Chapter 9

Burning, tearing, ripping.

Everything burned as Frank seemingly for the first time in forever began running and sprinting as fast as he could. Honestly, his speed and movements almost frightened him, as he was clearly on a different level of movement compared to what he was previously. His body and mind moved so much faster, took in so many more impulses, covered more ground, but yet it wasn’t enough.

Chitter, chitter.

The relentless pursuit of the rodents behind him cried out in unison. As they did, Frank could almost feel them encouraging each other, giving directions on the pathways that he was taking.

As he ran, Frank realized really quickly that he had no actual clue where he was going, nor how to get where he wanted to go.

Up.

That was the most obvious answer, and direction that Frank knew to go, but where and how? There were so many different pathways down underground. Some had stairs, actual stairs, though Frank didn’t realize it right away as for the most part the actual stairs had been covered by layers of debris that made the paths more of a smooth incline rather than the actual rigidness of steps.

Only the occasional sharp point sticking out gave any indication that Frank might actually be running up stairs.

Honestly, he found that the smooth and compacted dirt incline was slightly easier on his legs. At least that is what he told himself as he continued to climb upwards.

There were main paths that had all the markings of old hallways and doorframes. Then there were multiple offshoots as the rats took the original man made hallways and eventually carved out new holes and paths. Seeing these paths, Frank realized that for now his only path of escape was to follow the seemingly few opened human pathways that had long ago been discarded.

As he ran, he imagined this entire area once being part of a huge industrial complex that was run by hundreds of people.

Grumble.

As he ran, he felt his stomach come to life, all but demanding food. This also came at around the same time that his mouth suddenly began feeling parched from constantly running.

Part of him wanted to stop to look in the seemingly abandoned infrastructure for any signs of food or water. Yet, he knew two things would happen if that occurred. First, he would likely find only rodent droppings and rodent fecal matter everywhere, as these same rodents who seemed to call this place their home had likely done just that countless times. And given the way they didn’t seem opposed to chewing their way through walls and support structures, any idea of finding hidden rooms was a pipe dream at best. This then led Frank to his second major thought on the matter, that if he stopped now, he would soon be caught up by the surging swarm of rodents.

While he figured they were giving him space enough to vacate their premise, he knew for a fact that he was likely on borrowed time.

In fact, part of him had the overwhelming fear of being ambushed at a vital point ahead. Given the twisting nature of the area he was in, and the way the rodents all seemed to be able to move and scamper about around him, he was almost certain that no less than a dozen rodents had done just that and were now waiting for him. These and other colorful dreams filled his mind.

Thump, thump, thump.

As he ran, he felt the twisted remains of his shirt bounce off against his ribs. That was something that he was happy had survived this ordeal, if barely. More than a few times he felt a rat grab, slash or claw at the remains of his shirt, but somehow it managed to survive, despite the obvious problems.

Panting.

He was close to a breakthrough. Frank didn’t know what level of cultivation he was at, as he honestly lost track somewhere along the way. He had been at level three of the body cultivation layer before he fell with the serpent and was almost positive that he had at least one more advancement inside the serpent.

This meant that Frank was nearing the fifth layer of body development, which should be a breakthrough layer.

Pause.

Stopping his movement for a moment Frank realized that the fifth layer was an important layer as it was one of the supposed distinction layers. Where if he was able to reach the fifth layer within a certain amount of time he would be considered above average and able to be promoted out of the slums.

For the life of him, he didn’t know what that actually meant, as each layer of cultivation so far had made him feel just that much stronger, that much faster, that much more able to survive.

It was the last part, along with the fact that everything around him was momentarily silent, and that he had a chance to breakthrough to what had to be the fifth layer, or maybe more, Frank decided to stop and take a moment to rest.

His legs burned, his veins felt tight due to the lack of water, his stomach was so deprived of nutrients that he just now realized that the last time he ate was at the breakfast ceremony held by his school for all awakeners. That was yesterday, right?

Shaking his head, Frank realized he had no clue how much time had passed. As he had gone to sleep at least twice since leaving the ceremony. The first was when he had to recover from the pain that Luther caused him when he killed his two lackies. Then there was the near constant cycle of pain, cultivation, and burning caused by his killing of the giant serpent.

Honestly thinking about it, he might have leveled up at least once, and possibly more while inside the body of the serpent. At the very least, he felt stronger in his ability to use his Trait which was enhanced.

Speaking of his Trait, his Energy Sight, he could now see clearly in the dark caverns. How this happened, he didn’t know, nor exactly when this occurred. All he really remembered was being able to see everything once he left the giant serpent’s maw. That was in addition to the other changes he felt occur during his time, as he was fairly certain that he was either immune, or at the very least highly resistant to the venom of that serpent. The fact that he had initially been burned alive and then it caused nothing more than tingles to his body after touching him. That and the fact that every giant rodent that bit him afterwards almost immediately dropped from poisoning was a sign that the poison he lathered himself in was deadly.

Even now the burning he felt in his rapidly healing body was only due to the constant strain and exertion he was forcing his body to go through, and not due to the actual pain caused by venom.

