Chapter 1: [Volume 1] Chapter 1 - Nexus

Samantha clutched the rough bark of the tree trunk with her entire body as if her life depended on it. In this situation, it probably did.
She'd heard the lumbering steps of the spirit beasts just in time to scramble up the nearest tree to safety, but had ditched her spear almost immediately once she realized she couldn't effectively climb while trying to carry it. While she'd succeeded at avoiding being spotted by what she now knew was a sounder of Iron Boars, the weapon lying at the base of her impromptu shelter had caught the attention of the alpha. After it spent a few seconds scenting the abandoned item, it signaled for the entire group to stop and search the surrounding area. That must've been at least 15 minutes ago—she wasn't completely sure... but she did know that if the vicious creatures found her, she'd be lucky to last 15 seconds before being torn apart.
Sweat beaded across her brow while she anxiously watched for any sign that she'd been discovered. The salty droplets caused several long, black strands of hair that had escaped her hairpin to cling to her forehead before they threatened to drip into her eyes, but she didn't dare move to wipe them away. Iron Boars—much like their mundane counterparts—had excellent hearing, and she feared even the subtle rustle of her clothing may give her location away. Under normal circumstances, she would've felt irritated by how the moisture spreading across her body caused her to feel sticky or how it made the hemp of her traveling robes uncomfortably damp and clingy; however, other, darker thoughts were keeping her preoccupied with less trifling concerns.
The initial surge of terror-fueled adrenaline that allowed her to scale the tree so quickly—despite the fully loaded pack slung across her back—had started to wear off, which meant two things. First, she was becoming more aware of the painful burning in her muscles. This was not at all helped by the awkward, mid-climb position she'd been forced to stop in once the Iron Boars arrived. Second, and perhaps most dreadfully, the rational part of her brain was becoming functional again. So, in addition to the physical discomfort she felt, she was now able to fully indulge in imagining increasingly morbid scenarios about what would happen once her stamina eventually ran out. The "best" outcome she came up with so far involved falling straight down out of the tree and dying immediately on impact. Samantha hadn't ever been particularly fond or fearful of heights, but she never would've dreamed before now that she could be
thankful
she might receive a quick death from a high fall.
Her imaginings were interrupted when the alpha suddenly stomped a hind foot and caused everything in the immediate area to reverberate and shake—Samantha's hiding spot included. The vibrations rippled up from the base of the tree and seemed to become more pronounced the further they traveled. By the time they reached her position some 40 feet up the trunk, the entire tree was noticeably swaying from side to side.
Even though many spirit beasts possessed intimidating physical strength, the alpha having this dramatic of an effect on its surroundings could only be the result of using an Ability inherent to its species. Though she didn't have time to wonder which Ability it was exactly, between digging her fingertips into any groove in the tree bark she could find and praying to whatever gods might be listening that she wouldn't lose her grip.
Pine needles, old branches, and other debris rained down from overhead, and she reflexively squeezed her eyes shut as she was intermittently struck by the loose material. A particularly hefty branch grazed her awkwardly placed, half-raised leg and caused it to slip from its tenuous foothold. Only her upper body's death-grip on the tree kept her from entering freefall as the shift in weight caused her other foot placement to become unsteady.
For a split second, she wondered if a younger tree might've been a better place for her to hide. She could've reached further around its trunk and probably would've had a better hold on it. This was immediately followed by an odd disappointment that her potentially final thoughts weren't more interesting.
Focus!
she scolded herself.
She scraped the side of her unanchored foot blindly along the trunk in hopes that she'd find another branch or knot to step on. Though externally silent, inwardly, she was screaming every foul word and phrase she'd ever heard—as well as some she was pretty sure she'd just made up. She found a new foothold quickly enough, but that did little to comfort her as the tree shook ever more violently by the second.
After what felt like an eternity, the shaking began to subside. Then, all became still.
When she finally opened her eyes, the Iron Boars were leaving the area. It was only when their trampling steps were no longer audible that she let out the breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding. She couldn't believe she'd survived even as she found herself completely alone.
Close. That was
way
too close!
Samantha couldn't deny that the dense forest had saved her life this time—miserable as it'd been making her last several days of hiking. Not only had it given her an immediate hiding place when she heard the spirit beasts coming, but she suspected that the rustling of multiple nearby trees had just disguised any noises she made after the alpha used its Ability.
