Once back in his cabin Gordon almost didn't know what to do. There was so much he needed to review.
There was all the black iron skills his contract had gained, there was that weird pain that happened right before Taylor and Roy came, he still needed to figure out a way to learn the cultivation manual, he really had to sort out what he was going to tell Jessica, and it was about time he named his lichen.
Oh! And there was that little box that Taylor had given him this morning with breakfast. Since this was the easiest thing to do he opened the gift first.
Inside was a simple little cake. A smell of lemon rose to his nose as the box opened and Gordon guessed that this must be a lemon cake.
Since cake was rare in this world's life so far, he didn't immediately eat it down. Instead he very carefully examined it. Having just come back from the seven course meal with Angelica he had just been indoctrinated with some ideas on how to appreciate food. And he could tell that this cake was not made by Angelica. For one she would never have allowed one of her creation's aesthetic be so crude. Three colors of icing bright blue, honey bee yellow, and black that bled out to grey where it mixed with the blue was presentable from a distance, but up close he decided that it could have been done better. This must be a factory produced creation.
Carefully taking a bite the lemon flavor was extremely strong over powering everything else.
'Oh, my! I was really spoiled by Angelica's cooking for a few hours.'
Chuckling to himself, this sudden interest in food was ridiculous for a Pit dweller. Gordon shrugged and sat down on the bed in a meditation pose already done with the cake.
Closing his eyes he decided to take some time to review his current state. He needed to take a look at his skills, but this circulating energy in his body was strange. Focusing on the energy first he needed to do what he could to figure it out more.
Within moments his entire inner awareness was drawn to the cultivation within his energy meridians cycling through his body. The foreign nature of it created an anxiety and alienation feeling. It was a small feeling, which started to become more and more intense as he focused on it.
However, as he contemplated the energy he slowly was able to calm down. While strange the energy didn't harm him or more clearly it was harming him, but so weakly that his tissue was able to just barely return to complete health by the time the energy cycled back to the same point.
Able to calm down a little now Gordon pulled up his current status.
[Gordon Alfmunsen
Level: 0
Title: none
Cultivation method: Lesser Standard Cultivation
Core: Spirit Refining Realm - .6%
Health: 94/97
Mana: 12/12
Stamina: 40/43
Physical: 5
Soul: 3 + 1
Mental: 7
Abilities: Beast Taming (G rank)
Talent: None
Skills: None
Magic: None
Cultivation Techniques: None
Pets: Reindeer Lichen
]
There was a two new lines there, it turns out that he had learned the cultivation manual's teachings somehow. The name in his status matched the name of the manual. And it looked like he had somehow embarked on the Spirit Refining Realm with already refining .6% of his chi.
Connecting the dots between the manual the reindeer lichen and the pain that had startled him earlier Gordon had a lot more confidence. The fact that he was cultivating automatically had bonuses and drawbacks. The biggest bonus was that he would never have to learn cultivation. His lichen would do everything for him. The biggest drawback was that without the personal learning and understanding of chi he knew he would never, by himself, be able to become any great spiritual master. It would require an in-depth knowledge, research, and experimentation to be truly great.
However, this drawback didn't hold Gordon back for long. The bonus here was that he could allow his lichen to take care of this for him. Allowing him to spend his time on something else while still gaining many of the benefits passively.
'This is actually really good.'
The more Gordon could support the lichen in maximizing its spiritual strength the better.
Having resolved his concerns with his current entrainment being forced to circulate his spiritual power at all times Gordon realized that it was about time to name his lichen.
Calling it his contract was becoming to burdensome in his mind. Originally he had held off from giving it a name because he had been waiting for it to show some personality. In the end the lichen was still just a fungus. It had not become sentient. Even at black iron level awakening it seemed like there was not going to be any communication.
His lichen's scientific name was Cladonia portentosa. Maybe he could give it a name based off of it.
Clad could be a good name, but also Portentosa. Neither name really gave him any meaning. Clad could be a good strong name and it definitely had a masculine vibe to it. But the more he considered it he rejected Clad as a name. Mostly because lichen reproduced both sexually and asexually. His partner would have all ways of continuing on its species in the future unless an evolution made some kind of change.
Instead he decided that calling it Portensa a shortened version of portentosa could be good. THe more he thought about it the more the name started to really grow on him.
Picking up the cultivation manual with the lichen growing on the cover he solemnly gave it its new name.
"Portensa will be your name."
It might be a little cringe, but Gordon knew there was power in being formal sometimes. If nothing else then for him personally being a little solemn about it would reinforced his bond with the lichen with in his own mind. Giving respect for others would always be important.
Quickly moving on he went to his status screen for Portensa.
[Cladonia portentosa (Awakened, healthy)
Common Name: Reindeer Lichen (Reindeer Moss)
Rank: Black Iron
Stars: None
Core: Spirit Refining Stage - 1%
Skill:
Symbiosis - The lichen can surround and integrate an organism. Has a very rare opportunity to form a symbiotic partner with a suitable organism. This opportunity to form a mutual symbiotic partnership is based on pre-existing factors and is not due solely to chance.
Link - The primary partner in the symbiosis can form a link with other organisms allowing these linked organisms to share knowledge.
Symbiotic Partners:
Chlorophyceae (color mutation)
Skill:
Photosynthesis - The algae can convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar. Energy production is increased by 5%.
Enhanced Cell Walls - The algae's cell walls have been enhanced to provide faster transfer of molecules in and out of the algae.
Microsporomyces magnisporus
Skill:
Acid - The yeast produces an acid that harms predators when ingested. Acid has a deterring effect.
Flagella - An appendage allows the yeast to move within the larger phallus body of the reindeer moss.
