“It really does resemble a map…” Micro thought as he looked closely at himself. The energy moved along minuscule, predetermined paths, resembling countless tiny vehicles travelling through a network of highways. Skills gave him the knowledge to manipulate the paths his energy took to produce certain results, such as a shield, enhanced taste, roots, and so on, but Skills still required some concentration to utilize. “Ah, I see it now…”

  The longer he spent looking at the energy’s flow, the easier it became to identify each elemental force. Each fleeting particle of energy had a distinct quality. Fire was the easiest to identify by its glow and warmth, while water stood out less and flowed more gently. With his will, he began to attempt to extract only the light energy from his body and collect in front of him. However, a chaotic mixture of every elemental energy is what appeared in front of his physical body.

  “Hmm…” he thought aloud as he opened his eyes in frustration. “Is there a way to separate the light energy from the rest?”

  “Exactly which elements do you have an affinity with?” Lena asked.

  “They’re all in there,” Micro replied.

  “Same here, by the way,” Blue added with a wink.

  “Then your potential is as great as the obstacle you now face,” Lena replied with a nod. “Few succeed in acquiring mastery of all elemental energies, and those that are born with an affinity to all six of them rarely manage to make full use of any particular type without the assistance of Core Cards.”

  “That’s inconvenient…” Micro sighed, his frustration growing in the darkness.

  Lena opened her mouth to offer some words of comfort, but she was startled by a large surge of energy in Micro’s eyes. The non-cultivators around him backed away as a strange light surrounded Micro, and his eyes briefly emitted two beams of chaotic energy which tore through several trees and set fire to a nearby bush.

  “Stop that!” Lena shouted, and Micro quickly closed his eyes. “Whatever method you’re using, it’s far too unstable!”

  “Sorry, Lena…” Micro replied, rubbing his eyes. “I thought if I just remembered the feeling of turning my headlights on enough, it might happen by itself, but it’s very different from electricity. All the energy just came out at once…”

  “The more elements you can use, the more difficult it may be to control any particular element, but you will learn to do so in time, I’m sure. Higher core levels allow for greater control,” Lena explained, an impatient air rowing around her. “For now, it would be more prudent to keep walking, and be patient. The light of the sun will be at your disposal in little time.”

  “Oh, never mind then.” Micro nodded, disappointed that he would have to practice much more before regaining his headlights. “Thanks, Lena.”

  “So that’s why cultivators only use a few elements,” Blue said with an amused tone. “I guess it that does take a while even for pixies.”

  “How long did it take you?” Micro asked as the group began to move again.

  “I don’t know. I was probably the same colour as Trill back then,” Blue replied, frowning as she tried to recall the amount of time.

  “How old were you?” Micro asked.

  “Who knows?” Blue shrugged, then pointed at a large tree. “At least old enough for a few of those to have come and gone.”

  “That’s pretty old,” Micro said, impressed by her claim.

  “For a human, sure,” Blue said. “I’ve taken naps longer than a human can live.”

  “She may be a cultivator, but she’s also a pixie,” Lena added with a frown. “Don’t let yourself be confused by her words.”

  Micro nodded, but felt comfortable enough with Blue’s explanation. As morning came and the forest warmed, an air of relief emerged in the group, though the trees still blocked much of the sun’s light. Not long after the sun had risen, their quiet trek was interrupted by the rumbling sound that shook the trees. Micro wondered for a moment if a train was passing by, but he soon recalled the lack of vehicles he faced on his new world.

  “That could be cause for concern for our mundane friends…” Lena sighed. “There’s quite a lot of them.”

  “They’re scared,” Blue added, looking into the distance. “Probably because of the magicians’ rampaging pets.”

  “What do you see?” Micro asked, unable to make out the source of the sound.

  “There’s no mistaking the sound of a stampede,” Blue replied. “Could be anything, though likely nothing to worry about.”

  “What about them?” Micro asked, pointing back at the terrified group.

  “Oh, yes,” Blue replied. “They should be worried.”

  “What should we do?” Micro shouted to Lena.

  “I’ll need more time to cultivate before I can erect a big enough defensive force to protect this many people…” Lena explained with a grim tone, looking around at the helpless crowd behind her. Her expression only made Micro more anxious as she turned her attention back to the direction of the oncoming stampede. “We can stop as many of the monsters who come this way as we can, but it won’t be easy. They’re almost here.

