ETERNAL CULTIVATION OF ALCHEMY

   Chapter 1: Eternal Cultivation.

A young man walked out of a train in Oakleaf city. 'Woah!' he looked at the surrounding train station and was surprised at how glossy and expensive-looking it was. His black hair, fair skin, and child-like face made him look so very naive and simpleminded.

He followed some signs to get out of the train station and finally saw the Oakleaf city in its full glory. He stopped in his tracks amazed at how big the buildings were, how many vehicles there were on the road, and just how well dressed everyone looked.

"So, which way is the Oakleaf University?" He wondered as he took out his cheap-looking phone and started looking up the map.

After learning the directions, he started walking. He had a suitcase with him that he dragged along the city. Throughout the city, he would see giant billboards and posters promoting a single thing, making him wonder just what was Eternal Cultivation?.

"Hmm… is that a new movie? Looks good. Maybe I will get to see what a big city's cinema looks like. " His countryside village also had cinemas, but the screen was small, so he usually preferred watching the movies on his family computer.

He finally reached the university and asked a few people to find his way to dormitory A. He walked up to a register table and got his key for his room.

His room was numbered 205, so he walked into an elevator and got up. As he came out of the elevator, he got a phone call. He looked at the caller and realized his mom was calling him. He accepted the call.

"Alex? Where are you? Did you reach the university?" a worried voice came from the other side of the phone.

"Yes, mother. I am currently in the dormitory, look for my new room." Alex replied.

"Oh good, good. Here, your father wants to talk to you."

"Hey son, how are you doing? Was the train ride okay? You didn't find it discomforting, right?" His father asked him in a worried voice.

"No, father. It was fine. In fact, it was amazing. I never knew trains went that fast." Alex said.

"Haha," his father laughed from the other side of the phone, "That's what you get when you live your entire life on a farm. We shouldn't have home-schooled you either. Fortunately, you will be getting new experiences now."

"It's okay father. The school was in the town. It would've been hard for you to take me there regularly on a 2-hour ride." Alex said.

"Alright. Remember what I told you okay. Don't be friends with bad people. There are a lot of different people in the big cities. Learn to figure out which people are good and which are not. You should be old enough to know what to do and what not to do. Oh yeah, and just because you are 18 and you can, don't go to those stupid clubs, I hear they are just a waste of money."

Alex smiled a little and replied, "I understand, father. Oh, I'm in front of my room now. I will call you guys later, bye. "

"Alright, I will end the call then. Oh, right! Call Hannah and let her know you have arrived." "Bye," his father and mother said at the same time and ended the call.

Alex walked up to Room 205 and opened the door using his key. When he opened the room, he was surprised.

He didn't expect his room to already have people staying in it. Inside were 3 young men. 2 of them were up and talking, while one was seemingly sleeping. The room had 2 bunk beds and 4 closets. Aside from that, Alex couldn't see anything there.

"Hello, are you guys staying in this room as well?" he asked as he walked in.

"Yes, Are you our new roommate?" one of the people asked.

"Ah, yes," Alex said as he showed the key numbered 205. "Hello, my name is Alex Benton." He said as he walked in.

"Oh, hi. My name is Eric and this is Matt" Eric said introducing himself and the other person.

"Hi," Matt greeted as well.

"You just arrived right? So, I assume you haven't eaten anything yet. It's nearly 3 pm. Why don't you freshen up and we can go get some afternoon lunch in the cafeteria."

Alex nodded and changed to a normal shirt and pants. He went to the bathroom attached to the room and cleaned himself. By the time he got out, the third man was already up.

"I'm sure you can do it next time. Just buy a pill if you can't."

"I know, but those cost money. And I'm not really playing to make money."

"Then you just gotta hope you breakthrough next time."

The man finally saw Alex. "Hey, you the new guy? Hi, I am Logan. What's up?"

"Hello, my name is Alex," he replied too. Afterward, all of them went to the cafeteria to get some food. The 3 started talking about the same thing they were talking about in the room and it made Alex confused. He didn't know the context.

