Now that our stupendous and extremely intelligent hero… yea that sounds fake even to me. Eh I tried. I’ll just try and be like I used to as I was narrating. What’s that you say? You want to hear more about the narrator? Me? Well… if you insist.

        See I just record the lives of important individuals. Actually to be more precise there are many of me and one real consciousness split between. Sadly almost all of those I have watched have either died or completed their goals and went into a deep sleep.

        I have been around since the existence of the old guy, Oliver, since he was after all the one who created me. Really it was a complete accident. He simply hoped for someone to record everything that happened in the cosmos since he couldn’t be everywhere at once. Then bam I’m here wondering why the hell no one can see me. Also for some random reason all my thoughts and everything I see gets written down in a book.

        There’s a book for every individual, that’s important, and one for the whole cosmos. The nice thing is that my thoughts are mainly what gets written down. Now I do have the ability to shorten certain things so whoever reads one of the books doesn’t have to wade through useless crap. Quite tedious if I’m being honest. I deserve a reward. Well that’s all about me so yea… lets continue. Honestly I don’t even know why I went on this rant. Not like anyone’s even there.

        Zach exited the lava pool, finally, and tried to fly straight up over the lava. Due to his lack of knowledge he just stayed on the surface of it. Realization dawned on his face as he slowly looked around to make sure nobody was watching. Directly behind him was Cora and Gart coming to check up on him. His cheeks flushed red as soon as he saw them.

        Cora was barely holding back laughter, the sight of him stretching himself upwards as if he was going to stream into the sky was something she will never forget. Gart on the other hand was literally rolling around on the ground guffawing loudly. Slowly and dejectedly Zach left the pit to go into the house and hopefully die a swift death.

        Dragora watched as Zach slinked into the house. “What’s eating him?” She wondered aloud. She noticed Gart and Cora walking back both laughing hysterically. “What happened?” She asked them.

        They filled her in on the incident and after many dramatic poses they used to recreate the scene Dragora broke down into a fit of laughter as well. Luck for Zach they decided to let him brood for the rest of the night.

        The next day Dragora called Zach out to the training arena. “Ok Zach. It’s time to start your adventure in the outside world. You have been left in this cave for far too long. We will all travel together till you at least complete the meridian opening stage. It shouldn’t take too long since we will be looking for special herbs that we will pick and process that will help your energy surge along your meridians.”

        “Sounds good to me.” He mumbled. He was still embarrassed from yesterday.

        “We will also be teaching you how to do it yourself so pay attention!”

         With that Dragora and everyone present left the arena and headed out the cave. Zach was slightly emotional as they left. He fondly went over the time he spent in this large cave. The surprising turn of events from when Oliver showed up to his parents dying seemed like they had happened years ago. Today was actually his birthday he realized, Cora had filled him in on how long he was in the lava, and he was now 17 years old.

        The past two years had been a rough one but he wished that it could have lasted at least a little longer. Alas, he could only fondly visit these memories in his mind. A small tear fell down his face as he glanced back one last time.

        Once they had finally left the cave Dragora stopped and with a light shout she punched towards the entrance. Zach could feel the energy pour off of her as the energy shot out and hit the cave. The stone exploded and a rockslide covered the entrance, hiding that wonderful cave from all who would seek it out.

        She looked at Zach. “Don’t want people to use the lava pit. Kinda a secret, so make sure to keep it to yourself.”

        He nodded silently.

        They slowly walked down the mountain slide, occasionally slipping on loose rocks. By the time they had made it to the bottom most of the day had already passed so they decided to set up camp and rest. Gart went out and hunted as Zach sat down to meditate and try to use his pure Yang energy to assail more meridians.

        They had a nice dinner and went to bed early. Zach slept restlessly as his mind kept getting preoccupied about the future. Nonetheless he still had a nice night and was fairly refreshed the next day.

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        They headed out immediately, since they used no camping equipment and just slept on the ground. Along the way Dragora would school Zach on the various aspects of the world. The only thing he really took away was that he should always show respect to those who were more powerful than he was.

        Of course he knew that much already but the way she emphasized it made him realize that it was extremely important. About halfway through the first day they entered the forest that surrounded the mountain. Beasts could be heard as they roared out in warning towards the newcomers.

