5 Essence Cultivation

Outside of Room 03502. Tully Ruth (Sister Tully) had been waiting for Aser. He is taking longer than the usual kids that she took to the Test Center before. She looked towards the clock on the wall and noticed that its already been more than 20 minutes since the start of the test.

"I hope he's okay and there's nothing wrong with Aser", she said to herself worriedly. Just then, the door in front of her opened, revealing a smiling Aser. "Aser!" Sister Tully exclaimed out loud, walking towards him to check if he's okay. "What took you so long?"

"I'm okay Sister Tully." Aser replied with a smile, "I'm a genius! I'm so happy, the Crystal told me that I'm a genius Sister Tully!"

Tully looked at him at first with a confused expression followed by a large bright smile. "That's amazing! I knew you were special Aser! I'm so proud of you!"

"And you should be", a sudden voice sounded behind the two of them. They looked over to see one of the staff members smiling at them. She had bright blonde hair, with a thin petite body and wearing the greyish outfit of the Administrators.

"This must be Aser. Pleased to meet you, my name is Sasha Leirever, I'm in charge of your file and processing for The Guild. Miss Ruth, Aser is very very gifted! I was hoping we could go into my office to talk?", Sasha asked while her vision was focused on Aser. She looked at the short lanky child and noticed the absence of confusion or apprehension that usual children have when meeting strangers, nor the arrogance that some noblemen's children would have upon being labeled as above their peers. Inwardly praising his calm-headedness, she follows up by saying, "You are surprisingly calm Aser, can you tell me why? You can call me Sister Sasha by the way", she finishes asking with a smile.

"Hi Sister Sasha", Aser replies while scratching his hair. "It isn't that I'm not happy about being told I'm a genius. I was talking to Ashes, my System, and she said that even if I'm a genius, I need to work hard to make something of myself. When I heard her say that, I thought that it made sense. Even if I am a genius, I'm only 7 years old now. No matter what, I need to grow up and make sure that I work hard before I can live like I want to. From the books I've read, there are a lot of people that die every day fighting the Demonic Beasts and even famous generals in the Navy Guild have been sacrificed in the past fighting. So how can I, a 7 year old child with nothing other than what my System has given me, try to be arrogant?"

Hearing his well thought out reply, especially said with such a serious tone with the voice of a little child, Sasha and Tully couldn't help but reveal large smiles.

"Yes, that's right! Even if you are a genius, you need to work hard. Come on, let me lead you to a place where we can sit and talk", Sasha replied, leading them to a room near the stairs. Opening the door, Aser and Sister Tully saw a quaint reception room with a few comfortable looking chairs.

"Please sit down, would you like some juice Aser? What about you Sister Tully?" Sasha asked.

"I'm fine with water Sister Sasha", Sister Tully replied. "Juice please Sister Sasha", Aser followed up after. Sasha then goes to the corner and grabs some water and a cup of juice for the both of them, and a bottle of water for herself.

"So Aser, let me ask you a few questions first. Have you ever tried cultivating Essence yet? Do you know the Essence Cultivation ranks?" Sasha questioned.

"I haven't yet Sister Sasha, but I think Ashes said that she's done a bio-check on me and I'm ready for cultivation, so I can start anytime. I don't know what the ranks are, though I can see I'm at Unknown Rank 0 and need ummm...100 Essence to level up?"

"That's right Aser, since you just unlocked your System, that is where you should be. I'd be even more surprised if you were higher! Let me explain the Essence Cultivation system, and then we'll have you cultivate in front of us for an hour to get an evaluation of your rate of conversion."

"Essence is vital to the world. Think of it like the air we breathe, but purer and the most vital part of all living organisms in Gigantis. With a User's System, they can interact with the World's Essence and absorb them into their bodies. There are different grades of Essence depending on the purity able to be absorbed by your System, but most people can only absorb Grade E Essence in the Unknown rank. Some people can absorb higher grades which makes their cultivation faster, and those people are known to be gifted. From our observations, you should be able to cultivate Grade D Essence Aser, but we still need to confirm your rate."

"Grade E Essence cultivation gives an average of 2 Essence per hour cultivation. Grade D Essence cultivation gives an average of 10 Essence per hour of cultivation, meaning five times faster than Grade E. Grade C Essence cultivation gives an average of 50 Essence per hour of cultivation, and so on and so on. Higher grades of Essence Cultivation doesn't mean it is better though. Your body for example wouldn't be able to handle Grade C Essence at all. You'd blow up and explode with that much Essence going through you. That is why as your ranks of Cultivation increases, your grade of Essence required increases as well."

