The system.

Ethan cleared his throat, his face red. He would never in a million years have thought a woman would ask him to share his essence. Heather had many servants with whom she shared her essence.

Ethan worried if he was capable. He had never done it before. He had always used his meat and skins to pay for goods or did a small job here and there as payment.

The orphanage fed him daily as it was, he who hunted for them. Ethan loved food, and he would have loved to be able to cook for his non-existent friends. Heather had her cooks and servants. Now that he thought about it, she had never even invited him to her house for a meal. She had always met him at the tavern, using her essence to pay for his warm chocolate and brandy drink. Heather loved spiced wine.

A cook had trained Ethan to cook for the orphanage with monster meat and powerful ingredients.

"Alas, Wendy, it is binding. Are you sure you want someone like me?"

Wendy looked at the strange man before her.

"Hail, I have found a companion that can speak my language. I am not alone in this world anymore. I can read and do many things for you. I will make sure to become indispensable to you. I will be by your side for as long as I live."

Ethan sat on the terrain. He placed her old torn dress on his lap for her to sit on. He felt that he needed to do it. His legs crossed, and he pulled her onto his lap. He unbuttoned her blouse to reveal her stomach. She was shaking, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Ethan spread his fingers on her stomach, making sure that she was not sitting on her skirt. She suddenly looked panicked but relaxed when nothing happened.

"Alas, be ready. It will take a few minutes."

Ethan could feel his hands sweating and his heart raced. He had seen it done before, but he had never tried it. Everyone could do it if they were of divine rank or higher, like Heather, who was of godly rank.

Ethan held his breath, hoping that he was at divine rank. Ethan pictured the cultivators using their essence. They had a dirty, yellow essence, and godly rank had a dark golden essence. He could remember Heather's servants moaning softly as she poured her essence into them. Elemental servants would become more robust with this essence and pledge their loyalty. He desperately wanted to pour his essence into Heather.

He focused on the here and now. Wendy looked at his hand. Wendy looked like a child about to get a present. Ethan's fingers glowed with a golden hue. Energy formed around his hand. It looked like pure gold refined to the purity of glass. It shone brightly, lighting up the area.

"Hail, it is beautiful."

Ethan could feel his increased heart rate. It beat loudly, wanting to burst out of his chest. He had stopped breathing, and his eyes widened. He had never seen this kind of essence before. Wendy felt soft and warm against him. Her scent overwhelmed him. He had to focus and control himself so as not to ravage her on the spot. The essence flowed into Wendy's stomach, and she gave a lude moan, her eyes wide, her mouth open, and her breathing had changed and became laboured.

Ethan knew instinctively that he could not stop the process of setting up a core, which had begun to form. Wendy moaned, and her body shuddered in his arms. She soon had a film of sweat on her body.

She held his shoulders, leaning back. Her six-pack writhed under his fingers as she moved with the spasms. Ethan sensed the connection had solidified and slowly cut his essence off as Wendy spasmed in his arms.

Suddenly, Ethan stood on a high mountain. He looked at the clouds beneath him as the breeze tugged at his hair. As he looked around him, his confusion was apparent. The machinery around him was highly advanced. Strange devices were floating around. Black wheels with golden spokes moved with golden electricity between them. They floated in patterns, and it looked like they were dancing.

Five young ladies appeared around him. They were transparent, and their clothing was scant. One of the young ladies moved towards him and spoke.

She had a seductive voice.

"Alas. Ethan, thank you for activating your system. You can now choose from my selection of options."

Ethan was shocked and couldn't believe his eyes. What was happening to him? He needed to recognise the mountain or the technology. Who were these five beautiful young women that surrounded him? What was the system they were talking about?

"Alas, where am I?"

The young lady waved her hand as if showing him the place.

"Alas, I am one of your five cores inside you."

Ethan backed away a step he wanted to run. Was this real or a dream? Did he die? He looked at the young lady. Her breasts jiggled a bit. She had no bra on, and the silk did not hide much.

He could be dreaming. Could he have passed out?

"Alas, is this possible? Aren't you a core made from cultivation?"

She stepped closer and placed her hands beneath his navel. She smiled up at him, and he wanted her.

"Alas, your parents placed me inside you to help you. You come from a highly advanced society."

The core Explained that she was in his mind to communicate with him. He only had to think to speak with her. She explained that he wasn't one of the locals he had lived among. She gave him a quick rundown of what happened before he was in the orphanage. She explained to him that her name was Sophia.

After a sinister group tried to destroy his home realm, he was placed in the orphanage while his people fought the sinister group in his home realm. Sophia explained that the locals cultivated. He was completely different. The reason nobody accepted him as an equal. She explained that he never used their techniques to fight. They couldn't sense his cultivation level, making him an outsider.

Now that he has chosen a subordinate.

The system activated, and he could now grow his party and strength. Sophia explained that the system worked when he selected Wendy as one of his subordinates and that he could give her skills.

Ethan could manipulate her muscular and bone structure and change her DNA. His body was manipulated to achieve maximum strength, stamina, and health. He stopped ageing at the age of twenty-eight.

Cultivators stopped ageing at the age of twenty-three. 

"Alas, Ethan, no one from his realm should see your essence. It would be seen as mythical. You will become public enemy number one. Every Noble with ambition for power would want to kill you as the ultimate threat to power and dominance.

Suddenly, a screen appeared, and Wendy was shown on it with statistics next to her body. Sophia pointed to the screen.