Chapter 5: Cultivation & Training

'System, how do I use the cultivation technique you gave me? Does it just appear as a book in my hands or does the information go straight into my brain?'

[Think of using the cultivation technique and the information will appear in your brain. The massive amount of information will overload your brain for a bit but will be stuck in your memories. All you have to do then is to recall the information. Of course, some of the information will be locked but as you continue to increase in rank you'll gain access to them.]

'Thanks, System. Wow, so the information would overload my brain for a bit. It's going to be painful. Okay, let's do this!'

Lucian began to think about using the cultivation technique in his inventory when a piercing pain appeared inside his head. The pain spread throughout his brain and he fell as a result of the pain. It felt like 10 thousand needles were piercing his brain, all at the same time. As fast as the pain appeared, it subsided and Lucian could now recall information pertaining to his cultivation technique.

His cultivation technique allowed him to cultivate both Mana and Battle Qi, which was something unique even in this world. Most people would only have the talent for one of them and even if they had dual talent they would choose to cultivate more in one area due to time constraints. As each rank takes a long amount of time to reach and before reaching a certain rank, only those with long lives were able to do so.

The way his cultivation technique worked was that by using it, it would instantly allow him to sense Battle Qi and Mana. As it is used, it will conquer the surrounding energies and will allow the user to use them for themselves. Through its usage, it will grant a special aura of an emperor which can be used to lower the willpower of those facing the aura and make them subordinate to the user.

'Wow! That's a powerful technique. No wonder it is ranked as an SSR technique. It'll allow anyone who uses it to sense both Mana and Battle Qi easily, which will allow them to become stronger much faster through conquering the energies. For Mana cultivation, you would be able to drag in Mana that would all turn to become yours instead of some dispersing. For Battle Qi, you would be able to utilize it much faster to go toward certain areas of the body. It's so good! I gotta try it out.'

Lucian followed the instructions on the mantra and before he knew it, he could sense tiny colorful particles in the air around him and a warm energy that was centered around his stomach. The colorful particles seemed to dance around where some were moving slowly while others were moving fast. They were in all sorts of colors but the brightest color to him was the color red. The warm energy spread slowly around his body seemingly to energize him. He could sense the amount of energy that he had, which was small.

'Wow! So the colorful particles that I could sense in the air around me should be Mana and the warm energy in my stomach that is spreading throughout my body should be Battle Qi. It really is mystical, it hammers in the fact that I'm truly in another world. All I need to do now is to draw the surrounding Mana into my body and create a small orb that'll be the foundation to be able to cast magic spells. For Battle Qi, I'll have to train my body to the utmost human limits and spread Battle Qi to the places I am training. Right now, I can only train in Mana as I don't have resources to train my body yet. I'll have to wait to cultivate Battle Qi.'

Lucian started to use his mind to try to influence the particles around him per the instructions on his mantra. It was hard for him to do so as he had never done anything like this before. Slowly, the overwhelming red particles started to react to his mind and began drifting towards his body. One minute had passed before he felt one particle had been dragged into his mind. He could sense a deep heat that it expelled which signified his alignment with the element of fire.

Through the mantra, he had learned what the different colors of particles meant. They each symbolize an element, whether they are elements of nature or elements of concepts. The elements of nature are fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, ice, light, shadow, life, and death. The elements of concepts are psyche, sound, fate, illusion, summoning, gravity, chaos, time, and space. There are some similarities between each element but each has its own unique aspects so they were categorized as their own element. Red was fire, blue was water, green was wind, brown was earth, whitish blue was lightning, cyan was ice, white was light, purplish black was shadow, orange was life, black was death, pink was psyche, yellow was sound, purple fate, indigo was illusion, azure was summoning, gray was gravity, rainbow was chaos, crimson was time, and dark blue was space.

Since he sensed the red color the most, he knew that fire was his first element. When cultivating Mana, the overwhelming and brightest color that appears is the element that resonates the most with you. This is called the Element Awakening of Beginnings and is the starting point to using magic as the element you resonate with defines what kind of spells you can use. For spells, usually they would be taught by a teacher who already knows them but sometimes there would be scrolls or books with spells filled in. Of course you could create your own spells but doing so would stunt the growth of Mana as spell research takes long amounts of time and Mana. To use spells you need to move the orbs in a certain pattern and create an image while saying the spell's name. Each element has 10 tiers of spells that could be used.

