Chapter 2: A Brand-New World
One second, he was in a rainbow tunnel then next thing he knew, he was standing in the middle of a grassy plain with an intense feeling of vertigo. Keeling over and holding his head between his hands, he was thankful that he'd had the forethought not to eat anything today in anticipation of this situation. Otherwise, he would have to deal with being covered in vomit on top of feeling as though his head was being smashed in using a hammer.
Although he had already tricked the planet into believing he was a native, the portal was still clearly foreign, so the planet still lightly interfered making the ride much bumpier than it should've been. A few minutes of taking deep breaths later, he had finally gathered himself enough to observe his surroundings.
It was a grassy plain with no one around for as far as he could see. Far to his right was a forest that goes until a very far mountain range and to his front were more grassy plains but in that direction, he could see some faint signs of smoke in the air. Every other direction was just more grassy plains with nothing special. There was one thing that caught his attention most, the essence concentration in the air. It was too high.
The concentration was that of a middle-tier world. This was a low-tier world that hadn't even joined the cosmos yet. To understand the significance of this you needed to understand the stages a world goes through. A world had a couple of stages of growth. First, was the seedling stage. This was when a world was new and had yet to gain any essence. Each world stays in the seedling stage for varying amounts of time. Some gain essence right away others only gain it after thousands of years, but they almost always gain it around the same time that their enlightened races had formed their first tribe.
Then, there was the growth stage. This was after a world had gained essence and it still hadn't joined the cosmos. During this stage, a world would quietly grow until it reached the requirements. What the requirements were exactly? Nobody really knew. Some worlds join the cosmos at the same time they gain essence. Others only join after a person reaches a certain stage.
Finally, there was the blooming stage. This was after a planet joined the cosmos and was growing quickest. They grew until they reached the limit of their potential. Right now, this planet was still in its growth stage and yet still somehow had the essence concentration of a mid-tier planet.
'I made the right choice choosing to trust my aura sense,' He thought a little proud of himself. He hadn't just chosen a world at random. He had spent nearly six months on a shuttle (essentially a magic spaceship) passing by Growth stage planets and gazing at their auras.
He had chosen growth-stage planets to make sure that no assassins could follow. He had eventually found this planet. Its aura wasn't only very vibrant but also seemed to have a LOT of room to grow. It was also then that he had realized that he could see the aura of Fate and Fortune. He could vaguely see the world's simply because they were so strong.
Even someone with rocks for a brain would know to choose this world since it had such a great future. Even the high-tier world Osmok which he had lived in his entire life never showed even 1/100th of such an aura. He then spent a month after finding the planet trying to unravel its secrets. He ultimately gave up because he wasn’t strong enough. Though he did manage to find some areas that he concluded had treasures or resources. He could only gain an estimate of the coordinates.
He had chosen the area with an isolated resource in the wilds that was but wasn't too far from a city for him to travel. Of course, he hadn't put in the exact coordinates that he estimated the resource to be at as that was where he planned to build his base because if he had put those coordinates into the portal, the family members after him would know where he was exactly on this world and would send assassins once the world joins the cosmos.
Instead of walking toward the direction where he estimated the resource should be, he sat on the ground and meditated. It was finally time for him to awaken and enter stage 1 rank 1. The cultivation realms were divided into stages each with its own name, then each stage was divided into three ranks each with its own name, and each rank was divided into ten tiers. He was currently at stage 0 rank 0, the awakening stage and essence gathering rank. This was the only stage with 1 rank and the only rank with only 1 tier.
He had to gather energy to break through into stage 1 and unlock the full extent of his abilities. So before trying to go looking for a valuable resource in the middle of a forest he had thought it would be better to awaken first. He took out the information gem his father had given him. It was the most valuable thing on him despite what some fools might say. Especially because it was from a family as old and powerful as the Sapentia family, even more so considering they were known for their knowledge.
Before he sent his mind inside the gem, he pulled out the Sage's Book from the territory core space. After opening it and putting it on his lap, he bit his finger letting a drop of blood fall on its blank pages. It was only a partial binding as this place wasn't safe enough to fully claim the book, though it would do for now. After absorbing the drop of blood, the book glowed with a golden light and floated right in front of him. After spinning for a few moments it shrunk into his mind between his eyebrows.
