Standard Cultivation Manual

The book was bound in leather and had a great heft to it even though it was only the size of Lance's palm. Lance untied the string that was tying it closed to see 3 striking words in English filling the first page:"Standard Cultivation Manual".

Darius, who was peeking over Lance's shoulder, saw the title and exclaimed, "A standard manual! No wonder you are at the bottom! Historically, many people with unknown intrinsic natures scored very low marks in the initiation test only to soar like a phoenix later. Of course, I am not talking about those that didn't have any intrinsic nature and ended up dying in the next phase. I feel proud to have a friend like you! Either you will be cannon fodder, or you will strong enough to carry your whole team through. I'm waiting to see which one it'll be!"

Lance, who had just processed everything Darius just said, asked him with a sense of fear forming in his mind," People with no intrinsic nature dying as cannon fodder? That can happen?".

"Very rarely.", answered Darius. "It is many times rarer than finding an unknown nature. Don't worry, the last time it happened was almost a thousand years ago."

"How do you know so much about everything? Was there any onboarding class that I missed?", asked Lance. This question had been on his mind since he had seen Darius being able to answer almost every question he had.

"Nope. My ancestor was luckily stationed on earth when my family died. He took me in and with the permission of the high council, groomed me from an early age to become part of IE. As such, I just know a little more than you.", answered Darius as a flash of sadness flashed across his face.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Anyway, where can we get some food around here? I'm starving!", said Lance trying to change the topic.

"There's a cafeteria nearby and all information like this is in your manual. Check it out while I go say goodbye to some friends I made here. We can go grab a bite together."

Lance wondered if Darius was being this close to him because of a sense of friendship or like he had said, because he could either be a phoenix or fodder. Either way, it felt good to have someone knowledgeable with him when everything around him was so new and foreign to him.

Lance opened the cultivation manual. The beginning read:

"Energy is the building block of the universe. Hence, the path of cultivation is the path of becoming a higher energy being. In the Initiate stage of cultivation, one adapts the core of the body to hold and store energy. The standard cultivation manual provides you with the most efficient way to proceed. As your intrinsic nature is not discovered yet, the energy gathered will be nature-less. Your energy will change when you discover your nature as you can then consciously convert your energy.

In the path of cultivation, patience is key. Be creative with your intrinsic nature. Become comfortable with it. Become able to use it to manipulate energy into anything that you can think of. One with the "Fire" intrinsic nature can make their energy and thus their punches scorching hot. One with the "Time" intrinsic nature can manipulate the sense of time in their opponents head to land a hit before their opponent can realize it.

YOUR IMAGINATION IS YOUR ONLY LIMIT."

Lance felt enlightened. There was so much more to intrinsic nature than he had thought. The last sentence especially built confidence in him, as he had always been very creative since childhood.

But, he immediately deflated when he remembered that his intrinsic nature was still a mystery. He just wished that he wasn't cannon fodder.