12 Cultivating and Multitasking

The lecture went on after for an hour, but it was helpful for Stigma, since he had little information, as her explanation were in detail it was in a broad concept.

To give a visualization, imagine the body as a furnace with fire wood, the first thing to do is to light the fire, next is that you will have to add more fuel to the flames, and the last thing to do is wait for the furnace to heat up with all the fuel used, then the you can use it after the heat is the temperature you want to form blacksmithing or cooking.

All people are born with energy, but the majority have very little energy, so if someone in the Zero Tier were to ignite their energy without proper guidance, then they will immediately lose their rights to be a cultivator, because the energy they are born with is finite and they had yet to have proper training since their bodies are a vessel to store energy because they have used it they are no longer usable, and they will die if they force it.

Each person can cultivate in different paces, but, that's if there is enough Zen energy for them to work with.

'Early stage' or the 'Ember Stage', is where they must literary 'Ignite' energy in their bodies, this is also a test, whether the energy they accumulated is enough and if their body is proper vessel to contain any energy.

There will be cases were unique heritage will come to light after igniting their own energy, such that of Stigma who are born with a damaged vessel.

'Mid stage' or the 'Foundation Stage', this training method varies on each cultivator but has the same concept, this will test how much energy one can accumulate and contain, this will go on by years, but some can accumulate for even months.

There is a limit to how much energy a cultivator can contain after going through a Tier, hence after they contain it, using it during battle or everyday life was possible.

In fact, just by accumulating energy is considered beneficial, for instance if they have broken an arm, with the energy stored in their body, depending on the damage it can be healed within moments.

But if they didn't accumulate enough then, they will have to start again from the beginning.

In the beginning, the Zero Tier, is a breaking point for any cultivator a make or break type of situation, if they breakthrough then they will be cultivators and go to higher realms, fail then they will be mortals.

But if they are in the First Tier, they can redo it the break through over and over.

That is why when cultivator train in the second stage, it is called the most important to make a foundation for the future.

The last stage is the most important stage it is called the 'Late Stage' or 'Boundary Stage', this is where all the energy they have accumulated will be used to ignite all the Zen energy to break through to the next Tier, and if the energy did not suffice, then they will go back to square one in the cultivating their energy.

That is why, there were more in the Mid stage than the Late Stages, as going through a breakthrough is a huge gamble.

Over the years the beings have made multiple breakthrough in different forms, from fighting techniques, knowledge, discoveries etc. it was years and years of predecessors creating and refining them.

Hence, many are trying to be a member of a clan or sect, with a long history.

Surprisingly to most cultivator's belief, just eating, training and battling strong opponents is enough for one to accumulate enough energy via experience.

"Normally, most just try to meditate to get stronger in cultivations. It a long and tedious labor but it is the safest way."

The beauty was a like a teacher in a preschool, but the contents where more the fantasy basis, it was clear to understand.

After her explanation, she stood up and patted her self.

She explained that she was once a cultivator who followed a belief that playing music was a way to communicate to the deceased, and when she died, she became a ferryman to the deceased of the innocent.

"Since you don't follow a path of cultivation, try experimenting. Your only limit is your imagination." She walked away afterwards with a trace of a smile.

"Wait! What is your name?" Stigma still asked, to thank her.

She turned her head, only to show a face of sadness.

"I have long forgotten my name, call me however you want." She then continued to walk away.

Stigma taught for a moment and decided to call her based on how she had described her life, it was not sad, it was noble.

"I'll call you Bellflower or Bell for short, it's a flower meaning 'those who grieve are loved'. Thank you, Bell, for the lecture you gave me!!!" Stigma bowed to her back, with a face of joy.

The beauty stopped and muttered the name 'Bell, Bell, Bell', a strong wind passed by as she turned around and nodded her head, after that she played her flute and disappeared from the storm of leaves.

She looked like she liked the name Bell.

After she left, a notification appeared.

*BING!*

[You have gained favor on a Heavenly Being of spirits, you will receive Zen energy as a Gift.]

[Energy will be gained for the act of kindness.]

