The others joined us in the restroom and at their fruits. It took us a while, but we were finally able to pull ourselves away from the mirrors to head back into the gymnasium. As I walked in a wave of noise rushed over me. Everyone was yelling over or at each other and I wondered what the hell was going on. Josh must have wondered the same thing because he used one of his new skills that carried his voice to everyone’s ears.

“What the hell is going on?” He shouted, bringing the entire room to a hush for a few seconds.

“Those guys have classes too! And that guy even just used one of their weird powers against us! I don’t know about the rest of you but I for one don’t wanna stay under the same roof with those freaks. Who knows when they’ll turn on us.” As the man continued talking my anger grew. All the people with classes had risked their lives trying to keep this place safe. Before I even knew I was doing it I walked up to the man. I wasn’t used to my new speed though, so it felt more like running. Stopping right in front of the man, who stepped back almost stumbling over his own feet.

“No one is stopping you from leaving.” I looked around at the other angry people. “No one is stopping any of you from leaving. You don’t want to trust the people who put their lives on the line to save your bacon? That’s fine leave. See how long you last out there without a class. My group and I almost died several times on the way here and we did have classes, so if you wanna take your chance? Be my guest.” I looked sharply at the crowd surrounding me; a lot of them looked at the ground whenever I caught their eye. I took another breath, my anger subsiding somewhat.

“I know some of you think that the government is at work here, or aliens, or whatever, but at the end of the day, this IS happening. You are in REAL danger, and if you aren’t working on getting stronger then you’re going to die!” I sighed thinking about all the corpses I’d seen in town. “I don’t know about you but I’m tired of seeing dead humans. So, stop trying to place blame. Get a class, get stronger, and focus on protecting yourself or at least your kids.” I said, motioning over to the bleachers where the students sat. “Otherwise, there’s the door.” I finished and walked away, this time focusing on going at regular speed.

“You have manipulated several people into taking your advice using fear! 6000 bonus essence awarded! 8% removed 5520 essence awarded!” I checked my essence bar for my progress “453,624/1,638,400” With each level doubling the amount needed I was surprised I’d even been able to level up as much as I had. Susan had leveled more than any of us though reaching level 20 if we received the same amount of essence for combat as she had we would have been right there with her. I was almost keeping up with her in stats though thanks to the fruit, but the twins weren’t doing as hot only having reached level ten.

“Have you guys already gotten a new skill?” I addressed them.

“Not yet I just leveled up after the battle, so I haven’t had a chance to use it yet,” Tina responded her brother nodding his agreement.

“You should get a performance skill,” I told them getting dubious looks in response. “I’m serious guys I realize that you didn’t play with us during the battle because you don’t have any performance skills, but do you know how much essence you lost out on because of that? I’m five levels above you and the gap is only going to get larger.” The twins looked at me confused. “What?” I asked them.

“Well, I mean it’s not like we need to level up anymore,” Tina said.

“Yeah, we’re safe here there’s plenty of other classers that can protect us, and we already found our brothers.” Tony followed up. I stared at them dumbfounded.

“You guys really haven’t thought this through, have you?” I asked.

“What do you mean? I they sound right to me!” Susan pitched in. I shook my head.

“What was the highest-level monster you saw on the first day?” The others thought for a moment before Josh spoke up.

“About seven or eight, I think. Why?”

“The last monster I killed was level 17. The monsters are getting stronger too, so what do you think happens if we just stop trying to grow?” Susan was the first to get my point.

“We’ll be overrun.” I nodded at her and continued.

“Not only that, but food will run out here sooner rather than later if you haven’t noticed we don’t have electricity anymore which means the food in the cafeteria fridge will go bad. We’re going to have to go out to hunt or scavenge. Plus, we still need to find your parents.” I said the last part strictly to the twins and Josh, which made each of their faces fall. Finally, having finished making my point the twins agreed to get performance skills. None of us wanted to die because we ran into a random level 20 monster.

Once we finished talking, I decided I’d go find a private area to focus on my meditation. Most of the rooms I passed had busted-out windows I assumed from monsters trying to get into the building. I skipped those deciding that I didn’t feel like sitting in glass. I found my way to the auditorium, the light coming in through the small windows showed that there wasn’t anyone inside, so I went up to the stage sitting down and leaning against it to start my meditation.

