[NR] Courtney's Confusion - Chapter 525

Rosha and Courtney return with little fanfare. Their couple hours of stolen time is enough to get a proper taste of the powers present around them. Next time, they will be ready to pull in the power and truly cultivate.

Not that Jason would say they weren’t cultivating. Too many cultivation snobs put limits and requirements on what is needed to be called a cultivator. Jason never saw a reason for that and as long as you are actively practicing a cultivation technique, he was more than willing to call you a fellow cultivator.

They, of course, were interested in what Jason had been doing. Though the answer to that was simply passing the time. Sure, he spent some of it taking stock of his inner world, but as he had to keep watch that didn’t really go anywhere.

His pinky was still in the same state and everything else was being held in place. There just wasn’t much that could change while the System still held such a heavy hand in the matter. This was underscored because Jason had been hard stuck with his cultivation skill.

There it was, apprentice rank at level nine with 99.99% experience. Now, not only was Jason sure, the System had been nudging him to let it guide him through the bottleneck. All it would take is for him to finally give up control of his internal world and the System would gift him the journeyman rank.

Gift, very specifically it would be a gift. A thing Jason wasn’t willing to trust, especially when it came to his cultivation. So all he could do was sit on the skill until he had a chance to take full control. At least, as much control as he can manage.

Even without strange powers coursing through it, the body is a complex machine that no one person can easily grasp all at once. To pretend he would be able to fully control it is folly. Or is it? Jason takes most of the afternoon, but eventually he realizes a point.

Sure, his body irl is as complex as any other, but he doesn’t need to grab control of that body from the System. No, he just needs to take control of his body in NeoRealm. A body which he has constantly worked to reduce down to a human shaped balloon filled with void space.

While that outer layer is still quite complex, having to deal with stuff like Energy moving from one side to another. It was at the same time a whole lot easier to wrap his mind around than the human body. So maybe he could grab full control?

Like this, days pass as each of them end up trapped in their own considerations. The only real conversation happening at dinner time. Of them all, Lily was the happiest.

She enjoyed hopping around all day, trying the local vegetation, and best of all? The other three ended up quietly considering things a whole lot. Why was this the best? Well, when thinking deep thoughts, what better repetitive action could be better than petting something soft and fluffy?

Jason had the darkest thoughts. Trapped in ever tightening circles of trying to figure out just what his cultivation skill was actually doing to him. After all, it isn’t like he has anyone to turn to, not even other Energy users.

Rosha, on the other hand was focused on life outside of NeoRealm. Not just her cultivation, but some intra-family nonsense. In theory, her mom and dad getting married combined a bunch of things. In reality, the divide was quite clear. Rosha just wasn’t sure what was brewing right now, but the tensions had been rising as of late.

Courtney didn’t have to worry about that. Though only because she already knew what was up. At least, she suspected enough to know not to poke further. So her own thoughts instead turned towards the powers available to cultivate.

Rosha seemed to have had no problem picking out two that fit her and now all she needed to do was actually pull them in. Courtney didn’t have it so easy. She didn’t feel some special connection with any of the powers as far she can tell and so bad a much wider selection.

So wide a selection, in fact, that her instincts readily blared a warning against cultivating them all. Sure, Jason hadn’t really put a limit on how many of the powers they could use, but Courtney sure did feel a limit. Anymore than six would be a disaster and four or less would be for the best. Though just as equally, trying to use just one wasn’t going to work for her either.

Courtney even asked Jason for his opinion. Jason just shrugged and told her to try feeling the powers in areas saturated in various elements. Stuff like a pool room and being surrounded by lit candles.

This worked in the sense that she could feel different flavors of the various powers. It also had the negative consequence of broadening her options even further as previously unwanted powers showed a new side. Courtney even went so far as to log out for a few minutes irl at different times to see if that changed things.

It did, but once again, by adding new options to pick from. When he heard that, Jason shrugged. “You need to figure out a cycle of power and elements that feels right for you.

“Just think of the various pre-existing elemental cycles you can draw on as examples. There’s the classic earth, wind, fire, and water. The more complex wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Oh, and the more RPG focused cycles that like to include stuff like light and dark.

“Now, I’m not saying choose one of those! No, rather I mean you should look for similar cycles within your available powers. Pick out powers that feed into each other and grow. The five elements system in particular is quite interesting because it has so many cycles for it fleshed out.

“Just the supportive cycle is already quite informative. Wood feeds fire. Fire produces earth through ash and lava. Earth bears metals. Metal collects water. And to wrap it back around, water nourishes wood.”