ACT I ­­– Ryun

First Steps

Ryun put in the first one hundred Essence into his path, and immediately reached the the first step in Cultivation, the Early Mortal stage of the Path of the Final End. It was a strange sensation, one moment he felt like he normally did, and in the next there was a heat inside of his stomach. He could feel his core, the Qi inside of it, the channels stretching through his body. It was an incredible experience. With the purchase of the path he knew exactly what he had to do in order to advance, his core needed Essence to advance, and he could get it in several ways, such as by meditating and drawing in from the environment or by using the Essence he earned from the world. After spending one hundred Essence, he had another four thousand left since he’d bought a pack just like Zach. Looking on his path screen he was disappointed to see that he needed forty thousand Essence to advance to the next stage. It seemed like a lot, but he had gained attribute points from his first advancement, five to every attribute, along with the ability to use his path’s base technique, {Empower}.

He brought his screens up and looked at everything.

Name

Ryun Nacht

Race

Human (Earth—Iteration Seven)

Titles

First Kill

Essence

4,000

Strength

11

Dexterity

12

Vitality

12

Endurance

11

Intelligence

12

Wisdom

13

Cultivation

The Path of the Final End ®

Stage

Early Mortal (0/40,000)

Base technique

Empower

Branch technique

/

Fruit technique

/

Active Skills

Cut (1/10)

His skill had gone up a level, which was good, though he didn’t know how or why it did. Probably because he managed to cut the monster? But he was the most interested about his new technique. He switched his breathing pattern according to the knowledge inside of his head, and immediately he felt the Qi rush from his core, spreading through his body. It lasted for only a moment before he felt weakness and lost the breathing technique. He grimaced at his own stupidity. His core was small and undeveloped. Essence allowed him to shape and improve his core, but he needed to train in order to increase his own reserves and improve his ability to handle Qi. The {Empower} technique could be used to empower parts of the body only, allowing him to ration his Qi and use it for longer. The technique allowed him to go beyond his current stats, increasing his ability depending on the quality of his Qi. He was itching to test it out, but Zach stood up, interrupting his musings.

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“We should head out. There might be more of those monsters around,” Zach told him.

“Right,” Ryun answered and stood up. He looked up at the sky, noting the position of the sun. He assumed that not much time had passed since they had been yanked out of the car and dropped here, but if more had, he couldn’t tell. For all he knew they weren’t on the same planet and it had been a hundred years—but he didn’t have anything else to go on. “That way should be south.” Ryun pointed. “If we head there, we should hit the road eventually.”

“If we are anywhere close to where we were originally, then that way should be where the others were waiting for us.” Zach pointed in the opposite direction.

Ryun sighed. He knew that Zach had fallen hard for Linda, but he wasn’t sure about them going and risking their lives for her. Although, when he thought about it a bit more, if there were any more monsters around they would probably find them deeper in the woods—and Ryun was very anxious about getting stronger. He needed more Essence. He realized that Zach was frightened, but for Ryun this was everything that he had ever dreamed about. He had never felt at ease in his life. He had dreaded the existence that had been expected of him: to finish college, to get a job, get married, have a family. That had terrified him.

But this…this was far less terrifying in comparison. Having abilities, a set path to follow and get stronger, to make his own way in this world—this was what he had always wanted. He couldn’t tell Zach that. They might be best friends, oldest friends, but Ryun knew that Zach couldn’t understand. All Zach had ever wanted was to do those things that Ryun feared. He remembered trying to tell his friend about how he felt, how he felt out of place in society as it had been, but Zach had laughed him away, telling him that he would grow up. That had hurt his feelings, a lot. He had thought that Zach would understand, but not even he had.

Ryun shook his head of the thoughts and nodded. “Right, we should at least try and find them,” he said.

Then he remembered something that the Dealmaker told him. He turned around and picked up the dead monster, then started looking through his screens.

“What are you doing?” Zach asked, but Ryun didn’t respond as he found what he was looking for. The monster corpse disappeared from his hands.

“Huh, only ten Essence for a corpse,” Ryun said.

“What did you do?” Zach asked.

“Sold it in the shop,” Ryun said.

He had a suspicion that he could’ve gotten more if he had processed the corpse somehow. Still, it was good to know that he could do that. Seeing as Essence was both a currency and a fuel for his path, he needed to get as much of it as possible.

“Let’s go.” Zach shook his head and put his pack on his back before walking away. Ryun did the same and caught up to him.

“So you leveled up, right?” Ryun asked. He could still feel the heavy atmosphere between them lingering. But it would pass—it always did.

“Yeah, I’m level nine now,” Zach answered.

“Whoa, that’s great. What are your stats?” Ryun asked, and Zach told him.

“That… That is a lot more than me,” Ryun said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, all of my stats are around ten. I only got five points per attribute, and I can’t choose where to put them in. I need a lot of Essence until I reach the next stage,” Ryun said. He knew how many points he would get per stage, all the way up to Foundation Realm. He knew that once he reached the Foundation Realm he would get an increase in how many points he got per stage, but from what Zach told him, a Class always gave the same amount of points. Eventually his path would overtake the amount that the Class gave Zach, but that was far in the future. There were other benefits that Cultivating a path carried, but those were all in the next Realm.

Still, it made sense, as the Cultivators in his stories started slowly, building up their base until they reached higher stages where their power shined. He had Qi, too, something a Class couldn’t use, and he could use Qi to close the gap somewhat. For a moment he wondered if he should’ve picked a Class instead of a Cultivating path, but he dismissed the idea. Sacrificing quick strength now for more in the future was a price he was willing to pay. He would just need to be more careful.

“How much Essence do you need until you can reach the next stage?” Zach asked.

“Forty thousand,” Ryun said.

“I can’t tell if that is a lot or not. I mean I am already level nine.”

“I think we got lucky with the reward. We were the first people in the world to kill a monster. I don’t think that you would’ve gotten that far ordinarily.”

“I dunno, but I’m glad that I have, even though it would’ve been smarter to run.”

“Right, I know that, I just…got carried away.”

“You need to think more, Ryun,” Zach told him seriously. “This is not a game. Our lives are at stake, and we don’t know much. Besides, I’m not sure that I trust anything that that Dealmaker told us. I was acting weird when I was there, almost as if I were drugged.”

“Me too, it was like my inhibitions were lowered.”

“Now that you mention it, that was exactly right. I don’t know why, but I didn’t question the being at all. I believed everything that it said.”

Ryun didn’t respond. Instead, he thought a bit more on his own encounter. It was not that he thought that the Dealmaker had lied, but he was aware that he had just accepted everything that the being had said at face value. He even failed to question him on why all of this was happening or who was doing it. He shook his head; there was no point in dwelling on it, and he needed to be alert in case they encountered any more monsters.

Still, as they walked, he took the time to look at the shop. The basic shop didn’t have much in the way of items, but only some simple weapons, armor, and some supplies. There were three more shops, however: Class, Path, and Skill. For a moment he was tempted to look at the Classes, but he didn’t want to split his focus, as it would only make his advancement on the path that much slower. Instead, he looked at skills. There weren’t many; it looked like he could only see those that he could buy. He wondered if buying a skill would be prudent. He didn’t want to spend his Essence, but on the other hand he was lacking in stats compared to Zach. Perhaps he could use skills to bridge the gap a bit more. Before he could look through the options, a loud scream echoed in the forest.

Ryun dismissed the screens immediately and Zach met his eyes. A moment later, they were running.