9 Breakthrough

I sat on the bed of my room at the Hostess of Fertility in a standard lotus position. I first looked through the window, seeing the moon high in the sky, and smiled. A full moon was a good time to cultivate.

"Sorry, Tiamat, but you'll have to leave my neck for a while," I said, my words struggling to travel around the room and to the small snake on my person. She hissed in confusion before slowly slithering down my body. "You want to watch?" I asked since she decided to just sit there on the bed—her slitted eyes stuck on me. As with every time I tried to communicate with her, she paused for a second before nodding at me.

I searched through the bag Tsubaki offered me and I brought out a glinting bar. It was metal—not iron, but I needed to test something out with it. I deposited one ingot on the bed, then another one, then another one…

Before long, a small mountain of ingots was sitting between me and Tiamat, the weight pushing the frame of the bed down, making it creak dangerously.

"Alright, but if things go wrong, get away from me, alright?" I didn't wait for her answer this time and closed my eyes.

My theory of the lack of cultivators in this world didn't invalidate the strength of its inhabitants. Tsubaki, for example, could fold me in half the wrong way around with ease, and she didn't have to cultivate to get this strength. Whatever this Falna system was, it was very potent—I couldn't afford to lag in my acquisition of strength.

So I took the risk to cultivate in a public place.

I checked the small magic stone on the desk of the room. I asked Mia if she was willing to give me one, for artistic purposes. Telling her I'd never seen a magic stone in my life made her slightly suspicious, but with my attire, I already looked like an outsider. It didn't take long for the exchange to happen.

I dragged my eyes away from the barely-glowing purple crystal. Either way, with the appearance of these magic stones, my plans would have to change. Drastically.

My mind went back to myself.

The concealed essence of my being was flowing through my cells. With each heartbeat, I focused on the rotation of my qi around my body, suffusing every inch of my frame. The outside world became detached, the sensations became muted…

I sat, yet I couldn't feel the bed anymore. I breathed, yet I couldn't feel the air anymore.

Lost in the beauty of the hidden light of life, I concentrated, a wrinkle appearing between my brows, on the movement of the glowing gas inside of me. It was all imagery that helped me focus.

From head to toe, then back up; from left to right, then back up—the qi never stopped. It fed me and fed on itself, consciously or unconsciously making the qi flow sufficient to generate its growth. It was like the helix of DNA, building upon itself, until the end of time. Or, at least, that's how I imagined it.

And I smiled, my eyes shining from wonder, even when closed.

I entered my meditation by inhaling, then exhaling. I repeated the process repeatedly, my eyes closed and my muscles relaxed.

A bit of the tension in my body leaves with each breath, as the picture of my soul became clearer and clearer. In exchange, the real world became smaller and smaller. The noises were muted, and the outside lighting diminished until becoming extinct.

My consciousness got further away from the physical plane with each breath I took. My eyelids were shut sealed and my body stood in the same position, completely unmoving. I inhaled, I exhaled, I inhaled, I exhaled…

The next change was instant. Suddenly, the world was set alight. Far more luminous than before, far fuller than before, far…

It was just more. I stopped using my eyes to see; I stopped using my ears to hear, my hands to touch…

The only intermediary between the world and me was my qi. In this state, I could interact with greater freedom than before with the physical plane. I could see the yellow and white streams of energy flowing around me. I could see the dense brown matter suffusing the walls of the Hostess of Fertility. I could feel the green spark of the vegetation just next to this building, calling to me.

The world was so different in this state… and so I called out to the material resonating with me in this room.

Strong, unable to be bent, unable to be broken, the blood of the earth, and the strength of humanity.

I drew the deep grey vibrancy out of the metal and coaxed it inside my body. No, the correct word would be vacuumed, because that was how fast the qi entered me.

It was safe to assume metal was my highest affinity, out of every element available to a cultivator. The qi entered my body through my skin, seemingly uncaring of and unopposed by the physical barrier.

Slowly, I molded it to my will. The mental effort necessary for this step was only high because of my inexperience as a cultivator, proving I had a long way to go with the arts of cultivation.