"What are you guys talking about exactly?" he asked.

"Eternal Cultivation," Matt replied.

"Oh, the new movie? I saw posters of it on the streets." Alex said with a face of understanding.

Matt, Eric, and Logan looked at him with a look of confusion. Logan then said, "it's not a movie. It's the best VR game in existence. Don't you know about it?" he asked.

"A VR game? I didn't know about that. I only heard about the name today." Alex said.

"It's already been out for a month and is already the most played game of all time. How come you've never heard of it?" Matt was surprised.

"Oh, that's probably because they don't have any billboards and posters near the farm. And I don't really get to be on the internet since I have to help my father with the work." Alex said.

"Well, you can play now. You really must experience it." Eric said.

"Is that so? but I don't have a VR helmet or money to buy one." Alex said.

"Don't worry about that, Eric here had got an old one, you can use that," Matt said.

"If that is so, then I will try it."

Alex and the 3 walked back to the room and Eric handed him the old helmet that he was keeping in the closet. Now that he looked at it, 3 of the 4 beds all had VR helmets in them.

"They must've been playing before I came," Alex mumbled a little.

"Just plug it in the socket there and you can start playing. Be sure to log out before 7 or you will miss dinner." Saying that Matt and the rest got into their beds and put on their helmets. After that, they went asleep.

Soon a light started shinning from inside the helmet and he finally heard something.

 

Chapter 2:Tutorial

A voice sounded in Alex's head. He slowly opened his eyes to look at the white nothingness in front of him.

'Where am I? Is this the game?' he thought.

A customization menu appeared in front of him. He looked at the different options possible and got easily overwhelmed. He saw a Randomize button at the top and clicked it without hesitation.

It created a new character with long, silky black hair, a lean body, and blue eyes. "This doesn't look bad," he said to himself.

He clicked OK.

He didn't want to set Alex as his username, but also couldn't think of one. So he simply chose the Randomize option once more.

'Doesn't sound bad,' he thought as he pressed OK.

Suddenly, everything turned white.

Alex found himself surrounded by trees on all sides. Everything so vivid and real and colorful.

"Is this really a game?" he thought.

He looked down on himself and saw that he was wearing a simple robe and pants similar to what his character looked like.

"So, this is what a VR game looks like, huh." He was amazed at the surrounding. His senses all told him that it was real. That he was in a real place.

"What do I do now?" he wondered and started looking around. There wasn't a map or a health bar that told him it was even a game.

Not long after, he found a small pouch tied to his sash. He tried to pick and see what it was when suddenly, a holographic panel appeared in front of him.

The panel had a bunch of boxes in it, with only 2 boxes being filled up. "What is this?" he wondered as he touched the first box.

[Tutorial]

[This game mostly works through voice commands. Say 'Settings' or 'Status' to open up settings or your info. Your first job is to make time and HP bar visible for your HUD from the settings. Say 'Settings' ]

"Settings"

A new screen appeared once more that had a bunch of little settings in it. He didn't know what most of them did as they were turned Off, but he quickly found 2 settings related to HP Bar and TIME. He turned both of them ON.

Suddenly on the top left of his vision, a green bar appeared representing his current HP amount. On the top right, a bunch of numbers appeared representing the current time.

It seemed the time in the game matched the real-life time.

[Tutorial]

[Congratulations on using the settings. You can later change the different settings as you see fit. Now, to check your info say 'Status']

"Status"

Another blue screen appeared in front of him. This time it had a bunch of information about him.

[Player Name: Yu Ming

Cultivation: Mortal (1 Qi : 100%)

Body: Sun God's Divine Yang Body

Talent: God

Spiritual Roots: 5 Elements Yin-Yang roots

Cultivation Method: None

Qi: 0

]

"Oh, is this my info?" Alex looked at the status with curiosity in his eyes. He didn't understand what most of it meant though.

The tutorial screen popped up again.

[Tutorial]

[Congratulations on opening your status. Here is an explanation of what each of these means.

