Viswa entered the training area.
There is a large building with multiple arenas built inside. There are a bunch of weights that have weird inscriptions on them. There are some stone and wooden dummies.
Outside of the building, there is an even larger front yard with a lot of space and dummies, for people who want to train outdoors.
There is also a weapon section, where a lot of wooden as well as metal weapons are cleanly placed.
He really liked the area.
Since no one was here, he felt even better.
"Mr. Guide."
Mr. Guide appeared and looked at the place. He nodded and said.
[This is a decent place for a guy like you. Not bad.]
Viswa didn't even bother to reply to that. He realized that half the time this little guy tries to set Viswa up and as long as Viswa opens his mouth, he would be in for a barrage of insults.
The worst part is these insults are not even that clever, they are plain and bland, but he cannot do shit about it.
[Okay, from today you are going to follow a special schedule. As usual, you wake up at dawn, you come out and start training until you are exhausted.
Since you are starting cultivation, you will have a lot of spiritual energy going forward. Every morning, it is your duty to exhaust every bit of your spiritual energy as well as physical energy.
After you are done, you will start your cultivation through meditation and this should start right before the sun rise and through the sunrise as well.
That is the time the nature around is most generous and cheerful. Which means spiritual energy is more active and pure.
You try your best to recover from your exhaustion before you have some breakfast and go about your day.
If you have academy classes, you go for them, or if you are in the mood to complete the mission you have you are going to do it or if you go out and hunt for the Karma points you can do it.
If you are not doing any of it, you are going to be on combat training and cultivation. You have no option of slacking. Every waking moment of your life should be used to get stronger. By dusk, right before and during the sunset, once again keep yourself in a relatively exhaustive state.
That is also another time when you can get purer and more active energy.
There are also a couple of special instances that you have to do this. At midnight on the full moon and new moon day etc.
Do you understand?]
Viswa nodded with a solemn expression and got ready to train.
[Stop it, who told you that I am done talking? Don't be in a hurry, numbskull. What I am about to say next is something important and it is better for you to realize it early.]
Viswa was confused.
"What is it, Mr. Guide?"
[Answer me, what do you think the cultivation is? Why do you think people cultivate and why do you think they develop their martial arts? I am sure you must have gotten familiar with those concepts by now.
I want to hear your idiotic opinion.]
Viswa thought for a moment and said.
"I don't really know. I am very new to this, so I am just taking it one day at a time. I am not really thinking too much into it."
[Seems like being an idiot has its uses. It is great that you didn't. Makes things easier for me.
Anyway, the people in this world, call themselves cultivators and pursue cultivation. They are training to gain the power of this universe and nature and they are utilizing it to gain power that should technically not be theirs.
And in the process, they are pursuing a higher realm and gain an understanding of the universe, nature, and its laws better.
Of course, the martial arts they develop, practice and cultivate are to mediate and utilize the overflowing power in a restrained and controlled manner. Do you understand what I said?]
Viswa scratched his head as he nodded. He did understand the words, but he felt like he is missing something.
"So, the purpose of cultivation is getting a power that defies nature so that they could be closer to it? Isn't it contradictory?"
[It is, but you will understand when you are on your own path of cultivation. But the reason I am telling you is not to give you a better idea of this cultivation.
But rather to tell you to give up cultivating with this mindset.]
Viswa is now confused.
[Don't take me wrong, you have to cultivate.
But unlike the rest of the people in this world, cultivation for you is a means to an end, and similarly even the martial arts of this world as a means to an end.
You might find a bunch of fanatics outside that stay true to their art. Swordsmen, archers, fist fighters. They are martial artists and their dedication does live up to the title.
But you are not supposed to be a martial artist here.
The only reason you have to cultivate or learn martial arts is because you need strength to create order in this world. That and that alone should be your purpose.
If in the process, you understand this world, become a martial artist of multiple disciplines and even find the truth of the world that many pursue that is fair.
But if you consciously and subconsciously run after them and ignore your mission, you are going to be in real trouble.]
Viswa looked at him seriously and asked.
"What kind of trouble?"
[You were a soldier before. You do know what will happen to the soldiers who abandon their mission in the middle don't you?]
Viswa gulped and said.
"That is kind of Vague. Can you give me a concrete answer?"
[Trust me, you do not want to hear a concrete answer to this. Anyway, just keep this in mind.
Now, start exercising. We will start the actual combat training later on. Just focus on your body exercises.]
With that, Mr. Guide disppeared leaving a bunch of questions in Viswa's head.
But no matter how much he called, the tiny snob didn't come out.
He could only sigh and exercise with that heavy mind. He tried to get those thoughts out of his head, but he couldn't.
After exhausting himself, he went out to the sunrise and tried to meditate in an open area.
He sat on the soil and tried to feel the spiritual energy around him and the familiar feeling soon enveloped his body.
All of the energy got stuck on the surface of his body and when he tried to connect with it and absorb it into his body, it is penetrating his skin and going into his flesh. But he doesn't know what to do with it afterward and the deeper the energy is entering his skin, the harder it is becoming for him to push it inwards and he doesn't even know if it is the right thing to do.
At this moment, he suddenly thought about what Mr. Guide said the day before.
He opened the system.
[STATUS
Name: Viswa
Cultivation Level: None
Cultivation Technique: None
Attributes
Skills
Missions
Achievements
Shop
Karma Points: 106
Tickets: 1]
He clicked on Tickets and picked the Ticket of Experience
[TICKET OF EXPERIENCE
DESCRIPTION: CAN BE USED TO EXPERIENCE BEING A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ENTITY (LIVING & NON-LIVING) FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.
DO YOU WANT TO USE THE TICKET?]
"Yes"
A flash of light came out of the screen and a golden ticket appeared in front of Viswa before another prompt appeared.
