A Lesson in Blood

I woke up with a surprising lack of pain. I just lay therewith my eyes closed for ten minutes or so not wanting to face the reality of the situation. Eventually, I realized it would be pointless to keep laying there. I opened my eyes expecting to be surrounded on all sides by torture elements or something of the sort just as horrifying.

What I actually woke up to was a typical room in an inn and the most surprising thing was that my master was sitting in a chair by the bed. Upon seeing me open my eyes, he said, "So, you finally woke up. I suppose after this incident you will have learned a valuable lesson."

I looked at him with a hateful look, angry at the fact that he could call these events a lesson. Seeing my gaze, he gave a slight chuckle before saying,

"By the look you gave me, I can see that you still haven't figured out what that lesson entailed. Well, let me tell you. If you want to keep anything and that doesn't just mean objects but people as well. You have to be strong because if you are weak, the world of coremasters will take everything you care about away especially your freedom. Remember only the strong can be merciful and let an injured enemy go. If you are weak, you have to be ruthless."

As he said these words, I realized how much they applied and no matter what I didn't ever want to see anyone else I care about end up like Claudia. To accomplish this, I needed to gain more power. My master seeing the look in my eyes said,

"I see you're starting to understand the new world you entered as soon as you found your elemental core."

Now that you have learned about the bloodiness of this world, it's about time I tell you about the structure of this world so that you won't get yourself into more incidents like the one you just experienced."

Before he could continue, I angrily yelled out, "Why didn't you give me this information in the first place? I could have saved Claudia!"

Even with my angry outburst, my Master maintained his calm demeanor saying, "The reason I do everything in your training is for your own good. You were eventually going to have to learn this lesson, and it was better to learn it early when the powers you are dealing with are relatively weak, and I can still save you. Now, do you want me to give you the information or not?"

I bit back my retort knowing that fighting about this issue wouldn't get me anywhere. But I wouldn't forget and from now on would be much more cautious around him. Realizing I was done yelling, my master continued,

"The first thing I will go over is levels of power a person can acquire. The first relevant one is the core phase. It increases a person's physical abilities to superhuman levels. With a core that's made up of a single element, you will have the ability to use elemental forces.

The next phase will allow you to turn your core into either a weapon or an animal. The methods to do this are called cultivation methods and are extremely valuable in the mainland. The map I gave you will show you how to get to a place called the Ruins; there you will be able to learn a powerful cultivation method for people with Lightening cores and bodies.

This phase will once again significantly increase your physical abilities as your body is remade in the image of whatever your core can change in to. If it's a strong method, you will gain a set of special abilities. To give you an idea of the strength that people obtain in this phase, the old man that almost killed you was a relatively weak person in this phase.

In the third phase, you will create a projection of your core in the outside world. Don't worry too much about this third phase because if you ever meet anyone in this phase at your current level, you are no more of a threat to them than an ant is to you. The second thing you need to know about is sects.

Most coremasters belong to a sect. A sect is pretty much just a group of coremasters with usually the backbone of the sect is a set of cultivation methods that they pass down to their disciples to keep up the power of the sect. In the mainland, there are constant wars between the sects. Every sect will have at least one coremaster in the second phase, and the prominent sects may even have someone in the third phase.

This means you can't deal with sects at all right now and you will need to get the cultivation method from the ruins before you can threaten even the weakest of the sects. Now that you are up, I'm leaving if you really want strength, go to the ruins. I've marked where they are on the map, so you should be able to find yourself the rest of the way there."

After saying this, he took out the map, laid it on the nightstand and left the room. Part of me wanted to get up and follow him so I could ask more questions but the other part of me was still angry that he had withheld information just to teach me what he called a lesson. After staying there for a bit longer, I figured it was time to go where I should have gone a long time ago. I looked at the map to see where he had left me.

To my surprise, it was nearly halfway to the ruins. In fact, there were only two areas left between me and the ruins. One was a relatively large forest and the other a massive desert where the ruins were located. Having finished plotting my course, I stacked up what I had left on me.

All there was beside my clothes was a coin pouch with about one hundred platinum coins and six green coins. Somewhat happy that I wouldn't have to worry about money for this journey, I headed out to the city to purchase what supplies I would need for the trip. When this was done, I headed out of the city to begin my journey once again.