Finding a darkened corner that seemed to be far enough away from all other openings and exits, Frank moved over to what was clearly a man made corner, as the idea that two semi-smooth walls would just meet at one location was too hard to pass off as anything natural. With that Frank half collapsed, half sat in the corner, then quickly getting his body into a tight lotus position, feet up on his thighs. Then resting his hands on his feet, he began cycling the final time needed to reach a full breakthrough layer.

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Finally given direction and focus, the torrent of energy surging within Frank flowed through his meridians once, exiting his feet and then quickly being picked back up by his hands and cycled through again, and again.

This might be cheating, or it might be the most efficient way to use energy, Frank didn’t know, all he did know was that he had the purest form of energy flowing through his body. Well, what was the purest form of energy for himself, as he was aware that he, like others, could take in different forms of energy and ultimately use them to improve himself. But this time he had focused on green energy, which seemed to resonate with him, as well as call out to him. The first time he felt this energy, he felt like aloe had been applied to his body, as it felt like he had been burning himself out from the inside.

Now that he had seen, felt, and even focused on gathering just green energy Frank felt like he had improved astronomically since the discovery. Even in his ability to evade the underground rodents, normally one was too much for a citizen of the slums, as their speed and strength would often be too much for one to handle. Yet, he had done so easily and with having to face dozens of pestilential monsters.

While he knew that he was on the body refinement realm, Frank couldn’t help but think that he had somehow broken through to some deeper realm, as his blood and even his bones felt stronger, though this might just be his own imagination at work.

Ever since he entered this place, Frank felt his mind wandering a lot, going from topic to topic in an effort to keep his mind occupied, to make it so he didn’t realize where exactly he was. This was why he now found his mind wondering about cultivation, wondering if he was doing it right? Doing wrong and missing steps? There were so many things that would and likely could go wrong with his constant use of personal growth and development like this. Still, all he could do was get to the fifth layer of body development and get someone to check his progress. But that would be far from now, also he didn’t want to risk that, as that would mean that he would have to leave behind his whole family.

While Frank desperately wanted to leave the slums, he only wanted to do so with the support of his family, knowing that they were safe after taking care of him for so long. Most of all, he worried about his brother, about what his brother might be put through if he too was given an F-Ranked Trait and wondered if he would be strong enough to pull himself up and cultivate without need for selling your soul to a used Occultivator salesman.

No, it was precisely how hard his life and the life of his family was that he needed to take this opportunity to pull not only himself up, but everyone with him.

Filled with a renewed sense of purpose, Frank cultivated. He pushed the green energy into and through his meridians, finding that he needed to push the meridians wider to help him cycle cleanly. The way he managed to do so was by coiling a dense ball of energy and spinning it clockwise throughout his meridians, the more he did this, the more he felt faint grooves beginning to form, helping with the cycling of his energy. The process was slightly painful, but eventually became easier to control and manage. Also, any time he found himself pushing too hard, he noticed that traces of the green energy would flow into the cracks, filling them up and starting the regeneration process almost immediately.

With that Frank kept cycling over and over again, until finally the groves formed with a clockwise motion were too large and he almost felt that he had to make the energy jump to reach the tops and bottoms of the canals. Then he started cycling the other way, counter-clockwise, and eroding the giant paths that remained and blocked his path from cycling properly with a counter-clockwise rotation. In his mind Frank didn’t know if this would do anything other than help him be able to pull in and store more ambient energy. Which was what he wanted, as he disliked finding time to sit down and stop like this, as it felt extremely ineffective while trying to truly cultivate.

Only once he had worn down a sufficient amount of the remaining tread marks in his meridians did Frank decide to finally stop with his improvements and focus on breaking through the fifth layer of cultivation.

With this, he did so just like he had done the previous times, cycling energy around, through his body and then forcefully shattering parts of his core, before breaking it wider and causing the overall size of his core to increase. At least that was what he planned to do.

Yet, this time the whole process seemed a little harder than the previous times. At first he wanted to blame it on the larger meridian pathways, but that was not the case. No, in this case, he realized that his core was large, almost too large. The fact that his body didn’t seem fit to give up more space to increase the size of his core also seemed to be a problem.

Maybe I reached my physical limit to how big my core can grow?

He thought to himself, but realized that at this moment he had one of two options available. Either he could stop his current progress, and seek out the advise of a master as to what was happening, something that was almost impossible given his current location. He also knew that this option likely wouldn’t be possible, even if he wasn’t here as his status as an F-Rank from an F-Rank family meant his status was at the lowest possible. This meant he was left with option two. Either he could wait and try to figure out what was happening on his own, something that likely wouldn’t happen without personal inspiration or insights. Or he could forgo the idea of the “perfect” cultivation path of increasing his Power Attribute and just try to give himself enough strength to survive what would come next.

After pausing for a long time, a tear came to his eye as he realized he had to give up on perfection. By doing this, he knew he would both ensure that he could make it out of the slums by at least reaching the fifth layer of body development, but he would likely cripple any chance at future advancements. Even as he warred with himself about not truly needing to cultivate perfectly, that he could figure it out on his own if he but tried, he knew the truth. Not everyone would cultivate perfectly, and that even those who did, none would ever reach the realm of Immortality.

