Apocalypse Cultivation, ch 14

And now, crappy editing and all, you can see where the next act is going. :)

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“I will admit that I did not expect to see you for a while.”  The chair that the Morrigan reclined on slowly morphed and changed.  First the wood became gold.  Then its simple form turned into a throne made of bone with gold trim.  Images of flowers and crows decorated every inch.  What looked like a glass of wine on a small adjacent table rose from the misty ground.  She traced the rim of the glass with one long, inhumanly graceful finger and arched an eyebrow.

Jake heard the unspoken question, something like, What the hell do you want?  He cleared his throat.  “I’ve come to call in a favor.  You said that you would help me with my breakthrough to a Reforged Body.”

“Yes, this is correct.  However, you are not ready for advancement yet.”  She nodded.  “Getting close.  That is most impressive, of course, especially as you have been trapped underground for some time now.”

“Wait…you knew about that?”  Jake found that a plain chair had risen out of the ground for him, one made of gnarled roots and he sat.

“Of course.”  She took a sip and her expression didn’t change.”

Jake mentally facepalmed, schooled his features, and recenteref.  He very forcibly reminded himself that he was not talking to a regular person.  This was a goddess, basically his employer now, and he needed to be on his “A” game whenever talking to a supernatural entity of this level.  At the very least, he had to stop asking stupid questions.

By this point, he’d had a decade of time to think about and work through the way he’d been tricked into Morrigan’s service.  At first he’d been a little pissed about it despite working through the logical reasons it might work out for him.  But after time, he’d truly accepted that she’d given him everything he wanted and then some.  Three thousand years was a long time, but he was reminded of all the time he’d spent meditating in his first challenge room.  That extra time he’d gotten to adjust to his new body and abilities had helped a lot.  So in the Web Burrows, he’d ultimately decided that he’d still gotten the better part of the deal, but he had to pay better attention while dealing with her from now on.

Besides, powerful cultivators lived for a really long time and sometimes could go a hundred years just sleeping in a cave.  At least that was what Master Zi always said.

“Apologies, Lady, that question was rather obvious.  However, please let me explain.”  After she made a waving motion to continue, Jake said, “I have reasoned that before attaining a Reforged Body, I will likely get much more power or a better base for future advancement if the…monster body part of me, has ascended to a stronger or smarter variant.  My theory is that…”

Morrigan interrupted him.  “You are most likely right about that.  But you still haven’t told me why you called me.  My reaction to this will largely depend on that.  I am bound to answer your audience requests, but I chose to do so quickly this time because Rishlay told me to expect it and also suggested I may find your proposal interesting.

He swallowed.  “Right.  Well, I am about to break out of the Web Burrows, but I found a Challenge Portal before I made my attempt.  The challenge ended up being a labyrinth populated with several biomes full of different monsters, or demon beasts, whatever.  I was able to find a large number of lycanthropes–low level werewolves.  That netted me some monster cores after killing an entire tribe of them.  I also got a bunch of encantado monster cores after killing like a few hundred of them.  Just an entire town of mages that could turn into snakes and wanted to eat me.” He frowned.

“Then before I was about to use some of the werewolf cores to cultivate higher, upward, I realized I had a decent number of cores from shape changing monsters.  So I went back to the information you gave me before, the stuff you put in my head.  Nothing in there actually listed Shadow Ghoul, like I am now, but I was still able to figure out something interesting for my potential future.  Now I want to alter the evolution path I was aiming for before.”

“Oh?”  The goddess pursed her lips and her eyebrows and her eyes grew distant for a moment.  “Ah, I think  I see what you are trying to do.  Interesting.  So you seek to create a branching evolution, eh?  You want to be able to shift between two different monster species before actually creating a reforged body.”

Jake nodded.  “Or if that fails, at least have the possibility of developing a third transformation when I get a reforged body, yes.”

Morrigan took a ship of whatever was in her glass.  “If any other cultivator has tried this before, I am not aware of it.  Even demon beasts.  The creatures that can shape shift already just attain a new race.  But you have a human soul.”

Jake’s voice was more confident now.  “Now that I’ve been in the Murim world for longer, I have seen a few Reforged Body cultivators.  They usually have some sort of physical change, a Dao Tell, but they can transform.”

“Not all, but yes.”  Morrigan made an expectant and amused expression.  “So what are you asking, exactly?”

Jake met her eyes and suppressed a shudder.  As physically beautiful as the Morrigan was, looking her directly in the eye made him feel like his soul had been dunked in ice water.  He said, “I need to go back to Earth, to where I came from.”

