I can't really remember much of the last couple of days, to me it felt like only a few hours had passed. I was so caught up in the feeling of refining my nervous system, of the high I felt ever time the Lightning Elemental Energy struck me that I didn't eat or sleep. Yet, I felt amazing. Better than I'd ever felt in my life.
I probably would've kept training until I reached the peak of the 6th level of body refining if Beth hadn't walked in to find me moaning in ecstasy. I was laying on the ground as lightning bolt after lightning bolt slammed into me, the Lightning Elemental Energy hitting my system like a shot of adrenaline.
With a look of complete disgust, Beth walked over to me and kicked me in the balls as hard as she could. "You're disgusting, getting off on getting struck by lightning. No wonder none of your girlfriends stay, you're into pain."
Even though I was doubled over in pain, gasping as I tried to regain my breath I still manged to choke out, "No, I hate pain. Please don't set me up with a dominatrix." I begged her in a high pitched, pained voice as I rolled around trying to alleviate the pain with movement.
Beth ignored me, off in her own world as she mumbled to herself, "Imagine Alexandra's disappointment when I tell her you two will never work out. Your need for pain so great that you'll end up driving her away, paying a dominatrix to give you what you need."
The pain gradually subsided, and finally able to breath I ignored her mumbling to ask her, "What are you doing here? No, more importantly HOW are you in here?"
She looked at me again, snorting in disgust as she reached up to pinch her nose shut, "You've been stuck in here for nearly 3 days! No food, no water, and definitely no shower. I got worried about you."
Shaking my head slightly as I finally stood up, it took me a moment to realize what she'd said. "Wait? Nearly three days?"
Nodding, Beth turned to walk away from me while shouting over her shoulder. "Get cleaned up! We're meeting in Ironmarsh tonight to take care of an issue. We're all heading over to Rick's place, you've got half an hour!."
"Why Rick's?" I asked, but she had already left the formation and I couldn't hear her response. Taking a moment to examine myself, I was surprised to find that I'd reached the peak of the fourth level of body refining. My training had been so intense that I'd advanced more in the last three days then in the week and a half before.
An hour later, the four of us jumped in Rick's truck. To my surprise, we were joined by Alexandra and Gunthar. "Tell me again, why are we going to Rick's house?" I asked, confused.
"Well, Gunthar and Alexandra don't have enough room, Connor's house was totaled, and there is no way in hell that I'd allow you oafs to stay at my house!" Beth glared at me in exasperation, she'd never enjoyed explaining something more than once.
"Aren't the reporters camped out there?" I asked.
"Nah, my dad scared them all off. They moved to your house, reports that you've skipped the last couple of days of school have them all think that you've never left the house." Rick turned the truck down a side road, avoiding the major intersections where we might be spotted. A massive grin came over his face as he said, "I bet all my money that you were at school but not in class which had a 5 to 1 pay out in Vegas. This time next week I'll bring home 50 grand."
Grabbing onto my hair, I couldn't help but yell out in frustration. "You and Gunthar were in those videos too, why am I the only one being treated like this!"
Gunthar spoke, a rare smile on his face, "Because you're the pretty boy mindscape cultivator who loves to show off."
"Pretty boy? Since when?" Rick scoffed, but Beth was nodding along with him while Alexandra blushed as she nodded in agreement too.
We finally made it Rick's place, only to find Matt and Sarah already there waiting for us with beers in hand. "You guys took forever!" Sarah complained, giving Alexandra a hug.
"Had to wait for the perv to get done with his shower." Beth said as she joined the hug.
Connor stepped out of the truck, a grimace on his face as he grabbed his head in obvious pain.
"You alright?" I asked him, noticing that his eyes had changed from green to a dull gray color.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just not fully recovered from receiving the legacy. It didn't bother me at first, but the last couple of days I've felt off. The only time I feel right is when I'm holding my sword."
I winced in sympathy as he talked about his problems. "Yeah, I get that. Cultivation is awesome, but sometimes the side effects are a pain in the ass."
Walking into Rick's house, we all sat down on the worn out, but incredibly comfortable furniture while Rick threw us all a beer. "To underage drinking!" He said, a grin on his face.
Clinking our bottles in toast, Connor took a long pull from the beer before setting it down and starting to speak. "The corrupted dungeon in Ironmarsh broke out today, my understanding is that the higher level powers have decided that the new cultivator's need some exposure to the threat, which is why they're leaving it up to us to deal with it."
I looked around, realizing that everyone else already knew about this. "How bad is it?" I asked, taking a deep pull of the beer.
"15 corrupted with strength around the 3rd to the 7th level of the body refining realm. So far they've managed to corrupt several packs of wolves, and a small group of Kobolds. They're hanging out in the old Goblin encampment that Sam took down by himself."
"This won't be easy." Rick had a serious look on his face as he spoke, "It took everything that Sam, Sarah, and I had to take down a single corrupted. If we can't find the source of corruption quickly, we'll find ourselves overwhelmed in a monster tide before we know what happened."
Everyone around the room nodded in understanding while Alexandra paled and raised her hand shyly.
"You don't have to raise your hand." Beth said, grabbing her hand and putting it back down. "Remember, you're a bad ass cultivator now. If you have something to say then say it!"
Beth's words only made Alexandra's blush deepen, and she lowered her face in shame. Taking a deep breath she somehow managed to speak, but it sounded more like a squeak than her normal voice. "Why am I here? I just broke through to the body refining realm, I can't help you guys out at all."
"You're here because you're our friend!" Connor had gotten a bag of peas at some point, and was holding it on the back of his head, his eyes shut as he tried to block out the pain. "Also, four of us can heal up after fighting, but the rest of us will need potions. We're counting on you to learn how to make a basic health potion as fast as possible."
Matt nodded, looking up from where he was playing with the label on his beer bottle. "We'll all need basic energy gathering potions, especially Sam and I. We're mindscapes, if we go all out we can run ourselves dry in an instant."
Finally ready to log into MSE, Connor drained his beer and put the bag of pea's down. "This is the first opportunity for all of us to work together, we need to learn how to make this work because in the future that may be all that keeps us alive." His voice had become serious, and when he opened his eyes a phantom of a sword appeared above him.
'I seriously need to talk to him about what'd happened in that legacy zone.' I thought to myself as I drained my beer and went to grab a pillow for my head. I didn't mind laying on the floor, especially since cultivating any surface as long as it wasn't sharp would do. However, a pillow to keep my neck from cramping up is a must every time I log into MSE.