The remark , cram school, by Jinn was surprisingly not just for humor. Finlay was forced to remain in this artificial space for the next 2 months. There was no way to know for sure the passage of time here since the scenery through the windows was artificial and apparently, they were in some sort of sub-space, isolated from the surrounding real-space. Throughout this period, he would follow a varied schedule where he is taught by each of the Nine gods.
Their teachings involved various aspects of Cultivation, meditation, Breathing exercises, Body stretching, Essence of Martial arts, Usage of weapons, social training and more. That last one, as expected, hit Finlay pretty hard. He simply was not built for it but fortunately, Xinn was a good teacher and he did not ask for the impossible from him. There was only occasional recreation and entertainment, mostly to relax and destress on a particularly difficult day. Jinn proved his ability by casually whipping out a few video games. Some movies of his world from before their fall and even music. Finlay had to admit, seeing what is essentially alien Hollywood was a novel experience.
The teachings of the cram school, ironically enough, did not actually involve simply remembering information or repeated practice of any particular skill. Perhaps the only exception to that would be the meditation exercises. It appeared that instead of directly teaching, for example, how to cultivate, they would explain the general pitfalls one would experience during various stages. If Finlay had to put it into a category, he felt like he was being taught the wisdom they possessed instead of the knowledge of said activity. Ofcourse, it was impossible to understand this kind of wisdom without seeing said skill being displayed. So, they would demonstrate the activities/skills themselves at various levels of skill, leaving little to no blind spots for when he himself will walk that path.
This indirect method of teaching was necessary because of a restriction, the system placed on Finlay. If Finlay actually already knew these skills, he might accidentally reveal things earlier than he could possibly have had a chance to acquire said skill. This would automatically add an unreasonably high grade skill right at the beginning, creating an anomaly. If they are to stay undetected after his rebirth, they would have to minimize the abnormal qualities surrounding him as much as possible. Otherwise, it is possible the system would alert the relevant people and eventually, word might reach the goddess. If she personally comes to verify his soul, their whole plan could end up in vain since there is a chance she could reveal his identity.
The only direct knowledge on anything they imparted to him was on the actual cultivation technique they collectively developed together during their few millennia of time together. It was as expected, complicated and filled up 5 entire volumes of encyclopedia sized books, upsized to extra large for good measure. He was sure it would simply be impossible for him to memorize that whole thing to the precision required, no matter how much time he was given.
Contrary to his worries, that memorization process turned out to be the easiest of all. This was made possible by a bizarre tool with lots of straps and cables ending in needles. Finlay was strapped onto it with needles poking into various parts of his head and the entire information was injected into his brain in a Matrix style memory injection process where after a few minutes, the entire knowledge about the cultivation method appeared in his memory to a flawless level. They still made him meditate on the information received for several days to make sure everything went without issues.
Once he was done with the cram school, they gave him various key intel and details about the ‘body’ they chose for his ‘rebirth’. A piece of land, considered to be in a remote part of the world, was chosen. It was a relatively Qi rich but remote region that maintained its independence due to various natural barriers and politics, too complicated for his taste.
The land was mostly under two major sects. One of which recently suffered an invasion. Although it was promptly repelled, there is a lack of presence in certain mortal towns and cities. Due to the still ongoing smaller scale chaos, it is expected to remain in the supervision of minor sects for the next few decades. This was considered a ripe location to lie low and develop without being exposed to hostile forces before Finlay could grow strong enough to not worry about defending himself. The people lived in relatively peaceful, civilized society here due to the historic good governance of the sect. Even with some chaos between the smaller factions, overall, it was estimated that the positives outweigh the negatives.
Finlay was to become a young boy below 14 years of age, Xian Ming and he would have about a year of time to adjust to the new world, learn the new customs and local languages and other useful things. By the time he turns 15, the local, governing sect was planning to recruit from amongst the mortals of the village to replenish their numbers after their losses. He would then get accepted and begin his journey of Cultivation. The boy who is the original owner had suffered from trauma to his head right after birth and due to him being an orphan, he had been suffering throughout his life. His recent disaster made him bedridden, on the verge of death. So, it was decided that his soul was to be sent back to reincarnation and allow Finlay to occupy its place. Even though he knows that this is for the best, he couldn’t help feeling guilty about the whole thing but there is nothing he could do about it and this was the best choice for all parties involved.
