Staring at the sky for a while, I thought of just how far there was to go. The divines, the keepers, the usurpers, and this whole place in general… was large.
I’d run away again. I was alive. I’d definitely changed things, absorbing that shard. Imprint quite literally told me so. But was it enough?
When would I reach the point in time where I didn’t need to run anymore?
Even now, I was running. Running back to the other side, where I could see my family, before running back to Eden before the keepers could take my gateway. I was just running, always trying to get ahead.
Was there an end to this road?
I knew there were higher realms. I’d started at the bottom after all. Before manifesting my core and choosing my affinity, there were two lower stages, namely Qi accumulation, where you used the scraps in the air to reinforce yourself and began building a reservoir, and spirit tempering, at which point you’d actually properly manipulate Qi. Once you had a good enough grasp, you could form a core.
All of that had taken me four years. That was with the help of my master and the system, too. For some Edians, it took decades. We Reflectors instead got an advantage, when it came to cultivation speed, at least.
Now, I was blazing through the core realm twice over. Advancing two steps in a day was mad, quite frankly. Completely insane. And only possible because of the fact that imprint was a special path and my mirror core a special core.
Despite how special it all was, though, I was now able to drag voyage further because of it as well, bringing my golden Qi up to speed. I could feel it sit on the precipice of the sixth step, and I was sure it would get there within just a few more days, maybe a week.
Suffice to say, my speed of advancement was insane. I was going to be reaching the wellspring realm soon, which was generally considered the beginning of the upper tier among Reflectors. It would mean beginning to generate my own Qi, rather than having to absorb and convert that in the environment.
Of course, absorption still played a major role in quickly replenishing your reserves and cultivating further, and your rate of absorption actually determined how much Qi your wellspring produced, but you could use techniques without needing to pause and replenish your Qi.
It was a massive, qualitative difference, because it meant battles could be drawn out. You gained resources over time, so by just exhausting someone, you could destroy pretty much anyone of a lower realm. And the wellspring would also slowly increase Qi purity, increasing the power and efficiency of your techniques.
And despite the fact that I was knocking on the doors of that realm, I was still running.
A sigh escaped my mouth as I walked on. We’d reached the grasslands again, but I let my vigilance slip a little. After everything in the mountains, this place seemed less dangerous. Matt was even practicing some of the stuff he’d learned from the manuals, rambling to Emilia and Liam about it whenever they listened.
Honestly, they paid a surprising amount of attention. Which was fair, Matt’s lessons on Qi manipulation were usually worthwhile. I hoped they gained something out of it. I doubted I had the space to practice while also suppressing my aura. It had definitely been improving my manipulation though.
By now, my two Qi types flowed smoothly past one another, and suppressing my mirror Qi almost didn’t influence my golden Qi anymore at all. It was a very welcome change, feeling the energy flow more smoothly in my mental grasp.
The technique itself had also grown much more ingrained. I hardly needed to flip it on anymore, relying instead on my own understanding of it and using the tricks the system version had taught me.
So, the sun slowly drifted over the horizon. We took care of a few more sylters, the grassland snakes, most easily disposed of by Marie as I let my thoughts wander.
Looking at the distant sky, something about it resonated with imprint.
I could almost imagine a staircase up there.
One that I’d walk on.
To show the keepers and the usurpers and even the silly divines what I thought of their plans for me.
To be free.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
At that thought, voyage also resonated.
I smiled at my two paths. I’d chosen them for a reason, of course, but I still calmed them a little. They couldn’t influence my thoughts, but I knew whenever I was thinking along a line that worked well with the guidelines I’d set for them. It was good to affirm that my ideas still meshed well with my paths, but feeling them buzz at the prospect of freedom was still a strange sensation.
Maybe, in a strange way, there were now “two wolves” inside of me, and I needed to find the compromise between the two.
Voyage demanded absolute freedom, imprint demanded absolute individuality.
And I was gonna get there, soon enough hopefully. Then I’d only run towards things, not away from them anymore.
- - -
One by one, my days travelling drifted by. Occasionally, I’d find some time to invest in cultivation, and chose voyage each time. It was pushing against the boundaries of my core, the golden sea of Qi expanding bit by bit every time I walked further along the shores. I felt the sixth step at my fingertips. I’d get there soon.
Cass occasionally told me about the state of my gateway, and how far along repairing itself it was. The process was going faster now, with more available mirror Qi and a stronger gateway, but after the desperate sprint on our first day, the integrity would hopefully hover around the 70s by the time I headed back to the other side.
