Chapter 2: Cultivate or Die? The Young Master's Deadly Task!
Chapter 2: Cultivate or die? The Young Master's Deadly Task!
Next day.
"What to do?" Richard internally asked himself.
"This world is too boring!" Frustrated, he rolled over and over again, on his bed.
"Sightseeing? Too dangerous! I am a top-talented kid! I'll be targeted if I go over the walls!" Richard could only sigh as he had too few an option on what to do with his day.
"Learn martial arts? Seems to be the only choice I got." With no other choice, Richard woke up and did his things, such as bathing and putting on his clothes.
He went to the city lord's library, where his family stocked up their collected books and manuals.
It was a simple room, just like a modern study, but with tons of materials to read. Good thing, Richard was taught how to read at the age of 5. His maid and a guard walked with him toward the library.
When they arrived, the two guards checked up on him for a few seconds and then they bowed, and opened the library's door for him, however, the maid and his guard were not allowed inside and only members of Theierst family were allowed inside.
Richard nodded and followed the rule and asked both his maid and guard to wait. Both maid and guard followed and let their young master go inside alone.
Richard stepped inside and met with shelf after shelf of books and scrolls. He wandered around to check on some parts of their library and found some interesting books, such as arrays, demon cultivation books, light cultivation books, unknown language scrolls, and some books he couldn't understand.
Nonetheless, he went to the area where all books were written in the language he understood. He found swordsmanship and spearmanship manuals, archery manuals, and some other weapon-type manuals.
As a fan of action movies on Earth and historical warfare movies, Richard has been dreaming of wielding two swords all his life. He even knew the disadvantages and advantages of wielding such type of swordsmanship. It's pure offense and as a future city lord, who would come after his father, he must be strong, in body, martial arts, and cultivation levels.
Spirit Energy was the thing in this world and Richard must harness such energy efficiently and effectively. With that, he chose two types of sword manuals, one, based on a speed-type technique, the Wind Blade Manual. It was a type of sword technique that was said to use the element of wind to produce wind blades and to slash out a sword slash from a distance. It also required the user of this technique to move faster, like the wind.
Aside from the sword techniques, footwork technique was also included in the Wind Blade Manual, it was called Wind Steps.
"Two types of martial arts in one manual? Did the creator of this manual combine footwork and sword techniques into one? This person should be a genuine genius!" Richard exclaimed.
Richard knew, even in novels from Earth, that people who could successfully combine two techniques from different martial arts were the geniuses of geniuses.
"Then... for now, this manual would be enough." Richard decided to learn it, however, when he closed the manual and prepared to go out of the library, the system prompted him with a hologram.
[Learn Wind Blade Manual?]
"Oh, so you have these other functions too? I thought you're just a torturing system with a ridiculous rewarding system" Richard was surprised by the sudden prompt.
He didn't expect the system to have this kind of function as it never gave him other information aside from his status, inventory, and mission/reward screens.
"Well... learn of course," Richard answered the prompt.
[Wind Blade Manual has been learned.]
Once the prompt finished showing, a bunch of information was transferred to Richard and they made him dizzy for 1 minute straight. After the 1 minute duration, "Dang it! I thought so! The novels didn't lie about such info dump process from systems!"
Reorganizing himself, he sat properly closed his eyes, and went to his mind space. Information on the wind blade manual appeared and Richard assessed this information one by one.
"6 Sword Techniques, 3 Footwork Techniques, Each sword technique was equivalent to 3 realms. The first two techniques could be learned by anyone within the mortal realm, while the next two, were by anyone in the master realm while the last two were for King realm cultivators. I learned them all but the power output for the last 4 techniques would be reduced significantly.
As for the footwork, each stage represents mortal, master, and king realms." Richard sighed at the requirements of the manual and its creator. "How brutal." He thought.
The manual showed as:
Sword Technique:
(1) Wind Slicing Air
(2) Wind Breaking Mountains
(3) Wind Void Slash
(4) Wind Empyrean Stab
(5) Wind Sword Storm
(6) Flying Wind God Sword
Footwork:
(1) Wind Steps
(2) Wind Flash
(3) Wind Void
The sword techniques represent their stages of strength while the footwork techniques represent their stages of movement.
