"Priest, right this way, please follow me, and I will show you our selection," the head librarian said as he began to walk further into the Dao Repository.
Xander and Russel once again followed along, and after about 20 seconds of walking, Xander finally found the courage to ask, "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly was in that jade slip?"
This somewhat surprised the old head librarian. He turned around, tossed him the jade slip, and asked, "You didn't read this?" in a shocked, questioning tone as if he was supposed to.
"No… no, I didn't," Xander said as he began to send his mind into a jade slip for the first time.
As he made a connection with the jade slip, information about himself was directly implanted into his mind.
The information basically boiled down to Xander being a new priest of the order that was recently found and was being nurtured to be a future head priest thanks to his talent and affinity with death that he shared with their very own lord that they worshiped.
This surprised Xander. He knew that he had to have some death affinity thanks to his trait having to do with death, but he didn't think that he would have a prodigious amount of affinity for death.
[Trait: Death]
[Trait Rank: Dormant]
While this excited him to be good at something, especially in this new hellish world he was walking into in the Tower of Fate or the Tower of Death he was taught growing up, he did find it a little hard to accept that his prodigious power happened to be death. It didn't really seem to be the most welcoming power there was. He was worried that if he somehow made it past this trial, he would be judged for his death affinity.
But after thinking on it some more, he finally thought, 'F**k it. If I can make it out of here somehow, then I'll accept any blame or criticism thrown my way.'
If you asked Xander, his only job was to survive because that was the one true thing he promised his brother before he died.
After walking for another minute, the head librarian finally stopped at a certain place in the back of the Dao Repository.
In front of the three was one large bookshelf that was enclosed by bars. The bookshelf was obviously not something just anybody could look at.
The head librarian, without saying a word, unlocked the door and walked in with Xander and Russel in tow.
After walking more than halfway through the bookshelf, the old man finally stopped, reached forward, and grabbed three large pitch-black jade slips.
He turned to Xander and said, "Here, memorize these by tomorrow and try to create your core."
Xander didn't think twice and just took the jade slips and sent his mind into the first one he made contact with.
It happened to be a jade slip filled with attacks that used death affinity as a base. The next one was a cultivation manual that helped create a death attuned core and showed you how to create and use death qi.
The last one was a mix between defense and movement.
After going through the jade slips, the head librarian pulled out a smaller jade slip and tossed it over to Xander.
"This is a map of the grounds so you can find your way around. You need to go somewhere with death qi to get a good sense of how to use it. Also, if your friend wants to fight tomorrow, he will be allowed to go through our public sections and pick out what he wants."
"And make sure you bring those death jade slips back tomorrow before you leave for the battle," After saying this, the head librarian shooed them away and locked back up the private section.
Once they were alone again, Xander looked to Russel and asked, "So do you want to fight tomorrow and look through the library?"
Russel gave it a moment of thought then said, "Screw it. To have a chance to go through the order's massive library, I'd be crazy to pass it up."
After saying that, the two looked at the map, and Xander showed Russel where he planned to go, and the two went their separate ways.
After walking through the order's grounds, Xander finally made it to his destination. It was near the back of the grounds in a small dark forest that gave Xander the creeps and sent a chill down his back.
'Is this death qi that I'm feeling?' Xander now more than ever wished he was talented in some other affinity other than death.
After finding a place to sit down, Xander sent his mind back into the high ranked 'Core of Death' cultivation manual, ready to create his core.
How to create a death core: (It also showed diagrams of how to complete each step.)
- Find a quiet dark place where you won't be disturbed.
- Sit comfortably and close your eyes.
- Visualize a sphere of pure death qi forming right below your sternum, in the very center of your being.
- Breathe slowly, drawing in the death qi from your surroundings with each inhale.
- With each breath, imagine strands of death qi flowing into the sphere.
- Feel the energy coalesce, growing denser and more potent.
- Focus on the stillness and silence that the death qi brings, allowing it to permeate your entire being.
- As the sphere becomes more concentrated, begin to compress it, making it smaller and more powerful.
- Visualize it solidifying into a core of death qi pulsing with latent power.
- Continue to refine and condense the core until it feels stable and strong.
After learning how to create a core, Xander started to take action…
Three hours later, after multiple failures, Xander was out of breath, soaked in sweat, and looking deep inside himself at his new death attuned core that was completely empty.
[Rank: G-rank - Entry] - [Saturation: 0%]
[Death Core] - [Attunements: Death 100% - Life 10% - Other 50%]
After creating his core, he looked back at the cultivation manual.
After creating your death core: (It also showed diagrams of how to complete each step.)
- Practice drawing qi from your surroundings into your core.
- Practice drawing qi from your core to enhance your physical and magical abilities.
- Channel the core's power into your techniques, amplifying their effectiveness.
He began to practice pulling qi from his surroundings into his core, and before long, his core was almost full, and he switched to trying to use his new qi.
He learned how to draw pure death qi from his surroundings and how to change his death qi into other types of qi. After learning how to move it inside his body and even expel it from his body, he started to look at the attack manual jade slip.
***
(The attunements are just how efficient other elements are when used with this core. So don't mind the 100% + 10% + 50% = 160% that's not how it works.)