The next morning Runamata and the guys acted as if nothing had happened, but for Leo it was a nightmare he would never be able to erase from his memories. In addition, he remembered Onataka mentioning they were preparing him for something and in this tribe of savages it was obviously nothing good.
He finally understood why he got so much attention and decided to at least postpone the disaster that was about to come. Of course, he couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t learned anything, but he could become dumber, right?
During the day Bimpo and Onataka didn’t notice anything, but in the evening instead of a similar reward to what they got yesterday both got slaps on the backs of their heads for slacking the whole day. They tried to defend themselves in confusion, but then also realized that for some reason the fatty really hadn’t learned the ten words they were supposed to teach today.
And then the strangest thing happened. All three went through the planned lesson and Leo obediently repeated everything after them correctly, but when he had to start forming sentences on his own, for some reason he began talking about fruits instead of birds and animals.
Then again Runamata patiently went over the subject of the most common beasts, but for some reason Leo was set on bananas and apples. When after few more tries the results were as disastrous, the trio became completely flustered.
“Was it because of the stuff we took last night?” Bimpo asked in a worried voice.
“Impossible! Those were high quality processed star-poppy leaves that don’t cause any side effects apart from being a potent aphrodisiac.” Runamata said, “Even our sect master likes to fool around with those.”
“But then why he became like this?” Onataka asked, “Maybe it has different effect on children? Or maybe only on this idiot?”
“I … I still don’t think it’s the problem caused by star-poppy. Let’s be patient for a day or two just in case and see how it goes. If there is still a problem, we’ll have to fix this … otherwise elder Faluno will make me wash dirty laundry for the rest of my days … and you guys … will probably die.” Runamata said, but the two youths paled in shock.
Even though this task seemed kind of important, they never took if that seriously, but hearing Runamata say the last part they realized she might’ve ‘heard something’ they didn’t know.
Unfortunately the next day went just like the previous and the one after that had similar results. In the evening of the third day the four were gathered around the bonfire at the shore just like always, but while Leo cluelessly stared in the dark, the other three sat in silence with grave faces.
“It can’t go on like this! We have to do something!” Onataka angrily said and punched the sand.
“That damned star-poppy obviously broke him! It’s all your fault!” Bimpo pointed at Runamata.
“I already said it’s not possible!” She angrily retorted, but this time she didn’t sound very confident.
Today she ran over to the alchemy division and asked a friend about their problem, but the vague answer she got made her get the first gray hair. Of course, she was not going to admit to the two youngsters that as it turns out any drug can cause a variety of side effects depending on a particular person, but she did feel somewhat guilty and the perspective of being degraded to a common maid was not that enticing as well.
“What if … what if we … stimulate him a bit?” Onataka’s eyes suddenly lit up after getting an idea.
“We are not going to beat him! He is already dumb as it is!” Runamata barked back.
“No, no! You misunderstood!” Onataka hurriedly said while defensively waving his hands in front of him, “I meant – what if we stimulate him in there?”
The other two instinctively looked at the side he was pointing at and, while Runamata furrowed her brows in confusion, Bimpo even jumped up on his feet in delight.
“Righ! We can make a stimulating bath for him! Heck, we don’t even need to steal any resources for that – we’ll just put him in a tub one of the guys had used beforehand and leave him for a night and that should do the trick!” He almost shouted in excitement.
“Hell no! Haven’t we broken him enough already?!” Runamata disagreed, “And even if I never had the opportunity to get any herbal baths I know one has to take a bunch of different spirit pills for it to work properly.”
“Ha! You’re wrong there!” Onataka proudly said, but since he didn’t explain anything there was no way to argue.
“Fine!” Runamata agreed after pondering for a moment, “But don’t do anything until I consult someone. We can’t land in even deeper sh*t!”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Both youths obediently nodded and, seeing Runamata was about to leave, Onataka asked with a lascivious smile, “Aren’t I getting rewarded for the great idea?”
“Sure!” Runamata smiled back sweetly, “Bimpo! Reward him!”
And while the two guys instantly deflated, she left with her laughter reverberating through the night.
“It’s that bad?” Nara asked with a pity in her voice. She looked like a thin and tall girl in her twenties and contrary to Runamata wore only a skirt that barely hid her private parts.
Contrary to her older looking friend she didn’t wear anything on the top, proudly showing off her tattooed body. Actually both were childhood friends, but while Runamata didn’t have any talent for cultivation and could only perform administrative duties, Nara was a solid Foundation establishment cultivator and at the later stage at that. When her talents were discovered over twenty five years ago, she was brought to the alchemy division and since then she mostly worked and cultivated here. Of course, Runamata was slightly jealous at her for retaining the youthful looks much longer than her, but she could only blame herself for lacking the cultivation talent.
