Chapter 3 - Learning Cultivation

Chapter 3 - Learning Cultivation

''Morning." His uncle greeted and smiled affectionately when Hilgamech came in. Hilgamech greeted back with a lovable smile on his face and took his seat, relaxing himself on a comfy cushion chair.

His uncle—Thellgarr by name, was a man in his prime. He had raven-black hair and was handsome. He was tall—six feet six inches and had a really impressive athletic physique. He had bright blue eyes that shone with wisdom, knowledge, patience, and exceeding courage.

Dressed in a really expensive outfit, he emanated the grandeur of a giant business tycoon.

"Uncle, I had a dream about that supreme expert again. I have been counting it, this should be the eighty-seventh time now. I don't know why I keep dreaming about the man." Hilgamech said with an expression of strong curiosity etched on his face.

"I don't know why you keep having dreams about him. Perhaps it's to open your eyes to things you may believe, such as only gods possessing devastating power to turn entire clusters of worlds to ashes." His uncle said with a subtle hint of shock and strangeness in his eyes, which he tried to conceal from the young boy seated in front of him.

Hilgamech nodded his head and said, changing the topic, "Uncle, I have asked you to tell me about cultivation many times, but you always said you would tell me at an appropriate time. Can you tell me now?" He asked with an expression of false wrath written all over his face.

His uncle saw this and withheld the urge to laugh out loud. This was because his angry face looked very funny, seeming like that of a squashed tomato.

"Alright, alright. I will tell you before you explode at me." Thellgarr said while Hilgamech delightfully nodded his head.

Then he continued "Cultivation, also called Essence-Nuturing, is a process of harmonizing oneself with a particular energy. Once the attunement process is complete, we begin to absorb this energy into our body, gathering it as an essence from the world itself and nurturing it over time. As we continue to do this, with a fervent heart and total diligence, the energy or world-essence would grow from a small amount to a really large amount."

"Hmm. Okay. So, uncle, where is this energy stored in the body?" Hilgamech asked with furrowed brows.

"The area where this energy is stored in the body is just an inch below the navel. It's in the form of a sphere. We refer to this spherical zone as the Receptacle of Essence, or Energy Space." Thellgarr replied.

"Hmm. I got that uncle." Hilgamech said, nodding his head in understanding and joy. Finally, he got to learn about cultivation.

Thellgarr, hearing what Hilgamech said, produced a smile on his face and continued his lecture, "Cultivation stages can be divided into four phases. The initial-phase, middle-phase, late-phase, and peak-phase. While Cultivation realms are grouped into seven. They are Human realm, Profound Adept realm, Saint realm, Sage realm, Celestial realm, Immortal Realm, Divine Adept realm, and the Ultimate Imperishable realm."

Once Thellgarr said that, he looked at Hilgamech with a smile on his face and asked, "Are you following, or it is too much for your young brain to handle?"

Once he asked that, he burst into a soft chuckle.

Hilgamech simply rolled his eyes at him and asked, "Uncle, what do you mean by that? Of course I understand." He said with fake anger in his tone.

Haha!

His uncle chuckled more before returning to his usual seriousness.

"What a comedian you are. Of course, you are intelligent and will entirely grab what I was saying. I was only trying to tease you, dear boy."

"Now, in the human realm, we have two stages. They are the Flow stage and Condensation stage..."

Like that, Thellgarr began to patiently enumerate the cultivation realms there was to Hilgamech, and then thought him more about cultivation.

***

"Uncle, since you know so much about cultivation, you should have lots of cultivation manuals in your study room, right? I want an excellent cultivation manual, and a Supernal Entity-grade, battle-class methodology manual. I want to start cultivating." Hilgamech said with urgency in his tone, after learning about the different types of cultivation manual and battle-class manual there were.

"Pffft!" Thellgarr heard that and simply burst into serious laughter. This boy knows nothing!

