The Second Trial

The stairwell leading even farther down into the earth was eerily similar to the first one I encountered inside the inheritance. It was as if the stairwell were actually duplicated and placed right here, even the grain in the wood looked the exact same. But, as I reached the bottom, the similarities ended.

Once my foot hit the bottom of the stairs, as if it were a pulse, light expanded with me as the origin, soon lighting up the entire room. And once the room was lit, I swept my head and observed my surroundings. The room was rectangular, with the stairwell taking up the back of the room. At the front of the rectangle was a giant version of the small blue scrolls I've been reading out of so far, except this one was rolled out completely. And standing around five meters back from the scroll were a chair and desk made from the same wood as the walls surrounding me.

I took the hint and went to sit down on the chair. I wasn't scared of it being a trap or something similar, because there was no reason for it to be a trap. Once I sat down in the chair, the blue scroll shone brightly, and although my eyes were now able to handle the bright light, it still narrowed my vision to only see the neon blue light.

Slowly but surely, the light began to revert into darkness again, and as it did so, I heard a voice echo throughout the room, "So you are my inheritor huh? A bit on the scrawnier side, but that's fine I guess."

I immediately jumped out of my seat and prepared myself for a fight, while moving my head across the room, searching for the owner of the voice. My eyes quickly settled on the humanoid, semi-transparent, blue figure standing in front of the blue scroll. His hair was short and his face had features that perfectly matched the phrase, "smooth criminal." He had a decent muscle mass but nothing ridiculous. The "clothes" that covered him were the same transparent blue, but you could still tell he was wearing clothes reminiscent of the Stone Kingdom.

In response to my quick movement, he threw up his hands and lifted his eyebrows, "Hey there buddy, I'm not your enemy, in fact, I'm your benefactor. Let me introduce myself before you go trying your luck on hitting a hologram." He took a courteous bow before he continued, "My name is Inadere Launis, a Gold Class Fruit Cultivator of the Stone Kingdom, or, what remains of him anyway. Now may you give me the courtesy of telling me your name, oh humble inheritor."

Well, that was something new. I'm pretty sure this wasn't an act, and that this really was Inadere, and by how he spoke, he truly was from the Stone Kingdom. My last world had spirits in it, so it wasn't hard to assume that this was something similar. Either way, the way he spoke wasn't the way someone looking for a fight would, so I decided to play along and try to get information out of him at the same time. I bowed down the same way he did, and said, "My name is Quis Quiliae. May I ask you what's going on here?"

Suddenly his brows furrowed in interest, "Quiliae huh? Interesting... This inheritance was indeed set up in the Jungle Region... how strange. But never mind that. Your question is quite spot on; What am I doing here indeed? I should be dead, should I not? Well, I am in all sense of the word, dead, but once you've lived as long as me, you learn that death is something that can be avoided in many ways. Like spreading your reputation so far that you never leave everyone's minds, nefariously using the Soul Branch to take over others' bodies, or perhaps even being timeless in itself. My method simply relies on the foundation of the tree and a little bit of use from the Philosophy Branch. The details aren't important. All you need to know is that I'm here to see if you're worthy of inheriting the next phase of the inheritance. So why don't you sit down while I explain the rest to you."

So I was right in assuming he was something similar to a spirit, but by the way he said it, I assumed whatever he was, was separate from his actual self. He made it sound like he was a separate entity, but at the same time not. And I also had no clue what the Philosophy Branch was. I've heard of philosophy of course, but I never thought a Branch was made from it. Yet I still followed his words and sat back in the chair. I had no reason not to trust him, as it would be all too easy, even if he was only a visage of his former self, to kill me. There was no need for an elephant to set a trap for an ant.

Once I sat down he nodded his head, "That's great. I'm happy to see my inheritor is able to understand certain things. But let's get back on topic. Unlike the first trial, which was one to test your physical prowess, this one will be testing the power of that brain up there. I'm sure you understand that I'd rather not let my life's work go to a dunce. You can think of it as a test you'd get in school. And the fact you're here means you've already finished the first couple of puzzles, so that's good. I'll ask a question, and then you'll answer. I won't give you the results until the end, so don't be timid. I can't think of anything else worth mentioning, so I'll begin."

He wasn't wrong, there really wasn't much else to think about here. This was just another trial, so I would view it as such. If you try to solve everything, you'll only end up driving yourself to madness. There was no point in me asking a million questions when this segment would pass by as fast as it came up. You also had to ask yourself before driving yourself to figure something out: What is the benefit I get? The only thing I would get from asking questions is this hologram's disapproval and less chance of me getting my hands on the things I needed. The benefits simply didn't outweigh the risks. So I only nodded my head and prepared my brain for exercise.

He smiled at my silence and began to read the first question out loud as it formed on the blue screen behind him, "Question one: Why do you cultivate?"

... Alright then. All it took was one question and I already understood the meaning behind this test. It wasn't to test the smarts of the inheritor as the couple puzzles from before already did that. This was more of a personality quiz than anything. That meant that he would only allow me to inherit it if my personality lined up with what he wanted. Not only did it do that, but I'm sure before making this test, Inadere was aware that it was possible to let others in the tree if someone had the knowhow of doing it, so this was his way of making sure the inheritor truly wasn't patriotic for the sect. It was two birds with one stone.

As ingenious as that was though, I was on the receiving end of it, so I needed to figure out a way to squirm out of it. I had to think to myself, what are the answers this man would want to hear come from my mouth? To answer that I needed to look into everything I know about him so far. Inadere was a man of the Righteous Philosophy, at least that was what he showed. I had suspicions that he only used it as a means to get stronger, as I do now. Based on how he wanted someone who didn't care for the sect that probably raised them from childhood or was saved by, he needed someone who had immoral principles. He wanted a realist.

