“...So I woke up in a cryopod.”

  “You what?”

  “I integrated with Aura, who is an ancient Nevani AI.”

  “A what?”

  “I can drain murderbots for mana.”

  “You can do WHAT?!”

  “I’m third stage Body Tempering.”

  “What?”

  By the time Cale finished recounting everything, Darius dropped heavily onto a pile of mana crystals, staring at him as if he’d just sprouted a second head. He twirled his umbrella absently, the polished handle clicking against his palm.

  “Hell of a story, kid,” Darius said at last. “Either you’re the luckiest amateur I’ve ever met, or the unluckiest. Haven’t decided which yet.”

  His eyes flicked to Scarroid’s charred corpse.

  “Still can’t believe you killed him. Third stage Body Tempering? You have no business being this strong.”

  Cale smiled weakly, too exhausted to muster any pride. He slumped back against a pedestal, sucking on the bitter pill Darius had tossed him earlier. It was helping, but only barely.

  “Your Integra, Aura, is a special piece of tech,” Darius said, tapping the umbrella against his knee. “That energy blast you used? Crude, sure. But mana manifestation techniques don’t start showing up until Core Formation. Maybe late Mana Circuitry if you’re a prodigy. You shouldn’t be able to do that at your level.”

  “Excccccuuuuse me, did that man just call me ‘crude’?!”

  Cale blinked, the terminology washing over him like a foreign language. “That’s a lot of words I don’t understand. What’s an Integra?”

  Darius groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

  “You don’t know what an Integra is?

  He lifted his umbrella and spun it idly, his expression turning faintly amused.

  “This is an Integra. High-end manatech, bonded to my cultivation. Some are weapons, some are tools, some are flashy junk made to impress idiots. Every serious cultivator is packing some.”

  “What does it do?”

  Darius’s smirk widened. He patted the umbrella fondly.

  “What doesn’t it do? Weapon, shield, transportation, and a few surprises you’ll see if I trust you enough. Which…”

  His grin turned sharper.

  “…I don’t.”

  Cale started to speak, but Darius raised a hand, silencing him.

  “Look, kid. We could do this all day—‘What’s this? What’s that?’—but I have places to be, and I don’t have the patience. So here’s the deal: you’re going to cultivate while I talk at you.”

  Cale frowned.

  “You mean ‘talk with me.’”

  “No.”

  “To me?”

  “At you,” Darius said flatly, tossing him a bright yellow pill. “Now sit down, swallow that recovery pill, and stick this under your tongue.”

  Cale caught the pill, hesitating for a moment before obeying. It tasted like lemons and rain, with a sweet aftertaste. His eyes widened almost immediately as the world brightened, colors growing sharper, the flow of mana inside him clearer and more vibrant.

  Aura hummed in his mind, as if tasting the pill herself.

  “High-grade alchemical supplements. Primitive, but effective. Perhaps this scoundrel is not entirely useless.”

  Cale snorted. “Scoundrel?”

  “I am ancient,” Aura said, her tone prim and haughty. “I am allowed these words.”

  Darius perked up, raising an eyebrow.

  “Did your AI just call me a scoundrel?”

  Cale’s grin twitched at the edges.

  “She says maybe.”

  “What do you mean ‘maybe?’”

  “She declines to answer.”

  Darius leaned back, resting his chin on his umbrella handle. A slow, cocky grin spread across his face.

  “I like her. She’s got spirit,” he paused. “Shame she’s wasted on you.”

  Cale could feel Aura sniffing in his mind. “He’s dangerous.”

  “No kidding,” Cale muttered aloud.

  “Okay, enough play,” Darius said and he leveled a serious gaze at Cale. “You’re at third stage Body Tempering now. Do you know what happens when you reach fourth?”

  “A party?” Cale asked as he sucked the juice out of the pill.

  “Funny guy,” Darius said flatly. “You don’t know. Here’s a real piece of advice. What you don’t know will most certainly kill you in my world.”

  Cale nodded and said nothing.

  “Now if you’ll shut up for a minute I’ll tell you that failing at this won’t kill you, but it will cripple your cultivation. So pay attention. Each of the stages, Body Tempering, Mana Circuitry, Core Formation, Core Crystallization, Soul Core and Transcendence Drive all have an upper and lower stage. If you’re wondering why Cultivation is so easy, it’s because you’re passing stages eight year olds are struggling with. But even the first bottleneck is dangerous.”

  “What’s going to happen?” Cale asked.

  “It’s going to get messy and there’s pain,” Darius said. “Your job is to take control. Your body will convulse as it transforms. Your job is to pull off some mind over matter shit, and assert yourself over the mana. If you don’t you’ll break bones, tear muscles and dislocate joints. And that’s getting off easy as far as failing breakthroughs go. Failing at Core formation… That takes years to recover without the right meds.”

