Rev woke with a grumble, swatting incoherently at the strange boxes in his vision. It was only after several seconds that he stopped his fruitless flailing; remembering where he was and what they were. At least insofar as he had any information. Swearing, he straightened out; his back complaining about the stone floor he had slept on, as he read through his notifications.
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Core interface unlocked
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Metal Affinity increased by 1%
Natural Armor now increases by .01 per point of spirit
Mental Fortitude now increases by .01 more per point of intelligence
Unarmed Damage now increases by .01 more per point of strength
Slashing Speed increased by 1% more per point of dexterity
Constitution value is multiplied by 1% per point of affinity
Stamina now increases by an extra 1% per point of endurance
Aura of Trustworthiness now increases by 1% more per point of charisma
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Earth Affinity increased by 1%
Internal Fortitude now increases by .01 per point of spirit
Mental Endurance now increases by .01 more per point of intelligence
Kinetic Force now increases by 1% more per point of strength
Blocking Speed now increases by 1% more per point of dexterity.
HP increased by 1% more per point of constitution
Stamina value is multiplied by 1% per point of affinity
Aura of Reliability now increases by 1% more per point of charisma
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Title Gained!
For achieving the rare ranked feat of succeeding in a core breakthrough on your first try, you are awarded the title: Breakthrough Savant
Breakthrough Savant: +20% to ease and likelihood of success in future breakthrough attempts.
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Title Gained!
For achieving the mythic ranked feat of succeeding in a breakthrough on your first cultivation attempt, you are awarded the title: Cultivation Grand-Genius
Cultivation Grand-Genius: +1% essence generation per point of spirit. This is multiplicative and cumulative. Each point of spirit will increase this bonus by an additional 1%. For example, a cultivator with 10 spirit will generate essence an extra 10% faster.
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You have received a divine message. Access your core interface to read it.
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Rev rubbed at his eyes as he mentally processed the notifications. The whole situation was absurd, and the game-like elements even more so. Hoping the “divine message” would shed some light on the situation, he mentally poked at his core, which he could feel as a warm presence in his stomach, until he figured out how to open the interface.
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Core Interface
Core Type: Transcendent
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Charge: 1/1,000,000
Core Level: 1
Charge Time Remaining: 2 hours
Current Functions:
Stat Page
Divine Messenger
Trait Points
Purification
Followers
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Rev mentally clicked on “Divine Messenger.” It was set up like an email inbox, and he clicked on the single unread message.
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Welcome to Fu-Xarin!
My name is Li Sarin, goddess of creation. Sorry that you were brought here in such unfortunate circumstances, but I needed an outsider who wasn’t beholden to me in any way. You see, I lost a competition with the god of death, and the cost of my defeat is the essence of every creature in this world. I’ll spare you the lengthy explanation, but suffice it to say, only creatures that fall under my domain count toward this. Since you’re completely alien to this world, and thus don’t technically count as mine, you represent a loophole in our agreement. Now, I can’t tell you what to do, since that could place you into my domain, but I would like to humbly request that you purify the denizens of my world. Creatures that are utterly drained of essence become violent, mindless, immortal, undead husks. Certainly not the fate I wanted for my children! To help with this, I’ve added a purification function to your core. It will consume a large amount of essence, but I trust that given time you will grow into it. By purifying a creature, you will essentially be supplying them with an independent essence source until they can regain the ability to generate essence independently. Oh, and don’t worry about the death god simply claiming their essence again. I have officially renounced all claims to that world, meaning any creature you purify will no longer fall under my, and thus his, dominion. Whatever you decide to do, I recommend you begin cultivating your power as soon as possible! Once he detects you, he will send agents to eliminate you. You may consider the value of having allies, such as purified former undead in such an event? Just a thought. Regardless of what you do, I consider myself deeply in your debt for being kidnapped, and could be convinced to extend you some favors of proportional value if you manage to contact me. Each message costs one thousand essence to send. When you’re capable of doing so, feel free to contact me, and we can discuss your compensation. Oh, and your starting location should have everything you need to survive until you become more established. Don’t enter the depths until you reach at least your second breakthrough though, the undead there are far more than an uninitiated cultivator can handle. Good luck! . xoxo
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Rev rubbed at the bridge of his nose in aggravation. He was in a no win situation. If he did what she asked, he would only be playing into her hands, and inserting himself into what sounded like complicated political games. On the other hand, she hadn’t left him much choice. She was right that he needed allies, especially since he was largely clueless about this world, and the underlying mechanics. It struck him as being very Wuxia-inspired, but the stats and system messages gave it more of a litrpg vibe.