With this newest windfall of adrenaline pushing any physical tiredness to the back of her mind, she descended to solid ground. Wanting to leave the area right away on the off chance the Iron Boars returned, she searched through the newly deposited forest debris for where her spear ended up. As soon as she had it in her hands, she was gone. She didn't have a destination in mind but kept moving vaguely east—the same direction she'd originally been traveling.
This deep into the Eastern Reaches, every unexpected sound and movement felt like a warning of her imminent demise. Not being able to sleep properly for weeks didn't help the paranoia. The further away from home she got, the more dangerous everything seemed to become. Yivesh was by no means an entirely safe city to live in—especially as a mortal—but it was nothing like
this
, at least! Constantly on edge. Listening and watching for the slightest hint of danger. Spirit beasts practically lurking around every bend.
When a branch snapped from less than a hundred feet away, she froze in place.
Don't move. Don't even breathe.
She clutched her weapon close to her body for reassurance. She had to hope whatever it was wouldn't notice her because it was too close to run or hide from.
Please be a mundane bear or mountain lion. Please be a mundane bear or mountain lion.
Any mundane creature that could survive out here was vicious by necessity, but at least against one of those, she'd stand a chance with her spear. When nothing came to eat her after several minutes, she risked a few steps forward. When nothing came to eat her then, either, she continued on her hike.
Just a little further. I'm sure I'll find one soon! Then, this will all be worth it.
There was only one thing that kept her from turning around and going back to the comforts of home. She mentally pulled up the quest notification that had started her on this harrowing journey.
Core Quest: Unlock Your Potential (Part 1 of 5) [IN-PROGRESS]
Time Remaining: 26 days
Congratulations! Your cultivation base has finally matured enough to begin absorbing ambient qi and infusing your body with vital energies. Locate a qi nexus to begin walking the cultivator's path.
Even having read through the System message what felt like hundreds of times, it still felt surreal. Samantha Cray, a girl with two mortal parents and no notable cultivators in her lineage, received
the
quest. The quest that even mortals from established cultivator families weren't guaranteed to get. It wasn't unheard of for seemingly random mortals to get this kind of opportunity, but she never expected to be among those fortunate few. Well, most would agree that she was fortunate, anyway. When she'd told her parents that she was going to become a cultivator, the reaction she'd gotten was...
She winced and mentally waved the notification away, trying her best not to finish that thought. She had too much else to worry about without upsetting herself by reliving that disastrous fight again. And, in the end, none of it would matter. Once she returned home, they'd see for themselves how much better her cultivator status made everything. They'd understand why she accepted the quest and that it was for them as much as herself!
She'd prove that she'd be one of the good ones.
Needing a break physically and mentally, she stopped at the next relatively safe area she came across. After checking the shallow cave was empty of occupants, she sat heavily on a boulder inside and set her gear down. Rummaging through her pack's contents, she found where she'd frantically stashed her divining rods earlier and held one in each hand—as was demonstrated for her when she bought them. Several minutes passed while she carefully watched the rods in silence. The inscrutable instruments, which would supposedly point her toward a qi nexus, moved about as much as they had throughout the last 19 days. Which was to say, not in the slightest.
She scoffed and set the thin, metallic rods on the stone beside her. Screwing up her face and wiggling both hands in front of her for extra effect, she said in her best mocking tone, "Once you get out of the city, you'll practically be tripping over nexuses. But who wants to just wander around? Use these instead! It'll be faster." She dropped both hands into her lap and scowled. "Nessa, so help me. If I die out here because you sold me defective garbage, I
will
haunt you."
Vanessa Chapman was a longtime neighbor of Samantha's. They weren't exactly close friends, but they were of similar age—Vanessa was a year older at eighteen—and their merchant parents were in the business of selling items made with spirit beast materials, so they interacted often. Samantha's family focused primarily on weapons and armor, while Vanessa's specialized in tools and instruments such as the divining rods. Honestly, though her poor, unsuspecting neighbor was currently serving as an outlet for her frustrations, Samantha didn't believe the rods to be faulty. The Chapmans never sold shoddy products. It just felt nice to have something tangible to blame once in a while rather than face the harsh reality... which was that getting close enough to a nexus for these rods to detect it was down to luck.
Qi nexuses—or founts—appeared naturally wherever ambient qi could accumulate without much disturbance. Since both cultivators and spirit beasts passively absorbed ambient qi, finding a fount
should
have been easy so long as she stayed away from Yivesh and major beast dens. But, then again, maybe she should've expected things to go this way. From the start, nothing about becoming a cultivator could've been labeled as "easy."
