Inside the underground chamber, Gale just stood there, looking pale as a corpse, with eyes wide and eyebrows high on his forehead. I was not oblivious enough to miss the fact that something was out of the norm.

[What’s up?] I casually said, pretending not to notice his heightened state.

Gale looked at me and then turned to the screen on the wall, before looking back. “Please don’t take this as an insult, but you are not at the Fifth Level, are you? I know last time you were still in the Golden Core, so I assumed you reached the Spirit Realm?”

I nodded. [That’s right, I broke through a few months ago. And no, I’m not at the Fifth Level, that would be ridiculous.] Though saying that I already reached the Second Level would be equally unheard of, so I didn’t mention it. I wasn’t leaking any energy, so it was impossible to discern my ranking that way.

“Good, good…” Gale said, nodding to himself. “Then why the fuck does it say 5% here?!” He shouted, pointing at the screen.

I lifted an eyebrow and remained silent at first. Mainly because I had no clue what he was talking about.

[Care to explain what this 5% means?]

“You-! Do you really don’t know?!”

I shook my head and he sighed.

“It’s how much of your body was turned. How many of your cells are made entirely of Qi. That’s what you wanted for Cultivating the Spirit body, is it not?”

[Oooooh~! That’s what you meant. Okay. So, that 5% is… good, right? Seems like good progress.]

“Good-?!” Gale exclaimed and then paused, taking a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down.

“It’s not whether it’s good or bad. For every Minor Realm, a person should advance about 1%. It says so in the manual. When people reach the 10% mark, that’s when they enter the Sky Realm. The fact that you somehow reached 5% just months after stepping into the Spirit Realm...”

Gale paused and began massaging his head with a frown, trying, unsuccessfully, to prevent a headache from forming.

[Really? Oh, so what’s what that meant.] I murmured to myself.

The fact was that I already knew all of that, the knowledge was just so fragmented and unconnected, that I never realized what it was referring to. Having someone who went through it all before was so helpful. Finally, everything got combined into a cohesive unit of knowledge.

“How did you do it?” Gale suddenly said. “I’ve been Cultivating for decades and I barely just reached the 8% mark.”

[Uh… Would you believe me if I told you that I don’t know?]

I didn’t know for certain, though I did have some ideas as to what it might be. There was the resurrection thingy, which for some reason made me stronger instead of weaker. Then there was the mouthful of Pure Spirit Water I drank, combined with consuming a Spirit Sword… Oh, and let’s not forget the Starlight-Tempered Jade Bones technique. That could have had something to do with it as well.

Even if each of those only contributed 1%, that was huge! People would probably kill for such gains if they otherwise needed decades to advance as much.

“Bullshit. I don’t believe a word.”

[But I’m not lying, am I?] I smiled. In truth, I was not, I was only omitting certain details.

Gale squinted his eyes. “The only thing I can tell for sure is that I cannot detect any lies from you, which is not saying much since I can’t even tell which Realm you are at. You could just know a technique to hide everything from me. But it’s fine, I’m not going to push the topic if you don’t want to tell. The manuals you sold us were enough of a help already.”

[They were? Nobody told me anything.]

“Yeah, well, the old guys never say much. Pulling information out of them is always a pain. They helped us shore up some shortcomings in our techniques. It's great having different perspectives in such cases. Thank you for that.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

[You are welcome and the feeling’s mutual. You paid well for the knowledge, so it’s yours.]

We left the underground chamber and returned to the light of day, leaving the guarded courtyard.

“What now? Are you going to return to the Underdark or do you need anything else?”

[Later. First I have a few errands to run. Also, do I just start with this then, or…?] I gestured at the Spirit Body Cultivation manual.

“Considering you are already so far ahead of where I thought you should be complicates things. You are a unique example so I really can’t give you much advice. Hopefully everything goes well and you can just continue like nothing ever happened. If not… Well, you can contact me if anything goes wrong.” Gale offered as we reached the main gate into the Verdant Ironwood Willow Clan’s estate.

[Sure thing. Thanks.]

I waved him goodbye and then left, going down the mountain and into the main, bustling part of The City. At the same time, I took out the communication relic and gave it some juice. Soon I felt a connection be established and heard a response from the other side.

“Hello? Gerald, is that you?” I heard the familiar voice answer.

[Sup, John. What’s up?] I greeted cheerfully.