[CHOOSE AN ENTITY]
Viswa thought for a moment before he said.
"Earth?"
[ENTITY SELECTED: EARTH
WITH HOST'S CURRENT PHYSICAL STRENGTH, SPIRITUAL ENERGY, AND WILLPOWER, THE HOST CAN EXPERIENCE BEING ON EARTH FOR 10 SECONDS.]
Viswa immediately regretted it as soon as he saw the time 10 seconds.
If he could understand what it is like that fast, he might not even need the ticket of experience.
"No. CANCEL, CANCEL"
He spoke in a hurried manner.
But nothing stopped. The ticket was torn apart before it disappeared into a puff of golden sparks and a small golden light entered Viswa's mind.
Instantly, he lost consciousness. He couldn't feel his body anymore. He felt like he slipped into infinite darkness and suddenly he was pulled back.
All of a sudden, he felt massive and there is a burning heat within the center of his body. He could feel everything and thing being attracted to that center.
And only at that moment, did he realize what he has become.
He has become.
Viswa felt like he is hanging in an infinite space, but he felt charged, to say the least. The vitality, he possessed seemed unlimited.
And slowly his senses opened up. They were drawn to the infinite void around him, which made him feel minuscule.
The sudden shift from being a massive entity to a minuscule entity made him shake and he hurriedly pulled his senses back. He wanted to examine himself.
As soon as that thought came his senses are all focused on the outermost layer of his body.
Of course, it is not smooth. He could feel the topmost layer of the earth and whatever it is carrying.
The trees, mountains, animals, seas, and other water bodies.
And he could feel a lot of vitality and inexplicable energy along with all of these entities and all of that energy seemed to be inching toward the center and in the process the body itself is trying to gather around the core.
The force of attraction from the core is so strong that he is trying to absorb himself, trying to be denser, smaller, and more 'together'.
At this moment, he wanted to examine himself deeper, what is past that top layer that is trying to get inside? But before he could look at it, he felt the suction force once again.
He was left hanging in the space for a moment before he was thrown back into his body.
He opened his eyes and started taking deep breaths.
The first thing he felt is not the sunlight or the air around him. Rather he could feel the warm energy surrounding him. And it is inching slowly toward the inside of the body.
Now, he also felt that the spiritual energy also has a direction.
His heart.
He closed his eyes once again and sat down. His breathing calmed down and became uniform. He tried to visit that feeling again.
The feeling of being earth, the feeling of being the source of all the attraction as he did, he slow started feeling a bit closer to the brown soil under him. He could feel the warm spiritual energy enveloping every part of his skin.
Not a single millimeter was left alone. The spiritual energy in the surroundings riled up and it all got attached to the body and under his will the spiritual energy started seeping into his skin as it tried to move towards his heart.
The energy moved slowly. But it didn't follow a specific path. There is no specific circulation method that follows a specific set of meridians.
But rather, the spiritual energy passed through the skin, flesh, veins, blood, bone, and everything as it directly aimed at the heart and started gathering there.
And once it entered the heart, the heart started assimilating the spiritual energy into itself.
At this moment, his heart felt like the core of the earth.
Time passed and with every passing minute, Viswa felt like his body is heating up. The spiritual energy is penetrating every cell of his body while it crudely made its way to his heart and in this process, his cells are being put under some sort of stress.
He didn't feel tired or strained, but he did feel that he wouldn't be able to carry any of this heat after a certain time.
After over an hour, Viswa opened his eyes and looked at himself.
He felt refreshed and full of energy and this is a type of energy that he never felt. He also felt that his physique is much better than before.
He felt lighter and stronger.
He excitedly opened the system to check his attributes.
As soon as he opened his STATUS screen he noticed a major change.
[STATUS
NAME: VISWA
CULTIVATION LEVEL: ELEMENTARY LEVEL INITIAL STAGE (1%)
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE: EARTH-STYLE ASSIMILATION TECHNIQUE
ATTRIBUTES
SKILLS
MISSIONS
ACHIEVEMENTS
SHOP
KARMA POINTS: 106
TICKETS: 0]
There are changes to both his cultivation level and cultivation technique. He still doesn't understand the cultivation levels of this place and Jiva said that there would be a class about it today, so he didn't think too much about it.
He opened the attribute panel and checked.
[ ATTRIBUTES
STRENGTH: 44
AGILITY: 32
STAMINA: 46
COMPREHENSION: 38
WILL: 49
SPIRITUAL ENERGY: 1/100]
A new attribute appeared and unlike the previous ones, this one has a limit. But apart from that change, his strength has improved from 40 to 44, his agility has improved from 30 to 32, and his stamina has raised to 46.
He even had some change in his comprehension attribute.
Viswa threw punches around and started executing a routine that he learned from his previous life. He could feel the strength coursing through each moment.
After a few moves, he tried to gather the spiritual energy from his heart. He tried to spread it into his arm while he threw a jab.
*BOOM*
A small explosive sound came as his jab hit the air, but he couldn't revel in that strength and power. Viswa felt unbearable pain in his arm.
It almost felt like all the cells in his arm are screaming in pain.
He held his left arm while gritting his teeth in pain. He fell on his knees and stayed there like that for five minutes before the pain subsided.
He took a deep breath and noticed that the 1 point in the Spiritual energy attribute has gone to 0.
But he also felt the spiritual energy gathering around him and it slowly seeped into his body without any effort from his side. Even though it is very very slow compared to the state of his cultivation.
Viswa got back on his feet. His arm ached slightly, but it felt much better.
The effects of recovery are great and it seems like it is just pain from shock, it is not that damaging.
With that he went for a long and exhaustive run.
After a couple of hours, he went back to the temporary dorm.