Paradoxical Puzzles

Upgrading your Fruits.

It's an essential part of the Class ascension process. Your power will indeed increase a lot from just the ascension, but, as I've heard from multiple different people, it also comes with a deficit. This weakness comes from your Genesis Liquid growing too powerful for the usage of Fruits lower than that Class.

You can think of it as a keyhole. You can picture the lock as the Fruit and the key as the Genesis Liquid used to activate it. Using a Stone Class Fruit while being in Stone Class would allow you to use the correct key for the lock, flawlessly opening it. If you were Dirt Class and you tried to use a Stone Class Fruit, it would be like using a lock pick instead of the right key. You'll have the scrounge around for a bit, put more work into it, and practice for a while, but you'll be able to open it. But if you were Coal Class and you tried to use a Stone Class Fruit, it would be like throwing a brick at the lock to open it. The lock won't open, it'll shatter. This may seem like what you want until you realize that the object the lock guarded was also shattered.

Fruits were a very important part of combat, so it wasn't something I could just let slip from my fingers. But how do you get higher-class Fruits? Do you have to have to find new ones yourself? Well, as of 8000 years ago, that isn't the case. Instead, you Crossbred your Fruits into higher Classes using materials of all different kinds. The process was a decently complicated one, and one that required skill in the subject. And unfortunately, more than just skill, you also needed some good luck, as there was a chance that it would fail only because you were unlucky. The chances of getting a Stone Class Fruit from a Dirt Class one, as long as you did everything perfectly, was around 80% chance. But that was assuming you were very skilled in the particular Crossbreeding. For beginners, a 20% chance was more realistic.

However, there was a prerequisite to being able to even give it a shot in the first place: you needed to have a Crossbreeding Guide. Without that, it would be like running around in the dark, with your eyes closed, and with your head lobbed off. Unless your chosen profession was a Crossbreeder, you would never get results by doing that. So I needed a Guide, and more specifically, I needed a Guide to upgrade my particular Fruits. But the thing that makes this difficult is that there are so many different kinds of Fruits in the world, that to have a Guide for your specific Fruit is very unlikely to ever happen. Though, that is only if you are an Independent Cultivator. If you grew up in a group, like I have, you will probably have a way to get to the higher Classes that your ancestors already discovered.

But then there is me. I picked a Branch that had nothing to do with the sect, based on something as loose as "the other options weren't my style." At that point, I had just begun my cultivation journey, so I knew practically nothing about how it all worked. Otherwise, if I knew how important it was to have a common Branch, I would have just chosen a Fire Branch Fruit. This even extended to Martial Arts and Physique Arts. I already checked through the scrolls Convir gave me, and just like I thought, they were a generic Martial Art and Physique Art. If I actually tried to use one of those two that didn't match up with the Firearm Branch whatsoever, I would be casting out any morsel of opportunity I had to get to Iron Class after these magic circles already sucked most of it out of me.

In came my savior, my one sliver of hope, the bastion that could guide me out of the darkness, the Firearm Inheritance. After I finished the first part of the inheritance, I checked around for something more and found another magic circle on the wall of the battle area. It was there that I suspected the Stone Class part of the inheritance was. After all, Inadere was a Gold Class Cultivator before he died. So his inheritance, more likely than not, went up to at least Iron Class if not Gold Class. It should be a cheat code for a smooth cultivation journey, but, as many things are, it's never that simple. Maybe it was for that reason that he placed the inheritance inside of a sect.

Either way, there was a good chance that the Crossbreeding Guides, the Martial Art, and the Physique Art that I sought after were inside of the inheritance. Of course, I already went through the risk analysis of trying to claim the inheritance and decided I had to just go for it. The last time I went through the trials Inadere set up, it caused me to break a couple of ribs, so knowing that I was in a higher Class, it could end in a worse injury. But I also had to consider that the difference between me now and me back then, raw strength-wise, was at a difference greater than the normal power jump from Dirt Class to Stone Class, so anything he throws at me, I should be able to fight back. But that was only if the next test couldn't take into account my Magic Circles. It was risky either way.

However, it was either I took this risk of death with the chance of an increase in strength, or I failed miserably in the upcoming midterms. The choice I had to make was obvious. I would much rather take it up with a dead man than whatever Medisma was going to throw at me in the midterms while I had no access to Fruits. So it was decided, I was going to resume my excavation of the Firearm Inheritance.

I opened my eyes, exiting my Duranian for good. The entire Duranian situation was something that I would have to figure out at a later date because right now I needed to get as strong as possible as fast as possible. So I stood up and began my walk. I could rush to the inheritance, but that would do nothing besides garner unwanted attention. It would be a pity if someone caught me in the act of entering the inheritance. But as far as I knew, the old man was the only person with the means to spy on me and the want, so I was in the clear with that.

As I walked, I used my time brainstorming what was happening in my Duranian. The entire thing moved quickly, so I didn't have any real time to think about it before. The sand pit was still a mystery to me, and it was something that would only have more things exposed as I experimented with it. But, based on the multiple objects I found inside of it, I'm guessing it has something to do with the Firearm Branch.

