5 Cultivation (2/2)

Wondering about what exactly was happening, Erik asked some questions about the previous events, and without surprise, he received an answer from the robotic voice.

[The system is not sure, but the system can make some guess. Like you though, the cultivation process probably make life energy loses its properties, transforming it into something else entirely. If you were a human cultivator, this would not happen.

The only thing they use is the world's vitality, making it go around their meridians. This process improves the meridians, exactly like you, but the nature of the world's vitality never changes, there will simply be less in the place it was extracted, waiting for the world to provide more.

When the meridians of a cultivator are capable enough, they would take the world's energy inside their organs an, trying to improve them. That is how a mortal becomes a cultivator of the enhanced stage. For you, a plant, it seems you can take in a lot of different energies, but all of them with different objectives.

As for the energy gathering... That would be your core, something plants and beasts naturally make. To humans, it can be used for many things, like refining it into the world's vitality and absorbing it for cultivating. They could even make a spirit weapon with the properties of the core, like a fire sword could be produced from the core of an inferno snake.

The system doesn't know how it is useful for you, so host will have to learn by himself. In the future, the system will comprehend anything you perceive and save it in its data stockpile to remember it.]

While listening to the system's explanation, Erik was continuing to operate life energy inside his body, but quickly, he realized that his vessels were getting full, the procedure was decelerating, as if they didn't operate as well as before.

_"This must be because I tried to employ life energy first, instead of something which improved my cultivation speed."_

He willed to absorb sun energy, and quickly a feeling of irritation came over him. It was not awfully painful, but it was very disagreeable, like being close to the sun without any way to protect himself. He felt that his vessels were changing ridiculously slowly, enlarging to receive more energy. Like life energy, part of what he absorbed went to his core, which was still so small it was difficult to see it.

For some time, he let the sun energy complete revolutions around his vessels, analyzing the seed while cultivating.

From the information he received, there was everything about his body. How much food he still had inside of him, if his environment was good to hatch and how much time till he would do it. From what he understood, he would begin his next stage of life in a few days, since he had everything he needed around him. Erik basically would just stay a seed till that time, but he didn't really mind waiting, as he could still cultivate in this state.

Actually, after some time, sun energy became quite sparse, what was entering in his vessels was in very little quantity. He had to change to something else, so Erik decided to go for water energy, not considering earth energy as a priority since it would not help him absorbing life energy, the most useful one. Again, he had a special feeling, this time as if Erik was underwater, not knowing how to swim and not seeing any way to get out.

At first, it was quite distressing, but he was able to calm down and relax. Absorbing water energy, he could sense that his vessels were being refined bit by bit, allowing the energy flow he absorbed pass swifter. There was also his core that swelled slowly, merging every energy together. Surprisingly, Erik had also some sort of instinct telling him that something was still missing in that core, making it unstable.

_"I guess that if I add earth energy, it will be balanced."_

When water energy came to be scanty, he switched to earth energy. He could have gone for sun energy, as it replenished and was more helpful, but he ignored it because he didn't want to grow an unstable core. This time, the feeling was that of being buried, suffocating and incapable of movement.

He quickly controlled himself, shifting the energy around his body. As some of it joined his core, a feeling of peace and tranquility went to him, making Erik much more serene than before, since it surpassed the disturbing sensation of taking in earth energy.

"So they really are the four basic energy for a seed, or at least for my category of plant"-

The earth energy was abundant, much more than other types, as he was buried in it. He decided to switch between the four variants of energy, keeping his core balanced.

Going at it for a long time, sun energy suddenly went missing. Pondering about it, there was a very feasible for that.

_"It must be the night right now, so I'll be missing on sun energy for some time"_

However, he could feel something else coming from the outside, something Erik had no information of, like he had with everything else he perceived up to now.

_"Could this be... Moon energy? I can't really be sure, as it seems I have no info about it, just like if my instincts completely ignored it. I could try to cultivate with it, but it may be dangerous, as I don't know what changes it would make to me. I guess I'll try and if I discern that it's too perilous, I"ll stop immediately."_

He started to take in the supposed moon energy, absorbing as little as possible, not being rash. The feeling he got from it... it was actually an emotion, as an extreme feeling of loneliness assaulted him.

_"Why is it always so annoying to cultivate? This is getting irritating."_

[The system has analyzed the situation, and the system believes that your body will automatically react negatively against energy, as it would do for any sickness getting inside you, unless it is life energy. Since it comes from the outside, the plant instinct's will try to destroy it, but that only ends up making you feel bad. Life energy is the exception because you are already composed of it, like everything living.

That must be why plants have to be hundreds of years old to form a core, it only takes in energy passively, never trying to attract it, apart from life energy, which takes an awfully long time to pass around unenhanced vessels. Since you consciously take in energy, you cultivation progress should be extremely faster.]

_"At least I won't have to wait for centuries before I can stop being so weak that literally anything can kill me."_

As they were discussing, moon energy was moving around his vessels, very slowly, since he did not let a lot enter his body. As it completed a revolution, Erik observed that none of the energy went to his core, only passing through and leaving. Like every type of energy before, everything changed from moon energy to something else entirely, after exiting his body.

"At least it doesn't look like it damages me while it's circulating, but does it even help?"

[The system doesn't know if and how it help, you would have to continue absorbing it for the system to analyze it.]

Erik decided that while moon energy was interesting, forming his core was much more important, as he had some sort of sensation telling him that once it was big enough, something great would happen.

That is how Erik came with his cultivation schedule: 9/10 of his time would be used to form a core, while he would take in moon energy with the rest. Of course, he had to absorb more sun energy than the rest while it was the day, since it disappeared in the night.

That is how Erik, still a seed, really began his cultivation journey, with many adventures waiting for him.