My Soul Sea welcomed the fresh energy and made it my own. My soul engulfed the qi, pulsing with each heartbeat. With this action being repeated, faster and faster, the steps all blurred together, hastening the stream of qi entering my body.

I could feel my existence growing, a feeling so intoxicating it could breach into the addiction territory at any moment. A memory shot to the top of my mind, momentarily breaking my focus—knowledge about what could happen to cultivators addicted to this feeling, becoming nothing more than leeches unable to progress, yet always looking for more qi.

Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I dove once more into my cultivation. My soul was vibrating at the sensation, bouncing like a well-fed child. The colors in my Soul Sea intensified. Following the scriptures imprinted on my mind, I pushed forward, never stopping.

An unfathomable amount of time passed for me, as I became one with the world itself. For each drop I took, I gave a bit in return—the earth, the air, and everything in between taking my tributes. The cycle continued infinitely.

My soul ran forward as if a target was spotted. It greedily took the qi from the metal ingots and used it as fuel. The cycle quickened.

Faster, faster, and faster… until it crashed.

The obstacle didn't stand a chance.

I took the first step, my gaze fixed upon the stars, high in the sky.

I gasped. My eyes opened up abruptly.

I huffed under the sudden change as if I just woke up from a nightmare. My clothes were sticking to me, drenched by a thin layer of cold sweat. My limbs were slightly unresponsive, and phantom pain assailed me from everywhere. These sensations were very uncomfortable, but they disappeared as soon as I realized they existed.

"Haaaa… Haaaa… Haaaa…" I panted, feeling winded by the experience.

I looked around, my eyes steadily getting used to the abrupt sensation of the light of the sun. The morning sun showed its glory.

"How… huff... H-How much time passed?" I asked myself, struggling to get up.

My body didn't change, except for the layer of sweat covering it, and all the black impurities which sputtered out of my pores. Please let the showers be open right now…

I removed my T-shirt. The chilling air of the room hitting my body forced a long sigh, bordering on a groan, out of me. Wait, I have a certain resistance to heat, but I can still feel the cold air on my skin?

I chuckled in disbelief at what happened to me.

This chuckle grows into a full-blown laugh as the joy overtook my mind.

"Is this what it feels like?"

I calmed down, and dove into my Soul Sea to see the changes. So much qi! The gap was staggering. I couldn't help but laugh again.

When I opened my eyes again, I realized there was a mass of dull metal in front of me. The ingots.

"So I really sucked everything out of it, huh…" When I tried to touch what remained of the metal, I realized it became a weird, greyish goo. It lost everything which made it a strong material, and with no qi inside of it, it was completely useless.

Good thing it wasn't expensive, or else Tsubaki would not have been happy.

"Interesting," I observed. "So maybe I could destroy weapons that way? But it took me a long time to extract-" I stopped and panicked. Where's Tiamat?!

I shot up from the bed, looking around with a frantic gaze. Where did she go?

I froze and sighed; the worry disappearing from my body when I heard a very slight hiss. One which I would have missed without enhanced senses, I'm pretty sure.

"You scared me…" I turned around, towards the direction of the sound—the bed.

Sitting in the same position, hidden by the pile of grey goo in front of her: Tiamat. But something was wrong. Is she shedding her skin?

There was a thin blue layer on top of her, separated from her body at the tip of her tail. She hissed again as if calling for help.

"What happened to you, Tiamat?" I helped her take her old skin off, revealing an even shinier layer under it. I had to scrape off thin pieces of old skin stuck around her eyes, but after a couple of minutes of precise removal, Tiamat was as good as new.

She hissed in thanks, climbing back up to her favorite spot once more, around my neck.

I reached out to her with my qi sense. Oh.

Oh!

"You broke through as well, huh?" I scratched her cute little head with my fingers, eliciting what I could only interpret as positive feelings through the shivering of her body. When I tried to remove my fingers, she pushed her head forwards, before freezing and recoiling in embarrassment.

"If you become a mighty being—like a dragon—you'll have all the head pats you want," I commented, shrugging at the same time.

Tiamat lowered her head, focusing on my gaze with her slitted pupils opening. At that moment, the burning gaze she gave me should have been enough for me to realize how much I jinxed myself.

