After finishing dinner, Hudson tried to teach Vince and Cor his breathing technique.
It went terribly.
They had been surprised when they had been free to congregate in the eating area after dinner for several hours. They had no tasks to complete, activities to conduct in far off rifts, no fights or strange cultivation exercises. Having free time was perfect – or should have been perfect – for their plans.
“This is impossible!” Vince said for probably the twentieth time. Cor wasn’t having any luck either, but was still gamely trying to copy Hudson’s breathing patterns. Hudson was sitting with his back in a quiet corner, and the other two were sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him.
“I keep telling you, I’m not a teacher. I don’t really know what I’m doing either.” Hudson had come close to losing all of his patience several times in the last few hours.
“How do your lungs do that little ‘whoomph’ ‘whoomph’ thing?” Vince asked. “I think I get close, but then I hyper-ventilate and almost pass out. How do you not pass out?”
Vince’s face was a mixture of despair and suspicion. “Are you telling us everything? Or keeping a key part to yourself?”
“Now there Vince, don’t go biting the hand trying to feed ya. I think our boy Hudson is on the level with us,” Cor interjected. “But maybe you have a point. We’ve been focusing on copying the breathing pattern, but there may be more to it than that. It’s called a ‘cultivation’ technique, not just a breathing technique.
“When you first started using your technique, what else were you doing? Can you tell us more?”
Hudson thought back to his karate class, listening to Chiang-sensei breathe, and listening to her perform the technique he had copied. The massive breaths, in and out, and the pattern of explosive air movements.
That’s not right though. That wasn’t when he first performed the technique correctly. The first time he had actually cultivated had been at his home.
“I had been meditating at the end of karate class,” Hudson started. “Fairly standard thing. I’d been angry and upset about work, and I was trying to meditate and let things go, but the breathing of the others in the class was noisy and it was hard to concentrate.”
Hudson was skirting as close to the truth as he could, without divulging Chiang-sensei’s existence. Not because he felt any sense of loyalty or obligation to do as she asked, but because of just how scary a person she must be. If she could kidnap him once, she could do it again.
“When I got home, I sat down in my living room and kept meditating. I’d felt like I was on the edge of… understanding something? Not understanding how to breathe better or in a specific way. More understanding how I could just stop being so angry…”
“So some kind of inspiration or enlightenment, then?” Vince asked.
“Sure, I guess. So I just sat down on my living room floor in a meditative pose, focused on my breathing and lost track of time completely. I even fell asleep in the living room, waking up covered in gross black stuff and late for work. But I distinctly remember feeling great. Like the best I’d ever felt in my life. Not just physically, but also mentally.”
“Meditation, you say now,” Cor said. “Not something I’ve got a lot of experience in.”
“Yet,” Hudson said with a grin. “Meditation might be the missing piece. I’ve always had issues feeling angry and anxious growing up, and meditation or breathing exercises always helped more than anything else.”
Vince appeared largely mollified. He’d been listening to Hudson and Cor’s back and forth intently without butting in.
“Participants, please form a single-file line and return to your rooms for your mandatory 8-hour free period.” The robotic voice of Director Ix interrupted their practice.
“I’ll try and teach you again tomorrow, if we have time after dinner again,” Hudson said.
Vince and Cor nodded, and they all quickly got into line, filed out, and returned to their rooms.
The first thing Hudson noticed was a new piece of furniture. In addition to the bed, meditation mat, and shower in the corner, there was now a chair and a desk, exactly like he had used in the visualization practice that afternoon.
Perhaps it was a visual trick but it also appeared as if the room had gotten larger to accommodate the new desk. When he sat on the chair, words appeared on the surface of the desk.
Summary Status
Trial Merit Rewards
Visualization Aid
He recalled that the trial director had said they would be able to spend their trial merits for rewards. Curious as to what rewards would be available, Hudson touched the “Trial Merit Rewards” text on the desk. The three options disappeared, and a long list appeared in its place.
Some of the things on the list were extremely appealing… and Hudson knew he had some shopping to do.
Trial Merit Rewards for Hudson Appleseed
Total trial merits: 14
Currently Available Trial rewards:
* Supplies
* Cultivation Aids
* Incense: Focus, 3 sticks | 1 merit
* Incense: Distraction, 3 sticks | 1 merit
* Improved cultivation mat | 3 merits
* Maseki, 1kg | 10 merits
* Medical Supplies
* Basic Medic Kit | 1 merit
* Clothing & Armor
* Basic tunic, pants, and shoes | 0 merits (1x daily)
* Basic wool gambeson | 2 merits
* Basic leather boots | 3 merits
* Basic leather greaves | 3 merits
* Basic leather vambraces | 3 merits
* Basic leather gloves | 3 merits
* Basic leather helm | 3 merits
* Basic leather chest piece | 4 merits
* Tunic, pants and shoes, runed (integrity) | 13 merits
* Weapons
* Basic quiver of arrows (20) | 2 merits
* Basic iron spear | 3 merits
* Basic iron sword | 5 merits
* Basic recurve bow | 7 merits
* Foodstuffs
* Basic water bottle | 0 merits (1x daily)
* Preserved vegetable, 3 packages | 1 merit
* Preserved fruit, 3 packages | 1 merit
* Water bottle, runed (self-condensing) | 10 merits
* Sundries
* Basic rucksack | 0 merits (1x daily)
* Rift compass, runed | 10 merits
* Timekeeper, runed | 10 merits
* Services
* Healthcare
* Minor Wound Care | 1 merit
* Major Wound Care | 5 merits
* Director Evaluation
* Cultivation Technique Evaluation | 0 merits (1x daily)
* Martial Technique Evaluation | 0 merits (1x daily)
* Information
* S.E.C.T. Primer | 0 merits
* Trial Overview | 0 merits
* Physical Fitness Program | 1 merit
* Introduction to Meditation | 1 merit
* Advanced Meditation Techniques | 3 merits
* Martial Technique: Unarmed – First Form | 5 merits
* Martial Technique: Spear – First Form | 7 merits
* Martial Technique: Sword – First Form | 7 merits
* Martial Technique: Bow – First Form | 7 merits
* Cultivation Technique: The First Breath | 10 merits
The list of items he could redeem trial merits for was quite long. A quick look showed that everything on the list he could afford. There could be two reasons for that: either he was relatively rich with trial merits, or the interface was only showing him the items that he could purchase. It was probably the latter.
