“Are you sure you’re ready, Adam? There's no turning back once you go through the door. If the Immortal King judges you unworthy, he may just kill you,” Andrew asks worriedly.

Andrew moves a marble statue to show a hidden door behind. It is a typical wooden door with a normal handle. I was expecting more, not sure what, but just more. I think through all the choices I’ve made up until this point and clench my fists. This system may help me or may hinder me, but best to pass any quests than fail. I'm sure the consequences will be terrible if I fail. This system is made by an Immortal King, after all.

I look directly at Andrew and determined to finish this, I say, “I'm ready, old man. The Immortal King will love me,” I laugh at him and shoot him a wink while reaching for the door handle.

*Slap*

“Ouch,” I shout, pulling my hand back, “why did you slap my hand, old man?” I groan at him.

“You're rushing into it, and you don’t even know what to do once you enter! Boy, take a step back, take a breath, and listen to me. Once you enter that room, you'll see a statue. What you need to do is stare at the crystal within it, trying to sense KI. Once you do, you'll need to mentally say:

"Storms are the balance of destructive elements. The one that rides them is the master of said elements. Praise the Immortal King Stormrider!"

Once you have spoken this phrase, the Immortal King will judge your soul. Now go ahead, young one,” Andrew says as he bows to the door.

I take a breath to calm myself.

“I'm ready,” I mutter to myself and approach the door once again.

As I enter the room, I’m surprised by how unnatural it seems. There doesn’t seem to be any walls, just a floating wooden door and a blurry statue with crystal blue eyes. I firm my resolve, take a step closer, then begin staring at the blue eyes. I try to focus on sensing KI, but as I look around, I notice there's not a single spec of KI in this room, apart from the statue. It looks like a solid beam of KI, glowing so brightly so as to hurt to look at. I look back towards the eyes and notice that there are blue specs inside the eyes.

I've never seen blue KI before. The old man said white KI makes sense as that's a pure colour, but the KI in the eyes is clearly blue.

I focus harder and finally mentally say, “storms are the balance of destructive elements. The one that rides them is the master of said elements. Praise the Immortal King Stormrider!"

I freeze. My whole body is locked up so that I can’t move. I feel a formless weight pushing down on me. It searches my mind, going through my memories of yesterday, then last year, then 5 years ago. It's getting faster and faster.

F*** what about my past life? The other Immortal King? What if they're enemies and he thinks I’m in his favor or debt?

“Well, well, well, look what we have here,” a booming force shouts through me.

He talks to my soul the same way the other Immortal King spoke to me. It feels weird, like listening to someone talk underwater, but the sound is clear and understandable.

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“Don’t be getting distracted, young one. It looks like you have the honour of meeting 3 dark Immortal Kings before your 9th birthday. Well, you’re only 8 in this world, aren’t you? But that doesn’t matter. You were a child in your other world compared to you now, anyway. So, that’s what happened to that planet. Guess I’m going to have to report it to higher-ups, but that’s none of your concern. First, let me tell you, you're fucked, just royally screwed,” he starts laughing after dropping that bombshell on me.

“Oh, Immortal King, please explain what's going on? What do you mean 3 immortal kings? I've only met you and soul destroyer? What do you mean fucked?” I say out loud, trying to keep my voice from cracking in fear.

“Ah, since a little bit of my soul called me to the mortal plane, I guess I may as well explain some things to you. Let's call it a favor, one I will be collecting. First, you met the Immortal King of Insanity when you went crazy. He cultivates through nightmares and by tricking people into thinking they're sane. Then, at the worst possible time when they're least expecting it, he flicks the switch and boom! You're crazy! Second, it looks like you’re a test subject for the old soulster. If you ever see him again, big if there, call him soulster. It's just so damn funny to watch his reaction. Sorry, went a bit off-topic there. So, yeah, it looks like the system and stats were his inventions, so he probably wants to collect all the information you learn. He'll wait till your strong enough and absorb everything, knowing him. As for the royally screwed part, it's that you can't leave here without becoming a brother and me accepting you. You, who clearly has no faith in me or anyone else. Not only that, but you even offend the other Immortal Kings. Thus, as a neutral god, it is in my best interest to just kill you and save you all the pain and suffering in your path,” he tells me in a matter-of-fact tone like he's doing a chore.

“WAIT!” I shout, “hear me out, your name is Stormrider. That means you’re related to storms. Well, storms are unpredictable. So, killing me would be an issue to them since it would be predictable, but helping me would be unpredictable. Imagine how annoyed the other gods will be when their plans fuck up and they don't even know why!”

“What you say has some logic in it, and the thought does entertain me. But, what’s in it for me? Why should I put this amount effort in for what to me a is an ant, even if it's a very smart ant?” He asks.

“At any time and any place, I’ll do 3 favors for you, so long as they don’t involve hurting myself or anyone I care about,” I plead.

“Swear on your soul that you, Adam, will complete 3 tasks for me, no matter what, as long as it doesn’t hurt you or your loved ones. Meanwhile, I, Stormrider, will do you 3 favors. Explaining all this will count as the first. The second favor will be to keep you sane till you reach the 4th stage in cultivation, where you should be able to learn to control the madness, and the 3rd favor will be that for 1000 years, I will protect you as you try to reach the Immortal King realm. If you do make it that far, the soulster won't touch you. Just don't give him a reason to look for you till you reach the Immortal Knight realm. Do you swear?” he asks.

“I swear!” I quickly reply.

“I swear,” he intones.

I feel a burning sensation on my index finger. I look down and notice I have a black ring burnt onto my skin.

Oh fuck, this is more serious than I thought. Seems like swearing on your soul is a big deal. Well, I meant what I said, anyway.

“You might want to buy some gloves unless you do want people to know you have a soul contract with an immortal. I will say that it likely will cause more problems than it solves! Anyway, young one, time to form your core,” he explains.

I watch as a stream of KI rushes towards me from the statue. I feel my body tense up as it flows through my skin and straight into the pit of my chest, where it forms a round ball the size of a tennis ball. It starts to spin fast and faster until finally locking in place.

“Goodbye, young one.”

Before I can reply, the room changes. I find myself standing the a stone room, but with a lifeless statue. It has no KI.

That is so weird! Oh, wait, the quest. System Open.

Quest completed: Unlock Core before 10th birthday

Reward: 500 points

Quest completed: Complete Brother training in 4 years.

Reward: Core Formed, Lightning step ability learned, 5 stat points to be placed.