Jake's Story (Apocalypse Cultivation) ch 26

This is a transitional chapter, so I didn't want to share this without the follow up.

The next chapter should be up in an hour or less.  Hopefully.

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Has it really been over ten months? Wondered Jake.  Swampland never changed and there was no day or night, but his internal clock didn’t lie.  He briefly wondered how that actually worked for him, though.  Orthodox cultivators had unbreakable ties to natural energy, and could feel time pass in its ebb and flow.  For Jake...he just knew.

Oh well, he thought. It wasn’t the first mystery he’d run into as a monster cultivator.

Jake was currently sitting lotus-style in his custom underground fortress.  After he’d killed his first giant, he’d upgraded from his first, closet sized underground hiding place and built a permanent hideout.  Discovering that he could dig his own structures out of solid rock had been a game changer.  And luckily, he’d had the foresight to build his home as far away from all the actual swamps as possible.

Every giant he’d killed had begun to stink horribly after a week or two, and some of them still reeked.

All nine giants were dead now, as well as the vampires that had fed off of them.  He’d built a different trap for each group of vampires.  Jake had needed to adjust his plan a few times, though.  His fourth vampire clan had been smarter than the others and had almost turned the trap around on him.  They’d hesitated at the entrance of the cave.  He’d needed to stay at the end of the tunnel, kill the only vampire that had actually followed him.  Then he’d attacked the majority that waited near the entrance from inside the tunnel first, baiting them further before running away.  He’d taken a bolt of magic ice to the shoulder before escaping and trapping his enemies, but the mission had still eventually still been a success.

The last vampire clan he’d exterminated hadn’t been with gasoline--he’d run out.  That trap had taken the longest to construct because he’d needed to rig the entire thing with a crushing ceiling that he could trip to fall.  Honestly, the new approach had worked even better than fire.  He just wished it hadn’t taken almost two months to craft--an extra month longer than his other trap caves.

Now he had a pile of monster cores on the ground in front of him.  In hindsight, he sort of wished he hadn’t cultivated up to the fifth rank of Silver after he’d successfully wiped out the first group of vampires.

His first operation had yielded a total of six cores for killing around thirty vampires.He’d used those resources to cultivate up to the fifth rank of Silver.  But when he’d finished off the next group, he’d only gotten four cores despite actually killing more vampires that time.  Jake had figured it could be random, but he’d also had a suspicion that he’d gotten fewer cores because he’d been more powerful.

As a human adventurer, it might not have mattered, but as a monster, he not only created his own energy, he needed it to survive.  Who knew what kind of effect this could have had on the number of monster cores generated?

And whether coincidence or something to do with his higher cultivation level, he’d gotten an average of just over four cores for each group from then on.  Right now he had 37 vampire cores.  He tried not to think about how much more he could possibly have found if he hadn’t cultivated, but if he’d been weaker, maybe he would have died as well.  Might-have-beens were not usually useful to dwell on, and 37 monster cores was still a fuck ton.

Besides, he’d gotten lucky in other ways.

To one side of the vampire cores, Jake had placed his giant cores in a row.  He had four, which was insane.  The rate the giants had produced cores after the first one Jake killed had been 50%!

He shook his head while looking at the haul.  This amount of monster cores was difficult to gather all in one place, even back in Jake’s past life when they were just used as power sources, or to make enchanted gear, or do magic experiments.  The rate that slain monsters produced cores didn’t seem to have any pattern on Earth, but this place did seem to have a higher than normal drop rate.

The giant cores had been the most surprising.  To have four of them was unreal.  For the last two months, Jake had been thinking about how to use them before he’d even gotten the last one.

“Holy shit,” he whispered out loud.  The truth was he still wasn’t sure exactly what to do about the monster cores, or even about the challenge room itself.  His original intention was to do as well as he could in the first trial, and just forfeit the second trial immediately so he wouldn’t be caught by surprise and his body destroyed.  He could clearly remember the Faceted saying he’d face a boss, which sounded ominous And Jake knew from his past that challenge room bosses were definitely bad news.

But now...could he dare?  Should he try to actually conquer this  challenge the way he had in the first one?

Jake began to meditate,then to think.  He loved his fortress.  Having a safe place tos tay allowed him the freedom to keep the same position and location while transitioning between meditation or cultivation.  It made things easier.  Maybe one day he could have something like the immortals caves his teacher had talked about, special places in the cultivation world that people used as houses.

An immortal cave would be awesome.  Things now weren’t all bad, though.  Strangely enough, being stuck in a swampy, evil pocket dimension was actually working out pretty well.