“Oh, hey, I’ve been trying to contact you a while back, but this damn thing didn’t work. Did anything happen?”

[Nah, I was just deep underground so the signal was bad. It’s the Underdark, you know? Lots of interference.]

“You were in the Underdark?! No wonder, no wonder…” John said and I could imagine him sagely nodding along.

[Well, did you have anything important to say?] I asked.

“Oh, yeah, my bad. I just wanted to inform you that we’ve decided to build the Anchor outside of The City. It’s a secret location, so we can show you in person if you’d like. Just visit Adam whenever and he can lead you there.”

[Oh, cool. I’ll come by whenever I have the time if that’s fine by you. I’m leaving back underground soon, so I probably won’t be reachable for the foreseeable future.]

“That’s alright. And in that case, I’m going to bid you goodbye. I have said everything I had to say and-”

[Wait! Before you go, I have a quick question.] I quickly said.

“Yes?”

[Can Celestial Metal be melted?]

“Can Celestial Metal be melted?” John repeated my question with apparent surprise in his voice.

[Yeah, you know the metal that is-]

“I know what Celestial Metal is.” He interrupted. “I’m more surprised you do too, honestly. Let me guess, you stumbled upon it in the Underdark?”

I laughed. [Yeah, I got my hands on a significant chunk of it, and I’m wondering if I can reshape it. So far my attempts have proven unsuccessful. Though to be fair, there weren’t many.]

“You- Wow, just.. Wow.” There was a silence for a while and then John spoke again. “Well, did you try heat? I know it can be melted if you heat it up enough. It is just like any other metal, just… you know, stronger.”

I nodded on my end, but then realized he couldn’t know I did that and continued. [How hot are we talking about? Surface of the sun?] I asked what seemed like a reasonable question.

“What? Hell no! That’s nothing. It’s closer to ten times that I’d reckon. I’m not sure how high you have to go exactly, so if it’s not working, just heat it up more. It’s bound to soften up eventually.”

[Yeah, that was my plan too. Thanks anyway.]

“You are welcome. I have to go now, got things to do. I’ll talk to you next time.”

[Bye.] The connection broke and I was left on my own once more.

Well, there were things I had to do, so I quickly found a high-end shop selling beast parts. I found one associated with the Verdant Ironwood Willow Clan and entered, buying three of the highest-quality beast cores they had. Supposedly they belonged to peak Spirit Realm beasts and were also the only ones they had on stock of that caliber.

Even with a small discount I got for working for the Verdant Ironwood Willow Clan, just those three cost me more than a thousand Spirit Stones. Very expensive for what I needed them for, but well worth the price. I didn’t even try to haggle.

That was also everything I needed from the outside world, so I returned back to the Underdark. There I rejoined my team in light banter for a while and then moved some distance away, taking out a Memory Orb.

I connected it to my mind and began adding tiny amounts of Soul Essence to it. I continued that for a while, building a special figure with way too much detail. I did that for a few hours and then stopped, shifting my attention to a piece of Celestial Metal.

I took a broken, fist-sized chunk of a drone and encased it in a strong barrier. Then I began heating it up. Soon enough it was blinding enough that it was impossible to see anything but white. I then shifted the properties of the barrier to block 99.9% of the light, and even then it was still blinding to look at.

I continued adding energy into the sphere until I finally noticed changes in the metal. It began to sag and finally liquefied at some crazy high temperature. After observing the magical liquid for a while, I took control of it with Telekinesis and reshaped it into a form I wanted. It was relatively easy, the metal taking orders well, and when I was satisfied with the shape, I slowly expanded the barrier, cooling the insides down at the same time.

As I held the piece locked in place it didn’t shift or warp as it cooled, and soon it was barely glowing anymore. I took it and examined it up close. It was a long piece of irregular shape about the size of my finger. I did a few more tests on it to see if its properties were altered by my actions, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

So, after checking the time, it seemed the entire process nearly took an hour, and it was almost my time to stand guard again.

[Hmm, this is going to take a while…] I murmured and stored the piece in my storage ring. The first one was done, just a few thousand more to go.

I could probably make twenty or so a day if I really tried. Or I could make more at once, saving time. Eh, but then there are other things I have to do...

I looked at the manual I received from Gale and sighed. There really never was enough time. Just another thing to add to the pile.