Cloud Inn, Cultivation - Start

[You are an Eternal from now on. You will not die.]

[As a demo, you have received an Immortal Storage Bag.]

'What kind of system is this? It also gives a goddamn demo?' Raju thought, both curious and baffled.

'And why the hell an "Immortal Storage Bag" instead of "Eternal Storage Bag"?' [Time remaining for Immortal Storage Bag to be locked: 23:59:29]

. . .

'Let's focus on the things in the hand at first,' Raju told himself, deciding to open the Immortal Storage Bag. When he did, he was astounded by what he saw inside. There were mountains upon mountains of treasures, pills, clothes, books, artifacts, and more.

'Damn it! Are we trying to reach the end game right from the start? What kind of joke is this? Will my story be short-lived?' he wondered, agitated.

Then he remembered that this was only a one-day demo of what could be achieved through the system. Of course, the system wouldn't let him have his way so easily.

'Let me try to retrieve something,' he thought, reaching into the bag to pull out some clothes. Why clothes, one might ask? The answer was simple: everything had been taken from him, and he had nothing left to wear but the smelly, tattered garments he was already in.

Raju chose a normal pair of clothes to avoid standing out. After changing into them, he ventured out onto the street. He was wary, conscious of the possibility that he might be discovered. If those ruffians returned and questioned where all this had come from, he knew he'd be in serious trouble.

But it seemed that no one took notice of Raju. He looked like a regular person. Although a bit lanky, it didn't make him the center of attraction that he feared he would become.

Slowly and steadily, he approached an Inn— a not-so-costly establishment named Cloud Inn—and rented a room for a year. He even received a discount. Per night, the price was 10 coppers, but Raju paid 24 silvers for the whole year. While it might have been a bit expensive for commoners to stay at an Inn, the price was reasonable to him.

Now that Raju had enough money in the Immortal Storage Bag, he didn't have to worry about finances for now. The Immortal Storage Bag was stored inside the ring, a concept similar to spatial storage.

'Spatial storage inside of spatial storage. Compression rule already broken by the system,' Raju mused as he was led to his room.

The receptionist was a young lady named Yuuki. She was cheerful and introduced the room to him, showing him all the amenities.

As Raju observed, he realized that technology here was not as developed as in modern Earth. There were no electronics; the room was illuminated with natural light, and candles could be lit up at night.

For bathing, the plumbing technology was pretty good. There was a pipeline that delivered water to the bathroom, and a place where water could be stored. Below that, firewood could be burned to heat the water.

'It was similar to the age before electricity, but people here knows metals,' Raju mused. 'And it is a cultivation world; I must not forget that.'

The room was furnished with a study table, a chair, a sofa and a bed. Raju liked the room.

'Now that I have settled my need for a roof, let's heal my body.' Thinking this, Raju selected a low-level healing pill from a mountain of pills.

How did he know where to look? The Immortal Bag told him everything about where each item was; he just had to think, and that item would appear. It was similar to those storage bags in video games.

Raju swallowed the healing pill, expecting it to be bitter. But that bitterness never came. The pill directly melted once it came into contact with his saliva, and the energy dispersed inside his body.

'How magical,' Raju marveled at the process. There was no pain; he only felt something like a crawling sensation inside his body. In a few moments, he was healed of all his injuries. Although he was healed, that didn't change the fact that he was still lanky.

Raju had yet to grasp how the cultivation system worked. As he thought of cultivation, a question arose: 'If I am an Eternal already, do I need to cultivate?'

[Yes, you have to cultivate. Being Eternal doesn't mean you are an Immortal. Eternal means you would not die, while being Immortal means being powerful.] Raju was just musing, but he never expected the system to reply, and that too so concisely.

'So the Bag that I got should be the endgame, and the body that I have should take on the journey to match the endgame. Or else, how would it look like?' Just thinking about a weak Eternal with an infinite amount of resources made Raju laugh.

'What a joke. Being weak with this many resources is basically painting a target on your head and then letting the whole world exploit you.'

Now that Raju knew a bit about what being an Eternal meant, he wanted to find the edge cases. 'What would happen if I die?' Raju decided to ask the system.

