Starlight Life Of The Sage

Public Release: March 14th, 2019 - 3:30 am EST

Cara stretched her legs with each step. She could feel the rampaging fire of the Earth Spirit that ruled the Soldier Garden. She danced to its tune as she moved, and she felt her skill in controlling it growing with each moment. She didn't find many scrolls about Spirit Contracts within the Library, but what she did find explained it as a 'support-based' type of magecraft, something more primal than actual Knight or Mage techniques.

A Spirit Contract was a Path and also not a Path. It was an auxiliary, something that could improve the contractor but also hinder them.

A Spirit Contract was a two way road. Just as Cara wished to draw mana and strength from the contract, so too did the Spirit of the Soldier Garden wish for something in return.

Except a spirit traded in something precious—but also costless—for Cara: emotions.

Strong emotions fueled High Rank Spirits and gave them more strength. They absorbed those emotions and used them to fine tune their 'dungeons' and make them more profound, more human.

The word 'Dungeon' appeared over 57 times in the books and scrolls that Cara read. She noted it each time and wondered just what a 'Dungeon' truly was. She played video games in her second life (albeit not as much as some others), and she had a preconceived notion on what a dungeon was...

But as Cara read on she discovered her notions were wrong.

A dungeon didn't need to be a cave, or even a place with stringent entry requirements. A dungeon didn't spawn magic beasts, nor did it collect mana from those killed within.

A dungeon wasn't a living being. A dungeon was an environment given consciousness, a locale with a Spirit. They were closer to undeath than to life.

And those Spirits could draw mana from the ground, they could contract with living beings to give that mana away, and they could experience the vicissitudes of life itself—but only vicariously through their contracts.

And so many misconceptions of dungeons were born.

Some dungeons contracted people only to led them to their deaths, purely to experience the concept of mortality.

Other dungeons led humans to treasures or traps to experience euphoria and despair.

And others contracted humans to protect themselves from those that would steal their mana.

Cara felt her contract and the strength of it. She knew full well hers was of the last type. The Soldier Garden offered her mana in exchange, initially, for killing the Great Ape long ago whose arm-bones made up the haft of her halberd.

But now, after the battle with the Ascendant who tried to wrest control away, the connection felt more intimate, more sincere.

Cara felt as if the Spirit of the Soldier Garden looked upon her as a friend. She smiled as she felt it pour mana through her, aiding her in her cultivation.

-

Cara and Zara continued their journey through the Soldier Garden as they headed due east. They stopped by anything that caught their eye, including several ponds and swamps along the way, but they spent most of their time meditating over their own cultivation methods, each walking in a powerful silence.

They were together but neither interrupted the other. Between them was a silence of respect and affection, something profound.

Cara felt pride in her disciple while Zara felt pride in her teacher, and neither needed to say it aloud. They both understood.

Blue skies stretched on ahead of them, often in patches that they could only see through openings in the canopy above.

-

On the third day of their long walk, Cara stopped and raised her hand up. Her cultivation was nearing the breaking point, and she would soon be able to attempt her fourth Crack.

The leap from 3 to 4 cracks was a large one. The first three cracks were considered the 'Early Cracked Core' stage, but the cracks from four to six were considered the 'Middle of the Cracked Core' stage.

The rule of threes applied, like always in regards to cultivation methods. Just as there were 15 rungs in the Houtian realm, 6 Rungs in the Xantian realm, there were 9 total Rungs in the Cracked Core realm. Multiples of three were auspicious signs and led to the idea of perfection, something ingrained in the minds of the very first cultivators.

Just like a triangle, the number three was the most stable. To crack a stable core was much harder than normal, and so Cara decided to take a full day to prepare for her breakthrough.

-

Cara sat atop a rocky outcrop, far above the Soldier Garden's canopy. She looked across the field of green below her with a smile. She felt her energy still rising higher, even at that very moment, and she could hardly hold herself together.

Her cultivation was advancing faster than she thought possible, and she had a few theories why. Her first theory involved the concept of 'Balancing the Paths', a theorem she, herself, first proposed nearly 20,000 years ago while living as The Sage.

To Balance the Paths meant that, with each additional Path a person walked, the more the Paths would interact with one another and help further the others…

But, should a cultivator's Paths become imbalanced, the opposite could happen instead. Rather than increase their overall strength, having a single weaker Path could bring down their overall strength. That meant that a cultivator needed to start down their Paths early on, or they'd face consequences later.

Cara currently had four Paths within her that she understood. She had her Outer Cultivation, her Weapon Cultivation, her Bloodline Cultivation (albeit that one hadn't been cultivated much), and she had her newfound Mage Cultivation.

She didn't count her Spirit Contract yet as a full Path, but she could see it as one in the future. The more she built her rapport with the Spirit the stronger that potential Path became…

Cara's cultivations were still low and, due to that, they only served to increase her strength, but if she furthered one too far, the others could prove to be shackles instead.

Cara was reluctant to advance her Outer Cultivation past the Cracked Core stage without first improving her other Paths…

Though she had no choice in the matter at the moment.

-

Lightning surged in a blue sky. A howling wind thundered down. Cara sat cross-legged on the rocky outcropping and her body looked bloated, as if she were about to detonate like an over-filled balloon.

She g.r.o.a.n.e.d and screamed. She felt her mana swirl about, churning like a sea at storm.

In time with a flash of lightning, another crack cleaved itself down Cara's vessel, forming the fourth zigzagging gash on her Golden Core.

At the same time the Halberd in her hands, Spirit's Bane, sang its own chorus. Just like how outer cultivators in the Xantian realm needed to refine themselves from the outside in, so to did Weapons.

The First Rung was the name. The second was the appearance.

Mana crawled along the weapon's form bit by bit, and the craft-style halberd transformed. The metal and bone that made up its construction turned glossy and black, and wood-like engravings were hewn into the blade, runes bearing the words for 'Fire and Frost', powerful arrays that granted the weapon its first attributes.

Cara's Outer Cultivation roared to life alongside her Halberd, and wave upon wave of black chaff and grime sloughed off of her body.

Cara opened her eyes and stood up. Her physique looked strong, but it still bore the faults of youth.

She looked like a young God walking the lands. Her gray eyes stared east, towards the nearing mountain range, towards the East Empire. Through her connection with the Spirit of the Soldier Garden, she could sense an ominous aura overshadowing all the mountain peak, an aura of Darkness.

"Shall we rest for one night?" asked Zara as she approached from behind.

"Yes. I want to learn at least a few Tier 10 spells from the scrolls before we move on. I have a bad feeling about the Empire..." said Cara.

"I thought you'd say something like that," said Zara with a smile. She moved to the side revealing a large tent already set up behind her. "I, myself, have a few new alchemical ideas. Besides, I don't want to walk in the rain."

Overhead black clouds gathered, spinning like giant tops. Lightning sparked and a distant thunder rumbled, shaking the trees and valley below.

Cara looked up at the sky and then back at the Dark Mountains. She smiled, then, and said, "I don't mind a little rain from time to time."