Chapter 34 – Cultivation is pain

  Savgar struggled to remain conscious as pain filled him. Every inch of his body felt like it was on fire, being frozen, or electrocuted, making it difficult to just breathe. He could feel the tree inside him, pulling at him. It was draining him, and he needed to break away. Summoning every ounce of strength he could muster, Savgar pushed himself away from the tree, breaking the connection.

  “Why’d you do that?” the tree asked. “We were only halfway done.”

  “Betrayer!” Savgar yelled. “Halfway through your attempt to kill me.”

  “I wasn’t killing you,” the tree said.

  “I could feel you draining me,” Savgar said. “You trees are nothing more than parasites!”

  “How else am I supposed to remove the corruption?” the tree asked. “I have to pull the corruption from you and into myself so I can cleanse it.”

  “That didn’t feel like you helping me,” Savgar said picking up Thurg. “It felt like you eating me. I warned you.”

  “Just try and cast a spell,” the tree said. “I removed enough that you should be able to feel the difference now.”

  Savgar was still holding Thurg in both hands ready to swing. He didn’t put the weapon down, but something did feel different. Savgar glanced at his status expecting to see a drop in his Health after all the tree had done to him, but his Health had only taken a minor hit. Already the wounds created by the tree’s branches were starting to close, leaving no indication of the ordeal he just went through.

  But there was one part of his status that did catch his eye. His Mana had barely increased since he unlocked his Bloodline. It had sat at a measly two thousand Mana for decades. But now he was staring at almost six-thousand Mana. He nearly dropped Thurg in surprise. It wasn’t possible, yet somehow it had.

  The information in Savgar’s status was determined by the System, and the System couldn’t be fooled. Even an abomination like the world-eater wasn’t able to do that. Yet there it was, somehow his Mana had increase nearly three times in the space of an minutes? Hours? He couldn’t tell.

  Placing Thurg back to rest on his shoulder Savgar attempted to cast one of the most basic spells he knew. A simple flame spell he had learned early on in his Blacksmithing career. Every time he had tried to cast even that weak spell, he was hit with a wave of pain and nausea and would start to lose Health if he pushed it, but if there was still a problem, it was probably the safest one to test with.

  As he cast the spell, Savgar could feel the wave of nausea and pain as expected, but it wasn’t as strong as he was used to feeling it. More importantly, his Health didn’t take the hit, and no backlash came either. Instead, he started to feel his Mana respond to his effort, taking shape and slowly moving to create a small flame in the palm of his hand.

  He stared at it for a long time, not believing what was before him, until the flame disappeared again. A wave of pain hit him, and his Health started dropping. He doubled over as blood filled his mouth. That was what he had expected to happen from the beginning, but for a moment it had been different. For a moment he had a glimpse of what he remembered it being like before his Mana Cultivation broke.

  “See? You can cast spells,” the tree said interrupting Savgar’s thoughts. “No issues. Well… some issues.”

  “You did this?” Savgar muttered, wiping the blood from his face. “But how?”

  “I told you many times,” the tree answered. “Just got to clean the corruption a bit. Give the Mana space to move. There is still a lot more that can be removed.”

  “I have seen expert healers all my life,” Savgar said. “No one has ever been able to do even this much.”

  “Should have talked to a tree,” the tree said. “I never have, but I imagine other trees could do this much at least. It really isn’t that hard.”

  “And you said there is still more?” Savgar said. “More that you can remove?”

  “I can, but you don’t seem fond of the experience,” the tree said. “It won’t get any better.”

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  Savgar put Thurg down and stepped back up to the tree. “Do it.”

  *~*

  Hours passed, possibly days, Savgar wasn’t sure anymore. He sat there silently as the tree continued its work. There was nothing but pain now with only the steady increase of his Mana stat letting him know that it was working. He watched it closely along with the rest of his status. It gave him something to focus on other than the pain and allowed him to make sure the tree didn’t try to do anything else.

  His Mana slowly rose, first to seven thousand, then eight and kept rising. As it did, the sickening feeling and pain only increased. Savgar didn’t mind the pain, it was the only comforting part of the process that made sense to him. Everyone knew that cultivation was pain. There was always pain when stripping away corruption to attain your purest form.

