Leon woke a few hours later, the sun gradually setting in whatever constituted a horizon. Or a sun, for that matter. He didn’t understand how a star could exist in a pocket world, the idea seeming more ludicrous the longer he thought about it. It didn’t help that his head was throbbing, either.
Sitting up, Leon found that he was tucked into his sleeping bag with nothing but some rags on. They were in the half-destroyed house, everything besides the floor covered in hundreds of scratch marks. He wanted to lay back down but his growling stomach wouldn’t let him. Panther stew was boiling away in his trusty black pot, the meat smelling distinctly more gamey than the squirrel.
Seeing he was awake, Sophia pulled out a plastic plate from her backpack and began to fry some panther steaks, each one going on the pan with a satisfying hiss. Leon didn’t talk to Claire as she was meditating on her sleeping bag. After changing his clothes, he stood up and asked Sophia if she wanted some help. She refused, of course, so he just stood behind her and watched her work.
“How are you feeling?” Sophia said, turning the steaks over. They were seared to perfection. “The elixir healed everything, but the severity of those injuries... I’m surprised you didn’t die from shock.”
“Better. I only have a bit of a headache from using two skills at the same time.”
“That’s good,” Sophia said, looking him up and down. “Claire dragged you out of the acid and fed you more elixir, but your wounds refused to be healed. We had to use almost every last drop just to get the foreign Qi out of your shoulders.”
“Yeah, I saw that,” Leon said, remembering how much elixir he used just to stop his skin from melting. The only reason he wasn’t bedridden was thanks to the kill energy. That infusion of life essence after the kill hadn’t increased his level, but it did do a lot to repair his healing-resistant wounds.
He wondered why that was, recalling the strange layer of bloody Qi that had extended the panther’s claws. Either it was a trait unique to the panther or Qi just naturally resisted foreign influence. That posed a few interesting questions about healing methods and how alchemy fit into it all, the truth likely more simple than he was thinking.
“I never asked. How do you like your steaks?”
Leon hummed. “I’m not sure. Steak isn’t really on the menu that often so I’ve never really thought about it. But if I had to pick, I would choose medium-rare. I find a well-done steak too tough and blue to be too chewy.”
“A gentleman with fine taste, I see.”
Sophia nodded, allowing Leon to continue watching her work. She was startlingly good, so much so that Leon was inspired by the care and technique she infused into her cooking. And speaking of infused, Leon asked a few questions and discovered that she had brined the steaks with salt. He didn’t even know what that was until she explained it to him.
She even complained that she couldn’t sous vide the panther beforehand. The meat was tougher than the squirrel, making it more chewy than something like beef. She truly was an overachiever.
Half an hour later, Sophia kicked her sister on the foot, waking her from her cultivation trance.
“How are you feeling?” Claire said, coming over to examine him for burns. “Are you okay?”
“I have no physical injuries left, but my head is a bit muddled after forcefully using two techniques at once. Thank goodness I kept some of my less successful experiments or else I would be dead right now.”
Claire’s eyes snapped onto him. “You should be dead. Seriously, what kind of idiot charges a wild panther like that?”
“Well, I didn’t do it for fun. I did it to protect you two.”
“We don’t need protection, doofus. Sophia ran away and I was more than happy to act as bait while you prepared a Qi Bullet or two.”
Leon raised an eyebrow. “Do you seriously believe you could outrun a bit cat that can move through the forest at twice our speed?”
“It would’ve given you more time than charging at the beast. Really, what the hell were you thinking there?”
“I wasn’t thinking. The panther was about to leap at us, so I decided to let it pounce on me before it could even think about hurting you.”
Whatever angry words Claire was about to speak died on her lips, a faint blush rising on her cheeks. “H-How were you so confident you would survive being pounced on? Did you already have an idea of how to upgrade Empower before the fight?”
“No. I figured out a way the moment before I should’ve died.”
“Then why would you do something so stupid if you weren’t sure you would live?”
“Because my sacrifice would’ve given you enough time to run away. The panther shouldn’t have followed you into the next pocket world since it’s so desperate to get whatever’s under those floorboards.”
Claire looked away and opened her mouth a few times to say something, but nothing ever came out.
Eventually, it was Sophia who spoke up. “That was very foolish of you, Leon, but it was probably the right decision to make in the moment. And while I appreciate your willingness to sacrifice yourself to save us, I don’t want to live knowing that a friend died for no reason. The ideal strategy would’ve been to use Claire as bait and have the panther chase her while you fire Qi Bullets at it from a distance. Either you kill it or we manage to run away.”
