“I’ve already reached the early middle stage, and I’m the youngest person in my family to learn the Spirit Vision Skill! I’m also very, very, very close to mastering the Spirit Shield Skill, so you can count on me!” Rose declared with confidence. “You must already be an amazing warrior, to have been able to save two people from a dungeon and even capture two pixies!”

  “That’s very impressive, I think…” Micro replied quietly. “I’m a truck, not a warrior.”

  “My grandfather also says things I don’t understand, and he’s very, very strong!” Rose continued excitedly. “But if you aren’t familiar with cultivation on this world, I can help! It’s the least I can do to repay you after all.”

  “You can teach me about Core Cards and cultivation?” Micro asked hopefully.

  “Of course!” Rose replied. “But where shall we begin? Hmm… Your core doesn’t seem stable, does it…”

  “I was told I need to find a master to work on it before it bursts,” Micro agreed. “It’s patched up for now, but I need to learn to repair it myself. I didn’t pass a single mechanic on my way here.”

  “How did it get so…” Rose whispered, then she mimed an explosion with her hands instead of finishing the question.

  “Apparently the magicians meant to summon a different soul, so mine doesn’t fit properly. It’s a different shape,” He replied. “I’m not an expert though.”

  “For it to be bursting at the seams like that means it isn’t just the wrong shape. Your soul must be a little different than most! But that’s not a big deal,” Rose reassured him. “Refining your core is one of the first things a cultivator learns! You keep refining it again and again until it can’t be refined anymore!”

  “And then?” Micro asked.

  “Well, that’s the point where one would ascend to the next stage of cultivation…” Rose replied with a solemn tone.

  “That’s how you get to the yellow stage?” Micro inquired.

  “You mean the amber stage? You make it sound so easy!” Rose laughed, but quieted down when she noticed Micro’s genuine confusion. “Even the sect leader hasn’t broken through to the amber stage yet, and he’s been refining his core for longer than anyone around here!”

  “So it takes a long time…” Micro said with a disappointed tone.

  “It’s very dangerous, you know?” Rose replied. “Ah, but then I guess you wouldn’t know. Even Kel’s father…”

  “Kel’s father?”

  “Never mind that for now. You should focus on your own core,” Rose continued. “It does take time. Of course, there are ways to quicken the process, but that’s not what our sect believes in.”

  “You don’t want an amber core?”

  “It’s not that we don’t want one,” she replied quickly. “But chasing power in a hurry isn’t the way to do it. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about all the powerful sects out there in the empire. Things around here can move a little too slow for me. ‘Slow and steady’ is what they always say, but that’s not important right now. Your core is barely holding itself together!”

  “It does feel better when I eat these…” Micro mumbled as he stuffed the last honey bun into his mouth.

  “Well, that’s not a permanent solution,” she chuckled. “Alright then, listen carefully. To refine your core, you have to break it down, get rid of as many impurities as you can, then put it back together again. Do you understand?”

  “I have to take it apart, clean it, then reassemble it,” He recited back to her.

  “Th—That’s…” she stuttered. “Sure, that sounds right. However, if that’s all you did, you’d just be making it smaller, and that wouldn’t be very useful! The key to refining your core is in the energy all around you.”

  “You mean like in the rain?” Micro asked.

  “Trying to take raw energy straight out of the natural world would be insane. Never try that,” Rose warned him. “That’s like putting your hand into a fire just to warm it up.”

  “It did feel quite hot…” Micro nodded.

  “Forget such a dangerous thought as soon as possible,” Rose said sternly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “You need to draw in ambient energy to support your core as you refine it.”

  “The air is full of elemental energies,” she whispered. “Fire, air, water, some light…”

  “I feel like you left some out…” Micro added quietly.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Rose continued without hesitation. “The cultivators in our sect tend to have a stronger affinity to fire compared to the other elements. That’s why they’re always looking for fire element dungeons.”

  “That makes sense. Some trucks take diesel, but I take regular,” Micro said. “I did wonder what a turtle had to do with fire…”

  Micro followed her example and closed his eyes. He quickly entered the familiar place where the only thing he could see was his core. Despite the two rings wrapped around it, it looked as volatile as ever, like a fireball threatening to explode. However, he couldn’t see any other energy around him.

  “Where is it?” He asked in disappointment.

  “You’re looking too hard,” Rose replied. “You won’t find it by looking for it.”

  “Okay…” Micro replied. “What?”

  “You have to stop focusing altogether and let the energy make itself known to you.”

  “I have to stop thinking?” Micro asked. “That would be nice.”

  “Clear your mind of all distractions,” Rose continued. “That’s the first step to—”

  “Oh, there it is,” Micro announced gleefully. “It’s warm, but it’s cool. It tickles, I think.”