That had been a pipe dream anyways, wanting to be Immortal. What good is Immortality if all my friends and family die without me, anyways?

Resolute in his decision to advance, Frank went for a less than perfect cultivation. Rather than focusing all of his intent on increasing his Power attribute, he let the energy he gathered fill his muscles and joints. In particular, he focused on increasing his speed, the flexibility of his tendons, the strength that they could snap back into place with a blow, or with the need to escape.

By the time everything was over he felt strong, not just strong, but light and nimble. He felt that his body was more capable of moving and either missing a deadly strike from a monster or being able to deliver a deadly blow as needed.

It wasn’t perfect, but then again neither was Frank, and he was okay with that. Or at least he was now able to come to terms with that fact. He wasn’t strong enough, or fast enough to warrant true attention from masters, he would never advance enough to be afforded the resources and options that Luther and others would have. Most importantly, he would never reach the vaunted heights of immortality, but that was okay. Because Frank now knew that he had something in him that others didn’t.

Frank finally began to understand what separated him from the Luthers and other self-appointed elites of the world who were granted blessings from birth that Frank could only dream of. And that was the fact that Frank realized he would be ruthless when he needed to be. That he would be resolute with his want and need to succeed.

In his mind, Frank knew that his life would never be easy, that he would always have to work twice as hard got go half the distance that others did, and that was okay. As Frank realized that something at this moment, that he had done the impossible. He had survived a giant rodent surge on his own, after falling an unfathomable height, and slaying a legendary city devouring serpent.

He had done the impossible, which in his mind let him realize that he was himself was therefor impossible. And with the impossible, anything, regardless of how improbable, would in fact become possible.

Thrum.

As he felt this thought, this concept come to life within his mind, Frank realized that his journey of self discovery was just beginning. Yes, he had missed chances to advance perfectly, but that only meant that from now on out, Frank only had to worry about himself, about the way he needed to advance, about the way he saw best for himself.

He could feel power coursing through him, as his mind, body, and soul all seemed to come together and formulate the one universal truth. Frank wouldn’t give up, because…

There was probably more to it, but every time he pushed his mind beyond the concept of because what came next was irrelevant and only applicable to certain conditions.

Deep in the ground, separated from all manner of safety and civilization, surrounded by mutated monsters, that is where Frank found himself, and most importantly that is where he found his true breakthrough.

“I won’t give up, and you can’t make me quit.” Frank said out loud to himself. In his mind, he directed the statement to multiple people, Luther, the military member who tried to hit him with a fireball, the used Occultivator salesman who wouldn’t even give him the time of day. Everyone and then more came to mind, and then just as they all came to mind, they were each instantly discarded as Frank realized that rather than seeing each person as a barrier as to why he couldn’t advance, he saw them for what they were, goals and benchmarks for what to strive past. The faster he met them and conquered them in both his mind and in terms of accomplishments, the sooner he could move on with his own life.

Rising to his feet, Frank felt lighter, and was just about to continue his trek upwards and outwards, when he heard it.

Squeak-chitter.

The calvary had come, and judging by the response sounds and the sounds of scraping within the walls, there were a lot of them.

He could even hear them scurrying through the walls behind him, and coming out on the staircase that led upwards. In a moment, he realized that he was trapped, that the rodents had used his momentary reprieve to not only catch up to him, but circle past and cut off any form of retreat.

Before this would have frightened Frank. Yet, now he realized this for what it truly was. Another challenge.

The rodents saw him as both food and a threat, while he saw them as a potential food supply.

Grumble.

Seeing the first large rodent appear, Frank realized that large rodents tasted quite nice when cooked to a proper temperature. Realizing this, and seeing the bright green energy that pulsed and moved within their bodies, Frank realized this too was nothing more than a test of his resolve.

Moving his hands to his torn shirt, he pulled out two of the smaller hand sized snake fangs, fangs that were little more than six-inch sticks in his hands, but they were better than nothing.

With his preferred weapons ready, Frank could only smile as he realized this was what he wanted, something to test his newfound resolve.

That is when he mentally repeated his mantra, right as the first rodent lunched forward, trying to lure Frank out.

Too bad for the rodent, Frank had been expecting such a reaction.

Strike, splat.

A quick downward thrust with the snake fang to the brain and the rodent that had been easy to deal with previously was now even easier to deal with. A quick snap of his wrist the fang was wrenched free, and he was able to wield it again.

Standing there, he looked and saw how all the rodents seemed to stare at him with varying degrees of shock. In his mind, he almost remembered the awkward moment when he was first admitted to class, where all the other students looked at him in much the same way, namely thinking that he should not be there.

Smiling, Frank felt something in his mind break, as he realized the absurdity of the situation. Then as a joke he decided to recreate that awkward moment, if only for the crowd of oversized rodents.

“Hello, my name’s Frank, and I won’t give up, and you can’t make me quit.”

Then, like that the spell of stillness that had befallen the horde of rats stopped, as they seemed to share some impulse, before they all lunged forward as one.

Fortunately, Frank had been expecting this to happen, as he too began to move.