As I practiced my breathing it got easier for me to shut everything out. On occasion, I would still jump at a sound or shake my head to keep myself from going to sleep, but eventually, I managed to keep up the state of meditation without getting distracted by anything. The sun had reached its apex in the sky before I noticed something flashing at the edge of my consciousness. Without even meaning to my mind followed the light until it filled my vision.

A glowing fog of flashing lights of all different colors was everywhere around me. My eyes opened but I kept up my breathing pattern and the fog remained. I was slightly scared but as the fog rolled across my skin, I could feel that it wasn’t dangerous. “Is this essence?” I thought before breaking my meditative breathing. As soon as I did the fog disappeared. I quickly opened my study guide to research if I’d done it correctly.

“Essence can appear in several different ways, some researchers have described it as a flowing liquid, others flashing lights, and some say that it appears as fog. If you have successfully seen essence the one thing the physical aspect of essence shares is its multicolored hues representing different elements, concepts, and locations. Essence is the basic building blocks of the multiverse without which we would not be able to use the system or cultivate. Recommend you check out A Compendium of Essence by Shinwick Bibblstitch for a more comprehensive guide to what each of the essence colors means. If you’ve been successful in gaining the ability to see the essence, then you are ready for the next lesson.” I finished reading that session and excitedly opened the next portion.

“Picking your base element to cultivate. While you can begin with cultivating the essence of a higher-tier concept it is not recommended. Think of it as a pyramid on a world with standard gravitational pull. You must place a foundation down to build on top of. Many people that choose to begin their cultivation with a higher-tier concept wind up petering out or stagnating. This is the case 82% of the time. So, unless you have great insight into a higher concept it is recommended that you choose to start with a base element. The base elements include water, fire, earth, air, metal, wood, darkness, and light. The following is a basic explanation of each base element to get you started.

Water: Water may fit the container that it is poured into but given enough time and force it can shape a world.

Fire: Fire is usually associated with pain and destruction, but fire also spreads warmth and allows you to cook food for sustenance.

Earth: Earth is supposed to be steadfast, never moving. But it is also the foundation for growth.

Air: Constantly moving air carries more than the weight of itself.

Metal: Metal must be taken and shaped by your hands. But it may also be found in nature.

Wood: Grows on its own and can split mountains if it’s left alone.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Once you make your choice continue to the next section.” I read over the passage and each of the options. “What the hell do these even mean?” The descriptions didn’t give me a whole lot of information. Because of the guide, I knew that each of these would supposedly lead me to different concepts, so I just decided to pick the one I felt like I knew the most about. “I guess air, I breathe it and then there’s wind, tornados are wind, there are straight winds. Yeah, I guess air.” Once I made my decision, I opened the next section.

“Now that you’ve chosen your base element the next step is to draw in the essence type and use it to build a core. Continue your meditation technique while simultaneously contemplating the base elemental concept. Imagine as if you’re drawing it in with every breath. ‘Note: Some meditation techniques are more beneficial for drawing in different essences. This basic technique will do fine for this first step regardless of the element that you’ve chosen.’ As you draw it in attempt to swirl it within yourself compress the essence until you have formed a core.” It seemed simple enough, so I began doing what the guide had explained.

It was not simple. Almost every time I tried to contemplate the element, I’d chosen I lost my meditation technique, and when I was able to do that successfully the essence came unbearably slow. It took me what I could only assume was several hours to even get a tiny strand of the essence the size of sewing thread to touch my body. Again, I lost my meditation technique, and that’s how the next few days went. The leadership at the school had set up a guard rotation but aside from that I spent my time practicing. On the third day of practice, I finally managed to get the essence to enter me and begin to spiral. I was concentrating so hard on my practice that I didn’t notice when Josh walked up.

“What are you doing?” He asked me startling me out of my meditative state. The essence that I’d had spiraling in my body dissipated and I let out a disappointed groan.

“Nothing man just nothing.” I wanted to tell him, but I knew that for some reason I wouldn’t be able to. He sat down next to me and rested the back of his head against the stage.

“Ok, weirdo...” He paused before taking a deep breath and continuing. “When are we going to go search for my parents?” His question startled me, but it really shouldn’t have. The twins hadn’t found their parents either and I knew that they were feeling nervous about it. I wanted to get out there too, yes to help my friends but also, I knew that I was falling behind. The monsters out there were getting stronger, and judging the strength that Apollo exhibited I still felt like I was the weakest out there.

