Cultivation course

Alain, Emilie, François, and Lena were sitting in a circle before Ludovic in the room where the awakening occurred. The other two beds of 6 were still full, but theirs had not yet been reoccupied.

"What do you know about cultivation?" Ludovic asked, his tone indifferent as always, though his eyes moved from one to another, from François to Lena.

"Not much," Lena said after a few seconds of eye-watching. The others shook their heads.

"Okay. It is indeed better not to know too much before the awakening. The principle of strengthening one's body is quite simple: cultivation allows you to strengthen your body like a plant grows, with more and more space needed but always less fertile land at disposition. So each step requires more effort to keep evolving."

Ludovic stood up and moved to the beds they had been using.

"For practical application, it's just a matter of understanding how you awakened in the energy world, in short, what the ceremony transformed." He waited a few seconds and heard nothing. "If you prefer, what did you actually do in this world during the awakening?"

"Uh, we sleep?" Lena asked.

"Your soul did not sleep even if you do not remember it but evolved. That evolution then impacted the body. You have, through the world of energy, made your head understand the existence of the soul, and this head has modified the body so that it can get the energy. This process requires transmissions that gradually make each part of your body gain intelligence. Now, what do you think this means?"

"That we can talk to them?" François replied.

"You can, or rather, you must communicate if you can put it that way." Ludovic said, "This indulges two things. Does anyone want to try an answer?" His eyes fixated on Alain.

Alan frowned. What would an intelligent body do? Would it create its own life, its own liberty?

"The body might not obey?"

"Well, it's more than that. In fact, it can go against you or help you; it all depends on its strength factor and yours. Knowing that the more you denigrate even one part of yourself, the more likely you are to be pressured. As someone progresses, their fate is usually to have their body killed from within or split into parts that die soon after."

His words cast a pall.

"The thing is really pushed in the capital regions." Said Ludovic. "The king takes many awakened wives and impregnates them before he begins to awaken his babies. Less than one in twenty survive infancy, and most die afterward. This same process is used to determine the king's companions, in addition to the noble children. The nobles usually awaken at age 6 to provide for the king at 7 or keep them as heirs."

Alain swallowed his saliva.

"That's how lucky you are to have been awakened so late, but it also indicates the gap between you. The thing is, your body will evolve, and so will its thoughts. Right now, it may be doing so in the world where you have awakened. As these parts of you grow stronger, your potential strength might increase if you can control it. If not, it will take control of you."

Ludovic went to pick up a book.

"So this is the Evolving Village." The cover displayed [Village Évolutif]. "You can pretty much see the progression from it. It can evolve very quickly because your parts live in this dimension and have no limits. In a good way and a bad way. So, you must always evolve and, most importantly, develop a little bit of a wisdom mindset, which is what you were brought here for."

Ludovic closed the book. "Well enough with theories. Now try to cultivate."

There was silence, and Ludovic's footsteps could be heard as he reached for the exit.

"Uh, but how do we do it?" Alain asked.

"Figure it out; it's an exercise." Said Ludovic

"But then, one can make a mistake!"

"Maybe that's the whole point."

As Ludovic left, Alain began thinking. How could they cultivate without knowing anything? And what if it was dangerous?

"Alain, do you have any ideas?" François recalled him to reality.

"Huh, not really."

"Do you remember what happened in your awakening?"

"No." Alain shook his head.

"You sure?"

"...Yeah, why?"

"... to learn how to cultivate. Like, you could actually have your body memorizing or something like that."

"Nop, got nothin' like that."

As François came to the others, asking, "Got any ideas?", Alain returned to thinking.

The priest talked about conscience. So would meditation help?

Alain sat cross-legged and closed his eyes. After a few dozen seconds, he stopped, bored.

'No,' Alain thought,' what's best to ask is: what is father doing differently from others?' He found no differences apart from physical training;

He thought about a few more things but lacked the ability to put them into practice, like imagining a world inside his brain; okay, but how could he cultivate from it? Giving up, he dived into the conversation with the others.

Ludovic returned.

"Has anyone found a way to cultivate?"

All shook their head.

"Well, that is for today, I guess, then?" Ludovic said

"Seriously? How do you expect us to find when we got no memory of the awakening? I guess nobody can remember it with their bodies." François said.

"There had been quite a few pioneers to actually benefit from it and who then shared the information. Not sure if it was their body who remembered or if they just learned how to use it because of their affinity or chance. Anyways, not knowing is also a chance." Said Ludovic, leaving.

Alain's eyes widened. Was he truly leaving them like that?!

"You tell us to waste a day? But we don't have the time!" Said, Alain. "You said they could evolve at any moment and kill us!"

"Maybe instead of complaining, you could have found a solution by yourself, but you are not even able to think of it. Continue like this, and you will surely die; what I offer is the tiny opportunity of realizing the meaning of life, or at least the ability to live it, and the possibility of 'succeeding'."