The Buried Monastery

As the voice completed saying this, a bolt of lightning came out of the darkness where I was currently standing and lit up the whole room. It revealed two rows of statues of monks each holding a book and forming a corridor leading to a book that was twice as large as all the others. It was bound in thick leather with no markings upon it.

All of this scenery was quickly forgotten when I caught sight of what I presumed was the owner of the voice I had been hearing appeared in front of me. It was a dragon easily ten times the size of the one I had just fought. Its scales all had a yellow tint, and for some reason, the dragon had an illusionary feel as if it wasn't really there or perhaps the most important was its' eyes, which instead of being filled with bestial instincts shimmered with intelligence.

In the mere moments, it took me to make these observations, the lightning bolt had already arrived at my chest. As soon as it struck instead of scorching me, it seemed to melt into me knifing together my wounds at a rapid rate until I was in perfect condition once again. This shocked me, I have no idea how lightning could possibly heal wounds but decided to just accept it and hopefully be able to figure it out when I was stronger.

As soon as I finished healing, the voice sounded out again, "Good, good you're healed. Now, come forward and touch this book. It will give you the cultivation technique you came here to achieve. Since you finished those trials so interestingly, I'll even let you finish learning the cultivation method. Now, come forward."

As he said this, lights lit up under each of the statues giving a murky illumination that clearly indicated the direction which he wanted me to go. I walked down the corridor admiring the intricate detail of each sculpture.

Finally, I came to the end of the passage and stood in front of the large book looking past it to trying to see if I could catch a glance of the great beast in the murky darkness. As I stood there staring into the darkness wondering what I should do now, the voice rang out in my head again,

"Come and place your hand on the book. It's what you came here for is it not?"

Responding to his urgings, I placed my palm on the cover of the book. As soon as my hand touched the book, information started funneling into my mind pouring in and nearly filling it up. It took me nearly an hour to sort through all the information I had just learned. The cultivation method I had just gained was incredibly strong.

It had nine stages compared to regular cultivation which has only three stages. Each stage of this cultivation method reformed your core into a stronger type of dragon with the first dragon being something called a wyrm which was the type of dragon I had just fought and killed. With each evolution of my core, I would gain another trait of the dragon.

The first trait I would acquire would be the scaled armor making my skin able to withstand ridiculous amounts of force without injury. This was an addition to my increases in my physical abilities, control, and quantity of elements in my core. I immediately sat down and attempted to evolve my core following the cultivation method completely ignoring my surroundings.

Paying attention only to my core, I weaved in the pattern described by the book forming strands of lightning elements that slowly attempted to weave into the form of a dragon. The dragon did start to form, but the pattern I had woven became increasingly complicated causing my concentration to be strained to its limits. Finally after who knows how long, I only had one strand left, and after completion of the weave into the rest of the pattern the form of a dragon lit up identical to the one I had fought except for the color of the scales which were bright yellow.

Upon the complete formation of the dragon, it let out a roar and started rushing through my body replacing all my cells with versions that were incomparably stronger especially those linked to my skin. Unfortunately for me though it was necessary, this process was excruciating as each part of my body was essentially destroyed and rebuilt at a rapid rate.

I lay on the ground struggling to stay conscious as pain constantly flashed through my body eventually though the pain faded as the transformation finished and the dragon which had replaced my core settled into the exact same space. The most significant change I noticed was that my body seemed to have gained a second set of veins whose use I couldn't fathom.

The dragon seeing I was finished with the transformation said, "Well, now that you have mastered the first stage of the cultivation method, you can pick two techniques. My suggestion is that you pick one movement and one attacking technique. "

S

till confused at the changes in my body and not sure what it meant by moving and attacking techniques, I decided to ask him thinking surely he had to have the answers. So, I questioned him yelling into the darkness,

"Dragon before I pick a technique, what is the difference between types of techniques and more importantly what is this extra of veins your cultivation method has formed in my body?"

As soon as I finished yelling, laughter started to ring through my head followed by him saying,

"I keep forgetting that even though you are a coremaster, you are ignorant about everything in the coremaster world. Those veins are something you could ask any coremaster about, and they would know exactly what they were. In fact, they are the main reason it's considered impossible for a first phase coremaster to fight the second phase. Those veins are something every coremaster gains when they enter the second phase. These veins are used to more efficiently channel elements from your core to circulate and strengthen your body and to circulate in specific patterns to activate specific techniques. In fact, after learning tow techniques, you should understand their uses more. I'll light up the statues with the movement techniques, pick one of them first."

