12 Cultivating (1/2)
”It's about time! I thought you would end up only using me for becoming rich! He he” Answered Sewah.
Part of Daniel's plan had always been to become stronger. Strength was dependant on money in Phyrri, but in order to make money, unless born into a rich family, one required something to rely on.
Originally Daniel wanted to pay his debt, allow his sister to graduate from school, and then let her find a good job. But after seeing the way the wealthy treated human lives of the lowest level, he realized that he needed more than that. He needed a way to prevent others from stepping over him and his sister, like the hotel owner did with his family. He needed strength.
Daniel wasn't harmless anymore, he didn't need to live by the day like he used to.. He had the Karmic system now.. He could plan.
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*Primary Quest started: You Can't Do Good Without Strength!*
-Description: Obtain enough power to protect those in need.
First objective set: Cultivate to the peak ”Vasodilation” of the martial cultivation, or the peak ”Profound Spiritual connection” of the spiritual cultivation.
Optional: Reach ”perfection” before breaking through the next stage.
Reward: Karma +500(+1000)
Time limit: 3 months(4 months)
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Surprise grew on Daniel's face as one more window appeared inside his mind, warning him that a new quest had started.
Since the moment he had awakened Sewah and the karmic system, Daniel had understood a few things about it. First of all, a primary quest had to start from a train of thought. For example, the ”Freedom for all!” quest had started when had witnessed the treatment Mea had received by the fat merchant, and his desire to set her free, had triggered the creation of the quest. Second, a quest has to pertain to Karma. In each quest a decision had to be made that would either grant him positive or negative karma, meaning that he could possibly create any sort of quest, provided that he formulated it within the parameters of karmic influence.
The very last quest, for example, wouldn't have been created if Daniel only wished to become strong. But since he decided to become strong in order to protect his sister, he turned his motive into one that would influence his karma, therefore creating the quest.
”Well, that comes in handy! He he” Sewah was just about to explain how to utilize karmic points to Daniel, when the window appeared. He was, of course, part of the karmic system, so he was able to see through every change within the system itself, like Daniel could. ”It's very simple, really.. Start cultivating, and whenever you will enter a lengthy process, just think of speeding it up. Your karmic points will slowly decrease, until you'll run out.. Have you learned nothing from me!? Trial and error! come on!” Explained Sewah.
Daniel still didn't know anything about cultivation. That was the reason why he had bought the cultivation manuals. He took them out and started reading through their pages.
In Daniel's world, cultivation had two main branches.
The Martial cultivation, which allowed a person to strengthen their bodies through the use of Ki, and Spiritual cultivation, which had the aim of cultivating one's spirit through the use of mana, and increase its connection to the spiritual plane, from which the cultivator could absorb the power required to use magic.
The basics of martial and spiritual cultivation explained the first two ”main stages” of cultivation. Each main stage was divided into three sub stages, commonly referred to as ”ranks”.
Each person would be born as a mortal, and their default stages of cultivation were at the ”Muscle Strengthening” of the martial cultivation, and the ”Spirit Forming” of the spiritual cultivation. These two stages were known as the starting point of every human being, and therefore referred to as unranked.
The first two main stages of the martial cultivation were the Body Strengthening stage, and the Nigh Inhuman stage.
The Body strengthening stage started with the Organs Enhancing sub-stage, or rank 1, which enhanced your organs resistance and efficiency. The rank 2, or the Bones Refining sub-stage, was the stage that would allow the cultivator to increase the density of their bones. The third and last sub-stage of the Body Strengthening stage was called Vasodilation, and was the dilation of one's blood vessels, which would increase the flux of blood that would allow the body keep up with the increased strain.
After breaking through from the Body strengthening stage, one would find himself into the Nigh Inhuman Stage. The Nigh Inhuman stage was similarly divided into three sub-stages, or ranks.
Starting from the Full Control sub-stage, or rank 4, which allowed a person to perfect the control of their body. The rank 5, described as the Reflex Heightening sub-stage, was the stage that allowed a cultivator to increase his reflexes to an inhuman level. Ultimately, the Surrounding Awareness sub-stage, or Rank 6, was the stage that allowed a cultivator to develop a field around their bodies, inside which they would have complete awareness.
The book that Daniel had bought only mentioned the third main stage of the martial cultivation as ”Immortal Path stage”.
Similarly to the basics of the martial cultivation, the basics of spiritual cultivation only explained the depth of the first two stages. They were called the Spirit Connection, and Spiritual Synchronization stages.
The sub-stages of spiritual cultivation were much easier to understand, as the spirit had much less parts to nurture when compared to the body. Therefore, each main stage of the spiritual cultivation's sub-stages were used to indicate the progress in the main stage, and were referred to as faint, moderate and profound. For example, a person in the first rank of the spiritual cultivation would be referred to as a spiritual cultivator at the faint spiritual connection stage.
Like in the manual of martial cultivation, the third stage of spiritual cultivation had only been mentioned, and it was called the ”Spirit Merging” stage.
The more Daniel read the more he understood, but at the end, he started to have some doubts.. Why was there no mention to ”perfection” in any of these books?
He read the manual's pages over and over again, but the answers he looked for were nowhere to be found. According to the manuals, one could attempt to breakthrough to the next stage right after refining their blood vessels if cultivated the body, or reached the profound spiritual connection if they cultivated the spirit.