Whistling, Cyril wandered out into the monster-infested cavern.

During the hour or so he had chatted with the ifrit-woman, his core had replenished to full. He brimmed with power, the various stone-encrusted wounds around his body no more than a distant ache.

The Wyrm had doubtless regenerated some of the damage it had suffered, but there was a limit to what an abomination of its rank could do. An injury dealt by an ifrit could not be easily shrugged off. He was confident he could deal with it in his current state, especially after he had finally saturated the Reinforcement Cantrip to its full capacity. Or, at least, the limit that his body was capable of containing. He felt like the next droplet of Mass would make his body burst open like a gourd.

The marble of smoke drifted in front of him, a complementary moon to the sun of his Flicker. As promised, it moved at the same pace as him, maintaining a few pace’s worth of distance. His heavy steps plodded into the ground, one after another.

Cyril whistled louder. The catchy tune echoed throughout the cavern. Vibrations in the stone around offered a silent harmony. He had moved far enough from the temple to summon the surrounding creatures like a snake charmer in a pit of vipers.

It wasn’t long before the first of his prey leapt straight into his clutches.

It came from beneath his feet. That old trick. He thought he may have been getting better at deciphering the knowledge contained within the vibrations, including the size and position of his enemy. This was definitely a big one.

A thin layer of stone grew over the gaps in his armor, leaving only his eyes and mouth open. He braced himself.

When the wyrm breached the surface of the cavern beneath him, it found itself striking a pair of stone-encrusted slippers like a vein of adamantium had suddenly appeared in its path. Its ability to burrow through solid earth with great speed was turned against it as it was crushed between the weight of its undulating body and the unstoppable barrier it had encountered.

Cyril squeezed his mouth and eyes shut as much of the wyrm liquefied beneath his feet. Loose bits of the monster pelted his armor, but the thin layer of stone skin repelled any of the gore from touching him. Though it was not nearly on the same level as the Half-Ascended Wyrm, its ichor also had a corrosive effect that wreathed him in a cloud of pungent smoke as it ate at his stone skin.

He dismissed most of the new protective layer, leaving the Reinforced stone armor from before. Fortunately, the gore from the wyrm vanished along with it. His clothes remained spotless as ever--the creator of them deserved a long, crushing hug once he reunited with his tribe.

“That was disgusting,” he muttered to himself, endeavoring to find a less messy way to deal with similar attempts in the future.

The wyrm’s death energy went straight into the Dominion of Earth. So did the next two. Both of them came at him a couple minutes apart and died much the same: erupting some distance away, slithering across the ground at him, then being crushed into a small crater and roasted in divine flame.

After that, the monsters no longer appeared alone. The vibrations around him felt slightly different--were they warning each other? Did the stench of their brethren’s death tickle some instinct to hunt as a group? Both? Either way, Cyril welcomed them. Killing the first three had brought the Dominion of Earth to 91/100. He just needed a bit more fuel.

Tremors rumbled beneath his feet. Four of them, he guessed, forming a ring around him. He considered making a stalactite-covered barrier like before, but parts of it seemed redundant to him now. His body served as a far more resilient bulwark than wrapping himself in a stone cocoon.

Earth qi surged through his body, straining his channels to their limit.

Over the course of his feud with the sandwyrms, his understanding of the aspect had advanced by leaps and bounds. At his current level, Cyril had no way of determining the true extent of the elemental affinity Behemoth provided him, but he would have wagered it was Revered or Sacred level. He felt like a tiny god, able to shape the world with his will.

Underneath the intoxicating flow of power, he realized he was far from Divine. An Early Condensation core made for a pathetic conduit. But it was more than enough for these monsters.

Rough stone spikes sprouted from his body, including a long, curving horn from his forehead. He waited until the monsters erupted all around them to cover himself with a thin layer of protective earth.

His Flicker raged into a sudden bonfire, heading in the direction of the wyrm to his left. Cyril cast a wide-scale Pressure around him with a radius of around twenty paces to capture each of the monsters.

He groaned as the self-inflicted force crashed down on him, forcing him to his knees. The effect on the wyrms was far greater. They slammed back into the ground hard enough to leave indentations. The nauseatingly delicious scent of roasted flesh wafted over from where the Flicker Cantrip was tunneling through the entire length of its target’s body.

Another quick Pressure pulverized the wyrm in front of him.

Just like that, two were down, but the remaining pair recovered quickly. Cyril spun in time to get both the wyrm behind him and to the right within his field of vision. They flung themselves at him, shadows dancing across their scaled hides, disgusting mouths spasming with want.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

The stupid creatures impaled themselves on the stalactites jutting from him, failing to force him back even a step. He willed earth qi to flow through the spikes skewering their bodies, and they grew rapidly, branching out like the roots of trees to shred the wyrms apart from the inside.

When it was over, their death energy lay thick around him. Cyril channeled enough to fill the final stretch of the First Sphere of Earth, a faint smile on his face. Slaughtering the wyrms had brought him little more than the satisfaction of a task completed, but elevating one of his Dominions sent a flutter of excitement through his stomach.

