In a little known corner of the realm that had not seen visitors for many millennia, an ancient existence stirred. Its name was Alyx, and it was downright excited to entertain guests.

“Food!” it whispered, before settling down a little, shrugging the excitement off metaphysical shoulders—it was, after all, a sentient crystal.

Four humans, and something else. The core wasn’t sure. Regardless, their vital aura was ripe for the taking, already sloughing off their bizarre little bodies in droves.

Their qi felt far too weak for the type of beings that would dare venture into its depths. The core decided they had merely veiled their presences in an effort to avoid drawing too much attention in their entrance. They were swimming toward each other, clearly trying to regroup. Alyx was feeling generous, so it waited for them to do so—the mortals wasted much time in the waiting room of its dungeon, as if he would allow them to stay together anyway.

Then it pressed a little harder on their tiny forms, attempting to unravel their veils, and their qi gave all too easily. One collapsed under the pressure, beginning to sink into the depths.

Were they truly this weak?

Alyx’s mind began to whir, and reality sped to a halt as its thoughts exceeded the limits of a fleshy form. Little. Why were they so little? This was all wrong.

Normally the ones that deigned to enter its demiplane were big and strong, but these… they were like herring. But, perhaps, if the core worked them hard enough, they would make for an acceptable meal. Just maybe.

But why were they here? The creature had seen many hundreds of mortals reaching for the heavens in its eternal existence, but… never so little.

The core realized it had left its visitors waiting for an entire breath now. How rude! Alyx would’ve thought itself lucky they hadn’t up and left already, had they not been totally at its mercy and unable to do so.

And yet it wasn’t much closer to deciding what to start with. It couldn’t kill them outright—at least, not right away—at the same time, it didn’t want to reward them for something too easy.

But maybe it had been too hard on the dungeon delvers before. Maybe that was why no one ever came to visit anymore. What if they had blocked off its entrance, and these brave souls had come anyway, seeking power and experience? If that was truly the case, though, why were they so scared already?

Their fear was like a warm drink to Alyx; it was total bliss, but confusing in its presence. With the fear they were generating, the core felt like it could accomplish anything. It was finally pushing at its next breakthrough, just slightly, but any progress after ten thousand years of stagnation felt like soaring.

They didn’t seem to have a way to see, but Alyx wasn’t rushing to remedy that—it was their lack of preparation, after all.

However, in its all-knowing benevolence, perhaps the core could offer such a prize. Yes, that would do nicely as a gift—a sort of ‘first visitors in ten thousand years’ dungeon-warming present. That… well, they were the ones doing the warming, but… it could light up a cave for them.

First they would have to fight in the dark. It would make the test easy, as a courtesy.

And because it didn’t want to be alone for eons again.

Being alone was sad.

----------------------------------------

Ming felt like he had fallen into a cave, not stepped into a magical rift. The poignant stench of saltwater stung his lungs, and not even the light of the moon guided him.

He waded slowly—though he was mostly held up by his own buoyancy. Something slick brushed past his leg. Ming tried not to think about it too much.

“That was an eel. Very cool!” Hope said.

“Not the time,” Ming whispered back.

“Ming? Not the time for what?” Shomei replied from somewhere in front of him. Her voice carried on the flat water, and he had no idea how far away she was. It seemed Ming would have to stick to thinking at Hope, though it was a foreign method of communication.

“Shomei!” Chen Bo said, in front of Ming and to the left. Xiu and Yuchen also shouted back, off to the right. Their voices were deafening.

“Shomei, stay there,” Ming said, now realizing that his voice carried so well he didn’t have to shout. “We’ll meet you!”

He swam toward her. After a couple minutes, he felt his leg brush up against something rough, but it jolted away at his touch.

Then he called her name—she replied, still roughly in the same direction.

So he kept swimming. And he swam some more.

After nearly the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, and having twice more bumped into slimy, long things in the water on the way, he finally reached them.

Ming swam the last bit toward the others, who were clearly having a heated discussion.

“It’s your talisman! What the Hells were you carrying around in your pocket?” Xiu yelled, much to the chagrin of everyone’s ears.

“I don’t…” Shomei hesitated.

“Uh, hello everyone,” Ming said. “And Xiu, Yuchen, why are you two here, anyway? I mean, I get Shomei wanted to help, and Bo came with her, but…”

Xiu spoke up. “Why do you think, Ming? Are you really that dumb? Isn’t it obvious that those elders were about ready to burn down our sect because of you? I wasn’t going to sign up for hostage duty. By the way, what is wrong with y—”

An oppressive force settled onto Ming; his channels locked up as he was studied by a creature far beyond him, judged in every way and found wanting. A tingling numbness shot through his body, and his limbs seized to wade water. The grip continued to tighten on his navel, as if someone had reached inside of him, his flesh providing no respite against the attack.