Closing his eyes and sending his senses inwards, he could see the book floating at the center of his mind. He could even feel its effects right now. He could remember every tiny detail throughout his life, even more than his eidetic memory could ever let him remember. He could even remember being in his mother's womb and being born. He could remember the massive strain giving birth to him put on her. He could remember his father panicking and using various Origin and Transcendent grade treasures in an attempt to save her life only to prolong it a bit longer. Then he could remember her holding him in her last moments and looking at him with a tired yet vibrant smile as the last whisps of her vitality were snuffed out.
Wiping the tear that had rolled down his cheek, he focused on the task once more. He sent his mind into the gem. He didn't bother to attempt to read and process all the information nor would he try to sort through it for what he was looking for. He wouldn't be able to handle, process, or remember all that information, even with the book. The book was still limited in its current rank, but it was still enough to accomplish the current task.
A couple of minutes later, the Sage's Book had found a book explaining awakening from the Information Gem. Now, most people would expect that there would be a lot of information would be repeated as there would be at a normal library. But the Sapentia family weren't nicknamed the 'Keepers of Knowledge' for no reason.
They sorted through all the information and then compiled all the related ones into a single book. So, the book he had found explained awakening, what you should expect, and how to do it perfectly. He skipped the first two as he had spent years preparing for this, but he read the third one. He had already planned where he was going to place his nodes and what shape he was going to form them but he needed to know how exactly he was going to form them. Of course, he had already heard about this, but he didn't think the off-handed comment from his father and detailed explanations from tutors, who he was pretty sure were bribed to lead him astray, would suffice. He started to read it.
'When Awakening you pull essence into yourself to activate your potential to its maximum, as stated previously. But what isn't stated is what you do with that essence. It's commonly thought on lower worlds that you simply absorb the essence as suggested by the name of rank 0; they are fools. What should be done is the creation of Nodes throughout your body.
The Nodes should be placed on the core acupoints of your being and should match your development plans. After forming them you should form a link between them to form a circulation system. Do not form the links before forming all your nodes as it will destabilize any newly formed nodes. Also do not take too much time between the formation of each node as it would ruin the circulation and resonance between them.
The difficulty in this is that each person has different acupoints and placing them in different areas with different shapes give different effects, there are even people who place their Nodes in the form of an array or shape their Nodes into a Rune. And that as you form each Node it becomes more difficult to form the next. Despite what some might say, there is no best universal node placement and shape, only the best for YOU.'
After that, it just explained how to sense your acupoints, how to tell what the most appropriate places are to put them, and how to form/shape the Nodes. It also explained how the Nodes when first formed exist in a state between the soul and the body, only being capable of effect either of them after the link is formed. Figuring out how to prepare himself and the surroundings, Damian pulled out two of his Origin treasures, the Flame, and the Rune Quill. After partially binding them both, he used the Rune Quill to form Runes to make a Runic Array. If anybody knowledgeable was here, they would gasp before muttering impossible.
To understand the difficulty of what he was doing you need to understand what Arrays, Runes, and Runic Arrays are. Runes were essentially small, complicated lines of code that were drawn onto an object. They can have complicated effects, but their range was limited, and they were dependent on the materials they were made of. They were usually used in the making of items.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Arrays, on the other hand, were large simple lines of code that were made by placing Array Nodes in a specific pattern. They had a large range but were dependent on their surroundings and the material their nodes were made of. They were usually put in houses or important places.
Runic Arrays on the other hand were a fusion of the two. Essentially you made an Array whose borders and nodes were made from Runes. This not only dealt with the range and effect issues but made them better than either one individually. They could handle more complicated instructions than a Rune and cover a more extensive range than an Array. Though it had the downsides of increasing the material requirements greatly(which he ignored using the Rune Quill at the cost of reducing efficiency), increasing the placement requirements, and raising the difficulty to unimaginable proportions.
Damian hadn't let those many years he had lived in the Osmok world go to waste. He had studied many subjects and conducted many experiments. His aura eyes even let him instantly know if there were mistakes and where the best place to place each Rune was based on the aura of the array and the surroundings. Regardless, it didn't diminish the achievement as he had only studied theory.