With his cram school officially done, he was given one final stretch of rest before he starts his journey of cultivation. As he was lying on the extremely comfortable bed in the room provided to him, He opens the status one last time to check.
Preview - System Status
Identity :
Finlay
Male
31 yrs old
Science guy
Mortality :
Sura (Mortal)
Job :
None
Titles :
None
Cultivation :
Natural Human (none)
Stats :
→open←
Skills :
The All seeing eye (Analyze) :
Authority granted by the first god of the world, Dinn. You can peer into the secrets of things and beings of this world as long as you know what you’re looking for;
Inventory space :
(Locked until Foundation Establishment);
Universal Language comprehension (Grade A+);
Mana Blast (Grade F+).
He had asked Jinn what that weird phrase of “Science guy” meant, as soon as he had a chance to. Apparently, it was the essence of what one felt was his identity, normally, amongst his peers. Finlay had felt particularly embarrassed for the next few days whenever he looked at it.
The all seeing eye, aka Analyze was something the strongest and the most stoic god in the room, Dinn had bestowed upon him. Apparently, it is a powerful authority skill, appropriate enough to be named Analyze, the bigger cousin of Identify, the most OP skill in any video game. It will evolve to provide new or more detailed information as Finlay is exposed to more information about the world like types of cultivation bodies to be able to see that info, what exact grades there are amongst cultivation talents to see better granular grading, and so on. It directly replaces the Identify skill. It was merged to provide a modest boost to it out of the box.
‘Inventory space’ was just a videogame friendly name given to Dantian space. Usually, it only forms after the Foundation establishment stage when a Dantian is fully formed but it isn’t clear exactly how useful they are bound to be at the Foundation establishment level.
Next comes the meat of the Character creation in a Cultivation world.
Preview - Stats
Spiritual :
Cultivation Talent :
S+ Grade
Divine Sense :
None
Law Comprehension :
S Grade
Physical :
Body Type : Five Element body (Grade : B+(Aggregate))
Elemental Attunements :
Metal S- Grade
5 Element Body Type (Dominant trait)
Earth
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
A Grade
Wind
C+ Grade
Fire
C- Grade
Water
D Grade
Light/Darkness(Yin/Yang)
D- Grade
Lightning
F+ Grade
Other Talents :
Weapon Talents :
Sword/Bladed type A+ Grade Ranged C+ Grade Hand to Hand C Grade Polearms/Spear D Grade Soul based/Mental D- Grade
Qi Circuits :
(Arrays, Formations, Magical Restrictions)
B- Grade
Crafting Talent :
C+ Grade
Alchemy Talent :
D+ Grade
Miscellaneous stats :
Health : 51/51
Stamina : 19/23
Mental Energy: 14/67
Mana : 26/26
Status Ailments : None; Healthy
‘Oh boy! There is a lot to unpack here.’
The fallen God named Ninnie, a goddess of Life and death. Left a Heaven defying gift for Finlay which directly upgraded his Cultivation talent to S+ tier. S grade is considered the limit for a mortal in general terms. As this one goes slightly beyond, this one could turn into a problem if word spreads. So, Mann, the god dealing with probabilities and possibilities would use his abilities to make this stat appear as a lower tier, a C- grade for 50 years. Finlay would have to be strong enough by then to be able to defend himself.
The next stat was another S-tier. The Law Comprehension ability is one of the key points to becoming an immortal and ascension. This is an innate talent that one has to be born with and cannot be upgraded. This was the primary reason the goddess was so delighted to have got her hands on him and why the nine gods chose him as their champion.