The next, on a scale of least to most pressing, would be the living island, as I've decided to call it. This island somehow adapted aspects of the illusion Branch which was something I wanted to exploit. But the question was how I would go about doing that. Despite the Duranian belonging to me, I didn't have any idea how I could go about it. But if it is a living thing, there should be a way to tame it, which I was hoping would work. Like the sand pit, this one required more experimentation.

And finally, the most conspicuous of the three major changes, the three ghosts that have claimed my town as their living area. Firstly, there were Logic and Emotion. They both had unique personality traits, each being the living personification of their names. Logic was painfully dull and only talked and moved when it seemed necessary. Emotion on the other hand... was just as it always was: unpredictable and nonlinear. That addition to my Duranian is definitely interesting, especially if they represents my logic and emotions, but I didn't have a good idea of how to use them yet, so I would have to meet with both of them again.

On the other hand, there was the self-proclaimed god or hermit, both worked. The hermit was the highest on my danger scale out of the three because, unlike the other two, it felt self-conscious. It felt like a real human. However, that was still a debate. How could my ascension create something as insane as a self-conscious, living, being? But no matter how I thought about it, that's what happened. And now that I thought about it more... his character and appearance did remind me of someone outside of the memories in my head that may or may not have been fabricated. But I just couldn't put my finger on it... he looked like a hermit, small, grey hair, long earlobes, and went on and on about being balanced with the world... That it!

The Tao Te Ching! It was a book that belonged to one of the religions in Mountain Mythology, and if I remember correctly, Culdia said that the author of the book was... Laozi? Yeah, that sounds right... I unfortunately haven't had the chance to read a copy of it yet, as I couldn't find it inside any library around here. But from the second-hand knowledge I gained from Culdia, it's a treaty on Taoism, which... I'm pretty sure revolves around the idea of the Tao, and getting yourself as close to the Tao as you can. But other than that, I know nothing of the teachings and practices behind it. The only way I would figure that out is if I somehow found a book, traveled to the Mountain region, or... I suppose asked Laozi himself. He was claiming to be a God and he also matched the physical description well, so there was a chance the man in my Durian was a God... which only opened up hundreds of more questions.

But I had neither the means nor the time to answer such questions as I now found myself in front of a familiar-looking tree. I took a real quick check of my surroundings, and after not detecting anything, I... used... my Crossbow... Bolt...

'Hold on. How am I supposed to get into the inheritance if I can't use the Crossbow Bolt Fruit? Don't tell me that there was nothing more than a Dirt Class inheritance. But that couldn't be. The entire gesture of him giving the Arrow Fertilization Fruit, which is for Crossbreeding, suggests he wanted me to get to Stone Class. And then I even surmised that the magic circle itself was the same as this one, except it took a Stone Class version.'

I stood in front of the tree for a couple of minutes, examining the tree from top to bottom. But no matter how hard I looked, there didn't seem to be any kind of mechanism. As I was beginning to consider that Inadere just miscalculated something, an idea took hold of my mind. I stood in front of the tree and activated my magic circles. I then teleported a Crossbow Bolt Fruit into my stomach and consumed the necessary Genesis Liquid. Instead of just not taking effect, or even worse, backfiring, I felt that same power crawl into my hand. I pulled my arm back and sent it forward. And like that, a crossbow flew out of my hand and onto the magic circle on the tree.

As if confirming that my idea was correct, the magic circle gleamed and opened the entrance to me. I made sure to enter as quickly as I could so that no one ended up stumbling on me in front of an open tree, and made my way downstairs. What I did was pretty simple. Normally I only used the magic circles to upgrade my Genesis Liquid and give myself stronger attacks, but this time I used it to lessen my Genesis Liquid to the point of a Dirt Class Cultivator, and it worked just as I planned. This discovery felt bigger than just being able to open the inheritance again, but I couldn't think of many practical uses yet. I'm sure that it'll have its use eventually though.

I soon found myself in front of the magic circle from before... the one that took a Stone Class Fruit to open... where I presumed the Stone Class Crossbreeding Guides were... what a paradox. But I'm sure that, just like the earlier contradiction, this one had an answer. First I tried the same thing I did earlier, just to test the waters, but of course, nothing happened. Then I tried to punch it, maybe the power of a Stone Class body was what it needed, but nothing happened. I had to say, this was stumping me.

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in my head. I went up to the magic circle and placed my hand right over it. Once it was there, I activated my magic circles and directed Genesis Liquid to the fingertips of my hand. Once my hand began to glow, the Magic Circle did it right along with it. As soon as I saw it working, I felt a wash of relief wash over me. Things would have been a lot more difficult if I couldn't get in there. What I did was more complicated than the last puzzle. I directed Genesis Liquid at my normal level and, using the magic circles, infused it into the magic circle on the wall. Why or how this worked was beyond me, but all that mattered was that it worked.

The Magic Circle caused a door reminiscent of the one leading into the tree, with the same exact opening transition and everything. As the door slowly opened, light from the room I was in flooded into the room, allowing me to take a good look into the room. And, as I had guessed mentally earlier, it was another unlit stairwell.