After studying the slowly dissolving framework of the translation spell that had been imprinted on his brain until he could manage a passable imitation of the effect, and banking another five essence, Rev resumed exploring the complex. He felt very grateful that the expiration of the effect didn’t actually mean the entire framework had fully dissolved; merely that key binding points within the weave had been disrupted enough to prevent the effect from activating. He was naturally uncomfortable with the idea of tinkering with the fundamental operation of his brain, but even his limited experience with cultivation proved to be enough to find loose threads of essence, and knot them back together. This act, combined with channeling a small amount of essence to reinforce the overall structure of the weave, proved to be enough to earn him a new notification.
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New Essence Path Established:
Law of Words, Minor Gift of Tongues
Will allow you to understand the intent behind words; which is interpreted by the brain as a translation effect. Will work on both written and spoken language. Will not work on ascended or celestial languages, but may succeed in a partial translation for ascended or celestial individuals speaking a lower-ranked language.
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Armed with his second utility spell, Rev plodded forth into the abyss-like stone complex. At first, he carried a ball of light with him as he went, but soon found that the further he walked, the more zombies he encountered. It wasn’t long before the incessant wailing grated on his nerves sufficiently that he dropped the light ball into an empty cell, and returned to navigating via essence sense. Another hour of walking past cells of groaning zombies finally brought him to the end of the hall. The hall ended in a simple wooden door. After conjuring a light ball to examine it, Rev found there was a sign next to said door. Grumbling about the essence cost, he expended three points of essence to activate minor gift of tongues. The result was somewhat anticlimactic.
“Guard Post N3” was written on the sign. Shrugging, Rev turned the knob. It refused to budge, so he inserted, and turned the key. It squealed loudly as he struggled against years of accumulated rust inside the mechanism, and for a moment he thought the loud wailing that accompanied the sound was also made by the mechanism. Just as his brain caught up with the more likely reality, the door flew from its hinges. Ironically this saved his life. As the zombie shot through the opening, the door collapsed onto him; trapping him beneath it. Though he was trapped, he was also shielded from the zombies detection. What’s more, the hard impact shattered the fragile essence weave of his light ball.
Hidden by the utter blackness, with his groans of pain both muffled by the thick door and completely blotted out by the loud wails of the enraged corpse, it failed to notice him as it careened down the hallway. After a minute of near senseless shock, Rev recovered a semblance of his faculties, and slowly leveraged the thick door off of him. Once he was free, and panting from exertion, he confirmed that aside from some nasty bruising, he was mostly unscathed. It was during this self-assessment that he had an unfortunate realization. The zombie, clearly far stronger and faster than the one from his first encounter, was now somewhere between him and the exit to this cell block. Even worse, he had no way to know exactly where the zombie would be since they were invisible to his essence sense. Likewise, using a light orb would most likely get him killed, since it would reveal his position.
Swearing in frustration, Rev came to a decision. Retreating into the guard post, he propped the door back into position as best he could. There didn’t seem to be any other zombies inside, so he hoped that it would make a good temporary safe zone. The light balls proved more versatile than he had originally known, when he realized that he could stick their semi-gelatinous forms to surfaces. He quickly formed two light balls, which he stuck to opposite walls within the space. With the room lit, he saw what essentially seemed like a small office. There was a line of two desks and chairs that seemed relatively intact set against the right wall, while the left wall had both a shelf lined with books, plus a cubby filled with what seemed like personal objects. The back wall had two doors. One read storage, the other read as facilities.
Rev hesitantly opened the storage door. It was unlocked, and led to a short hall with a door on either side. One of these said food, while the other said armory. When he poked his head into the food storage, he found another freezer room set up in the same fashion as the one from before; equipped with another frost orb device identical to the first. He was about to examine the armory in a similar fashion, when he heard a groan from the other side of the door. Quietly slinking away, he moved on to the facilities section of the office.
Another hallway held four doors. These were marked training room, lounge, barracks, and toilets. The toilet room held five stalls, and surprisingly the toilets were largely the same design as those from earth. He experimentally flushed one, and was surprised to find it was still in working order. A sink set into the wall likewise still flowed. He moved on after using the facilities. The lounge held essence-powered hot plates for heating food, a small library of books segregated into sections for both entertainment and practical study, several decks of playing cards, several eight-sided dice, an assortment of tables, couches, reading desks, and chairs, and even a moderately stocked bar. After tasting the contents of the bar, he confirmed that some of the contents were still acceptable despite years of neglect.
Slightly buzzed, he moved on. The barracks was essentially a set of bunk beds and lockers.There was also a military-style shower room, which again was miraculously still functional. Even the hot water still functioned. Next he discovered a clothes washing machine, which required an essence input to function. Once the essence was inserted, he placed his clothes into a tray that popped out of the wall. Once he slid it back into the wall, there was a muffled flash of light, and the clothes emerged. Not only were they free from the bloodstains created by the various minor wounds he had earned in his first zombie fight, and the grime from roaming the dilapidated facility for the better part of three days, the clothes had even been repaired from the rips and tears he had earned over the course of multiple zombie encounters.
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“Wow, that's really handy.” He said, feeling like himself for the first time in days as he put his clothes back on.
Finally, he moved on to the training room. At first, it seemed like a simple blank white space when he poked his head in. That was when he noticed a small booklet set into the kind of wall-mounted file holder that he often saw holding brochures on earth. Pulling out the booklet, he discovered that it said “Training Room Guide.” Skimming the booklet revealed that once he set foot into the room, he would be provided with simulated weapons and opponents with power scaled to the amount of essence he channeled into it. He could even summon illusionary instructors capable of delivering pre-programmed, non-interactive lessons.