That would make this a lot easier for me because I would only need to be myself. But then I also had to ask myself, would my personality be too much for him? There were certain degrees of realism, and I knew that mine was far more intense than a normal person's. For example, if it's his goal to manipulate me into doing something later down the line, too much logic and reason might make him hesitate, but if he just wants an inheritor like himself, then I should be myself. Then there was the question of his morals and principles. Where did he draw the line of an action being worth it for more power? That's a question I don't have the ability to answer.

Because there's so much unknown, I have to go with someone broad, something he can understand and like, but something that won't have too much risk of crossing his bottom line, "The reason I cultivate is simple. Those who are weak are at the mercy of the strong, and I'd much rather be the decider of other's fate than let mine be decided for me." At first, my words might seem like a direct contradiction to the requirements I just set up, after all, I just said I would reject being manipulated as much as I could. But you have to consider my age in this equation. To him, I'm only 16 years old, there was not much life I could experience to that point. So my words of confidence would be a gold mine for him. He would immediately page me as a sucker. But if his goal was the latter, then he would view my answer as a good point of view for someone my age.

He nodded his head, "That was a pretty quick response, I like that your beliefs are grounded. Let's move on to the next question. Question two...

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"And finally, Question five: If you were the king of a nation and an enemy far stronger than you was threatening to destroy and kill everyone inside of your kingdom, including you, what would you do?"

"Obviously I would escape. A king dying with his kingdom is noble, but what's the point in resisting when everyone is going to die either way? It's better to escape, rebuild your power, and then once you have the strength, completely crush the same person. It's better to live and try again than to be a martyr."

Inadere threw up his hand and sighed in defeat, "Alright you win, full marks kid. That's some amazing logic you've got, especially at your age, though it does make me pity your sorrowful life. Either way, you are eligible to claim the next part of the inheritance, and that's all that matters. And before I give you your material rewards, you should claim the knowledge you can get from this. The main body made it clear that if someone like you came around, I should answer one question you have, no matter what. And I'm not one to deviate from the code plugged into me, so fire away. Ask me your deepest rooting questions, though do make sure it's something that I can feasibly answer."

A question huh? I had many questions, but this wasn't an opportunity I could waste on pure curiosity. The knowledge this guy had wasn't something that could be underestimated. A Gold Class Cultivator was a title given to the few and far between that could make it, but once you made it, what then? That's a question that's been asked for as long a time as many, and one that wouldn't be answered for me today. But it did tell you about Gold Class Cultivators. They were old and experienced. And more importantly, they were very well informed on a lot of things. Constantly searching for the next step will do that to you.

So what should I ask? I had to ask something relevant, something that would help me out immediately because betting on a boost in the future wasn't good enough.

I looked up at Inadere and asked him a simple question, "How can I get to Coal Class despite the loss of foundation in my Duranian gained from these magic circles that were put on me?"

He looked at me dumbfounded for a moment before slowly clapping his hands, "Wow, you just keep impressing me Quis. I didn't expect you to have your priorities so straight, but I suppose all of your answers have already pointed to that, so I shouldn't be surprised. That is a difficult question to answer, but I'll try my best as requested. When ascending, your Duranian uses up its "foundation". This foundation is commonly known by the better name of Cultivation Talent. But these days people only think of Cultivation Talent as a single quantifiable value for how fast and how far you can go up the cultivation tree."

He shook his finger at me while clicking his tongue, "No, no, no, this is not the truth. Cultivation Talent comprises two parts: your pores' ability to suck in Genesis Essence, and the foundation your Duranian has to work with when ascending. The ritual you partook in happened to use up both of those at the same time, and the Talent Plunder Fruit only upgrades your pores. So you must find a way to up your foundation, otherwise no matter how much you train your body and Duranian, you'll never be able to ascend. And now you're wondering, "How do I do that?", right?"

He went ahead and sat on the corner of my desk, and looked at me in the eyes with that same fake smile he wore the entire time, "There are many ways people have discovered over the years that history has existed, but I only ever learned one. Now, this method isn't exactly tame, and if you aren't careful, it might just put a whole band of righteous cultivators on your back... But I have a feeling you wouldn't make that mistake..."

Slowly the smile he was wearing began to uncurl, creating a serious atmosphere around himself, "There are more ways to create Fruits other than Crossbreeding in your Duranian, which should be obvious to you considering they can be found in nature. This method creates a Fruit called the Forever After Foundation Fruit... No, I can't say any more. I'm leaving the boundaries of my pre-existing code, any more talk of this will kill me and I won't be able to complete my job. I'll place the method inside of the code. The desk has a console in it, so you can read it from there..."

He stood up from the desk and turned his back to me as he slowly turned more transparent, "Well Quis, it was fantastic meeting you. To be honest, you make me excited for the future, but it's too bad I won't be around to enjoy it... Ahh, what a pity."

He turned his head over his shoulder and forewarned me, "Also, there is something he wanted me to say before I left. You're going to want to reach Coal Class within the next year, or else you might just die."

When he finished delivering the message, he was already gone, the only evidence of him existing being the echo that his words carried throughout the room, but that soon disappeared as well, leaving me alone.

His words were foreboding, that was for sure. But even without that warning, I didn't have the luxury to take my time, so it didn't change much. Instead, I was more interested in the other, more physical boons I gained from this expedition.

From the ground, in front of the blue scroll, a table similar to the one from the Dirt Class section rose from the ground. On the top of the table were three black urns, each containing a mountain of secrets and gains.

It was time to truly finish my ascension.