Ever since Jake had been rewarded by the mysterious game-like interface with the meditation technique, he had spent almost every waking hour meditating — or rather cultivating, as the crystal had called it — stopping only to catch some sleep when the fatigue had become unbearable. Thanks to his efforts, he had managed to reach level two during that time, once more gaining two free points but allocating them into strength this time. Without his phone or the slightest hint of sunlight, Jake had no idea how much time had passed since heèd fallen inside the cave. Still, if the dried blood that stuck to his clothes was any indication, he was pretty certain at least only a day or two had passed since he‘d woken up covered in gore following his earlier escape from the wolf.
During that time spent meditating, he’d been able to confirm that the technique truly allowed him to raise his level, just like he’d previously guessed when he’d reached level one. However, Jake now knew that this was only one of the more immediate benefits of cultivation, and he immediately glanced down at his midsection, thoughtful. He’d recently discovered a lot of things thanks to the knowledge he’d gained from the book. For example, what he thought at first was a “burning sensation in his stomach”, was actually “spirit energy” flowing out of his “core”. It was also by forcing this very energy to flow out of his core and seep into his muscles that he was able to reinforce them enough to be able to move under the ever-present pressure. Furthermore, he had been able to confirm that the sensation coming from his core was only strained or painful when his reserves of spirit energy were almost empty, as it otherwise felt more like a warm tingle rather than the burning sensation he’d felt on multiple occasions when he had overused his core.
This brought up yet another question: what was this weird pressure that had appeared on the day of the integration? He’d tried putting the two free points he’d gained earlier in strength, but he’d barely felt a difference, and he was still unable to move without using spirit energy to reinforce himself, much less stand up and finally get out of that god-forsaken cave. Still, he had felt a difference, to some extent, and he was now pretty sure that he would be able to start moving normally again once his stats had improved some more.
Whatever the situation with him being unable to move was, he had to get out of the cave, that fact was becoming clearer by the second for Jake. His earlier plans of cultivating to the point where he could move without expanding any spirit energy were thrown out of the window as he hadn’t drunk a drop of water ever since the last morning heèd spent at the gym, when he’d humiliated Mike Howard. He could feel the inside of his throat burn in agony, while the rest of his entire body felt weak and numb, even when infused with spirit energy, and his mind felt just as slow. He was irritated — even more than usual — and the only thing that kept him from slamming both fists down at the ground repeatedly until either his bones or the rock cracked was that he felt so weak he was scared to waste even a single drop of spirit energy.
He needed to find some water as soon as possible or he’d die without ever making it out of here, and that was a fact.
Jake focused inward and guided his energy inside every inch of his body, feeling the familiar tingle make its way across every extremity. First his arms, then his legs and then finally the rest of his body was flooded with spirit energy, greatly easing the pressure on Jake’s body until he felt like he’d somehow lost a thousand pounds in an instant. He slowly got up, wincing painfully as the wound in his back flared up again. The bleeding had long stopped by now, and although he had no real way to look at the wound, being inside total darkness and all, he knew for a fact that it still didn’t look much better judging by the pain he felt, which was still just as strong as the first time he’d woken up. He guessed it would probably take weeks or even months until it healed completely, or maybe much less than that, depending on whether or not he kept increasing his vitality somehow.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of recovering before getting out of the cave. Even if he’d now realized long ago he wouldn’t die from the wound, most likely due to his recently improved vitality, he wasn’t nearly as confident in his ability to stop drinking and eating entirely, with thirst, in particular, being the most pressing issue.
When he finally got on his feet for the first time in a while, his legs shook for a few seconds until Jake was able to take his first step. Slowly and carefully, he moved forward with the speed and confidence that was to be expected of a blind man stumbling about without a cane. With every step, he gave the ground a few light jabs with the sole of his boot to make sure he didn’t miss a step, or even worse, fall in another hole, and he kept wiggling one arm in front of him to make sure he didn’t crush his nose on the cave wall.
He fell to the ground on more than one occasion, but each time he got back up and kept moving forward, visibly determined to find a way out of the cave. It only took him around a minute to reach the wall, and as soon as his hand touched the cold hard rock of the cave wall, he immediately sat down, panting. His sorry attempt at walking had only been going on for a short minute or so, but Jake was exhausted. His core had been drained of energy, with only just enough left for him to sit down and start meditating again.
