Chapter 31

The crafting abode didn't collapse upon itself and didn't boot him out or anything so he had a good night's rest. It was super silent in there, no soul to bother him. He stretched while yawning and jumped up to his feet, what this place was missing though was a shower and he didn't think that he could install plumbing. It worked for now though, maybe he could find a lake or a waterfall to wash up later, not like he had anybody odor, though he found that a bit odd because even if he did sweat he didn't end up smelling with sweat, guess it was something about this cultivator body of his.

He appeared out in the open in a flash of light, scaring some of the wildlife in the area. Matt chuckled to himself and while munching on a chicken leg, well it was more of an unidentified bird leg, but he told himself that it was chicken. He stretched a bit, the sun already up as the crafting room didn't have any natural, so there was no rising sun to wake him up. He tossed his flying sword out again and took flight, going towards the mountain peak.

The mountain as huge, it looked a lot smaller on the map but it just went on and on till the clouds, guess everything on this continent was bigger than back on earth. He pushed more spiritual energy into his sword and flew up into the air, ascending upwards while the skill shielded him from the heavy winds and cold air.

As he broke through the soft blanket of clouds he could see the mountain peak. To his surprise it was quite green up here, he didn't see any snow around that he expected from a place at this altitude. He looked at the map and then tried to sense the aura of others around here, but it was nice and peaceful. There were a couple of beasts up here, most of the bird variety but they scattered the moment they felt his overbearing aura as he was scanning them.

There was a layer of clouds just below the tip of the mountain he was standing on, the view was just breathtaking. Matt just took a moment to look around the place, there were vegetation and a little spring in the middle. He slowly walked around while the birds flew about, the place felt peaceful, he couldn't feel any dangers around a perfect spot to spend some time to test his skills and cultivate.

He hopped up to the highest point on the mountain top, which wasn't that wide. He had just enough space to sit down in the lotus position on the almost pointy boulder sticking out of the mountain top. He started concentrating, the wind started picking up as he resumed his cultivation. The Qi in the area was a lot thicker than what it was back in that forest village, so sucking it up was a lot easier this time around. He sucked up the water like Qi into his body, nourishing his meridians and pumping his cultivation up more and more.

The storm clouds soon gathered up above him and the ones that were below the mountain peak looking like a blanket turned dark. The animals around the peak started hiding and running away from the incoming storm. The lightning strikes soon filed the entire peak, you could hear booming sounds of thunder hitting against the human cultivator that remained seated in the lotus position. The electric strikes kept connecting with his body periodically, infusing him with more and more Qi. Due to the storm, the cultivation process was a lot faster than before but it was a lot harder as well, Matt had to focus diligently as to not let the spirit energy run wild in his body and not to overflow. Because if that happened he could suffer a backlash to his cultivation, injure himself or even lose some of his progress.

He remained in that one spot, letting the bolts sculpt his body into a better shape he could feel his core expanding slightly more and more as it took the spiritual power in. He was almost in a trance, this was normal for cultivators as when they got the ball of cultivation rolling it was hard to stop. That as also the reason while most of them remained hidden from others, doing it in seclusion not wanting to be disturbed as a lapse in judgment could be very detrimental to their well being.

He was cultivating at least twice the speed than he was previously, but he didn't stop at just doing that. Matt also had some new skills that he needed to figure out. After he got his fill of absorbing spiritual energy that pushed his cultivation past 50% he decided to take a break. First came the forcefield or barrier technique. He clasped his hands, forming a seal as a semi-transparent coating started appearing around him. It looked like a regular circular barrier around a person but looked a bit more unstable with the lightning energies crackling around it. At this moment some dust got kicked up and as it came up to the barrier and blocked its approach, crackling in response. He could tell that inside he was safe from harm but outside the forcefield would discharge electricity at anything that came in contact with the barrier.

He started playing around with this skill managing to make it bigger and bigger covering about an area of 10 meters before he started having problems in keeping it together. He could also shrink it and focus in front of himself, this made the barrier thicker in that spot and it would probably defend against more damage.

Matt nodded and moved on to the Storm dragon skill, he concentrated while waving his hands around in various patterns. This skill couldn't be formed instantly which would be its weakness. After a moment electricity escaped from his body and shoot above his head, the energy concentrated into one spot and started forming a Dragon, it wasn't the western type of dragon that most people were familiar with, it was the more serpentine looking one from Eastern stories. The creature looked like a construct of blue and white light as it gave out electricity, it roared about and circled around his body as if going into a defensive position.

He could feel some kind of strange mental connection with the creature, he could also see through its eyes as it flew around. He tried giving it some basic orders like 'go over here', 'hit that rock' and 'defend this position'. It followed all the instructions to a tee, but when he ordered it to do the Fortnite dance it, it looked at him with question marks above its head.

*I guess not, heh.*

He could actually ride the thing, so it would be an alternative to his sword if he ever lost it, the Dragon was big enough for him to ride while having space for more people. This way of traveling was a lot more draining on his spiritual energy though, so it would probably not be a good idea to use it as a regular way of traveling.

The last but certainly not the least was the Avatar transformation, he took a good breath in before he released the skill. It didn't have any fancy hand movements to activate, he just had to concentrate but it also had a bit of a charge uptime. He could feel his body giving of spiritual energy, the Qi started coating his whole body and expanding outwardly. Growing and growing, he could feel his point of view getting elevated as the technique turned him into a giant made from lightning, the sparks flew everywhere while he looked at his hands and ground below him. Size-wise he was close to 6 meters tall, but he could pump himself up further but that would drain his energy faster and faster. If he increased his cultivation he reckoned he could sustain a larger form for a longer time.

He threw a few punches, his power certainly increasing with this skill. He tried forming a javelin while in this form, which worked as the one he formed was many times larger than his regular one, he could probably take on people on a higher cultivation level than he was with this skill, but he had to be quick as it was quite draining. He tested it out, managing to keep it up without using any other skills for about 10 minutes before his energy dipped below 50 %, he would probably have a couple of minutes of real fighting time if he decided to go ham on someone.

*Guess I should probably use this more as a finisher than the opener, or to give others a scare.*

He powered down moved back to cultivating, he wanted to his core formation middle stage before moving on, it would boost his reserves quite a bit and being more powerful was always the best way to go. It took him about half a week to finally pump his cultivation to 100%, his lightning core churned with energy, crackling and expanding as he broke through his aura filled the surroundings as a lightning bolt directly hit his body. He stood up and tested his new level with a couple of punches and kicks. He felt a lot stronger than before, he could probably take out the corrupted one with one good placed hit if he fought him once more. Going up a level in cultivation was a lot bigger than going up in levels in games, it was quite the big difference indeed. After testing his skills a bit more at the higher cultivation realm he decided to head to the new town.