A/N: This is chapter is a little more world building with a bit of action added in. Next chapter the plot will start moving again; expect it Friday or Saturday. I also wanted to thank those of you that comment/review/message. It makes a big difference to have the feedback and support. Finally, this weekend I finally broke down and started a side project for fun. I explained why I did it on the page, just if you're interested it's here. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/3864 It won't slow down Journal's of Cultivation; really it was something I'm just doing for fun and won't have a scheduled release.

Chapter Five - Catching Up

I was really jealous when I finally got to school; they all had crazy stories of defeating monsters and bandits. Some of them were even true! Yet, on my first trip to the City of Creation nobody bothered us… In fact we didn’t even see anyone or anything else until we caught up with the church’s escort force.

It’s nearly December already, and we only have another month to make it to the City of Creation. I finally understand why the church sends its convoys 2 months in advance, the distance between Solaris and Creation is just astounding to me. Even more astounding though is the speed at which we travelled; we left over three weeks after the Church’s convoy did and yet we caught up with them nearly a week before we entered the safe lands around the City of Creation.

The trip up to this point had actually been a disappointment. Because of Uncle Sam my parents and Sin had disappeared into an alcohol and smoke induced debauchery that could be heard 24/7… Don’t they need to sleep?!?! My brother had also disappeared, but I didn’t really mind that. Honestly, the worst part about it all is that Uncle Sam brought with him over a hundred talented young clansmen. To compare, the church sent twenty fairly powerful babysitters for the nearly two-hundred students they were escorting, my uncle brought over a hundred for three kids… not even counting him, Sin, and my parents. I think it is for this reason that with only a week left on our journey through the untamed lands on the high-road between Solaris and the City of Creation I had not seen a single beast, demon, monster, dragon, bandit… hell the most exciting thing I’d seen is a mosquito who got zapped by a bolt of lightning for coming too close to my mother.

I was bored… and so was Syndra. Now that we were talking, it wasn’t nearly as bad; but the Journal of Nicholas Freeney is rather intense for a 6 and a half year old… We needed to take long and frequent breaks. Which is why I am currently dozing while laying down on top of a cloth covered wagon.

Ahead of our convoy, a voice shouts, STOP!”

I turned over in my sleep, mumbling, “No, mom… just another 10 minutes…”

A different voice shouted even louder this time, “My name is Bishop Archibald Sab of the Church of Solaris! In the name of Solaris, I order you to cease and desist!”

That shout was loud enough to wake me up, and I sat up slowly, yawning as I wipe away the green buggers that always accumulated in the corners of my eyes as I sleep.

“AHAHAHAHAHA; We’re not in the safe-zone friend, your church has no say here! Men, ATTACK!!!”

That fully awakened me, and I bolted off my perch, leapt off the wagon and raced towards the front of the convoy. At the time, we were heading up a fairly steep hill and the ground was kind of muddy so we were taking our time. When I finally crested the top of the hill, I doubled over wheezing. My dad seeing this came over and slapped me on the back, hard. The slap sent me into a coughing fit that took me nearly a minute to recover from.

“That… Didn’t… Help…”

By the time I finally recovered, everyone from our convoy was standing the top of the hill looking down into a valley a thousand meters below. Down there, the twenty men from the church were surrounded by nearly 50 bandits. The scene was unbelievable to me who had never before seen magic on a grand scale. Somehow, an earthen rampart standing nearly 50 feet tall had been conjured and surrounded the churchmen. A barrier of pure white light surrounded them, comets of fire plunging from the sky onto the bandits obliterating them effortlessly. In just the few moments that I’d watched nearly half of the bandits were down, not moving. The rest however responded with even more force.

A laugh began resounding as the bandit’s leader was struck over and over again. He pulled a massive great-sword off his back and swung it almost lazily.

*BOOOOOOM*

The fireballs were split in half by a wave of pure force that continued on and crashed into the earthen ramparts splitting them open in an instant. If not for the barrier of light, everyone within the ramparts would’ve died instantly.

“Now that’s a true-man!” Yelled my dad in excitement, astounding me.

“But, dad! He’s a bandit, and he’s attacking the church! Why do you sound like you admire him?”

“Son, you have to understand that we are no longer in the safe areas maintained by the gods; out here there is only one law. The strong rule. That man has managed to become quite powerful while living outside of the safety of the Gods’ embrace. That, is a true man.”

“HA!” My mom started laughing playfully, “Admit it, you just miss fighting. Although I must say bandit’s are pretty low, even for your standards.”

“Honey, please!” My dad’s face changed, seeming to pout as he attempted to look like a puppy…

Amazingly, it worked. “Fine! Just don’t hurt them too bad.”

“I’ll be right back!”

The ground beneath my dad exploded as fire surrounded him and he shot like a rocket into the middle of the brawl. In moments, the laughing bandit and my crazy father were fighting… they were so similar that I couldn’t tell them apart from this far away.

Turning to my mom, I asked, “Did dad used to be a bandit? He and that guy seem so similar, almost like family.”

“HAHAHAHA, I’ll have to tell him you said that! No, he didn’t used to be a bandit; he just loves fighting more than anything else in this world.”

The convoy had resumed its journey, making its way toward the battlefield as if nothing was happening. Below, five bandits surrounded my dad with pikes moved in for the kill. As I was starting to worry, he slammed the ground with his fist and a sea of fire covered the area. It was so hot that the metal of the pikes melted, and as the fire and dust cleared away the bandits closest to him had turned into metal sculptures of men in agony.

