45 Way of the Caged Soul: Demon Release (2/2)

”...Ha...Fine.” Stigma was reluctant but he had to agree, since he had been working overnight in his old life, he barely had any time to relax and had only focused on self studying or saving money for his future expenses, it somehow became a habit after doing three jobs everyday.

Having seen the tense Stigma relax had made the Demon leap out of joy.

”Ha ha ha! Now then, as I had said before you have finally made a breakthrough to this trial congratulation.” As he laughed the attendance had brought a replacement out of thin air.

After changing his new clothes, the Demon bowed his head along with attendance, it looked like they were greeting Stigma like he was a mafia or gang boss. He then gestured Stigma to follow him to the direction to the gates where they exited from a while ago.

Halfway he saw that there were more attendance standing in rows as they went through the gate.

After walking for a while, the Demon had lead him back to the lobby and went towards the staircase going down, the walls were changing from wood to stone as they went deeper, oddly enough when he entered he felt a familiar sensation around the air.

”As I had said before, my cultivation method is related to your skill 'Soul Eater', but you see master this cultivation need a set of requirements fulfilled as do other cultivations.”

”You see Dear Sir, everything in this world, be it wealth, power, fame, needs or ability are not gained for free, if you try to forcefully take them, then consequences will follow...”

While the Demon was explaining about some ancient theories they were know walking in a long hallway with torches lighting the way, from a distance Stigma saw what they were heading towards. But had gotten him very confused as to what he saw.

Up ahead, he could see an overgrown tree covering the entire door, but due to the ceiling in the way he could barely see the exact height from where he was standing. He couldn't tell from the distance, but he could see some ornaments hanging on some of the branches but what type of design it had was still unclear.

When they reached the end, he finally saw how large the tree was, surely enough the tree was extremely old based on the width of the trunk it had, the branches stretched out far in wide but it had no leaves what so ever.

Looking up he could see the decorations he saw before - iron lanterns with no fire inside. He found nothing else around so was confused as to how it grew when there was no light.

While Stigma was puzzled to what he saw, the Demon then shuffled around in his tiny tuxedo and somehow pulled out a oversized hourglass that was over his height.

Inside Stigma could see the contents, instead of seeing sand like he had thought, he saw something like blue water that acted like mercury slowly pouring down by one drop.

It then had one the attendance lift the hourglass and followed behind him, gesturing Stigma to follow.

”Dear Sir there are three requirements to be followed to use this cultivation: tribute, spirit and sacrifice.”

Pointing to the hourglass, the attendant stood still as the Demon explained it's function.

”This one is a measuring device, it is based on how much Zen energy you had sacrifice tributed as a form of payment, how much sacrifice is how long you can stay here. Because of your current level you can only last for about an hour.”

'Huh? Then how come I'm still here though? It had been about four to five hours since I came to this world, so the Demon's explanation was contradicting from his current level. Unless...'

Stigma then checked his status and found out why he was still here. He previously had a stockpile of Zen energy by 260%, yet it had lost about 50% since he last checked. So going by the time he was here the conversion matches.

”You seem to get it, as I said before this cultivation is based on your 'Soul Eater' skill, so it would not be strange to see the skill give you benefits when you use this cultivations.”

”Next would be Spirit.” The Demon then turned to the tree and had Stigma use his 'Essence Reader', what he found had really made his jaw drop.

When he first saw it he already assumed it was dead, but when he activated his skill he had been proven wrong. He was immediately blinded by seeing a view of bright light arranged like christmas tree decorations.

The lanterns from before were now filled with different colored light of from primary to secondary. When he got closer he felt a familiar sensation as if he had experienced it from before.

”...Are these all the energies I have gained when I used 'Soul Eater'...”

”That's right, all the light you see above the tree represent all the energy you have stock pilled and have yet to fully formed and absorbed, and the lanterns represents all the souls you have gained. Bear in mind, without me you would have gone insane from all these beast souls acting up.”

”These represents the spirits that you require for you cultivation, you were suppose to fight them one on one, yet to be fair I am going to be the one to use them all at once so you are fighting me all the time.”

”The last one is sacrifice, you would have to give up some of your life force to commence the breakthrough. But do keep in mind this is also a reminder and a warning, as to not recklessly try to make a breakthrough as long as your life in on the line.”

To most cultivators, doing a breakthrough was a serious gamble, it was not due to failing and going back to square one. If they do not fulfill a breakthrough they would lose some lifeforce, meaning they more times they fail, the more their life shortens.

That is why most organizations still have young cultivators, since they have experience veterans to support them, resources to help ease the danger to their breakthrough, and a backer that will protect them from wandering cultivators.

”By the way most clans follow the procedure of slowly meditating and accumulating the surrounding energies, their cultivation is a slow and boring process. Your's on the other hand immediately burns all the energy at once, since you will be sparing with me and this area continuously circulating all your excess energy.”

”Huh! Wouldn't anyone be able use this method if I let them in!”

”Ha ha ha! That's impossible, because you would have to die to use this cultivation method and enter here.”

....Huh?

[1] I was originally going to call this ability Stigma Curse, but it sounded redundant if I call the skill by its user since it was going to be confusing during scenarios. Plus calling it Stigmata would give a conflicting concept, since the term has a religious meaning.

The links here if your curious:

[2] thrown in a boiling pot of oil -a cruel torture method or execution in mythology and history, it only means he is going to put the little Demon through hell later on, since it claimed to be able to revive as long as it is here.