“Soon I promise, I’m doing something important but once I have it down, we’ll go.” He gave me a puzzled expression.

“I thought you said you weren’t doing anything?” He asked.

“Technically I said I was doing nothing!” I tried to deflect the question but judging by the look on my friend’s face I wasn’t going to get away with it that easily. “I can’t tell you right now, but hopefully I’ll be able to soon.” Josh looked at me skeptically but shrugged his shoulders and got to his feet.

“Alright man but hurry up whatever it is. I’m really worried about them.” I nodded my head not wanting to say the thing that I’d been thinking which was that his parents were probably already dead. Before he walked out though I had a thought and called after him.

“Hey, what do you know about air? Like the element.” He gave me a blank look and I could tell that he didn’t know much.

“You’re in a school man, read a textbook, talk to a teacher.” He laughed and waived over his shoulder as he walked out of the auditorium. I smacked my forehead and sighed in frustration thinking about the time that I’d probably wasted. I got up and walked out to look for the person I knew who could answer my questions. I found him in the gymnasium standing next to another woman and trying to comfort a small boy who was crying.

“Hey dude it’s going to be ok I promise we’re going to protect you.” My old science teacher said placing a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder. The woman he was with hugged the boy and led him away.

“He Mr. Parish how have you been?” I asked making the man turn and stand up, that’s when I noticed he towered over me. I remembered the bearded man being huge when I was in high school, but this was ridiculous. He was at least 7 feet tall, and his muscles bulged in a way that made his khaki pants and torn plaid button-up shirt bulge in a way that made me a little nervous.

“Oh hey!” He looked me over without recognition before it finally hit him. “Little Natey? You look different!” He said taking my new appearance in the way I was getting used to doing to other classers. After we finished staring at each other trying to see the person we once knew he continued. “Can I help you with something?” He asked.

“Uh yeah, I was wondering if you could tell me about air?” I said, gaining a confused look. “You know like air.” Then I pantomimed breathing in, then whistling then, blowing out a few times. I blushed but as a professional teacher, he just blew past it.

“What about air would you like to know?” He asked. I tried to get over my initial embarrassment and cleared my throat.

“You know like what is it? What does it do… that kind of thing?” He looked thoughtful for a second before a look of relief passed over his face. He laughed the same laugh I remembered him using when he was my teacher.

“Alright I don’t know what this is about, but I guess it’s not the weirdest thing to happen in the last few days. Come on let's find you some pen and paper if I’m teaching, you’re taking notes!” I groaned internally. He taught me what he could, and I thanked him then rushed back to my place in the auditorium with my notes. I read the first line of my notes before moving into my meditation position. “Air is basically different gases mixed together, mostly oxygen and nitrogen.” I started meditating while thinking about that and I saw a difference almost immediately. The essence moved faster toward me and what I was able to pull was now the size of a strand of yarn.

I continued in that way for a long while, reading my notes and then continuing my meditation. Most of the essence that I pulled in dissipated, but after a while I was able to start getting it to swirl inside me and compress. A ball the size of a marble began settling inside me and although I still lost more essence than I gained the ball was slowly growing. The essence that was added to the ball never dissipated.

On the third day after I’d started building my core, my progress came to a screeching halt. The core was now the size of my fist, and I could see it floating inside myself around the middle of my body. As soon as my core stopped accepting any more essence my vision went dark and when it returned, I was standing in front of Apollo. He smiled at me and then clapped me on the shoulder.

“Congratulations Nate! Looks like you picked air huh? I’d have gone with fire myself but still not bad! Well, you’ve progressed enough so we can have a little time. Go ahead and ask the questions I’m sure are buzzing around your little head.” I shook my head trying to stop staring at him and think of my questions.

“Ok uh, why can’t I tell my friends about cultivation?” I asked him.

“Oh yeah, that one is like so simple! Most of the people in the congress don’t want the ‘lower races’ to get powerful enough to rise against them and their forces or whatever so they put limitations on what someone can tell others about it. There are a couple of ways to get around that though!” He said lower races with air quotes and paused. “You’re going to want to ask me what those are!” He continued in a sing-song voice.

“What are the ways to get around the limiters?” I asked and he cackled.

