Chapter 1_TOWERS OF ASCENSION (HIATUS)

We must aspire to become like our creator.

This was the thought on alerius's mind as he removed the recharging gloves from his hands and turned off the recharging case. The words on his mind were part of the first Tenet and he had been thinking about them the whole day because today was the day he would finally reach the second step on the Path of Ascension.

Alerius was born a DUD. Those who lacked the talent to embark on the Path of Ascension and it was only two years ago on his seventeenth birthday that he discovered that he had a unique ability that would allow him to change his destiny and enable him to start the Path of Ascension and become a cultivator. This discovery led him to start working in the recharging factories in order to raise funds for the elixirs needed by cultivators.

The recharging factories was the place where Crystal Marks were Recharged when the marks run out of Spiritual Energy. This Spiritual Energy contained in Crystal Marks was used to power Artifacts. The Crystal Marks also served as the currency used in Kiania.

When Alerius had first started working at the factory, he worked in communal rooms where ten people were required to recharge a single case of circular crystal marks. A single case contained ten crystal marks. He was not sure how the whole recharging process worked, all he knew was that ten people usually duds put on recharging gloves on both of their hands. These recharging gloves had cables which were then inserted on ports of the case. The gloves somehow siphoned the spiritual energy from a persons core and the spiritual energy was transferred to the case via the cables where the crystal marks inside were recharged. This processes continued until a red light on the case turned on which meant that the crystal marks were full.

Alerius had worked in the communal rooms for about a year and was then transferred to the private rooms to work alone when he had reached the first step on the Path of Ascension which was called the Fog Phase. Upon reaching this step he had become capable of recharging the entire case alone.

Today was his last day working at the factories for with today's salary he would finally have the funds he needed to buy the spiritual elixir which would make him reach the last stage of the Fog Phase and he can try to advance to the Liquid Phase which was the second step on the Path of Ascension.

Alerius disconnected the the cables from the case and wrapped them neatly around the gloves. He stood from the chair he was sitting on and then picked the up the case from the table and then left the small room and went to the supervisors room. The factory was made in such a way that it had one entrance the entrance led to a long passage with doors on both sides. The first room belonged to the supervisor. All factory workers had to leave the recharged cases with the supervisor, leaving outside with a case was considered theft and the many guards who patrolled attacked anyone foolish enough who tried to leave with a case.

"Come in"

Alerius heard the supervisors voice through the door and went in. The inside of the room looked like pharmacy, it had shelves on the sides lined with bottled elixirs and the supervisor was standing behind the counter. The office served as place for storing recharged cases and a place where elixirs where sold. The factory workers were sold elixirs at a discount so many factory workers who had the talent for cultivation bought from here instead of buying from pharmacies.

Alerius placed the case on the counter making sure not to look directly in the supervisors and said "sir I have finished recharging my case" in his most deferential voice.

Alerius behaved this way because According to the third Tenet, one should always show respect to those powerful than him and expect the same from those weaker than him. The supervisor was a cultivator of the second step, this was symbolized by the circular badge on the supervisors shirt. Cultivators from the second step and above were required to have badges which showed their cultivation base. Different shapes showed different Realms: Circular badges were for the Liquid Phase, a triangular badge for the Paste Phase and finally a square badge for the Solid Phase. The shape of the Crystal Marks also followed this convention: a circular crystal mark contained spiritual energy which was equivalent to that found in the spiritual core of a liquid phase cultivator, a triangular shaped crystal mark was equal to a paste phase cultivator and a square shaped crystal mark had energy equal to a solid phase cultivator.

The supervisor didn't even bother saying anything, alerius just felt him inject his Aura into the case. The case opened after a few minutes and inside was placed ten luminescing circular crystal marks showing that they had been recharged because empty ones did not give off light. It had taken alerius about eleven hours just to recharge those ten crystal marks he still thought that without the recharging machine which consisted of both gloves and case it would not have been possible for a Fog Phase cultivator like him to recharge those ten crystal marks because each contained spiritual energy equivalent to that found in a Liquid phase cultivator.

After checking, the supervisor closed the case and put it behind the counter. He then took a note with a picture of a circular crystal mark on the center and gave it to alerius. This money was the paper equivalent of a single circular crystal, those below the Liquid phase were forbidden the use of crystal marks. Factory workers were paid ten percent of the crystal marks they had managed to recharge.

Alerius accepted the money and added thirty nine more similar notes from his pocket and gave it back to the supervisor and said "sir, I would like to buy a fog spiritual elixir." The elixir used to increase spiritual energy was simply called spiritual elixir for there was only one type, it only differed in it's concetration.

"That's not enough. The Fog spiritual elixir's price was increased last week." The supervisor said with a smug voice

Alerius became furious and struggled to maintain his facial expression. The supervisor didn't even bother to hide the fact that he was cheating him but if alerius showed anything but deference, it would be considered an insult for One did not question his betters, it was part of the third tenet.

Alerius did not say anything for a few minutes, he had to wait for his anger to cool but when he thought about his special abilityn his anger quickly went away for he knew that soon he would surpass this supervisor. He memorized the supervisors face and checked the colors on the cultivation badge. The badge had the colors yellow and orange. This symbolized that the supervisor was a subordinate of Noble House Kayamba. These two colors were the house colors for that particular house. Too bad he did not know his supervisors name.

"What's the new price Sir?" Alerius asked in a calm but still deferential voice.

"Its now forty five circular crystal marks"

Alerius did not say anything, he wordlessly gave the supervisor five more marks. He was now only remaining with three circular marks. He was not very worried about his funds because once he reached the the Liquid Phase he could join one of the Noble Houses.

