“This thing is a lot tougher than I thought it’d be,” Noki thought as he drove a fist into the Knifebear’s silver scales. He used only the strength granted to him by his Earthen Soul Body and it wasn’t enough to do any significant damage. Still, it was exhilarating to be able to stand up to the beast without any aid; a far cry from the time he fought the scorpion in the pit. Noki braced himself as the Knifebear pawed at him and the blow rang throughout his body. He held his ground as the floor beneath cracked and managed to push the bear off. “I seem to be a lot tougher than I was before, but I’m not able to hurt this thing with just punches.”

Kila watched as Noki and the Knifebear battled, watched and formulated a plan. “Whatever that thing is up there, it definitely reacts to a spike in Tera. I just need a way to draw it out.” She played with the idea of having Noki circulate his Tera, but he was far too inexperienced to pull that off, so it would have to be her. But how? Her Ethereal Tether works by sensing the enemy and then slipping her Mental Tera into their own; this creature was somehow able to avoid all forms of detection until the last minute. “Damn,” Kila thought, “It looks like I’m going to have to rely on Noki for this.”

Noki crashed into the side of the wall but quickly rebounded and was on his feet just as a jetstream of water hurled his way. He rolled out of the way and the attack drilled a hole through the cavern’s thick walls. “Hey Kila! How come I could see that without using Divine Sight?”

“Do you really think now is the time to ask?” Kila was slightly irritated at that, and then became increasingly so as she saw Noki’s eyes light up. “Is he actually enjoying this? And why isn’t his Tera depleting? He just took two hits from a Lesser Iron but…no way.” Kila had deactivated her Divine Sight since it proved useless in locating the other opponent, but now turned it on to examine Noki. Tera streamed from Noki’s body like a white vapor with just a hint of orange. The strength of it surprised Kila and she had to make sure there was nothing wrong with her. “His Tera is growing, it almost feels like a Stone Soul, but I’ve never heard of someone’s Tera exceeding their own Ascension Rank.”

Noki charged back into the fray and the battle seemed slightly easier. His movements were just a bit faster, he hit a bit harder, and he could see in my clarity than before. “I have no idea what’s going on, but suddenly the Knifebear looks a lot slower than before,” Noki thought as he sidestepped a paw swipe and countered with an uppercut. The blow landed and knocked the Knifebear into the air, but the beast retaliated with another jetstream of water from its mouth. Noki braced himself and took the full brunt of the attack. It struck him like a bolt of lightning and he could feel every muscle in his arms and legs scream as he guarded himself. Blood trickled from his forearms and cuts formed across his chest and face, but the attack hadn’t penetrated his body.

“I get it now,” Kila thought to herself, “ he’s drawing Tera from the atmosphere and his enemy’s attack. That’s an amazing ability for a commoner to have…maybe the plan will work.” “Noki,” Kila said aloud, “I have a plan. Whenever you can, circulate your Tera and attack.”

“But won’t that make that other thing attack?”

“That’s what I’m counting on,” Kila replied. She closed her eyes and focused on her Mind Kulda, letting everything around her fall into white noise; the moment the enemy attacks, she’ll lash out with her Ethereal Tether.

Noki had no reason to not trust in Kila, so he did as she said. The Knifebear took a step back as Noki approached, and fired another jetstream of water. Noki dodged it and pressed forward, only for the bear to take another step back. “It’s wary of me now after my last attack did some damage; it won’t let me get any closer now.” Noki and the Knifebear continued their dance until the bear backed against a wall.

“Got you!” Noki sprinted forward and started to gather his Tera into his fist when the Knifebear screamed with all the intensity it could muster. Noki stopped dead in his tracks as the cavern shook and a light formed from the bear’s mouth. “That stream is more powerful than the previous ones, I better-”

Water droplets condensed around the bear until eight water spears formed in an arch overhead. They fired off all at once and Noki dodged three of them perfectly, narrowly avoided three more, but was hit on both shoulders by the last two. Pain flooded his body as the cold press of the spears dug into his shoulders and fired into the cavern wall. Noki’s arms went cold and felt like dead weight. “I didn’t know it could control the water like that, I thought it could only fire from its mouth.” Noki spared a glance at Kila, who was still motionless with her eyes closed, and then returned to the Knifebear. The bear’s mouth was still open, gathering a large amount of Water Aspect, and eight more spears started to reform. “I get it, it’s going to make sure I can’t move before unleashing its true attack.”

