12 The Fingers

A strange silence enveloped the whole Blue Cave. Darkscale stood immobile in front of the portal, a huge oval with a watery surface encircled by countless complex runes.

The serpent mind had frozen for a couple of seconds after hearing the words of Carelia.

"BOOM"

He only recovered when a new attack reverberated across his liar, shaking everything inside of it.

"He's stronger than me? How?" A furious gleam appeared in his eyes, supplanting the last shades of surprise and daze.

All his confidence came from one and one single information: his MAID told him that the Pretorian's Breath had enriched so much his body that only cultivators could ever possibly beat him in a fight! Common people, even veteran warriors should not pose any kind of threat to him. How come now she was saying the complete opposite?

"You said that no one could beat me…at least not people who aren't c…" A flash of understanding appeared in his mind. He immediately felt dizzy in his head, his mouth dropped to the floor and his eyes almost popped out of his eye sockets.

"He's a cultivator?!"

Even thinking it he felt almost fainting! A Cultivator? That silly human that he stalked for hours without him noticing? The same one from whom he stole the Blue Cave? He surely wasn't a cultivator a couple of days before, how did he manage to become one in such a small amount of time?

"Im.. Impossible" murmured the snake. Immediately, a very calm voice answered the confused reptile.

"He isn't a cultivator yet, but he can clearly gather and manipulate energy… two of the necessary condition to form a grade one cultivation base."

"Not a cultivator? Ah… yes, it couldn't be"

The serpent felt a little better, but inside he still was incredibly shocked by the fact that the human was able to use Energy Manipulation.

"Manipulation? I tried so many times, it's so hard!" thought the snake with frustration.

The voice in his head interjected again, almost as it was trying to cheer him up.

"That's because humans have simpler ways of obtaining the Fingers of Cultivation"

Darkscale immediate understood what the AI was talking about. Fingers of Cultivation. It was a passage in the Cultivation Way Pamphlet, a poetic interpretation of the tree Pillars of Cultivation: Gathering was the Hand, Tempering the Arm, Manipulation was the Fingers.

Each of the three pillars was incredibly important, but alone was mostly useless.

Being able to gather lots of energy without the body strong enough to contain it meant risking grievous wounds or even death. Some cultivator literally exploded when they tried to force their way to the next grade without first obtaining a body that was strong enough to contain the energy required.

At the same time, having a strong body without the ability to gather energy or manipulate it, was also completely useless. Not only: stronger bodies required way more energy, and without an adequate Gathering skill level, one could easily end up starving to death.

The Pamphlet explained well the meaning of the delicate balance between the three pillars. However, it didn't explain why Manipulation was so hard to develop.

Now, hearing from Carelia that humans had it easier made Darkscale almost explode in anger.

"How?" he growled in rage.

A long moment of silence passed between his question and the moment when the gentle and serene voice of Carelia started to sound in his head: "Humans have a body shape that's very similar to the first cultivators, the Vitruvians, making them able to use many of the techniques that they invented and honed for billions of years… including Manipulation skills"

The voice made a brief pause, letting Darkscale digest the new information before continuing her very detailed explanation: "That's also why stronger cultivators that have very different body shapes will do anything to obtain a human looking body… most Vitruvians techniques are tailored to their bodies, human-like bodies… however, it's most correct to say that humans were created to be similar to Vitruvians and not the contrary."

"The first cultivators… Vitruvians…" the eyes of the little snake shined, he now understood why the magic ores, those described in the books of the Blue Cave's previous owner, that could transform the body into a human-like one were described as incredibly precious.

"Why like humans?! Why couldn't they be like serpents? We are far more beautiful than humans… those naked monkeys are so damn ugly"

"BOOOM"

Another great tremor broke his daydreaming about ancient civilizations and throw him back into the present.

"Dammit!"

Under the violet eyes of Darkscale, the human attacked again the portal, making the entire surface bubble under the impact.

The little serpent started to despair, thinking that the moment to bet everything on the surprise factor had come. He should just let him in and wait hidden somewhere to ambush him, like he previously wanted to do.

