She’s sleeping so sweetly, I’d love for nothing else but watch her for an eternity.
Alas, we still have a lot to deal with, first of which is making it out of Horan forest safely. Those beasts might still wait for us to come out, regardless of how much time has passed. They might not have anthropomorphic forms, but they are equally if not sometimes more intelligent than humans. For that reason, a war of attrition might not be out of the question.
The Raffia in particular has a grudge against us. If that bird is still alive, she will definitely plot something.
For that reason, I must get stronger. With no Zantrax left, the only way to do so is by absorbing the energy around me…and the one from that embryo.
I set the slimy embryo in front of me as I assume a meditation stance. Since I’ve never done this before, I’m a little awkward as I try to figure out what’s the best way to cultivate.
I shift around, facing the embryo, touching it, talking to it.
Thank the Seven Moe is sleeping otherwise she’d laugh at me. Yet another humiliating side of me.
From laying down, to laying on my side, to sitting cross-legged to ultimately hugging the slimy embryo to my chest, I try it all.
Yet nothing works. I don’t feelanything. The more I try, the more it doesn’t work and the more frustrated I get.
“Ugh!” I mutter under my breath.
Just as I place the embryo down in front of me, a tingling sensation arises in my chest.
I frown, not understanding what it is. It’s a soft fizzing right under my ribcage.
Blinking, I note faint particles of shimmer float through the air. They’re thereonlywhen I concentrate hard enough. They come toward me, but they stop right before merging with my skin. It’s almost as if they’re seeking permission.
I open myself to all the particles around me, allowing them to enter my body.
The tingling sensation intensifies. But this time it’s not just inside my chest. It spreads throughout my body, filling my limbs and my head.
The more I focus on them, the more I note discrepancies. Some of the particles are a deep green while others are only a faint yellow. The latter arise from the environment around—stone, earth, plants, anything that nurtures and exists on energy. The former, however, is coming directly from the embryo.
There are other differences, too. The environmental particles are slow and farther in between. The embryo’s energy is so rich, it’s almost too much for my body.
Excitement forms inside me. This is it. Finally! I’m cultivating!
Even though this is the most elementary form of cultivation, merely absorbing energy from the environment and the embryo, it still delights me to no limit.
Me, who was once a never-before seen level zero, is cultivating. How exciting is that?
My happiness knows no bounds and I get the urge to wake Moe up so she can see it too, so I can tell her everything I’m feeling. But I quench it. She needs the rest.
Instead, I diligently focus on the energy from the embryo and do my best to absorb all of it.
Since I’m at the very beginning, I’m not surehowmuch of it I can properly absorb. Some books say that even high levels have a hard time absorbing big amounts of energy, and that it sometimes goes down to genetic inheritance. In a way, it makes sense. If everyone would be able to absorballenergy, not only would the world be filled with invincible immortals, but there would be no more energy to absorb!
After a moment, the green particles create a beam of light that shoots straight at me.
I can barely control my breathing as I struggle to accept it all.
My entire body strains to house this much energy. If before the particles would disperse throughout my body, now they’ve stopped moving. They’re condensed in one particular place and I don’t know how to make them move further.
It seems I’ve hit a bottleneck.
I let out a disappointed sigh. Perhaps I can try again tomorrow after this energy has dispersed through the rest of my body.
Reluctantly, I exit my focused state and cut off the connection with the particles. This is much easier than establishing the connection.
Fatigue settles within me as my body tries to accommodate to the onslaught of energy. Despite this small discomfort, I don’tthink I’ve ever felt as good before. It’s as if I don’t recognize myself.