“Mine,” Hope said, and the pressure abated. Ming sighed in relief.

“What is this? I’ve never felt so wrong,” Yuchen choked out, sobbing.

Water sloshed in front of Ming, and Bo screamed. “Xiu! We can’t leave him.”

Ming heard Bo break the surface, following Xiu into the depths.

Blood rushed into Ming’s ears, and he felt his heartbeat in his temples. Something very large had just brushed up against his leg. The touch left a strange tingling feeling resonating in his skin. It felt like… well, it felt like whatever had attacked him before. The qi felt the same.

“Shark,” Hope added.

“We’re back,” a panting Bo said after bursting from the water. “And Xiu’s okay.”

“Can you teach me to see like you?” Ming sent. “I’m scared, Hope.”

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“Some things cannot be taught,” Hope said. “The child must burn himself to know the danger of the flame.”

Ming started to cry.

“Alright, alright. Just focus on the feeling—the impression that you got when the dungeon touched you before. It should be present in all of its subjects,” Hope said, sounding as uncomfortable as a sentient tree could manage.

Ming nodded at his advice, resolving himself. “Thank you,” he mouthed, beginning to focus on the impression the dungeon had left on him. It was much like a scent—it tasted of seawater and algae, with a hint of something great, something divine.

Immediately, he noticed a long presence slinking by him—an eel? It had passed mere inches from his skin. It wasn’t much of a warning, but it was something.

“Focus on the impression that attacked us earlier,” Ming said aloud for the rest of the group, before a sense of danger overwhelmed his senses.

“The dungeon’s being polite,” Hope explained. “Expect to see hostile creatures soon.”

“How do you know so much? And did you find anything useful in that ring earlier?” Ming asked.

“Ancestral memories,” the tree said. “It turns out us trees tend to observe a lot of stuff. Although I definitely consider myself an uncommon specimen, having gained the capacity for thought. I think it was probably all that concentrated lifeforce you gave me.

“Anyway, about the ring. It’s twice the size of the room you shared with Guren on Minglao Island. Which is to say it’s a storage treasure worth more than the island you grew up on. There’s two barrels of water, a strange artifice with a funnel attached—oh, it looks like it attaches to the barrels, on the top. Some bowls. Also, a shelf full of smoked spirit beast meat, a smoker, and one extremely sharp filet knife. Too sharp, really. Not for children.”

Ming smiled, relieved. “Why does it not surprise me that you waited until the end to mention the knife?” Ming said. “And how do I take it out?”

“Push your qi into it,” Hope offered.

Ming did so, and he soon saw the space Hope had described, leaving him wondering why he had bothered to ask what was inside it at all. He focused on the knife, and it appeared in his hand, along with a strip of smoked meat, which he carefully halved, returning the uneaten part to the ring.

“Nifty,” Ming said aloud.

“What?” Shomei asked.

He coughed. “Nothing.” He would’ve shared, but Ming got the feeling the others couldn’t make much use of the meat without the cycling method Guren had taught him—which he immediately began to use, refilling his previously barren qi stores in a manner of seconds. His breath came evenly and flowed with the cycling of the material, breaking it down and distributing the energy to his body, even refining his flesh and bones in the process. He felt some of the damage that Hope had done earlier in order to awaken his qi dissipate.

Ming felt an internal eyeroll at the use of the cycling technique. “Please never use that in front of anyone much stronger than you. They’d torture you and dissect your core to see if they could recreate the effect. Actually, the same goes for practically anything that demon you call an uncle taught you. If you die, I die,” Hope reminded him.

A crack sounded through the air as Ming continued to cycle, and he felt a surge of power. An unpleasant scent followed—the scent of death and innocence, all wrapped up in one.

Ming swam toward Shomei. “I think we’re about to be attacked,” he said.

“Bo, come over here,” she quickly called to her brother.

“Attacked?” Xiu asked. “What makes you—” he began, but Hope’s voice in Ming’s head drowned him out.

“Did you just break through in your body cultivation? What even are you?”

“Body cultivation?” Ming asked.

“You’ve entered the Skin Tempering realm, kid. Base Initiate.”

Body cultivation? “Never heard of it.”