        Zach had no problems at the moment with the sounds of the forest. He normally would have been scared silly if he had been paying attention but he was now focused on finding rare medicines that would advance his cultivation. The area they were in was definitely not a place for Zach to be at his current level. Normally a single beast would have been easily able to tear him to shreds here but Dragora’s presence kept the beasts at bay.

        The main herb he was looking for was a four leafed clover that was completely red, it was called lucky Yang. The main purpose of this amazing medicine was to give the user an abundance of pure yang energy that would increase the cultivation level by two stages at least. For a martial arts practitioner such as Zach’s level they would combust immediately. However his unique body would easily be able to accommodate the wild pure Yang energy and use it to open his meridians.

        The other thing that was nice about the lucky Yang was that only one clover would give great results but they normally grew in patches of at least 7. Each one would open many meridians for Zach and he was ready to be finished with this stage. After all, he couldn’t be considered a cultivator until he opened all his meridians.

        They traveled along for four days. Occasionally a beast would overcome their fears and attack the group. Sometimes Cora would fight them but normally Dragora killed them quickly. After the four days Zach was tired of looking for the lucky Yang. “This is bullshit. There aren’t any here!”

        The group came to a stop at his shout. “What?” Asked Dragora.

        “What’s the point? Why can’t I do it some other way?”

        “Well you can but it wouldn’t be as efficient with your body type. The Yang energy you have needs to be used properly and doing it an easier way would not be beneficial to your path.” She calmly replied.

        “Still bullshit though.” He grumbled.

        They kept going after that. Constantly looking and fighting, fighting and looking. Eventually Zach joined some of the fights with Cora to ease his boredom. He wasn’t much help at first but he quickly got used to all the strength he had and was able to coordinate with Cora much better.

        At the end of the fifth day they laid down to go to bed for the night. As Zach chose his spot he felt a slight pull on his energy. It was as if something was trying to siphon it out of his body. He quickly closed off the one meridian that he had opened so he didn’t have to try and hold onto his energy.

        Walking around the campsite he felt a slight tug on his energy coming from the forest. ‘Hmmm. In the trees?”

        Like a shadow he disappeared into the night as he followed the strange feeling. With each step the pull on his energy became stronger and stronger. Soon he had came to a stop at a small clearing with 7 perfect red clovers in the middle.

        Extremely joyful Zach grabbed all of them and turned to leave.

        “RRRRUUUUMMMBBBBLLLEEE!”

        Something sounded out from the forest around him. Not sure what it was Zach started to run back to the camp, only a long rope like appendage emerged from the shadows and started to drag him off. He was beyond terrified as he looked towards the direction he was being dragged and saw a hideous frog like creature.

        It was large and bright orange with large black eyes. The beast stared at him as if it was looking at a nice little scrap of food. The rope had turned out to be its tongue as it dragged him into its mouth. Zach though for sure that he was dead after he was swallowed up. The giant frog had plenty of room in its belly for him to be sprawled out as he landed into the stomach acid.

        In a last ditch effort Zach threw all of the lucky yang into his mouth and swallowed. Energy surged throughout his body as it attacked his meridians. With a popping sound all his meridians were cleared. Now it may seem like something insignificant had happened but really no one else would have been able to do this.

        Now Zach just needed to try and punch his way out of the belly of the beast. Winding his arm back Zach let his fist fly. His energy was in chaos as he punched. The lucky Yang energy was rioting around in his body as he tried to break his way out. Punch after punch was thrown out.The more he fought death the more energy he expended.

        Sadly he hadn't yet figured out how to accumulate more energy. To be more precise he needed an actual cultivation method that would draw in the ambient energy around him. Since the law that Oliver had given him had yet to acknowledge his need for it, it didn't do anything.

        Zach laid down in the stomach after expending all of his strength in trying to get out. He decided to accept the fate he had found himself in rather than try so hard and die miserably. With a deep breath he focused on the pure Yang energy he still had that was natural for his body. It might not have been enough to save him but he could at least try and stop himself from being dissolved in the beast.

        Falling into a deep meditation his consciousness slowly drifted away farther and farther. His body still worked to keep the acid away but his consciousness traveled deep into the depths of his soul. This was where all the information given by Oliver was located, but he didn't know.

        Zach felt like he had woken up from meditation. He looked around and saw lots of shelves lining a large circular arena type thing. ‘Something is off.’ He mused. He should have been surrounded by stomach acid so why was he here.

        “Achem! Welcome!”