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The weapons and armor sections were worrisome. Why would he want to – or need to! – exchange merits for a spear or a gambeson (whatever that was)? Was the trial going to become more dangerous? He hadn’t forgotten the “three rules” of the trial they had been told on arrival. Number one: survive. Number two: do whatever the creepy robot voice tells you. Number three: don’t hurt the other participants, outside of challenges.
He’d only been through the first day. It’d make a certain, twisted sense to start it off easy, before ramping up the difficulty to survive. The cheater group had gotten into danger on the first day and returned from the mining rift bruised and bloody. Maybe that was the norm, and Hudson and his friends had been lucky.
There were a few things in the store too that he noticed were free. Like clothes, a water bottle, and information on the trial and on S.E.C.T. itself. He immediately selected the S.E.C.T. Primer and Trial Overview information options, and they disappeared from the purchase menu.
An additional option was now available at the top level:
Summary Status
Trial Merit Rewards
Visualization Aid
Information
He selected “Information” and then “S.E.C.T. Primer,” and the top of his desk was populated with the words of a short pamphlet on the history and function of S.E.C.T.
The Society for Exploring Cultivation Techniques was originally founded in the 17th century by French and Dutch explorers to China and Japan. They sought to further understand the texts and practices of Taoist traditions, and eventually partnered with the adherents and keepers of those traditions all across the Far East to advance those practices.
For while the traditional cultivation practices of Earth were rife with dead-ends, not all were without merit or benefit. The seeds of the path to immortality were sprouting amidst the weeds. Alchemical concoctions, for aid in cultivation or for healing the body, were of a miraculous nature in this age before modern medicine, and attracted the attention of the wealthiest families in the world.
Funded by the world’s richest families, informed by the world’s most knowledgeable traditions, and ruthlessly administered by the daring explorers of the time, the Society for Exploring Cultivation Techniques grew in power and influence. Not willing to share the secrets of cultivation with the masses, the Society took extreme measures to protect its secrets, and rule the world from the shadows.
S.E.C.T. did not care for political or geographical boundaries, nor any of the world’s mundane resources. All of those material elements paled in the pursuit of greater health; longer life; and, of course, personal strength. All of the things whispered of and promised by cultivation.
So continued the hidden pursuits of S.E.C.T. – controlling information, maintaining wealth, gathering cultivation resources, and advancing cultivation – until the opening of Earth to the greatness of the universe.
Competition amongst S.E.C.T. factions for limited cultivation resources fueled the wars of the 19th and 20th centuries, until they culminated in the development of nuclear weapons: weapons designed to kill the most powerful cultivators.
The splitting of the atom and the release of so much energy at a single point in space-time had unintended consequences, for it caught the attention of beings across space and time. The Immortals of legend, cultivators of the Way more powerful than human ken, descended to Earth’s plane.
Arriving via dimensional rifts from their homeworld of Grothkyll, the vastly advanced cultivators simply calling themselves the Disciples looked for the powerful cultivators they thought had triggered their interdimensional sensory network.
Instead, they found the weak cultivators of S.E.C.T. and a world divided against itself, politically and geographically. Their own cultivation techniques were powerful enough to rival the splitting of the atom, and had no fear of the science and technology Earth had developed. In their esteemed beneficence, the Disiciples of Grothkyll allowed themselves to become Patrons to the vassals of the S.E.C.T. cultivators.
The Disciples required minimal stipulations of S.E.C.T. Firstly, to cease their internal squabbling and maintain control of Earth’s governments. Secondly, to limit their numbers to no more than ten thousand cultivators on Earth at any given point in time. Lastly, to provide resources to their Patrons in equivalent value to the guidance received in the form of cultivation techniques, visualization practices, martial forms, and trial grounds.
The modern Society for the Exploration of Cultivation Techniques continues to maintain its secrecy from the world at large. In the age of satellites, the internet, and mass monitoring there are challenges, but those challenges have been easily met through the wonders of advanced cultivation again provided by their benevolent Patrons. Formation techniques to obscure and hide physical installations. Martial and qigong techniques to establish dominance and ensure compliance from the world’s leaders and militaries.
And perhaps most benevolent: a true artificial intelligence installed within Earth’s electronic networks. A world AI, adapted from the Disciples’ dungeon trial technology, and installed to assist with the three main missions of S.E.C.T.: secrecy, non-proliferation of cultivators, and resource gathering.