“Hold that thought for just one second,” said Arthur in response to her words, letting out a long sigh as he gathered his thoughts. “You’re telling me… this system has a feature specifically meant for gambling attached to it?”
“It would be more correct to say that the feature tests one’s level of luck and fate,” replied Sisa, feeling a bit hurt by the man’s words. “But then again, it’s not like you’re wrong. Anyways, come on, Arthur! You should go and try it!”
Arthur briefly shuddered at those words. “Maybe later. Let me check out the other features this system has to offer before diving head first into that thing.”
Though Sisa was slightly saddened by the fact that he had pushed aside what she considered to be the most interesting part of the system, Arthur inwardly let out a long sigh of relief after seeing his assistant not push the matter any further, allowing him to explore things at his own pace.
Then again, there was a reason why he was acting so averse towards the feature.
Being an adult in the age where games implemented such a system in order to increase their profits, it went without saying that Arthur had dipped his toes into such games every once in a while, with one of them even grabbing his attention for long enough to make him spend money. Unsurprisingly, the first purchase was the start of a deep rabbit hole for him, spending almost all of the money he earned from work towards the game that had piqued his interest.
Though he did eventually snap out of it and returned to his previous ways, it was only after he stood on the precipice of homelessness and the announcement of the game’s servers closing did he finally awaken to the crummy tactics of massive corporations.
Of course, with him being in a new cosmos altogether, the existence of massive corporations related to such games were nowhere to be found, allowing his mind to be at ease as he thought about how he had no need for money in his current state. Nevertheless, that did not mean he forgot the aspect that made gachas addicting, expecting himself to be spending something else important aside from money.
Thinking that Sisa might have a good reason as to why she recommended him to check out the feature before the others, Arthur pushed the thought aside for the meantime as he sent out a command.
“Status.”
In response to the codeword, the orb on the pedestal glowed for a bit as a series of esoteric runes flashed across its surface. A few seconds later, a holographic screen appeared in front of the young man’s vision, its contents reminding him once more of the role-playing games he used to play.
‘Then again, the stats shown on those screens were something along the lines of Strength, Vitality and whatnot,’ thought the young man to himself as he stared at his screen. ‘Guess I’m gonna need a lengthy explanation from Sisa after this.’
Arthur James Marshall Species Spirit Nucleus (Nascent) Aptitude None Qi 10/10 Qi Tenacity 1 Qi Purity 1 Qi Regeneration Rate 0.05 points/hr. Spirit Manual None Vessel Manual None Cultivation Realm (Spirit) None Cultivation Realm (Vessel) None Ascension Points 0
Looking through the parts that made up his status screen, there were a couple of them that Arthur somewhat recognized. For one, he recognized the part where it mentioned that he was a spirit nucleus, considering that it was the inanimate object he had chosen before his eventual reincarnation. Other than that, he recognized the word qi alongside some of the stats written on his screen, recalling that Theresa mentioned it to be the first form of energy he would come across as a spirit nucleus.
‘I’m guessing Ascension Points has something to do with the system itself, but I can’t be too sure,’ muttered Arthur to himself as he willed his status screen to move to the side. Surprisingly, the screen followed his thoughts, making Arthur look at it for a bit with an amused smile before focusing his attention on Sisa.
“Say, Sisa,” said the young man. “If you don’t mind me asking, could you tell me what these things on my screen mean in greater detail?”
“Of course!” replied Sisa, her initial exuberance from before returning. “I am your assistant, after all. It would only make sense for me to tell you more about the Spirit Vein Ascension Apparatus so you could make use of it better. In any case… where would you like me to begin?”
At those words, Arthur pondered in silence for a bit. “Hmm… let’s start with my species then move down the screen from there.”
After receiving affirmation from his assistant, telling him that it would take a while for her to gather her thoughts, the young man returned his attention to his status screen, looking at the line of text that talked about his species.
Unlike the stick and the blood drop that had been put in front of him as an option for reincarnation, Arthur truly had no clue as to what a spirit nucleus was. He knew that it had something to do with energy and esoteric concepts thanks to the vision he saw, as well as Theresa’s explanation. He also had a few hunches that the spirit nucleus might be related to the cultivation thing Sisa mentioned earlier, but he wasn’t too sure.
Fortunately for him, it did not take long for his assistant to start talking again, finally giving him insight as to what his current form entailed.