Next comes the cultivation body type or more accurately, different combinations of Elemental attunements labeled with different names. This part was important for the cultivation method that he would be using. It was a powerful cultivation technique but also placed a ridiculous demand on the requirements of the body. For immortal ascension, it is required that all elemental attributes are at or above A- grade and hence, most of the system resources they could procure on time were spent on upgrading this aspect.
Of all the elemental attunements, two were the hardest to raise. They were Lightning and Metal. All of the resources were dedicated to raising Metal to S- grade because this particular world lacked treasures that helped raise Metal attunement. Although this was the case with the Lightning attribute as well, it was not nearly to the same degree and that Lightning could be raised to some extent through the heavenly tribulations. This was something Finlay would have to go through a lot as he improves his other, easier to raise attunements, to A grade before his ascension. Next comes the 4 elements of Earth, Wind, Water and fire. The body chosen was lucky enough to have been Naturally Earth attuned upto a high level of A Grade.
He also had a natural lightning attunement of F+ which was left as is since it wouldn’t come into play till the later stages of cultivation. The first hurdle would be to raise the five elemental body to A- grade before the Core Formation stage. With Metal at S- and Earth at A, even if he couldn’t get the others to A-, they needed to be raised to the range of at least B-. So, the remaining resources were used up to raise them a little, evenly.
Apart from these, there was also, Yin/Yang or Light/Dark attunement. This was only required before the final stage before immortal ascension so, it was also left at its natural attunement level.
In this way, the requirements placed on his body quality were tremendous and needed each element to be at or above A- grade. According to what he was told, Finlay would have no chance in reaching the top positions in tournament held after his Ascension otherwise. Even if he was able to achieve immortal ascension with his cultivation method. Finlay secretly decided that he would aim for higher just in case.
Next surprise came in the form of an A+ Grade sword talent. The God of war, Ronn was pleasantly surprised with this. Finlay’s surprise was even bigger, considering he never held a sword in his hand before this. Apart from that, there were no other surprises here.
The final surprise came in the form of a talent in Qi circuits. This came as not much surprise to everyone, considering he was an Engineer before this.
Finally, he had useful levels of crafting talent and a bit lacking Alchemy talent. He would need to dedicate a significant amount of effort into that in the initial stages if he is to have any hope of reaching the level of being able to defend himself in the next 50 years and raise his 5 element body to A- grade when doing so.
Jinn also informed him that only physical traits can be upgraded like the type of your body or the attunement levels. It is generally not possible to simply upgrade talents. They can be developed through certain dedicated ways like repeated practice, increasing one’s comprehension of said field.
Apart from this, the remnant parts of the soul left behind when one is reincarnated will be fused with Finlay’s soul at the time of rebirth. This would give a good one time increase in soul strength which should be very helpful during the initial levels of cultivation.
They truly hadn’t spared anything in helping him improve his chances of achieving their goal. Finlay was feeling like a player using all the available cheat codes in a GTA game but he knew this wasn’t going to be nearly as easy. If he went in with the mindset of not trying his best just because he’s got a few more advantages, he might just end up being the negligent hare in the race against the diligent turtle.
‘Tomorrow is the big day huh? I guess I better get some shut eye, I’m going to need it for the struggle over the next week.’
Finlay couldn’t sleep for a long time, as if he was having test anxiety before the exam on the next day. Fortunately, a delay of a few hours was not a problem in this place, he was just woken up at an appropriately later time.
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The next day, all the Nine had assembled, ready to see him off. He took in the sight of them. During the time he spent here, he had gotten somewhat close to most of these seniors. Without exception, each one had been diligent in teaching him and getting him ready, including the ever stoic Dinn to the seldom talking Mann. He felt confident seeing them and knowing they had his back and he wasn’t completely alone in his journey even if they aren’t able to physically support him after this point.
“So, are you ready chap? This is the big day or did you forget even this?”, jested the fierce man with the fiery red hair, Ronn.
“No Master Ronn. Of course I hadn’t!”, Finlay defended himelf, but he couldn’t hide the slight shade of red from showing on his face due to the embarrassing memory.
