Chapter 11: Cultivation
She woke up abruptly, inhaling once, then twice. Last night's memories rushed through her head—the fighting and the pain. The pain, she thought as she looked down at herself. Everything was healed and perfectly healthy. No missing limbs or burned flesh. She swore she had felt the flames touch her skin as it cooked her alive at the end. Realization hit her as she took in her surroundings. It was a dark and cold stone room. She wondered if the strange golem brought her here.
Just as she was standing up, her mind and body experienced what she could best describe as her almost passing out, but she caught herself and a rush of energy entered her body. Jess knew what was happening, and she went into a meditative pose on the bed. She couldn't believe what was happening; this was unheard of to happen.
As she was meditating, the metal door that led into the room opened up, and it was one of Vulcan's steel sentries. He was taking some food for Jess and stopped walking when he noticed her already awake.
"Morning," he called out as he tried to get her attention.
Jess opened her eyes and stood up, rushing up to Vulcan. Her face showed happiness and shock. "I just strengthened my body physique, do you know what that means!? I haven't changed my body core color in decades! What did you do to me!? Also, what happened after I passed out!?" She kept trying to get information out of him, but she realized she was being a little too insistent and backed off. "Sorry, I was so excited I didn't realize my actions," and she sat back down.
Vulcan put the food on a table next to the bed. "Well, to start things off, the goblins were eliminated. You nearly died, and I had to bring you back to life," he said as he observed her reaction.
She just stared back with interest and gestured for him to keep going, but he finished.
"That's it? Well, let me ask more specifically, How did you heal my body?" She asked, looking up expectantly at him.
Vulcan was confused. "What does that have to do with anything? I don't understand."
Jess was about to respond and then remembered from the other day when she had met Vulcan. He had questioned her about many basic things, so she wondered if he knew anything about cultivation. "Do you know anything about cultivation by any chance?" She asked, and he shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Well, let me explain. Every human has the potential to form a core in their body. This core allows us to become stronger, but it takes time, resources, and talent to form this core. Sure, you could be wealthy and buy resources, but if you don't have the talent, then you're screwed. The noble families who have powerful bloodlines usually have the most talent, but there have been several commoners who have risen and even surpassed those bloodlines before." She took a small pause as she felt Vulcans impatience at her taking too long to explain.
"Anyways, once you form your core, it will be brown in color. We call this the Earth stage, and every stage moving up from this one is separated into three subcategories which are called low, middle, and peak. After Earth is the bronze stage, which is a red-brown color. Then you have the Iron stage, which is dark grey. Then silver stage, and finally gold stage. If there are any other stages past gold, then I don't know them. But I just became a low Iron stage fighter. I have been training my core for decades to even come close to this, and yet today when I woke up, my body was different. I was able to absorb the ambient mana in the air a lot faster than I was able to, and I made a breakthrough in my cultivation. Which is why I need to know what you did to me last night?" She said, looking up at him expectantly.
Vulcan processed this information. It seemed his plans of mass-producing an immortal army of steel and Reinforced Iron robots to protect himself would need some changes. "Before I answer your question, answer me this: What is the average fighter strength for this kingdom and the entire continent?" Vulcan would need this information to make contingency plans in case someone stronger than him attacked him.
Jess thought hard before she answered, "Well, for the Rodden kingdom, the average strength I would say would be about peak bronze, while its upper elites would be middle Iron stage. I would say only the royalty and its most loyal subordinates would be maybe middle silver. I haven't heard of any gold stage fighters or mages in this kingdom. In the entire continent, I would say low Iron stage would be the average, and maybe a handful of gold stage in the more northern kingdoms. We are considered a weak continent; there is a supercontinent close to us which I've heard has gold stage practitioners everywhere," she said.
"Mages? Supercontinent?" Asked Vulcan in confusion as he finished listening.
Jess smirked, "Yeah, mages follow the same stages but are physically a lot weaker than fighters. What they lack in strength, they make up for with their destructive abilities. A peak earth realm mage could decimate an entire village with a spell, while it would take a fighter at the same stage longer to do. Plus, they're versatile, so you have many healing mages, holy mages, elemental mages, etc. Also, don't go thinking everyone is awakened with a core. Most commoners join the military to be given the resources to cultivate a core, and even then they are stuck at the earth stage for the rest of their lives. Anyways, I've answered your questions. Can you answer mine now?" Jess said, becoming impatient.
Vulcan decided to tell her, since he had started having an idea for how she may be of use to him. He pretended to reach around his back to get something but was actually activating his Spatial power. A nano stim was taken out and thrown onto Jess's hands. She was confused and raised the stim to her eyes, surprised to see the swirling grey liquid inside. She then looked up at Vulcan for an explanation.
"This is something called a 'nano stim.' It is used on my sentries to heal them whenever they are broken or in need of repair. I was touched by your need to protect my sentry, even though there are dozens of its kind still around. I didn't know if it would heal you as it was a last-minute choice I made. Whatever it did to you may be the reason your body strength has improved," Vulcan said as he asked some sentries to bring in a sentry that was in need of repair. He took the stim from her hands and injected it into the sentry. Jess watched in amazement at the repairs; it was instant. The sentry's eyes glowed purple and stood up as if everything was normal, then walked out with the rest.
"I've seen healing mages at work, but growing back limbs is impossible for them," she finished her sentence and turned oddly at Vulcan. "I promise I won't tell a soul about what I just witnessed. You said I would be free to go after I helped you eliminate the goblins," said Jess, waiting for his response. "Please, I need to get back to the village. I need to get rid of the mercenaries that are harassing the villagers," she said as she plead for him to keep his word.
"First of all, I don't intend to keep you as a prisoner. I don't care if you know some things about me, but I need to tell you something. It's about the village," he said, gesturing for her to take a seat again. "What happened to the village?" Jess asked, afraid of what she might hear. Vulcan began explaining from the beginning.