As he said this, the lights for about three-fourths of the statues went out leaving about twenty sculptures left to choose from. Not having any way of knowing what kind of technique each sculpture had, I decided to just pick one randomly. I walked up and down and placed my hand on one. Just like last time, my mind without any control was filled with more information.

The technique I picked allowed the user to teleport through small distances though the distances it could allow you to travel differed depending on your core strength. The way this was accomplished helped give me a better understanding of why the new set of veins were so important.

To activate this technique you had to channel the elements from your core into a spin that exited your foot at the exact time your foot touched the ground warping space and teleporting you a certain distance depending on the speed of rotation and amount of elements. Seeing this technique, I realized the things you could do with the elements were much broader than I had thought.

I attempted to perform the technique multiple times but the most I managed to accomplish in every attempt I made was to create an explosion when I stepped forward. This was due to my loss of control of the elements I was channeling.

As I was about to make another attempt, the dragon sounded in my head, "Okay, enough practice. You still have to pick your attacking technique. I'll only light up those that are used with spears."

After this, the lights on all but three of the statues went out. Once again having no idea on how to possibly tell the techniques apart, I just chose the closest one. Placing my hand on the book, information again rushed to my head.

This technique had you form the elements in your core into the shape of mini-blades before channeling it all way through your spear as you would thrust creating a core that supposedly if you would master the technique enough could bore through an entire mountain. As soon as the information stopped being pumped into my head, I realized that I was back in the room where I initially found the door to the trials.

The only difference was there was no longer a door; it was just a blank wall. Knowing there was nothing left for me here; I turned around only to see a person standing in the doorway. He was wearing bright blue robes with a sword attached at the hip. His hand constantly caressed the hilt of his sword as if eager to draw it, and his blue eyes glanced around continually for any movement he could detect.

Upon noticing his hand tightly grip his sword pulling it an inch or so out of his sheath before slowly approaching me, I raised my hand signaling him to stop before shouting out, "Who are you and what do you want with these ruins?"

After I said this, a smirk appeared on his face as he drew his sword while saying, "Why don't we find out if you are qualified to ask those questions of me."

As soon as he finished talking, he lunged forward bringing his sword down in an overhead slash. This move was so smooth and fast that if it weren't for my recent advancements, the fight would have probably have ended immediately. Unfortunately for him with my advancement to the second phase, my physical abilities had risen so much that his movements might as well have been in slow motion.

Wanting to have a little fun, I caught his sword with two fingers and attempted to break it. To my surprise though when I tried to break his sword, it had entirely no effect, and the torque instead of shattering his sword picked him off his feet and threw him into the wall.

He shakily got up staring at me in shock. Immediately after he got to his feet, he closed his hands in front of himself and gave a deep bow while saying, "I apologize for not recognizing a master. I am Runeso Wanse and I came here on the orders of my master who had known that there was a cultivation method here."

I was surprised by his sudden change in attitude. Not worrying about it though, I just walked past him deciding it wasn't worth my time to deal with a crazy person. As I walked past, I noticed that he followed after me into the desert.

Wanting to shake him off, I started moving at my max speed back towards where I had come from. I quickly moved out of the vision of him wondering what was wrong with the man. Running at the ridiculous speeds, I could now manage to quickly re-approach the oasis I had passed on my way to the ruins. As I approached, I noticed that it seemed deserted.

As I got closer, the smell of death overwhelmed me in such a way that it nearly suffocated me. Approaching, I was able to see the cause of the smell. It wasn't the bodies of the bandits as I expected but instead was a pile of corpses on top of the bandits with a banner stuck through them reading: The price of a slave's revolt!

Recognizing the faces of the corpses, I realized had found out the fate of the slaves I had freed. I dropped to my knees before getting myself under control. I was once again reminded of the cruelty of this world.

For the rest of my journey back, all I could think about was what I could have done to better protect those slaves. Worrying over this all the way back, I barely noticed my visions had filled with all the corpses my journey had been paved in.

Arriving back at the forest where I had started my journey, all my memories really hit me. Tears slowly falling as I stood there looking back at all that had happened, my master suddenly walked up behind me. I spun around annoyed that he was able to sneak up so close before I noticed him.

Seeing I had noticed him, he started speaking, "So, it seems you were successful. That is good. With this cultivation method, you should be considered capable of surviving on your own in the mainland. But first stay here and master your new techniques. Then, I will show you the way to the mainland."

After he said this, the entrance opened to the mansion, and we walked down the steps once again.