The previously clean stone room was stained with red. Alem silently laid on the ground with dim eyes. His mouth, covered by stains resembling those on the ground. "I succumbed, the fuck!" He felt angry, yet also a little surprised. This was the first time he felt something like this, although terrible and scary, it was even a little… exciting. He wasn't a masochist, just the new experience helped him understand that all of this was new and things he only heard from in books. The sensation of losing control and wanting to devour that ball of meat was just too ridiculous that he still thought it was a dream.
"Arg!" Suddenly, as he laid on the ground, a new feeling began to fill his body. It wasn't pleasant in any way, it was excruciating. "What's happening!" His eyes opened slowly as he looked around in a panic. The ground began to fill with more red liquid. "Shameless!" Alem couldn't help but scream as his eyes were forcefully shut. He couldn't open them, no matter how much he tried.
"Alem, this is the second part of the training, or you could really say, now the training begins." He sighed a little, getting up and walking around the room. "The ball of meat wasn't just for show. It has great power inside. Currently, your body is going through a metamorphosis of sorts. Your skin will peel, your organs will burst, your blood will run still, everything will begin to slowly shut down, yet you will feel it all. The first step in this would be the heightening of all your nerves. Normally that wouldn't be the case, but he wants you to experience the pain. I did not decide this, he did and there is nothing I can do." Deep breaths to escape Shameless' mouth. His eyes were slightly remorseful, filled with a bit of agony. No matter what, Alem was his disciple, and to see him go through something that could have been avoided made him a little angry and extremely worried. Plus, he truly did watch the kid grow so he felt close to him a little. "This pain you are going through will be slow, very slow. It will not take an hour, no, it will take atleast a month to be complete. I'm sorry this is happening, but he will not allow me to step in. You must bear this pain all on your own." Shameless only kept on speaking because he needed Alem to stay awake for this. If he lost unconsciousness, that would just cause other problems. "Alem, just think about other things, like the power you will gain, and so much more. Your appearance will change because of this, but not too greatly. There will still be a resemblance to your older self, yet the changes will also be present. A new air will form around you, something different from before, something unique. Your eyes will become like mine, but different. Purple, but with their own uniqueness.." The talking continued, it was constant, non-stop. Shameless had various things he spoke about, many which were related to the changes he will experience. From the immunities he will get, the appearance changes, and so much more. He didn't stop, he could not let his disciple fall unconscious. He just couldn't.
'This pain, I can't bear it! Just let it kill me! I don't want to live if this is the pain I have to experience! I can't!'
The stone room was filled with a reeking stench. Like burned flesh. It was nauseating. The color of the room was also changed. Every stone had bits of red and black splattered over them. The lights in the room were dead, yet light was still present. It came from a single place, the middle of the stone room.
"Alem, the process is done, but you might feel different when waking up. The world will seem clearer, and your body lighter. Your senses are a lot stronger now, and your mind will also work at a quicker pace." Shameless slowly spoke these words as the bright light began to dim. Within the light, Alem laid naked. His twig like body from before was gone, rather it was more toned, chiseled almost. His skin remained the bronze from before, but a mark began to appear on top of his chest. His black hair, which was short in the past, was now longer and a little messy. "Slowly get up, don't rush yourself."
Placing his hands on the red floor, his naked figure began to rise. "This feeling…" As he stood up, Alem looked at the palms of his hands as a smile formed on his face. His eyes were shining dimly with a purple hue. It was a dark purple.
"Congratulations Alem, you did it." Shameless walked over with a smile, yet there was still sadness and a bit of anger written on his face. Other than Alem, only he knew what Alem went through. The constant screaming and shrieking in the stone room were like hammers hitting his heart. The loud gasps of air which seemed so forced and difficult to claim made his own breathing stop. Just watching and listening to the pain and agony Alem went through in the past month was difficult. It wasn't like he had never seen similar scenes. He had seen many, most were even worse than Alems, yet Alem was his disciple. He had never seen his disciples go through such pain in their life. Never. "Today you can rest and try to get used to this new body. We will begin the next step tomorrow."
