Chapter 12: More Cultivation

"Hey, Auguste, is my sister really going to be okay? She hasn't woken up yet." Flame asked me.

We four stayed inside in one of the rooms in the safe house. The floor is made out of pure white stone while the walls were also the same. We had no window or anything, just 2 bunk beds for each of us. Me and Vane sleep in the bunk bed closest to the door, it's basically right by our feet, while Flame and Flare's bunk bed was at the other end of the room. There's a carpet in the middle and a wooden cabinet.

I was sitting on Vane's lap while he sat on the carpet as I read a book when Flame asked me, and I replied without turning my eyes away, "Yeah, just give it a month and a half. She's completely fine, isn't she? Can you feel anything strange from her? No? So just trust me."

"Hmm, if you say so. I'm just so worried about her." He said, looking at his elder sister sleeping peaceful while sitting right by her side.

Anyway, not minding that, I continued reading the book novel I was reading. It's an interesting story about a dystopian world where everyone is supposed to be happy, and the ironic thing is that this world was controlled by advance creations of humans known as "A.I" and they think that this dystopian world they've created for humans was a utopia, even when it's not. It has great plot, characters, and theme, that's why I am reading it for the fourth time

Soon I finished reading the book, and when I reached the last page, I read that it was created in the Platinum Continent by some author who has the pen name of "Idyll." This part of the book always fascinated me because "Idyll" is awfully similar to "Utopia". Maybe it's because of this book he named himself that? There's not much information about this author, except that he died many years ago. I read about it in the history book while I was bored out of my mind back in the orphanage.

His real name is "Alfred Semmelweis" and he was popular enough to be put in the history books because of this one book. Many people liked it and even the government of the Platinum Continent praised him for such a wonderful book. But a day after having a ball with some of the most popular people in his continent, he died mysteriously and was found without his head in the dumpster somewhere in an alleyway in the city. His story is tragic and I think there's more to it but It's practically useless to think about a dead man.

"What's got you in deep thought?" Vane asked me, his voice seemingly deeper than the average person.

I was snapped out of my stupor, and replied, "It is of no matter."

"If you say so… anyway, I brought some books with me before we left the orphanage. I don't doubt you've already read them but if you want, I can give them to you." Vane told me.

"Why did you bring them? That just puts more burden on you more than anything." I said, confused as to why he would do something like that.

"I was bringing them for my friend, and I think you might know her. Her name's Alice, and she's 13 years old." He answered.

Alice, huh. Like most of us, she has no last name, and is largely known in the orphanage for being a bookworm like me. I used to see her in the library most of the time, and we haven't interacted ever since the day I step foot in the orphanage. I thought she didn't have any friends but I didn't expect for Vane to be friends with her.

Her appearance is that of a normal girl; long black hair tied behind her back with a ribbon, a big forehead, black eyes with red glasses over it, some freckles around her cheeks, and shorter than the average girl, around 5'3. She wears a white sleeveless shirt and a coat over it, a black skirt that goes over her knees, and then rubber gloves when she's reading. She's a very shy girl, often hiding her face from the crowd but every boy in the orphanage likes her for her, uh, big assets. Yeah… they are very big.

Generally, I don't bother her and she does the same. She's very introverted but the library at the time was the only place that had books besides Alexander's office, so she had to endure being with people just to find a book that she wanted to read. She doesn't interest me that much, partly because I'm still a toddler, but because she almost has no presence. I can't even notice her at times.

As I thought about Alice, I said to Vane, "Won't she be mad that you let me borrow the books that you carried to this place for her? From what I have seen, she's as much of a bookworm as me, maybe even more!"

"Don't worry, she's not that kind of a person. Besides, she's already read them the moment we stepped foot in this place." He said, reassuring me.

I just shook my head, "Nah, I'm good. I need to rest my eyes anyway. I've been doing nothing but read books every day, and most of the time I'm just rereading them."

"What do you want to do then?" He asked, confused because he has never seen me turn down the offer to read a book.