#####

The next day, my steps found themselves pointed towards the building the guild owned, after a much-needed trip to the market—for new clothes. I walked through the city with a smile on my face, following Tsubaki's notes on each important part of the city.

Without Tiamat, though, who decided against following me after a long internal discussion, if the squirming and the looking around was any indication. She had opted to stay at the inn and cultivate.

What a surprise—the places I highlighted as 'avoid at all costs' because of their high visibility, and the increased risk of bumping into someone able to stomp my face to the ground, were now the most important places to visit.

According to Tsubaki—who mistakenly assumed, until now, I wished to become an adventurer, and had taken some time of her day to make notes—the Guild, the Tower of Babel itself, and an inn were all I needed to become one. And so, bolstered by the desire to get more of these… magic stones, I followed the instructions to the letter.

Apparently, I needed to register as an adventurer to the Guild, since it was the organization in control of the passage to the dungeon.

The possibility I wasn't sent into a xianxia world increasing with each day, I had to take a bit of a risk and get some information from a plausible source. There was so much more to do and to discover if I didn't have to ask myself whether what I was doing would increase my visibility in the city.

In hindsight, all I had were baseless assumptions, but I couldn't remove the pang of alarm every time I thought of doing something I knew would reveal too much of myself. Working for someone well-known in the city was enough, and the opportunity to learn blacksmithing from Tsubaki offset the drawbacks. I wasn't too sure about a lot of the other stuff I could do—such as alchemy.

If I pursued this craft—one I would come to need when the breakthrough become difficult, I assumed—in a city where I couldn't find any elements linked to alchemy, then there were only two options. Either alchemy was a secret craft and wasn't public, or they just didn't have any knowledge regarding pill-crafting, arrays—at least not any knowledge similar to mine.

There was only one way I could see this ending if I blindly started making pills—captured and enslaved to assist the cultivation of a specific sect, or Familia, or dead before it could get to that point. An ending I had no intention of getting.

My pace sped up at the thought.

Soon enough, I arrived in front of the main building of the Adventurer's Guild. Stretching to 4 floors, at least from the outside, covered by multiple banners I didn't know the significance of, the building presented a spacious first floor. I had to wiggle through a few adventurers, but the surface area proved to be enough to hold a staggering amount of people without crowding.

The name of the building? Pantheon. I let out a quiet snort at the letters sculpted into the wall near the entrance.

I entered the Guild building through a swinging door; not unlike those seen in old western movies, and then stepped into a floor covered with white-and-blue marble tiles, sharply clacking at every step with my newly-bought boots.

The first thing I noticed beyond the many adventurers near me was the fact the building was immaculate. Not a single speck of filth could be found anywhere. Which startled me for a moment. I spent a good minute looking around, nodding at the cleanliness of the building. Public buildings in big cities were not as… spotless as this one, from personal experience. I spent a spare thought on the idea of this world possessing cleaning magic, before moving on and walking towards the multiple counters available.

"Hello," I greeted the person at the counter's attention. A black vest and pants with a white collared long sleeve shirt underneath and a grey bow tie were the norm here—the uniform. The woman lifted her head off her papers, and I noticed the striking resemblance with Jane, Tsubaki's employee at the counter. Those same half-lidded eyes and bored expression.

"Welcome to the Guild's building, Pantheon. What can I do for you?" Her voice was lower than Jane's but carried the same permanently-tired undertone.

"I… I just arrived in the city, and I'd like to have more information about being an adventurer."

Her eyes went back to the pile of documents in front of her. Documents which had no business being between a receptionist's hands, if you asked me. Either they had more responsibilities in this world than I imagined, or the Guild was understaffed. "As a new adventurer, an advisor will take care of you on the second floor. The stairs are on your right."

"Thank you." I didn't bother speaking any more words.

The second floor was very similar to the first one, except for the lounge in front of the staircase—green couches and small tables, at least 10 sets, were placed behind a glass panel.

Dodging another hurried adventurer, I met whom I guessed would become my advisor. Slim, a brown-haired bob-cut with emerald eyes—just like mine—and a face filled with the freshness of a new recruit. Oh, and Elven ears, peeking through her hair at both directions.