Not looking at Shameless, Alem nodded his head as he sat back down. He wanted to do a bit of experimentations. Wanted to see what his body could do. Seeing this, Shameless smiled weakly before walking out of the room.
'From what Shameless said, my mind is much quicker now and everything is basically upgraded. I could tell my hearing and eyesight are much better. I could see the small details of the walls and even hear the sounds that the dust makes when it falls. Let's check how good my brain is now.' From his ring, he pulled out a multitude of books. Yet, his hands froze after the books came into his hand. 'I didn't even have to completely enter the world to get what I wanted; it was as if the ring knew what I wanted before I could think about it.' He then lifted one of the books and began to flip through the pages. He started off slow, but his page flipping became faster and faster. 'Holy shit, I finished that whole book within a minute. I didn't even need to read each line since I could literally scan the page. What the fuck!' It wasn't just reading; it was also memorizing what he read. Although not everything was clear, he still remembered the important points. It felt like he watched a movie.
The change was great, almost as if he became someone new. Although there wasn't a mirror where he could check out his new looks, but just the change in his brain and his five senses excited him. Standing up slowly, he walked towards what looked like a door. It was the only wooden object in the room. It was circular.
As he reached out to touch the circular wood, it suddenly disappeared. In place, it was just an empty hole with a bright light entering through. 'What?' He walked through out of curiosity. The light was bright, making him squint. Especially since he was in such a dim room.
"Alem, come here." Before his eyes could even adjust to brightness, he heard a familiar voice. It was Shameless. Though it took him a few seconds, he was able to adjust well. Looking around, he was shocked by the scene. It wasn't like the diamond world, no, this was different. Currently, he stood on a stone platform, which was extremely large. Behind him was a sphere, which was surprisingly the room he came from. Other than that, there were various structures on the platform. A house, resembling the old wooden cabins from Earth, a multitude of bookshelves, filled with books and pages, and so much more. Surrounding the platform were actually two things. On the left was a grand ocean, going far beyond what he could see, and on the right was a dense forest. The trees pierced the sky, with the branches and leaves more abundant than the grains of sand on a beach. He couldn't see the trees behind the first set as there was too much blocking his view.
"Shameless, what is this place?" Alem walked over with shock on his face, yet it calmed instantly as he approached this mysterious old man.
"This is the training world, and also… your world." Shameless smiled as he stood up from the wooden chair he was sitting on.
"Mine? What do you mean?" He thought that only the diamond world would be his.
"Well, I said that from now on, you will earn everything, right?" Alem nodded at his words. "Well, the first step of the training was eating that ball of meat, so the reward was the world of diamond, but like you pointed out, it would not be useful to you. Still, I know it will come in handy for your family back on Earth." He didn't move from his spot, he just kept talking, his gaze looking at the distant waters. "The second step of the training was the painful event you went through for a month, since that was such a huge step, the reward should also be just as huge, so I give you this world." Alem nodded his head when he heard these worlds. He was a little shocked, but that was it. Everything that was happening already resembled the stories from his books, so he decided to just go with the flow.
"I own this world then, that means I can do as I please in it?" He asked.
"Of course." Shameless smiled. "Everything that is on this planet, this world, is now yours. Whether you decide to destroy it, build within it, or even cultivate it, I will not step in."
"Cultivate?" Alem became quiet for a moment, trying to figure some things out. "You use that word, 'cultivate', what do you mean exactly? Not only for this world, but for me as well? Like, I can understand that it is something to do with me getting stronger, maybe considering myself a plant, and making myself grow in terms of power, but what do you mean exactly?"
"The word 'cultivate' is as you said. Like caring for a plant before it becomes stronger and sturdier, helping it grow really. Consider yourself that plant in this case. You will be absorbing the world's essence, a magic if you will. It will strengthen you, make you more attuned towards nature, and even helps you break the various laws set by nature." Nodding his head, Alem suddenly sat down and pulled out a pencil and paper from his ring.