A faint tingling crept down his spine, spreading throughout his body. He closed his eyes and settled into the lotus position. After dismissing his layer of stone skin, he began to meditate.

The process of ascending to the Second Sphere was not instantaneous, but was much quicker than the later stages. Rumor had it that ascendant cultivators near the peak spent centuries, even millennia, in seclusion as they guided their breakthrough into the next realm.

Such an early ascension required no priceless treasures or ritual arrays. The qualitative improvement to his soul did have a cost, but it was one easily paid. The prior fights had exhausted around a quarter of his core; the breakthrough greedily drained his reserves until only a tenth remained.

He ignored most of this, though some small, detached part of his mind observed the process with a sort of calculating curiosity. The majority of his attention revolved around memories of utilizing Earth qi--forming crude spikes and shells, the sensation of it circulating through his body and soul as naturally as breathing air, even the secret language of vibrations. Over it all loomed the vague image of Behemoth, a mountain in the rough shape of a man, the weight of his presence like a metaphysical world in itself.

His scattered memories crystallized, and for an instant he felt like he had achieved a state of nirvana. He floated in an endless sea of knowledge, his mind flooded with everything there was to understand about shaping tools of war, the esoteric flow of the earth, the entire field of seismic manipulation.

As quick as it came, the flood of information vanished. His mind retained fragments, a small sliver of the whole, though they were not completely random. Some uses that felt pertinent and reasonably within his grasp stuck with him.

After having most of his energy depleted, the weight of his Reinforcement almost felt suffocating. He was glad he had already dismissed the stone skin except for the plate armor again. Wearing it for more than a few seconds made him feel like he was being boiled in a cage, sealing in all his sweat and forcing him to move around awkwardly.

In the aftermath of his ascension, he sat there, mulling over what he had acquired. The process had taken a couple of minutes. No new monsters tried their luck. He didn’t like how empty his core was, but nothing short of the Half-Ascended Wyrm could break through his current defenses.

The marble of smoke meant to lead him to the abomination hovered next to his face, waiting for him to resume his journey. He doubted it would give him much of a warning if the target was nearby, but it had not moved or offered any indication the Wyrm had changed direction recently.

He was as safe as could be, for the moment.

Closing his eyes, he delved into his soul and focused on the relevant information.

Dominion of Earth:

First Sphere- basic manipulation and manifestation of earth qi, simple material types. (100/100)

Second Sphere- wider range of manifestation types based on personal experience and insights; Transmute Cantrip acquired. (0/1000)

He skimmed through his soul and, sure enough, there was a new addition at the bottom of his list of Cantrips.

Transmute Cantrip - base earth materials may be transformed into a higher-tier.

Simple enough. Light on the details, but many people had no insight into their souls at all. Without the Dominion of Knowledge, others had to rely on wisdom from others on the same path, or great personal understanding acquired from long and intensive meditation.

He wondered why his new ability had taken on this form. Was it related to him trying to form tools of war from the earth? Stone and dirt made poor construction materials alone. Maybe he was trying to form a connection where one didn't exist.

A final glance through the information revealed a last surprise.

Knowledge, Second Sphere 631/1000

The flood of insight from his breakthrough had advanced the Dominion by more than sixty. A grin spread across his face. It dimmed slightly when he realized he must have missed out on the benefits of advancing Sun to the Second Sphere because it happened before he awakened the Dominion of Knowledge.

Don’t be too greedy and regretful, Cyril told himself. The past was the past, and he couldn’t curse himself because he hadn’t devoted his entire childhood to cultivating as efficiently as possible. The tribe’s prior Librarian had passed away years before Cyril was born, let alone accepted the mantle of his future role.

Time to move on.

He gathered the remaining death energy from his most recent prey and brought the First Sphere of Gravity to 43/100.

While he wanted to meditate more to improve his other Dominions, he couldn’t allow himself to waste time on small gains from introspection. Hunting a couple wyrms would eclipse the benefit of spending hours consolidating more of his insights. Depending on how far the Half-Ascended Wyrm had fled, he may even have a breakthrough with Gravity by the time he found it.

Cyril started walking again, following the marble of smoke deeper into the cavern. The ground grew rougher and more uneven. Darkness pressed closer against Flicker’s pale light. He plodded along for a few minutes, straining to sense any vibrations in the area, until the walls around him began to narrow. A quick glance at the marble of smoke confirmed it floated onwards as confident as ever.

The pathway continued to close in around him until he was squeezing his way through a cramped tunnel. Doubts began to arise regarding whether the woman-ifrit’s magic was able to adjust for these sort of unforeseen circumstances. He didn’t mind the presence of the earth close around him, but the deep, unnatural darkness tickled some primal fear of his. Cyril told himself he was being childish.

Right before he considered turning back around, the marble of smoke stopped moving on its own for the first time. He stopped an instant before his face collided with it.

Curious, he let Flicker drift ahead. The pallid light struggled to pierce the darkness until he imbued it with additional Sun qi.

As the gloom retreated, he caught sight of a rusted iron door wedged into the end of the tunnel.