“Show it to me again,” Cale said as he walked along the dark corridors.

  “Fine,” Aura huffed, and a blue rectangle materialized in front of Cale’s vision. He looked at it and smiled.

  [Mana Cultivation Power Level: 1]

  [Mana Pool: 1]

  [Advancement Stage: Body Tempering 1]

  [A.U.R.A Skills: N/A]

  Cale reveled in the one. One. One step taken. One step on a journey to something great. What it was, who could say? But Cale was ready for it.

  The difference between a one and a zero is the difference between eating and being eaten.

  Cale shook a fist in triumph and smiled.

  “Need I remind you of the arduous journey ahead you have as a Cultivator?”

  “That is exactly why I’m enjoying the ever-living damn out of this,” Cale said. “I know it won’t last and things will only get harder.”

  Cale walked along the corridors of the dark tomb. There was a white light coming from the ceiling, but it was dim. However, after forming a Mana core, all of his senses were heightened. He felt more awake, more alert, more sharp in every way. Cale had asked Aura if she was augmenting his perception somehow, but she remarked haughtily that she would not waste Mana on something so menial.

  Cale was dragging the murderbot arm behind him, and it clinked softly as he walked. He hoped to find a weapon that would make him feel more secure soon, but it was better than nothing. Being armed made him feel a smidge safer.

  I’m still carrying this fear. I know it's natural. Humans are supposed to feel afraid in a situation like this. But it is holding me back.

  Cale tried to focus on his surroundings. The Nevani were clearly master craftsmen. The walls were all seamless as if made from concrete, or conjured from thin air for all Cale knew. The walls were high and the roof wasn’t visible, but a pale light shone down.

  The tomb was simple, and there were not many rooms. Cale checked a few of them, but they seemed to be warehouses and sleeping quarters long abandoned. There were no cryopods, no strange technology and fortunately no murderbots.

  “What do you think this place was?” Cale asked.

  “I need not think, for I know,” Aura answered smugly. “This was a research facility turned into a bunker. This ruins was one of the last bastions of the Nevani. I was one of the last successful technology they managed to create. Needless to say that I am the pinnacle of creation. And beauty. And grace!”

  “Truly, truly,” Cale said distractedly as he looked around in the darkness, listening for threats. He didn’t hear anything, so he interrupted Aura’s descriptions of the wonders of the Nevani technology, namely herself. He had a question that had been pressing his mind ever since he woke up.

  “Who am I, Aura?”

  Cale could feel a stir in his mind, like a single sad chord faintly played. “I do not know exactly. I know suitable individuals were found to merge with us. But the Nevani were… not like you. You are not from this realm, Cale. You were brought here from a place with another sun.”

  Cale nodded to himself. He was feeling something, but he wasn’t sure how to name it. There was some anger. He had been thrust into this situation and suddenly made to fight for his life. He didn’t ask for any of this.

  I guess I got lucky, unlike the other four…

  That mixed into the feeling. Mostly it was sadness. But what kind of sadness, Cale inquired. Loneliness. He was a stranger in a strange land. And those other people who had slept next to him for who knows how long? Centuries? Millennia? Had they been his supposed companions. Was the plan for him to have friends and comrades?

  Well, that was never realized.

  “We need to keep moving,” Cale said quietly. “Step one. Find murderbots to murder and get more power, so I don’t have to feel so damn scared all the time. Step two. Get out of this damn tomb.”

  *

  “Shh!” Aura hissed.

  “I wasn’t saying anything,” Cale muttered.

  “Can you sense it?”

  No, he couldn’t. But admitting that outright, might give the damned little thing too much satisfaction. So Cale extended his Mana sense. It was a tingling thing in his core. He directed it outwards from his body. Cale imagined a sphere of faint blue light that extended in every direction. He pushed the sphere, expanding the diameter a few yards, before it popped like a balloon.

  Damn it.

  “Stop wasting Mana,” Aura said. “There is a tier-1 murderbot in the next room. This one was also awakened by you turning on the facility. It was dormant, and has a lot more Mana than the previous broken one. Approach with caution.”

  Cale nodded. He knew what to do. And now he was that much stronger. He would use the same tactic as before. Pin the damn machine down and drain it. He gave a few test swings of his arm-club and found the swooshing satisfactory. He crept towards the doorway to listen.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  There was a faint clicking behind the door, as well as a low hum of a motor. Cale peeked carefully around the corner and saw a murderbot pacing around. This one had stubby legs as the first one, but instead of clawed hands, it had two long chainsaws with sharp blue edges that shone in the dim light. The red lens on its snout was looking this way and that, and Cale ducked behind the corner just in time.

  Cale wanted help, but dared not speak. Instead he wrote on the wall with his finger: Plan?

  Turns out I can write too. Huh, that’s convenient.

  “This one will have significantly more combat power than the previous damaged one. Because of the chainsaw appendages instead of claws, it is slower and clumsier, but much stronger. You are likely to die in a direct confrontation, as you are tier zero, and this model is designed to defeat, or at least go toe to toe against tier one cultivators.”

  Cale nodded and impatiently gestured with his hands for Aura to continue.

  “The goal is draining its Mana. The strategy must form around it. The strategy must consider your power disadvantage. You need tactics that give you an advantage. Surprise attack, a trap, a distraction.”

  Cale peeked inside the room and thought again. It was a small and simple room, with crumbled rubble from ancient times on the floor. There were two doorways. One by which Cale was at, and one at the opposite side of the room, leading further into the ruins.

  He had the murderbot arm as a club. Cale’s instincts said that if he tried to fend off direct attacks from the murderbot, it would likely just cut his weapon in half. So he needed to go on full offense.

