Choices

As Mr. Carter finished his lecture, the folder that was sitting on the invisible table opened by itself and packets of information shot towards each of the students. "All these techniques are Peak Soul Formation level techniques. After reaching that level of strength, you have to create your own personal Dao, or path, so techniques become meaningless. I've included the school entrance test, which should give you an idea of what your choices are. Room 101 is the Freshman Library for the building, they have copies of all the techniques available so head there after you make your choice. If you have any questions feel free to ask me any questions, I'll be over there." He pointed towards a small lake in the corner of the room where several of the tamed monsters had congregated to grab a drink.

Walking over, he pulled a boat out of thin air and hopped on it before taking out a reel. He lit a cigarette and proceeded to relax and fish while the students stared at him in amazement, unable to believe that someone would be so brazen as to smoke and fish while in a high school.

"Holy shit!" Kara said, unable to believe the what she was seeing.

"No kidding, is that even legal?" John said, shaking his head in bemusement as he opened up his informational packet.

"No way I'm going to be a body cultivator." Kara said as she ripped that section of the pamphlet out and threw it to the ground without even bothering to look at them.

"Me either." John said as he watched the pages flutter around in the wind, "That shit looked way too painful." Taking a closer look at the pamphlet, John saw his picture with several stats that somehow quantified his strengths and weakness.

"Guess I'm not an Elemental Cultivator." He said, not really bothered by it. As a Tamer, he could tame elemental monsters with incredible strength. Why should he focus on only one element, when his monsters could use them all?

Flipping past the introductory pages, to the rear of the book he started with the Beast section only to notice that it was blank. "Damn." He thought it would've been cool to become a dragon or something like that. Shrugging it off, he flipped past Elemental Techniques since he wasn't qualified to learn them and started looking at Tool Cultivation Techniques.

'Sword Unification, Immortal Zither...' quickly browsing through the various Tool Cultivation Techniques, John thought that the only interesting thing about them was their ability to stop aging at a lower level of cultivation. So long as you keep the tool you're bonded too in good condition, your physical body never ages. However, if the tool is destroyed your cultivation disappears and you most likely die. Tool Cultivatior's are obviously strong, and stopping aging sooner is awesome, but it didn't seem like it would help him become a better tamer.

Looking at the body techniques, John just shook his head after looking through them. 'Being nearly unkillable is cool, but they gain no offensive powers, and I'll tame several monsters who will become much stronger than I could ever become. Not to mention how painful it must be to train a technique like Elemental Body, where through training in harsh conditions you become immune to all elemental attacks.'

Finally, back at the beginning of the packet John decided to take a much closer look at the Soul Cultivation Techniques. Frankly, John had known from the beginning that he would choose to become a Soul Cultivator. Only those with strong souls can control multiple and strong monsters, he was already feeling the strain of maintaining the contract with Snakey and she was only a low-level, Rank 8 Monster. This is one of the main reasons that most Tamer's choose to become Cannon Fodder Tamer's, their soul just can't handle strong monsters. In worst case scenarios the bond breaks, and the monsters turn against their master's, killing them.

'It is a misconception that Soul Cultivator's have weak bodies, or an inability to fight except through esoteric means. The body houses the soul, which means that in order to contain a strong soul, the body must too be strong. While they won't become indestructible like Body Cultivator, Soul Cultivator's gain enough physical strength to fight. That being said, the main strength's of a Soul Cultivator lie in their incredibly strong souls.' John read the introduction to Soul Cultivation, sighing at the fact that he had to train his body still. It made sense, after all he was in the Body Refining Realm, but he was tired of training his body. Realizing there was nothing he could do about it, he decided to skip the rest of the introduction and check out the techniques.

'Soul Possesion - Soul Cultivation Technique that strengthens your soul, allowing it to leave your body and possess lower-strength cultivator's and monsters. This is an incredibly dangerous technique and several cultivator's have died physically while their soul's were busy. It is possible to build a new body for such a cultivator, although it is expensive. Warning, possessing another cultivator is both incredibly dangerous and a capital offense.'

'Golden Soul - Soul Cultivation Technique based off the Buddha's Golden Body, turns the Soul nearly indestructible. At peak level of cultivation, your soul absorbs your body and you become a Soul Entity, a being with the capability to turn corporeal or incorporeal at will. At this point, every attack you do deals damage to your opponents soul. However, healing becomes incredibly difficult because all damage taken hurts your soul.'