"Okay, got it now. Well... I'm still a human stage boy, I need to step into the 1st stage of the mortal realm first before I can start using the techniques in this manual. Time to level up I guess?" Richard stood up from his seat and exited the library. The manual was back on its shelf.
As for the other sword manual? Richard decided to use both swords for this Wind Blade Manual.
...
After the library, Richard visited his father and asked for spirit stones, "I want to start cultivating father." The city lord was surprised, he previously planned for Richard to start cultivating when he reached the appropriate age of 8 years old. Why was that? Cultivation techniques are not suitable for young people unless born with heavenly physical gifts, as circulating spirit energy requires the body to be quite strong enough to shoulder the burden of sudden spirit energy burst within.
But seeing his son as a 10 crystal talent, indeed, it's a possibility that his son's body could be of the same quality as those special people who have rare body constitutions.
But the city lord was still adamant and didn't dare to gamble. Still, he wanted to believe in his kid, so he handed over a manual to Richard that he pulled out from his spatial ring.
Richard's eyes enlarged when he saw his father's action, not for the manual, but with the spatial ring. That was the first time he saw an actual spatial ring like his system inventory, which he only read from Earth's novel.
Although it was brief, the city lord saw Richard's expression and laughed internally, he knew it was about his spatial ring.
"Don't fret, here's your spatial ring, son." The city lord pulled out another item, which was another spatial ring, from his spatial ring.
"Really?" Richard has indeed felt happiness when he received the gift from his father!
"But... are cultivation techniques required to get to the mortal realm?" Richard saw his father laugh a little and thought, "I feel so dumb old man, get on with it!"
The city lord knew his child was still innocent of the knowledge about cultivators, so, he answered, "Yes, son, without cultivation techniques, you won't be able to harness the spirit energy from the stones and other treasures born within this world."
Richard, then, got some enlightenment and mocked himself internally, "Right! How stupid have I become? Didn't the main characters of those novels always have their cultivation techniques aside from martial arts techniques?"
"I understand now, Father," Richard replied took the manual from his father, and asked to get spirit stones.
The city lord asked his guard to guide Richard to their family vault.
Under the city lord's palace, there was a deep underground and this was the foundation of the Theierst family only the bloodline of the Theierst family could go inside the vault as there was an array that detected bloodline, and those who were not of the same bloodline as the city lord will kill immediately.
Thus, Richard was able to go inside the vault's door safely.
Upon entering, Richard saw many unknown treasures and weapons, some were books that were chained and some scrolls that were fully sealed by an array, and when Richard approached, a barrier appeared between him and the scrolls.
Richard didn't linger too much on those sealed items and continued forward and found the section full of boxes, he opened one of the many boxes and saw it was full of gold coins!
"How rich are we!?" He uttered.
He closed the box full of gold coins and went to another section where there were also a bunch of boxes and opened one of them and it was full of spirit stones. Richard rechecked with the system and it showed as, [Spirit Stone (Low)].
"This is good enough, I guess?" Richard contemplated but decided to take the box as there would be no losses to the family if he got one box out of the thousands there.
Richard placed the box full of low-grade spirit stones into his spatial ring exited the vault and was escorted out of the underground.
Richard went back to his room and pulled out the box full of [Spirit Stone (Low)] and the cultivation manual.
He read the manual first, it was named the "Origin Core" Manual and it has a set of cultivation circulation to guide the spirit energy throughout his body.
Of course, it needs spirit energy, and having lots of spirit stones will help him to get strong. As the manual said, the higher the stage of Origin Core Manual, the larger the amount of spirit energy one could devour.
So, it means that at the initial stage, the origin core manual could only devour a pitiful amount of spirit energy per circulation.
But who was Richard? He got the system!
So, he tried to learn the original core manual.
[Origin Core Manual has been learned.]
Richard checked his status screen and found that improving this manual would not be an easy task! Why was that?