“Why?”

“Because I need vampire monster cores, and I need them fast.  There are vampiric demon beasts in the Murim world, but I don’t know where they are, and they might be too powerful for me to handle.  Meanwhile, there are probably plenty of them back in Georgia.

“I’m getting close to the peak of the Gold stage of body refinement, and I have enough monster cores I can probably get there now if I really wanted to.  It’ll just take time.  But I need to truly understand my dao in order to actually reforge my body, and I don’t want to try until I stack the odds in my favor.  I think changing my monster race will help with that.”

Morrigan tapped one long, painted nail on the arm of her throne.  “Now I understand why you spoke to Rishlay.  There is a difference in time between the dimension of your home planet and the Murim world.  And you are also in a Faceted Assessment Room, correct?”

“Yes, Lady.”

“Why didn’t you leave the Assessment Room before contacting me?”

Jake grinned.  “Because if I went to earth normally, by the time I got back to the Murim world, like, years would have passed.  I did the math.  The conversion is like eight or nine years in the Murim world pass in one day on Earth.  But if I’m in the middle of a Challenge Room, er, Assessment Room, where I come back to the moment I enter after I’m done…”  He let his voice trail off.  When the goddess didn’t say anything in response, just studied him, he added, “I should slingshot back to the moment I entered the challenge room, right?  Rishlay said it should work that way.”

Morrigan’s tapping grew faster and she seemed to be thinking.  She said, “Your understanding of the relationship of time between two completely separate realities is fundamentally flawed.  However, even though your understanding of the mechanics behind your plan is incorrect, it is, in fact, correct.  Rishlay did not lie, but obviously did not exactly educate you on how timelines and separate realities relate, if at all.”

“But it would work.”  Jake didn’t phrase it as a question.

“Yes, it would work.  Why not waste time in the Murim world if I’d let you come back to your world within the default flow of time, though?”

Jake had been expecting the question.  Morrigan had likely already made up her mind, but sometimes she spoke like a teacher.  He replied, “Because that’s not my job.  You tricked me, or at least, I could see it that way.  But you also gave me exactly what I asked for in our contract.  I need to hold up my end now.  The points I get are from doing great or notable things, not tricking my way through loopholes.  Nothing good will come of me dodging responsibilities, not least of which because it’s a big world out there full of scary people, and the scariest all seem to be able to read my Titles.” He shrugged.  “It’s the same reason I’m trying to get stronger in the Murim world, too.  There is no better backup plan to being able to go directly through the problem.  Right now I’m too weak for that, but I want to change that.”

“Well spoken,” said the Morrigan softly.  Some of the crow decorations in her throne turned to look at Jake before returning to their earlier position.  The goddess abruptly stood, and Jake did as well.  Then when Morrigan began to walk, Jake followed her.

She said, “You realize that if I agree to do this thing for you, it will be the only time I help you with your Reforged body.  The actual transition, which can be difficult, will be up to you.”

“Yes, Lady.  I figured as much.”

“Also, your time on Earth will have a limit.  You will have a total of five days.  At the end of the five days, you must be present in the same location you arrived back in, or very bad things will happen.  Time and space will be stretched.  Stretching is fine, but past a certain point of stress, things can break.  Time and space breaking is bad, I’m sure you can understand.”

“Bad for me or bad for everyone?”

“Both.” The goddess smiled without humor.  “Truly, it would be far, far easier for me to just directly assist you with achieving a Reforged Body.  However, you are correct that this request technically falls within the realm of what I agreed to help with.  Not only that, I am not sure that anything quite like what you are attempting to do has been done before.  It is…rare, for me to come across unexpected things like this.  Rare and exciting.”

“And if I succeed, as your champion, it will reflect positively on you.”  Jake smiled.

“Indeed.”  The goddess stopped next to a pool so dark it was like staring into space.  “If this is the path you truly choose to walk, then all you must do is step into the pool.  The rest will be obvious.  Is this your choice?”

“Yes.”

“Then know this.  Time back in your world is about ten days after your battle with Tlaloc.”

“Anything else I should know?” asked Jake.

“Yes.”  Morrigan turned and began to walk away.  “Any of my kin with champions nearby will be aware that a champion has arrived from another plane.  Your enemies will likely be on alert.  They will search for you and may even come in numbers.”

“Lovely,” muttered Jake.  He gleaned back one more time at the retreated goddess, shrugged, and jumped in the water.