Finlay had forgotten his name on the first day after Jinn had introduced everybody. Ronn would keep bringing it up during training and kept teasing him. He had gotten much more amicable after discovering Finlay’s sword talent. Not just him, now Finlay is no stranger to any of the others either. Moreover, they had collectively saved his life, so he was grateful to them.
“Stop teasing the boy you rude bastard! Forget that guy. You have to be careful from here on, we have faith in you. But stop calling us master this, master that. We already told you to call us as seniors, don’t be putting more distance between us.”, came to his rescue, Bann.
“Yeah ignore that uncultured brute. He’s just sour that you forgot only his name. You keep your chin up and don’t forget my teachings. Even if everything else fails, the art of speechcraft can create miracles.”, Xinn encouraged with an elegant smile.
“Hmp! Who are you calling rude and petty? Maybe big brother Lynn might be such a petty man but I’ve only ever been called magnanimous by my juniors,” Ronn defended himself.
“Hey! Why are you dragging me into your problem? Stop saying stupid things before our juniors,” Lynn couldn’t sit still with a calm expression when his name was dragged in as well.
“*Snort* You say that now but what about that time we went to Haven back then? Stop pretending to be haughty and noble whenever Finn is around. Junior, don’t get tricked by the dignified front shown by that two faced donkey senior of your’s. You make sure to not fall for these kinds of people in the future.”, Khan had to interject to tell his grievance from the past.
“Hey! That’s that and this is-.”
And just like that another impromptu chicken fighting was about to begin. Jinn, Gonn and Mann offered their parting words as well before Jinn left to try and dissuade the fight.
Normally, one would expect Gods of this level to at least have a bit of dignity. They would sometimes have impromptu chicken fights out of nowhere throughout his time knowing them, almost as if they’ve made a habit out of it, deliberately letting it happen.
‘I guess, they’ve just been too bored after all these years of not being able to go out into the world.’
“Ahem! Enough now!”, like that, Dinn easily dispersed the fight and brought everyone to attention with just a single word as was usual at this point.
He slowly put on a more dignified expression as order was restored.
“Boy! It is time for you to start your journey. We have done all we can, more than you know. It might seem like we have given you way too big of an advantage compared to others from this world but remember, your goals are that much bigger. It would be a miracle if someone emerges from this world able to make it to the top 100 in a hundred thousand years. Not only that, we will not be able to provide much help from here on out. You will be alone. Not to mention, everyone out there is an enemy to us.”
He let the weight of his words sink in for a moment.
“But we believe in you and someone we chose after such deliberation, can’t possibly be weak. So, go! Go and seek justice. Struggle! Struggle till you achieve what we set out to but couldn't! And always remember why you are doing this, why we’re doing this! Don’t disappoint us boy.”
Finlay straightened his back and reminded himself again what’s at stake and of what he could recollect of his people and home.
He met the gaze of each of them and did his best bow in the style of their customs, a 90 degree bow with cupped hands in the front.
“This junior expresses his heartfelt thanks for the great kindness shown by all the seniors…even those that aren’t here with us. I will vow to do my utmost to live up to the faith placed upon me.”
He slowly raised his head as the Nine fugitive Gods at the pinnacle of power gave approving gazes towards him with eager expressions, as if they couldn’t wait to see him prove himself. He took a few steps towards them and came before Jinn.
“Alright, I’m ready to go in, senior Jinn.”
Jinn nods and takes him to another weird looking, even more complicated looking contraption with a table somewhere in the middle of a sea of cables and moving tentacles.
Finlay was used to seeing it by now and lies down in place.
“Don’t worry kid. I will keep in touch.”, Jinn finished with a chuckle before moving about, preparing the machine and making the necessary arrangements.
Once ready, everyone surrounded Finlay to send him off. With a nod, Jinn initiated the process. Looking at the expressions of everybody, Finlay couldn’t help but have a strange, funny thought enter his mind. He suddenly felt like a Highschool kid being sent off to an exam hall right after summer cram school.
WIth that funny idea now firmly embedded in his mind, his thoughts went black for the 5th time before this story even truly began.
To be continued