“Jade level dungeons test your mental fortitude,” Lena began with the distinct tone of an elder. “Amber level dungeons test your physical capabilities, while sapphire level dungeons test your spirit. These first three stages of a cultivator’s development are considered the fundamental introduction to cultivation and the first steps on the path to immortality.”

  “Those are some big steps,” Micro replied with wide eyes.

  “Few sects seek glory beyond the comfort of jade level dungeons in this era, but the ancient sects of distant lands still continue to leave their marks as history is written,” Lena continued.

  “Ura also mentioned cultivators are weaker than before.”

  “Our culture has been compared to stagnant water in the past…” Lena admitted with a sigh. “I am likely a fine example.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Micro reassured her.

  “No, she’s right,” Blue added. “She’s an absolute wimp compared to the cultivators I used to meet out here.”

  “Nevertheless, I am more than qualified to teach you a thing or two,” Lena continued, her air of confidence returning.

  “That makes sense,” Micro said. “So, sapphire comes after amber, and next is ruby…?”

  “Yes, and the next three stages are emerald, ruby, and cerulean,” Lena continued. “Emerald dungeons test your skills against various beings. Monsters, beasts, legendary creatures, and the like—”

  “Wait, jade and emerald are both green, aren’t they?” Micro asked. “Doesn’t that get confusing?”

  “They are completely different,” Lena rebuked him. “Quiet down.

  “Sorry,” Micro said with a small bow. “Tell me more about emeralds.”

  “Oh, how I would love to see the inside of an emerald dungeon before I leave this world behind…” Lena sighed. Her eyes glowed for a moment as she thought of the challenges which lay in emerald level dungeons, but she continued as Micro looked at her with curious eyes.

  “Ruby dungeons test your ability to survive the natural world,” she said with a hushed voice. “Many consider this to be the greatest obstacle of all the dungeons, for there is no end to the challenges you may face. That is what makes the ruby level of the Sparrow Art so daunting, for who experiences a harsher world than the weakest of creatures?”

  “The natural world?” Micro repeated. “So, the world is in the dungeon?”

  “The many forces of the world, yes,” Lena explained. “The fires of a volcano, the wind of a hurricane, the darkness of the ocean’s depths… Such trials have made even the strongest cultivators of legend whimper like feeble children. They are neither cruel nor kind, as some dungeons are. Ruby level dungeons are impartial and unforgiving.”

  “I’ll try to get a little stronger before I enter one of those,” Micro frowned, then nodded his head as he reflected on her lecture. “Red does mean stop, most of the time. I’ll be careful.”

  “That would be the day…” Lena grinned.

  “But what about the cerulean level dungeons?” Micro asked. “What challenge would come after defeating monsters and the entire world?”

  “I know little of what lies beyond the ruby stage,” Lena replied. “But cerulean level cultivators know a struggle I cannot fully grasp. You see, a cerulean level dungeon is said to challenge one with the greatest possible foe.”

  “Who?” Micro asked. “The original cultivator? Oh, could it be the guy who made the dungeons?”

  “Yourself,” Lena answered simply. “A cerulean dungeon’s trial requires a cultivator to overcome their greatest weaknesses, as well as their greatest strengths.”

  “I’d have to fight myself…” Micro wondered for a moment. “I wonder if I’d win.”

  “I hope you find out one day, honourable young master of the Truck Sect,” Lena said. “I’d be offended if any other cultivator with a mere amber core spoke so lightly of such matters, but I’ve seen the impossible become possible on several occasions in my time with you already. I can not help but to watch your journey with an unfamiliar feeling of optimism.”

  “Thanks, Lena,” Micro said. He was about to ask Lena more about dungeons, but he suddenly felt a strong gaze directed at him from the blue pixie on his shoulder.

  “Hmm…” Blue sighed, staring at him with an uncertain look.

  “Are you okay?” Micro asked.

  “It’s nothing…” she mumbled in reply. “I was wondering if we were about to die in a ruby level dungeon.”

  “Why would that happen?” Micro asked in surprise.

  “Indeed…” Blue replied, nodding slowly. “Just warn me if you get any sudden urges.”

  “Okay…” Micro tilted his head and shrugged.

  “Are we there yet?” Kolt suddenly shouted, having fallen behind Lena, Micro, and Kira by quite a few paces.

  “He’s much weaker than his sister,” Lena remarked, stopping to turn around. “Or is it that she is stronger than the average mundane child?”

  “It’s hard to tell one acorn from another,” Blue agreed.

  “Do your best, Kolt,” Micro called back. “I can carry you if it gets too hard to keep up.”

  “We’re already moving so slowly,” Lena sighed.

  “I was also wondering why we were walking so slow,” Kira added, her innocent voice making its way back to her brother like a poison arrow.