“To keep things simple and easy to understand, a spirit nucleus is a core of a spirit vein,” Sisa told Arthur, making the latter wonder if she was reading through a textbook of some sort. “With that being said, a spirit vein is an entity that could generate qi on its own and release it into the surroundings.”
“Because of that ability, spirit veins, and by extension spirit nuclei, have become a hot commodity, considering that their existence allows humans and other beings to progress through the path of cultivation much more quickly.”
Hearing those words, Arthur instantly thought of a few worst-case scenarios where he would be plucked off underground by humans, shackling his freedom as he became the battery of an organization. Thankfully, Sisa’s next words alleviated those worries.
“Though there are times where humans and other beings have snatched spirit veins and spirit nuclei from underground for their own benefits, the majority of them decide to leave where the spirit veins are originally located, instead setting up camp around its area to reap its benefits.”
“So, if I’m getting this correctly, I’m the core of what would eventually become a huge resource for the cultivation of others,” said Arthur in a questioning tone, to which Sisa responded that his understanding was correct. “What does the Nascent part stand for, though?”
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“You could consider it the stages that determine how close you are to becoming an actual spirit vein,” his assistant replied. “It has something to do with the cultivation realms on the lower part of your status screen, but I’ll explain those later in greater detail. For now, let’s move onto the most important part that makes up your status screen.”
Whoosh!
At those words, Sisa willed Arthur’s status screen to appear in front of his vision once more, causing a hint of surprise to appear on the latter’s expression. With how his assistant manipulated his screen to only focus on a few select rows of his status screen, the young man decided to save his questions for later as Sisa continued with her explanations.
“Aptitude, Qi, Qi Tenacity, Qi Purity, and Qi Regeneration Rate. These five stats more or less dictate your effectiveness as an energy source. With the help of more features being unlocked once you head deeper into the path of cultivation, it gives you a general idea as to what kind of spirit vein you’ll end up becoming.”
“In any case, out of the five stats, Aptitude is considered to be the most important, as well as the hardest stat to improve,” said Sisa. “From the name itself, Aptitude determines the general difficulty of your journey. Whether it be on the path of cultivation, or on the skills that you would come to use later on, Aptitude has an effect on all of them, sometimes even more than you would initially think.”
“On the other hand, Qi is quite self-explanatory.” At these words, Sisa made Arthur feel as if she was shrugging her shoulders. “As you can see, it dictates the amount of energy that you could have at one time, as well as the amount of energy you currently have.”
“To improve it is relatively simple,” she added. “You just need to proceed deeper on the Path of the Vessel and your Qi would increase accordingly.”
“In fact, the same goes for Qi Tenacity, which is a stat that more or less dictates how long your qi would linger if it were to be released. Though, in terms of its effect on the Spirit Vein Ascension Apparatus, having higher Qi Tenacity reduces the amount of time needed for certain skills to activate, while extending the durations of other skills that would normally only last for a short time.”
At this point, the young man had a few questions in his mind regarding the things Sisa had explained. However, they were only questions that he wanted to ask for clarification, with most of his assistant’s explanations more than clear for him to understand the specifics of each stat. With that, Arthur continued to listen to Sisa’s words with rapt attention, committing every word she uttered to memory.
“You can consider the Qi Purity stat as an efficiency stat if that makes it easier to visualize,” said Sisa. “In any case, the Qi Purity stat dictates how much a point of qi could be stretched if it were to be used on a skill from the Spirit Vein Ascension Apparatus or on the path of cultivation.”
“Say you have two people with a Qi Purity of 1 and Qi Purity of 3, respectively. Both of them activate a skill that creates a fireball. The one with a Qi Purity of 1 conjures a normal-looking fireball that dispels on its own after a certain distance, while the one with a Qi Purity of 3 conjures a fireball that’s not only thrice as condensed as the former’s fireball, but also moves thrice as fast and goes thrice as far.”
Getting a nod from Arthur after that, Sisa elaborated even further.
“Unlike Qi and Qi Tenacity, the Qi Purity stat can only be improved by proceeding through the Path of the Spirit. Then again, the Qi Regeneration Rate stat is also improved by proceeding through the same path.”
“Do I also need to explain what the Qi Regeneration Rate stat does in detail? It seems self-explanatory at this point,” asked Sisa, only for Arthur to respond with a few shakes of his head.
Giving him a figurative nod after that, Sisa then moved onto yet another part of Arthur’s status screen. At the same time, she changed the contents of what the young man could see on the screen before him.