At least that’s what Cass’ predictions looked like.
Another couple days went by, and we made it back into the forest. We’d refilled our water at the waypoint again, though this time we didn’t need it nearly as much. There’d been ample snow on the mountain to be fully stocked up before we’d begun our trek back.
We also decided to quickly stop by castle Arhan, for a short visit. And it had truly been short, with me just telling Orvan I’d survived, and him flashing me the faintest bit of a smile, muttering something about doing a good job, then shooing me out of his office.
“Hey, can I have some more healing potions?!” I yelled as he shut the trapdoor.
“No, I’m too old to sponsor some gateway wielding maniac!” he yelled back playfully, slamming the door in my face.
I smirked a little. He probably thought they would last me a lot longer, and didn’t have any prepared. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found some deposited for me at the temple once we were back in Renvil. But that could wait.
“Thanks, ya grumpy old bastard,” I said to the closed trapdoor, then walked away as I heard grumbling and shuffling behind it, slowly fading off.
Captain Lirya had offered us a meal there, but we declined. It was early midday, so there was plenty of time to make more headway in the journey. So we marched on, and ever on.
Days ticked by, and I finally reached the next step of voyage. It had been more elusive than I’d expected, but I finally reached the sixth step, and the sea inside my core changed again. Last time, clouds were added to the golden shores, and this time, it was vegetation to the side of it.
Now, there were occasional trees casting shades, surrounded by shrubs. Some of the greenery was in the form of palm trees, and a handful of those even seemed to come with coconuts.
Immediately, I climbed one of them and leapt off.
Of course, since I’d already grown so much in voyage, it was now much less easy to advance further, and I jumped about as far as a mundane human would have. I landed heavily in the sand, breaking the fall with a roll and smiled. The trees looked a little washed out, but the sunset atmosphere helped cover up their unnatural, golden coloration.
I smiled at the plants, and simply dropped down into the sand once, staring at the leaves and the sky above. I ran my fingers through the fine grains of golden light. The sea breeze blew it from my fist.
With a single jump I was back on my feet, launching myself off the floor. Then I closed my eyes to the sea, and opened them again in the lush forest.
“Sixth step?” Liam asked me first. Somehow, he felt the change in my aura, despite the fact that he was further ahead. I smirked a little, following the thread of Qi that carried his voice.
“Yep,” I returned the message to him, “just got there.”
“Congratulations,” he said, mirth in his voice.
Matt and Ann told me the same after, and I clenched my fist tightly. Only the seventh left, then I’d have to make the jump from a core to a wellspring. I smiled at the prospect.
[Congrats!]
‘Thanks, Cass,’ I thought back at my keeper. ‘You’ve been a bit quiet lately, everything good in there?’
[Yes, yes, I’m okay, Bell!] she said, a smile in her voice. [Just been busy dealing with the repairing gateway and our pocket in the gateway world. Actually, we need a better word for that. How about the astral?]
‘Sounds good to me.’
[Perfect! Astral it is. Our territory has expanded a bit since you took in the last shard, and we’ve been getting a lot more eyes on us in exchange.]
‘Eyes on us?’ I asked her.
[Yes, Bell, eyes. Seems that the collective is becoming more interested as we gain a proper foothold over here. They seem to be waiting for our gateway to be repaired.]
I shivered at the thought, shaking my head a bit. ‘Greedy bastards. They can’t do anything though, right?’
[No, nothing major. They can try flooding my information channel, but it’s not as though I have no methods to block that off. If they want to keep communications with us at all, they better be civil.]
Her smug tone told me she meant business with that. I smiled at the empty air. ‘You’re absolutely right,’ I thought to my guardian. ‘Show ‘em what we’re made of.’
[Yes, ma’am Bell!]
She and I both chuckled, before I told her I’d leave her to the whole keeping business, and focused on the march again.
A few more days drifted by with the occasional dead bornin, sometimes even a small pack. We also took care of a couple drytz, the mole things, but at least avoided anything too large, courtesy of Marie scouting ahead.
It did make our route shift a bit more than I’d have liked, but we still made it back in a reasonable time. On the last couple days before we returned to Renvil, we even found a ren tree, the same kind that Orvan had served me juice of.
I picked a couple fruits, making the last leg of the journey a little sweeter in a very litera
l sense. Not long after, we were finally within the walls again.