Noki tried to move his arms once more, but they felt even heavier than before. “Wait a minute, all this time the bear has been using Water Aspect to attack, the other creature hasn’t responded at all. Does that mean it only reacts to only Tera? Damn, if only I had a Heavenly Aspect, this would have been over with.”

The spears finished forming and Noki knew his time was at an end. “Wait a minute, I should be able to send my Tera to other parts of my body right?”

The next few moments passed in a blur. Eight spears launched at Noki. Noki gathered all his Tera into his right foot and smashed it onto the ground. Debris shot into the air and detonated as three of the eight spears tore through them. A line of black spider web wrapped around Noki as the remaining spears struck him.

Kila had taken control of the hidden creature the moment it launched its attack and forced it out of hiding. In its exposed form it was a magenta lizard with the body and limbs of a spider. It was eight feet in height and gave off a power wave of Mental Tera. The Spiderleon skittered towards Noki and placed itself in between him and the Knifebear.

“What took you so long to cycle your Tera?” Kila approached Noki and had the Spiderleon release its webbing. “All you had to do was signal me and the fight would have been over.”

Noki felt the heaviness of his arms alleviate and immediately readied himself to attack. “It’s gonna fire off that massive jetstream, we need to move fast.”

“It won’t do anything of the sort,” Kila assured as she ordered the Spiderleon to advance on the Knifebear. “This creature is the Spiderleon and it was made to keep the Knifebear in place.”

“How do you know all that?” Noki’s shoulders started to steam as the wound closed.

“That’s unimportant right now, just know that the Knifebear is afraid of the web and won’t do anything to provoke an attack.”

Noki watched the Spiderleon approach the Knifebear and saw the bear cower in its presence. “This feels…wrong.” Noki hadn’t experienced many battles in his life; in fact the past three days had been the most physically engaged Noki had ever been, but he felt that there should have been more to it.

“Victory feels wrong?” Kila ordered the Spiderleon to web up the Knifebear and in an instant it was wrapped in a black cocoon. “Oh please don’t tell me you’re one of those ‘honor in battle’ types.” Kila walked over to the Knifebear and Spiderleon, pulled out two daggers, and stabbed them both in their heads. “Good thing the webbing drains all Tera, makes killing this thing a breeze.”

“I don’t know if its honor or whatever, but I don’t feel satisfied winning like this.” Those words sounded foreign to Noki’s ears. “Winning like this? Since when did I care about how I won? This is survival and you survived.”

“This is about survival, all that matters is that you survived,” Kila said as if she had read Noki’s thoughts. “Satisfaction doesn’t matter as long as the task is completed. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to cultivate here for a bit; the death of the two has released a ton of Tera into the atmosphere and I don’t plan on wasting that.”

Noki was puzzled over her statement. “Satisfaction doesn’t matter as long as the task is completed? That sounded like someone told her that before, maybe at the academy?” “Wait a minute, you’re cultivating?”

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“I can’t believe you don’t even know that much,” Kila said. She had seated herself next to the Spiderleon and closed her eyes. “Yes, cultivate. Divine Artists are cultivators of Tera, it’s how we grow in power. Some areas are rich in Tera and help to speed cultivation.”

Noki decided to take a seat next to the Knifebear. “So then we cultivate Tera and that helps us ascend?”

“Pretty much.”

“But how do you do that? I don’t have any Tera Locus Pills.”

Kila sighed. “All you have to do is your Circulation Meditation and condense the Tera into a core. If you condense enough, the core will ascend and force your other cores to do the same, but the core that gets the Tera will be the stronger one. Just do your mediation and you’ll feel out the rest.”

