Two Birds With One Stone

"Alright, that's going to be all for tonight. Next week we'll go over the application of this root principle in algebra in more realistic situations, for example, motion. It's going to start out basic, but that's just how learning new things works."

Onvima scratched his head and nodded his head with drowsy eyes, "Yeah... Alright, I guess I should be getting some sleep. See ya, and good night."

I waved him goodbye and watched as he left the silver entanglement of gas. Once he was out of view, my attention shifted to my own thoughts. This was the third day since the Midterms ended, the first day since we put on that show, and also about a week and a half since I broke through to Stone Class. A large majority of that week and a half was spent cultivating with my Genesis Orbs, yet I haven't broken through to even the 2nd Level yet. The difference between Dirt and Stone Class was larger than I had originally thought.

Though I suppose my view may be a bit twisted because I was infused with those magic circles. For an ordinary person, the difference between Stone and Dirt Class is so large that you are considered a genius if you can beat a Stone Class Cultivator while still in Coal Class. Why is that? It's easy just to look at it and say, "Well, one is higher up the cultivation pole than the other," but I don't believe that's entirely correct. If that were correct, then how come someone from Dirt Class even has a chance at beating someone in Stone Class? There has to be more meaning to it than just higher-quality Genesis Liquid.

This also intertwined with why getting to Coal Class was difficult, and why getting into the 2nd half of it was even harder. If it were simply higher Cultivation Talent equals higher Class then people would care a lot more about Talent than they do. As far as I know, the only requirement to get into Stone Class is to have enough Genesis Essence embedded into your Duranian, but that doesn't make much sense does it? If that were the case then why would the Sect bother teaching us about Technology Path or Magic Path at all? Wouldn't it be more efficient to just jump right into cultivation and do that until it matters in Stone Class?

And from that question, you could also ask how come reaching Stone Class means you suddenly care about Martial Arts, Magic Arts, Physique Techniques, and so on? Going off of that, why not just abandon all of this and only cultivate your Duranian, ignoring Martial and Magic arts completely? It would allow you to get to Coal Class quickly, and then you could start caring about other things. For me, the answer lies in the fact that I can just passively suck in Genesis Essence, but others can't. They have to choose whether they cultivate Genesis Essence, or work out their body, or practice their Art.

The idea of cultivation itself is very convoluted. People participate in it and talk about it, yet they only talk about the proceeds. It's similar to how in math, you can have an equation, know what numbers plug into that equation, solve that equation, and understand that you got an answer without really knowing why you got that answer or what that answer represents. People cultivate and get the results they want by using the system explained to them by those around them. And while some do question the set path like the old man, the entire process of ascension makes things very complicated.

I'll take a guess and assume that most others didn't see what I saw during their ascension. With that assumption, the entire idea of seeking out the why behind cultivation is even harder. Ascension is a key process behind Cultivation, but people don't even know how it works to begin with...

But, then again, does it matter much? Does the why behind cultivation even matter to me right now? I do admit it's interesting, but wouldn't my time be better spent thinking about how to keep this political scramble together? Cultivation is important, yes, but what's the point in asking why when I already know what to do? What's the point when I don't even have the resources to do the how? My time is better spent following the set pattern while working on building my position within the sect. I can worry about these matters when it matters.

And in that case, I should go over my interaction with Onvima and learn from it. That series of manipulations was in all essence, an experiment. Even so, it was very simple. Some of my attempts at manipulation have been creative and out of the ordinary, but for this one, I simply applied the idea of everyone desiring an excuse to live and mixed it with sensory overload. It was ordinary yet extremely effective. All I had to do was flash his excuse and he rolled over like a dog.

Of course, he isn't completely there yet; each person has a self-defense system against this type of manipulation. But now that I have his leash in my hand, all I have to do is pull to get him closer to me. Eventually, his entire reason for being a part of my faction would shift from the knowledge he desires to me. Therefore, his excuse for living will eventually become me. This example also ties in with the idea of a cult.

A cult is just an extremist version of religion. Why is this? Well, very simply, in most organized religions, religion isn't the center of the person's life, normally only making up a part of it. However, in a cult, the object of worship is their everything, and in essence, their excuse for living. So to create a cult, you must insert yourself into that person's excuse for living. People will have other things going on in their lives, like gathering knowledge, marriage, kids, jobs, and many other stresses of life. That isn't something that can be changed, so instead, make it so that everything they do outside of you, involves you.