  “What? How did you…” Rose stammered. “Did you already know how to do that?”

  “No, I just followed your instructions,” he replied. “I should’ve thought of not thinking earlier. Wait…”

  “You achieved a perfect state of mental clarity after hearing it described five seconds ago?” she asked in disbelief, using her Spirit Vision Skill to discern whether he was being honest or not. “You really were a master in your own way.”

  “I’m used to not thinking,” Micro shrugged. “I’m still new to thinking in general, really. It feels strange…”

  “Forgive my disrespect, then…” Rose nodded. “Kel was not exaggerating.”

  “So, now what?”

  “Next is to allow your core to expand very slowly. Let it relax,” Rose explained. “You need to do it slowly, so that your soul and the energy contained within it don’t come pouring out all at once. That’s the trick to refining your core, you see? It’s like taking a cup apart and putting it back together again without spilling any of the water inside.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Take it apart, but don’t spill anything…” Micro repeated.

  “Yes, but don’t worry about it too much.” Rose smiled, leaving her own state of meditation. “It’s not that easy to make a hole so big that your soul can just wander out. Souls like to stay where they are, after all. Beginners with new cores barely have enough energy to fill their cores. Even a naturally powerful soul like yours probably won’t expand enough to cause you any problems. Just focus on relaxing your core until it reaches the point where energy can flow through it more easily.”

  “Relax it… Expand it…” Micro looked back at his own core, and did as he was instructed, allowing the core which he felt he’d been trying to restrain to relax and expand. Though it felt similar to learning how to use his new arms and legs, the core began to bend and move according to his will.

  “Once your core starts to dissipate, that’s when you want to squeeze it back together again, taking as much ambient energy with you as you can,” Rose continued. “My father told me to think of it like making a snowball out of snowflakes you caught in the air.”

  “So many… analogies…” Micro whispered while trying harder to concentrate.

  “What was that?” Rose leaned in to ask, but Micro’s attention was now fully directed at the process of core refining.

  “Expand… Disassemble… Reassemble…” Micro mumbled. Gradually, the green, gem-like core began to look more transparent, like a thin film of energy wrapped around a bright light. He thought he could see a familiar shape behind the dissipating outer shell of the core.

  “I think you’re doing great!” Rose cheered. “Now just—”

  BOOM

  Rose was flung against the wall, along with everything else in the room, with the force of a lightning strike. The door and windows were blown open, and clouds of dust swirled around the room. Barely able to protect herself with a defensive aura, Rose tumbled out the splintered door and barely grabbed hold of the steps protruding from the cliff face before falling down the side of the mountain in a daze, eventually coming to rest on a small ledge.

  Dust and debris rained down on the buildings below as she regained her senses, and she began to climb back up the cliff. Her ears were ringing and her body ached all over. When she finally returned to the door of Micro’s room, she tried to look through the chaotic storm of energy and debris swirling around like a tornado, but all she could make out were flashes of light. A voice pulled her out of a state of shock.

  “Rose! What happened here?!” Kel screamed as he flew up the steps, followed by a dozen other disciples, including Rose’s sister, Tae. “Where is he?!”

  “He was just… We were…” She stuttered, her voice barely audible over the storm raging in the room.

  “What did you do?!” Tae screamed over the noise of the storm.

  “I showed him how to refine his core…” Rose mumbled with blank eyes. “Just the most basic technique… Even a child could…”

  “You fool!” Kel screamed as he rushed into the storm, leaving Rose and the others standing outside with the dumbfounded Rose. Tae braced herself and followed him into the room, but no other disciple felt confident they would survive the storm if they entered.

  “Master!” Kel shouted. “Are you there?! Can you hear me?”

  “Kel…” Micro said with a strained voice barely audible over the storm. “This is harder than I thought…”

  “Young master!” Tae said as she grabbed Kel’s shoulder to stabilize herself in the wind. “His core is almost completely gone! The dungeon guardians’ oaths are the only thing preventing his internal energies from consuming him entirely…!”

  “No…” Kel replied in horror. “The sheer amount of energy… This isn’t something we can handle ourselves.”

  “Indeed,” the sect leader said, having suddenly appeared beside Kel. “We’ll need more hands to contain this power.”

  “Is it truly possible?” Kel asked, starting to discern Micro’s silhouette among the chaos.

  “His power is abundant and pure, but it is still the power of a jade core,” the sect leader replied. “There is risk, but there is hope…”

  “Understood!” Tae replied quickly. “I’ll summon the strongest disciples available!”

  Tae ran out of the room and down the stairs to the courtyard immediately, leaving Kel and his grandfather alone in the storm.

  “You would risk everything for this boy, Kel?” The sect leader calmly asked.

  “We have no time for your doubts!” Kel shouted.

