Spirit Cultivation

Evan was unaware of the fact that Feldman was at a loss. He wanted to take Evan as his prized student, but no longer felt qualified to teach such a talented individual. Feldman was a Master SS ranked Alchemist, so he was actually more than qualified. Well, he would have been if he hadn't destroyed his pathways. With an individual as talented as Evan is, it would be impossible for Feldman to teach simply by explanation.

So, Feldman did the only thing that he could do. He sent a message to the Fortis International School of Alchemy, regarding Evan. In the message he had explained his age, tempering ability learned in only 3 days, and the results of his refining lesson. He also revealed the fact that Evan had an inner spirit flame, not just any inner spirit flame either. Evan had the Refinement Flame, not to be confused with the Refining Flame. The Refinement and Refining Flames were exclusive flames to specific bloodlines. They were also the most powerful flames known to man.

Evan on the other hand was more than happy to have a few extra hours off. The first 2 days of coming to Feldman's had been exhausting. He was worked so hard doing the chores and alchemy, that Feldman had actually brought him back home. He was too tired to do anything but sleep.

Today was different though. When he woke up, he didn't feel sore and tired like he had the previous day. Instead, he had actually gained some attribute points from the work at Feldman's, this gave him more energy and made the tasks he had to complete much easier. Now he was given a half day, and he actually had the energy to do something. He was more than excited to put the knowledge and skill, that he had learned in the past few days, to the test.

Evan first decided to try hunting again, since Feldman had spent a lot of time his first day teaching him about concealing his aura, stealth, and butchering. He could conceal his aura by circulating his spirit in a counter flow, the opposite way that it naturally flows. This would cause the spirit flow to actually become static, instead of flowing backwards. Static energy was difficult to notice.

Evan entered his spirit state, which was actually just a different mindset in order to slow his breathing and be more open to feeling spirit energy. Then he activated his Spirit Search, which gave him the ability to physically see energy, as well as a few perks like the Spirit Sense and Data Tab.

There was a white wisp of energy. No not white, but a very bright green. The green dots of energy were compact and moved in a specific way. The energy almost seemed entwined in itself, slithering back and forth in a crisscrossing pattern. This made the energy almost look as if it was shining and glimmering in light. Energy was not affected by light though as they were both just photons, not really containing any mass.

Evan quickly concealed his aura and started slinking against trees. Moving very slowly and smoothly. He had to plan each step in advance to make a minimal amount of noise and movement. He peered around the trunk of a tree and saw a very large Verret basking in the sun on the base of a tree trunk. It didn't notice any danger around and was completely relaxed.

Evan lifted his arm to aim at the Verret, pointing his index finger at the ferret like creature. When his finger was pointed at the Verret's head, Evan circulated his energy as quickly as he could, which still took almost 3 minutes. As the energy was approaching his finger, and the exiting pathways for pure spirit, Evan consciously by passed the exiting pathways and forced the energy out of his physical body. This once again created a Spirit Bullet, that flew out of his finger at astonishing speed.

SPLAT!

The sound of the Verret's brains splattering against the tree underneath was heard. Evan got so excited he started jumping up and down, yelling at the already dead Verret.

"Oh yeah, who won? Me. Whose dinner? You. Didn't run away this time, did you? HAHAHA I'm never going to be hungry again." Evan was talking out loud to a dead animal, but he didn't care. He was just happy about the drastic difference between hunting his first time and hunting this time.

Evan picked up the Verret and started for home with a smile on his face. On the way he also picked up some berries that were a light blue with white specks on them, and a couple edible purple roots. Feldman had also explained how to find edible plants in the wild. Poisonous berry's juice will always corrode the plants around them, so never trust a lone bush. Roots were almost always fine to eat but always avoid red roots, as they would leave your stomach in terrible pain. It wouldn't kill you, but it would hurt.

Evan walked home leisurely, enjoying the scenery for the first time since his arrival. After he got home, he quickly skinned and gutted the Verret the same way Feldman had shown him how. He pulled out a metal pot from the kitchen and went to the stream not to far from his house to fill it with water. He threw the roots into the pot and used his Refinement Flame to boil the water and roast the Verret meat.

He didn't have high expectations about the taste as it was all wild food. He had never been so wrong. The meat of the Verret was thin, but extremely juicy and was so soft and sweet it melted in his mouth. The purple roots tasted just like a butter and sour cream loaded baked potato, and the berries were so sweet and creamy, they tasted exactly like raspberry ice cream. It easily topped a 5-star restaurant back on Earth.

'Well, I have plenty of time before bed, and I'm nowhere near tired.' Evan was stuffed, but he had 2 techniques that he wanted to try.

Evan decided to try his spirit refinement technique, Speedforce, first. So, he sat in a meditative position and entered his spirit state. He also turned on his Spirit Search, he wanted to try and see if he could physically see his own spirit with this. It was much easier to locate the mass of energy slowly crawling through his body. He focused in on one section of the mass and tried to enlarge it. This was a process that takes a lot of focus.

After a few moments he was able to zoom in far enough to see one speck as an entire world. One large perfect sphere with images of his past self, resting in the center. He tried to do the same thing he had done before and gently push the energy bead. This did not work, the bead didn't even budge. So, Evan tried again, this time pushing even harder. Sweat started to form on his brow as he used his mental power to push harder and harder until a slight 'pop' was felt. Under the strain and pressure that Evan exerted onto the bead it finally was sent moving forward in a linear motion.

"Finally." Evan said out loud with half a breath. His breathing was ragged, and he was covered in sweat. It was clear that pushing his bead of spirit energy was much more difficult this time. 'Wow, that was way harder than it was last time. It seemed so easy the first time. Is this what they meant by hard and dangerous to practice before ascension?' Evan noticed that his body was drained. It was hard to stand and even though he ate right before practice, his stomach was growling.

He tried to feel any differences in his body but couldn't. He assumed that it was because he hadn't gone through ascension, or that the spirit beads that had increased speed were too few to make a difference.

'Okay, eat some food and try the body refinement, I guess.' Evan was fatigued, but not going to stop.

Evan quickly boiled the last purple root he had and finished the berries he had collected. He had just noticed that several hours had passed, it was now dark outside.

'Apparently, cultivating this technique is very time consuming.' Evan realized that even though it had only felt like an hour, 3 hours had passed by him without notice.

Evan once again sat in a meditative position and entered his spirit state. He also activated his Spirit Search as it had made locating and watching his inner spirit much easier last time.