The next day, Ace got up with a clear head and a firm resolve. Today, he would have to find a way to hunt in the mountains. The matter of food wasn’t life or death yet, but it soon would be. Unless he figured out an alternative solution. While he was happy with the leap in understanding magic yesterday, it wouldn’t negate basic human needs. He didn’t think so at least. It would be great if it did; however, he wouldn’t bank on it. So, he would try to advance his cultivation, but he would also try to find a sustainable way to get food.

Ace briefly contemplated taking a quick bath in the tempting pond but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the dirtying of clean drinking water just to smell and feel a little better.

On the topic of hunting, Ace had two ideas: he could wait here for anything to come near his cave, or he could adventure into the mountains where he would have a better chance of freezing to death than finding food. Personally, Ace was more inclined to do the former.

The only concern Ace had with the plan was if the former inhabitant of this cave came back to see him chilling in his residence and decided to get frisky with him. And by frisky, he meant it would rip him to bite-sized pieces because anything that lived in magical mountains was probably capable of it. He had to hope nothing lived here.

Mercifully, the signs didn’t point to it. There was no odor in the chamber, the grass wasn’t matted down, and no other tells that pointed to something living here.

Ace picked up a few sharp rocks and some stronger sticks before making his way down the tunnel. He grimaced as the temperature plummeted until he stopped at the edge of the cave. He backed up so the winds would not pound him, but not far enough where he would not see anything below him. It was frigid, but a far cry compared to the unsurvivable temperatures in the exposed plane outside.

Ace put his battle equipment on the ground and idly waited for anything to happen.

Further into the wait, he began to sharpen one of his rocks into the tip of a spearhead to pass the time and make a viable weapon. He used a flat part of stone sticking out the wall to scrape the rock against.

Half an hour passed. Then two hours, then three. The outside world had been utterly void of any animal activity, but Ace didn’t become discouraged. He had hunted small game before and knew it was a battle of patience.

Besides, his rock looked less like a rock and more like a spearhead every minute that went by. Concerningly, halfway into the stalking, Ace had taken to calling his rock Pointy. He wasn’t sure if that was him going crazy from boredom or if he was that desperate for it to actually be sharp.

Something did finally happen after all this time passed by. Sadly though, it had jack shit to do with animals.

System Announcement

System Granted for Survivors of The Initiation

(Call upon the System by invoking the word, ‘System' with sufficient willpower inside your mind or with your voice)

Ace’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “The fuck, this is like a damn videogame,” Ace thought for a second and then said. “System?”

Nothing. So, Ace tried again with a little more oomph in his voice. Straight away, a blue-tinted screen popped up in front of his face.

System Interface: (T1)

Name: Ace Williamson

Race: Human / ??? (T1)

Level: Meridian Opening: Progress 0.16%

Sub-Level: Qi Gathering: Progress 0.01%

Title(s): Initiation Survivor

Stats

(T1) Agility: 7.5

(T1) Strength: 5

(T1) Endurance: 6.5

(T1) Toughness: 2

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(T1) Perception: 8.5

(T1) Willpower: 9

(T1) Processing: 7

Affinities: (4M)

(T1) Spirit: 10/10

(T1) Soul: 10/10

(For more information, select specific details you would like to know more about)

Ace studied his statline with wonder. I guess it’s Qi and not mana. Anyway, Ace selected the Soul attribute, and a new screen popped up.

Soul: Shows the level of your Soul

10/10: This rating means the attribute (Soul) is on the threshold of advancement to a new tier

(T1): Represents the starting tier of advancement

Ace sourly regarded the description of the Soul attribute; it was about as unhelpful as it could get, and that trend remained true for the descriptions of all the other stats like Strength, Agility, Processing, etc. He did have to admit that the tier-one ranking was intriguing. He wasn’t quite sure how to get to the next big tier but reckoned it had something to do with magic. Bold guess, I know.

The 10/10 explanation was pretty self-explanatory, so he moved on to the upper section of his status.

Now, weirdly enough, the System didn’t let him select the Title, nor his Name or Race. Not sure if it was because his System Interface wasn’t a high enough tier or some other reason, but either way, Ace didn’t care too much. The last stats at the top were a different story.

