Cultivating and Multitasking

The lecture went on for almost an hour, but since Stigma had little information about the world around him, he found the conversation to be very helpful as the woman's explanation was filled with details that followed a broad but lucid concept.

To give a visual aid, Stigma was told to imagine the body as a furnace.

This said furnace contains a fire which requires fuel to keep it sustained for an extended period of time.

Adding fire wood means adding more fuel to the flames, and to be able to use the heat produced by the furnace will require certain actions, skills or special tools to perform certain tasks such as blacksmithing or cooking.

All in all, Stigma was explained that in this world, people are born with a certain life energy called Zen.

Though the majority are said to have very little Zen energy by birth, and are considered to be in the Zero Tier, training and dedication could help increase their foundation to allow them to grow strong and extend their life force.

He was also told that after reaching a certain point, constant training can yield result to allow any individual to achieve a breakthrough and become great figures known as Cultivators - individuals who train in the martial way &/or the mystical arts.

Of course, if someone was unprepared and tried to attempt a breakthrough or 'ignite' their energy without proper guidance, there will be cases were anyone could immediately lose their rights to be a cultivator or shorten their life span upon their mistake.

Because the energy in they're body is finite, and they may have yet to go through proper training, there are some cases when individual will unintentionally force out all their life energy while making a breakthrough.

Naturally, there are some who survive and become cultivators, they all eventually end up facing a difficult fate of being a cripple.

Although each person can cultivate in different paces, that was under the assumption that there was enough Zen energy for them to work with and had a stable foundation. Hence most try to Cultivate at an early age.

As the lecture went on Stigma was told that over the years Cultivators started categorising their level of abilities into three levels before most try to make a breakthrough. Early Stage, Mid Stage and Late Stage.

'Early stage' or the 'Ember Stage', is the stage where most start out. Though 'Igniting' the energy in their bodies at this stage is considered dangerous, as most don't often have enough surplus life energy or Zen energy as a catalyst for their breakthrough. There will be cases were unique heritage will come to light after igniting their own energy, such that of Stigma who are born with a damaged vessel.

In any case, whether one can accumulate enough Zen energy to Cultivate and whether their bodies are trained enough to be considered as a proper vessel to contain any energy at all is their first trial to be Cultivator.

Of course, the benefit of this stage is that one can still plan out their Cultivation route create a stable foundation. Not only that, most try to find proper guidance and accumulate enough resources to Cultivate, which means that although they are far from reaching their goal, one can still shape their destiny.

Unfortunately, this stage is where most don't ever show results as it takes a very long time for them to refine their Cultivation.

Next is the 'Mid stage' or the 'Foundation Stage'. This stage is where one's training method varies on each cultivator but follows the same concept, to test whether one can accumulate and contain enough Zen energy to their limits.

This stage will go on by years or even months, yet only a handful can only produce results in a shorter time frame.

Though most are considered stagnant if they reach this stage, there is a limit to how much energy a cultivator can contain before going through a breakthrough, hence once a Cultivator is familiar with containing the accumulated Zen energy, using it during battle or everyday life was possible.

Of course, just by accumulating energy is considered beneficial for ones sustainability outside of combat. For instance, if one received a broken arm, with the energy stored in their body, one can be healed within moments or days if ones knows the right methods.

If one is not familiar with accumulating enough Zen energy, then Cultivators are faced with the danger of unknowingly wasting their energy and will have to start again from the beginning of the Ember Stage.

In the end, attempting a breakthrough for any cultivator is a make or break type of situation. If an individual from the Zero Tier is able to make a successful breakthrough, then they will be cultivators that broke through their limits and reached a higher realm.

Failure, on the other hand, would mean that a Cultivator is regressing back to being a mortal. Which by itself would receive the scorn of others as they are believed to be unreliable.

Fortunately, so long as Cultivators are able to reach the higher Tiers, they can redo a failed break through so long as they don't reach the lowest Tier.

That is why when cultivator train in the second stage, it is called the most important to make a foundation for the future.

The last stage is the most important stage it is called the 'Late Stage' or 'Boundary Stage'.

By its literal meaning, this is where all the energy they have accumulated will be used to ignite all the Zen energy to break through to the next Tier. If the energy in their bodies did not suffice, then they will go through the process of going back to square one in the cultivating their energy.

That is why there were more Cultivators in the Mid stage rather than the Late Stages, as going through a breakthrough is a huge gamble.

Over the years, it has been found out that Cultivator have made successful breakthroughs in different forms, be it using fighting techniques, knowledge, discoveries etc. Because of the years of predecessors creating and refining techniques, figuring out a Cultivators abilities are considered difficult to say the least.

Surprisingly to most cultivator's belief, just eating, training and battling strong opponents is enough for one to accumulate enough energy via experience. But with the rise of political and military might, competition was unavoidable.

Hence, many are trying to be a member of a clan or sect, with a long history to make up the difference.

"Normally, most just try to meditate as a form of training to get stronger in cultivation. It a long and tedious labour but it is the safest way for one to achieve a breakthrough."