Legitimize their marriage, have them take their kids to gatherings, make their jobs have something to do with the cult, make people want to study the lore that you build around your cult, and everything else in between. How difficult would that be though? It feels impossible to convince people of the truth in daily life so something as ridiculous as a cult should hold the utmost of difficulties. That's what I thought just yesterday.

But this experiment proved something to me. Why is it that Onvima so readily agreed to do this with me? Was it only because I exploited his burning passion for information? Somewhat, but not fully. There is a hidden undercurrent in all manipulation, in all tactics used to get others to do what you want them to do.

The universal desire to believe in something.

This was something that every conscious being had, even those who knew about its presence. Due to this, forming a cult is easier than one might think. I'd even say that it's easier than deceiving one person in particular because of the group element. All that you have to do is change what they believe in, into you. You do this through mass deception, fake miracles, false truths, and inspiring messages. You do anything to get a foothold, then you take that inch... and run it for miles!

This realization took a lot of stress off of me. I still had to make sure I did things correctly, but it allowed me to have a better understanding of what I had to do, throwing a large portion of the planning I had to do out of the window. That left me with only two real main concerns: relationships and money.

For my relationships, as of now, it all seemed fine. However, mutiny was an inevitable possibility, so I had to keep my guard up. And then there was also the problem with Vernam. The tactic I used to get her on my side was effective, but it wasn't very good in the long run. Eventually, while she won't revert to how she was, she'll disconnect her reason for living from me which holds the possibility of ruining me. To avoid that, I'd have to repeat the process. Break her mind, and then reboot her. I wouldn't have to do this until a couple of months passed, but it was something to keep in mind.

And then there was the money issue. I could try to wait for the whole cult thing to kick off and then collect money that way, however, for that to work, I needed money in the first place. To create visual spectacles, money was necessary. Luckily for me, I had a much more realistic scheme in the workshop. This scheme all started with one question.

How does Convir get so much money?

The Dschungel is restricted to our entire region, not sect, and as far as I know, it's not being actively minted, making a finite amount of coins. These factors make it hard for an entire sect to get the money it needs, let alone one person. You could say it's because he owns a lot of markets, and while that is partly true, you have to consider how he got the money to buy those markets in the first place.

I couldn't answer that question on my own, so where else to go than the direct underlings of Convir themselves? So I asked the old man, who had been serving Convir the longest. Unfortunately, this was a secret kept so tight, that even he didn't know. And since that was the case, I had to look into it on my own. So I went into the sect's public library and read about matters involving both Convir and the sect's financial status. Once I read for a while, one fact ended up jumping out at me more than others.

In this world, traveling merchants existed. However, there weren't really "travel roads" so they had to have a powerful head and many underlings who helped clear safe passage from sect to sect. In the Jungle Region, they became active after the rainy season. Our area had one specific caravan of traders called the Specie Sprouts. Usually, they would come to our sect within the next couple of weeks. However, about ten years ago, they stopped showing up without any reason as to why.

Why would a merchant group give up on a potential customer? The only answer would have to be that they got a profit. But how would they profit from our demise? The answer was quite simple. If you looked at the dates, the year that the merchants gave up on our sect was the year right after Convir's rise into power. It was also the same year that Convir bought the school from the sect leader. This was a little too coincidental to not be correlated. And so I came up with this hypothesis.

Convir made a deal with the Specie Sprouts that allowed them to make more money than normal while he got sole access to their goods instead of the entire sect, and then the next year, he finally made good on that deal allowing him to gain buckets of Dshungels. And I had some evidence to back the claim up. When I brought this up to the old man he mentioned that after the rainy season, Convir would take a week off of work calling it stress relief. It was the exact timeframe that a caravan would stay inside of a sect.

A theory such as this was difficult to get behind, but as a person who has been involved in more schemes than I care to remember, I can tell when something suspicious is happening. That alone is enough for me to assume it's true.

So, assuming that my idea is true, what is it that I can do with this information?

The answer is simple.

I hit the Specie Sprouts before Convir by tracking his moves with Vernam, make a deal with the caravan so that I have control over them, and then collect the money. The only potential problem with this plan is that it took a year for Convir to reap his benefits. Wouldn't it be the same for me? Not necessarily. Back then, Convir was only in Stone Class so he couldn't intercept the merchants like I can. More likely than not, he had to make the deal after they already landed in the sect.

I, on the other hand, will have access to the goods before they see the eyes of anyone else.

It was a risk for sure, but who said life wasn't filled with risks? And in this case, the reward far outmatched the risk. I get a continuous source of loads of money and also get rid of Convir's.

It truly was two birds with one stone.