  Strike first, strike hard…

  “Do you have a plan? I could provide some more amazing insights.”

  Cale brought a finger to his mouth and silently shushed Aura. She definitely huffed this time in his mind.

  I think they do have one clear weakness though…

  Cale quickly peeked inside. The murderbot was still pacing, now looking at the doorway on the opposite side of the room. He could rush its back now. But Cale was ten paces away and the murderbot would surely hear him and have time to react.

  Instead Cale crept backwards and looked around. He found some rubble close behind him. After rummaging through the pile, he found a few suitably sized rocks. He snuck back to the doorway and threw one rock inside. It sent distinct echoes in the silence of the ruins as it clattered on the floor.

  The murderbot groaned in an almost questioning manner. Cale could hear it slowly approach the rock. The hum of its Mana engine got stronger and Cale could even sense faint Mana signatures with his strange sixth sense.

  The murderbot moved quietly but Cale could sense it getting closer to the doorway. They were not stupid. The machine knew the rock had to have come somewhere.

  Cale threw another rock, bigger this time. He lobbed it perpendicular to the doorway. It thunked loudly a few yards yonder.

  The murderbot groaned again, now much more sure. It rushed towards the sound, and its chainsaws roared into action.

  When it galloped through the doorway, Cale was waiting. Like a baseball bat, he swung with all his might with the mechanical arm, holding it from its wrist. The thickest end of the ripped out arm crashed right into the murderbot’s red lens. It shattered and went dim. The murderbot groaned with anger and started thrashing around, waving the long chainsaws in deadly arcs.

  Cale immediately ran away further back to the pile of rubble to pick up some more rocks, while the murderbot was still in a fit of rage and confusion. He crouched still, holding rocks in both hands while he watched and waited.

  “Well done!” Aura chimed. “I would have of course suggested this course of action, but I just wanted to see if you would come to the same conclusion…”

  Cale rolled his eyes.

  “Now you have a choice. Do you want to creep past it, or drain it for its Mana?”

  For Cale, he realized, there was no question. The dark greed flickered inside him. He wanted the Mana. He wanted that feeling again, that rush of power that was his to wield. He wanted a win.

  He threw another rock, lobbing it over the murderbot, which was still attacking ghosts, but in a much more composed manner. It must have felt the wind of the rock pass it, as it tried to swing upwards at it.

  Fast.

  But instead of turning to follow the sound of the rock clattering behind it, the murderbot turned towards where the trajectory had come from — Directly at Cale.

  It rushed wildly towards him, the chainsaw buzzing and swinging down in an arc. Cale dodged and felt a slight drain of Mana as Aura enhanced his senses. The murderbot swung both of its chainsaws outwards around it. Cale ducked and threw his handful of rocks in the air. The rocks scattered in all four winds, clattering this way and that, completely confusing the murderbot. It groaned and started thrashing around in wild swings of its weapons. Meanwhile Cale skulked back towards the arm on the floor near the doorway.

  Cale felt the rush of adrenaline and fear throbbing in his mind. His senses were sharper due to the danger and cultivation. He was so deeply, acutely here that it was almost overwhelming. His heavy and deep breathing. Every single of his heartbeats. Every shift of weight from the murderbot he could sense. Every small pebble under his foot as he moved.

  The energy of his emotions almost overwhelmed him. Strongest of them all was an intense, cold fear. Almost instinctively, Cale reached for it. He breathed it in, let it wash over him. It changed. Morphed into something under his will.

  Cale shuddered as he breathed. Closed his eyes and felt energized. The fear was still there. But it had changed direction. It was not pushing him backwards anymore. He was not cowering.

  It is pushing me forward.

  It was no longer fear. It was thrill.

  I’m having fun…

  As he rushed inside the room he tapped the doorway with the murderbot arm.

  The murderbot was not stupid. Immediately when it entered the room, it attacked. It swung sideways in a violent smashing arc with both of his hands, shaking the room when its weapons crashed into the wall.

  But Cale had already observed the murderbots learned. He was one step ahead. And the murderbot was wide open. Cale had been standing a few paces back in front of the doorway. All the while, he had been gathering a storm.

  He had called power from his Mana pool , breathing it in, infusing him. It energized him. Every muscle felt fuller, stronger, faster. Cale was ready.

  After the murderbot swung at its sides, he went for it.

  Cale smashed with all his might at the murderbot’s head in an overpowering overhead swing. The murderbot arm struck his foe right in the dome, with such a force that it shattered the arm, sending metal flying in every direction.

  The murderbot groaned and stumbled. It swung clumsily forward. Cale sidestepped and push-kicked the wobbling machine. It crashed eight feet into the wall. Cale tackled into it, shoulder first, grabbing and pinning down the arms. The murderbot struggled, but Cale could put all his weight against the blades, pushing at them from their flat sides against the murderbot itself. It tried to activate its blades, but it only cut into itself.

  Cale started to drain it as Aura frantically instructed him. The murderbot’s strength was waning. Cale drank in the power.

  The mana was unstable and fought him, but it gave him a rush like nothing else. Soon that power would be tamed and it would be his.

  Finally the murderbot died down. It twitched one last time and went limp. Cale inhaled. The rush of winning, and the storm of unstable Mana inside of him pounding his whole being.

  It felt amazing.

  “Stop lollygagging and Cultivate this Mana before you vomit it out!” Aura snapped.

  “I’m not lollygagging, I’m dilly-dallying,” Cale said, struggling with words, as he attempted to control the boiling Mana.

  “Why— you— Argghhh.”

  Cale chuckled as Aura huffed angrily. He sat down and began to cultivate. It was time to power up.