[You would die, but retain your memories and the Immortal Bag and the ring. Other than that, everything on you would drop. And you can only revive after 24 hours.]

'Damn, so being an Eternal is basically like a game character. Heck, you could have just named yourself the Game System,' Raju thought, a hint of irony in his contemplation.

'Nevermind, can you tell me what else will happen, keeping in mind my cultivation stages?' he continued, his curiosity piqued by the system's responses.

[You would drop one minor stage for each death. That is the only negative, combined with the time limit. You can also save revival locations. And now that the Immortal Bag is fully unlocked for 24 hours, when you die within this time, you can revive at any location that you have previously visited.]

'Now that is a powerful cheat. Even if this place is destroyed, I can revive at some other place, like that dumpster. Ugh, why did I think about that dumpster? Guess you can't forget your 'roots'.' Raju chuckled at his own dark joke.

'Also, one more question: I can use the items as many times as I want, right? And I can take them out, and you won't take them back after the demo?' Raju decided to confirm, a hint of excitement in his tone.

[All the things would be taken back and will be locked, unless you unlock them with specific missions.]

That response was a hard blow for Raju, who had thought that he would bring many things out to cheat, even after the demo was over. In a strict way, the system had just said, 'fuck you, no way, I won't let it happen.'

'Let's leave it at that. Let's focus on taking full advantage of this time. I have already wasted an hour in settling down.' Raju decided, his mind sharpening as he resolved to focus on starting his cultivation journey.

In this cultivation world, the starting point of cultivation was the Mortal Stage. This stage was the basic one, the foundation upon which further steps for cultivation were taken. During the Mortal Stage, the body was prepared and trained for the cultivation journey. Once the body was ready to handle the load of Prana, the next stage would come: the Prana Stage.

In the Prana Stage, the prospective cultivator cultivated a single strand of Prana, attempting to circulate it around the whole body once to complete a cycle. Once the first cycle was completed, the prospective cultivator became an official cultivator on the journey of cultivation.

All the other Stages were locked, no information was given to mortal public, even for Raju. There were many books, but it seemed that without Prana, he wouldn't be able to read them, and neither would the System help him. He could only begin with the Mortal Stage and prepare his body for Cultivation.

And guess what? The Immortal Bag had the perfect pill that would train his body to the perfect Mortal Stage. He would have a well-proportioned and well-toned body with good facial features.

'Damn! I need this for sure. Looking at my lanky build, how could I cultivate properly?' Raju thought, his eyes fixed on the Perfect Mortal Pill. With determination filling him, he then swallowed the pill.

Raju expected the experience to be similar to the healing pill, but reality hit differently. The pill was converted to energy for sure, but then it wreaked havoc in his body, and before Raju could think more, he fainted on the bed.

The next process was supposed to be so painful that Raju would wish he had died, but fate was with him, and he remained unconscious. The energy wreaked havoc, but at the same time, it was changing his cell structure. Even his genes were being slowly altered. Then, both slowly and rapidly, his body frame, muscles, and overall structure started to expand.

———

For Raju, after an unknown amount of time, he woke up with a start. "Damn it, what the hell happened?" He looked around and saw that he was still in the same room of the inn.

Then a smell assaulted his nose, and Raju reacted, "Ugh, what the hell is this smell?" Only to see that on his bedsheet, there was a substance similar to black tar, with a horrible smell.

"Damn it, the Perfect Mortal Pill had these byproducts? If I knew that, I would have taken it in the bathroom." Saying that, he packed up his bedsheet and threw it in the garbage, also asking for a replacement of the mattress.

Even the inn's helper was confused as to why it smelled so bad. But he did his work and left after replacing everything. Meanwhile, Raju had a thorough bath, rinsing his body five times before the bad smell finally left him.

Once he was ready, a great amount of hunger attacked him. And guess what? At the same time, he looked in the mirror and was reeling from the fact that he looked entirely different from before.

"What the hell? How did I become so handsome? And damn it. I can't even admire my beauty. I feel so hungry now. Can't the hunger come in later?"