The quest itself came with a 180-day time limit, which was roughly six months. For someone from a non-cultivator background like herself, this was a pitifully short amount of time to make appropriate preparations.
She'd spent sixty days in a public course for aspiring cultivators who'd recently received the quest. Including herself, there were fewer than ten students in attendance, with ages ranging from early teens to mid-twenties. All were from non-cultivator families, like hers, but she reasoned that people from established families probably didn't need to attend. They likely already heard from their parents how to cultivate, advance, and interact with the System, which was what this class mostly covered. If they only needed to be taught factual information than sixty days might've felt like enough time, but because they were also being trained on essential meditation and visualization techniques, they barely got through the basics before the course concluded.
One highlight after the two months of hectic learning was that her class was taught the Entwined Circlet cycling pattern as a graduation gift. It was a rudimentary pattern, but Samantha was grateful she wouldn't need to spend any of her limited funds on something equally simple from a shop. And, for those who couldn't afford any patterns at all, it would be significantly better than nothing.
the violation.
After her knowledge about cultivation fundamentals was handled, she spent the following two and a half months purchasing travel supplies and doing additional research for the trip. Gathering the gear she wanted and studying topics that would help her survive the trek to a nexus was relatively stress-free. Enjoyable, even. She liked the feeling of self-sufficiency that came from buying useful tools or learning about things like foraging and the spirit beasts she might encounter. There was only one piece of research she'd dreaded: asking an actual cultivator for advice.
Many cultivators disliked associating with mortals—their own families included. Bothering a cultivator she didn't know wasn't worth the risk of angering them, but there was one person she could reasonably seek an audience with: her cousin, Thomas. He was the only cultivator she knew personally and the only one she knew of within the Crays—likely due to a distant heritage of cultivators on his mother's side. Samantha fully anticipated that their interaction would be unpleasant, but at least it'd be safe.
Thomas's father and hers were brothers who'd inherited the family business from her late grandparents. Rather than fight about who took over, they both shared ownership and basically melded their families together. As a result, she and Thomas were like siblings growing up. This changed after his parents were killed. He'd become so withdrawn from everyone and locked himself in his room so often that they didn't realize immediately when he'd snuck out of the house. They thought he'd taken his own life when the last anyone saw him was him leaving the city through the southern gate. His reappearance on their doorstep months later, and as a cultivator no less, was like a miracle. Unfortunately, there was even more distance between them than before.
She and her parents tried to keep in touch with him in the years since—with varying levels of success—but Samantha found it particularly difficult. Every interaction served as a painful reminder that the Thomas from her childhood—whose greatest delight seemed to be in finding new ways to annoy her—had long been replaced by a distant, scrutinizing man. Sometimes, she couldn't help but feel like a stranger looked out at her from behind his eyes.
When she eventually reached out to him through his assistant, she'd been invited into his home with a detached courtesy that might be expected from a friend of a friend. She'd hardly gotten out the words "so, I received the quest" before he cut her off and told her to give up and refuse it. He said someone like her would only be awarded death or regret otherwise. Only after being adamant about pursuing it did he tell her to get the combat art manual for [Inspect] if she wanted to be even a half-competent cultivator, and practically shoved her right back out his front door. But she didn't let the abrasive nature of their conversation devalue the information he'd given her.
The manual for [Inspect] had eaten up a considerable portion of her remaining funds, but she trusted her cousin's assessment regarding its importance. It would just be completely unusable to her until after she became a cultivator... which required that she find a stupid nexus at some point.
She glared back down at the useless divining rods. They didn't react to her seething stare. Her stomach did let out a particularly loud grumble, though.
...and to find one before I starve,
she mused with dark humor.
Turning her attention back to her open bag, she started rooting around for her last remaining half-ration. The past several days, she'd been saving the "meal" for when she really needed it, and she believed a pick-me-up after a near brush with death definitely qualified as needing it. Not finding it right away, she began unpacking things out of sheer irritation to speed up the search. She started with a jar filled with dark brown liquid—about four inches tall and three inches wide—which she set on the ground with a huff.
Why did I let my parents talk me into taking this hide-tanning solution along with me? They didn't even want me to come out here. I could've brought
—
I don't know! Something more edible, probably?
She couldn't fit much more than two weeks' worth of rations in her bag with all the other camping items taking up space. She might've been able to squeeze a few extra bars into it if she hadn't packed the jar, though. In the process of trying to maneuver her bedroll out from underneath her extra set of travel robes (without accidentally dumping them onto the ground), she caught a glimpse of the wax paper used to package her food. Before she fully realized what she'd done, she shoved the nutrient-dense bar into her mouth and swallowed.
