"You lazy fool!" Master Forbes shouted. "Just how long were you planning to sleep for?"
"Sorry, mister Forbes."
"That's Master Forbes for you, kid!"
'Jeez, this old man.'
"What sort of slave were you anyway?"
Ben shifted his eyes away. 'A bad slave?' he thought unrepentant. Besides, he was free now. Why did he have to keep calling someone 'Master?'
"Your previous masters need a thorough lesson in slave training!"
The old man ran his eyes down Ben and frowned slightly. "It seems you still need to recover," he said. "And more importantly, we need to get rid of that demonic beast's flesh still in your belly."
'Damn that Jihon. Feeding the kid something so dangerous! Now I might even have to use my valuable potions...' Master Forbes' frowned deepened. 'At any rate, I better make this profitable soon.'
"You have looked through the scrolls Jihon gave you?"
"Yes, Master."
"Have you learned anything?"
"I... I don't think so, Master."
'What am I thinking? It's still too early for the kid to have made any progress.' The old man looked in the direction of his indoor garden. He sighed.
"You shall keep practicing. We can't do much until you have some appreciation of Essence Sensory abilities."
Master Forbes walked into the room where he was keeping the bronze disks on his desk. He sat down and took out a tiny vial half-filled with a thick, clear liquid. He fetched two other containers with dried herbs. Finding an empty vial, he poured about a teaspoon of the thick liquid into it and added in a pinch of the dried herbs. Ben watched as the old man gently shook the mixture and the herbs dissolved into the clear liquid. 'It's becoming thinner!' he observed, furrowing his eyebrows as he tried to understand how the herbs simply disappeared into it.
"Follow me." Master Forbes left his desk, still swirling the mixture, which kept getting thinner, in his hand. They walked into a dark and narrow corridor that was lit at the end by a single lamp, which wasn't doing its job properly. They passed 3 huge mahogany doors, each about 7 feet tall. A jar of fireflies was placed at the foot of each door, barely providing any illumination, but still a welcome presence in the corridor.
Ben could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise as they ventured deeper into the passage. When the wooden floor began to creek eerily beneath his feet, he decided to move closer to Master Forbes. The old man stopped at the fourth door. Ben almost bumped into him.
As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he was barely able to make out an intricate series of carvings on the thick mahogany door. He couldn't see clearly enough to tell what they were, but he got the feeling he would be better off without the knowledge. Master Forbes lifted his hand and traced his fingers along some of the carvings as if he was solving a puzzle. His fingers seemed to glow for an instance. He then firmly pushed on the door. The door's hinges screeched loudly as if they had been rusting for decades. Ben was breathing in fast shallow breaths. He tried to look into the room, but it was simply too dark inside.
Master Forbes picked up the jar with fireflies and stepped into the room.
"Come in." He ordered.
Ben swallowed hard and followed.
In the innermost corner on the right, there was a foot-long cage placed on the floor. Master Forbes placed the jar with fireflies on the knee-high table sitting beside the cage. 'Insect cage?' Ben wondered. He could barely see the inside. Something about it made his heartbeat erratically. He tried squinting to see what was inside.
As if his efforts had been detected, a short hiss came from the cage. It caused the fire-flies to fly around the jar frenziedly, their cold lights flickering weakly.
"Don't look into the cage!" Master Forbes reprimanded.
Ben turned his eyes away. The sound of a long exhalation came out from the cage. The fireflies seemed to calm down a notch. Ben felt something watching him from the cage. He resisted the urge to peek back at it. He didn't want to be in this room, especially when the only light source was a jar of fireflies. At least Master Forbes was here as well. He didn't want to imagine being alone in here.
Master Forbes took a black jar from the table, along with a thin glass tube. He used the tube to collect 3 drops of a pale yellowish liquid from the jar. Ben did not like the look of the liquid. It reminded him of something dangerous. 'Venom!' he thought to himself. What the hell was the old man keeping in here? His eyes involuntarily found the cage, but he turned away quickly.
Master Forbes added the 3 drops to the clear mixture and swirled it. As if in protest, what sounded like the angry flapping of a huge moth's wings came from the cage. Some of the fireflies glowed brighter whilst others stopped glowing. Then they returned to their normal state. Ben swallowed hard. He fought hard to keep his eyes from looking into the cage. He felt he was being forced to look away from a tiger crouching in front of him.
They left the room when Master Forbes had shut the black jar tightly. Master Forbes traced his fingers over some engravings on the door after he had closed it. This time his fingers did not glow, instead, the door shook for some seconds. He returned the jar of fireflies beside the door and they left the corridor.
"Don't come here without my permission, if you value your life."
"Yes, Master." As if he needed to be told that. In fact, he would be happy to stay away altogether.