She spotted me approaching her, and her smile widened just a bit. Another detail I wouldn't have been able to catch without my enhanced senses. "Are you a new adventurer?" She asked me, and I nodded, figuring they sent not only new adventurers to the second floor if she led with this question.

"Oh, that's great, I just finished giving the rundown to someone who just entered the confines of this city, so I already have the documents at hand."

"Should we do this here, or…" I said, gesturing to the rather empty floor. Which was distinctively not private.

"Please follow me," she said, letting out a quick sigh at my words. "We'll get a private small meeting box, don't worry. There should be one available right now..." We climbed another floor in silence until she broke it with chatter. "You're one of the few newcomers entering this building so early; normally, caravans do not do night travel because of the risk of monster attacks."

"I arrived here-" I stopped for a second. Would telling her I walked to the city compromise me in the future? "…yesterday; I had enough money to rent an inn and I just gathered information for the next day. So, here I am."

"Ah, I'll take it you desire to become an adventurer then?"

"...adventurer is a big word, and a bigger job. I am well aware of the dangers of the profession, but nothing else," I lied. "I prefer to get information before diving headfirst into the abyss."

"I see," the advisor blinked. "That would be a first. Few travel to Orario to do anything other than adventuring." A cultural piece I wasn't aware of, but one I should have guessed when thinking about how many adventurers are living in this city and how much Tsubaki makes, even when selling mostly expensive, premium equipment.

Old Hinks told me this was the nearest biggest city and the place to go for adventurers, but the information was incomplete. "My main reason is linked to adventuring, that is for sure."

"If that is not too forward, could you inform me of your current profession?" When I didn't answer for a while, she flushed and tried to defend herself, "P-Please do not misunderstand, if you'd like to register as an adventurer, you'll have to fill out a form and write your job history."

First, I did not know what misunderstanding she was talking about. Second, it seemed I couldn't get away from forms no matter the world. Whether it was for Tsubaki's offer or this, bureaucracy would forever haunt humanity across space and time.

Well, humanity and all the other races.

"I am an apprentice blacksmith," I chose, giving her a smile.

"In that case, I must warn you. The death rate in the dungeon for new adventurers is really high. The chance of being killed and forgotten is nowhere near enough to offset the price of materials, which I can agree are sometimes egregious…" she said, a frown marring her face. Once more, this girl went on a tangent about things I wasn't even aware of. As Tsubaki's errand boy, I only collected the materials from various sellers. I didn't bother about the origin of these.

With the words I've just heard, a few theories appeared in my mind.

"There is no need to worry. I don't entertain the thought of becoming a dungeon-dweller to make more profit. Rather, I've always dreamt of adventures in general."

"...adventures?"

"...yes?" What did I do wrong? Her eyes cleared at the word and her lips thinned, dark memories dancing across her eyes.

She abruptly gained this very reserved expression and just glared at me for a few seconds before sighing, exasperation rolling out of her voice. "I'll… Whether you become an adventurer or not, I'll give you a precious piece of advice," she said, adjusting the position of her glasses on her nose. "Adventurers… should not go on adventures."

"...sure?" I didn't know what to answer to this.

"That means—"

"Oh, no, I understand what you mean." Another lie. I could not imagine myself stopping others' dreams and ambitions for safety. But I was not about to tell the truth to someone who worked for one of the biggest organizations in the city if it contradicted their viewpoints.

"Ah, truly?" She smiled once more, before nodding multiple times in a row, "Then everything is good, then! So long as you understand the value of your life, you may flourish inside of the dark dungeon sprawled underneath this city."

"Just... for reference, who is the strongest in this city?" I asked a leading question after a brief pause. I needed information desperately.

"Well, if you come from outside the city, it makes sense you might not know about him… But he's the King of Orario, Ottar from the Freya Familia." I just learned the name of another goddess living inside the walls of this city. And a major player at that. "He's Level 7—the only Level 7 in the city." Remembering Tsubaki's words about the lack of a distinct ruler in this city, I didn't believe 'King' was more than a nickname.

I hummed in thought. Tsubaki was Level 5, and my Soul Sight allowed me to get a feeling of Tsubaki's strength compared to mine. I knew how wide the chasm between the two of us was, but how wide was the gap between Ottar and her?

