A dark-haired boy rubbed his chin as he sat alone in a small room, glaring down at the book he had open on the floor in front of him. His name was Telram and it had been eight years since he had been reborn into this strange world called Nerrus, a place where people could absorb energy known as Mana from the air with special skills known as cultivation techniques.

Earlier this morning he had been given this book, which was a manual holding a few skills related to cultivation by his mother Lily who had told him that it was time for him to start cultivating. Telram had readily agreed, he had spent a lot of time learning how to read and write in the language that they used in this world. It was lucky for him that his mother in this world used to be a scholar that worked for the noble family that controlled the city that he lived in or it was likely he still wouldn’t know how even at eight years of age. Even as it was his mother was worried that he didn’t act like other kids, spending far too much time reading the books she was able to get from her old boss, she hoped that getting him started on cultivation would get him outside more where he would hopefully make some friends.

“There’s definitely something wrong here, this is supposed to be the cultivation technique that all the commoners use, but there seems to be a lot of information missing from this manual,” he muttered to himself.

Flipping through the pages in the book he had found that not only were the instructions vague and overly mystical in the way they were written but the technique itself seemed to have been pieced together from several different sources. From what he knew of the history of Nerrus, the current human population were recent arrivals but there were signs of an older civilisation that predated them. Even the city that he lived in which was called Palamar had been built using stone taken from these ruins as the stone that the ancient people that had once lived there was far stronger than what could be found today.

Flipping back to the front of the book he started reading again before getting up and walking over to the desk that sat in the corner of the room.

"There’s nothing for it,” he sighed as he picked up some parchment and a brush. In his previous life he had been a history student he was used to having to trawl through difficult textbooks and websites to find the information he needed.

“I’ll just have to work something out myself.”

Putting brush to page he started taking notes. The first thing he wrote down were general notes on the various stages of cultivation.

The first stage was apparently known as the Accumulation Stage and required the cultivator to absorb large amounts of Mana from the atmosphere, over time the Mana that you absorbed would leak into your bloodstream and start to change your body, this could be very dangerous as the human body wasn’t meant to contain large amounts of Mana, and the Manual advised advancing to the next Stage as soon as possible

The next Stage was known as the Core Formation Stage and involved refining the Mana until it formed what was known as a Mana Core within your body, this core would prevent the Mana you had absorbed from causing more damage to your body. It was at this point that you could start to use Martial Skills that required Mana as by this stage you should have enough control over your Mana to form the patterns that would allow you to use these skills safely, there were some Martial Skills that you could start learning the basics of first, but until you reached this stage they would be no different to the various martial arts on earth.

These two Stages were part of what the manual called the Human Realm, though he was aware of other Realms after this; the Ascendant Realm where the cultivator could start to learn to use Elemental Mana, and the Immortal Realm where the cultivators lifespan would increase until they became immortal, the cultivation technique he had in front of him only allowed one to reach the end of the Core Formation Stage. If a commoner wanted to cultivate further, they had to get a new cultivation technique from one of the noble families. Most commoners didn’t bother with this, cultivation techniques were expensive and those who did get them usually did so because of their job. Of course, those commoners who became guards or otherwise worked for a noble family found it much easier to get a new cultivation technique.

The boy shook his head, the noble families controlled the common people by making sure that no-one could oppose them by preventing them from cultivating further and recruiting the talented individuals to help them oppress the population allowing them to stay in power. Some things never changed no matter what planet he was on.

Before writing any notes on the actual cultivation technique Telram figured he should probably try it first, and closed his eyes, his breathing became calmer as he breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth. Time passed, and a slight frown seemed to pass over his face as faintly glowing wisps of mist started to form around his body before entering his body.

With a jolt his eyes opened, and he bent over his desk, sweat beading on his brow. The cultivation technique had indeed been successful, but he had lost control of some of the Mana he had absorbed which was now causing him discomfort as the chaotic energy flooded his cells.

After a while his body relaxed, “Well, now I know why the manual says to exercise caution when absorbing Mana, that bloody well hurt!”

Telram didn’t know how much of the Mana he had managed to properly absorb but he did know that he had to work on controlling the Mana he absorbed properly, his body wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of its cells being broken down and rebuilt the whole time he was cultivating.

He started writing down notes on the cultivation technique which was simply known as the Core Formation Technique leaving plenty of space so that he could add more things as he learned them. The technique itself used something called Soul Energy, to create a force that would pull in the Mana in the atmosphere and allow the cultivator to absorb it, the Mana would then flow towards the abdomen where it would form a Mana Cloud which would later be refined by adding Soul Energy and refining it down into a Mana Core.

Once he had done this he started flipping through the manual again until he found the next page he was looking for, the page described a technique known as Inner Vision that used Soul Energy to move the users consciousness around their body, it was specifically supposed to be used for looking at one’s core, but Telram couldn’t see any reason it couldn’t be used for looking at anywhere within his body.

