Nate was genuinely surprised by how much the difference having working meridians made. He had known they would. How could they not? But experiencing the difference firsthand was something else altogether.

The entire process was smoother and took less concentration and stamina to maintain. It still took mental effort, but even that had decreased to near-negligible levels. It was a good thing he hadn’t known how effortless cultivating was supposed to be before this. If he had, then the sheer effort and drudgery probably would have driven him insane.

Instead, he had simply been determined to keep pushing forward.

Nate turned around to the front door as it unlocked and opened up. The sound of his parents talking outside had been what pulled him out of his meditations.

“How did it go? Did you pass?”

His parents jumped in surprise, not expecting to find him sitting there waiting for them still.

“We passed,” Nina replied simply, a hint of tiredness coming through despite her efforts.

They may have passed, but the test still hadn’t been easy, he guessed.

Nate stood and turned to face them, forgetting about the dried blood on his face. “That’s good. I have some news of my own.”

“Is it related to the blood on your face?” Niall asked, using his thumb to feel around his own lips.

“Actually, it does. Angie and George came by earlier. She managed to get her hands on the healing elixir a couple of days early.”

He watched as they both inhaled sharply, their eyes widening in realization. “Does that mean?”

“Are you… healed?”

He nodded. “All my meridians are back in place and everything, with no more core remnants holding me up either. I have to start cultivating almost from the beginning, but no more pain or weakness.” Nate smiled. “I’m whole again.”

“That’s amazing!” His mother squealed happily.

The family discussed their mutually eventful day for a few minutes before breaking to head to bed. The dinner he had made them earlier was left covered and forgotten in the kitchen.

Upstairs, Nate sank onto his bed and promptly switched to his avatar. He didn’t want to waste any time. The beasts inside the dungeon were the best chance he had of making fast progress with his cultivation. He had checked earlier, and while he was decently fast on his own, he doubted it qualified as genius level.

Then again, maybe he was simply expecting too much of himself.

Either way, by utilizing regular cultivation during the day, and collecting those rainbow-colored energy orbs at night. The amount of qi or internal energy he gathered should skyrocket.

That was the plan, at least, as long as the dungeon wasn’t destroyed again.

Assuming the cultivators had gone back to the city after they wrecked the dungeon the first time, then he should have a couple more days’ respite. If they hadn’t, or they made better time than he thought, then they could return at any time.

The dungeon was as ready for them as it was going to be. However, if he could upgrade the core before they returned, then he would feel even better about their chances of surviving. Not to mention he would be able to create a second dungeon after he did that.

Nate ran through the empty corridors of the dungeon, keeping an eye on the screens as he went. He was on the hunt this time around, and he needed to know where to go.

He was determined to get some more practice with his kukris in while also hopefully getting some more energy orbs.

The process was slightly easier now that he was operating at a normal human ability for once. The avatar had always been slightly ahead of his normal body in that regard, and now it was even more so.

With his body fully healed, the avatar was free to operate at its full base potential.

That didn’t mean it was easy to fight the beasts he came across that night, but it did mean that his escapes were slightly easier. No matter how hard he tried, the kukris could do no more than leave a scratch on their hides.

He didn’t have enough strength to do anything more than that.

Even the weakest of the beasts was too much for someone who didn’t even count as a cultivator yet. The traps were doing all the hard work, the same as they were before. The only difference was that now it wasn’t as hard to get them into place.

Of course, a large part of that was also because of how he changed and upgraded the traps to work in sections.

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By the time the night ended, another three beasts had fallen to his traps with his direct help. The rest had been too strong for him and he hadn’t dared to approach them. They had still fallen into the traps, but he hadn’t gotten anything from their deaths.

For the three he had participated in, he received two of the rainbow energy orbs, which seemed to be the most common drop. The last item was his first piece of armor, a chest piece made of bone and stiff leather.

Nate took a look at his resource counter just before he closed his eyes to wake up and saw something pleasant. If the dungeon could make it through the day without being attacked and destroyed by cultivators, then he would be able to upgrade the core that night. Truthfully, if he had noticed even a little sooner, then he could have done it already.

Except he hadn’t, so it would have to wait until that night.

Opening his eyes, he felt his body practically humming with energy compared to the day before. The feeling would go away as the energy was incorporated naturally into his body and became his own. It was a problem he would need to watch out for in the future.

The energy orbs he was getting from the dungeon weren’t part of his normal cultivation efforts and had to be worked through differently. Two or three of those orbs a night was likely his max at this time, any more and he wouldn’t be able to handle the sudden burst of energy.