Taking in a particle that is not your resonated element would cause rejection and the particles already in you to rebell, taking time to calm them. Lucian knew from his mantra that to make his first orb, he had to gather 100 particles and force them to swirl into an orb. He would then reach the first stage of Rank 1 Apprentice Magus, Sphere of Beginnings. He tried to take in another particle but his mind suddenly felt very tired like he had not slept for 24 hours.

'My head! My mind's so tired. So it seems like 1 particle is the max amount I can take in before I have to rest my mind. Well, I wasn't even supposed to be able to cultivate Mana but because of the mantra I unlocked the most basic requirements to do so which is sensing Mana. I'll have to rest my mind and see how long I will take to be able to take in another particle. Let's go to the barracks and turn my peasants into soldiers. Zhao Yun will also arrive there after a while.'

As Lucian decided to stop taking in Mana, he left Zhao Yun's home and went to the barracks. Before he knew it, he arrived and saw the 5 peasants with the Spearmanship skill. They were standing around waiting for the arrival of their lord to turn them into soldiers and train them in the ways of cultivation.

'How do I turn them to soldiers of my village, System?'

[When they walk into the barracks, you'll be given a choice prompt. It will ask you whether you want them to be soldiers or not. If you choose no, they'll be forced out of the barracks. If you choose yes, you'll be given the choice to choose their occupation as soldiers. There are many choices but you'll only be able to choose 3 basic occupations due to the village being low leveled.]

'I see. So then as I upgrade my village more, I'll be able to choose more occupations for my soldiers. The occupations will also be more than basic.'

"My lord, it is good to see you. As you can see we 5 have all arrived at the barracks, how do we become soldiers of your village?" Zhang De asked. Zhang De was the tallest of the 5 and seemed to have become the leader and spokesperson of their group.

"Yes, I can see that. Head into the barracks and I'll be able to have you all turn into my soldiers. When you all come out, you'll have been changed and your trainer will arrive."

"Understood, we'll head in then Lord Lucian." The 5 peasants then began to walk into the barracks. As they went in one by one, a prompt appeared before Lucian.

[Would you like to turn Ping Kan, Zhang De, Hong Gan, Lin Ping, and Ling Bao to soldiers. Yes or No?]

'Yes!'

[Choose the occupation for them.

1 - Spearmen - A user of the spear. They gain knowledge of how to use a spear and their bodies are slightly strengthened. When using a spear, their attack speed is increased by 10%.

2 - Sabermen - A user of the saber. They gain knowledge of how to use a saber and their bodies are slightly strengthened. When using a saber, their attack power is increased by 10%.

3 - Swordsmen - A user of the sword. They gain knowledge of how to use a sword and their bodies are slightly strengthened. When using a sword, their attack power is increased by 5% and their attack speed is increased by 5%.]

'Hmmm. So these are the basic occupations I could choose for my soldiers. It seems that even those who don't have weapon skills will be able to gain them through changing their occupation. For those who already have the skills, their skills would be strengthened. Since the 5 already have the skill Spearmanship, I might as well have them become Spearmen as their skill would be strengthened. I'll see if the people I'll summon through the next few days will have weapon skills, if not then I'll just choose 5 to become soldiers.'

Lucian chose his choice and the 5 people came out after a while. They all held iron spears and wore wooden armor over their clothes. By their hips, there was a small pouch and a sheathed knife. They looked changed and had a dangerous gleam in their eyes. They had become soldiers of Lucian's Rising Dragon Village.

When Lucian checked their status pages, he noticed that they had gained some things. Their Spearmanship skill became mid tier, they gained wooden armor and a iron spear in their items held, their occupation changed from Peasant to Spearmen, and they gained a cultivation technique that focuses on Battle Qi. That cultivation technique was called Body Refining Mantra and was a basic N ranked mantra. The technique helped unlock the sense for Battle Qi and shows the way to use Battle Qi to refine the body. The N ranked mantra doesn't include other benefits compared to the SSR ranked mantra of Lucian.