"Let's grab some snacks from the fridge and hope big sister Terra is not there at the moment." That old hag told me to call her "'big sister" because she wants me to. The moment I called her "old woman" I almost got my head shaved off my neck because she threw a really sharp knife right beside my precious, baby head. She's merciless when it comes to anything she dislikes, and even Alexander has been complaining about her behavior because she won't just chill the f*ck up.

She's not a bad person, she's a very evil person.

Anyhow, Vane got up and picked me up to carry me in his arms.

"Hey, get some hotdogs on a stick with butter on it for me." Flame asked us.

"You mean a corn dog?" I said, annoyed that he got the name wrong.

"Nooo, it's HOTDOGS on a STICK with some BUTTER on it. Get it right, dude. There's no corn in that." He said, further annoying me.

"Oh, that! Now I know!" I said as I was already boiling inside, "So you want air and nothing but air? Weird taste but it's not my business. C'mon, let's go Vane."

Then we walked out of the room, and I could clearly hear Flame yell inside the room, "No! Wait! Why are you like this!?"

I know he can't just leave his sister's side but he really shouldn't annoy me, I'm quite petty.

"I can't understand you sometimes, Auguste. A moment ago you were in a pretty good mood but you are now mad at Flame for some reason. Wasn't his description of the food technically right?" Vane said as he carried me while walking down the stairs. We are on the third floor.

"You forget it sometimes, Vane, but I'm still a child and a child's job is to get angry for no reason. Besides, he was annoying anyway." I replied.

"No matter, it's not that big of a deal. I'll just get him those corn dogs." Vane said.

"Heh, wasn't it a hotdog on a stick covered with butter?" I joked.

He chuckled, "You indeed got me there."

Soon, we all had our snacks and tomorrow came for our next lesson on cultivation.

On the ground floor, Alexander had a chalkboard erected in front of all 40 children. Many things were written and drawn perfectly on the board.

"Now, cultivation is said to end at the twelfth stage but that's not true at all. Cultivation is never ending since the moment it was created one hundred thousand years ago. Not much is known about the founder of cultivation the time before that but what we do know is that the founder created cultivation to fight beings beyond our comprehension, and that terrifies a lot of cultivators due to the mystery behind our history. Even with all the technologies of the Platinum Continent, they could only uncover little knowledge about the past apart from what we currently know. The Golden Continent is said to have the knowledge about the past but they don't want to share it with others due to their greed and selfishness for knowledge."

I raised my hand as I was being carried by Vane, "Why can't they share it with us? Wouldn't that make uncovering the past easier to do?"

He looked at me and answered with, "As you all know, the Golden Continent is filled with people who use mana way more differently than we cultivators. They don't use mana to enhance their body but instead uses it to create complicated spells that could shatter reality at the very moment. We cultivators uses the mana inside us to permanently raise our body strength and overall speed, but they don't have that and instead uses other methods such as knowledge. Knowledge is very important to them, and with knowledge they would create spells with so much complexity that even the ten imprisonment stage cultivators can't figure them out. They call themselves 'magus'. Cultivators are much more powerful than them, of course, but they are more dangerous due to their knowledge. Most high-ranking magus in the Golden Continent can sink an entire continent on their own with their spells, and even the most powerful cultivator can't do that."

"But why haven't they taken over the world yet? With that much power, not even cultivators can go against them." I asked.

"Because, Auguste, a Nascent Soul cultivator's speed is more than enough to break the speed of sound and enter the speed of light. They could easily go to the other side of the continent in less than a minute, and with that amount of speed, even the greatest of magus can't compare their chant weaving with that. Magus can't function without some kind of conductor; a wand or a staff. For them to weave the chant for their most powerful spells, they would need 6 hours to get ready, 3 hours if they're good at chant weaving. They would also have to combine millions of combinations of chants just to finish the first part of their chant weaving, and that's more than enough time for the most powerful cultivators to sense what's going on from the large amount of mana that's gathering in one place." He took a deep breath, and continued, "Does that answer your question, young Auguste?" He said.

"Yes! It's my gratitude." I said, happy from gaining new knowledge.

He patted me on the head as he laughed, "You're just like those magus, always trying to find something to learn. Hah, if I didn't know your parents, I would've thought you were a magus in training."