"Here." Master Forbes gave Ben the vial. "Take a drop at daybreak and at night, before you sleep. Do this for the next three days, then return the vial with its remaining contents when you are done." Ben accepted the vial from him. 'Something else to kill me?' he thought to himself, remembering the unsettling creature in the cage. He shuddered.
Master Forbes seemed to have remembered something. "Oh, and make sure you mix it with a full tumbler of water before you drink it. It's very... strong." the last part was mumbled out.
"Thank you, master?" Ben was not sure what the potion was for.
"Yes." Master Forbes did not bother to explain further. "Now go and practice your Essence Sensory technique by the pond, beneath the Salt Blossom tree."
Ben looked at Master Forbes with a blank expression. 'Does such a tree even exist?'
"Don't worry, you will find it." He reassured him. "Now go!" He shooed him away with his hand.
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Ben sat cross-legged beneath the Salt Blossom Tree. He kept the Essence Sensing Manual by his side and closed his eyes as he tried to concentrate. His stomach growled.
'It's been so long since I have eaten...' The thought found it's way in his mind. He was amazed at how that tiny piece of Demonic Beast Flesh had sustained him for so many days, but he still felt the pangs of hunger.
'Shhhh, I need to focus.' He reminded himself. The instructions were still clear to him: "Inhale evenly through your nose for 3 seconds. Let the Essence in the environment seep into your pores. Feel your Essence channels vibrate with joy as the Essence travels from your pores into the channels. As you exhale, let your consciousness expand around you. Feel your connection to the external Essence deepen... You are Essence and Essence is around you..." at least that was how he remembered it. But he still couldn't 'feel the Essence.' Besides, who wrote that crap. Humans are flesh and blood. And perhaps soul. What does Essence have to do with any of it? His stomach howled again. If only Essence could stave off hunger.
The Salt Blossom Tree hardly looked like it sounded. It had twisted branches and the bark was loose and fibrous. But the smell... It really smelt like sea salt. The tree's branches all grew bent towards the nearby pond. Each time one of its ash-grey flowers fell into the pond, a gentle sizzling sound would <
He suddenly remembered eating the piece of Demonic Beast flesh and how he had suffered after that. He shuddered. Maybe eating was a bit overrated? His hunger disappeared for a moment.
"I am Essence and Essence is all around me..." he felt like an idiot, and this practice was boring. The sun moved across the sky.
"Back so early?" The old man didn't sound surprised.
"Just as well, I have work for you."
Maybe practicing Essence Perception was better than laboring for that old fart?' he thought. At least he now knew to call Essence Sensory ability Essence Perception. Besides that, he felt he had made no progress with cultivation. He scrubbed the wooden floorboards thoroughly.
That old man was merciless. He still made him work even though he was still recovering from being poisoned by the demonic beast flesh he had eaten. When he tried to remind the old fart that he had not eaten in days, he was told that the energy in the demonic beast flesh would ensure he wouldn't starve to death any time soon. Of course, even a lazy fool like himself should have known this.
At least he had been instructed to avoid the creepier areas of the cabin, as well as the indoor garden. But he still had to clean the bathhouse, rake the dead leaves in the small tree grove west of the cottage, collect firewood... 'At this point, I might as well be called a slave.' he thought to himself.
When he finally finished the work, Master Forbes had sent him off to rest. He could really use some sleep. He grabbed a ceramic tumbler from the floor and sniffed the liquid in it.
Even though he only added a drop of that clear potion into a tumbler full of water, the whole mixture had the pungent smell of rotted apple vinegar. He brought the rim to his mouth, blew off some bubbles of froth, and took a tiny sip. His head jerked back uncontrollably.
He wished he had a bucket fresh water to rinse off the overpowering taste of earwax and crushed lemon seed from his tongue. Once he had managed to swallow the first sip, a spiteful aftertaste filled his mouth. Maybe this is what fermented moths tasted like. His eyes moistened and his nostrils flared. 'What is this stuff?' he thought as he fought to control his breath. He looked into the tumbler and he couldn't keep his stomach from churning.
It nearly took him 40 minutes to empty the tumbler. He had tried gulping the liquid down, but he nearly vomited and was dangerously close to fainting after that. He almost cried when he remembered he had to drink this twice a day for three days.
But the struggle didn't just end after drinking the mixture. When he got up to pee at around midnight, he couldn't help but howl from the pain he felt whilst urinating. Excruciating. It took him 20 minutes just to piss. He felt he was urinating a mixture of acid and fire. He hobbled back to his room while cursing that old man. As he folded his body to sleep in the tiny room, he prayed that he wouldn't wake up to pee again. In fact, he wished the old man would tell him he didn't need to drink that terrible potion again. He shivered, but it wasn't because of the cold.