The bandit leader finally noticed us, and the banner the outriders of the convoy were flying. In a moment he called off the attack, the twenty remaining bandits fleeing into the forest along the road-side in haste. My dad made as if to chase them down, but a single shout of “NATHAN!” from my mother halted him in his tracks. With a sheepish grin, he turned back around and walked back towards us.

*Slap* My mother slapped him in the face, then said, “I told you to go easy on them! You playing with those children is just abuse.”

“Sorry honey, I just hadn’t fought in so long I lost myself.”

“Hmph… If you really wanted a fight you could’ve asked me or Uncle Sam.”

A look of horror flashed on his face as his whole body went pale and sweat started pouring off him, “Please, that’d be the true abuse!”

At this point, the barrier had been collapsed by the men from the church. The children following them gaped as they saw the sculptures of metal combined with the cracked high-road. The fire had been so hot that even the magically reinforced road had cracked. A man dressed in red robes with the mark of a bishop approached us and bowed to my father. “Thank you for your help. My name is Bishop Archibald Sab, may I enquire as to the identity of our benefactors.”

“My name is Nathan Smith, and don’t worry about it. I was just having some fun, it’s been awhile since I got in a decent brawl.”

“Nathan Smith?” The clergy around them gasped, “Sir, what are you doing here? A national treasure able to create legendary items shouldn’t be out in the wilds with so few guards!”

I turned to look at my mom’s clansmen; two-hundred is too few? What the hell!

“Well my kids are going to school in the City of Creation and my wife refused to be separated from them and I refuse to be separated from her. As for the guards, we weren’t planning on taking any by my wife’s family can be annoyingly persistent sometimes.”

“Sir, please hurry to the City of Creation! You shouldn’t have shown yourself to help us we would’ve been fine and now I’m sure that some of the great powers will move to attempt to kidnap you!”

“Bah, they wouldn’t dare. As for hurrying, if you’d like a ride I think we have enough room in the wagons for you and the kids. I bet Syndra and Nick would enjoy the company, anyway.”

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A week later, the churchmen and kids were amazed to find themselves inside of the City of Creation’s safe-zone. They had figured it’d take another two to three weeks to finish the trek through the wilderness. My mom finally pulled me aside to explain how status works a couple of days ago. Apparently, whenever you enter a safe-zone you’re required to show your status to the border-guards. That way, wanted criminals found it much more difficult to sneak in.

“When you start school they will explain what each of your blessings mean, and the advantages having a blessing gives someone. They’ll also explain the status cards to you, but before you get there you need to understand at least a little bit of it. According to lore, the status plates were introduced by Yama, The Head Judge. Most people don’t know how or why they were created, but a while back one of our ancestors was actually granted an audience with Yama. He’d always wondered why the status plates existed, and he worked up the courage to ask.”

“What? How do you get an audience with Yama?”

“I have no clue, don’t interrupt me! Anyway, Yama said that God’s get bored after awhile and in an attempt to curb their boredom a group of them created something called an RPG. I have no clue what it means, but it’s some kind of game that only the God’s can play. Anyway, in this game you’re given information about the character you play such as affinities, abilities, stats, etc… Once again, I have no clue what “Stats” means in the context of a game, but the most important part of this is that these games inspired Yama while he was creating this world. Apparently, the Status is a way for the God’s and your previous self to give you a goal in this life. You can choose whether or not to follow these goals, but if you do then the God’s will give you some help in the form of advice as well as rewards for completing these goals.”

“So, what you need to do is open up your status and say, “Show All Goals”.

Still confused about what the hell an RPG could mean I said, “Show all goals.” after I’d opened my status. In front of me, the familiar status screened appeared out of thin air. Then, it blinked, changing.

GoalsBringer of Life and Happiness(Personal)In your previous life as Nicholas Freeney you brought despair and destruction was synonymous with your name. At the end of your life you realized the value of life, and wished to correct the wrongs you had done. While at times you must kill, widespread destruction is harmful to your psyche and should be avoided.Rewards:HappinessPenalties:Kill too many, too arbitrarily, and your soul may fall into darkness and despairMaster Summoner(Solaris and Raiju)Solaris and Raiju wish for you to become a Master Summoner.Rewards:A powerful spirit to aid you.Penalties:N/AMaster of the Elements(The Creator)As someone with blessings in all seven elements you have great potential. The creator wishes for you to live up to your great potential by becoming the master of all elements.Step 1:Become ImmortalMastering all elements will take thousands upon thousands of years. The first step is to become Immortal and travel the world gaining insights through fighting the most powerful of creatures to ever exist.Advice:Train in Earth. It is far easier for you to become an Immortal by training in Fire and Lightning, but doing so will make it nearly impossible for you to train in Earth later on.Rewards:??????

I stared at the screen, re-reading it over and over again for a long time. Finally, I was awakened by my mother saying, “It’s ok if you don’t have a goal yet, or only have a single personal goal. As you figure out what you want to do with your life goals and rewards will appear.”

Shaking my head, I cleared my throat before speaking, “I have three goals, to bring life and happiness, to become a master summoner, and to master all the elements.”

Shocked, my mother asked with a shaky voice, “Who gave those goals?”

“Well, I gave myself the Bringer of Life goal. Solaris and Raiju gave me the Master Summoner goal, it even says that if I become a master summoner I’ll be given a powerful spirit to aid me.

“You must do that one! I’ve heard of this goal before, every single person who has completed it became one of the most powerful and influential people in the world. What about the last one?”

“The last one comes from the Creator himself.”

“THE CREATOR!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!”