[Congrats on having soldiers Host. You are one step closer to making your own empire. Completed the Hidden Quest - First Soldiers. Rewards: Barrack Upgrade - Body Refining Room x10, Village Head's House Upgrade - Body Refining Room x1, Village Head's House Upgrade - Mana Refining Room x1, 500 System Points.

Body Refining Room - A room that has the necessary items needed to go through the first stage of Battle Qi cultivation, Body Refining. The first stage has 6 stages to it being Skin Refining, Muscle Refining, Bone Refining, Marrow Refining, Blood Refining, and Organ Refining.

Mana Refining Room - A room that has the necessary items needed to go through the first stage of Mana cultivation, Mana Refining. The first stage has 6 stages to it being Sphere of Beginnings, Spheres of Magic, Spheres of Lesser Mana, Spheres of Greater Mana, Spheres of Pathways, and Spheres of Constellations.]

'Wow, the rewards are very good. With the rooms, cultivation will be much faster through the usage of the items. My soldiers will be able to become stronger. Oh yeah, what about my General's Houses?'

[Each General's House already has the Body Refining Room.]

'That's good to hear. So the training room in the house probably has the necessary items to cultivate. Looks like I don't need to worry about the cultivation items for the Warriors I summoned.'

"Thank you Lord Lucian for granting us the opportunity to become soldiers of the village. We'll protect it with all our might!"

"Of course. Your trainer will arrive soon and he will guide you through your cultivation. I hope you'll all become strong for the village." Lucian said with a warm smile on his face.

Shortly after Lucian spoke, Zhao Yun arrived with his spear in one hand and was wearing his armor with his helmet in his other hand. The soldiers gasped in admiration as they saw him. They knew of Zhao Yun as he was a hero of the Three Kingdoms era. They began to respect their lord even more as he made Zhao Yun his subordinate and their trainer.

"My Lord, I have arrived. I see that you only have 5 soldiers right now but that is alright for a village of this size. I see that they have chosen the way of the spear. I'm glad that I'll be able to give it my all in training them as it is my weapon of choice as well."

"General Zhao, I'll be leaving their training in your hands. I know you'll be able to give it your all in training them."

"General Zhao, we soldiers greet you with our utmost respect. We couldn't have asked for a more qualified instructor for us. Our names are Ping Kan, Zhang De, Hong Gan, Lin Ping, and Ling Bao." The soldiers saluted at Zhao Yun using their clenched fists and placing it next to their chests.

"At ease. I'll see your level of attainment in the way of the spear and for cultivation your mantras are enough to help you. If you have any trouble with the spear or cultivation I'll help out as well."

"Remember to rest when you are tired from training, my soldiers. I'll leave things to General Zhao. At night I hope you all can help in patrolling our village and its surroundings. Also, please tell the peasants to get seeds from the Storage Warehouse. I'll deposit them there from my Inventory."

Lucian left the training to Zhao Yun and left the barracks area. He went to put the Pearl Rice Seed Bags into the Storage Warehouse and after finishing he went to his house. Inside, he saw the addition of 2 new rooms and had signs next to them stating what the room is. The Body Refining Room had a pile of herbs and had many training equipment. In the center was a tall cylinder container filled with liquid with an empty top.

'So that's how the room looks like. What is the purpose of the container?'

[The herbs around are used to help train the inner body such as the marrow, blood, and organs. The training equipment is used to help train the muscles and bone. The container is filled with a liquid that helps train the skin and slightly helps with the inner body as well.]

Lucian understood what the things in the room did from the description provided from the System. He then checked out the Mana Refining Room. In the room, he saw a pile of herbs and a bunch of crystal-like items. In the center of the room was a platform.

[The herbs are used to help the mind rest after taking in particles of Mana. The crystals are Mana crystals that have Mana particles in them and are created by clusters of Mana particles that suddenly gather due to the environment resonating with their elements. They are used to cultivate Mana as the particles in them are in much more amounts compared to the surroundings around and are easier to take in. The platform helps in resting the mind and helps to gather the surrounding Mana.]

'I really want to try the rooms out now. Especially the Mana Refining Room. I'll try it out after the Body Refining Room.'

Lucian then entered the Body Refining Room to start his journey to cultivate Battle Qi.