  Having overheard Lena’s explanation, many of the non-cultivators began to panic and rush to Lena’s side, though she was visibly displeased by their clamouring around her. She quickly erected a weak shield of energy to keep them from getting too close. However, even several children were able to penetrate the barrier, given her weakened state.

  “Hmm…” Micro thought for a moment while staring at the odd behaviour of the panicking crowd around Lena. “I can probably deal with this.”

  “What are you planning?” Lena asked. “A Spirit Wave attack would put the mundane at great risk.”

  “Just have them stand still, and I’ll try and shield them until the danger has passed,” Micro explained.

  “Such a great shield would be impossible to reinforce without the Mycelial Art at your disposal,” Lena replied, nodding her head. “It’s shocking how much use you’ve made of such an obscure art.”

  “Mushrooms go well with everything after all,” Micro said. He gave her a thumbs up, then rooted himself to the ground and began the simple yet exhausting process of erecting a large shield. “I really should try some mushrooms while I’m human…”

  “What is that?!” Several of the cowering non-cultivators began to panic as a large, translucent turtle shell began to grow out of the ground in front of Micro, its green glow gradually expanding until it formed a dome over the large group.

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  “Please be quiet,” Micro announced over the increasingly loud rumbling. Blue jumped onto his head silently and looked around at the shield with a frown.

  “This may not hold up for long,” she declared, then jumped down to the ground. “Trill, get busy!”

  “Now we’re taking care of even more humans, eh?” Trill answered as he quickly hopped into action, though his reluctance was visible on his face.

  “Just go with the flow,” Blue snapped back. “What pixie needs reminding of that?”

  “Yes, yes…” Trill yawned as he obediently followed her in rooting himself to the ground and began to feed Micro whatever energy they could harness from the ground.

  “Thanks, guys,” Micro whispered as he strengthened the shield. The shield eventually became so dense that few people could see through it, though Micro looked ahead vigilantly as the stamped closed in on them. Even their energy signatures were obscured by the trees, but he began to understand what sort of creatures they were, and he was surprised by their numbers.

  THUD

  “Woah!” The crowd reeled in shock as the shield was impacted by a creature they couldn’t see. They backed away from the part of the shield which had been shaken by the collision, but several more loud impacts soon followed, each one loud enough to make their ears ring.

  “They’re a bit like cows…” Micro mumbled as he resisted the force of the creatures who slowly picked themselves back up, shook their heads, and continued around the ethereal construction.

  “Dungeon bulls,” Lena corrected him. “Livestock corrupted by the energy of a powerful dungeon. Their brown scales are like iron and their horns secrete venom.”

  “Are they like cave bears?” Micro asked.

  “Many creatures make use of the energy which dungeons emit, though such a large number as this would be considered rare,” Lena continued. “Good job, Micro, and your friends…”

  THUD

  “Thanks, Lena,” Micro said, his voice strained. “If they had bulls like this on my world, they might not have invented bulldozers…!”

  “Looks like you’ll be in our debt a while longer, eh?” Blue added with a tired laugh, but Lena only sighed in frustration at her inability to be of assistance.

  “Such is my fate…” Lena said, allowing her own weak shield to dissipate, no longer resisting the children clinging to her in tears.

  ~

  The herd of mutated bulls eventually made their way past Micro and the crowd he protected, though several of the creatures had rammed his shield hard enough to break their own skulls and now lay lifeless near the perimeter of his barrier. Micro offered to carry them to town to be processed into food, but was disappointed to learn that most animals which were heavily mutated by exposure to dungeon energy were poisonous to humans.

  With a renewed sense of security, the large group continued west through the forest for the remainder of the day. Some of the people who had viewed Micro with little regard earlier in the day now appeared to look at him with fondness, though none dared approach him.

  After night fell once again, they set up camp in a clearing where little wildlife was visible. Most of the liberated prisoners fell asleep quickly beneath fur blankets taken from the bandits, but Micro didn’t feel like sleeping. While Lena sat at the edge of their makeshift camp cultivating silently, Micro walked around the clearing for a while, looking up at the stars through the gaps in the trees.

  “Do you think there are others like Nora out there?” Micro asked without any particular conversation partner in mind.

  “They come and go…” Blue replied to break the silence.

  “Have you met any of them?”

  “I’ve met the followers of a handful of gods, but they didn’t leave much of an impression. Mostly crazy folks…”

  “If I found one, do you think they’d send me back to my old body?”

  “Maybe, but you’re better off trying to find the power to do that yourself.”