He used the information that The Morrigan had put in his head, his past knowledge as a mage, and memories of his evolution to figure out the best course of action.  One thing he was absolutely sure of was that he didn’t want to use the giant cores for forward cultivation.  Monster cores he used for moving forward on the path of a Daoist had an effect on future evolutions.  He knew that for sure.

The giant cores wouldn’t be of much use for evolutions, either.  Part of the problem was that the giants he’d gotten the cores from had been related to orks.  Jake didn’t want any future evolution choices associated with orks or pigs in any way.

But he didn’t want to evolve any time soon, anyway.  He’d learned that evolution was a faster way to advance in cultivation, but not necessarily as powerful.  This had been a revelation after carefully remembering his time in his first life at the mid-Coppy Body Refinement realm, and by examining his advancements in Silver.

In fact, now he was fairly sure that the reason for his relative strength back at the first rank of Silver was actually due to the “deeper” cultivation he’d done as a zombie.  As best he could tell, cultivating “deeper” mostly benefited him with his next advancement, and he only kept a tiny amount after achieving the next level of cultivation.  So “deepening” was not only a way to make a future stage stronger, it might also be a good way to use cores he didn’t actually want becoming part of his elixir field.

With this in mind, Jake slowly moved, staying in his trance-like state, and gestured.  The four giant monster cores floated into his lap.  They were too big to fit into his mouth, but Jake had learned it was not actually necessary to eat them.  With a delicate touch, he extended his senses and willed the energy from the first core into his body through his orifices.

His meridians lit on fire.  Jade rode the wave of violent energy like he was being buffeted by a storm.  On instinct, he began using the Four Winds of Heaven Spirit Purification technique.  Some of the turbulence subsided, and he began the long, arduous task of integrating the energy.  Of course, since he was focusing his cultivation direction “downward” this time, he wasn’t actually adding any of the converted energy to his dantian.  Instead, Jake directed the power directly into his flesh.

He was tempted to pump some energy into his blood, but that stage of his Body Refinement was already over.  If he had residual, unincorporated power floating around after he had finished the three phases of Body Refinement, it might cause chi deviation...and that would be bad.

Jake did what he’d planned, using the giant monster cores one by one to strengthen his flesh, making his body stronger, better.  Or rather, he was increasing its potential to be stronger.  If he were an orthodox cultivator, this deepening of flesh would not have been possible.

When he was finally done, Jake checked the time.  Over a week had passed.  All of the giant cores were gone now, and Jake was still at mid Silver Body Refinement.  He smoothly transitioned into meditation without actually moving his body, and when his energy had leveled out and settled, he began to think again.

Okay, that worked perfectly, he thought.  He still wasn’t sure exactly what his efforts had accomplished, but his dantian was clear of the giant energy, and his body felt light, like a dry sponge.

Will thirty seven vampire cores be enough? He wondered.  When he’d cultivated up to fifth rank Silver, the cores had had less effect as he’d gotten stronger, and he could feel that the effect might be parabolic.  Well, one way to find out, he thought.

He really had been lucky to get such a large number of mid-range quality vampire cores.

With an effort of will and a gesture, Jake moved the vampire cores from the ground to a semi circle arrayed around him.  He frowned, and after a moment’s thought, he also bit his thumb, making dark blood well up.  Then he flicked his hand, getting droplets on each monster core.  That done, as an experiment, he pulled some salt from his storage ring and created a salt circle around himself, just like he’d learned to do as a mage.  His teacher had never mentioned doing anything like this, but Jake was already experimenting, so why not?

When the circle of salt was complete, Jake put a drop of blood on it and injected some of his chi.  Not only was he trying to invoke arcane cleansing to the inside of the circle, Jake also ran his chi around the inside of the circle as a ward of sorts.  He’d never tried anything like this before, and felt an enormous amount of curiosity, so much so it was hard for a while to get back into the right frame of mind for cultivation.

Finally, Jake nodded to himself and cracked a vampire monster core.  The energy flowed into him, and he began to ride the static wave again.  This time, he slowly, painstakingly broke down every grain of energy, refined it, and let it trickle into his dantian before joining the rotating current of his cultivation base.

The process was fairly waste-free, but not very fast.  Jake was vaguely aware of the  time passing but didn’t actually give it any attention.  All of his focus was being spent on taming the monster energy rampaging through his body.  In fact, he began cracking monster cores earlier and earlier, actually overlapping energies for longer, generating more power and momentum.

Finally, he felt something amazing happen.  Jake reached the 10th rank of silver.  His flesh had been strengthened, changed.  An itchy, crawling pain enveloped him.  The surrounding darkness of Swampland rushed into Jake’s body, like it was filling a vacuum, and he suddenly had a new sense.  An energy field had surrounded his body and he could control it like another limb.