The supervisor didn't lose his smug expression, he behaved as if the way alerius had reacted was the way he expected him to behave in the first place.he just gave alerius the bottled elixir.

Alerius carefully put the bottle in his pocket, bowed to the supervisor and left.

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It was already dark when alerius reached his rented one bed roomed house, the Planet Yezir which Kiania orbited was visible as it was now obstructing kiania from the sun's rays.

It was a good thing that alerius was now living in the good part of The Free Quarter. He had moved away from the orphanage he had grown up in when he had started working. Even though the rent for this part of The Free Quarter was pricey its streets had been packed as the migration to the city of Zophia had started, the following year would be the Shrouded Year and people wanted to experience it behind the safety of a walled city.

Alerius lit the candles in his room once he had closed the door. The room was barely furnished, it contained only a bed. He didn't use it for anything other than sleeping. He ate all his meals at the factory as he spent most of his time at the factory. He had once spent twenty hours there when he had tried to recharge two cases. He had failed to recharge the second case and he had felt sick for a week afterwards. It was the only time he had tried to recharge two cases and had never repeated it again.

Alerius sat on the bed and checked his status.

Spiritual Energy: 18

Life Energy: 88

Natural Energy: 0

Talent: 6

Main Attributes

Soul: 25

Aura: 10

Mind: 12

Secondary Attributes

Spirit: 13

Will: 11

Analyse: 12

Perception: 11

Knowledge: 10

The things alerius knew about the status window was very limited. Information about the status window was suppressed by the Noble Houses. The only information available was on the requirements for advancement up to the Liquid Phase.

Every person is born with Spiritual Energy in there Spiritual Core. The Core is located in the Soul of the Person. At the age of twelve every person is required to be taken to one of the Ascension Halls. In this place the child is given a crystal called an Ability Crystal. The crystal is spherical and when placed in the hands of the a child it will be assimilated in the child's hands. After this process the child gains the ability to view his status.

Checking one's Status does not require to shout any word. If a person wants to check his status he just have to think status in his mind.

Cultivation Is very easy and everyone can do it, all that is required is to combine Light Energy from the Sun with that persons Aura and this combination is stored in the Spiritual core. The combination of Aura and Light Energy produces spiritual energy. Cultivation over a period of time will cause the spiritual core to increase in size. Each increase in the size of the core will cause the spiritual energy stat to increase.

When the spiritual core increases in size, Life Energy is produced. Life Energy is used to increase the attributes. One unit of life energy can be used to increase a chosen attribute by one. The amount of life energy produced per increase in the spiritual core is showed by the Talent stat. Talent is divided into twelve levels that is from 0.5 to 6. A person with a talent of 5 will produce 5 units of life energy every time his core increases while a person with a talent of 1.5 will produce 1.5 units of life energy per increase in the spiritual core. Thus an increase in the spiritual energy stat will cause an increase in the life energy stat according to the talent stat.

When a person starts cultivating, his spiritual core will continuously increase at a very slow pace until the spiritual level stat reaches 9. Every human can reach this level. The spiritual level from 0 to 9 is called the GAS PHASE and is not considered part of the steps on the path of Ascension. To advance a person needs to use 5 units of life energy in order to compress the core so that the spiritual energy inside becomes fog like and this is new realm is called the FOG PHASE. Humans who cannot produce life energy cannot go through this process and are thus stuck in the gas phase. This inability to produce life energy is why there are called DUDS.

This was the only information alerious knew. He didn't have any idea what the other stats did or measured and could only make guesses. The Noble Houses did not want that information made public. The only other thing which was public was that In the fog phase the core will stop increasing again when the spiritual energy stat reaches 19 and that to reach the liquid phase; the soul stat should be more than 20 and 10 units of life energy are required to compress the spiritual core again and force the foggy spiritual energy to turn liquid. This new realm is the LIQUID PHASE.

Alerius took the spiritual elixir and felt his spiritual core heat up for a few minutes and then it went back to know. He was not alarmed by this reaction because it had happened every time he had taken a spiritual elixir. The heat was caused when his core expanded. He checked his status again and found that the spiritual level stat had increased to 19.

Expanding the core using cultivation is very slow, it can take months just to increase the spiritual energy stat by 1. If a person wants to increase his spiritual energy stat faster that person has to use the spiritual elixir. The elixir can increase the spiritual energy stat by 1 every time it it used. The only downside is that it can only be used once in a month and can not be used to advance from one phase to the next.

Alerius had been a dud until his seventeenth year, he had seen a fellow dud get beaten very badly by cultivator for looking directly in that cultivators eyes and had wished he had a better talent so that the same could not happen to him. Later that very same day when he was about to go to sleep, he had checked his status and was surprised to discover that his talent stat had changed from 0 and was then showing 0.5. After experimenting and turning his status window on and off a few times he had discovered that he could change his talent stat to any desired talent just by wishing it to be a talent he wanted when his status window was off and it would be that number when he turned his status window on. Alerius had been very excited by this discovery and had later tried to see if he could change any other stat by wishing them to change but he had failed, he discovered that he could only change his talent.

After making sure that his spiritual energy stat had reached 19 and that the Life Energy stat had increased to 94, he then added 5 units of life energy to his soul stat. Making it now 30. Even though the required soul stat to reach liquid phase was 20, alerius didn't want to take any chances when it came to his upcoming advancement to the liquid phase.

Alerius meditated for awhile and when he felt that his body had reached an optimum condition he used 10 units of life energy to start the compression of his core. The compression process took about three hours and when he was done he found that his body was covered in sweat. He didn't even bother to wipe away the sweat he immediately checked his status

Status Window

Spiritual energy: 20

Life energy: 85