[Current Souls Absorbed:

Pure Energy: 75%

Grudge Energy: 25.8%

Wrath Energy: 23.1%

Zen Energy: 55%]

*BING!*

[Time limit has been reached, would you like learn another skill.] [YES] [NO]

Out of nowhere the time limit notification showed up, it appears that his guess was right, it looks like spending time butchering the wolves and cooking the meat had taken up most on his time including the lecture, had preoccupied his time. He looked through the list of skill to learn and picked the 'Knife Mastery' skill.

*BING!*

[Skills Knife Mastery: 24:00:00]

[Skills Knife Mastery: 23:99:98]

[Skills Knife Mastery: 23:99:96]

[Skills Knife Mastery: 23:99:94]

[Skills Knife Mastery: 23:99:92]

And like before, the same time limit had appeared.

Although they were other skills that were more important, but with 'Axe Mastery' he had to use the axe which he has been already having trouble with just lifting it, so he will have to have a stronger body before he can fully use it.

Gradually, the skills he will learn will increase so he had to pick the one he can learn freely right now.

He then turned to the offering, to find the substitute incense already burned out.

Now he just needed to store the food, using large leaves for the meat as packaging including the other he had put everything in one of the bags.

He even went back to get the rest of his spoils. But the total weight was more than he can handle.

"Heavy! Guess I have no choice, I'll have Dusk carry most of this." He had distributed them into two bags with him carrying a smaller bag.

Out of curiosity, he ate a piece of wolf meat only to give a face of delight, he thought that he had little spice to make it work, but it appears Gus was not wrong.

The reason many kept on hunting beast, was not because of the cores alone but the meat when you cook it had little gamey taste.

He tried fed it to Dusk, only to find it only staring at the meat laid out for him, he tried having him eat it when he put it in his mouth and ordered him to bite it repeatedly, only to find that it only just chewed it repeatedly and turned it into shredded meat.

It does not appears to need food, not even to drink water.

It was either self-sufficient or using the skill 'Assimilation' to feed itself.

"Now then." When the skill knife mastery had been learn, he unsheathed a knife and started twirling it, unfortunately he kept on dropping on it.

It appears that the skills are not instant learning, these skills are similar to talents so only by practicing will only make it develop.

The direction he and Dusk were going was Red Lily Valley, where the slave market that Gus had told him had settled.

While they were walking, he had Dusk use 'Mimicry' to transform his hand into blades continuously, when skill was used it didn't look like water like he had expected, it transformed similar how clay way being molded, slow and crude.

He suspected that Dusk had no knowledge on how sharp a blade should be, or he told him and only mimicked what shape the blade would be in his memory.

To find out its sharpness, he had him swing it at a tree.

The result, it turn out to be a blunt weapon.

Instead of cut marks, he saw something similar to a collision to a bat to a sheetrock wall and the wall broke instead.

Dusk strength is understandable, it appears as though its speed is still lacking but reflexes are amazing, and along with the invisibility he would be considered a perfect tool for assassination.

Then a thought occurred to him, he had to cultivate and get Dusk ability to transform in a higher level so he could transform faster, and the distance from here would take him a few days, so he won't miss the last day to buy a few slaves.

"Think boy, think, you have been able to multitask in study while working to have more time in playing a game in the night, what would be effective…Wait! There was that idea!"

Stigma remembered there was this one game, that if you leave it on, it will automatically mine resources each hour, so then applying that theory to this scenario would work.

First, he had Dusk transform, he gave a perfect image for him to change into.

Dusk who was standing about four feet, had slouched even more than usual, his hands that were thin hand became thicker and its fingers became shorter, his legs along with its shoulders that were for humans use, started molding into a four legged animal.

The transformation took a long time, Stigma had Dusk turn into a four legged canine, not just any canine, it was the beast he had hunted not long ago, a wolf.

Unlike the ones it caught, the size difference was very obvious, the wolves were the size of a sofa, but for Dusk it was half the size, it appearance looked like a hell hound.

Unlike the wolves who looked noble with their grey fur and large built, Dusk had an appearance of a rabid dog who had no fur and his entire body was thin with deformities, his paws were still the shape of hands instead of a birds including his legs and feet, they were roughly shaped like one.