“This part of your status screen talks about your current progress in the path of cultivation,” Sisa told Arthur. “In the new cosmos, there are two general paths when it comes to cultivation, both of which I’ve mentioned earlier in my explanations. Of course, those paths would be none other than the Path of the Vessel and the Path of the Spirit.”
“The Path of the Vessel focuses on the refinement and improvement of the body, while the Path of the Spirit focuses on the refinement and improvement of energy. If you think about it, it makes sense as to why those paths affect those specific stats if you improve upon them.”
“With that being said, Spirit Manual and Vessel Manual correspond to the cultivation manuals you’ll be using to traverse those respective paths of cultivation,” said Sisa, her enthusiasm at the beginning of her explanation now starting to wane. “As for Ascension Points, those would be the points you’ll use to upgrade certain aspects of the Spirit Vein Ascension Apparatus, which you’d be able to obtain through various means.”
“And with that, I think I’ve explained everything you’d need to know about your status screen for the meantime.” Finished with her lengthy explanation, Sisa let out a brief sigh of relief. “Of course, there’s still a lot more things to explain regarding the path of cultivation since Theresa tasked me to do so, but let’s save that for another time.”
“Instead, can we go and take a look at the gacha?” asked the woman, her energy from before gradually returning.
“Alright.” With Sisa having explained everything he needed to know about his status screen, Arthur finally decided to acquiesce, causing no short amount of delight for his assistant as he listened to her instructions on how to use the feature.
“Gacha.”
Once again, the orb began to glow in response to the codeword, prompting a series of runes to flash on its surface a couple of times. However, unlike his earlier command, the orb released a strand of energy after the runes made their appearance, only for it to expand into a space before him that contained a series of physical buttons.
“Aptitudes, Spirit Manuals, and Vessel Manuals,” said Arthur, reading the text hovering around the buttons. “Do I really have to pull for them at the start of my journey?”
“Well, not really,” Sisa replied, prompting the young man to wonder why she was so adamant in having him pull the gacha. Thankfully, her next words shed some light on the matter.
“Sure, you could slowly increase your Aptitude stat by consuming more and more Ascension Points. There’s also nothing stopping you from obtaining Spirit and Vessel Manuals from the outside world, though something like that would only be possible once you’re further into your cultivation path.”
“However, by pulling for these things, you’ll be saving a lot of time that you would have probably spent on getting things the other way,” said Sisa. “Aside from that, why would you pass up on the opportunity, especially if you can pull once on all three of them for free?”
“Really?” Hearing that he could pull once on all three gachas for free, Arthur’s hesitation towards the space before him swiftly disappeared, instead making a solemn prayer to the heavens as he hoped that luck was on his side.
After that, he looked at the buttons before him for a bit before eventually focusing his attention on the gacha for Aptitude. In response, the button pushed on itself, causing the space making up the gacha to transform into a myriad of lights that reminded him of the nomological lights he’d encountered.
After some time, these lights disappeared on their own, only for a screen to appear before the young man that contained a single line of text.
You have obtained an Aptitude stat of 1.18 (Low-grade).
“Ooh! That’s actually pretty good!” Before Arthur could wonder whether the result he got was good or bad, Sisa quickly gave him the information he needed. “Usually, one would get an Aptitude that’s around 1 from the gacha, with a decent chance of going slightly above 1, and a really small chance of it being 2 or above.”
“An Aptitude between 1 to 1.99 is considered Low-grade, while an Aptitude of 2 and above is considered Middle-grade,” Sisa told Arthur. “There’s also a chance for the gacha to give you an Aptitude that’s less than 1 actually, which is aptly named Inferior-grade. Then again, the chances of that happening are so small that you’re better off hoping you’ll get an Aptitude stat above 2.”
Deciding to ask Sisa for more information on Aptitudes later, the young man soon moved onto the Spirit Manual gacha, making a solemn prayer once more in the hopes that he would obtain a result that was on the same level or better than the one he got from the Aptitude.
Taking in a deep breath, he then focused his attention on its corresponding button, prompting the space making up the gacha to transform into a myriad of lights once more. After some time, a screen appeared in front of his vision yet again, replacing the lights that flashed in front of him earlier.
Eager to know what kind of manual he had obtained, the young man focused his attention on the line of text on his screen.
Only to be left at a loss for words once he was done.
You have obtained the Spirit Manual ‘Qi Cultivation for Dummies 101’ (Inferior-grade).