  “I see…” Micro sighed, stopping his walk beneath a large pine tree. “How much farther do I have to go?”

  “You want to know how long it takes to gain the powers of a god?” Blue asked, her tone more sympathetic than usual. “Well, I’ve seen some cultivators get pretty strong before old age caught up with them…”

  “Do you think I’ll be able to get back before winter?”

  “Winter?”

  “If he doesn’t have a way to get around when the harvest starts, and he can’t go into town…” Micro sighed, a look of frustration returning to his face. “I don’t think he can afford a new truck right now!”

  “Never mind getting there before it snows,” Blue smirked. “You’d be lucky to get there in a single pixie’s lifetime.”

  “But you’re so old…!” Micro gasped.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” she said, waving her hand to dispel the heavy atmosphere as if it were a cloud of smoke. “By the time you’re able to cross between realms by yourself, time will be the least of your worries.”

  “What do you mean?” Micro frowned.

  “Some gods are big on sending messages to the past for their followers to use,” Blue explained. “It’s super annoying. There are ways around it, but it’s the weirdest thing to deal with, seriously.”

  “Cultivators can travel through time?” Micro whispered, unable to raise his voice in his surprise. “That’s amazing…!”

  “I guess,” Blue replied. “I got stuck reliving a day once, but that got old after an eternity or so.”

  “If that’s possible, then there’s no need to hurry,” Micro said with a bright smile.

  “Well, unless you plan on keeping up with me!”

  “You want to become as powerful as Nora too?” Micro asked.

  “Yeah, I think that sounds like fun,” Blue said, but then she frowned as she considered the matter. “Actually, I think I’d like to become much stronger.”

  ~

  Feeling somewhat frustrated after moving so slowly during the day, Blue eventually decided to spend the night cultivating. Micro attempted to cultivate alongside her while Trill continued to sleep in his pocket, but he soon felt restless, waking up with an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

  “Excuse me…” A young boy’s voice suddenly distracted him from his discomfort. “Hey…!”

  “Oh, it’s you,” Micro replied cheerfully despite his mood. “Are you and your friend alright? You had a terrible experience…”

  “Kira isn’t my friend,” The boy asserted with a less humble tone. “She’s my stupid sister.”

  “And who are you?” Micro asked, amused by his tone.

  “Kolt,” The boy replied, suddenly remembering his fear of Micro.

  “You mean Kira’s stupid brother?” Blue remarked without opening her eyes.

  “Hey, what do—” The boy stuttered as he located the source of the insult. When he saw Blue smirking while meditating, he cleared his throat and addressed Micro. “I just want to—I mean… Umm…”

  “You don’t have to thank me, if that’s what you’re thinking about,” Micro explained with a kind tone, but the boy frowned back at him.

  “That’s not it at all,” he said, doing his best to keep a straight face while his knees continued to shake. “I wanted to ask you…”

  “Yes?”

  “How do you become a cultivator?” Kolt asked.

  “I’m not sure, exactly,” Micro replied. “I just suddenly became one when my soul wound up in this body. It already had a core, right here…”

  “A core…” Kolt listened intently and followed Micro’s finger as he pointed to the area of his chest where his core resided.

  “After you make a core, you can use energy,” Micro explained, holding up his arm and summoning Turtle Art armour on one hand. “But making a core can be dangerous. I almost exploded a few times, so having a good teacher is important.”

  “So I need to find a teacher…” Kolt sighed. “I don’t want to explode.”

  “I can see why cultivators have a hard time sensing you…” Micro said as he observed the energy in Kolt with a glowing eye. He had wondered if he might be able to teach the boy to form a core, but realized just how little energy Kolt had at his disposal when he looked closely. “I think you’ll need a lot more energy to start cultivating.”

  “Where do you get energy from?” Kolt asked with wide eyes.

  “You can get it from all sorts of places. There’s a lot of it in mountains, and some food is full of it,” Micro explained. “You should eat lots of mountain fried beef!”

  “You think they hand that out for free?” Kolt scoffed.

  “They did give it to us for free,” Micro replied.

  “Never mind…” Kolt turned to walk away, a dark and hopeless air around him.

  “Hmm…” Micro could only look on with pity, unable to offer a word of comfort. However, the memory of his first time becoming aware of energy in Feng’s cabin occurred to him, and he called Kolt back excitedly. “There’s one thing we could try!”

  “What?” Kolt asked quietly, turning around in surprise.

  “Come here!” Micro said happily. “And close your eyes!”