Each stage consisted of four minor levels, each of which required a minor breakthrough to progress. When a cultivator reached the peak of a stage, they would need to break through into the next stage. Each stage focused on its own method for progressing one's cultivation base.

The first stage was referred to as the Nebulous stage. It was considered the adolescent stage of cultivation and consisted of figuring out what path you wished to take in the future, be it a warrior, mage, or hybrid, and building up the most basic foundation for that path. As expected, there wasn't a large power spike in this stage, instead, the cultivator would gain a steady power increase.

This meant that the four levels in the Nebulous stage weren't as significant, in fact, they basically didn't exist. Normally, breaking through a minor level would result in a power spike in proportion to the difficulty of the breakthrough, but the Nebulous stage didn't have any bottlenecks within. It was quite literally the easiest stage to progress through and only required continuous cultivation.

As for what difficulties one would face in the next stage, and those beyond, he was unsure. He only had the most basic knowledge about standard cultivation stages and levels at the moment. This wasn't an issue now, but it would be in the future, and he would need to rectify it before breaking through to the second stage.

rubbing his neck, he cast off his inquisitive thoughts and opened the book about Altaris.

He would neglect his study to a certain extent in favor of practice and cultivation, but he couldn't drop it completely. Altaris control and knowledge were incredibly important. The greater they were, the easier and quicker a mage would progress. These would be areas that he would study for the rest of his life, no attainment would ever be sufficient.

Though the book was massive and claimed to be comprehensive, he would likely finish it before the next trip.

'What comes after this? Is there another Comprehensive book on Altaris?' He thought with a small chuckle. He didn't know, but he was positive that this book didn't contain everything there was to know about Altaris.

As was his nightly routine, he continued reading until he couldn't hold his eyes open any longer.

...

Kade stared down with furrowed brows. He had broken free from the others and returned to his solo adventures at the beginning of the week. He still hunted but also devoted some of his time to other activities like exploring and searching for treasures. Today was the first time he found something truly interesting.

It was a fantastical sight. A gigantic hole in the middle of the forest. Within, pieces of earth were suspended above water by thick vines and created small islands with their own unique biomes. Pillars of stone held up the surrounding dirt and created a ceiling, which he was standing on. The edges of the cavern were shrouded in darkness that prevented him from seeing just how large the cavern was.

The beauty of it wasn't what drew him to this place though. Rather, it was the small details that made him believe that there was something odd about this hole. The dirt and stone that was clearly different from the cavern floor it rested upon. The vines holding the islands that seemed to be a part of the cavern ceiling at one point, and the oddity of the different biomes on them. It didn't seem natural. He felt that this hole wasn't formed from the natural collapse of the ceiling, but the water and darkness likely hid more definitive clues.

'Was it a natural disaster? Could beasts have caused this?' His heart palpitated at the thought. While there were many possible reasons, the chance at beasts caused the collapse led to other assumptions. If they created this hole, there had to be something important beneath that they wanted.

There was an issue with that line of thinking though. How strong would beasts need to be to cause this level of destruction? How long ago did this happen, and would any treasures still remain? Regardless of the possibilities, there was bound to be danger within the cavern. The most important question is if it was worth his time to explore the cavern.

Glancing at the islands he made a decision. 'I'll start on the islands and see if there are any unique resources. I can always wind surge out if I get into trouble.'

He found the most verticle vine in the vicinity and began his descent. It took over fifteen minutes of climbing for his feet to touch solid ground.

Glancing around, he felt a tingle in his stomach. The cavern was completely different now that he was inside. Before, he didn't understand the depth, nor the size of this cavern. He had descended at least seventy-five meters to the island, and the distance to the water below was at least four times that. The scale of the cavern was beyond belief.

After getting over his shock, he noticed the differences in his surroundings. The temperature and humidity had skyrocketed at some point. The flora reflected the climate differences, being far thicker and with more vibrant colors than anything he had seen so far.

'Is this a rainforest...?' He wondered. Only this island seemed to have such humidity, he could see water and dew on plants and leaves. This island was far wetter than the forest above.

Navigating through the thick flora, he explored the island, getting a feel for the size and ecosystem.

After thirty minutes traversing, he figured out that the island was roughly five acres and filled with all kinds of bugs, plants, and even snakes. Close to the center of the island was a small pond with dark water with roots from all over the island converging into it. He imagined that it was far deeper than one would expect.

'Entering the water is probably a bad idea.' He thought, deciding to dip his fingers in the water instead.

His eyes widened before he jerked his hand back. The water was freezing! It was the coldest thing he had experienced and a stark contrast to the high heat around this island.

Taking out his notebook, he made an entry about the island and everything he had discovered, emphasizing the water. Then, pouring out his canteen, he filled it up with water from the pond before tying it back to his waist.