She instantly regretted not savoring it for longer.
Before she could get too upset about the loss, a quiet, metallic "clink" stopped her dead in her tracks. Samantha whipped her head left, then right, and then behind her, looking for the source of the noise.
*Clink... clink... clink*
Her eyes snapped down to where the two divining rods rested atop each other.
Did I... did I imagine it?
*Clink*
A wide, exhilarated smile spread across Samantha's face as all of her recent misery was promptly forgotten.
After several more hours of traveling through the dimly dappled light of the forest, Samantha got her first clear view of the sky in weeks as the canopy opened up. The thin, wispy, white clouds overhead did little to shield her from the bright rays of the sun, but even through pained, squinted eyes, she could appreciate the beauty of the clearing before her. The forest she'd become accustomed to traversing since leaving Yivesh yielded to a small meadow about thirty yards wide. Pristine grasses covered the ground, and countless wildflowers bloomed in vibrant colors throughout the area. Qi—the very life energy of the world—was so thick in this place that the air itself felt weighty with potency.
Core Quest: Unlock Your Potential (Part 1 of 5) [COMPLETE]
Time Remaining: 26 days
Congratulations, you have discovered a nexus (Rank 3 - Rare)! You are the first cultivator to enter the energy of this fount and have been awarded a minor boon! This boon will automatically activate whenever you're inside the nexus and deactivate whenever you leave it. Choose wisely:
Your need for food and water will be greatly reduced
The nexus's location will be obscured from those outside of it
You will gain a sense of the nexus's remaining energy and when it will naturally disperse from this location
Her eyes widened as she read. She didn't have a frame of reference for how good a "rare" fount was, but the rarer, the better, right? The additional boon was also a welcome surprise since quest rewards given by the System were—according to what she learned in her cultivation course—notoriously unpredictable.
She considered her options carefully.
Food and water were still concerns, but her situation wouldn't be as dire now that she'd found a nexus. Without needing to hike long distances while carrying heavy equipment, foraging should cover her energy expenditures while she cultivated here. Knowing how long the nexus would be around and how much energy it had left would be interesting, but she couldn't do anything useful with that information. She had no way to stop the fount from dissipating and didn't intend to report its location to another cultivator for a reward. Hiding her location, though? That would be incredibly helpful. She wouldn't need to worry as much about being attacked while she was deep in meditation or sleeping.
She mentally selected the obscurement boon, and a new notification replaced the one she'd been focused on.
Core Quest: Unlock Your Potential (Part 2 of 5) [IN-PROGRESS]
Time Remaining: 60 days
It is time to forge yourself anew. Fill your empty dantian with qi to begin to leave mortality behind.
So... this is it, then?
Once she completed this quest, she—and her life—would be fundamentally changed forever. She'd been feverishly pursuing this goal for months now, yet, having finally reached the point of no return, stubborn doubts she'd thought she'd quashed began to resurface.
Am I ready? Should I really go through with this? There's still time for me to turn back.
She could practically see her future already if she did just that.
Her parents would welcome her back home with cries of relief. They'd continue teaching her how to run the store and hone her skills as a crafter. She'd marry a merchant's son, and they'd join their shops. They'd have their own children, raise them with all the love and care Samantha's parents had raised her with...
...and then her daughter would reject the advances of the wrong cultivator. Or maybe her son wouldn't bow low enough—wouldn't move out of the way quickly enough—to a passing cultivator in a foul mood.
The offense rarely mattered, but the result was often the same.
Samantha and her husband would be carelessly tossed some money—pocket change for the likes of a sought-after cultivator—as a blood price for their "loss." And if she refused to accept it... if she demanded that justice be paid with more than paltry coin...
An unwanted memory bubbled to the surface of her thoughts.
A pale hand spattered with red was visible between the gaps of her father's trembling fingers. Samantha's nose wrinkled at the harsh scent of iron.
"Greedy mortal! You should be
thankful
I was even willing to pay this much!"
A wet thud. Fresh scarlet in the street. The metallic tinkling of dropped coins on cobblestone. Screams quickly muffled by her mother's hands over her ears.
A second pool of crimson joined the first as her aunt's limp body crumpled beside her uncle's, but Thomas's wide, tearful eyes were fully focused in the direction of the approaching cultivator. The normal sounds of the world returned as her mother rushed to stand between her cousin and his parents' murderer.