Focussing once more he attempted to move his consciousness down towards the area just behind his navel where the Mana he had absorbed was supposed to have gathered. Using his Mental Energy was like trying to use a muscle he had never really used before. It took a long time before he felt like he had made any progress. It was a strange sensation, if he wasn’t trying to make his consciousness to move around he might not have noticed it was anything other than a moment of dizziness, but he was sure. He had caught a glimpse of something in his minds eye, a small cloud of faintly glowing mist.

Unlike he had first assumed however the area where this cloud was situated seemed to be separate from his body making it likely that a Mana Core acted like a dam preventing the Mana he absorbed from flowing back out into his body.

Noticing that a considerable length of time had passed since his mother had given him the cultivation manual Telram swore under his breath before getting up and exiting his room.

Rushing into the kitchen he finds a frail looking blonde woman struggling to carry a large crate of vegetables.

“Mum I’ve got this you go and sit down,” he said quickly taking the heavy burden from her and carrying it over to the bench.

“Oh, thank you dear,” Lily sighed as she slowly lowered herself down onto a chair. As she watched her son started to prepare the vegetables in the box he had taken, and she shook her head, her son really was a strange boy.

“What did you think of the cultivation manual dear? Did you manage to understand it?” she asked.

His back still turned to her Telram frowned, he didn’t know whether his mother realised how incomplete the cultivation manual she had given him was, but he knew that she was already worried about how odd he acted compared to other children so decided to play it safe.

“There are a few things I didn’t understand, could I ask a few questions?” he said finally.

Lily smiled, her health had been going downhill since Telram was born and two years ago she had been forced to quit her job. Since then she had been spending a great deal of time teaching her son to read and write and even though his writing was still a little messy she was very proud of what he had accomplished at his young age. Because of this she knew that if he had any questions he was probably going to ask ones that even she would have difficulty answering.

“Go ahead.”

Telram grinned, he was lucky that his mother had been a scholar, she was probably one of the few people who could answer the questions he had.

“What exactly is Soul Energy?”

Lily thought about this for a while, Soul Energy was a complicated subject and she wasn’t exactly sure how to explain it

“…Soul Energy is what allows a cultivator to control Mana. All people start off life with different levels of Soul Energy that changes through how they act throughout their lives.”

“What do you mean ‘how they act throughout their lives?”

“Soul Energy grows more powerful when one overcomes hardships or reaches the next Stage of cultivation, as well as simply through using it, but if one fails to overcome these obstacles their Soul Energy will become less powerful.”

“So, it’s sort of like willpower?” Telram asked, beginning to understand.

“That’s a good comparison, yes,” Lily said, feeling slightly surprised at how easily Telram had come to that conclusion.

Telram put the knife he was using to cut the vegetables down as he rubbed his chin. Something about what had happened earlier had bothered him, the manual had stated that learning to use a Soul Energy technique for the first time was a long and difficult process, but not only had he been able to use the cultivation technique, he was fairly sure that he had been able to briefly use Inner Sight as well.

“Mum, how long does it usually take for someone to learn to use Inner Sight?”

“Oh, don’t worry about not making any progress on that dear, even talented individuals take at least a few days to even catch a glimpse of their Mana Cloud, let alone be able to actually look at it for any real length of time. Besides you need to actually be able to cultivate before there’s any point in trying to use it”

Telram’s face turned troubled, had he imagined that vision after all? Or if not, what did that mean? Did his previous life influence his Soul Energy here? Or had it just been a fluke?

Whatever it was he had to get to the point where he could observe his Mana Cloud while he was cultivating as soon as possible, if he did so, he could control the Mana that he absorbed better which would mean that the damage to his body caused by the excess Mana that was lost as he absorbed it would be less.

“Still Soul Energy is a strange thing, those with a lot of it use less Mana to achieve the same results and have a lot more control over those results than someone with less, but if they fail at a critical juncture they lose everything,” Lily sighed looking up at the ceiling sadly.

Telram flinched at his mother’s remark, could she be suggesting that Soul Energy was related to her own poor health?

“Mum, you borrowed the cultivation manual from uncle Gerry, right?”

‘Uncle Gerry’ was Lily’s old boss, the Head Scribe that worked for the lord of the city, after Lily became ill he had done his best to make sure that she had kept her job for as long as possible, and when she had finally been forced to leave her position Gerry had announced that he was going to start training his replacement so that he could retire. Gerry was due to retire within the year; the City Lord wasn’t happy about the situation, but he knew that making Gerry an enemy would be very bad for him due to Gerry’s knowledge of both cultivation and the inner workings of his family.

“Yes, that’s right, why?”

“When I’m done copying it I’ll take it back to him myself, I want to see if he can help me with some things,” Telram replied. He had a few plans for after he had reached the Core Formation Stage and he knew that Gerry was one of the few people who could help him. He also hoped that he could convince the old man to tell him what had happened to his mother, as neither of his parents were willing to tell him.

“We’ll go together, it’ll be good to get out of the house,” Lily replied using a tone that brooked no argument from her son. Telram frowned, it was true that his mother didn’t get out of the house often, but he hadn’t anticipated that she would want to go with him, this did not bode well for his plans.

Just then he heard a large dog barking and a man’s voice. Telram smiled and shook his head, it seemed his father was home.