Scribbling a little, he pointed at the list he drew. "By logic, this is what you mean. The world has an essence, an invisible 'thing' which I can take in, maybe like how I breath air and stuff. This thing will help me become stronger by basically strengthening everything in my body, maybe even altering its genetic code, allowing me to become one with nature, or whatever. As for this Origin Body you spoke about, I'm assuming it actually isn't something everyone has, they have to earn it, by cultivating to a certain point. If I recall, when I took a religious class during my university days, I heard that on my own Earth, there were people who actually 'cultivated' and tried to reach 'eternal life'. A full country actually went along with this idea for many years…" Alem became more in depth with his questions and statements. He wasn't a genius or anything, rather, he was from a place where people asked various questions and tried to link various ideas together. Earth was a place like this, something different from the cultivation world. People had different approaches to statements and questions. "Basically, what I'm trying to say or ask is related to 'cultivation' and how it works. There must be a set path to get to the top, like 'level one', 'level two', and so on, much like video games, right? There must also be various ways to get to the top. Lastly, you said that he once visited Earth, so does that mean the people who learned about cultivation and so on were through him?" With these asked, Alem finally stopped talking and waited for an answer.
Shameless wasn't shocked in the least. After all, he spent a long time on Earth, longer than even Alem. He knew about the culture and how people thought.
"Yes there is a video game like structure. Yes, there are various paths, but they all lead to the same end, to a certain extent. And no, he was not the influence behind these ideas, rather he was the reason your world never got to experience essence for much longer. He was the one that blocked all connections to essence." He gave a simple reply, answering the questions without holding back. "Anyways, I won't answer too many questions related to cultivation, atleast not yet. For now, let me say this. I gave you this day to relax in a way, but in reality, you may not be able to relax too much. This world is yours. Other than us, there are other lifeforms on it, luckily, I made it so there will never be any intelligent creatures like us. Only wild beasts, and other monstrous beasts. This platform is the safe area of this world, but everything else is filled with danger." Shameless passed Alem a black bead. "This bead is what shows you are the owner of this world. Keep it with you, I recommend swallowing it…" Before he could finish, Alem already took it into his mouth, gulping it down.
"You don't have to explain too much, I think I understand what's going on." Alem smiled. "Other than training me, you will not do much else, or rather, you can't. You want me to learn most things myself, since cultivation is supposed to be very self reliant, atleast from what I read in the books back on Earth. Those old religious people used to say cultivating or meditating or whatever is very independent." His memory of most events was crystal clear. Although he couldn't remember every detail in life, he did recall many things. "Anyways, you won't provide me with food, shelter, nor anything else. I have to get it myself. Cliched, but understandable."
"You catch on quick, which makes this easier on me. All my other disciples made me explain everything. Only Celius was as quick as you. Maybe even a little slower." Shameless smiled.
"Actually, I had one question." Shameless looked at him and nodded his head, letting him go on. "You say that he wants me to get strong enough to beat Celius, right? But, what if I die during the training? Are you here to stop me from dying as well? Or did he restrict this?" This was a question that riddled his mind. Shameless never mentioned anything about the possibility of death, which made him always think that he would be protected, but that one month of pain made him understand one thing. He really could have died. Was his life really protected or did he have to fend for himself? "Again, I don't really mind what the answer is, but I would like to know." It was true, whether he would be protected or not didn't really matter, since he was getting a once in a lifetime chance.
"I'm going to be blunt." Hearing Alem's question, he became a little hesitant, but still answered truthfully. "He restricted me from saving you in case danger occurs. I do have some leeway, but only I can know what that is, still just keep this in mind. I will not be protecting you from anything. If I try to protect you, it will be considered breaking the rules, which will result in him just destroying everything. Even the rewards I give you must be equivalent to the tasks you complete. He did not restrict the number of tasks I can give you, so the rewards can be infinite."
"That's fine. I was just curious." Alem didn't feel any sort of shock. He wasn't scared of death, in the past he welcomed it, and even now, he didn't completely care for it coming soon or not. 'Just go with the flow', that was his motto. "Anyways, I'm going to start making a house or something, since I'm assuming that's what you wanted me to do today." Never in his life did he ever do such a thing like building his own house, but he didn't mind. He made small bird houses and other wooden objects back home, so he did understand basic wood properties.