He’d long noticed that using the technique that way wouldn’t allow him to gain levels, as he was simply recovering his missing energy instead of trying to overcome his core’s limit by cramming more energy inside than it could handle. That entire process would in the long run cause his core to strengthen, or expand, much like he’d spent the recent years straining his muscles to make them stronger and bigger. Still, Jake got back up after a while and started the whole process again, his right hand still wiggling in front of him while his other hand was glued to the wall to his left so he wouldn’t start turning in circles.
In total, Jake had needed to sit back down and recover six times before he finally noticed a slight hue of blue light not too far in front of him. He kept walking for a few seconds before he had to stop and recover his energy once more. When he finally reopened his eyes again, he instantly looked back to the source of the glowing blue, trying to glean anything from the distance, but unfortunately, the light was too faint to be able to discern anything. He begrudgingly got up, once more feeling the familiar tingle spreading into his entire body, and he kept moving toward the light. Although the process was tedious and incredibly exhausting, the one thing that bothered Jake the most was how time-consuming it was. Every step felt like lifting a mountain, and the speed at which he walked felt so slow Jake started to worry his patience would be the first thing that gave out, even before his body did.
It didn’t take long before the light intensified to the point he could let go of the wall on his left and greatly speed up the pace. What he hadn’t expected however was that with the improved speed came an improved cost of energy consumption, and he had to stop and recover every 45 seconds or so now, which was extremely annoying at best. All his efforts were finally rewarded when he took an abrupt turn into what seemed to be a small tunnel whose entrance would have been very well hidden if not for the fact that the light seemed several times stronger inside the tunnel, making the entrance hard to miss.
Jake entered the tunnel and didn’t have to take more than ten steps before the small underground passage expanded into a dome-like open space that seemed to be at least 50 meters wide and 20 meters high. At the opposite side of the cave, a small subterranean pond covered around a quarter of the cave’s floor, with the rest of the rock covered with gigantic glowing mushrooms that were as tall as bushes or small trees, the tallest one almost scraping the top of the cave. Every single fungi was glowing in a vibrant, blueish light that was undoubtedly the source of the light emanating from the cave and was what had drawn Jake in here in the first place. Between the giant mushrooms, dozens of different species of plants were intertwined almost everywhere across the floor, and the walls were just as equally covered in the breathtaking vegetation. The most impressive thing with the cave, however, was not what he saw, but what he felt.
He was unsure of exactly how he could tell, but he knew for a fact that the spirit energy inside the cave was several times stronger than in the tunnels, and he could almost feel the energy flowing all around him. It was hard to put the exact feeling into words, but it felt like the entire cave was filled to the brim with energy. Still, he was only briefly taken aback by the scenery and dense spirit energy before his mind immediately refocused on the pond that was around 30 meters away from him.
“Finally!” Jake shouted, and he immediately dashed in the direction of the pond, as fast as the pressure would allow, where he kneeled and dipped his face straight in, gulping large amounts of water, only stopping himself to breathe between gulps.
Finally, his head shot back out of the water and he let himself fall to the floor with a thud, in a sitting position. He gasped for air for a few seconds, panting, before his brows suddenly furrowed and his face hardened.
An instant later, his entire core was set ablaze by torrential amounts of spirit energy unfurled with violence inside his body. The pain kept growing worse, and the energy kept raging inside, tearing apart his muscles, bones, skin and organs. The pain quickly intensified, leaving Jake shaking, screaming and crying on the ground. Any other time, he might have felt embarrassed by such a display but he didn’t care, for now, he couldn’t care. The pain kept raging for what felt like an eternity before Jake realized it was subsiding, or at least he thought it was. It was like some weird energy contained in the water had dug its way inside Jake’s every cell, making his entire body twist and shiver in pain. Thankfully, the pain slowly faded away before disappearing completely in what felt like an hour, but in reality might have been a lot less. Jake lay on the ground, unmoving, tears still falling down his cheeks.
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“WHAT THE ACTUAL F — WAS THAT?” Jake screamed at the top of his lungs, still panting.