"There are 5 Essence Grades, and 5 Cultivation ranks. Grade E corresponds to the Unknown Rank. Grade D corresponds to the Initiate Rank. Grade C corresponds to the Adept rank. Grade B corresponds to the Endowed Rank and finally Grade A Essence corresponds to the Ascended Rank! To give you an idea of how powerful the highest rank is, an average Unknown User can cultivate 2 Essence per hour, whereas an average Ascended User can cultivate upto 6,250 Essence per hour, and that is without any special skills, items or talent!"

Thinking of the huge amount of essence an Ascended User can cultivate, Aser felt his blood boiling and eyes shining in excitement.

"Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, let me explain how to actually level up in ranks. For now, I'll just touch upon being able to get to the Initiate Rank, which only 5 out of 10 Unknowns can ever reach. Each rank of Essence Cultivation is separated into 10 levels. Starting from Level 1 to Level 10. Upon completion of Level 10, the Essence Cultivator is said to be at the peak of his rank, and can apply to their guild or organization to go through advancement."

"Each level requires twice the amount of the previous level's Essence, with the first level for Unknown Level 1 being set to 100 Essence. So you would need to cultivate 100 Essence just to get to Level 1, then 200 Essence for Level 2, 400 Essence for Level 3, and so on. Until you would need 51,200 Essence to reach Level 10! Generally, within 5 years most people level up to Unknown 8, and then by the time they graduate college or their specialized field studies, they are ready for their advancement to initiate. Since most people cultivate for around 4 hours every day, they still need to sleep, eat, clean up and go to classes, they generate on average of 8 Essence per day. Cultivating 320 days out of 365 days of a year on average, they need exactly 5 years to even advance to Unknown 8!"

Sasha stops for a bit to let Aser process the large amount of information. Seeing him contemplate, she signals him to ask his question.

"Well, Sister Sasha, if it takes so long to cultivate Essence, then why don't people cultivate more every day? Instead of only 4 hours, why not 8 hours?" Aser asks confused.

Sasha looks at him with a slight smile and says, "Great question! You see, the human body is still the human body. Most children aren't strong enough to cultivate more than 4 hours a day, since that can lead to Essence Degradation, a dangerous state where you can lose control of your Essence leading to very serious consequences. Most of the time, your System will stop Essence Cultivation when you've reached your limit, so you don't have to worry about it happening, but remember to never override the System's limit, your System knows your body the best!"

"Now that I've explained that, do you want to try Cultivating now Aser so that we can check your rate and grade?" Sasha asked.

"Yeah, I can do that!" Aser replied. He sat upright on the couch, crossed his legs and closed his eyes.

[Hello Aser. Since this is your first time cultivating Essence, let me guide you through the process. You currently have the innate skill Mind's Eye, which makes the process of cultivation much simpler for you. Close your eyes and try to think that you are looking around the room.]

Aser did as Ashes instructed, and as he tried to "think" to look around, he suddenly started noticing bright motes of light flashing around him.

[Those motes of light that you see is the Essence around you. The brighter the light, the higher the purity of Essence. Try to reach out and touch a mote of light, and you will feel it coming inside your body.]

Following Ashes's instructions, Aser reached out to touch a mote of Essence, and felt it naturally going inside of him. He felt his body heating up slightly, but felt rather good.

[Continue to introduce Essence into your body Aser, we will be able to determine the grade and amount of essence you can absorb after an hour of cultivation.]

As Aser continued absorbing the brightest spots he could 'see', he felt his body growing lighter and lighter. Before he knew it, there weren't any more bright spots available near his body, so he reached out further and found a slightly gas like spot of light. He tried to 'touch' it and as he did, felt as the Essence gas shifted into his body. He felt like he was getting purified all over. Continuing his search, he kept introducing more motes and gasses of Essence into himself when he finally heard Ashes call out to him.

[Aser, it has been an hour. The results are out.]

Aser opened his eyes after a while and looked around to see a dumbfounded expression on both Sister Tully and Sister Sasha. They were looking at him like he was a monster, and for a second, he was scared that he did something wrong.

[You did nothing wrong Aser. You were exceptional, which is why they are so shocked.]

"Aser, can you tell me what your results are?", Sasha asked hesitantly.

Aser looked at his profile, and was surprised himself when he saw his Essence Cultivation.

[Essence to Unknown Level 1: 20/100]

[Essence Rate: 20/Hour]

[Estimated Time to Unknown Level 1 From Level 0: 5 hours]

"Its at 20 Essence already Sister Sasha!", Aser replied bashfully. He was embarrassed thinking that after all the explanation and examples Sister Sasha had given him, his own results would be so out of the norm! Most people would take 50 hours or more than 12 days to get to their first Essence Level, but he can do it 10 times faster, not even requiring 2 days!"

Hearing his response, Sister Tully and Sasha blinked at him for a while not knowing what to say.

"A monster! So this is what an S Rank Genius is!" Sasha replied amazed.