'Alright, on to another one.' Climbing over the roots and other obstacles, he worked his way to the edge of the island and looked for a way to another island. After a few minutes, he decided to cast wind surge a few times. A wave of heat assaulted him before landing on dry, cracked dirt.

He was far less surprised about the condition of this island, as it was relatively barren and easy to scout from a distance. The few trees on this island were bare and wilted. Walking around caused boredom to creep up until he came across what seemed to be extremely fine dirt.

Narrowing his eyes, he bent down and picked up a handful. rubbing it in his palm, his interest grew and he tossed the dirt and made his way to the center before using shape earth to excavate downward. He used shape earth to harden the walls of the hole as he continued. Occasionally he swapped to digging by hand so that his Altaris could regenerate.

After five minutes of digging, he came across different colored grains. 'Is this crushed stone?' Picking up a handful and inspecting it, he realized that the grains were harder and rougher, confirming his suspicions. This only served to increase his curiosity.

Continuing downward for almost ten more minutes, he finally came across something solid. It looked incredibly similar to marble. Using shape earth was ineffective, so he began excavating to the sides hoping to find something else that his spell would work on. He hadn't even excavated three meters when he realized that the ground had returned to grains of stone.

'Wait, what? Is it just that small section?' turning back, he followed the marble while using shape earth to remove all of the grains. It was a long and tedious process as he had to harden the walls and support the ceiling, but after nearly forty minutes he finally cleared the area.

Sitting before him was a misshapen ball of marble the size of a washing machine. Normally, that wouldn't be a surprising find, but considering that it was surrounded by grains of earth while remaining the only solid piece, he found it hard to believe that the cause could be anything other than the marble ball.

Running his hand over it, it felt like regular marble, albeit in an unrefined state. He took his knife and slammed the butt into it as hard as he could, but didn't do any damage. Raising a brow, he hit the sharp peaks over and over, yet couldn't even chip off a tiny piece.

"How hard is this thing?" He mumbled before moving on to another test. He attempted to roll, lift, and even cast different spells at it without any change.

Finally, he shrouded his hand in Altaris used the energy to run a series of tests on the ball, and this time, he observed the expected results. Unfortunately, he didn't have the skills needed to influence such a large object.

Sighing, he decided to leave it be for now. There was no way for him to take a piece of ball with him at the moment, but he could always return in the future.

He cast wind surge to boost himself out of the hole before creating a cape and covering it with grains of dirt to hide it, just in case someone else chanced upon the area.

He checked the sky to determine the time 'I still have time to check another island.'. Jogging to the edge of the desert island, he didn't waste time searching for a way over and just used wind surge. As he landed on the next island, his expectations plummeted.

This island was seemed no different than the land above and likely hadn't experienced any changes. Even so, he couldn't skip it. How unfortunate would it be to miss something valuable because he made an assumption?

As with the islands before this one, he searched it casually and took note of any important details. One that might be of importance was the presence of birds. They flitted between the short trees chirping incessantly, active and energetic. He even watched a few of them fly back to the surface without any difficulties, but none flew to the other islands.

Rubbing the back of his head in frustration, he focused on the other islands. He wanted to search all of them and unearth the secrets they held. He wanted to take the treasures within and horde them as his own! He was sure that there was something significant here and he was so close if only he could continue searching!

Shaking his head, he turned and cast wind surge to fly back to the surface. He was getting angry just from looking at the islands and staying any longer would only add to his anger. It was time for him to return to camp anyway.

Flying up, he overshot the surface by nearly twenty meters, forcing him to cast wind surge again to adjust his descent back to the ground so that he could lower the force of impact and roll to disperse it.

Grumbling, he stood up and roughly dusted off his pants before walking in the direction of the camp. His irritation slowly waned as he walked and had nearly completely disappeared by the time he made it to camp.

"Yo, how'd your day..." Cal began, but paused as he saw Kade's expression "Go?"

"Weird... Very weird." Kade replied as he walked by him and sat in the lounging pit, his brows furrowed and his lips pulled down into a frown.

'Why was I so angry?' He wondered. When he originally planned to descend into the cavern he had no hopes of actually finding anything of value. At most, he figured he could satisfy his curiosity. Yet, the longer he spent there the more irritated he became. Finding treasure and uncovering mysteries had apparently become more important to him.

He rubbed his bottom lip pensively. It was uncharacteristic of him to act in the manner he did, even when angry. So why did he act like that, and when did it begin?

"It wasn't on the first island..." He mumbled quietly. 'Even on the second island I was fine, I think...' His mind replayed his time spent in the cavern. It was difficult to determine exactly when his mood shifted, it only became obvious when he realized how ordinary the third island was.