His core was all but empty, and his entire body felt like he’d been mercilessly stomped on by a bulldozer, a thousand times. As he spent the next half-hour meditating, slowly recovering his spirit energy until his core was full once more, he noticed that it had only taken him half the usual time to refill his depleted core. Maybe even less than half in fact, and Jake was pretty sure it was thanks to the denser spirit energy in the atmosphere. He circulated the energy inside his body, and he arduously got up from the floor, before looking down at the ground under his feet. He was far from surprised to see that the rock beneath him was covered in blood, as the wound on his back had reopened during his episode of pain, where he’d fallen straight on his back and twisted on the ground like a worm for a long time before the pain had finally stopped.
He looked back to the water not too far from him, still in disbelief. What was wrong with that water exactly? It looked perfectly normal to him, except for the fact that it felt even more full of spirit energy than the air all around him. He kept pondering for a few seconds when he suddenly thought of something, and he immediately opened his status screen with a thought.
image [https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:841/1*FT2HhRUTZF6gjBI4RAC1Gg.png]
He took a surprised glance at his stats, before realizing he had just earned an attribute point for STR, DEX, END and VIT each. Although he was ecstatic to have earned the equivalent of two levels for no apparent reason, his face changed into a thoughtful frown not long after, obviously trying to understand what had caused his attributes to go up.
And then it hit him. The water was some sort of elixir, he realized, and a smirk appeared on Jake’s face as his eyes alternated between the screen and the pond, slowly understanding the situation that presented itself.
Jake was all alone, stuck in a cave yes but in a well-lit cave for once, thanks to the mushrooms, with a magic pond that could upgrade his stats along with spirit energy so dense he would be able to gain levels at least twice as fast. Jackpot.
He closed his eyes, a wide grin still stubbornly plastered to his face, and he started cultivating. As he’d suspected from the time he’d spent recovering earlier, the ambient energy levels were a huge boon to the speed at which his core was able to absorb energy, and after what felt like hours of meditating, he felt he had made significant progress toward his next level.
Reluctantly, he circulated his energy inside his body again, before getting up on his feet and making his way toward the spirit water. He took a knee right at the edge of the pond, and he could feel his heart hammering inside his chest. He sighed deeply, before scooping a mouthful of water with both of his hands. The cold, almost freezing water dripped through his fingers, and Jake only hesitated a few seconds before he drank. Not long after, came the pain.
This time, however, it seemed that going for only one mouthful had been the right call as the pain was a lot more tolerable, although not enjoyable by any means. It felt like legions of insects had entered his body, gnawing away at his insides and feeding on his flesh. Every single inch of his body hurt, but thankfully the pain was completely gone after a few minutes this time. As soon as it was over, he opened his status screen once more, and he was able to confirm he’d once more gained a point in each of his four physical attributes.
Satisfied, Jake closed the screen right away and went back to meditating, grinning from one ear to the other. He’d just found a way to gain the equivalent of two levels of attributes simply by drinking a tiny bit of water, and even though the pain was pretty bad, only a fool would refuse free attributes in exchange for a little discomfort. And the best news? He had a whole pond of that very water all to himself.
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A long time had passed since Jake had stumbled upon the pond. During that time, he’d done nothing but meditating, sleeping and drinking a sip of water from the pond once in a while. Although in theory, he could’ve spent most of his time drinking the spirit water, the pain had forced him to be a little more cautious and let his body recover for a few hours if not more, before he drank again. He also felt that his body was greatly weakened for a few hours afterwards every time he drank the water, which Jake felt warranted him to let his body recover for a while in between every sip. On top of that, he wanted to use most of his time to cultivate to reach level ten as soon as possible. After all, he had received the cultivation technique after completing the first quest of the tutorial quest chain, so common sense could only suggest he would be getting something even more valuable this time. Although alternating between cultivation and the pain that came from spirit water had been extremely exhausting, it would be an understatement to say that it had simply paid off. Rather, Jake felt like he’d been reborn.
With a grin that had barely left his face in the last couple of days, Jake opened his status screen for the thousandth time today, still having trouble believing the numbers he was staring at.
image [https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:834/1*ietbH4SXbtDzIXgPuMmXFA.png]
Not only had he gained two levels, but he’d also gotten an additional five points to his STR, DEX, END and VIT thanks to the spirit water. On top of that, he had used the four free points he’d gained by putting all of them into his strength, which became his highest attribute at a staggering 36 points.