As the beauty continued, Stigma could not help but think like she was a teacher as she gave a detailed explanation. Other than the contents being related to a fantasy like setting, it was clear enough for him to understand.

Surprisingly he found out that most cultivator, either eat, train and battle strong opponents to find inspiration or experience to accumulate enough energy through their own methods.

Unfortunately, it seems as though the Beauty was following the makeshifts incense burning and was wrapping up the conversation.

After her explanation, the Beauty stood up and patted her self down.

She then explained that she was once a cultivator who followed a belief that playing music was a way to communicate to the deceased, and when she died, she became a ferryman to the deceased of the innocent.

Because of her long servitude, she long forgotten how she died or how much the world has changed so she could not provide enough information for Stigma to get by.

"Since you don't follow a path of cultivation, try experimenting. Your only limit is your imagination." She walked away afterwards with a trace of a smile.

"Wait! What is your name?" Stigma still asked, to thank her.

She turned her head, only to show a face of sadness.

"I have long forgotten my name, call me however you want." She then continued to walk away.

Stigma taught for a moment and decided to call her based on how she had described her life, it was not sad, it was noble.

"I'll call you Bellflower or Bell for short, it's a flower meaning 'those who grieve are loved'. Thank you, Bell, for the lecture you gave me!!!" Stigma bowed to her back, with a face of joy.

The beauty stopped and muttered the name 'Bell, Bell, Bell', a strong wind passed by as she turned around and nodded her head, after that she played her flute and disappeared from the storm of leaves.

She looked like she liked the name Bell.

After she left, a notification appeared.

*BING!*

[You have gained favour on a Heavenly Being of spirits, you will receive Zen energy as a Gift.]

[Energy will be gained for the act of kindness.]

[Current Souls Absorbed:

Pure Energy: 75%

Grudge Energy: 25.8%

Wrath Energy: 23.1%

Zen Energy: 55%]

*BING!*

[Time limit has been reached, would you like learn another skill.] [YES] [NO]

Out of nowhere the time limit notification showed up, it appears that his guess was right, it looks like spending time butchering the wolves and cooking the meat had taken up most on his time including the lecture, had preoccupied his time. After looking through the list of skill, Stigma randomly picked skill called 'Knife Mastery' and a notification appeared.

*BING!*

[Skills Knife Mastery: 24:00:00]

[Skills Knife Mastery: 23:99:98]

[Skills Knife Mastery: 23:99:96]

[Skills Knife Mastery: 23:99:94]

[Skills Knife Mastery: 23:99:92]

And like before, the same time limit had appeared.

Although they were other skills that were more important, with skills like the 'Axe Mastery', he had to use an axe which he has been already having trouble with just lifting it, so he will have to have a stronger body before he can fully use it.

Gradually, the skills he will learn will increase so he had to pick the one he can learn freely right now.

He then turned to the offering, to find the substitute incense already burned out.

After storing the food in large leaves he found and cleaned, Stigma now had numerous packaging filled with meat. With the bags he found in the cave, Stigma started to store the meat including the rest of his spoils.

Unfortunately, because the total weight was more than he had expected, Stigma had to reluctantly give up most of the meat he had as he figured it would eventually spoil.

"Heavy! Guess I have no choice, I'll have Dusk carry most of this." He had distributed them into two bags with him carrying a smaller bag.

Out of curiosity, he ate a piece of wolf meat only to give a face of delight, he thought that he had little spice to make it work, but it appears Gus was not wrong.

The reason many kept on hunting beast, was not because of the cores alone but the meat when you cook it had little gamey taste.

He tried fed it to Dusk, only to find it only staring at the meat laid out for him, he tried having him eat it when he put it in his mouth and ordered him to bite it repeatedly, only to find that it only just chewed it repeatedly and turned it into shredded meat.

'It does not appears to need food, not even to drink water. It was either self-sufficient or using the skill 'Assimilation' to feed itself.' Eventually Stigma lost interest and looked around.

"Now then." When the skill knife mastery had been learn, he unsheathed a knife and started twirling it, unfortunately he kept on dropping it to the ground.

'It appears that the skills are not instant learning, these skills are similar to talents so only by practising will only make it develop.'

The direction he and Dusk were going was Red Lily Valley, where the slave market that Gus had told him had settled.

While they were walking, he had Dusk use 'Mimicry' to transform his hand into blades continuously, when skill was used it didn't look like water like he had expected, it transformed similar how clay way being moulded, slow and crude.

He suspected that Dusk had no knowledge on how sharp a blade should be, or he told him and only mimicked what shape the blade would be in his memory.

To find out its sharpness, he had him swing it at a tree. Unfortunately, it turn out to be a blunt weapon.

Instead of cut marks, he saw something similar to a collision to a bat to a sheetrock wall and the wall broke instead.

Dusk strength is understandable, it appears as though its speed is still lacking but reflexes are amazing, and along with the invisibility he would be considered a perfect tool for assassination.

Then a thought occurred to him, he had to cultivate and get Dusk ability to transform in a higher level so he could transform faster, and the distance from here would take him a few days, so he won't miss the last day to buy a few slaves.