Sensing a finality to the conversation, Noki closed his eyes and started River Circulation Meditation. Tera poured into his Body Kulda until it reached a breaking point, but instead of cracking, his body started drawing in the ambient Tera. In his mind’s eye, it looked as if vapors of blue, brown, black and white swirled around him before flooding his tera pathways. They blended together and suddenly faded to a stark white and slammed into his Body Kulda. He felt the pressure and grunted, but continued on. After a while, his body felt warm, like a flame had surrounded him, and he kept drawing in more Tera. “Just how much Tera do I need to start condensing?” Innately he knew that once he was ready, he could condense his Tera, but that sensation never came to pass.

“Noki. Noki! Open your eyes!”

Noki did as Kila said and saw that she had a look of horror on her face. “What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter? You started drawing in my Tera! What’s wrong with you?”

“All I did was do what you told me. I didn’t mean to take any away from you.”

Kila regained her composure and sat up. “That’s strange though, he shouldn’t be able to do that unless I will it.” “ Hey Noki, what did you feel when you were cultivating?”

“It felt heavy at first and hurt a little, but then I felt really warm. I think I saw some colorful vapors entering my body, but they all became white.”

“Yeah, “ Kila said as she extended a hand to Noki, “ wait, you saw the Heavenly Aspects?”

Noki took her hand. “I guess so? There were some brown and blue ones, oh and a black one too, but they all turned white at the end.” Noki saw Kila’s brows furrow, “Is that bad?”

“Oh, no that’s not it,” Kila assured, “ I think it means you’re close to ascending to Stone Soul.”

“Wow really?” Noki unintentionally squeezed her hand, “how close am I?”

“I don’t know,” Kila said as she broke his grip, “I’m not the best when it comes to that stuff, but you should be able to feel it yourself when you’re on the precipice.” This was a lie of course, Divine Artists can tell when someone is nearing an Ascension due to the fluctuation of their Tera Wave; someone approaching Stone Soul would have a stronger wave and their cores would be bursting at the seams.

“Noki’s definitely still an Earthen Soul, but drew in enough Tera to at least be a Stone Soul. That doesn’t make sense, I just made it to Middle Iron after cultivating and that requires more Tera than an Earthen Soul, so why is his core the same?”

“Oh man,” Noki said as he finally surveyed the cavern, “we really wrecked this place.” Almost all of the notes had been blown away by the spears and there were holes littered all throughout the cavern. “I think we should leave before they find out we were here.”

“Wait, there’s no rush, “ Kila said. “These things were meant to deal with intruders and could easily handle a Lesser Iron. If Jahn were serious about protecting this place, he would have left an opponent capable of killing Greater Irons. It’s more than likely that this place was abandoned and all his research is somewhere else.”

Noki thought about it for a moment. “I guess that makes sense, all the food from earlier looked kind of old, and the last time Mion wore this was over a year ago…wait did I just eat year old meat? No, the box kept it fresh, I think.”

“Point being,” Kila said, “ I think we should use this time to teach you some of the basics of cultivation, there’s more to it than just gathering Tera. Let’s go back up first so we can let the Tera here recover, I’ll show you what I learned in the Academy.”

“Wait really? You’ll show me?”

“Well, why wouldn’t I? You’re a Divine Artist now, you should at least know the basics,” Kila said, “and besides, the sooner you can defend yourself the sooner I can leave.”

Noki beamed at Kila and the sight made her uneasy. If it had been the Noki she found in that ravine it would have been fine, but seeing a kid’s smile on the current Noki was off putting; he looked like a grinning scourbeast. At Noki’s behest, the two of them swam back to the entrance of the pool and entered the house.

Baira sat in the red grass of the forest as the sunlight poured through the canopy. She had just finished off a pack of Razorfangs and immediately began cultivating their Tera at Amani’s request. They weren’t particularly strong, as their fur was only a light pink instead of the crimson red of the adults and their blade-like teeth hadn’t reached its full capabilities. Still, going up against ten of them at once was no easy task, they were comparable to a Divine Artist of Stone Soul Rank. Baira had gashes on the exposed parts of her skin and was grateful that the uniform of a Kolo was remarkably sturdy.

“You could have helped,” Baira said as more Tera flowed into her.

“I could have, but then that would have gotten in the way of you doing all the work,” Amani replied. She was on the other side of the pile, going through her remaining supplies. As a Kolo, she always had to be prepared for extended trips. “Besides,” she continued, “ you’re going to need to get a lot stronger if you want to stand a chance once we’re back.”