“It doesn’t matter.” He finally decided, out loud, as if to convince himself. “I need to survive, and to survive I need food and water.”
He frowned. He was still trapped in a jail cell. In an effort to assess his resources, he began opening the various pages on his core interface. Followers and purification naturally came up empty due to having no available targets. Meanwhile the trait points option merely produced an error message that proclaimed he could not access it until he reached core level five. The stat page option was similarly underwhelming.
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Stats
HP: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Spirit: 8
Intelligence: 0
Strength: 0
Dexterity: 0
Constitution: 0
Stamina: 0
Charisma: 0
Affinities
Metal: 1%
Earth: 1%
Titles
Breakthrough Savant
Cultivation Grand-Genius
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As he was going through his pages, Rev reassessed his priorities. “Ok, first is getting another point of essence in my core so I don’t have to deal with that nasty draining effect.” He announced to himself. As he meditated though, he had an epiphany.
“Wait, if I can increase my spirit with essence, can I do the same to my other stats? Maybe I can get enough strength to break through the bars.”
His plan now firmly in place, Rev began to experiment. Somehow, his body seemed to instinctively know how to cultivate his stats once he focused on the concept in the right way. As tendrils of essence wound through his muscles, he realized that not only was his physical strength increasing, but his essence generation was increasing as well; showing that it wasn’t unique to the spirit stat. Filing this information away for future consideration, he spent the next several hours adding an extra point to the essence in his core, and pumping his strength stat up to five.
He had no metric to measure the value of his self-improvement, so, shrugging, he moved to the jail door, and tested himself against it. Whatever improvements his body had undergone were marginal at best, and the door seemed to agree with this assessment as it remained firmly in place. Frowning, Rev sat down to meditate again, when he noticed something. He had a very slight sense of the metallic essence contained in the bars. After a moment of reflection, he realized that he could passively detect both the metal and earth essences within approximately two feet of himself. Stopping to examine this newfound sense, he made another discovery. For the first time, he edged away from the wall of bars, and bent down to investigate a source of metal essence just at the range of his perception, that shone dully in his new sense. His heart sped up as he examined the object with his sense of touch. It felt very much like a key!
It only took a moment of awkwardly fumbling with the lock in the door to confirm his theory. He breathed a sigh of relief as the door groaned open; its rusted hinges announcing his freedom to the world. He smiled widely until he heard an answering groan in response. Quickly, he pocketed the key, and shut the door, eliciting another groan, and another response; closer this time. As quietly as he could, he backed into the corner of the cell, and wedged himself into the wall as best he could. Li Sarin’s warning about zombies hadn’t been lost on him.
As he struggled to control his breath, Rev slipped instinctively into his meditative trance, deciding to use the time to work on boosting his spirit stat as he waited to learn his fate. He managed to generate most of a point according to his reckoning by the time shuffling footsteps punctuated by a periodic low moan sounded through the pitch black space. He guessed it had been about ten minutes, which prompted him to idly wonder whether there would be diminishing returns at some point. These thoughts ceased as the moaning figure stopped just outside his cell. He could tell where it was from the location of its shuffling footsteps.
Rev heard a snuffling sound, and it took him a moment to realize the zombie was sniffing the puddle he had left on the floor during his cultivation earlier. As if sensing his thought, the creature emitted an inhuman wail, which was the moment that he lost the threads of his stat expansion; the tendrils snapping back into their original position inside like an overstretched rubber band. Rev whimpered involuntarily at the sudden pain in his head, and the wailing cut off abruptly. He listened fearfully as there was another snuffling sound, followed by a loud clang. Time after time, the metal bars of his prison clanged, as if the zombie was perversely knocking on a door with no idea when it was appropriate to stop.
It was minutes or hours before the creature did finally stop; finally emitting a whuffling sound as it shuffled away down the corridor; continuing the same way it had been heading when it happened upon his cell. Stifling his body’s attempt at hyperventilation, Rev huddled in his corner, cultivation forgotten, and waited an interminable amount of time in the in the oppressively silent darkness of the cell that felt more and more like his tomb.