes. You have created a new ability called ‘PURITY!!!’
Congratulations! You have gained the achievement: Ability Creator! This achievement grants you the Title of Creator or enhances the existing title if you already possess it.
Congratulations! You have gained the title Creator! This title is gained or enhanced any time you create a new ability, spell, or skill. This grants the following bonuses:
As the creator of the ability, spell, or skill you gain double the efficiency and power.
Any battle with another being where you both are using the ability, spell or skill, in a test of wills you will always win and be able to shut down their use of said ability, spell, or skill.
The efficiency and power increase exponentially for all abilities, spells, and skills you create.
“WOW! That’s a potential game changer if I can come up with more unique abilities.”
My excitement further soared when I read what ‘PURITY!!!’ did.
Ability: PURITY!!!
Description: Purity magic goes beyond healing and removal of corruption from the mind, body, and spirit caused by magic, curses, toxins, and poisons. Purity has the power to transform one thing into another. It is at the heart and foundation of your transformed Omni-core.
Passive effect: Naturally purify and cleanse your mind, body, and soul/spirit. This grants you immunity to diseases, poisons, curses, and corruption. Protects and strengthens your channels increasing growth and purification of all existing toxins within you. You no longer must wait for magic to enter your core to purify and transform it. In addition, allows you to naturally resist negative effects from Eldritch magic.
Active effects: Absorb external power and transform it prior to reaching your core. Tap into an external power source and purify it to what you desire. Can be triggered to cleanse a particular area of containments. If used while meditating to speed up cultivation progress and increase rates of reaching key thresholds.
Note: When using the active ability and contesting with outside sources you must succeed in a battle of wills. All bonuses apply during this conflict.
“Now this is even more useful! I can only imagine how bad a magical enhanced disease could be. Also, good to know curses are actually a thing, but even better to be immune to them!” I commented after reviewing all my hard work.
That was when I realized the sun was setting and I had been at this all day. As my external awareness came back to me, I realized my body felt stiff, you know the stiffness that comes from remaining in the same position for too long. Man I’m starving! Why does my body feel icky?
“Wait! What is that awful smell!!!” I exclaimed as I looked down and saw my body covered in some kind of black sludge that stunk something horrible.
The small rug I was on also was partially covered in the stuff. “Food can wait! I need a shower!” I complained as I rose to my feet and rushed to the shower!
After I rigorously scrubbed every inch of my body and removed every possible dead skin cell, I felt somewhat better. The shower-tub combination was filthy with parts of that black sludge flung everywhere as a result of my very aggressive scrubbing. The bathroom still stunk from the combination of my dirty clothes in a heap on the floor and specks of sludge everywhere.
“Man, another pair of pants ruined! Dammit!” I complained as I thought about how to clean up and throw away everything without having to touch any of it.
My new ability came to the forefront of my mind. “I wonder... the ability did say it could cleanse an area I focused on. Worth a shot.” I said to myself as I focused my new ability on my clothes.
As the power of the ability heeded my call, I instinctively knew I had to create the image of what I wanted. So, I visualized my clothes being spotless and clean.
“PURITY!!!” I called out as I used the active part of the ability.
There was a flash and my clothes looked completely clean and practically brand new.
“Hey, it even removed that stain on my shirt I got from some soup splatter last week. That’s freaking awesome!” I exclaimed.
After a few quick uses of my ability the entire bathroom was spotless.
“Man, where have you been my whole life?! I feel great!”
That was when I realized I felt better than I had in years. It always felt nice after a good shower, but this was on another level. I was still starving but felt like I had energy for days. Something was up.
Finally, I noticed the minimized notification in the corner of my view. Mentally willing it to expand, I read the new information.
Congratulations! Your efforts have begun to purify the existing toxins and corruption within your mind, body, soul, and spirit. Your new ability focuses on the purification of all of these elements of yourself. As you expel these impurities you can further strengthen different aspects of your mind, body, soul, and spirit. You have grown your channels resulting in strengthening your body. Casting speed increased through channels. +13 Constitution, +13 Intelligence, + 3 Dexterity, + 2 Strength. You have reached the first minor threshold: Passive Cultivation.
Passive Cultivation
Description: This threshold allows a caster or cultivator to passively draw in outside energy and cycle that Magic through their channels. This is the most basic and critical of thresholds that allow for slow yet automatic growth over time. Once this threshold is crossed, one must periodically remove blockages and impurities to reach future thresholds.
“Interesting. So now if I do nothing else my level or at least capacity should grow. Useful, yet it sounds like I should dedicate time to meditate each day.”
GURGLE
Okay, okay. I hear you stomach, time to eat.” I replied to my stomach’s sounds letting me know it would no longer be ignored.
I cleaned the rug using my new favorite ability and got to work to cook up another four elk steaks...
GURGLE
... okay five elk steaks.
————
“Ahh. That hit the spot.” I said while patting my stomach in satisfaction.
I ended up fixing and devouring six elk steaks. Man, my appetite has definitely grown, especially for meat. Luckily Paul had a fully stocked deep freezer with several slabs of elk. Man, I don’t know where Paul is right now or if he was saved but my heart sent out a silent prayer in appreciation for meeting and befriending the man.
As I sat on the comfy homemade recliner I thought about my day. In some ways on the outside, I hadn’t done much but in other ways I had accomplished a great deal. I still didn’t have a defensive spell or many utility spells. Yet at the same time, the new ability I created if applied correctly could serve as a defensive spell against magical attacks, and it had the added benefits of being a very useful utility too.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK
‘Man, that sounds so loud in this quiet cabin.’ I thought, as a banging could be heard on the other side of large front door.
I heard rustling on the other side before more banging came.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK
I rose to my feet and approached the door “Who is it?” ‘What, I couldn’t help it.’
The only response I got was more banging and some growls.
Once again, Paul’s design of this place proved useful. The door was re-enforced steel covered by oak. The thing was solid, and he had two bars you could place sideways to further lock the door in. He had also installed a peep hole, but it was on the side in the wall and worked similar to a periscope, allowing me to see outward from part of the roof. It was an ingenious design and he had a few of them all over the house to provide improved situational awareness, and boy was that a must right now.
In looking out the modified peep hole periscope my eyes widened. There was a large bear just periodically slamming into the door. Its movements seemed off, almost mechanical. That was when I noticed it looked wrong. It had patches of fur and skin missing exposing muscle and in some cases bone. It’s eyes glowed and it looked like something out of a bad Thriller nightmare. That was when my System interface identified what I was looking at.
Undead Mutated Forest Bear
Description: Mutated forest bears tend to be more aggressive, and erratic compared to their forest bear kin. This mutation is usually caused by exposure to a concentration of magic. This corruption can increase the size and strength of the bear. This mutated forest bear was killed and resurrected by a necromancer strong enough to infuse enough death magic to animate the corpse and turn it into one of its puppets.
“Well... shit!”