  “Then stand over there.” The old man nodded as he raised his hands in front of him. “In theory, this is no different from helping any new disciple form a core for the first time. We’ll just need to work a little harder than usual…”

  “Right!” Following his grandfather’s lead, Kel also raised his hands, pushing against the wild aura pouring out of Micro. “I’m ready!”

  “Now, Kel!” The old man announced, and the two men began to emit their own green auras, forming a shield in front of them that allowed them to repel Micro’s own. They struggled for a moment to move even slightly toward the boy at the centre of the storm, but soon other hands were added to the effort as stronger disciples entered the room one by one, seemingly aware of what was required. As the number of small aura shields increased in number, they began to contain the storm, eventually growing to form a dome around it.

  “We need to move quickly now, or the boy won’t survive,” the sect leader declared. “With me, now!”

  All at once, the sect leader, Kel, and a dozen disciples pushed with all their strength toward the centre of the room, condensing the wild energies more and more until finally, Micro’s form was visible again, kneeling in a state of meditation, but with a strained expression. The sect leader took one final step forward with a deep breath, while the other disciples fell to the ground in exhaustion. Tae joined Kel and his grandfather, and the three of them together worked to condense the energy around Micro.

  “So much energy, and his soul…” one disciple gasped.

  “I could feel the magnitude of his soul’s own energy…” another added. “It’s no wonder his core strained.”

  “Kel?” Micro called out.

  “We’re here now, master!” Kel replied, his own voice hoarse as he and the others struggled to keep the aura from exploding outward. “Can you sense your energy, master?”

  The normally dark world that Micro looked around at felt like a tornado was sweeping through it. His consciousness drifted here and there as he tried to focus on his own energy, but he eventually noticed a circle of light around him.

  “Is that you?” He called out from within the storm.

  “We’re holding your energy together right now, master!” Kel replied. “But we can’t do this for long! You need to form a core around the energy before we run out of time!”

  “We’ve managed to form a crude temporary core with our own energy, but it will not last for long,” the sect leader added. “You should hurry, or you will die.”

  “I see…” Micro replied. He could feel the pressure of the cultivators around him, holding him together. As he observed the place where his core should be, he understood what was happening. Two rings, placed there by the dragon and the turtle, were wrapped around a small light that flickered as a storm of energy swirled around.

  “You should be able to see your soul now, young one,” the sect leader explained loudly. “The energy contained within it is too much for this vessel to accommodate, so you must form a strong core around it. If you fail to contain that energy, your soul will be lost in this storm of energy.”

  “I need to make a new core…” Micro repeated.

  “But this time, master…” Kel added as sweat poured down his face. “You must ensure that it is able to contain your soul! All souls are unique in shape and size, but yours is very different from anything we’ve seen. Be mindful as you—”

  “I’m trying to concentrate, Kel,” Micro mumbled.

  “I’ll be silent, master,” Kel replied more quietly. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks, Kel.”

  Micro stood before his soul for a moment, trying to discern its shape as the storm surged all around him. He looked closer and closer, until he realized he was standing inside of it. It was blinding at first, but as his eyes adjusted, he began to notice something familiar about it. He was in a seated position, his back against something soft but not too soft. His feet were resting on a harder surface with a rough texture. His hands were in front of him, resting on something thin and round.

  “I’m inside… myself?” he thought quietly to himself as he looked around and recognized more and more indicators that he had somehow found himself inside the cab of a Micro truck which could only be described as his very own body. “But I also, am myself…?”

  “What the—” the sect leader suddenly blurted out as Micro’s entire body began to glow like a star in the night sky.

  “What is happening?!” Kel asked his grandfather.

  “Oneness of mind and soul…” he replied with wide eyes. “That is not a common sight in our realm… An early stage of enlightenment…”

  As Kel and his grandfather discussed Micro’s state, Micro’s mind began to feel like it was being stretched to a breaking point. He felt nauseous as he reconciled his current state, unsure whether he was looking at himself in the rear-view mirror, or at someone else entirely. The whole truck was shaking, as if it was driving at a high speed down a gravel road, with wisps of blinding light flying through the cab now and then. He shook his head, though he was unsure if he really had one, and tried to focus on the task described for him by the cultivators around him. He looked out the window and saw two giant rings, one of fire and one of water, orbiting his truck at different angles. They were alarming at first sight, but they made him feel safe and secure after looking at them for a while.

  “Okay, I need to make a core to put my soul in…” Micro carefully considered the task as he looked around. “I think this is my soul, but… Oh, I see.”

  Realizing something, he opened the door and stepped out of the truck, then walked several paces away from it. Around him and the truck was a storm of light that he now understood to be his own internal energy.

  “So I have to build somewhere safe to park this. And it needs to be big enough to store that extra energy,” Micro said to himself with a content grin. “This should be simple enough.”