“What the fuck? Why did I barely get any levels from that?”
[Cultivation becomes significantly more difficult after level 4. There’s a reason there are only 3 people at level 7 in Rane, and they’ve been cultivating for thousands of years.]
“For fuck’s sake, why does it have to be so hard?”
[Are you serious? You got to level 4 in 3 goddamn days and you’re complaining that cultivation is fucking hard? You ungrateful little bitch.]
“Damn…Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask, which clansman gave me the nature stuff, and who initiated him?” The system opened the clansman page and expanded the ‘Commoners’ rank.
[It was Nu Rin. He was initiated by Leina.] Orion was beyond speechless. He just stood there, beak hanging open, unable to even process what he had just heard. Nu Rin was incredibly powerful warrior of level 5.8 cultivation and incredible influence in the kingdom. He couldn’t even imagine how Leina, with her measly cultivation and inexistent connections managed to initiate the great Nu Rin. He could use Nu Rin to take control of the black market, establish an income of far more than 2 million gold coins a week and become a member of the royal guard in less than three days with no trouble. His luck was really starting to get absurd. He immediately promoted him to the ‘Fourth Hands’ rank. He immediately sent him a mental message. “Nu Rin, welcome to the clan. I will need you to complete a very important task for me: I need you to go to the slum with the most prominent black market in the capital and take over the black market and do what you can to maximize its earnings.
“Of course, master!”
“Thank you.” He then sent out a message to all of his clansmen except Nu Rin. “Everyone, I hope you’re working hard on your cultivation and getting more clansmen, but I have a task for all of you. Other than your cultivation and clan expansion, I need you guys to also start focusing on making money and getting cultivation resources. We will use these things to expand our clan further and cement our dominion of this world, and you will all get your investments back thousands of times. Good luck!” He summoned the system and added these missions into the pre-loaded rules for his clansmen. He closed the system and kept walking deeper into the cave, obliterating every monster he found, the most powerful of which was a level 3 Demon Tiger, it being the only level 3 he had encountered. After almost two weeks of exploration, he had gained 0.2 levels, which was actually pretty good, upgraded his stone aspect and gained several clansmen, and therefore a few skills and the water aspect. He also found the corpse of some cultivator who had decided to try his luck down in the cave. The only useful things he found was a durability-enchanted breastplate, and a space treasure. It was a ring which contained a 15 meters cubed space, in which he found some food and water, a few weapons and armor, which he put on, though, sadly, none of it was enchanted. It all melted into his griffin body, reinforcing his fur. He also found a box with quite a few coins and a few cultivation pills which he decided to save for later. He left the space treasure and kept exploring. For most people, such luck would be considered absolutely amazing, but for Orion it was nothing special at all.
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However, his newest find was indeed special, even for him: a small cavern covered in magic crystals. When he entered the cavern, it felt like he had been punched in the face with abundant cultivation energy, which was almost begging to be absorbed. In this room, his cultivation speed would multiply at least tenfold, which made him desperately wish he had a good cultivation method. He resolved to come back to this cave when he had completed his quest and acquired one. The crystals could also be mined and refined for quick gains. He left the cavern, making sure to remember its location and carried on. After two more months of exploring, he had made it to level 4.4 and looted a full set of armor enchanted in various ways, which he now wore under his cloak when not in griffin form. The corpses which he got his armor from often also had space treasures and boxes of money and pills. He had even found a crystal that when activated, slowed down the time in a 10 by 10 meter area by half, meaning that this was a pretty powerful artifact and Orion’s luck was an absolute hack.
Orion planned to use this when cultivating in the cavern in order to save time, since a day with the crystal was only half a day outside. He guessed that the cultivators must have been fairly powerful, as they had quite a bit of money and space treasures were quite expensive. In his original space treasure, he had two boxes for armor and weapons, a box for space treasures, a box for pills and elixirs and a box for coins. He had now amassed some pretty significant wealth. He had also discovered 2 skill mnemonics, the most useful of which was a very high-level invisibility skill, which meant that when activated, none below level 6.5 could sense him, which meant none in all of Rane could sense him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t attack while it was activated. After one month and a half more of exploring, he had collected several skills and evolved some existing ones, a full set of enchanted armor, an enchanted bow, about 200 gold coins worth of money, a bunch of weapons, fourteen space treasures not including the ring, one time treasure, the location of a powerful cultivation zone, a level 4.4, almost 4.5 cultivation and many pills and elixirs. He had also gained many clansmen during this time, leading to many skills, a ‘Frost’ physique and storm and dream aspects, both of which were higher aspects. His battle power had roughly tripled in the cave while his stats had quadrupled. Now, few within level 4 in Rane could withstand three of his blows even without ‘True Form’. This amount of gains in such a short pediod of time was nothing short of unfathomable. For the first time in two months, Orion, albeit with some sadness, deactivated true form, and left the cave. He had almost forgotten the feeling of sunshine and fresh air and smiled upon experiencing them once more.