The Runic Array he was making was called the 'Cultivation' array. Its name may be simple but as you could see from his own treasures, long complicated names don't equal value. It was an Origin grade Embryo Runic Array. Though unlike what you would expect it wasn't an origin grade nor an embryo runic array because of its power, rarity, or difficulty (Though it was difficult even for a Runic Array but not relative to the other origin grade Runic Arrays). Fun fact, most Origin grade Embryonic Arrays, Runes, and Runic Arrays were common knowledge on higher tier worlds due to their variability and usefulness.
Instead, it was such because of its modifiability, applicability across every stage, and wide range of effects. Meaning, it could be easily tailored to be suitable for each person, could be used at any stage, and had a lot of different effects. It gathered whatever essence it was designed to gather (usually it pulled in whatever essence somebody had an affinity in but there was no such thing as aura essence it would just gather pure unattributed essence), purified essence, protected you as you cultivated, and made it easier to enter a meditative state.
Getting an idea while he was drawing the Runic Array, he added an Aura Radiation Rune. It was a Rune of his design. Hell, Damian had created an entire subset of Runes related to Auras as the only Runes/Arrays related to Aura he could find were ones related to Aura concealment.
Back to the topic, the Rune would continuously release an Aura he had put in. His idea was what if he made the Runic Array radiate the aura of a native on overdrive. He had already added the same Rune multiple times beforehand in the Runic Array but the effects of the Auras they released were to pull in essence, repel animals, suppress the aura coming from him during his awakening, and help him in meditation.
He wondered if putting it in overdrive would make the planet favor him or something, though he didn't hold much hope and just considered it an experiment. Finishing the array, Damian noticed that it was gathering essence at a faster rate than he expected, even after considering the Essence Gathering Aura he added and the Rune Quill boost. He chalked it up to the native Aura on overdrive, not knowing it did so much more than merely attracting essence. Such as attracting the world's will.
Sitting down cross-legged once more he started to adjust his state of mind and prepare himself. He then truly bound the Rune Quill, Sage's Book, the Furnace Cauldron, the Crafting Gloves, and Flame as they would be essential to his awakening, and he was safe with the Runic Array he had built around himself. The process of truly binding them was similar to partially binding them. He dropped some blood on them but this time he added some of his soul energy. Which, for somebody who hadn't even awakened, was extremely strenuous and exhausting. He took turns binding each one with an hour between each binding to recover.
After finishing, he waited an hour to recover to peak condition. He then waited one more hour for the Runic Array to gather essence despite the current concentration being enough. Simply because he wanted to awaken in the best conditions. Once it reached an extremely high level, he covered his entire being in the Flame, stepped into the Furnace Cauldron, wore the Crafting Gloves, and then held the Rune Quill in his hands.
He did all this as he planned to make his Nodes on another level. He planned to not only refine the energy used to form them using the Furnace Cauldron and the Flame but to also refine the Nodes themselves. He needed the Rune Quill and Crafting Gloves to push his energy control to the peak as he planned to inscribe Runes on his Nodes to form Runic Arrays throughout his body.
Looking inwards using his spiritual sense(basically the soul's way of seeing the world. It's usually awoken at the 2nd stage but people with special eyes unlock it early), he started forming his Nodes in the preplanned places that he had chosen. He first placed six nodes inside his brain and one inside each eye, all in the shape of a sphere. One in the center of each section; Frontal lobe, Temporal lobe, Parietal lobe, Occipital lobe, Cerebellum, and Spinal Cord.
He was going to form three Runic Arrays using these nodes and the runes on them. The Soul Refinement, Sensory, and Lucid Dream Runic Arrays were what he made. The Soul Refinement Runic Array was usually used on the souls of the dead to either form Soul Crystals (Crystalized soul energy used in cultivation) or to simply remove their memories/will to make it easier to use them in crafting.
He had of course altered it to suit the purpose of refining and improving his soul without having any of those effects. He also left a place in it so that it could use the Flame to help in the refinement of his soul. Then there was the Sensory Runic Array. Its name was self-explanatory. He formed it using the Nodes in his eyes as the cores of it. He once more left a place in it to use in conjunction with the Sage's Book.