Another thing he noticed recently was that the spirit water had become a lot less effective and Jake now had to drink a lot more of it to gain some attributes, which unfortunately resulted in him having to drink water multiple times before he’d notice a stat increase. He had long realized that the more he drank, the more it hurt, and there was a limit his body was able to handle for now before he was crippled by weakness, which meant he couldn’t drink a lot more than a few sips now and then, making progress extremely slow.
Jake was getting frustrated with the lack of effect from the spirit water, but he was still extremely happy with the speed at which he was gaining levels thanks to his cultivation sessions. There was still one thing that troubled him, however, and that was the fact that he hadn’t eaten anything in a long time. His stomach had started cramping painfully quite some time ago now, and it kept getting worse and worse. The rest of his body wasn’t spared any more than his stomach was, and the pounding in his head was so violent he was almost ready to chop it off. As for the rest of his body, it felt so sore, bruised and exhausted he couldn’t remember how his body had felt before the integration. Jake was pretty sure he’d read somewhere that humans were in theory able to survive for almost three weeks without food, yet Jake was pretty sure it hadn’t been half that long since he’d fallen inside the cave.
There wasn’t much he could do to remedy the situation however, as he hadn’t caught sight of a single living thing inside the cave yet, not even insects or worms, which was probably the weirdest thing he had witnessed since the integration, and that meant a lot from someone who had almost gotten eaten by a wolf and started gaining levels recently. He had also reluctantly concluded that eating the plants or mushrooms that littered the cave would be a bad idea as well, thinking that if he started throwing up in his current state he would probably never make it out of the caves. Also let’s be real, who would seriously consider eating weird glowing plants and mushrooms? It was like asking to die from food poisoning.
It was finally hunger that had convinced Jake to get out of the cave, as reluctant as he was. He could have most likely spent weeks inside the cave, as the feeling of gaining levels, and the feeling of getting stronger with such monstrous speed had grown to be almost addictive to the boy. Still, if there was one thing that could prove to be enough motivation for him to get out, it was the thought of filling his empty stomach. It was about time he got out and met up with the wolf again.
When he’d walked all around the cave to search for something to eat earlier, he had found another entrance — or rather another exit — through one of the walls, not too far from the pond. It led to another tunnel, much like the one he’d used to get to the cave earlier. However, this one was also covered in glowing mushrooms, although a lot more sparsely than inside the cave, it would be more than enough for Jake to see where he was going at least, which would allow him to navigate across the caves with a lot more ease than when he’d first made his way to the spirit pond.
Jake circulated the spirit energy in his body, something that had almost become natural for him by now, and he immediately got up. Thanks to his recent gains in attributes, it was now a lot easier for Jake to move around when strengthened by spirit energy, while greatly reducing the strain on his core. Including the fact that his core now contained a lot more energy after spending so much time cultivating, he was now able to move around for 10 minutes until it was depleted. While that was far from enough for him to run a marathon, it would at least allow Jake to explore the tunnel without having to stop every other minute as he did on his way to the cave.
Jake slowly walked in the direction of the tunnel, and it wasn’t long before he entered the long corridor that trailed inside the ground. He kept walking inside the tunnel for a few minutes before he stopped right in his tracks. At the other end of the tunnel, he could see faint beams of golden light streaming inside the other end of the tunnel, casting a warm glow of light that became brighter and brighter with every step.
Like he’d been brought back to life by the sight of the sun's rays, Jake made his way in a dash toward the exit, which wasn’t exactly fast thanks to the mysterious pressure, but it could at least be considered running now, thanks to his newly improved stats. He reached the exit half a minute later, panting, and he immediately sat down cross-legged right at the exit. As much as he wanted to look at the outside, his core was all but dry by this point and he wasn’t even able to open his eyes, the sunlight a thousand times brighter than he’d remembered, blasting his retina with so much light Jake swore it was getting burnt off by the sun.
After a half hour, Jake opened his eyes again, already feeling invigorated by the spirit energy that filled his core to the brim. He slowly got up, focusing his energy on his muscles to reduce the strain on his body, and then he finally looked around.
Still, if he thought the world had changed from inside the cave, his jaw almost fell to the floor when he saw how much it had changed on the outside.