“I’m aware of the training,” Baira said, clearly annoyed. It was something that was in the back of her mind for years; the Monsari Clan’s Specialist Training. Six months of nonstop training in Heavenly Aspects, Corporeal Arts and Stratal Arts that was so intense, a Divine Artist could only attempt it after reaching Iron Soul Body. It was one of the reasons she’d looked into Stratal Arts at the Academy, just so she’d have a leg up on her competition. “It shouldn’t be too hard, after all you passed it.”

“Bairy I’m a genius that reached Iron Soul Body at age five and became a Kolo at fifteen. You’re the one that had to go to Watercliff…by the way, he’ll be in your class too.”

Baira wore an expression of visible disgust at the mere mention of his existence, but shook it off. “I assume you’re monitoring Noki? I can sense your Mental Tera, how is he doing?”

“Oh, you’re getting better at that.” Amani climbed up the bodies of two Razorbacks and made an audible groan of effort; not because it was taxing in the slightest but because she wanted to annoy her sister. “Well, technically I’m monitoring Kila who is with Noki but close enough. Right now I’m just going over the last few hours of her memories, if I dig any deeper she’ll know I’m there and-oh, oh that is interesting.”

Baira was still cultivating the Tera from the Razorbacks. It took longer than usual due to the overwhelming amount of Physical Tera they possessed; if she didn’t take the time to filter the energy, it could damage her cores and cripple her growth. When it was obvious that Amani wouldn’t continue unless she asked, Baira sighed and said, “What’s so interesting?”

“Your friend Noki, he looks remarkably different. He’s taller than you now and his physique-”

“If you’re just gonna interrupt my cultivation with nonsense, just stay quiet.”

“I’m being serious,” Amani said as she rolled onto her back and ran her fingers through the massive beast’s fur. “He looks like he could be one of the Okaris. Kila believes that he was so malnourished as a Null that his body hadn’t completed the ascension to Earthen Soul. I’m inclined to believe her given the situation, but I’ve never heard of something like that actually happening. They also found one of Jahn’s hiding places and it pretty much confirms that he’s been carrying out unauthorized experiments.”

Baira had finally finished cultivating and broke through to Middle Iron Soul. There wasn’t a dramatic change in her physique or physical abilities, but the strength of her Tera increased so that her previous maximum output was now her minimum; she could fire off two or three Cascading Fists before her energy ran out. “That’s great,” Baira said as she stood up and saw Amani’s hair hanging off the edge of the Razorback. “If you can take that to the Queen then he’s done for.”

“Can’t do that. The room where everything was located got destroyed during a battle. Plus if I bring this to the Queen, he can argue that the thoughts were manipulated.” Amani appeared behind Baira, too fast for her sister to even track. “We’re back to square one now, and I don’t think Jahn will be so careless again. Most likely, my sudden appearance forced him to take only the most pertinent information with him.”

“Did you have to appear behind me?” Baira ignored her sisters rambling and took two steps away from her, stopping in front of the wall of Razorbacks. “ We should be on our way anyways, especially if we have no physical evidence against Jahn. Maybe our parents can get the Queen to go through Jahn’s thoughts.” Baira took one arm and lifted the two eight-hundred pound beasts with ease and casually tossed them hundreds of feet into the air. “I didn’t mean to do that,” she said with obvious shock.

“Ascending to Middle Iron strengthens all of your Tera so you’ll have to refrain from infusing your muscles with Physical Tera until you get used to the difference.” Amani glanced into the sky and tracked the airborne beasts. “Nine-hundred feet, not bad at all.” She walked over to another pile of Razorbacks and gently kicked it up. The beasts exploded from the ground, zipped past the other airborne beasts and disappeared into the sky. “Oh, I couldn’t tell how far that one went, let’s just say nine-hundred and one feet.”

Amani walked past Baira, making sure to smile at her, and continued on, which annoyed Baira to no end. She wasn’t stupid, she knew Amani did that to both motivate her and remind her of how far she has to go, but didn’t have to always be so flashy.

“It’s fine Baira, channel this annoyance into something useful.”

She removed the stick from her back and practiced channeling her aspect into it as she walked behind Amani.