"I see, that's a truly impressive achievement! I've never heard of someone going past Level 2 before leaving my birth town," I said, before faking a contemplative look. "Though, I can't help but wonder what's the difference between a Level 5 I've met and a Level 7… I didn't have many occasions to witness the prowess of adventurers before."

"Well…" The elf flickered her eyes to the roof in thought. "The gap between each level is immeasurable, especially at higher levels where the difference stacks up," she said, more to herself than to me, though I absorbed the information nevertheless. "I would say, from the Level 5s I know in the city, hundreds of them together wouldn't take down the King. I've seen him in action only once, but…"

Her look told me everything I needed to know. The gap was enormous, very big. I didn't know how wide it was, exactly, but the comparison the advisor offered was both mind-blowing and reassuring.

Hundreds of Tsubaki's were a scary sight, for me at my current cultivation level. If what I knew of my future capabilities was true? It was nothing.

I couldn't help but let a smile break out on my face. No confirmation so far… but I was getting closer to the truth. People's testimonies were the only pieces of evidence I could get in the first place without dipping my toe in the lake.

We walked into a private booth; the elf sitting in front of me, stacking up many papers on the small table separating our respective seats. Pamphlets, forms, long documents… and everything in-between. Should I feel better knowing they seemed to take this seriously; if the number of documents I would have to sign—was I to become an adventurer—was any sign?

Though, this seemed like a lot of paperwork for what essentially was, 'If you die, it's not our fault,' from what I've gleaned. "That's quite a bit," I admitted with a chuckle, the mountain piling up even more with the introduction of books.

"Oh, don't worry. Most of these are guides for when- no, if you become an adventurer. What we need to focus on is… this." She gestured to the pamphlet I've noticed from the corner of my eyes before.

I took it, giving her a look for a second. A pamphlet, really? That was your sales speech for the profession? I ended up reading through it, more basic stuff which confirmed my assumptions of what was a dangerous job, explanations about what a Familia was, the role of the Guild in all of this... and I stopped at the last line.

I stopped, hard.

I stood up from the chair, scaring the advisor if her small squeal was to be believed. I, on my part, just couldn't believe what I've just read. The confirmation was in front of my eyes. There were too many differences, too many discrepancies. But this one was the most obvious, and I felt my cheeks burning when I realized I didn't make the connection before.

Adventurers exchanged magic stones for money… all of them, both the adventurers and the magic stones. Written black on white on this pamphlet, a warning against smuggling magic stones... for money. This wasn't some sort of balance they achieved between cultivation and currency. Magic stones were useless to adventurers by themselves.

Stones filled with natural qi, ready to be plucked at any moment, useless.

These magic stones were only used for fuel. The half I couldn't sense, couldn't understand—magic—was used. Mia didn't seem to be concerned by the gem I asked for yesterday, of course, she wouldn't, if she couldn't use the energy remaining inside of it. The Guild, which from my understanding was the highest authority on the matter, confirming to me the uses of magic stones.

And it wasn't cultivation.

The epiphany hit me so hard I laughed. It was a short-lived laugh, however, cut by the overwhelming need for confirmation. My eyes flickered to the surprised advisor, who was now looking at me with confusion. "I apologize… for this outburst."

I sat back down, coughing in my fist twice, just in case. "The prospect of becoming an adventurer just… filled me with joy, b-because of dreams I thought I could never achieve." It, technically, wasn't a lie.

"...I see… I-If so, do you have questions before I continue the presentation?" she said, a momentary pause marking the last word of her sentence.

"I have one question, in fact. Miss…"

"Eina."

"Miss Eina… have you ever heard of qi?" I had tried asking civilians, and none of them knew what it was, but I was so stuck in my belief I feared asking anyone who should know about it out of the street. It frightened me no more, at least not enough to balance against my racing heart, and widened eyes at the possibility that was all but confirmed—the possibility that this world was not a xianxia.

"...of what?"

"Eina — Ah, do you mind if I call you by your name?"

"I don't."

"Eina, I would like to become an adventurer."

#####

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A/N: Tiamat has been enlightened, nothing can stop her anymore! And Tian should really use his words carefully next time.