Lastly was the Lucid Dream Runic Array. It would make people enter a strange state where it was easier to comprehend things and time in your mind seemed to pass quicker. Every large clan had one to train their younger generation with. He had made it retain this aspect but added onto it the ability to refine the mind. He left space for both the Sage's Book and the Flame as they would both boost it.
Although most, no, everyone including his father would call him crazy especially since he formed all six at the same time to make them resonate and make the Runic Arrays perfect(something he planned to repeat for every Runic Node Array he was going to form), Damian only ever cared about his father and his own opinion. Funnily enough, the only reason Damian had such high standards for himself was that his father always told exaggerated stories about his youth to Damian when he was a child. Which he believed until now.
After forming them he felt a bit drained(mostly mentally as he had to not only perfectly form them but also add Aura Runes to them and alter them to suit his body), but it was nowhere near as bad as the book described. He simply assumed he was just that talented, which despite being true was only a small part of the reason. Not knowing that the true reason was that the world was helping him. He also didn't notice that the Rune Nodes he had formed were golden colored even though they were supposed to be colorless.
Moving on, he placed five Rune Nodes in the center of each section of his spine: Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar, Sacrum, and Coccyx(all in the shape of a cylinder). After that, he placed one in his heart, one in each lung, and one in each kidney as they are the core of the body's circulation(all in the shape of an octahedron). Then he placed a couple in the bone marrow of his spine, pelvis, and breast bones as they are the main producers of blood in the body(all in the shape of the bone itself). Using these Nodes, he formed three more Runic Arrays.
The Body Refinement, Feng Shui, and Cultivation Runic Arrays. The Body Refinement Runic Array was the counterpart to Soul Refinement Runic Array. It had the same effect except it worked on blood and vitality. He had altered it to also improve his healing factor and general body quality(Of course leaving a place for the Flame). The Feng Shui Runic Array was the oddest one out of his selection.
All the other ones could be explained by simply removing a few effects but this one not so much. It was a Runic Array that affected the environment's flow of energy(when I say energy in this context I mean all types; essence, vitality, soul, etc...). Most energy-related arrays simply gathered or purified but this one made the energy in the environmental flow in such a way that simply sitting there was beneficial.
So, when he placed it in his body you could clearly understand his intention for it(Once more leaving a place for the Sage's book). Lastly was the Cultivation Runic Array which has already been explained before. The only alterations he added were to sacrifice its effects on the environment to improve its effects on his essence, cultivation, and meditation. (Leaving a place for both the Sage's Book and the Flame)
By this point, Damian was exhausted, both mentally and physically. He hadn't had a moment of respite this entire time as, despite everything he had done so far, only a minute had gone by. He had done everything without taking any breaks to make them resonate as much as he could. He had formed a total of 25 nodes, breaking the record by 13. By now, it was safe to say that he had done more than enough and that his foundations for future cultivation were perfect.
'One more' he thought. He desperately needed this last Node for two things. First, was an intersection between all the Runic Arrays as he had made an oversight. It was a great idea to allow them to use the treasure to strengthen their effects but how were the treasures supposed to be in multiple Runic Arrays at once? So he had to make a sort of area for the treasures to reside in that allowed their effects to still be drawn.
The second was to add the Native Aura Overdrive Rune to his being. By this point, he would be a fool if he hadn't already realized that something weird was going on. There was no way that the book would exaggerate the difficulty by this much and he didn't believe even he was this talented. So, he had looked at his previous Rune Nodes and realized that they were golden(not the goldish orange of his affinity).
Thinking of all the things that could cause this he had concluded that it was the world. The Rune he had added on a whim had somehow helped him gain the world's help in the formation of his nodes. And if it could help him this much just by the virtue of him adding that Rune to a makeshift Array on a whim, what would it do if he made that Rune one of his core nodes?
Forming that Node was especially exhausting as he couldn't even take a break in between as he wanted all of his Nodes to perfectly resonate. After he had formed it, he was about to faint, so he summoned what little strength he had left to do the easiest part, link them. The last thought on his mind before everything went dark was if he had made any mistakes.