Now that he understood the general gist of what he had to do, he pulled out two items from his ring. They were a single sword and a single knife. Both looked stunning, yet dangerous. The sword was pure black, from the blade to the hilt, to the ribbon attached on its end. The knife was the exact same, as if the two came in pairs.
"You like these two?" Shameless looked at Alem. Though he knew that these would match the tastes Alem had, he still thought that he would have gone for one with a slight variation.
"Yeah, I can tell the blades are sharp and also they just feel right in my hand, the others felt off to me." He smiled and explained. These were the only weapons he had left in his ring. The rest, he either gave away, or stored back on Earth, just for show. "Anyways, I'm off." He walked towards the right side of the platform, which was where the dense forest was. Even now, he was confused as to how he should handle the trees. They were too thick and dense. 'Although the blade is sharp, I would rather not use it on a tree, just in case it chips. Let's see.' He wrapped the sword and knife around his waist, the latter being on his left, and the former on his right. 'Maybe I can test out the physical strength of my body? Punching the tree would be fine since I already went through a hell of pain, so this would be nothing.' He smiled and approached a giant tree. The trunk was thick, so much so that he couldn't wrap his arms around it no matter how much he tried. It would take atleast three grown men to wrap their hands around it. 'Let's try, in video games it works, and in real life, it should barely do the deed.' Lifting his hand, he directly punched the tree.
BOOM
'Fuck!' The tree shook, but didn't fall. His hand's didn't feel any pain, yet what surprised him was the power behind his punch. A large hole was in the tree, slightly larger than the size of his fists. His hand was within the hole, stuck. 'This will be a lot easier than I thought.' With a small smile forming on his face, he began to punch away, causing trees to fall everywhere. One thing he noticed was that the trees would never fall onto the stone platform. He even tried to force one to fall onto it, but an invisible force prevented that from happening. 'So, it really is a protected area.' Getting a better idea of this helped him think of his further plans as well.
BOOM
Time went on and dozens of trees were stacked neatly by the platform. They were heavy, more than even the trucks back on Earth, yet Alem didn't find much issue with lifting them up. 'My strength is crazy, the fuck!' He was surprised. "I would prefer to have the house built on the platform since it is safe.' He wasn't going to build a house in the forest just because it would help him train a little more. 'Alright, I'll use one of the ugly knives to skin the trees, or whatever you call it.' From his ring, a large knife suddenly appeared. Rather than a knife, it resembled a machete more. 'This should help me shape the wood a little more. I just need some sort of squarish shape and should be good.' He smiled and began to carve the wood logs he collected. There were so many that it didn't just take him a few hours. Sometimes the wood would tear in bad places, ruining lots of the log, so he would have to cut more down.
In total, it took him a full week to completely get the wood into the proper shape. Luckily, his energy was never low. He didn't feel fatigued, nor sore by any of the work he did. Rather, it was as if his energy was never reducing, always at the peak.
"Alem, it's been a week, I think it is time for some more training." As Alem was smiling at the hundreds of wooden rectangles he made, he saw Shameless jump down from the platform, walking towards him with a smile. "Although I said I would give you only one day of rest, I felt that letting you atleast work on getting the wood for your house could be some sort of mini training, but a week is enough. Now we will begin something more official."
"Sure, what do you have in mind?" Alem wasn't wearing his shirt at the moment since the heat was still present. Sure, he didn't feel tired, but a little bit of uncomfortability was there.
"So, in total, you still have about twenty thousand years until the two years on Earth will be up. The time is that long since this time we will not be leaving the training world, not even once." Shameless said.
"OK." Alem already did the math beforehand, he knew this would be the number. He wasn't scared by the time, mostly since he couldn't actually process such a big number in years. No one on Earth could live this long, most people couldn't even reach the age of one hundred. Which was why he acted so casual. He couldn't comprehend it so might as well just go with it.