"Think boy, think, you have been able to multitask in study while working to have more time in playing a game in the night, what would be effective…Wait! There was that idea!"

Stigma remembered there was this one game, that if you leave it on, it will automatically mine resources each hour, so then applying that theory to this scenario would work.

First, he had Dusk transform, he gave a perfect image for him to change into.

Dusk who was standing about four feet, had slouched even more than usual, his hands that were thin hand became thicker and its fingers became shorter, his legs along with its shoulders that were for humans use, started molding into a four legged animal.

The transformation took a long time, Stigma had Dusk turn into a four legged canine, not just any canine, it was the beast he had hunted not long ago, a wolf.

Unlike the ones it caught, the size difference was very obvious, the wolves were the size of a sofa, but for Dusk it was half the size, it appearance looked like a hell hound.

Unlike the wolves who looked noble with their grey fur and large built, Dusk had an appearance of a rabid dog who had no fur and his entire body was thin with deformities, his paws were still the shape of hands instead of a birds including his legs and feet, they were roughly shaped like one.

He had him run, jump and dodge, fortunately he was able to run like a wolf despite his size he was quite fast, as for the jumping he had the ability to jump over his head, while dodging had no problems either as he threw a bunch of rocks at him.

When he checked his status, the 'Mimicry' had increased to 25% already, but it didn't go up when he was moving around, so he ordered him to transform to other forms.

The result his transformation into huge animals was slower and the outcome was similar to the wolf, they were half the size and had a skinny appearance.

On the other hand, when he had him transform into smaller animals like a snake, an owl, or a mouse, the outcome was different, the size had matched like the ones he knew albeit bigger than the originals.

He check the 'Mimicry' again and it went up to 35% after the consecutive transformation, so he ordered it that when on they were walking he had him transform to animal to animal, and when Dusk hunted he would use the animal forms to hunt as training.

Making full use of his time, he even had him use 'Invisibility' along with the transformation.

Normally when Dusk turns invisible he fades away so no one can see him, but somehow there was a mental connection between the two, so Stigma knows when he is nearby.

As for Stigma, he kept on playing with the knife and switching it between both of his hands, he included throwing it on trees as practice for both his 'Knife Mastery' and 'Throwing', although slow, both were progressing on the way by 1%.

As for his cultivation, he had followed Bell's advice and tried to meditate, it took him about an hour to use the Zen energy he had to attract the atmosphere energy she spoke about.

He had try to draw in the energy outside his body as the energy kept on floating around him he had to somehow get a large bulk as he tried to concentrate, the feeling was like trying to get water with your hands, but most of the water was spilling so he was only able to cultivate little by little as he had to try to purify it to be his energy, the process took about a minutes until he was able to absorb it complete.

It looked like Zen energy increased by 1%, but for the foreign energy he absorbed it as well, but it looks like it entered the True Energy, including the Grudge Energy and the Wrath Energy, he was still unsure what their effects were and he was not willing to gamble with his life for it.

During each break he had been focusing on meditating, while he had Dusk protect him as it did its form Mimicry training. Looking with 'Essence Reader' he saw that the Zen Energy, was slowing increasing as well.

He had been doing this for the entire trip, but he still had four days left so he was in no rush.

So he still had time to figure out what to do with his cultivation.

---

After half a day had passed, he was still in the forest, where he was now or how far he had gotten was beyond him, with all meat he had cooked before he was not short on food, so he doesn't need Dusk to hunt any for now.

During each break he ate and had used Dusk as a practice dummy, which was told to help him fight by dodging each of his attack as he practiced the knives he was using.

The result, however, he was tired after 15 swings, he recognized that using a weapon was different as he was just giving large swings every now and then.

The sun was about to go down, so he had to find shelter, eventually he found a large opening in the ground, it was large enough for him and Dusk to walk in, so he had Dusk get in and kill anything that was in there.

Fortunately there was nothing in there to be sure he had Dusk transform into a snake to cover in the dark to protect him, he brought out a firestone when he entered as Dusk was behind his shadow.

He found a lot of tools inside the cave that Gus and Frank were, he found a few small stones each with a different color yellow for light, red for starting a fire, and a blue stone that release some water.

He asked about them from Bell and she told him that, in this word necessities for everyday life have been made from small stones embedded by enchanters to give core stones with abilities, unfortunately most only have a one-time use or have a limited energy, so it can't be used repeatedly, so many try to buy smaller stone.

But even the ones the size of a pebble was more than ten gold coins, so only those who are middle class or merchants can use them, but for organization like a kingdom or empire, they use them like water.

After looking around twice he used a stick and lit the end for the light, there was nothing out of the ordinary except some stones lying around, he choose a place to rest, placing everything in one corner and dug out the ground with the shovel he found in the cave before, to hide the tools and food.

Exhaustion hit him afterwards, he eventually looked around out of boredom and used 'Essence Reader', just like before he was seeing energy from all over the place, in the tree, the sky, and the air, he even saw a little life forces underground that would represent small animals burrows in the ground…

'Hmm? That's weird.' Stigma looked again only to find something ominous.