“Ye, it feels like he has some kind of mental block or something.” Runamata nodded.
“Hmm … medicinal alchemy is not an exact science. And it’s hard to tell what exactly goes on in the consciousness of each individual.” Nara said, “That is also the reason why it’s impossible to read the thoughts or memories of others.”
“So there is nothing we can do?” Runamata asked.
“No, sister, you might. Your two boy-toys might actually be on to something.” Nara winked back, but then grew serious again, “If the kid is forcefully pushed through the body refinement or even the bone reforging state, his mental capabilities have to noticeably evolve as well.”
Seeing her friends eyes lit up, Nara added, “But don’t celebrate too soon. Forcefully drawing out the potential of the body will have serious side effects. First of all – the noticeable shortening of ones lifespan. Don’t look at me like that! You didn’t think that using medicinal baths meant for cultivators on a small child will have no consequences, did you? There is a reason why everyone cultivates through every stage naturally.”
“Aren’t there any pills or other supplements?” Runamata asked.
“Not here. Maybe in the immortal realm. Even my master produces a heavenly ranked pill only couple of times a year, so I don’t think anyone would waste precious resources like that on a kid and a stranger, that is if we had a chance to get our hands on a treasure like that.” Nara explained.
Runamata left deep in thoughts. It was not because she was concerned about the little fatty, but more about the implications of their approach. Soon she smiled to herself and with a resolute step proceeded to the far side of the sect where near the beach two guys were arranging medicinal baths for the other sect members.
She didn’t explain much to the two, but only said she agreed to their plan and left. All she needed to do was to create a plausible deniability in case something went wrong. The kid already had some knowledge of the main dialect and she had developed the lesson plan she showed off to elder Faluno few days ago.
Now all that was left was to find someone to take the blame in case of a failure and the two youths were perfect for that role. Of course, it might turn out that teaching the fatty was of no importance whatsoever and everyone already had forgotten about him, but she was not going to bet on that.
During the day Leo didn’t suspect anything except it felt a bit strange that the two guys were often mentioning something about him being ready to cultivate. Obviously his knowledge of the main dialect was still poor and he was not certain about the exact meaning, but when the sun was about to set Bimpo began to teach him a ‘cultivation technique’.
He assured it was very special and kept calling it ‘very good’ over and over making Leo increasingly annoyed. In the end it turned out all he had to do was to concentrate at the region below the navel, the dantian. This was very similar to what his father taught him, except according to Lyam’s teachings he had to look for the fire spark within, therefore after some thought Leo agreed.
He had been slacking off with the cultivation after he was brought away from the island with the mutated cat and chicken and it was time to start focusing on his priorities once again. The concept of meditating in a tub was something new to him, but every day he saw many tribe members both young and more experienced do that thus he was not opposed to try it out as well. Who knows, maybe cultivating in the tub will suppress the images of the lightning bolts and he’ll be finally able to find the fire spark in peace.
“Alright, which one are we putting him in?” Onataka pulled Bimpo over to the side when the last sect member left.
“All we need to do is to draw out his inner potential so a regular detoxifying bath should do. Let’s use the tub Lidibu was just in. He is preparing to step into the Foundation establishment stage and his bath was not as strong. In addition, the bastard spent the whole day soaking inside so it shouldn’t be too extreme even for a child,” Bimpo suggested.
“Are you sure? Wouldn’t that forcibly open his meridians and push him into the Body refinement stage?” Onataka asked.
“At least it shouldn’t be painful … I think.” Bimpo said, “Let’s watch how it goes. If he starts to scream in pain, we’ll just knock him out, wash clean and start over tomorrow as if nothing happened.”
To Onataka it sounded reasonable therefore without a second thought they threw Leo in one of the tubs. At first he chocked on the bitter substance and in disgust almost threw up remembering a young man bathing here before him, but when the two guys forced him to stay inside he actually got a feeling that the bath was pleasantly refreshing and decided to give it a go.
He closed his eyes and focused on his consciousness, the annoying lightning bolts were still within and for some reason there seemed to be even more compared to the last time he checked.
‘I’m doing something wrong!’ Leo thought to himself, ‘How am I supposed to find a spark of fire within this mess?’
For a moment he began to feel desperate, but then noticed the lightning bolts were somewhat slower than usual and there was a pattern to their seemingly chaotic movement – it looked as if all of them revolved around the center in a huge circle, or rather – a sphere.
‘Wait! I know what these mother tuckers actually tried to teach me and where I misunderstood my father’s secret technique!’ Sudden feeling of enlightenment washed over him, ‘I have to get rid of all the crap in my consciousness and then I’ll be able to find the fire spark! My father was a genius after all, but I was too stupid to understand him! Luckily these two guys were able to explain me although their technique doesn’t involve me training the fire element so it’s obviously inferior.’