Chapter 16: Cultivation-Start!

Shane had many things to purchase but only 11 gold coins in total, which was definitely not enough.

Because of that, he was exceptionally happy, when he found a slightly older five cubic meter spatial ring for five gold coins and immediately bought it, not hesitating for a single second.

With that, Shane had now two spatial rings and definitely enough to gather a bulk of Nightshade flowers.

Nevertheless, Shane also bought 5 concealment-[Mortal(Trash)] and 5 Nightsight potions[Mortal(Common)] for 2 gold coins, reducing his whole fortune to 4 gold coins and 24 silver coins.

With his remaining three gold coins, he took two gold coins aside to purchase something from the system if he was stuck in a perilous situation, while he used the last two gold coins that were left to purchase two fist-sized [Mortal-(Uncommon)] mana stones to increase his cultivation speed once he started.

Even though Shane's heart ached, each time he bought something, he would gain much in return.

As such he kept forcing a smile.

Once he was done, Shane went towards a gigantic stone field, that stood higher than some two-story houses, facing the sunlight head-on, while the mountain lodged the stone field with its enormous shadow, where hundreds if not multiple thousand humans were sitting down, looking as if they were meditating.

This open stone field was used for cultivators to cultivate and mana, which was invisible and said to be gaseous, was the best to absorb without anything obstructing it, neither walls, trees, or anything else.

The rich mana radiating from the mountain range flowed directly into the DeepMountain shelter almost as if it welcomed them with an affectionate hug.

Entering the stone field would cost him 10 silver coins, and the amount of time one spent there didn't matter, as long as one would not leave the stone field.

Shane paid 10 silver coins and only now did he regret having chosen to purchase a room to sleep in.

He was still new to the world of cultivation and mistakes were humanlike, but Shane still didn´t like the fact, that he made another mistake.

With him paying 10 silver coins to cultivate on the stone field, it meant he would at least stay here for a few days if everything went according to his initial plan.

If that was possible and Shane considered that Umbra might be bored and he had to leave because of him, but even if that would be the case, starting cultivating with the perfect preparations was important.

Sitting down on the outer circles of the stone field, Shane took out some food for himself and Umbra to eat, before he would start cultivating.

Hoping that Umbra would fall asleep after eating, Shane also ate a small piece of pizza to prevent stopping cultivating later if he were to become hungry.

While eating, Shane purchased the lowest [Mana gathering manual[Mortal-(Bronze)] and [Mana purifying technique[Mortal-(Bronze)] technique for one gold coin each.

These two techniques were required to learn how to cultivate.

To learn how to gather mana, one would need the mana gathering manual and to purify the mana inside the mana pool, a mana purifying technique was indispensable.

Shane´s techniques were both the worst of the worst and even though his replenishing and purifying technique were both bronze quality, they were only at the mortal stage, which meant the best mana purifying technique could allow him to reach the 10th rank of the Mortal stage at most, caused Shane to chuckle slightly...

How should he reach the 10th Mortal stage with a [Mortal (Bronze)] purifying technique...maybe the 4th Mortal stage was more likely.

To increase his cultivation rank and stage, Shane would have to increase his mana purity to a certain degree. Once he reached a mana purity of 1%, he would have to fill his mana pool to the brim and work together with the system to breakthrough.

In the end, it could be said, that cultivating in the earlier stages was rather easy and it took only a ton of wealth or enough time and determination.

WIth his mortal-bronze quality mana purifying technique, Shane could at most reach a mana purity of 3% and he had to purchase a higher manual to increase his percentage later on.

But to do that, he required more funds and he wanted to purchase a higher manual only when he had enough to purchase a Tier-1 manual, which would be enough for him to reach the apprentice stage.

But their price was around 10 Gold coins for a bronze quality manual, if not more, and to increase his mana gathering speed to not lose out on speed and generate a nice balance, Shane would have to pay at least 20 gold coins to reach the apprentice stage.

Considering that it would take a long time to get a stringer without any resources to speed up the mana absorbing and purifying process, Shane hadn't even added the price for nutrition solutions, a body refining technique to increase his physique and high-quality nutrition food which was needed to balance out everything.

In the end, Shane needed more funds and the recent deal he made with the Corvi race could be considered a huge opportunity that caused him to smile lightly.