“I admit that would’ve been a better option, but preparing that kind of coordination would’ve taken too long while it was chasing us.”
“And that’s why I said it was probably the right decision in the moment. We’re all alive, but that doesn’t mean things will work out so well next time. We’re a team, and that means we have to work together and play to our strengths so that everyone can live to see tomorrow. You’re not responsible for keeping us alive, okay? That’s our job. Focus on staying alive yourself, and if we need help, you’ll hear us scream.”
He must’ve made a face because Sophia stopped turning the steak.
“Listen. You’re not Superman and we’re not damsels in distress, understand? Don’t throw yourself into certain death on the off chance that it may help us run away. I would much rather travel with someone who admits their flaws and weaknesses than pretend they’re perfect, getting us all killed in the process.”
That made Leon pause, everyone going silent until dinner was ready.
They began to chat about random topics, which was why he discovered that Claire still hadn’t broken through to middle Foundation Forging. As it turned out, she wasn’t very good at compressing Qi. She could do it just a tiny bit when using Qi Bullet, but other than that she hadn’t managed to compress her Qi enough to noticeably speed up her cultivation.
The inspiration, however, would help her. Just knowing that it was possible was half the challenge. All she needed to do now was explore and see where her strengths and weaknesses lay, something that Leon could also passively help with. Being able to compare their abilities gave Leon a bit of insight into just how far ahead he was. For example, being able to compress Qi was extremely difficult for her.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Without anyone to compare with, Leon had no idea how he stacked up. A man who grew up in a tiny village may assume they were a genius because they were the smartest around. Only when they reached a city would an actual genius put them in their place. There was always a higher mountain, or so they said.
“By the way,” Leon asked, looking at Claire. “How did you manage to learn Qi Bullet? I swear you told me last night that you hadn’t figured it out.”
Claire puffed up her chest. “I tried to figure it out all day and then everything just clicked into place when you were attacked. I was terrified at what was about to happen, then the next thing I knew there was a bomb in my hand. I was about to throw another Qi Bullet up its ass when you shoved your own down its throat.”
“I thought you went to etiquette classes since you were a child?”
“And I told you that Sophia is the smart one.”
Leon began to look through his notifications once he was finished eating. He could’ve done it before but he was still out of sorts. And besides, he wanted to enjoy the food. It was incredibly good despite Sophia’s disappointment at her lack of butter. She only had a few different spices and some wild herbs he found, and yet she was able to whip up a palatable meal. If that wasn’t genius then Leon didn’t know what was.
[Congratulations! You have evolved your Empower (Common) skill into Empower (Uncommon).]
->
[Congratulations! You have evolved your Empower (Uncommon) skill into Strengthen (Rare).]
[Strengthen (Rare): Infuse your body with Qi, strengthening your flesh to a limit of thirty percent. Efficacy is multiplied by 2x your Body stat.]
Leon smiled, finding that there was a common thread to his invention of skills. Even Claire had learned Qi Bullet out of necessity. The question was why it was so much easier to create a skill while in the heat of battle, which seemed almost contradictory to the difficulties involved. Then again, Leon very rarely invented a skill without putting lots of thought and planning into it, usually failing until he almost died and forced the skill to work moments before his death.
Was it the stress of almost dying or did combat simply make it easier to focus on using Qi?
Unable to come up with an answer even after discussing it with the girls, Leon opened up his next notification.
[Congratulations! The stress put upon your mind was so potent that you have evolved to a higher state of being. As such, your brain can now handle two separate Qi techniques at once. Typically an ability gained in the next cultivation realm, your early adoption has granted you the title: Ascended.]
[Ascended: Go beyond the limits of man. +1% to all stats.]
Leon willed his screens to be visible, showing them both to Claire and Sophia.
“This raises a lot of questions,” Claire said, taking a deep breath. “More than I can count.”
“Yeah, like why I didn’t receive a title for being the first in the world to evolve.”
His two first titles alone provided a ten percent boost to all of his stats. The other four percent came from when he luckily killed all those spiders and gained the Executioner title. Besides those three titles, his others combined to provide a boost of five percent to only one stat. Compared to increasing three, all of his other titles were only worth a third of Disciple of Fire.
Another first title would be a massive boon, especially now that his stats were getting quite high.
Status
Name: Leon Hartwell
Stage: Middle Foundation Forging
Race: [Mortal] Human
Level: 8
Titles: First Step, Prodigy III, Inspired III, Executioner IV, Refined, Disciple of Fire, Ascended.