Here:
Name: Richard Theierst
Talent Level: 10 Lights
Cultivation Level: Normal Human (0/100)
Cultivation Technique: Origin Core Manual Stage 0 (0/100000)
Skills: Wind Blade Manual Stage 0 (0/50000)
Lifespan: 6/100
Experience Storage: 0
System Inventory: 100,000 Gold Coins
"How many spirit stones would that be!?" Richard, upon seeing the 100,000 experience points requirement to level up the stage of origin core manual, really want to cough up blood!
He wondered if there would be a mission later for spending spirit stones cause' that would be helpful!
Richard snapped back after realizing he was wandering off of his mind, and, quickly opened the box full of spirit stones and circulated the origin core manual as per its instruction.
A cold sense enveloped Richard as soon as he did what the manual instructed and persisted the cold feeling. Minutes passed and the cold feeling became warm.
The feeling of warmth continued for more than 30 minutes and stopped at the 45-minute mark.
Richard opened his eyes and a hologram prompted him.
[10,000 experience has been gained.]
The spirit stones became regular stones.
"I get 10 experience points for 1 [Spirit Stone (Low)] then?" Surprised, Richard checked his new balance in experience points.
[Experience Storage: 10000]
"Time to level up then," Richard smirked a little, then, opened his status screen. He put experience points into his cultivation level until all 10,000 experience points have been used up.
[Cultivation Level: Normal Human (100/100)] > [Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 1 (0/500)]
[Experience Storage: 9900]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 2 (0/1000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 3 (0/1500)]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 4 (0/2000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 5 (0/2500)]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 6 (2400/3000)]
[Experience Storage: 0]
.....
Surging spirit energy enveloped Richard and it continued for hours until he stopped adding experience points to his cultivation level.
"Only stage 6? 3 more then! I need to go back and ask for more stones!" Richard stood up excitedly as the feeling of surging power within him was still as fresh. He got kind of addicted to it.
.....
"What?" The city lord heard Richard, however, he couldn't believe what he was hearing from his 6-year-old son!
"I need more spirit stones? Can I get more?" Richard reiterated.
"Did you use up all the spirit stones in the box you got from the vault!?" The city lord questioned.
"How did this old man know I got 1 whole box inside that vault!?" Richard had an incredulous expression.
"Heh~ you might not know, but, I have eyes and ears in this city!" The city lord answered proudly.
"As expected." Richard thought.
"Well!? How did you use up all those stones!?" The city lord repeated his question.
"I used them based on the manual you gave me!" Richard didn't lie and just gave it away. He thought, "Why lie? It's a hassle!"
"It's too fast! Are you feeling wrong somewhere!?" The city lord showed his concern as the manual never had this kind of immediate effect on cultivation resources! Mind anybody, he also cultivates the same technique!
"I'm fine as you can see. Here's my result if you don't believe, father." Richard circulated the Origin Core Manual and his spirit energy and aura showed its might.
The city lord saw and felt it! "Indeed! That's... how!?" he couldn't believe that his son was already more than halfway through being an official cultivator!
That's a 6-year-old, not 7 and not an 8!
No records showed before that a human could cultivate starting at 6 years of age!
"Talent, I guess?" Richard answered nonchalantly.
The city lord knit his eyebrow when he hears Richard's response. "What arrogance at a young age!" He thought.
"If that's so, I detect no issues on your body and will allow you to take whatever amount of spirit stones in the vault as long as you improve and cultivate carefully. However! If I ever detected some issues with your body, you will be banned for further supplies of spirit stones, are we understanding each other?" The city lord proposed.
"Agreed, father." Richard nodded and was sent to the vault by his father along with the same guard before.
When Richard left, the city lord whispered, "Did I sire that kid? My wife... what kind of son we have made? If it's other people hearing our conversation, they'd think that he's not a 6-year-old at all!"
He sighed thinking of his son's future as a city lord.
.....
At the vault, Richard took 50 boxes into his spatial ring and once it was full, he put another 50 boxes into his system inventory, then, he exited the vault and went back to his room.
