13 Chapter 13 - Cultivation

Zefer made his way to the living room and sat in an isolated space. He crossed his legs, one over the other, and pressed his hands together. Even though research said humans could not cultivate their Mana to increase it, Zefer felt like they were lying.

He tried many ways to increase his Mana Pool, but nothing worked. So he knew how to meditate. He stumbled across something unique to each technique, but he ignored it since it had nothing to do with Mana. At the time, he would regret it.

It was powerful energy known as Soul Essences. One that drew upon power from the spirit. The energy from the soul enhances one's strength and makes one invulnerable to blades or bullets. It wasn't something people needed to acquire but something they needed to train.

In a way, it was like a sixth sense. However, Zefer tossed it aside since he saw no one else using it. If Humanity could produce such energy, why was there a need for Mana? He couldn't believe in something that he didn't see or experience for himself.

Sadly, if Zefer had invested his time in it, he may have ended up becoming more potent than he was now. Regardless, that was then, and this was now. Zefer began to close his eyes to connect to the depths of his mind and drown out everything else.

Usually, when he did this, he saw nothing but black; however, this time, there was a glowing neon blue orb encased in dark purple flames. Zefer reached out to it, and when he did, he felt the energy around the orb slip into his body.

The energy settled around his heart, and Zefer took the instructions he learned from various research to try and push the energy throughout his body. It was no easy task. Sweat began to appear along his body as he struggled to move it around his body.

Ina saw that she didn't even need to explain a thing. She was going to, but she kept silent when she saw Zefer start to do everything independently. What truly surprised her was how Zefer managed to unblock the first point. Runic energy was different from the standard energy that most people knew.

Since the Rune Stone was located near the heart, it started there instead of the spine. Rune Stones fed off emotion and drove from the 'heart.' Therefore, it made sense to be close to its feeding post.

This also allowed the energy to connect throughout the body in one fluid motion and circulate back to the heart. The energy flow could go in whatever direction the user wished. Down the body or above, so Zefer just decided to push it downward.

Zefer managed to break through a blockade, and the energy was now cultivated within his stomach. This surprised Ina because typically, it took Rune Warriors at best two months to do this, yet Zefer did it in a matter of hours.

Zefer was far too exhausted to continue, so he settled the energy and opened his eyes. When he did, he noticed several messages in front of him.

[Unlocked the second of seven points. Energy restoration has improved!]

[Runic Cultivation Acquired!]

[Wisdom Stat increased!]

[Quest Update]

[Cultivate Runic Energy completed!]

[Skill point will be applied to Wisdom Stat.]

Seeing these messages caused a smile to form across his lips, but before he could do anything further, he just collapsed and passed out. The messages fizzled out, and Ina could be seen walking beside him; however, she wasn't in her fairy form.

No, the woman was in an adult form. She picked up Zefer and carried him over to his mattress, then set him down gently and placed the blanket over him. "Making me use this energy for something like this... Well, you were the one who broke past the second point and earned this energy. So, I guess I can't complain." Ina's voice was gentle as she sat beside him and watched over him.

While staring at him, she could see just how calm he looked. It wasn't a facade or mask. Zefer was genuinely at ease. "It seems such a weird holder has awakened me, but...." Ina would lean over and place a kiss on Zefer's forehead. "Not a bad one." She whispered as a small letter H appeared on his forehead like a tattoo; however, the horizontal line was slightly slanted, making the H look unique. As she withdrew her lips, the tattoo seemed to fade into his skin as if it were never there.

A second later, she managed to catch a cracked picture frame on the other side of him. She had seen it earlier but hadn't looked at it until now. In it, she saw Zefer and someone who looked older than him. "So that is how it is... Perhaps the Rune of Salvation would have been better for you." Ina murmured, then disappeared into a fading neon-blue light and seeped into Zefer's body, more specifically the Rune of Destruction.

Zefer woke up early morning as usual instead of feeling groggy and sheepish. He felt strangely energized. He went ahead and took a shower, brushed his teeth, and then took the final slice of bread from the loaf and ate it.

"I'll need to find a way to make some Coins. Otherwise, I won't be able to eat." Zefer said to himself. "What about quests?" Ina's voice asked with a yawn as if she just woke up. "That could work, but I don't know how to activate the quests or how they come. Besides..." Zefer brought up his Quest window.

It was simple and easy. With just a thought, it appeared. While Zefer was in the shower, he thought of ways to bring out his system's screens and figured that just thinking about them would work.

He tried this with a lot of things like his skills and inventory. He realized that he didn't need to bring forth his status screen to move to a part of the system. He could quickly think about it. If that wasn't all, he found out that he could store items into this inventory and equip them without actually taking them out. All he had to do was think about this, which gave him some pretty tempting ideas on what he could do to bypass checkpoints in the future.

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[Main Quest]

-Destroy Falter City.

Reward: 50 Free Stat Points, 1 Ultimate Skill, Awakening Mode

[Daily Quest]

-Build up your body. {0/100}

-Increase your knowledge. {0/100}

-Cultivate your Energy. {0/100}

-Court someone. {0/1}

Reward: 4 stat points

[Side Quest]

-Reach level 5

Reward: Unlock Shop

[Emergency Quest!]

-Become strong enough and defeat those who are after you!

Reward: Weekly Quests

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Zefer noticed that his Daily Quest reset, which intrigued him. He hadn't seen, but the progress part of the Daily Quest increased overtime when he worked on them. He was just too busy with working out, studying, and cultivating even to notice.

"Looks like I'll get some free stat points again today," Zefer smirked at the thought of getting stronger. After all, he needed to. All so he could complete both the Emergency Quest and Main Quest. Although, he did notice something from yesterday's Daily Quest rewards. He was not allowed to allot the stat points. Whereas the Main Quest said 50 free stat points. Which meant he could allocate 50 of those to any stat he wished.

Just thinking about getting 50 free stat points made him want to become stronger. He didn't even know how strong he would be by then, and just thinking about getting 50 more for free? Well, he figured he might as well be a monster at that point.

"Master." Ina woke him from his daydream. "Don't you have to attend this thing called school?" Ina asked, and Zefer nodded. He nearly forgot about it. The truth was, Zefer wished he didn't have to. He would much rather spend his time training his newfound body and finding ways to get Coins rather than be in classes recapping material he already knew.

The classes were boring because Zefer had spent so much time learning the first-year curriculum that he could pass any test he wished. He tried to find a way to skip into the second-year classes, but because he was an F Rank, they denied him. Even if he could pass the grade-level tests that he knew nothing of back then, they wouldn't allow him to skip simply because of his Rank.

He couldn't pass the Rank Up test earlier due to having no Mana Pool or Martial Talent. Even if he had excellent knowledge in warfare tactics and combat tactics, even politics, they wouldn't accept him simply because of the incident.

If he didn't have strength, they wouldn't allow him to progress. Although, now that wouldn't matter. He had the power, and sooner or later, that strength would bring this city to ruin. "Wait... I just thought of an easy way to make some Coins and become stronger." Zefer's lips curved into a mischievous grin.

"What?" Ina asked, and Zefer began to explain his miraculous plan to her. Hearing about this plan brought a smirk to her lips, "Oh, you devil..." She said teasingly, and Zefer chuckled. "Right?"