“I doubt the cultivators on Minglao Island practice it. It’s expensive, and there’s not much to go around.” He paused. “Well, expensive for them. The efficiency of your cycling technique is truly astounding. Now you just need to cultivate your mind, and you’ll have the potential to become a true freak of nature. Though… most cultivators don’t bother to specifically cultivate their mind.

“Oh wait,” Hope said. “I almost forgot that you glimpsed the Grand Dao of Nature,” he continued, chuckling. Ming felt a slightly intrusive gripping sensation around his heart. “Your mind has been tempered, and you can draw on the Dao. Mind cultivation should be relatively easy in the future, and you’re already at the Peak Initiate Thought Quickening realm. Looks like you’ve touched on two concepts, though I can’t perceive them myself. Those should make your techniques more potent, if you can figure out how to integrate them. Anyway, it’s the first major realm, but still… no wonder those dumb rocks couldn’t hold your soulforce. I’m curious to see what will happen when you break through to Adept, since I haven’t seen many mind cultivators in my ancestral memories. They’re mostly Buddhists, anyway. They’re loath to show off.”

A brief lull followed, Ming processing the information Hope had conveyed and Bo finishing his swim over.

“Shark,” Hope commented. “Actually, two sharks,” he corrected himself. “Headed straight for us, but they’re on either side, about the same distance.”

“On three. One, two…” Hope began counting, and Ming repeated him aloud, warning Shomei and Bo of the shark on their side.

Ming fell into a state of deep focus, attempting to sense the creature approaching him. The second dragged on, until finally he could see the first shark in his mind’s eye; its maw was agape in preparation for its attack. It was a relatively small shark, only a few feet long, but a spirit beast nonetheless. An awareness burned in his mind, the perfect course of action appearing to him in a moment of enlightenment.

He reached out with his knife, swinging his body and sinking the blade easily into the shark’s brain. The maneuver woke up something further in Ming’s mind, and his senses sharpened, his perception of the world speeding up as the shark stopped struggling near instantly, immediately starting to sink. Ming touched it, quickly stowing it in his ring.

“Shomei!” Ming yelled. “Are you okay?”

“We’re fine,” she said, panting. “I used a technique.”

“A technique at Early Initiate? A career-limiting move, if I’ve ever seen one,” Hope commented.

“Huh?” Ming sent, bewildered at the way the world was moving in slow motion, his perception impossibly fast.

“Early Initiate is far too early for techniques. They tap into their lifeforce to manage them. Pure foolishness. At least Middle Initiates can form their qi into techniques without killing themselves, though it’s still inadvisable to learn techniques outside of those focused on increasing qi control below Qi Gathering Adept. Of course, a backwater island like the one we’re from would have no idea of a fact like that, nor do they probably care.”

“Nine Hells,” Ming sent, trying not to think about the fact that Shomei had just burned some of her own lifeforce to use a technique. “Hope? Can you feel this?” Ming asked.

“Indeed,” Hope simply said. “Your mind cultivation is impressive.”

“It’s like reality was a dream and now I’m finally awake,” Ming said.

“Xiu? Yuchen?” Shomei called, and they answered. Apparently they, too, had survived the shark attacks.

Ming had no idea how, but he supposed Xiu would have protected him.

Five little platters of light appeared at the edge of Ming’s vision, floating toward each of them. Ming stashed the knife.

“The dungeon has sent a reward. I suppose it’s going easy on you all, considering you’re children. No sense in killing the chicken to get the egg.”

On the platter by him was the densest form of energy Ming had ever seen. A single pill, circular and perfect, a homogeneous grayish brown. Ming saw that Shomei’s shined aquamarine, and Bo’s a deep blue. I wonder if spirit roots are inheritable, Ming thought to himself.

“Very,” Hope replied.

Ming frowned, realizing the damn tree had read his mind.

He put the pill in his mouth, beginning to cycle the potent energy. As a combination of sun, moon, and wood qi, it was modeled to his strange constitution, which Ming was grateful for.

The air crackled as Ming broke through to Middle Initiate, and his body brimmed with energy. His damaged qi pathways cleared themselves of debris as he broke through, and he was soon almost as good as new. Similar crackles sounded out around him.

“Impressive, though it seems your cycling technique doesn’t make pill absorption much more efficient than normal. Looks like we can begin with real combat techniques, then, though your body cultivation is now lagging behind. Maybe if you eat that whole shark?” Hope asked. “Later, I guess…” he said.

Information flowed into Ming’s mind with the breakthrough, and suddenly he was made aware of the two concepts granted by his foray into the Grand Dao of Nature. His resolve firmed. He would survive this dungeon.