'Shadow Soul - Soul Cultivation Technique that focuses on controlling the shadows. At it's peak, you can turn yourself invisible at will as well as use the shadows to bind or attack.'

'Soul Wave - Soul Cultivation Technique that focuses on creating illusions and healing the soul. At it's peak, Cultivators of Soul Wave can create physical illusions that do damage.'

Reading through them all, John couldn't make a choice he liked them all. "What're you going to choose?" He asked Kara who had a giant smile on her face.

"I'm going to be an Elemental Cultivator." She said, unable to hide her happiness. "I've always wanted to be one, but they're so rare that I never let myself hope..."

Frowning, John said, "How are you going to stay a Tamer? I don't think Elemental Cultivator's gain a lot of soul power."

Kara laughed at his question, "You obviously didn't read the Elemental Culivation Technique section, the stronger you get in an Element, the easier it is to control a monster affiliated with that Element."

"Ahh, so you'll just focus on one type of monster!" John said, understanding. He'd heard of Tamer's who specialize in a single type of Elemental Monsters, he had never understood why someone would voluntarily limit themselves like that. Now he understood that they must be Elemental Cultivator's. "What element can you control anyway?"

"Wind!" Kara said happily, "Best part is that my Illusion Butterfly will like gain control over Wind and Light, so I'll be able to keep her. What about you?" She asked.

John sighed, looking down at the packet he'd gotten and said, "I have no idea. I'm going to be a Soul Cultivator, I just don't know what to choose."

"Then you should go talk to Mr. Carter, it's his job after all." Kara said.

"Yeah, but he just looks so unreliable." John sighed, trying to decide if it was worth talking to the man with no shoes and stained shirt.

As she was standing up to walk to the library Kara said, "No one who teaches here is ordinary, otherwise how could Gallandwell High become the most prestigious cultivation school in the world?"

Wishing that he could follow her to the library, John stood and walked towards the lake hoping that Kara was right. Honestly, he just couldn't see how Mr. Carter was someone powerful. 'More like a clueless professor than a power.' John though tot himself. Thankfully, since he'd skipped over both the Elemental and Body Cultivation sections, John was one of the first done so he got to speak to Mr. Carter as soon as he made it to the lake.

"Just walk over." Mr. Carter yelled, and looking down John was surprised to see a glimmering light hanging just over the water. Stepping on it gingerly, it held his weight so he hurried over to the boat sighing in relief when he didn't get dropped into the lake.

"How the hell did you do that?" John asked as he made his way to the boat.

"I cultivate the Soul Wave technique, it's amazing how useful it is to be able to create a physical illusion."

"Really? That's... awesome!" John said with a giant grin.

"Yeah, it really is." Mr. Carter grinned back, "It's not easy to do that though, it took me a long time to reach this point."

John nodded in agreement, already half convinced he should learn the Soul Wave technique.

"So, what brings you here?" Mr. Carter asked.

"I want to become a Soul Cultivator, but I'm having a hard time deciding which technique to choose."

Mr. Carter asked, "Why do you want to be a Soul Cultivator?"

"The only reason I began cultivating was to become a Tamer, and I need a strong Soul to be successful as one." John said.

"True, but many Tool Cultivation techniques increase soul strength as a result of forging their Tool's with their souls. Body, Elemental, and Beast techniques all have ways of increasing soul strength. Don't decide to become a Soul Cultivator just because you want to be a Tamer. Many of the strongest Tamer's are Body Cultivator's." Mr. Carter said.

"How's that possible?" John asked, confused.

"One of the options when taming a monster is to dominate it physically, techniques like Elemental Body make you incredibly strong and the pain you have to endure while training it helps to increase the strength of your soul." Mr. Carter said.

John shuddered, "No thanks! I'm not unwilling to feel pain to grow stronger, but I'm no masochist."

Mr. Carter laughed and nodded in understanding, after all he'd chosen the Soul Cultivator's path as well. After thinking for a moment, he was John, "Why did you want to become a Tamer in the first place?"

"When I was 9..." John told him about his experience in Gallandwell Forest and how alone he had felt. "I don't want slaves." He said at the end, "I want companions, I never want to be alone again!"

Listening to John's story, Mr. Carter was surprised but suddenly an idea came to him. "You want to become a Beast King." He said, snapping his fingers in excitement.