.....
"Time to convert these stones!" Richard said.
He put out 50 boxes from his system inventory and circulated the origin core manual continuously.
Time passed and all 50 boxes, full of a thousand [Spirit Stone (Low)] each box, were fully converted and became normal stones.
[50,000 experience has been gained.]
[Experience Storage: 50000]
Richard then called his maid and asked to call for guards to throw out the emptied spirit stones.
Once the used-up stones were cleared out of his room, he pulled the last 50 boxes and converted them as well.
[50,000 experience has been gained.]
[Experience Storage: 100000]
"Wow, so many... and it will be used up fast..." Richard sighed as he knew that this temporary wealth of experience would be used up quite fast and not hesitating, he added experience to his cultivation level.
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 6 (2400/3000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 7 (0/3500)]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 8 (0/4000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Stage 9 (0/4500)]
>[Cultivation Level: Normal Human Final Stage (0/20000)]
[Experience Storage: 87400]
Richard reached the final stage of the Norman Human and it required him to spend 20000 experience points!
"What an expensive breakthrough requirement. Anyways, we got lots of low-grade spirit stones, what's 20000 of them?" Richard thought.
Cultivation Level: Normal Human Final Stage (20000/20000)]
[Host is breaking through.]
As soon as Richard read the hologram notification, he immediately felt surging pain all over his body. It made him roll over and over again on the ground screaming from the sudden pain.
[Breakthrough Successful.]
It was heard by the guards and his maid, so, they quickly went inside Richard's room and found the ground to be full of black gooey stuff and saw Richard on the ground laying, he was breathing well but lost consciousness.
The maid and guard immediately took Richard and laid him in his bed, the maid quickly asked the guard to find people to help clean the room and to get a doctor.
.....
"He'll be fine, there's nothing wrong at all with the young city lord, he just broke through." The doctor said to the city lord.
"Good." The city lord nodded with great relief. As soon as everyone went out, the city lord looked at his son sleeping and checked up on him and found that, indeed, his son had become an official cultivator at 6 years old!
His son defeated him by miles and never expected such a blessing in their family.
He left the room and went back.
....
Night came and Richard woke up from his deep slumber.
"I slept?" Richard checked his body and saw that nothing seemed wrong. However, he checked his system log and found that he, indeed, broke through from being a human to a mortal realm cultivator.
As for strength, he had an improved hearing, eyesight, and senses. Richard felt like he was Spiderman when he woke up from the bite.
As for his lifespan, "210 years!? I could live that long now!?" Richard couldn't believe what he was seeing.
He knew that on Earth's novels, improving cultivation stages would increase one's lifespan, but, experiencing one himself was surprisingly exciting!
Richard checked further and saw the new experience requirements to go through stage 2, and that was 20,000 experience points again. Although he could use the two techniques, within the Wind Blade Manual, after reaching the mortal realm, properly, if he wanted the martial art skill to go further and be stronger, he needed it to level up in stages. As of the moment, it was still a stage 0 martial arts skill.
Meanwhile, he still needs to improve his origin core technique to improve spirit energy accumulation to add more experience points in the future.
"I need a lot of spirit stones." Richard could only sigh at the number of spirit stones he needed to have and only hope that the new mission the next day would be related to spirit stones.
...
The next day came and the system immediately gave the mission.
[Mission Update!]
[Spend 3,000 Spirit Stones (Low)]
[Time Limit: 4 Days]
[Restriction: Host can't use or sell the spirit stones to himself or other creatures]
[Restriction: Host is not allowed to sell the Spirit Stones (Low)]
[Reward: 3,000 Spirit Stones (Low)*100]
"Yes!" Richard celebrated internally as soon as he saw the hologram that showed his new mission, however, he was not allowed to use it personally, as well as, selling it. He could only let someone use it.
"Dang it, 4 days only! Who to give it to? My maid?" Richard deeply thought about strategies on how to quickly let people use the stones and who.