“I’m glad you asked! So, the first way to do it is to buy them a cultivation manual like I did for you. Unfortunately, they are like stupid expensive, I mean crazy expensive the one I bought you cost me like 500 million credits. A drop in the bucket for me but for you… yeah.” He took a breath and then held up two fingers. “Number two! If they find out what cultivation is somehow you can answer questions about it since they already know about it, and number three is just to grow your cultivation! The more powerful you are the less the system can place its limiters on you.” He finished answering my question.

I didn’t like that the system could essentially control me. It felt wrong and it kind of made me angry at Apollo seeing as he was the only congress member around. He must have been able to tell where my thoughts were going though because he raised his hand to stop me.

“Come on man it’s not like I voted for it! They’re already pissed that I didn’t bind you with my own cultivation. Now come on we don’t have a lot of time and I’m sure you have more questions.” I hadn’t known that we had a time limit on our conversation, so I rushed to ask my next question.

“How powerful do I have to be to tell my friends about cultivation?”

“Get through your first race upgrade and the system will let you teach no more than four others to get to that point but that’s where it ends you can’t help them past their first upgrade until your next one. You’ll be able to teach more people and help them out with every race upgrade.” He made a motion for me to speed up and I figured we were running out of time.

“What is a race upgrade?”

“You’re a base human, as you upgrade your race, your body will change to be more in line with your cultivation next!”

“You mentioned credits earlier what is that about?”

“You’ll receive the system shop here in a couple of weeks. Doesn’t make sense to give people that option until they’ve proven they can survive without it, you know? Next!” I wanted to argue about that but instead, I continued my rapid-fire questions.

“Why was I able to see you now?”

“You provided me with enough essence that I could make this connection, by the way, don’t expect me to continue writing you those cute little notes all the time they cost essence too and I need to make some profit off of you!”

“What did you mean by binding me with your cultivation?” He crossed his arms in an X sign.

“How do I-“ I started my next question but was interrupted.

“Sorry man out of time! I’ll see you next time!” In the next moment, I was back in the auditorium. A few seconds later I felt an intense pain wrack my entire body. It felt like there were needles shredding my veins and fire underneath my skin. I screamed as the pain continued to build and a black sludge exuded out of my pores. I could hear my bones popping and cracking as I flailed around on the floor then the pain was gone. Slowly and shakily, I got to my feet examining myself to see what had changed.

I couldn’t see any difference so I took off running towards the bathroom so that I could look in a mirror, not one second passed before I ran directly into the double doors leading out of the auditorium. Rubbing my sore nose, I looked back at where I’d started close to the stage. I’d moved at least 50 feet in the span of a second. “Holy shit!” I thought to myself.

Slowly this time I walked to the restroom. Peering into the mirror I could finally take in the changes. Most of the changes were subtle, my teeth looked slightly sharper, and my eyes had changed to a glowing yellow that matched the color of my core. Aside from that, there weren’t any physical changes that I could see, though I did feel much lighter. I jumped side to side on the balls of my feet and it didn’t take much effort at all to get my body to move. My stats had been making me faster and more graceful, but I checked my stats, and they hadn’t moved this felt more physical like I was just slightly weightless.

“I’m going to have to be more careful with how I move around,” I said talking aloud to myself. That statement was truer than I expected because as I made my way to the gymnasium to meet up with my friends I slammed into walls, doors, and lockers. To keep myself from going too fast I had to really focus on the speed I wanted to go and clench my muscles. Walking into the gym I saw Josh and walked over to him.

“Why are you waddling?” He asked me, making me aware of the odd looks that were being pointed at me from people across the room. I sat down next to him and sighed in relief as I relaxed my muscles not really caring that I’d been getting stared at.

“Long story can you go get the others? I have something that I really need to talk to all of you about.” Josh agreed and took off trying to find each of our friends. Roughly ten minutes later I saw the four of them making their way over to me.

“Hey there, are you finally going to tell us what you’ve been doing over in the auditorium for the past week?” Susan said smiling slyly at me.

“Yeah, I am, but not here let's go outside,” I said standing up and clenching my muscles again. The others followed me, giving me odd looks the whole way as I waddled out of the room. Once we were outside, I sat down again.

“So, what’s all of this about Nate? You’ve been kind of sketchy all week!” Tina said gruffly. I knew that the others had been growing impatient with me waiting for me to say yes to going to search for their parents, but the wait was over and I could finally tell them everything that I’d learned. Then we could get back out there. “and I can start leveling up again.” So with that, I began telling them everything that I could about cultivation.