Jake’s heart leapt and it took an effort to keep his mind and dantian calm.  He slowly separated himself from any thoughts deeper than mabaging the massive amounts of energy he was moving around.  If he faltered, they might tear him apart.

This was definitely another way his new style of cultivation differed from before.  He felt like he was riding a bucking bull that tolerated him, but might try to kill him at any moment.

The sensation of reaching the 10th rank of Silver was something like reaching the apex of a jump.  Jake felt like he would start “falling down,” and after hitting the ground again he’d be at the first rank of Gold, his flesh transformed, and could begin strengthening his bones.  If he were still human, he’d suffer great pain and expel impurities from his body, but as a shadow ghoul, he’d probably just tingle and ache for a while.

Gold was so close...but something stopped him.  With an effort of will, he kept himself from falling, and instead, floated in his mind space. He began cultivating another vampire monster core.  There were only five left.

Somehow, he kept pushing forward, or “climbing.”  His cultivation level was rising past the tenth level...which should have been impossible!  As Jake kept struggling, exerting his will on the energy raging through him, he attained enlightenment.  The changes he’d made with the giant monster cores had been both a blessing and a curse.  Now he could cultivate past ten ranks in Silver, but it was also exponentially more difficult to do so.  What’s more, Jake didn’t know what his  upper limit was, and he’d likely have to reach it unless he wanted to risk chi deviation.

Finally, after several more days passed and Jake spent an enormous amount of effort, he reached the eleventh rank of Silver Body Refinement!  Distantly, just outside his perception, he felt a flash, like brilliant energy was raining down.  He ignored it.

It took him a while to come back to himself.  Completely returning to consciousness actually took some effort, which was a little worrying.

He shakily stood and checked his internal clock, noting that he’d been cultivating for two weeks.  A solitary vampire monster core still sat on Jake’s lap.  He couldn’t be sure if the salt circle had helped, but if it had, he was glad he’d tried it.

Jake put away his last monster core and began to think again.

As far as he knew, what he’d just done should not have been possible.  This actually made him feel more confident about the next stage of his plan.  A small part of him still wasn’t sure if it might have been better to just become Gold rank instead of somehow continuing his path in Silver.  Maybe he shouldn’t have used the giant cores to cultivated, “deeper.”

He really had been thinking about the next trial a lot over the last few months.  After his first giant kill, he could have left at any time.  He’d stayed to get stronger, and one potential path he’d come up with seemed more feasible now.

This plan had been born when Jake had been thinking about the nature of his current trial.  He really wasn’t meant to be here as a solo challenger.  What would have happened if an adventuring party had come to this place instead of Jake?

Even if they were powerful, it likely wouldn’t have gone well.  The group would have most likely gone after a giant right away.  They would have killed one, or maybe wounded it, been swarmed by vampires, and lost members while leaving or while forfeiting.  Most adventurers damn sure would not be able to exist almost a year in this place like Jake had.  It was way too dark for a normal person to see very well, there was no food, precious little water except for whatever nasty stuff was in the swamps, and there was a predator from outside the barrier that even the vampires had feared.

Jake had succeeded with careful planning and due to the fact he could somehow survive in this place.  Swampland wasn’t a perfect fit for his current body, but had barely been enough to sustain him and nourish his new levels of cultivation.

This place was a deathtrap for normal adventures, but Jake knew that every trial from a challenge room always had a way to solve it, or was otherwise possible to be conquered by the adventurers who challenged them...if they were smart or strong enough.  Sometimes groups or individuals were too weak, or the trial was a bad match, but based on what Jake knew, no trial was ever impossible to overcome completely, every aspect of it.

All of this had drawn Jake to one conclusion:  the mysterious predator from outside the barrier was the last aspect of this pocket dimension he could challenge.  And if he could beat it, maybe he would actually be qualified to face whatever the next stage might bring.  If not, he would be more likely to just foreit immediately.

He stretched before taking his favorite, custom saber out of his storage ring, fixing the weapon to his belt, and sitting down again.  Jake spread his senses.  With his increase in power, his senses had improved both qualitatively and quantitatively.  His old cultivation master had told him he’d get an exponential power boost to his senses in the Foundation Pillars Stage, after Body Refinement.  Now that he’d gotten so strong, he could hardly believe it.

Right now Jake could at last distantly sense all of Swampland.

He settled down to wait, lightly cultivating to keep his energy levels topped off.  Two days later, his senses notified him that the predator had just entered swampland from outside the barrier.

Jake got up and briefly spun his cultivation base and nodded in satisfaction.

It was time to test out just how far he’d grown.