Richard called his maid and asked if she wanted to cultivate, which the maid said positively, and it was not abnormal, who would not want to cultivate and increase their power and lifespan?
As the maid said she wanted to cultivate, Richard quickly went to the library took a Spirit Energy Breathing Technique, and asked the maid to follow the breathing technique. The maid followed her young master's command while Richard himself went to his father to ask for more spirit stones.
The city lord didn't hesitate and allowed Richard to take how many he wanted to.
Richard took 3 boxes. Why? Why take more if he could earn it 100 times?
So, all 3000 spirit stones were taken back by Richard and went back to his courtyard.
He pulled stones in a thousand and asked his maid to follow the breathing technique which the maid did, however, the measly spirit energy the maid had would not be able to finish up 2 low-grade spirit stones in a day.
This disappointed Richard and let the maid proceed at her own pace and asked the guards to have the four teams before tl gathered at the training grounds.
The guard followed and asked the four groups who participated in their young master's tournament last time.
He even whispered to himself, "Lucky bastards."
Afternoon arrived and all 40 men, who lined up themselves as per their team names, were all surprised by what their young master wanted them to do.
Use up all the stones in the three boxes within 2 days or else die!?
"Yes, and I am serious. I even called The city general to have him beheaded those who will not finish up their allocated spirit stones within the limit I provided."
The guards and city soldiers were sweating hard, and although the young master was allowing them to push forward their strengths, the vicious penalty was death.
Richard saw the 40 men's hesitating faces, so, he threw them a lifeboat, "Those who are not prepared to do what I ask, please vacate your spots. All those soldiers and guards that are willing, please fill out the vacant spots!"
Some of the 40 men stood on the side and bowed down, then exited the training grounds. For the others, they quickly grabbed the opportunity to increase their strength!
After finalizing the participants, he pulled out three boxes from his spatial ring and opened them in front of the 40 men, he asked his maid and other soldiers to give out 75 Spirit Stones (Low) to each of the 40 men.
A few minutes passed, and all 3,000 spirit stones were shared with the 40 men and Richard asked them to start using the 75 spirit stones, those who did not finish out the 75 spirit stones until tomorrow evening will get their head beheaded.
Thus, the 40 men started circulating their cultivation techniques and devoured the spirit energy within the stones they got.
Richard asked the city generally to have trusted personnel to guard these 40 guards/soldiers to not let anyone cheat and not use the 75 spirit stones provided to them. The city general nodded and called in some of his trusted soldiers.
Richard, then, left the training grounds and went to his room and practiced the two initial techniques for sword techniques and the first footwork technique within the wind blade manual.
...
"What did my son do now!?" The city lord shouted when he heard his city general say that his son gave out 3000 spirit stones to the guards, divided them among each, and forced them to cultivate and use up all 3000 spirit stones in one and a half days.
"What did this kid want to do again!? He's wasting resources!" The city lord wanted to punish his son but couldn't. And then, after he heard that if one of the men whom he selected didn't use up the 75 spirit stones given to them by tomorrow evening, they would be killed.
"Is my son this ruthless too? What is going on with my son!?" The city lord's thoughts were confused about why would his son force 40 guards/soldiers to cultivate for a day and a half using 3000 spirit stones.
"Are geniuses should be this eccentric?" The city lord asked randomly.
The city general nodded, "In the capital, city lord, there were indeed geniuses that are eccentric individuals and I could tell that the young city lord might be the same."
The city lord sighed, "My wife... what do I do?" the city lord looked up and sighed while he closed his eyes.
The city general saw the city lord contemplating himself so he left the city lord's hall.
....
As for the 40 men, they tirelessly circulated their cultivation techniques to devour the spirit energy from the 75 spirit stones. Some even felt discomfort doing so but with death hanging over their necks, they forced themselves to devour the spirit energies inside the stones.
A peculiar thing happened too, the spirit energy around the 40 men quickly became dense that made the guards/soldiers, who were guarding the training grounds and overseeing the cultivation of these 40 men, also cultivate in their position and tried to suck in those exceed spirit energies that flew out from the 40 men's area of cultivation.