  “You—” Kolt fumed, but he was too short of breath to shout while moving. “Dang it…”

  “It’ll take him a while to take your place as sect leader!” Blue chuckled.

  “I’m the one… who made you… learn about energy…!” Kolt panted angrily at his sister while she waited for him to catch up. “Show some… respect!”

  “Kids these days…” Micro hid his mouth with his hand as he chuckled at the frustrated child, and an idea suddenly came to him. He opened up the pocket where Trill continued to sleep, his yellow face still marked by the same grumpy expression it always had, and he called out to the pixie. “Excuse me, Trill. Are you awake?”

  “I am now,” Trill replied with a long yawn. “What do you want?”

  “Can you sit on Kolt’s shoulder and help him with his energy… issues?” Micro asked.

  “Huh?” Trill crawled out of his pocket and looked at Blue with one eye still closed.

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  “Do it.” Blue nodded expressionlessly, and Trill hung his head and sighed.

  “Of course,” Trill mumbled as he flapped his wings. In a moment, he had landed on the startled Kolt’s shoulders. “Pain in the—”

  “Wait, what?!” Kolt mumbled in shock, but he was suddenly overwhelmed by a rush of energy originating from the yellow pixie.

  “He can’t take much,” Trill reported as he curled up in the matted fur of the garment draped over Kolt’s shoulders. “I can probably do this in my sleep.”

  “Wow!” Kolt shouted, turning to face the pixie with wide eyes. “Thanks, I feel like I’m—”

  “In my sleep, I said,” Trill interrupted him, then closed his eyes and immediately began to sleep, though Micro confirmed he was continuing to channel a small amount of energy into Kolt from his perch on the boy’s shoulder. Kolt jumped up and down excitedly, testing the limits of his new stamina.

  “How do you feel?” Micro asked.

  “I’m not tired at all!” Kolt celebrated as Lena watched with wide eyes. “Look at me go!”

  “Such utilization of a pixie may be thought of as a magician’s cheap trick, but I can’t argue with the results,” Lena said. “I’m tempted to forget the countless headaches pixies have caused me in my many years…”

  “I’d be happy to remind you of them any time.” Blue laughed.

  “I don’t doubt that…” Lena rolled her eyes.

  Micro looked carefully at the energy filling Kolt’s body, and confirmed that it was still flowing independently of the boy’s will, travelling through the natural pathways in his body and ultimately escaping through his pores. However, the energy was more than potent enough to slightly accelerate the natural processes of healing in Kolt’s body.

  “Don’t just enjoy the energy, Kolt,” Micro said, catching the boy’s attention.

  “What do you mean?” Kolt asked while flexing the muscle in his arm repeatedly, causing Kira to roll her eyes in embarrassment.

  “Get used to how it feels,” Micro explained. “Pay attention to it. Trill can’t stick to you forever.”

  “Trill is its name?” Kolt mumbled.

  “Trill is a pixie, by the way,” Micro explained. “Pixies and cultivators don’t always get along, so be careful who you talk to about them. I think they’re nice though.”

  “Nice? Maybe,” Blue shrugged. “Fun? Usually.”

  “Usually?” Micro asked.

  “The fairies eat up all the fun around them,” Blue replied bitterly. “They chew it up, and then they spit out a big old load of steaming—”

  “Are fairies real?!” Kira cried out. “Pixies, and now fairies?! Mother wouldn’t believe me if I told her…”

  “Steer clear of fairies,” Micro quickly added. “They’re a lot to deal with.”

  “Oh… Okay.” Kira nodded, her excitement slightly deflated. “But dragons are friendly?”

  “That’s right,” Micro replied with a thumbs up.

  “That is some genuine Truck Sect wisdom,” Blue smiled contently.

  ~

  The group continued to walk for several hours without interruption, their pace quickened by Kolt’s sudden increase in stamina, but evening had soon come once again.

  “I’m not tired, but how much longer do we have to walk?” Kolt complained as they rested by a fire beneath a tree. “I want to go fight that monster soon. Walking is boring.”

  “Me too,” Micro agreed with a sympathetic nod. “But there are no roads, and I’m the only truck on this world as far as I know.”

  “Truck?” Kira asked. “What’s that?”

  “I am,” Micro replied.

  “Oh…” Kira mumbled, but her curiosity wasn’t sated. “Could you explain in more detail, perhaps…?”

  “It’s a vehicle with four wheels… People drive around where I’m from,” Micro clarified. “There are lots of different kinds of trucks. There are cars, planes, and other vehicles too. But trucks like me are definitely the most efficient and reliable.”

  “You don’t have four wheels though…” Kira whispered in confusion, looking at Micro’s feet.

  “This isn’t my original body. I’m getting used to it though,” Micro said, tapping himself on the chest as if to comfort himself. “My soul belongs in a truck on another world.”

  “Woah…” Kira mumbled, looking into Micro’s eyes intently. “You’re from another world? Which one?”