Grabbing his notebook, he made another entry detailing what he experienced, when he believed it to have started, and what he thought could be the causes. There were only two significant oddities if the islands themselves were excluded, and that was the small pond and the unnatural marble ball. Closing and storing the notebook, he relaxed his body. It had to be one of those two, but he interacted with both so he would have to return and investigate more to be sure which one.

'Either way, that place is definitely special.' He thought as a small smile took over the pensive frown.

"Oh." He looked at Cal "Sorry, I was absorbed in my thoughts. How'd you guys do today?"

"Pretty good." Cal replied as he handed Kade a roasted squirrel "We are slowly adjusting to not having back up, but it does suck having to be more cautious." He said with a wry smile.

Kade shrugged "That's just part of it. You can't afford to get into a fight until you're confident you won't be interrupted, and that you can win, of course."

"Guess so." Cal nodded before returning to conversing with the others.

Kade smiled. Cal seemed to be the most adept at recognizing social queues and always knew when Kade preferred to be alone. It was a good skill to have and one Kade greatly appreciated.

Calming his mind, he began his nightly routine.

...

"EMERGENCY!" Cal shouted as he burst into camp rotating his head frantically in search of something.

"KADE! WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY!"

Cal grabbed his hair in anxiety before he heard rustling. Turning his head in time to see Obruo hop out of a bush and tilt his head at Cal.

Furrowing his brows for a moment, Cal thought of an idea. "Obruo, can you find Kade and lead him to the others?"

"Awo?"

"Arg." Cal grunted in frustration "Find Kade and bring him back to camp!" He repeated with urgency in his voice.

Obruo slowly turned around, glancing back at Cal once before trotting off into the woods.

-

Kade jerked his hand free from the beast carcass at his feet and shook it to sling the excess blood off. Whistling as he rolled the gem in his fingers. This was his second successful hunt of the day, he was thoroughly enjoying this area as it was mostly occupied by lone beasts. This place played to his strengths perfectly, and he had finally adjusted to his channels.

It had been almost eight weeks since his channels had been injured and his strength was reduced. During that time, he was forced to adjust how he fought, had learned how to multitask his cultivation, developed higher familiarity with his spells, and increased his control. All of this was necessary to adjust to his channels and had also propelled him to a higher level of strength than he was before.

He was on a completely different level, and he hadn't even begun experimenting on the benefits of his enlarged channels yet.

Casting water cannon, he adjusted the force to gently wash the blood off his hand and the core before storing it in his belt pouch. Glancing at the sky, his primary method for determining the time, he grinned.

"Ah, guess I'll find another prey then." He said happily as he jogged away.

He searched for thirty minutes, sometimes walking, sometimes jogging, and occasionally flitting through the leaves with wind surge until he found a suitable target. Hiding in a bush, he peered out and observed for some time. Though he was stronger and more confident than ever, he wasn't an idiot. He still observed his targets before fighting if he had the luxury.

After ten minutes, he was prepared to engage when he heard a familiar sound behind him.

"Tiss."

Turning quickly, he placed his hand on Obruo's snout. "What are you doing bud? You're gonna alert my prey."

"Awoo." Obruo whimpered as he fought out of Kade's grasp and trotted away before turning his head back.

Kade raised a brow. He knew Obruo well enough by this point to realize something was up "What is it?"

"Awo!" Obruo barked out as he took a few steps away and turned back to Kade.

"Oh, you want me to follow?" Kade asked.

Obruo bobbed his head in a funny way.

"Alright." Kade said solemnly. "Lead the way."

Obruo took off and Kade followed on his tail. After just a few minutes Kade realized that they were headed in the direction of camp and felt his chest tense. Without wasting a moment he cast Wind surge and blasted himself forward. He quickly soared a few meters off the ground and over doubled his speed.

Briefly glancing at Obruo after passing him, he watched the pup immediately pick up the speed to keep up.

'Huh, imagine that.' He thought as he turned his head forward. He knew that Obruo was fast, but he hadn't expected the pup to be as fast as his wind surge!

Alternating between running and wind surge, he made it back to camp in under twenty minutes. Rolling and sliding against the ground before using the remaining momentum to bounce into an upright position, he quickly scanned the camp before his gaze landed on a message in the dirt.

"The team is in trouble. Follow the arrow, I'll leave marks in the trees. - Cal."

He darted in the direction that the arrow was pointing while frowning "Damnit, what have those punks gotten themselves into now?" He grumbled.

The possibilities flashed through his mind, causing the urgency he felt to rise. Unfortunately, he couldn't go too fast or he would miss the marks left to guide him. He could only hope that they could persevere until he arrived.