  “Throw me another crystal,” Cale said.

  Darius chuckled. “What a glutton. Not even a please?”

  Cale cracked one eye open. “Really? That’s how you want this to be?”

  “Hell no,” Darius said and tossed him a crystal.

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  Cale caught it and frowned. “This is not enough.”

  “Says the guy without a mana attuner,” Darius said. “It’s enough if you’re efficient enough.”

  “For all his numerous flaws, he is keen. You are inefficient. We should work on that.”

  “I can’t believe you two are piling on me.”

  “So the infinitely wise and powerful AI agrees with me?” Darius asked and grinned.

  “I decline to answer,” Cale said.

  He focused on the energy he sucked in. It was smooth and effortless to work with, but now Cale challenged himself. He looked into the mana deeper. Tried to feel it more intricately, like really focusing on the subtle use of color in a masterful painting.

  He could see that the mana inside him was not an amorphous mass that wasn’t quite liquid or gas. It was made of globules. Tiny globules stacked on each other, that pulsed smoothly as if they were breathing.

  Cale had a moment of realization. He started breathing in sync with the globules. Gradually the sensation of mana inside of him grew more intimate. He now had a much more concrete understanding of how much mana he was working with.

  He sucked it and breathed rhythmically as the mana dispersed all around his body, muscles, bones, tendons, fascia, organs.

  He exhaled and let the feeling settle.

  “That was excellent Cale! You’ve improved your efficiency to 29%”

  Cale smiled victoriously and when he looked at Darius, his mentor cocked an eyebrow. “You want applause?”

  “No, but I want another crystal.”

  Darius let out a faux sigh and threw another one, bigger this time. “What a greedy disciple.”

  *

  After going through four more crystals, Cale was close to the peak of third stage of Body Tempering. By now he knew something about the world that awaited outside.

  A world of corporations fighting for control over resources left behind by the Nevani. There were six major factions in total. All of them had subsidiaries, and there were small mercenary clans and rogue cultivators, but the Big Six played the real game. And Darius was an agent of the Gray Lotus Syndicate, where Cale would also start his career.

  Darius kept asking about his ability to drain mana from murderbots. It was clear that it was important to him, but he wouldn’t reveal anything else but that it was unheard of and that Cale should absolutely not mention it to anyone. In general Darius suggested keeping his trap shut before he knew some basic rules of the game.

  Cale kept cultivating and draining crystals until he felt a certain saturation inside of him. He felt like he could no longer push the mana from his mana pool into his body. Like it just wouldn’t accept any more. He shrugged and let the mana stay in the pool, where it settled.

  “You managed to reach peak of Body Tempering three!” Aura said gleefully. “You are ready for a breakthrough.”

  Cale told as much to Darius.

  “That so?” Darius said and regarded Cale, rubbing his chin. There was an unreadable expression in the tall man’s eyes. Was he impressed? Worried?

  For one thing, Darius was calculating. But he seemed to finally reach a conclusion.

  He sat down and threw a crystal at Cale. “Remember kid. Assert control. There is no folding in breakthroughs. You have to play the hand you’re dealt. Just don’t give up.”

  After that, he flicked another yellow focus pill at Cale who grabbed it and put it in his mouth.

  “Here goes nothing.”

  Cale laid down on the floor and started breathing. His whole being was full to the brim with Mana, and he was struggling to keep it in. It didn’t fight him, as he had attuned it correctly, but he just felt so full. It was fullness in the muscles of his arms, fullness in his stomach, a feeling of pressure about the eyes. As the focus pill enhanced his senses, he could feel the presence of millions of those tiny mana globules everywhere. It was almost too much for his mind to handle.

  “Relax, Cale,” Aura said soothingly. “This is as basic as cultivation gets. You are going to be fine.”

  Cale nodded and settled on the ground. He let go of his doubts. He breathed, relaxed, and accepted what was to come. Whatever it was, Cale knew it would pass. Pain? Strain? Extreme fatigue? It would pass.

  “It’s going to creep up on you gradually, before it hits you like a tidal wave,” Darius drawled. “Just don’t lose focus.”

  “That we at least can agree on…” Aura muttered. “Focus and breathe.”

  “Magic breathing…” Cale muttered. “It’s easy. It’s basic.”

  Cale breathed in rhythm with the pulsing globules of mana inside of him. They seemed to… sense that Cale was ready. In the next instant they stopped breathing, and the rhythm inside of Cale was stilled into a heavy silence. The globules all converged in his solar plexus and got sucked into some oblivion.

  “Did you take them?” Cale asked.

  “Of course not,” Aura said. “What manner of fool do you take me for? Now shush.”

  There was absolute silence. No commentary from Aura. Even Darius was still. There was only the eb of Cale’s breath. Then the wave came.

