In this realm, individuals who became cultivators gain abilities that goes beyond the norm, such as lifting weight beyond them, able to heal burns and cuts in seconds, heightened senses that made it appear as a six sense, and lastly the ability to manipulate the energy to their will.
Their history dictates that there were cultivator who mastered each skill to the extreme, there was one who utilized his strength that he can create earthquakes by striking the ground with his fist as a form of training, and as a declaration of war to a clan who offended him until they were destroyed, another used a sword and cleaved a row of mountains after one strike, there was even one who traveled to mountain to mountain in a few breaths.
There were those who mastered healing, those who use this art can heal by the masses instantly. Many religions have been formed using it as a message of God in the areas the reside in, absorbing the commoners to be their devoted followers and were acknowledge as saints. Any one who had mastered healing were recognized to be a practitioner of a sacred art. A highly profiting ability that was monopolized by such organization.
Those who mastered their sense, choose the line of the underworld. Those who choose the profession of assassination use the senses that can effect others and mask their presence, capable in killing targets in a distance or blocking attacks from a distance. They can even manipulate their own presence to be someone else given time.
Finally, the ability to change the form of the energy, the downside is that turning the energy into an actual living being was impossible, take Hilda as an example, she is still classified as object even when the energy had given her a conscience which itself is rare phenomenon, she can't reproduce in her current form.
Given time and training creating a body double would be possible, however the double cannot have his own emotion as he is a puppet so he will only copy the caster. There once someone who tried to bring his lover back to life using her corpse as catalyst, the conclusion however only made her into a lifeless puppet with no memory of her past, her body however was modified to sustain energy and not leak, so she or more accurately it cannot age easily, since energy is not only stored in the body she is bathed in it.
Each of these abilities can only be described as God-like.
What Wade was doing was what all cultivators can do, if he were to run normally he can never reach Stigma by the end of the day, but by using his Zen energy, he travel their in a couple of hours, given that he is already a Tier 2 cultivator.
Using his reserves, he was strengthening his body to boost his speed and reflexes, which is difficult since he had to constantly use his energy that is leaking.
He is a Early stage Tier 2, so has the reserves, and a dangerous cultivator when he is encountered by weaker opponents.
Out of nowhere, a group of wolves started to ambush him, rushing with a look of frenzy. Even veterans have a difficult time beast a surprised attack when he is unaware.
Unfortunately, they were meet by his Great sword severing them all in half, stopping for a moment to collect his prize the core, he continued to where the signal was showing.
***
Given his current speed, Wade would be able find Stigma's location in no time, but that is another concern.
Stigma was still in the forest, only this time, screams of pain can be heard. Puddles of blood were on the ground, pieces of flesh were everywhere, the tearing of flesh can be heard making one's skin crawl in fear from the unbelievable scene of horror.
A tree was shaking violently though there was no wind present but it continued to move, behind it was a small figure struggling, its body was bound to the tree, shaking with its might to break free from his hold, yet only leaves started falling after each struggle, it continued to bite and scream to keep away the figure sitting cross legged in front of him.
Lash marks where on its face with its eye bleeding from the attack of a whip, on its limbs and body were covered with holes the size of knives, rocks were in the holes on his body as if he was target practice, burns were on its arms simulating the scene of horror and the smell of burning flesh was smelled in the air, and a large cut wound was on its right shoulder, yet what was binding it was still unknown.
To no avail it struggled, finally the figure stopped from his meditation and walked towards it, when it heard the foot steps getting closer, it squealed continuing to struggle from its invisible restraints screaming and biting to keep him away, trying to hide the fear from showing.
The figure stopped about five meters away, what he held were three knives on hand and an ax was thrown to the ground beside him.
The figure took a stance, holding a knife in between his fingers on one hand and holding the other two from the opposite, he eyed the tree where the poor soul was struggling breathing deeply then.
"Release!"
A shout of order was given to an invisible being, after hearing the order the small figure had realized it was able to move, but with the injuries it sustained and the torture it went through, fear was what over came it not the joy of it's freedom.
Sparing no time it ran to its left, throwing away its dignity and dragging it wounded body away tripping every know and then.
*Swoosh* the knife was thrown towards its back, screaming in pain was all that he could do, all it wanted to do was hunt with the group, but now it was suffering a fate far worse then it can ever imagine.
It struggled to continue only to have two more knives attack him, feeling the cold steel on its back only made it feel despair of the reality it was in.
With no choice left it played dead, hoping that after he got closer he would lass out it's accumulating hatred towards him.
*Thud!*
Hearing the footsteps, he was getting ready to aim for his throat without mercy, unexpectedly it felt a tight sensation on its neck and choking, it was without mercy, clawing the ground was all it could do to try to break free.
After wards the feeling of grip on its neck loosed.
It was then able to breath and with the identity of being a corpse is gone, following its previous plan he swung its arm to stun then he aimed to bite his throat at the figure, only to be greeted by a thrown ax, losing it's life.
***
*BING!*
[Skill 'Throwing' has ranked up, to rank II, damage due to thrown projectile will increase.]
Hearing the notification, the skill 'Throwing' had also leveled up, but during the fights he earned more than he could imagine. Using the skill 'Soul Eater' he absorbed the last soul, collecting his knives an ax and digging out the core, he left it for the baby wolf to devour.
"What a healthy little one." Hilda made her comment with sincerity. His grinding training was actually her idea.
'The little fella can sure eat, it already ate four corpses previously, just how much can it eat. Must be because they were skinny.'