Her father pulled her closer. His embrace was too tight. He was holding his breath.
The cultivator stopped.
"How clumsy of me. My hand slipped a second time."
He reached blindly into a pocket and roughly tossed more coins into the road at Thomas's feet. The glittering discs of copper, silver, and gold were quickly stained red.
"Here. Compensation."
Her mother's face was pallid, but her expression betrayed neither fear nor hostility. She looked grateful. She fully kowtowed to the man, ignoring the blood that soaked into her clothes as she knelt in the street and pressed her forehead to the ground.
"You are too generous, master. Thank you."
For the very first time, the cultivator smiled.
Samantha swallowed the bile gathering at the back of her throat.
No. This is the only way forward.
The boundaries of the fount seemed to blur as she stepped across some unseen threshold, but she didn't dare pause to marvel at the phenomenon lest she risk losing her nerve. She strode decisively to the center of the clearing, quickly dumped her equipment off to the side, and sat cross-legged in the lotus position—each foot placed atop the opposite thigh. Then, she closed her eyes.
You can do this! It's just like you practiced in class,
she encouraged herself.
She did her best to completely immerse herself in the energy of the nexus. Feeling how it pressed down on her from every angle. How it subtly sparkled across her skin like static electricity. How it agitated and curled around her body as she rhythmically inhaled and exhaled. Inhaled... and exhaled...
First, find the heart of your cultivation base.
Turning her attention inwards, her meridians were the first things she noticed with her spiritual sight. She followed the dark tangle of pathways—which connected her spirit and body—back to the single spot where they all coalesced. Like the countless seeds of a dandelion, they merged with the intangible, fist-sized sphere just behind her navel: her dantian. The empty orb was as lifeless as her meridians were at present, but that was about to change.
Next, establish your cycling pattern.
Within her dantian, she imagined the Entwined Circlet: a three-strand braid that formed a simple circle. She pictured qi moving cyclically through each strand in an alternating pattern before pulling the energy around her into her center. She repeated the pattern in her mind and body like a mantra, pushing all other concerns and sensations away.
And now...
Samantha had been warned that the initial jump from mortal to Low Copper was one of the most difficult stages of a cultivator's advancement; however, it was only now that she fully understood why.
It
hurt.
Down to her very bones, it hurt.
The first few days were, by far, the worst. As she pulled the foreign energy of the nexus into her dantian, qi swept through her like cleansing fire and altered her on a cellular level. It burned away physical impurities as every part of her was strengthened and refined, and she became able to utilize qi in ways that would've been impossible as a mortal. She was frequently forced to stop her cultivation efforts as the pain became too overwhelming to continue. It was only after her body began to acclimate to the process that her need for breaks decreased. Or, perhaps it was more accurate to say that she took fewer breaks as her body became strong enough to endure being rebuilt.
Day by day, she could feel herself becoming stronger, faster, and more inexplicably
alive.
And, the more energy that she gathered into her spiritual center, the less hold that her earthly needs for food, drink, and sleep seemed to have over her. She started to lose track of time more often as the pressure in her dantian gradually increased. And, when that tension finally reached its crescendo...
Congratulations, you've advanced in cultivation (Mortal → Low Copper)!
...
But before she'd even had time to properly read through the notification heading, her third eye peeked open.
The floodgates of reality burst and Samantha was swept away by the surging torrents. She was pulled, stretched, and spread thin across the very world until she became the world itself. Divinity—a single, fractured fragment—whispered otherworldly secrets into the wind to be carried off by the breeze. Her soul danced across countless threads that stretched through the ages like a spider's web. And, within each gossamer-thin strand, she glimpsed the impossible. Oceans of blood, obelisks of darkness, twisted abominations of flesh and corruption, bastions of the purest light, heroes that rose into the realms of godhood...
It was too much.
The sheer volume of knowledge alone threatened to obliterate her psyche. Yet, the existential terror she felt was almost equally matched by the temptation to delve deeper into these horrible, wondrous insights. Struggling against her own desire, she strained to gather herself together in the storm of visions. Then, drawing deeply from her well of willpower, she slammed her third eye shut and freed herself from the trance.
With each rapid heartbeat that thrummed in her chest, the memory of what she witnessed faded like a dream upon waking. What did not fade, however, was the feeling
.
Though the third-eye vision couldn't have lasted for longer than a second, there was something within her that had aged in a way that could never be reversed.
She couldn't help but wonder if, like with Thomas, a stranger now looked out from behind her eyes.