  At first, it was a small pulse. It rippled through his body, spreading from his solar plexus. Then another pulse, stronger this time. Cale could feel his muscles tense, and his heart started pounding more urgently.

  The third pulse hurt. Cale suppressed a wince as it the pulse passed through him and rang in his brain. Before he could recover another pulse surged through him. Faster this time. More pain. Another pulse, faster. Another pulse, even faster.

  Cale started jackhammering. The pain surged through him in steady and fast pulses, his muscles contracted and the air was pushed out of his lungs as Cale started convulsing uncontrollably.

  “Conquer it,” Darius said flatly.

  “Cale… I’m not sure about that.”

  Cale listened to Darius. He pulled his hands into fists and grit his teeth, trying to force the pain down. But another pulse came and it shook him. Cale let out a gasp and could feel a warm trickle from his nose entering his mouth. The taste of iron was the least of his worries.

  Then the tidal wave came. No fast pulses, just one massive one, that overtook Cale. There was only intense pain in his muscles, his heart, his lungs, his bones. It was overwhelming. There was no controlling it. It was so profound, so true that he forgot everything. Darius was saying something, but Cale could not hear or care what it was.

  He felt and heard a crack as he slammed his fist uncontrollably on the stone floor and it broke. He screamed.

  “Cale! Stop this nonsense! He is teaching you wrong. Do not attempt to control it Mana does not want to be controlled. It wants to flow. You need to synchronize with it.”

  Thoughts were heavy through the haze of pain and his thrashing body, but Cale managed through sheer will.

  Synchronize?

  “The mana is not fighting you. It is transforming you, and you need to let it. Relax.”

  Cale could not fathom how he could relax, but he tried. He opened his fists, his hands still shook and his left wrist was a flash of red pain in his mind. His muscles contracted and Cale could feel the sinews strain. He exhaled and tried to ease the knot in his stomach. It loosened. Just a little bit. And the pain eased.

  Cale followed that feeling. One by one, he managed to relax his feet, legs, arms, abdominals, neck, jaw. The pain was fading. His wrist still throbbed and the pulses kept coming, pushing Cale to new convulsions, but Cale kept his calm and slowly regained the lost ground every time a wave came. And every time he inched closer and closer to full relaxation.

  “Now this…” Aura said with gleeful satisfaction. “This is true control. Control of the self! You are doing great, Cale!

  Cale worked at it, letting the pulses pass him, synchronizing his breathing with them. It got easier and easier. Finally, even his mind relaxed. He exhaled again. It was a beautiful serene feeling.

  “You did it!” Aura declared with great joy. “You’re in Middle Body Tempering! Fourth Stage!”

  Cale smiled. “Thanks to you.”

  Cale could sense Aura’s flusterment. “You—you managed to listen to me just this once!”

  Cale only smiled and enjoyed the sensation of utter peace and release. It was like waking up on a warm and sunny morning after a nightmare. Everything was right. There was no hunger, fatigue, fear, or even pain. Just release, satisfaction, contentment.

  And wetness.

  “The stench is exquisite,” Darius said, holding his nose. “Your jumpsuit is a goner.”

  Cale inhaled and a putrid vile reek enveloped him. Gone was the serenity, gone was the peace. He jumped up and groaned. He was covered in some black gunk. It was mostly inside his jumpsuit but also pouring out from all the cuts in it.

  “Please stand away from me,” Darius said and took the lapelle from his suit and covered his mouth and nose with it.”

  Cale moved a few paces back and undressed himself. He noticed he used both hands to do it.

  My wrist…

  Cale lifted his hand and turned it. There was no pain, no nothing. The wrist was as good as new. Cale flexed his fingers and formed a fist.

  The sense of power was heady feeling. Cale bent his knees in a horse stance and slammed a palm into the stone floor. There was a faint crack as fracture lines formed in the polished tile.

  Cale grinned so wide his face hurt. He did a backflip. Just because. He couldn’t help but to woop and throw a victorious fist in the air.

  “Not the best taste in victory dances, but I’ll let it pass,” Darius said. He unpeeled his sleeve and revealed a bracelet with a small panel. He pressed it a few times and a rectangular portal appeared. Darius put his hand in there, rummaged a little bit and produced gray suit pants and a white dress shirt.

  Cale was about to thank him, but before he got a word out, Darius sprayed a torrent of cold water with high pressure from the tip of his umbrella. Cale spluttered and fought the stream while Darius grinned like a child. Once Cale was sufficiently clean and humiliated, Darius put his umbrella away and the portal closed.

  “Congratulations, kid. You’ve reached the level of a particularly talented ten-year-old. Try not to let it go to your head. Now put these on.”

  Cale grinned and took the clothes. It was time to face the real world.

  ! It helps out a ton.