The bats he fought were weak, although there was some higher leveled ones, Dusk had restrained about three so he fought them one by one, getting a breathing room after each one.
After changing and testing his fighting style, he ranked up his 'Knife Mastery' after his second fight, after realizing that he can grind his skills with the Beast he restrained, using his Grudge energy forming it like a whip attacking the still breathing Beast that the puppy beat, and as he expected the Bat was struggling like it was in a net.
Changing the structure a little, he was able to make some an elastic whip that he can control, at the moment he can only use two for both hands, he wanted to have enough to be his ultimate guard in the future so he had to cultivate earnestly.
He tried to cover his hand the energy, due to constant practice he had he can cover his hand without needing to mold it first, he tried punching a tree and it caved in from the first strike, a tap made it shudder a little, and tried it on his legs. He noticed that he didn't feel any pain after striking the tree with a heavy blow. Despite looking like it was covered in purple clouds that looked transparent.
He then tried to mix the energy he had, like the 'Fire Energy' with the 'Grudge Energy', only that instead of having a cool move like 'Fire Fist' that coat his hands in flames, the Grudge energy was covering his hands and was infected by the fire energy turning it slightly red, he decided to test it out by a tree and touched it, after a few moments he saw smoke coming from his hand, he saw burn marks that looked his hand when he removed it, the tree was infected by the energy and started to burn a little until he absorbed it back.
Looking at his hands he saw no burn marks, which puzzled him, after testing out the other energy on the tree and the Bat, he found out that mixing other energy gives different effect. Alone it was like gum like substance like a certain individuals ability[1].
With the grudge energy alone he was able to make a strong and sticky substance that latches on to anything it landed, to test it out he placed some on the Bat's limbs to the ground, the result it looked like it was anchored, then he applied to its face it died after frantically clawing its face, showing that it couldn't breath. Scary!
Mixing the water energy, he was able to create a more versatile form, the whip he made with the Grudge energy alone was heavy like chains, with the water however, he was able to change midway in a faster rate. Changing to a whip, to a sword, to a face of a wolf, even making a puppet was possible, but due to the lack of reserves he was only able to move it for two feet away.
When he placed it on the body of a trapped Bat his energy was infecting the Bat and he can control the energy inside the bat. Although it was unable to do anything else like change the energy inside but it can still change shape, when he controlled it to expand. The result the leg where it resided exploded. Yikes!
The light energy however was interesting, when he formed it he thought he made something like a black light, but when he applied to the next one he realized it was weakening, checking its soul he saw that his life force was being suppressed leaving the body to a weakened stat, to test something out he applied 'Soul Eater' what happened next was like watching a straw pulling water and he focused it on the energy which worked.
Curiously he applied the 'Wrath energy' something horrible happened, when he was looking at the soul he didn't notice the changes happening to the Bat, its body was small started to bulge muscles, veins started popping out of its skin, and it looked more rabid. The soul showed that it was infected by red energy. The strength increased two fold, forcing even Dusk to restrain it by the neck to calm it down.
After a few more outburst, it stopped moving leaving behind an exhausted Bat, but because of its struggle Dusk was able to Rank up with its skill, due to its constant struggle in it's body. The skill 'Poltergeist' also ranked up because of it.'
He was about to get other one but it was struggling as well only this time Dusk was suffocating it by covering its face. Cruel!
With all the experimentation done, he kept on grinding with the remaining one until he was able to get a use to leading him to being experienced after a few more times, wiping away the blood on the knives and ax he checked his progression.
'Essence Reader'
[Name: Stigma Falsus
Age: 10
Rank: Unique
Skill:
Essence Reader(III) 5%, Poltergeist (III) (1) 15%, Soul Eater (III) 10%, Taboo(I) 60%
*
Current Souls Absorbed: Soul of Impurity, Wolf Soul
*
Pure Energy: 40%
Grudge Energy: 38%
Wrath Energy: 30%
Zen Energy: 40%
Fire Energy: 4%
Water Energy: 20%
Light Energy: 4%
*
Wolf Soul: 20%
Tiger Soul: 30%
Bat Soul: 60%
*
Souls: Soul of Wrath
*Familiars:*
1. Dusk (1)
2. Brunhilda (1)
*
*
Skills: Throwing (II) 10 %, Knife Mastery (II) 15%, Hunting (II) 12%
[Cooking, Farming, Hunting, Blacksmith, Glasswork, Masonry, Sewing, Calculation, Riding, Archery, Wood Carving, Animal Breeding, Herbalist, Pottery, Brewing, Dancing, Musician, Alchemy, Fishing, Penmanship, Butchering, Decipher, Spear Mastery, Ax Mastery]
Skill to learn: [YES] [NO]
***
Like he expected, the grinding was useful and a number of skills ranked up before he knew it, looking at the Wolf Soul, he remembered that he had somehow activated the skill of the beast like he had the knowledge already.
Going by normal means, he would have to have practice before figuring it out, but result speaks volumes. After absorbing the souls he was able to gain the abilities of the beast including the experience they had in using it, so he only had to absorb more souls and get their natural skills, until then he had to get stronger.
Looking around he noticed that there was a presence coming near hear so he grabbed his stuff and ordered Dusk to guard him.
What showed up was the same type of Heavenly Beast that caused him to be wary after seeing its ability.
The Predator Tiger.
[1] I made him have similar abilities of Hisoka's from Hunter x Hunter.