Lesser Standard Cultivation Manual
Skill:
Mana Sense: The manual has the ability to sense mana.
Mana Manipulation: The manual has the ability to manipulate mana.
Description: A fungus with a three pronged branching thallus body now consists of three partner groups an algae and a yeast.
]
With more time to review what was written here Gordon was now able to see that in going to the black iron rank portensa's natural skills had been enhanced.
A little excited he was looking forward to seeing these skills would continue to rank up with each new evolution.
The natural skill of the main body of his lichen as it had been before couldn't have allowed the cultivation manual to synthesize as a symbiote. It had to strengthen in order for it to create a symbiosis with the cultivation manual.
Having the pamphlet as a symbiote was really beyond anything Gordon would have expected. Even now it still didn't look like it was possible for the lichen to create a mutual relationship unless the new partner was alive.
It clearly stated that any new symbiote had to be alive.
'Does this mean that the manual is alive?'
In the pits there were a few books. Highly prized these books were bought or traded at enormous prices. His father had three books. One on building circuit boards, one was a basic primer for building electronics, and one was a recipe book that he used occasionally to make special dishes for Gordon's mom.
All three of them were hard bound books. They had a mystery about them, but they were no more alive then his shoe or the kitchen table.
Examining the cultivation manual Gordon was surprised to see that it wasn't like any book he had seen before. Even if the lichen growing on top hadn't been there he would have thought that the book was unlike the books he had experience with. At least a book should have lots of pages!
Instead the soft bound book only opened splitting down the middle to unfold once hinging on one edge so that the book doubled in width while halving the thickness.
Before he hadn't been able to open it because it had not been bound to him. Instead it had bound to his lichen. Now it was opening for him somehow even though he wasn't its primary owner.
'I guess it makes sense, somehow I don't know.'
Shrugging because he didn't have enough information Gordon just decided that it must be because of the second skill of the main body.
Being able to share information between bound living beings must be why he could open the book. Somehow the manual recognized him as its owner.
'Did this mean that in some sense he was now a symbiote with his own contract?'
Again he had to put aside questions that were beyond his meager knowledge for the moment.
Either way it was working. The ability to share energy was probably why he was continually circulating this cultivation method.
Skipping down to the natural and black iron rank skills of the manual Gordon saw that the book was actually able to entrain and manipulate its owners chi development.
Even while looking at his system screens he was looking at the manual and having opened it the book began presenting information on cultivation that Gordon could then interact with.
Gordon carefully held the book. Because his lichen was actually facing down with the pamphlet like book open he was worried that it might damage it somehow. Fortunately the lichen didn't seem to be negatively affected. Gravity made the thallus bodies hang down, but that was all. Portensa's status in Gordon's system remained unchanged. Despite still looking ever so fragile as a black iron rank beast it was much stronger than before.
Going back to reviewing the contents of the book, he realized as he read that he already knew everything. The book was in a symbiotic relationship with Portensa, basically the book was Portensa and Portensa was sharing the knowledge with him.
After getting used to the ability to learn the material so easily Gordon decided that it would be important to review the material in the book. But just as a once over so that he would be familiar with what Portensa was doing at least.
Looking at the function of the book to entrain the user's cultivation he realized that the book was probably at the black iron rank even before evolving with Portensa. Maybe Portensa had needed an appropriate black iron rank target to be able to form a symbiotic partnership to be able to evolve in the first place. It wasn't exactly clear yet, but this could be something he should look for when seeking to evolve Portensa to the green bronze rank.
Finally he took a look at the natural and black iron skills for the Chlorophyceae and Microsporomyces magnisporus symbiotes. Both the black iron skills for these two symbiotes were fairly predictable. There was nothing confusing about them and seemed to be natural upgrades for one cell organisms.
On the whole it seemed like Portensa had gained a lot through evolution. Shrugging Gordon considered that Portensa had not gained any real attack or defensive skills. It was true that [Flagella] could be considered as an attack grade skill, but just like [Enhanced Cell Walls] was a defensive skill both were on the scale of a single cell. At the microscopic level these two skills weren't going to increase the attack or the defense of Portensa to any meaningful degree.
Although perhaps if Portensa was attacked on the cellular level it would be much stronger?
Gordon decided that it was a good thing overall.
Checking the time he found that he had been reviewing skills and the book for about four hours. Since the lunch had taken more than three hours it was almost eight in the evening. He guessed that Taylor had decided that he didn't need dinner.
Slightly regretful Gordon was feeling very hungry. Maybe the constant entrained cultivation was burning through more energy than normal. But then he saw that his breakfast was still on the desk. True it had been there all day, but Gordon was used to eating much more stale and possibly spoilt food in the Pit. So without any hesitation he ate the breakfast.
It was actually pretty delicious. He didn't detect any spoiled areas. There was only a hint of a stale taste.
Finished refueling he sat back onto the end of the bed in his meditation pose and concentrated on his cultivation for the rest of the night. At least cultivate while finally coming to the hardest topic of all. He had decided to put off thinking about how he was going to betray Jessica till last. Making this deal with Angelica had already changed him. It had already fundamentally shifted his relationship with Jessica. And he didn't like it. Angelica had skillfully manipulated the situation and Gordon in his weakness had done what he needed to survive.
Angelica was going to have a chance to kill him after the Philos retreat. His guts twisted as he considered the fact that his life was not in his hands anymore.
The only thing he could really do was tell Jessica. But telling Jessica would only make it worse. The Philos family had absolutely no reason to keep him alive while Angelica actually had some reason to preserve his life.
On the other hand he knew himself, knew that his emotions had already shifted. Jessica was going to be able to read him like a book. She was going to know. In the end he was going to have to tell her. Running wasn't an option.