Mind: 3.73
Body: 3.96
Spirit: 3.26
Skills
Qi Bullet (R), True Sight (Un), Flame Control, Palm Strike (R), Strengthen (R).
His stats had been skyrocketing lately. Leon very much enjoyed the thrill of battle, but if he went without a near-death experience in the next month, he wouldn’t complain a single time. His titles and skills were also coming along nicely. The only problem now was becoming strong enough to stay alive in this wretched place.
“That’s what you’re curious about?”
Leon shrugged. “Of course I was thinking about that, but five percent in all stats is a big boost to miss out on.”
“Well, humanity is full of different people. Just because you almost died and evolved doesn’t mean that some monk or savant didn’t before you. I mean, have you seen some of those people? They can do university math in their freaking head while some monks can burn themselves alive without even blinking from the agony. It’s no wonder that someone evolved before you, and that’s even if first titles exist to begin with.”
“No, they do exist. I actually have two of them so I know they do for sure.”
“You have what now?” Claire said, her head snapping towards him.
“I have two of them.” Leon opened up the notifications, displaying Disciple of Fire and First Step for the sisters to read.
“Maybe one of you can get a first title if you figure out how to transmute something. My current guess is that you have to infuse your Qi into a material and trigger a change somehow, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I don’t think I will be able to figure it out any time soon so feel free to try yourselves.”
Claire didn’t respond, simply reading over the titles again and again with her mouth hanging open.
Surprisingly, Sophia was the one to speak, and not about the titles. “Is the evolution genetic or based on something spiritual? It is well known that epigenetic changes, meaning the expression of your genes and not the genes themselves, can be spurred on by moments of great stress. For example, children of Holocaust survivors are more likely to be obese due to their grandparents nearly starving to death.”
“Well, I’ve never heard of people suddenly becoming smarter from hitting their head, so it’s possibly a combination of both-”
Claire grabbed his arm and began to shake him.
“BOTH!?” She shouted, her eyes bloodshot. “You’re the first cultivator and alchemist? What the hell! I’ve been trapped in this crappy forest for months and I only have one title to my name! I didn’t even know you could gain a title for creating a skill, and yet you’ve upgraded both of them!”
Claire fell to her hands and knees, slamming her palms onto the patch of floorboards that was unmarred by the panther. “Why is life so unfair!”
Leon watched as Claire’s Qi flared with her emotions, a misty haze rising from her arms as she slammed them onto the ground. A puff flew out of her hands and sunk into the floorboards. The gaps between the boards lit up with blue light, and Claire’s eyes became distant.
“Claire!” Sophia and Leon shouted, grabbing her shoulders and gently shaking her.
She didn’t move for a few seconds, blinking as she came awake. “You guys have to try this.”
“What happened?” Sophia said, diving into her sister’s arms. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. In fact, I’m better than fine! Try touching both of your hands onto the clean patch of floor and send your Qi in.”
“Are you sure?”
Claire nodded so vigorously that Leon worried if she was being mind-controlled or something. He kneeled down and sent Qi into the floor anyway, feeling it sink in as if there was no floor at all. Nothing happened for a second. Leon glanced at Claire and was about to ask what the deal was when an image appeared in his mind, consuming his vision and replacing it with nothingness.
A realm of total darkness manifested inside his head. He had a bird’s eye view of a network of lines, but as he looked further away, the pathways were consumed by darkness. He could only see the entrance and its surroundings; the hole where a stream of his Qi was now gently flowing in. Leon’s Qi flowed down a pathway and expanded, but once his Qi touched a wall, he was forcefully kicked out of the realm of darkness.
Leon felt his channels throb and his Qi lurch back inside of him, and as his power settled, a throbbing pain blossomed inside his head and stomach. Some kind of backlash for failing whatever that was? The sensations cleared a few seconds later, and Leon found both Claire and Sophia watching him. Claire with a big smile while Sophia looked curious, if a bit uncomfortable.
“What the hell?” Leon said, rubbing his stomach. “Why are you grinning like a maniac? It felt like my spirit was kicked in the balls.”
Sophia giggled. “Who needs an etiquette coach now?”
Claire rolled her eyes. “I didn’t actually put my Qi in. I was too excited by the fact that I was the one who had discovered a secret puzzle rather than you, Mister ‘I have six first titles’.”
“I only have two, Miss Inferiority Complex. And I was the reason you collapsed anyway so shouldn’t you be thanking me for gracing you with my luck?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever pal. I call first dibs on any loot we find! There’s no way you’re solving this puzzle before me.”