Level: Shows a cultivator’s primary path of progression at the moment

Meridian Opening: This is the stage where a cultivator focuses on clearing Qi pathways

Progress: Shows the progress a cultivator has made in reaching the next level of advancement

The comments made about level and progress were not anything crazy; instead, Ace was drawn to the phrase, ‘clearing Qi pathways’ which hinted that he wasn’t necessarily opening these pathways for the first time but was actually removing an obstruction that prevented them from being utilized. More of a reopening. Ace’s brain instantly thought of a common trend in cultivation novels. Impurities. From what he remembered from reading, impurities were essentially a waste product that human bodies naturally produce. These impurities would then go on to clog Qi pathways, rendering them useless until they were cleaned out.

With that new tidbit of information added to Ace’s knowledge base, he moved on to Sub-Level.

Sub-Level: Shows the secondary path of advancement a cultivator is currently on. Once the primary path has been completed, the secondary path will become the primary path in most circumstances

Qi Gathering: This is the stage of cultivation where a cultivator collects enough Qi in their dantian/core to begin the next stage of advancement

The Qi Gathering description was about as helpful as ever. However, he did suppose it was helpful to know the next stage would start when he filled his core all the way up. He couldn’t really glean any additional info other than what the System directly told him, so he moved on to the final part of his status he had glossed over. The Affinity section.

Affinities (M): Shows the main Qi affinities of a cultivator

Main Affinities: Darkness, Wind, Metal, and Ice

(Affinities are in order from most attuned to least attuned)

Huh, I wonder if the Qi I have in my core is Ice Qi, I guess it would make sense ‘cause of where I’m at. Ace longingly gazed at his other affinities and stats, seriously wanting to explore how he could use them and improve his stats, but he had to go back to the monotonous task of looking out for a creature he could kill. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted from his goal; he could delve into the intricacies later.

Ace closed his status, picked up Pointy with a shrug, and returned to sharpening his rock on the flat stone ledge as he watched for prey.

Zilch, nothing, and damn all was what Ace spotted during his extensive observation of the mountains. It was a depressing situation, to be honest.

On the bright side, Pointy was looking like quite the fine spearhead. Maybe thicker than it needed to be, but good enough. Ace knew the tip could draw blood with just a bit of pressure on his fingertip.

In the end, Ace decided it would be a better use of his time to retreat to his room and try to open some more meridians and potentially try some of that lovely blue grass. His biggest concern with the grass eating part was about the effect the Qi would have on his body. And, he was sure that the grass had Qi in it, most likely Ice Qi by his estimation.

So, he went to eat some grass.

Ace stood upright, a strand of grass in his hand, which he stared at suspiciously like it had committed a crime. Here goes nothing. With that sentiment, he scarfed down the appetizing meal. It wasn’t horrible; it tasted like… well, grass, with a coldness to it.

He waited for the repercussions of his actions to kick in, but he never felt them. Which might be because he did not eat enough grass. Whatever the reason, Ace wasn’t eating grass again unless he got obscenely desperate, as he was nearly convinced grass didn’t do shit to make his hunger go away.

With the anticipated failure out of the way, Ace began to open some more meridians. And, he could confirm, the pain never lessened. However, he did get more accustomed to the pain, which made him more able to focus on the process.

Sense the Qi around him. Send out a spirit tendril toward a spot of Qi. Latch on to it. Draw it towards an unopened meridian. Then, invite the Qi to kick down the obstructions in its way. Once that was done, he beckoned the Qi to come inside and settle down in his core.

After the first meridian he opened that day, Ace made the executive decision to open meridians without clothes on. He would rather do it that way than have all his clothes drenched in sweat. I’m just glad it’s not the classic black gunk cultivation stories always talk about. Ace preferred some sweat over black sludge being expelled from his meridians, that was for sure.

By the end of the session, he had cleared out four meridians on top of the one he had opened the day prior.

Level: Meridian Opening: Progress 0.83%

Ace was mentally exhausted by the end of it all. Not to mention, he still had no idea how long opening meridians took. It might be a few minutes or a few hours.

Before Ace hit the hay, he took a quick drink of water and pissed over the edge of the fissure. Then, sleep took him away.

Ace made a small routine over the next two days: Work out in the morning with bodyweight exercises, then cup some handfuls of water to clean himself, head to the ledge to keep an eye out, all the while sharpening some more rocks and sticks, and end the day by opening a few more meridians.

It was on the third day that Ace struck gold.

Many years later, Ace would think of that third day as one of the turning points in his life.