He had him run, jump and dodge, fortunately he was able to run like a wolf despite his size he was quite fast, as for the jumping he had the ability to jump over his head, while dodging had no problems either as he threw a bunch of rocks at him.

When he checked his status, the 'Mimicry' had increased to 25% already, but it didn't go up when he was moving around, so he ordered him to transform to other forms.

The result his transformation into huge animals was slower and the outcome was similar to the wolf, they were half the size and had a skinny appearance.

On the other hand, when he had him transform into smaller animals like a snake, an owl, or a mouse, the outcome was different, the size had matched like the ones he knew albeit bigger than the originals.

He check the 'Mimicry' again and it went up to 35% after the consecutive transformation, so he ordered it that when on they were walking he had him transform to animal to animal, and when Dusk hunted he would use the animal forms to hunt as training.

Making full use of his time, he even had him use 'Invisibility' along with the transformation.

Normally when Dusk turns invisible he fades away so no one can see him, but somehow there was a mental connection between the two, so Stigma knows when he is nearby.

As for Stigma, he kept on playing with the knife and switching it between both of his hands, he included throwing it on trees as practice for both his 'Knife Mastery' and 'Throwing', although slow, both were progressing on the way by 1%.

As for his cultivation, he had followed Bell's advice and tried to meditate, it took him about an hour to use the Zen energy he had to attract the atmosphere energy she spoke about.

He had try to draw in the energy outside his body as the energy kept on floating around him he had to somehow get a large bulk as he tried to concentrate, the feeling was like trying to get water with your hands, but most of the water was spilling so he was only able to cultivate little by little as he had to try to purify it to be his energy, the process took about a minutes until he was able to absorb it complete.

It looked like Zen energy increased by 1%, but for the foreign energy he absorbed it as well, but it looks like it entered the True Energy, including the Grudge Energy and the Wrath Energy, he was still unsure what their effects were and he was not willing to gamble with his life for it.

During each break he had been focusing on meditating, while he had Dusk protect him as it did its form Mimicry training. Looking with 'Essence Reader' he saw that the Zen Energy, was slowing increasing as well.

He had been doing this for the entire trip, but he still had four days left so he was in no rush.

So he still had time to figure out what to do with his cultivation.

---

After half a day had passed, he was still in the forest, where he was now or how far he had gotten was beyond him, with all meat he had cooked before he was not short on food, so he doesn't need Dusk to hunt any for now.

During each break he ate and had used Dusk as a practice dummy, which was told to help him fight by dodging each of his attack as he practiced the knives he was using.

The result, however, he was tired after 15 swings, he recognized that using a weapon was different as he was just giving large swings every now and then.

The sun was about to go down, so he had to find shelter, eventually he found a large opening in the ground, it was large enough for him and Dusk to walk in, so he had Dusk get in and kill anything that was in there.

Fortunately there was nothing in there to be sure he had Dusk transform into a snake to cover in the dark to protect him, he brought out a firestone when he entered as Dusk was behind his shadow.

He found a lot of tools inside the cave that Gus and Frank were, he found a few small stones each with a different color yellow for light, red for starting a fire, and a blue stone that release some water.

He asked about them from Bell and she told him that, in this word necessities for everyday life have been made from small stones embedded by enchanters to give core stones with abilities, unfortunately most only have a one-time use or have a limited energy, so it can't be used repeatedly, so many try to buy smaller stone.

But even the ones the size of a pebble was more than ten gold coins, so only those who are middle class or merchants can use them, but for organization like a kingdom or empire, they use them like water.

After looking around twice he used a stick and lit the end for the light, there was nothing out of the ordinary except some stones lying around, he choose a place to rest, placing everything in one corner and dug out the ground with the shovel he found in the cave before, to hide the tools and food.

Exhaustion hit him afterwards, he eventually looked around out of boredom and used 'Essence Reader', just like before he was seeing energy from all over the place, in the tree, the sky, and the air, he even saw a little life forces underground that would represent small animals burrows in the ground…

'Hmm? That's weird.' Stigma looked again only to find something ominous.