Chapter 11: Cultivation

The safe house is separated into 5 floors, each floor bigger than the one below. It has 20 rooms for each floor, except for the bottom one, and has an astounding amount of 80 rooms! It's like a castle but it's clean as heck in here, we can't even see a single stain on the ground. Though if there was one, well, we'll have to prepare a funeral for the one who made that stain because Terra wouldn't spare them.

Anyway, so far, all of us have been terrified of her. Only Damon, or Alexander as we have all learned is his true name, had the gall to even talk to her in a rude way. But I guess that's the reason why they are friends.

It's been a week since we arrived in the safe house, and our lives have been better than ever. We quickly forgot about the orphanage after spending some time in our temporary home. Turns out, Alexander is considered deceased in this continent because he apparently died when he was protecting the princess of Albion Empire. He told us the stories of how he did this and that. All of his stories were amazing because that was his stories from the time he was still a soldier for the empire.

After he supposedly died, he was taken in by the Coexistence Sect, which is one of the 3 hidden sects in the Bronze Continent. From his words, we learned more about the discrimination of races and how almost all of them are grossly mistreated by humans. He has no hatred for humans, of course, and he is speaking to us in a very open-minded way.

He wanted us to learn the reason why the Coexistence Sect exists, since we are going to join it in the near future. I was excited, as all of my fellow orphans.

The first thing we need to do before we go to the sect is learn their ways, and the manual for their "mana cultivation techniques". Tutorial Bot warned me not to use these because they'll hinder my progress more than anything. He says that cultivation techniques are a waste of time because their very nature is to go against the heavens, and if I use them, there's a huge chance that dangerous beings from outside of this world would notice me and that's bad since I'm still weak. And even if there were no consequences of higher beings killing me, there was also the fact that cultivation needs a huge amount of patients to advance even a single level and even then, there is no guarantee that I'll be able to survive the later stages of cultivation.

In short, he said, killing creatures to earn Kill Points is the best way possible to grow stronger along with idling around while my clones do all the work for me. It's easier, stress-free, and doesn't require that much effort to easily surpass most cultivators in the world in 30 years.

I can't help but agree with tutorial bot when I heard Alexander explain the theories of mana cultivation and how it's main objective is to gain immortality and go against the heavens. I'm sure no one would like to go against something that can kill them with a flick of its nonexistent fingers if they have another way of growing stronger. I'm not going to do mana cultivation, end of the story.

No one is going to be able to convince otherwise.

Soon, February came and a month has passed since we arrived in this safe house. Most of my siblings learned how to cultivate their mana, and so far they've shown success but not enough to enter the first stage, they still need something for that. Vane is the most surprising out of all of them because he easily entered the Mana Gathering Stage and broke through Level 10 so fast. Even Alexander was shocked.

There are 12 cultivation stages, and each stage is separated by ten minor stages from level 1 to 10.

The 12 Cultivation Stages are: Mana Gathering - Foundation Establishment - Rainbow Core – Soul Detachment – Nascent Soul – Imprisonment – Rebirth – Adolescence – False Maturity - True Maturity – and Senescence.

But even when there are 12 stages, only the first 7 are present in the world at the moment because most mana cultivators never leave the Imprisonment Stage. The 7th stage is highly notorious for being so difficult to break through and only the most talented are able to advance to the next stage.

Anyway, Alexander told us that Terra is in the Nascent Soul Stage, Level 8. She is extremely powerful, as he told us how she can easily defeat a dragon in combat and even kill it. But the most frightening thing about her isn't her strength, it's her age; she is just 39 years old. This means that she still has another 8000 years 'till she dies.

If a mana cultivator reaches Nascent Soul Stage, they'll receive 1000 years of life span for each minor stage they break through. This means that not only is she extremely talented, she is also very young and has enough potential to reach the Imprisonment Stage. I heard from Alexander that Imprisonment Stage Cultivators are basically gods. They can split the ocean, carry mountains with a raise of a finger, make empires bow down to their will, and even conquer an entire country if they wanted to.

Now I'm scared because he also said that there are 10 Imprisonment Stage Cultivators in the world currently, and if they are indeed living deities, then I need to tread more carefully than ever.

When I asked tutorial bot about their power levels, he only said this:

[These "Imprisonment Stage Cultivators" are not actually comparable to real deities but merely weaklings in front of them but they can pose quite a challenge to you once you become stronger because their estimated power level is: 100,000,000 to 999,999,999. So you better be careful, or you'll die and waste your creator's efforts to make you]

Almost 1 Billion!? Are you insane!? I don't even have jacksh*t on me, a single power level is all I have! But calming down, I managed to think this through and thought that there's no way these 10, godlike cultivators can find me unless I do something big. For example; destroying a whole continent or something. But even then, treading carefully isn't going to hurt me. Who knows, I might just meet one of them by chance.

As I sat on Vane's lap with Flame nearby sitting by his sister's side, I read a book that I have read before but couldn't find any new books in here so I decided to just read it again.

Vane has long white hair that resembles the iced leaves of the winter tree, eyebrows as white as snow, pale lips, skin the same color as paper, and, strangely, oceanic blue eyes. While it is rare, people with albinism can have blue eyes instead of red eyes. Vane is one of them.

I got close to Vane after a month of spending time with him, and he is a cool guy. He is cold in appearance only; in reality he is more likely to hit himself than hit another person. He is nice, overly so, which I found is not good for him since other people could take advantage of his kindness. He is not that smart, in fact he is mostly muscle-brained and the strongest out of all of us. He treats me as equal, even though I'm many times younger than him, and unlike the other older children.

But even though he is already a cultivator and has a power level of [99,999], he still cannot hit another living being. He would instead choose a more peaceful route and talk to the creature, as it was shown when he and other older children were asked to spar with each other. I don't judge him; I'm just worried that this personality of his will one day lead him to tragedy. And I hate to see that happen to him so I'll gain power to protect him, to protect the entire orphanage.

I would even gain the strength of a deity just so I could protect them.

"Auguste, what does this word mean?" He asked me, pointing at a word in the book I'm reading.

"This word? It's apotheosis, it means 'ascending to divinity'." I answered his question, before suddenly chuckling.

"Why are you laughing? Is there something funny about the book?" He said.

"No, nothing."

Apotheosis, something I would have to achieve just to protect them.