“There’s even a holodeck?” He exclaimed, excited. “Screw that other place, this is definitely where I’m staying for a while.”
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One week later.
Rev flipped through “Cultivation Fundamentals” a book he had discovered in the library, which he had been thoroughly studying since finding it. He wasn’t fully drunk, but he found that maintaining some level of alcohol in his system helped to keep the creeping terror of his situation at a distance. As a result, he was pleasantly inebriated as he sat in a recliner in the corner of the room, next to a small portable space heater he had discovered. He grunted in annoyance as the heater cut off, and he poured another unit of essence in to restart it. Refocusing on the book, he read the next lesson.
"When the first threshold is reached, generally accepted as being when any stat exceeds fifty points; though there is some variation to this number depending on the individual, an aspiring cultivator will be prompted to choose a law. This law will be critical to the future development of a cultivator. Of course, in theory, one could continue with the cultivation of raw essence, but doing so is incredibly inefficient. There are only two recorded cases of lawless cultivators making it through their third breakthrough, and those two lived out their remaining lifespans unable to ascend to the next tier due to their inability to form a core. All others who have attempted this have died of old age before reaching their third breakthrough; even with the improved longevity offered by their first two breakthroughs. So, now that you know how important it is to choose a law, that brings us to the next question. What is a law? In broad terms, it is a fundamental idea by which you understand the universe. Every law is entirely unique in both form and function, but they do share two things in common. First is the five elements. Every law is governed by one of the five elements, which is fundamental to its existence. Some elements work synergistically with each other, while other elements oppose each other, meaning your law will have a significant impact on your capabilities even outside of its inherent domain. Second, is that each law has its own unique resource separate, but intertwined with essence. To give you an example, the law of flames, and the law of fire are both fire elemental laws. The law of flames has a resource called heat. This requires the absorption of environmental heat in order to charge this resource, leading many flame cultivators to cultivate inside bonfires, or volcanoes. On the other hand, the resource for the law of fire is passion. A law of fire cultivator cultivates by engaging in vices such as carnal lust, drinking, or art appreciation. Anything that might ignite their passion. Since these laws are both aligned with fire, they would have an easy time learning each other’s techniques, though they would be slightly less resource efficient. They would also be adept at using wood element technique, as wood feeds fire. On the other hand, a practitioner of a wood element law would be extremely inefficient at using a fire element technique, as the fire element would naturally attempt to consume their resources. There is a diagram on the next page detailing the generalities of how the elements interact.”
Rev skipped to the next page, and saw a diagram with circles that had small emblems representing the five elements of earth, fire, water, metal, and air. The emblems each had arrows pointing from one to the other, and he surmised based on the arrow that pointed from the wood emblem to the fire emblem, that they represented which elements consumed which elements. It was mostly logical, such as wood feeding fire, or water feeding wood. He moved on.
“Picking a law, then, is a very complex process. We recommend that you ask yourself two questions when choosing your law:
What do you want to accomplish? What subjects inspire you?
By answering these questions you will be able to choose the law best suited to you. This brings us to the final question for this chapter of the book. You have chosen the law by which you wish to live your life, now how do you acquire it? There are two possibilities. The first is to learn the law from another. Third tier or higher cultivators may pass on their law to students who show sufficient understanding. This is usually regarded as the safer option, as you will have someone to guide you on your cultivation journey; helping you to more efficiently and effectively navigate the benefits and perils of your law. What’s more, high tier cultivators often have significant resources at their disposal, and are motivated to aid their students by both government subsidies, and the prestige successful pupils bring to their name. This is the recommended choice as many career paths are specifically open to those who follow a particular law. The other option is to create your own law. This is a simple process, though not recommended, as it may be difficult to form a role for yourself within society. Employers are unlikely to hire those with an unfamiliar law when there are established sects offering the same services in a more familiar manner. What’s more, you will not have a wise elder to help you avoid the potential consequences of your law. Just as a law of fire cultivator must live passionately in order to advance, there are many who fall into self-destructive habits in the pursuit of passion. The role of the sect leader is as much to help you avoid such dangers as it is to teach you the correct use of your law. With that warning aside, if you wish to form your own law, you must meditate on the nature of what you wish that law to be. The universe will understand your intent, and translate your thoughts and feelings into a fully fledged law. Be warned that your subconscious desires will play just as much of a role as your logical intent in the end result. Specificity of intent, and passion for the subject matter are both important in receiving the law you truly desire. Mismatched passions, competing desires, or inconsistent intent during this process may pervert the fundamental nature of the end result. Many of those we refer to as origin cultivators have regretted their choice when forced to live with a law that fundamentally contradicted their original purpose. If choosing this path, be very careful.”
Rev sighed. It would be much easier if he could simply acquire a law from some wise elder, but he didn’t have that option. Even if he managed to locate a third tier cultivator somewhere among the horde of imprisoned zombies, there was no guarantee that person would have a law he really wanted. He also doubted he would be able to purify such a person long enough to receive the instruction he needed. He was guessing that the reason for the difference in purification costs between his first zombie encounter, and Fi, was their cultivation tier. Fi struck him as likely being a first rank cultivator based on his power level, and just that difference had created a ten times multiplier in the purification cost. If that multiplier stayed true, he was looking at a one hundred thousand essence cost to fully purify a third tier cultivator.
As Rev drunkenly speculated on what kind of law he would work towards, he heard a loud crash that echoed through the silent halls of the guard station.
“Oh shit.” Rev exclaimed, diving to hide behind a bookcase.