  It wasn’t even the experimental treatment. He had undergone several of those over the decades. None had done even a fraction of what the tree had already accomplished. No, what bothered him was how simple it appeared to be. Pain aside, all he was doing was sitting here as the tree worked. Cultivation wasn’t supposed to be easy. Even with assistance, there were limits to what someone else could do for your own cultivation. Next to none if they had a broken Mana cultivation like him. This felt like cheating. A shortcut, and everyone knew that taking a shortcut in cultivation will only lead to bigger problems.

  Still, Savgar suffered through it. This was the closest he had come to fixing his curse. The ability to use Mana was not only a defining aspect of the Ironbreath clan. It was a core part of every crafting profession. Without it, there were limits to what one could achieve. Savgar had defied the odds by reaching the Master rank, but even then, he had little hope of ever improving beyond it, and he would never be more than a Blacksmith. The defining class of the Ironbreath clan, Essence Smith, was lost to him.

  There might be problems with whatever method this tree was using to fix his curse, but if it gave him the chance to change his fate, he would risk it and deal with the consequences that may come.

  Still the pain continued, and Savgar continued to withstand it. He refused to let himself fall unconscious. He wouldn’t let the tree have free access to do whatever it liked. He gritted through the process as the sensation went from feeling like something was being leeched from him, to feeling like rocks were being ripped out of him. He thought that something had physically happened at that point, but his Health barely dipped, and no System Message appeared saying something went wrong, so he kept quiet and continued to let the tree work.

  The process continued in silence for what felt like an eternity. Savgar started getting annoyed. Why was it taking this long? It told him that he was already halfway through the process before. It has already been four times that long since then. It was just taking its sweet time trying to test his limits. To see how much a dwarf was able to handle. Well, he would show this tree not to underestimate the willpower of a dwarf!

  Then suddenly the pain was gone. The nausea and pain, all of it. Gone in an instance. Savgar was left reeling from the sudden shift as the tree retracted its branches from him.

  “All done,” the tree said. “The last bits were particularly difficult to remove. They must have built up for a long time.”

  Savgar checked his status again to verify the changes, not trusting the tree’s words immediately.

  Name: Savgar Ironbreath Level: 35 Experience: 87%

  Class: Warrior (Level 30)/Blacksmith (level 41)/Craftsman (10- MAX)

  Path: Path of the Artisan

  Health: 29610 Stamina: 28205 Mana: 15360

  *You have successfully reached the first Mana Cultivation stage: Opened Pathway*

  This is a necessary first step in developing your Mana Cultivation path. Normally this is a process that requires deep understanding developed from studying and learning to control your Mana over the course of several months to years, but some people require help.

  *Mana Cultivation: Opened Pathways*

  Having reached the first step on your Mana Cultivation path, you will find your Mana will respond faster and you will have greater control over it.

  -Increased casting speed

  -Increase Mana efficiency

  *Caution: Bloodline, Iron Essence, will continue to increase corruption in Mana channels. Regular Cultivation and cleansing will be needed to keep pathways clear.

  “You opened my pathways?” Savgar gaped.

  “Was that bad?” the tree said. “Once the corruption was removed, they were just a small push away from opening.”

  “Are you saying you can do this with anyone?” Savgar asked. “Just force them to reach the first Mana Cultivation stage like this.”

  “I’m not sure,” the tree answered. “Maybe. So long as they are like you, or the humans, or the elves, or that kobold that was here earlier.”

  “That is something…” Savgar muttered. “Something to consider.”

  “How does it feel?” the tree asked. “Is it easier to cast now?”

  Savgar looked down at his hand, casting the flame spell once again. He prepared himself as he had learned to do, bracing for the expected reaction to using his Mana, but nothing came. Instead, a dense ball of fire appeared in his hand nearly engulfing the whole thing. Savgar was so shocked by the sudden and intense appearance of the fire that he dropped the spell immediately.

  “I take it that it worked then,” the tree said.

  “Looks like it did,” Savgar grinned. He couldn’t stop himself. He summoned the spell once more and stared at the flame for a long while. He saw the message about how his Bloodline would still pose a problem. He would need to figure out a solution in the future, but for now he had a chance.

  “I owe you a debt,” Savgar said. “That and my clan. On my honor, I will pay this back.”