"Will that work now though?"

This time he was more knowledgeable than the past. After having read The Cultivation Way he knew that if someone attained the Gathering and Manipulating skills, he could easily use energy sense.

Energy sense was one of the most simple techniques: a probe made of pure energy that could be used to examine things near you without moving. This was most probably the way that the King knew things he couldn't perceive with his 5 sense.

Trying to ambush someone who could use Energy Sense was a very bad idea. It could work only if the person in question was incredibly careless and didn't probe a place with his energy sense before entering it.

"I'm done for…"

Another huge tremor passed across the Cave, making a couple of books fall from the bookshelves.

"Young Master, while I don't recommend opening the portal and to let him in, I can also confirm with complete confidence that he has zero chances to break into the Cave with the power level he's exhibiting. Not while I still possess the required energy to operate the defense system."

A sensation of pure happiness enveloped the little snake, while his eyes fixed themselves on the biped on the other side of the portal. His fear and misery rapidly became joy then disdain. He felt as he just won the battle against the human in some way.

"Stupid human, mhp, trying to mess with this young master" he snickered loudly, hissing with scorn.

"Keep bashing your dumb head into this King's doors, the sounds of your failure it's even better than music… ehehehe laughed the serpent, tossing his head backward in a loud laugh.

However, his new find happiness was suddenly ruined by the voice of Carelia.

"Yet… that would only last for so long. Plus maintaining the defenses up all the time would consume a lot of energy… in fact, the quantity of time that the Blue Cave has before running out of energy would surely halve"

The snake face darkened realizing that he started celebrating too soon.

"And that's the most optimistic estimate" Continued the AI gently.

"…" Darkscale opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"Young Master Darkscale, you really need to use your time to train. If you don't, you won't be able to get out without placing your life in the hand of this Immortal Path Cultivator"

The last phrase of Carelia was said in a tone very different from her usual gentle and neutral voice. Darkscale could sense disgust, and… rage.

The serpent was surprised: he didn't know much about how MAID worked, but he was sure that they couldn't have such strong feelings. Their intelligence was the fruit of complex programming, it was a simulation of intelligence, not a real one.

Almost as sensing the bewilderment of the serpent, Carelia immediately addressed her behavior.

"I… I… I obviously I dislike any other Cultivation Path other than that of my master…that's one of my Personality Packet, definitely… yeah, l-l-l-long live the Devil Path!"

"Wait, what's the matter with your voice? Why are you stuttering?" continued suspiciously Darkscale.

"I…I… I obviously not stuttering, I can't stutter silly… it's just the Com System bugging… Ah… yes, I feel that the system has encountered some errors, I need to reboot. I'll be gone for a couple of days… master you should really train, ok? Yeah, ok bye."

Said the AI, in a single breath, immediately cutting off the communication with Darkscale without waiting for his answer.

"Damn, the bugs are becoming more and more serious… I should really talk to Spike about them."

His eyes immediately moved to the closed black fist hidden behind the Ghost Pond. It was time to hear from his horned merchant friend.

"Yeah, maybe I can have him give me some manual on how to train more easily my Manipulation skill…" continued the reptile, eyes shining with greed.

The snake began to move towards the Orbital Trader, when another large tremor made everything in the liar tremble.

"BOOM"

At the same time, the serpent saw something coming towards him with the corner of his eyes. Without thinking about it, he immediately ducked to the left. A massive tome crashed on the floor in the same spot he was in an instant before.

"Dammit! That was close!"

Almost getting hit by an incredibly huge encyclopedia fallen from a shelf, the serpent gave a long mean look at the human on the other side of the portal behind him.

He truly believed that he just avoided a grave danger. If Carelia were still there she probably would have reminded him that his body had been greately enhanced by the Ghost Pond spectral energy and thus a book falling from a shelf woudn't even manage to chip his scales, let alone injure him in any way.

"Filthy evil humans, always trying to kill me! Just wait until I learn how to manipulate energy and I'll transform your ugly head into my first trophy!"

After a last mean glance towards the portal, he started to move again towards the Orbital Trader.