He was thinking of a way, to kill the shadow-pythons on the main Nightshade field inside the shadow-snake valley, but if the worst-case occurred, Shane would just go rampage and use up some crafty tricks his instructors told him.

Holding the two bronze manuals he received in his hands, a message popped up.

[[Mortal-(Bronze)] Mana gathering manual detected--Initiate learning?]

[[Mortal-(Bronze)] Mana purifying manual detected--Initiate learning?]

Shane accepted both messages and a vast amount of information streamed into his mind, answering many questions about cultivation, he had never even thought about.

But after all, information were injected into his mind, a warning emerged

[Host is not allowed to spread the cultivation methods he received from the system, otherwise, he will immediately be ejected from the Primordial Dimensions. Guiding others is allowed but overstepping the line will cause the system to warn the host three times at most. This is considered generous enough. Never overstep your boundaries, my dear host!!]

`Dear host...my foot!! Don't threaten me with your nice words…' but now Shane understood why his father had never shared his cultivation methods or body refining techniques with him and a knowing expression formed on his face.

Apparently, there was a reason why one had to purchase techniques and skills from the system!!

One had to rely on the system and this thought caused a weird sensation in Shane´s mind to emerge and it felt somehow wrong...

`Was every race dependent on the system and the Primordial Dimensions?` Shane questioned in his mind and shock spread through his whole body.

It was creepy and scary at the same time…and even more questions streamed into his mind, hoping to find a nice and reassuring answer....but there was nothing.

'F**k let´s just hope the system is nice….for now' Shane though and even if the system had bad intentions, he was one of the last ones who could do anything. There was an unknown, yet uncountable number of beings that were stronger than him and even they relied on the system.

Ignoring the fear, that slowly spread through his body, Shane decided to cultivate, as he learned a few moments ago.

When he activated the mana gathering technique, he could faintly see a few single mana particles in his surroundings and they shone brightly.

Closing his eyes, Shane could sense them and according to the mana gathering technique, he had to enter his mana pool with his mind and form a vortex within, which would slowly attract and absorb the mana in his surroundings.

When the first few particles were drawn to him, his whole body suddenly seemed opened up and it was as if the particles were floating towards him due to their own will, without him doing anything more compared to before, except creating a small vortex in his mana pool.

Without him knowing [Artemis' Blessing] activated itself and thanks to the blessing of nature he received from [Artemis' Blessing] his aptitude towards mana was much grander compared to other humans.

While most [Mortal-(Bronze)] mana gathering techniques would only be strong enough to gather a few mana particles each minute after exerting the technique for the first time, Shane already gathered dozens of them within a single minute and his speed accelerated further, the more intimate he became with the mana particles.

Rather than being something strange and unknown to him, mana felt more like an old friend to Shane and he subconsciously increased the suction force of his vortex to the limit of the [Mortal-(Bronze)] manual which most youths were only able to do after a few weeks.

Only half an hour passed and Shane's mana pool was almost completely filled, which was an unimaginable speed for someone who felt mana for the first time and in addition, learned how to handle it less than an hour ago.

The mana particles in his mana pool combined with each other and Shane noticed that his mana pool was already filled, even though only a few moments passed, according to his senses.

Opening his eyes, a gleam full of vigor could faintly be seen burning in his black eyes as he activated the mana gathering technique with his opened eyes to test something out, looking around curiously.

From the initial few mana particles, he could see in the beginning, Shane could now see hundreds of them all around the stone field, but instead of being proud, determination could be seen in his eyes, as he swore to himself that he would purchase a better technique soon to feel more Mana around him because the sensation was marvelous and addicting.

Now, however, the more difficult step had to be done...purifying his mana by fusing and compressing it with each other. While compressing, Shane had to exert the purifying technique, while assembling the black dots and gather them before he would exhale the impurities through his pores.

This would cause a reeking smell but the whole stone field already reeked in impurities, as such everything would be fine.

Once the mana was compressed and slightly purified, Shane would have to lead the purified mana throughout all of his mana channels and make a large circle to completely annex it, making it his own mana.

Before the annexation, the mana inside his mana pool couldn't be considered truly his but after the annexation was completely done, it could be said that this mana was his own.

Exerting the Mana purification technique, Shane could sense black dots inside his mana pools and he began to work hard to cleanse the mana inside his mana pool to get stronger and stronger, while his determination soared even higher.