Locke cursed under his breath, his stomach grumbling as he peeked through a single eye to find Eryx still flashing him a smile and Noll deadpanning at him. Coughing lightly, Locke glanced around the room, ignoring the awkward air as Noll disappeared into the dark outside.
The bearded dwarf returned a good moment later as he flung three pieces of bread and settled a small jug of water near him. Locke gulped down the dry and stale bread before drowning the pitcher as well. Although this wasn't enough to satiate him, it would have to do for now.
With all that stuff over, Noll retreated to a corner of the cubicle as Eryx sat down behind him. Eryx took a deep breath as he assumed the lotus position whilst telling Locke to do the same. The duo closed their eyes and exhaled, the newbie following the veteran.
"The Attunement realm only has two stages... Hell, I don't even know why it's called a realm." Eryx grumbled before clearing his throat and continuing, "The Attunement realm only has two stages; Body Strengthening and Energy Reinforcement. These stages focus mainly on increasing your familiarity with Creatrix energy until the next realm, where you gain proper yet still elementary control over it."
"To elaborate on these, the Body Strengthening stage is focused on purifying and, as the name implies, empowering your vessel to contain and utilize Creatrix energy. You are still not considered a cultivator in this stage as you only use your raw body strength for battle and can not consciously employ Creatrix energy."
Locke had so many doubts, and all these methods for strengthening and whatnot sounded so vague as if he was expected to know all these, yet Eryx continued, unbothered. "As for the next one, the Energy Reinforcement stage is the one where you can be barely considered a cultivator. That's cuz you construct your dantian and can crudely wield Creatrix energy in this stage. Hmm, you will start on your elemental path from the succeeding realm, but I'm not gonna go into detail on that. Any questions?"
"YES! A million of 'em! How the hell am I supposed to 'feel' this energy and strengthen my body?! Why is this all SO VAGUE!? And why are you looking at me like that?!!" Locke's sudden outburst was interrupted by Eryx suddenly wrenching his lower jaw open, pressing on his cheeks as he signaled to a corner in the room.
A silhouette which was revealed to be Noll, trudged out of the shadows, sighing softly as he held a small spherical object about as large as half a thumb. The object was slimy pink in color but still managed to look solid and marble-like. By the time Noll reached Locke, Eryx had already restrained his hands with one of his own and had his mouth slightly open.
The apprehended one struggled as he strived to free himself, yet it was all for naught as the dwarf too joined in holding him in place.
"Just calm down, alright? We ain't trying to harm you in any way, so be still or else..." Eryx attempted to calm him down as Locke spat out, "Or else what?"
"...Or else you'll die." Locke's struggle slowly came to a stop as Eryx started to explain, "This right here is what many would call a Body Strengthening Pill. It's one of four and is what will purify and strengthen your vessel. Now, this is going to hurt a lot if you don't listen carefully and follow my instructions, alright?"
Eryx's tone had turned into a slightly somber one as Locke nodded. The former gave the 'go-ahead' sign to the dwarf, who proceeded to plop the pill into his mouth. Locke kept it in his mouth only for a second before swallowing as it had started to emit a burning heat which only grew in intensity.
The duo holding him down tightened their grip on him as Eryx spoke in a soothing voice, "Visualize a vortex, a growing one. Take the energy burning up your insides and circulate it. Let this vortex expand, expand it until your organs are encompassed by it, and then plunge it into them. Let this vortex into your abdominal organs and give out everything it has unto them unrestrainedly."
Locke wanted to curse the bastards holding him down, but the rag stuffed in his mouth prevented him from doing so. 'These bastards, they even stuffed my mouth!' Locke went berserk on them internally but soon focused on the issue at hand. He had to give this everything he had.
'Visualize. Visualize!' He screamed internally, biting into the horrid rag. He envisioned the energy as a mass, just lying there as it grew in both heat and power. He then thought up a blue wheel, a wheel he molded from the center of the energy. This wheel grew in size as it rotated fiercely as slowly but surely, the energy was pulled along into its circulation.
The energy seeped into the blue wheel, dyeing its color into a darker shade as it crawled its way through the outer parts and into the center. Once it had thoroughly tainted the spinning wheel, the wheel seemed to be not of solid material as it slowly plunged into the organs, becoming invisible as it did so, yet not all was over.
There lay a clump of energy, still in heat which slowly withered away as it seemed to serve no purpose.
"Take the remaining energy! Turn it into tendrils and send it through your skin. This will conclude the First Cycle!" Eryx yelled as Locke too focused on the conglomeration. He took a deep breath and exhaled before concentrating on it.
Locke willed it to shape into innumerable tiny tendrils, which he then orbited past the muscles and bones. The tendrils sunk into his skin as it strengthened them, too, his skin becoming slightly harder to break as the remnant energy was used to its fullest.
The two cultivators holding him down let go of him as he spat the rag out before standing up and inspecting his body. Well, he couldn't notice any effects on the outside other than his skin becoming harder, yet he knew.
The feeling inside of him; it wasn't a surge of energy or anything of the sort. It was what you would feel if you drank RedBull, a feeling that even if he ran for rounds, he wouldn't tire. Locke took one last look at his toned body before looking at the duo that helped him. Scratch that, Noll had already left.
"Well done. You did pretty good for someone who doesn't know what the hell cultivation is, as if that isn't ridiculous enough. So, how do you feel?" Eryx praised and moved on to the next topic.
"It's weird. Your instructions were so... so vague, and yet it all worked out perfectly. I'm utterly bamboozled."
"Don't fret over it, kid. It just sounds difficult ya know?" Eryx patted his back as he stood up and continued, "Cultivation won't be easy as it was with this." With that, he left the noob body strengthener to mutter to himself in the cubicle.
"Who the fuck said that this was easy?"
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Pls, read Author's note.