Upon doing this, the expressions of the 40 men, whose eyes were closed, eased up. The excess spirit energy which were randomly flowing around them quickly dissipated due to the surrounding guards who also started cultivating.
Under this condition, the 40 men eased up and used their cultivation techniques more smoothly than before.
.....
The next day came and it was nearing Richard's deadline for the 40 men to use up all the 75 spirit stones, they all had a few more hours left until Richard came back from his courtyard.
Some of the 40 men only had 4 spirit stones left while some only had 8 spirit stones left to consume. Still, they had more hours left to complete the task their young city lord asked them to do.
The city general also visited the grounds to see what had become of the 40 guards and soldiers, who were forced by their young city lord. He wanted to check if some will have problems or will have improvements. There were 75 spirit stones, and despite low grades, the effect on these normal cultivators would be significant.
He was also wondering what was going on with their young city lord wasting precious resources on cultivators who have no better future. Most of these cultivators are only within mortal realms and only a few stepped to the 1st stage of the master realm.
He shook his head while observing these men. He also knew that the young city lord was serious about killing anyone who would not use up all their spirit stones within the deadline so, apart from being forced, they were threatened as well, which could also make them on the edge and could force them to cultivate intensely, however, it could either make their cultivation greater or be damaged later, he didn't know, but possibilities are always there.
...
The deadline has arrived, Richard, along with his maid, walked inside the training grounds and saw that all 40 men consumed all the spirit stones he asked them to consume!
"Haha! That's great!" He thought.
"Rise!" He commanded.
The 40 guards/soldiers stood up and were gazing toward their young city lord for the opportunity of being able to cultivate with such great resources!
"I am glad all of you finished the task that I've asked and, at that, on time as well! For that, I've come and will give you all 20 gold coins each for participating!" Richard announced and pulled out a large cloth bag from his spatial ring and asked his maid to give 20 gold coins to each man. He asked the 40 men to line up to receive their rewards.
The men were shocked! Not only they were given 75 spirit stones to use for cultivation, but they also received 20 gold coins!?
"We thank the young city lord!" The 40 men said in unison.
"Okay, okay, line up and get your rewards and rest!" Richard shrugged his shoulder and left the grounds with his maid after giving all 40 men their 20 gold coins each, totaling 800 gold coins!
The guards and even the city general were shocked that the young city lord took out 800 gold coins to waste!
"I need to report this to the city lord too..." The city general sighed at the wastefulness of the city lord's son.
...
Back in Richard's room, the mission completion hologram has appeared and made Richard happy.
[Host gained 300,000 Spirit Stones (Low)]
[Reward has been placed in your inventory.]
[Next Mission ETA: 2 Days and 2 Hours]
"Now now... it's time to convert all these to experience points!" Richard pulled all of the spirit stones within his system inventory and activated his origin core cultivation technique.
After 5 hours of circulating his original core technique, all the spirit energy within the stones was devoured by the system and converted to experience points.
[3,000,000 experience has been gained.]
[Experience Storage: 3,067,400]
Richard saw the updated experience and felt excited! The itch to spend these experience points was all over his body!
"Time to upgrade my cultivation strength first!"
Richard put experience points to his cultivation level!
>[Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 1 (20000/20000)] > [Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 2 (50000/50000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 3 (100000/100,000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 4 (150000/150000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 5 (250000/250000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 6 (400000/400000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 7 (550000/550000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 8 (700000/700000)]
>[Cultivation Level: Mortal Realm Stage 9 (847400/850000)]
[Experience Storage: 0]
"Dang! Only a bit more and I'll reach the top of the Mortal Realm at the age of 6!" Richard exclaimed. During the level-up process, he felt a large amount of spirit energy circulating and enveloping every cell of his body, the process was much more painless than when he broke through from the normal human stage.
The system even made sure that no one felt the abundant spirit energy that Richard produced leveling up, so, no one knew that he had reached a cultivation level that no one at his age could've reached since the creation of the world.
And thus, with satisfaction, the day ended as Richard slept with a smile.
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