A few minutes later, after his shower, the energy had mostly settled down.

Downstairs, he found his parents already up and eating breakfast while going through a mound of paperwork.

“What’s all of this? I thought you finished doing all the paperwork for business before you could do the test?”

“We did,” His mother sighed, rubbing her eyes. “Apparently, that was only the first round of paperwork. After completing the test, you have to fill out a whole new batch.”

His father nodded along wearily. “We woke up early just so we could get a head start on all of this, and I still don’t know when we’ll be finished.”

Nate grabbed some breakfast and ate while leaning against the counter where he would be out of the way. “Will you be home later, or do you expect to be gone?”

Nina and Niall shared a look before answering. “Assuming we finish all the paperwork in time, then we’ll probably be gone. We need to start recruiting other cultivators into our company and planning some expeditions so we can make some money. The next few weeks, at a bare minimum, will be very busy, so you might not see a lot of us.”

“I understand. Just be careful.” It was the answer he had been expecting. It was why they had bought all the groceries the other day.

Nate was waiting by the door when Angie’s car stopped in front of the house a few minutes later.

He waved goodbye to his busy parents and was out the door before Lindsay could hop on out.

“You’re looking much better this morning. I guess the elixir worked then.” She asked semi-rhetorically.

He nodded, scooting in beside her. “It did indeed. I even managed to get a good session of cultivating in last night.”

Angie looked up from her notes. “How productive was it? Was it better than before?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure about if it was better than before the attack, but it was certainly better than a few days ago. It’s been long enough now that I can’t remember how easy or hard it used to be for me to cultivate.”

The trio continued talking before slowly trailing off as they found Jace, accompanied by a group of other people waiting outside the school.

“Doesn’t he ever learn?” Nate groaned.

“I don’t think he can afford to,” Angie replied, glaring out the darkly tinted window. “We’re still not sure what specifically is going on, but your guess that his family is in trouble seems to be right.”

Lindsay nodded and then let her forehead rest against the cool glass of the window. “I don’t feel like putting up with him today. How do you two feel about skipping school and doing something else instead?”

Nate shrugged. “I’m fine with skipping and playing around for the day. My grades are excellent. Even skipping a few days wouldn’t be a problem for me.”

“That’s settled then. The next question is, what do we want to do? It’s a little early to go see a movie or do some shopping.” Angie asked, continuing her earlier thought process.

“You can just come over to my place for now.” Lindsay offered. “My parents are gone for the day, so we can do whatever we want there.”

Angie quickly shook her head. “Nope, your parents would kill us if we brought a boy over without one of them being home.”

Lindsay looked over at Nate as though suddenly remembering his gender. “Right, that would be a problem.”

He rolled his eyes. “So, we separate for the day, or do you have another genius idea?”

“We could go to my family’s training pavilion.” Angie offered. “I remember you were interested in learning how to properly use a specific kind of knives or daggers. It’ll be helpful for Lindsay and me as well. After we form our cores, our families will start sending us beyond the city each weekend on small expeditions. At this point, every little bit of training helps.”

Lindsay looked uncomfortable at the sudden reminder of what their weekends would look like beginning the next week or the one after that, if they were lucky.

There was a certain amount of anticipation mixed with fear at the thought of their coming adventures. “I think that might be for the best.” She admitted after a moment.

“Who are you all going with? You’re not going to end up being forced to team up with Jace or something silly like that, are you?” Nate asked with a laugh.

The two girls shivered and pulled away from him, as though personally repulsed by the idea.

“How about no?” Lindsay snarled with disgust dripping from her formerly pleasant face. It had shifted to take on an entirely repulsed expression. “We’ll party together with guards provided by teams created by both our houses.”

Angie nodded along, though her face held a hint of uncertainty as well. “She’s right, but now that Nate has mentioned it, I sort of feel like they might really try to pull something like that. We should alert everyone and make sure they are all on alert for anything suspicious.”

With that ominous prediction, she directed the driver where to go, and the group moved on to happier topics for the rest of the drive.

A little while later, the car pulled up to a large multi-storied building near where Angie lived. It was built to endure the brutal impacts from cultivators practicing inside and had been constructed of materials only found near the dimensional zones. Even then, cracks could be seen in various places from where things had gotten out of hand.

Angie directed Nate to a changing room for guys and told him where he could find a training outfit and then went on her way with Lindsay.

Inside the locker room, he found rows of clean training gi’s hanging at the ready on one wall. The rest of the space was filled with open lockers for people to store their belongings while they trained.

Hurriedly, he changed clothes and stepped out into the main area, excited to see what they had in store for him.