  “How many worlds do you know about?” Kolt scoffed at his sister, but she ignored him and continued to look at Micro with bright eyes.

  “It’s called Earth,” Micro replied. “Do you know it?”

  “Doesn’t that mean dirt?” Kira asked with an eyebrow raised. “Your world is named after dirt?”

  “What is your world called?” Micro asked, somewhat embarrassed by her question.

  “It’s called the world…” she replied with a vibrant laugh. “Why call it anything else?”

  “But don’t you confuse it with other worlds?” Micro asked.

  “I only live on the one,” Kira said, laughing even harder. “You’re funny.”

  “Thanks, Kira,” Micro smiled.

  The fire they sat around crackled softly while the moon rose over the horizon. Lena and Blue were quietly meditating, causing the occasional wave of energy to fill the air like a breeze. Kolt felt compelled to join them after learning that they were actually getting stronger by sitting quietly, but he soon fell asleep with Trill nestled in his dirty clothes. Kira’s mind was still racing with the stories Micro told, and she still felt ready for anything with so much energy coursing through her veins.

  “You’re sure you aren’t uncomfortable?” Micro asked as Kira sighed at the stars. “That’s a lot of energy to suddenly have in you.”

  “It feels wonderful,” Kira replied. “And it makes the world look so bright. Even at night, everything is so…”

  “It’s beautiful, I know…” Micro added, joining her in watching the stars, mindful of the energy flowing through the air. “I wish the old man could see it too.”

  “You can tell him about it one day, right?” Kira commented. “isn’t it fine to just enjoy it for now?”

  “True…” Micro replied. “Oh, I wonder if there is a Camera Art! I could take pictures and—”

  “Wait, I almost forgot. You said you were a vehicle in a past life?” Kira returned her attention to Micro with wide eyes.

  “Until a few weeks ago, yes,” Micro replied. “Although it feels like I’ve been on this world for a lot longer than that.”

  “What do you mean?” Kira asked with her head tilted. “Are trucks bad at keeping track of time?”

  “Time passes by a lot faster in some dungeons,” Micro explained. “I wonder how long I spent pushing a rock in that first dungeon… My time on my original world feels short compared to that, but it also feels longer… Oh well…”

  “That sounds really boring…” Kira said with a sympathetic tone.

  “It was a nice experience overall,” Micro replied. “You can meet some interesting people in dungeons.”

  “Hmm…” Kira crossed her arms for a moment, deep in thought. “I just can’t imagine a person with four wheels.”

  “A vehicle isn’t a person,” Micro corrected her. “Apparently I have a soul because of how much my driver cared for me. I think that makes sense. He had a heart big enough to share…”

  “I see…” Kira nodded slowly, then reached down to grab a twig which was sticking out of the fire. She blew the small flame at its end out, then held it out to Micro.

  “That’s a nice stick,” Micro said with a thumbs up.

  “Here,” she said, pointing at the dusty ground next to him with her other hand. “Draw a truck.”

  “Oh, I’ll try,” Micro said, taking the stick. He held the stick awkwardly, trying to recall the way the old man held a pen when writing. He made several lines in the dust to practice until a clear image of the picture he wanted to draw appeared in his mind. Kira watched with excitement and confusion as the picture gradually took shape. Micro drew two wheels beneath a box-like body, then a window and the door. He drew several boxes in the bed of the truck, then leaned back and looked down at his work with a smile.

  “This is what it looks like from the side,” he explained, pointing at the picture with the stick. “The driver sits in there, and you can put whatever you like in the back, as long as it isn’t too heavy.”

  “What?” Kira marvelled for a moment. “How does it move? Are carriages meant to be pulled?”

  “There’s an engine in there,” Micro replied, pointing at the bottom of the cab. “You put fuel in the tank back here, and the engine makes everything move.”

  “Is it magic?” Kira asked with wide eyes.

  “Not at all!” Micro laughed, then pointed at the fire. “You see how the fire makes lots of smoke when it burns? The engine burns fuel, and the energy which it releases makes you move.”

  “A chariot of fire…?!” Kira marvelled. “That’s amazing!”

  “I think so too!” Micro smiled. “The fire only happens in the engine though, tiny little fires. That’s what the spark plugs are for.”

  “I want to ride one,” Kira said excitedly, causing Kolt to stir in his sleep. “Where can we find an engine of fire?!”

  “I’m the only truck on this world, as far as I know. There aren’t even mechanics here…” Micro replied sadly. “You could ride on my shoulders, but I don’t think it would be the same…”

  “Oh…” Kira sighed. “Do you think you could make one?”

  “Well, huh…” Micro’s expression hardened as he locked eyes with Kira. She leaned backward as his aura flickered, but her curiosity grew as his expression deepened. She patiently waited for a reply, and Micro finally spoke. “I think I could…!”