“Status,” whispered Logan. He was now at 14 years of age, after training for two years straight.
Status for user Logan:
Approximate Level: 20
HP: 790 / 980
STR: 91
DEX: 86
INT: 72
WIS: 154
CHA: 48
VIT: 98
Naturally, wisdom was his highest stat because it was used to power his qi. His charisma was lower than his other stats since it was difficult to raise without a hairbrush or access to clean water. Around sixteen months into his training he realized that he could raise his intelligence by reflecting on choices, and through that he managed to increase the efficiency of his routine by ten percent.
Ahhhhh… It feels so nice to just be able to lie down, relax, and let the wind brush against my skin. This is bliss. Now that I’m done with the hard part of training, it’s finally time to compress my core into the solid stage.
Unbeknownst to Logan, he was the first person to ever attempt to condense their core to the solid stage with only pure qi, and with such a vast amount of qi. By chance or through fate, condensing a core to the solid stage with pure qi required vastly more qi than with an affinity-attuned path’s qi.
***
Alone, in an unnaturally dense field, sat a child. The child didn’t like being called that, but only time could change someone’s age. The 14 year old boy, Logan, sat with his eyes closed and legs crossed in a lotus position. He was compressing a solid core of pure qi, without touching it. He sat there, unmoving, for a few seconds. Seconds turn to minutes. Minutes turn to hours. Hours turn to months. Just like that, the boy sat for months, unmoving, eyes closed. A cultivator with a sharp eye would see a core of unnaturally large size in the boy’s dantian shrinking, condensing, and compressing into a smaller but more dense version of itself. More real, in a way.
***
Logan opened his eyes slowly, with newfound patience. He pushed his fingers forward, interlocked. A series of cracking noises filled the little magical clearing. He swung his head around on his neck, summoning another volley of crackling sounds. He repeated the process for most of his joints, lying down on his back when he was done.
Logan decided to finally check his notifications.
System, pull up my notifications.
Logan's eyes bulged out of their sockets.
Request Acknowledged.
You have 2839 new notifications.
WHAT did you just say to me?! 2.8 thousand?! What did I do to get so many notifications?
Using the last of his willpower, Logan clicked ‘open.’
Congratulations! You completed part 1 of the tutorial! Please click ‘Next’.
Congratulations! You have achieved a wisdom score of over 10 while being level 1.
Congratulations! You have achieved a wisdom score of over 20 while being level 1.
HIDDEN ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!
Congratulations! Level Up!
Congratulations! Level Up!
…
Congratulations! Level Up!
[Level 1 -> 10]
Congratulations! You have achieved a wisdom score of over 100 while being level 10!
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HIDDEN ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!
Congratulations! Level Up!
Congratulations! Level Up!
…
Congratulations! Level Up!
[Level 10 -> 20]
Congratulations! You have reached level 10! Choose a reward:
[expand]
Congratulations! You have achieved a strength score of [expand] before reaching level 10!
You have cultivated in a qi-dense environment for 1 hour… +10 xp!
You have cultivated in a qi-dense environment for 1 hour… +10 xp!
You have cultivated in a qi-dense environment for 1 hour… +10 xp!
…
You have cultivated in a qi-dense environment for 1 hour… +10 xp!
ENOUGH! WHY?!
What have I ever done to you, system?!
Logan had to harness willpower he didn’t even know he had in order to suppress his anger.
System! Show me only the rewards!
Request acknowledged.
Processing…
Accepted.
Choose a reward [x24]
Combining rewards for better user experience… completed.
Choose a reward:
[cultivator’s toolkit] [pure qi cultivation guide] [meet an immortal who uses pure qi]
Choose a reward:
[qi density increased] [qi usage efficiency increased] [qi absorption increased]
Choose a reward:
[ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR]
Choose a reward:
[Pure Qi Affinity] [Void Qi Affinity] [Heavenly Qi Affinity]
Choose a reward:
[System Upgrade] [Difficulty Increases] [Difficulty Increases II]
Choose a reward:
[Move to stage 2 in tutorial] [move to stage 3 in tutorial] [move to the final stage in tutorial]
Logan wanted to curl up into a ball and be left alone.
***
In the end, logan ended up picking the following:
[Meet an immortal] - Who wouldn’t pick this?
[Qi Density Increased] - Sounded like the most useful option.
[ERROR] - Not like he had much choice.
[Pure Qi Affinity] - Other options weren’t suited for his path.
[Difficulty increases II] - More difficulty = more qi!
[Move to stage 2 in tutorial] - Need to take all the rewards from each stage.
***
Logan woke up with a slight headache and a dense yet still massive core of qi in his dantian. It seemed like the system granted his wishes, since he felt that qi got twice as dense the moment it touched his channels, expelling and moving pure qi was much easier, It seemed like there was some rustling in the bushes, which meant creatures, which meant difficulty, which meant more qi in the air! And of course, he hid his notifications again. After a year or two in here as well, he would move on to the next stage of the tutorial.
Logan turned, trying to keep as quiet as possible while crouching and moving towards the source of rustling he heard behind him. He ended up just floating on the pure qi in the air, since it was dense enough to hold his weight now. As Logan flew closer to the source of commotion, he could make the shape of it out more easily.
Now that he was a few meters away, It looked like a monkey but it had fangs and massive wings. It appeared to be looking through the grass, trying to find something. It bent over, picking up a large stick in the shape of a sword. It took a few swings at an invisible foe, dancing around it with an unnatural grace.
Slowly, the monkey turned to look Logan straight in the eyes and pointed its sword at him. Logan snorted. What happened next was an explosion of movement, elegant enough to put a ballet dancer to shame and loaded with enough power to impress an army’s general.
The monkey was deceptively fast as it pounced at Logan. The only way he was able to react was with his high dexterity stat. As the monkey moved towards Logan, it shifted its sword into multiple positions midair before deciding on attempting to stab Logan through the stomach. He let out his qi and tried to move the monkey away from himself by controlling the qi in the air around the monkey. Since the monkey’s body was its own domain, he was unable to control the small bits of pure qi inside the fuzzy creature. Once he reached the Gold Core stage, his targets would have to contest his qi with their own willpower or qi. Logan silently thanked the heavens for granting him free entry to the library back in the sect. He shivered at the thought of being cursed with limited knowledge.
The monkey was growing increasingly frustrated with every missed attack. It was as if the pesky being was slippery enough to slip its sword off with only its skin. Soon enough, the monkey got tired.
Logan grunted as a streak of burning red invaded his thigh, the vile monkey’s sword barely touching it. He had been able to dodge before, but he was growing tired. Two years of brutal training weren’t enough to help his stamina in a real fight, it seemed.
Are you kidding me? This monkey, no, this feral imp is much faster than it should be! Isn’t this a tutorial?! What do I learn from this? I read a scroll in the library once, on the usefulness of techniques. Seems I will need to make my own, or suffer defeat by damn monkeys.
Logan cycled his qi with as much energy as he could muster, trying to end the fight quickly. The tired monkey didn’t last long against his qi-empowered strikes. It seemed that he would need to create his own technique, since there weren't any sects. The Great Ei Garou used suction techniques, stealing his opponents' qi. Logan idolized him, so of course he would try to copy him. But absorption techniques were just like The Great Ei Garou, fictional. But were they impossible?