Seeing him be so nonchalant, Shameless smiled. It was easier this way. "Now then, we will have to train you on almost every single cultivation aspect. From fighting, to breaking through realms, and even the side tasks like alchemy and blacksmithing."
"Why do I have to learn the side tasks?" He didn't understand the importance.
"Well, there are others who can make weapons and pills for you of course, but only you can make the most suitable pill or weapon for yourself, plus there is no need for you to wait in line or anything alike. There are many other benefits to these side jobs since it could also help develop and fortify your realms and essence…" He began to explain the various benefits. "Celius was considered the very best alchemist, but at the same time, he was also the worst."
"Why?" Two titles of such opposition. It was a little weird.
"Well, he was the best since the pills he made had the highest efficacy, yet he was the worst since these pill's only worked on himself and a few others." Alem finally understood the reason behind such a title. It made sense. The pills were great, yet only a few could use it. "Anyways, alchemy actually helped him on many occasions, solidifying his realm further and even helping him understand more information about essence."
"Fine, I don't really mind. I'll learn whatever you want." Hearing these words, Shameless nodded his head in satisfaction.
"Good. Don't worry though, aside from all of these various training segments, you will be given lots of time to do whatever else you want. Later on, I will introduce you to various types of side jobs people in the cultivation world like to do, aside from blacksmithing and alchemy." The more Alem learned, the better it was in the long run. Sure, it reduced the time spent on the most important parts of cultivation, but if all Alem did was cultivate, that would be detrimental to him. After all, he was known for his talent in all fields. It helped him grow, and it could help others as well. Shameless himself was talented in every single field, other than him, no one could compare to Shameless, not even the Vir. "Now then, the first part of the training will actually be combat. To defeat Celius, you need to be extremely well versed in fighting. Even with a weaker realm, if your skills are much higher, that could decide the battle, to a certain extent. This was proven by him when he defeated Celius and the Vir with a realm much lower."
"Makes sense." Alem nodded his head.
"Most people in this world are born with a certain affinity towards swords, you are luckily a part of the majority. Swords are your strong suit, any other weapon will just be a lot harder to master, which is why during combat training, you will not only practice hand to hand, but you will train in the art of swords." Shameless suddenly waved his hand and Alem found himself back inside of the stone room. It was still stained with red on the ground, but Alem didn't flinch seeing it. It was the past to him, he didn't even remember the pain, it was like a distant memory. "Know this, I will start off easy, but as it gets harder, your life will begin to be endangered. You will have to survive from the various attacks and styles. Kill everything, don't hesitate."
"Are you not the one sparring with me?" Alem asked suddenly. He assumed Shameless would be the one fighting him.
"No, I will first create creatures to fight, and slowly, I will bring in criminals from your world and the cultivation world. Sometimes other types of people will come, sometimes beasts, maybe things you have never seen. It will be your job to kill them, I will not help you nor prevent any sort of problems that might occur, since if I ever did that, he would consider that cheating and will destroy the world instantly." Shameless sighed and spoke. He raised his hand once more and suddenly a small person appeared in front of Alem. He looked like a teenager at best. "This will be your first oppon---"
BANG
"Next." Alem looked calmly at Shameless, with his hands covered in blood. The teenager he created was on the ground, it's head split with the brain spilling like melted cake.
Shock was written on Shameless' face. No matter how much he knew Alem, how would he know that Alem could kill without hesitation and even take it like nothing?
"Don't be so shocked, when I was in medical school, I've seen various cadavers and lots of images and other things that were gory as fuck. Plus, you should know that I'm not one to have any major reaction towards… anything really." A smile played on his face as he looked at Shameless. "Anyways, next opponent."
A smirk formed on Shameless' face. 'If he is truly like this, then maybe this training will be that much easier. Yet, I still felt a familiar aura from him when he attacked… it resembled… his.' Shameless looked deeply at Alem who exuded a mysterious aura. He waved his hands, and another person was formed. This time, it was a buff middle-aged man. His muscles exuded large amounts of power. "Try this one---"
BANG
"Next." His hands were covered in blood once again, some even splashing on his face.