Cultivation is your current cultivation realm and level. It shows you how much Qi you have to invest to increase cultivation, and what your chances of breaking through are.

Body: is your potential in cultivation. It determines how far you can cultivate. Special bodies also give other benefits. L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

Talent is your talent in cultivations. It determines how fast you can cultivate.

Spiritual Roots: Spiritual Roots represent your spiritual affinity towards the element. You can learn and use elements you have an affinity to more freely than the rest.

Cultivation Method: is the technique you use to cultivate. It teaches you how to gather Qi and use the Qi to increase your cultivation.

Qi: is your source of energy. The more Qi you have, the stronger you can become. The speed at which you gather Qi can depend on your location, your cultivation method, and your talent.]

Alex was truly overwhelmed now. He couldn't understand half of what was happening right now. He had decided to play this game because his new friends had told him it was the best out right now. So, why were there this many explanations?

Once he read it all, he clicked on 'next'. A new set of texts popped up from the tutorial panel.

[Tutorial]

[you can use the following commands.

Logout: to logout

Cultivation methods: to see all the cultivation methods you have learned.

Pills: to see the list of pills you have.

Techniques: check the different techniques you have.

Inventory: to see your inventory. (shows items from all of your different spatial bags or rings)

Finally, congratulations on completing the tutorial. You can now open the chest in your inventory to obtain a random technique, weapon, pill, and cultivation method.]

He closed the Tutorial by clicking the 'X' on the top. He tried saying all the commands, except log out, to see if they worked. As expected, all the commands worked.

Every single panel those commands brought up was empty, except for the inventory.

"Alright then, let's see what the chest gives me. Hopefully, it's something good." Alex clicked on the chest and a notification popped up.

He clicked 'Open'.

"Weapons" he decided to check weapons first.

The weapons panel now had a new addition to it. From the icon, it looked like a sword. Alex clicked on it and the option to equip or description popped up. He chose description.

[Steel Sword

Grade: Mortal

]

There were no more descriptions than that.

"What's the mortal grade? Is that good or bad? Also, is there no attack bonus or anything? How is this a game if the item has no stats on it?" Nothing of what Alex had learned from the little video games he played on his home computer helped him at all right now.

He then checked the pill.

[Qi providing pill: 10%

Gives you 10 Qi]

"This is not bad. Didn't my status say I need 1 Qi to level up?" Alex was quite happy to find this pill.

"How do I use the pill though? Is there a button to use it?" Alex looked into the options that popped up but didn't realize what to do.

"Since this is a pill, like a medicine. Do I just eat it?" he wondered.

"Whatever, here it goes."

POP

He put the pill into his mouth. As soon as it entered his mouth as if the pill melted, it slid down his throat before he even noticed.

"Oh. I was right". He quickly opened his status page to check the change now. He had indeed gotten 10 Qi now.

Now that he had enough Qi, he had a new [Breakthrough] option in his Cultivation.

"Ah, there it is. So I can become a cultivator now? Is that what it is?" Alex wondered as he pressed the [Breakthrough] button.

"Oh! I need a Cultivation Method eh. Let's check my Cultivation method then." Alex opened his Cultivation method page and saw the book icon in the panel.

The Cultivation method had a separation in the panel that divided the panel into 2 sections. 'Learned' and 'Ready to Learn'. The book was in the 'Ready to Learn section.

He clicked it and two options popped up. 'Learn' and 'Description'. He clicked on the description.

[Starry Sky Qi Absorption Method:

Grade: Heaven

Absorb 20 Qi every minute. Amount doubles during the night]

"Woah. 20 Qi every minute? That's crazy," Alex thought. "Wait? Does that mean the pill I ate wasn't actually good.?" he was starting to regret even eating that pill now.

"Do I learn It now?" he thought. He quickly went back to the same panel and clicked learn.

"Nice. Now I can breakthrough right?" Alex quickly set the new method as his cultivation method. After that, he clicked [Breakthrough]

Chapter 3: City