"It's an A-grade battle-class methodology manual that you mentioned like that? Boy, I don't have the kind of wealth to purchase such, as they are things that only experts from the High God-emperor stage could possibly have. And if they truly have one and opt to sell them for some currencies, they would each cost more than a trillion orphastones to purchase." He said further while Hilgamech's eyes simply shone with unbound awe and amazement.

Trembling, he thought, 'So, they have such immense value? Wow! Also, they must be exceedingly rare, since they possess a really great and mind-staggering price. Ugh!'

The currency used in this world is called orphastone. It's an octahedral crystal that came in five colors, which included yellow, cerulean, purple, silver, and gold. These colors corresponded to the following: common-quality, good-quality, rare-quality, supreme-quality, and peerless-quality.

As for their value for exchange, they were: a cerulean orphastone could be exchanged for a hundred yellow orphastones, purple orphastone could be exchanged for a hundred cerulean orphastones and ten thousand yellow orphastones, a silver orphastone could be exchanged for a million purple orphastones, hundred million cerulean orphastones, or one billion yellow orphastones. Lastly, a gold orphastone could be exchanged for a billion purple orphastones, ten billion cerulean orphastones, or a hundred billion yellow orphastones.

These orphastones were one of the numerous minerals found in the earth strata. They were converted to money to trade for goods and services. As for their value, it totally depended on their rarity. For example, silver sapphirstones may only be found in a remote region within a particular continent—out of possibly two thousand continents.

Hilgamech, after realizing these, made a smirk on his face and asked with hope still burning in his eyes, "What of the B-Grade one? The one called Phenomenal Warring King-grade battle-class methodology manual?"

Thellgarr simply smiled and shook his head. He then said in a whisper, "Come with me, I have a special one for you. There is a manual I purchased for you a long time ago. You might like it."

"I hope it's a good one, or I won't accept it." Hilgamech said with determination in his tone.

"What a boy, you shall see. Just put your young, curious, and troublesome mind at ease" Thellgarr said and laughed.

Then he brought Hilgamech to a shelf at a corner of his massive bedroom. He opened it and pulled out a large metal box.

When he opened the box, a large book could be seen within. The book had a thick, blank page cover and was fastened.

"Here. go practice." He gave Hilgamech the book and immediately drove him out of his room.

Plak!

The large, heavy door abruptly closed in his face. While Hilgamech who was totally surprised by his uncle's behavior and immediately realized something in the next, suddenly yelled, attracting the attention of many workers who were happily and passionately tending to their duties, "Uncle, if you gave me a trash manual, I swear you won't rest, I will haunt you physically and in your dreams."

The workers only smiled after hearing what he said, shook their heads at his funny display of love and simply continued with their roles.

Hilgamech snorted and left for his room. The moment he got to his room, he immediately unfastened the book and opened it.

The instant he did, the air in his room abruptly turned turbulent. It caused the doors of his wardrobe to swing violently, and his curtains to flutter hard like a miniature windstorm was occurring in his room.

As the mysteriously evoked wind currents continued to circulate about in a raging manner, framed artistic drawings and images of sceneries hung on the wall began to fall to the ground. His quilt, bed cover, and pillows, were flung far away by the aggressive and tumultuous air flow.

As for Hilgamech, who stood in the room really astonished, strong winds brushed his face and pulled his skin—causing him stinging pains. And as the wind continuously struck his swaying figure, it caused his long silky hair to flutter, so much that each strand danced in the air.

"What's going on? How is this happening?"

Hilgamech who retained the look of exceeding shock on his face, began to look around, trying his best to comprehend what was really going on.

Then he brought his attention back to the large book on his table and immediately realized that a form of residual power was possibly emitting from the book, heavily influencing the savagely movement of air in his room.

"How powerful." He subconsciously muttered.

Then his eyes shone when he opened from the blank front page to the next page and saw the words, 'Wind Element Trinity Methodology: Primordial Wind Conjuring, A-grade', boldly imprinted in gold on it.