Hey here is your 2nd chapter and I will try my best to release another one tomorrow. This is a bit longer than usual so enjoy your slightly longer chapter.

Ryu slowly opened his eyes. He looked up and saw rock? Was this the afterlife? Ryu was confused. He looked around and realized that he was in the pool. He stood up suddenly and studied his body. There was no sign of the injuries from the battle with the goblins. Had it all been a dream? Why was he back here?

Ryu stood up and tried to make sense of what happened. He stood there and went over the events that he remembered. Then he came up with a list.

The fight with the goblins had been real.

He was killed.

Something saved him and brought him to this place.

Ryu now had a question. What saved him and why? Ryu thought for a while and then decided that it probably had something to do with this place. However Ryu did not grow complacent. He remembered something that his mother had told him, "There is such thing as resurrection magic or revival magic but it can not affect the same person multiple times. There will be a time when they hit their limit and their soul gets destroyed. This is why people have it cast on them a maximum of a single time and not more than that. Another problem is that there are a lot of restrictions on revival magic and it is extremely expensive. Probably only royalty and extremely strong people can afford it."

Ryu decided that he should not rely on whatever brought him back and that he should strive to live. He sat back down and soaked in the pool. As he was doing so he brought up his bag. He took out everything and made sure that they were all there. His gaze fell on the pamphlet that he had found with the little gem that had granted him access to this room. If the gem had such a good function then this little book should also be very good.

As he was staring at the book, some of the water from the pool fell on the pamphlet.

Ryu scrambled frantically, "Wait, no..No..No...No"

He was worried that the pamphlet might come apart in his hands. As he was trying to dry it, words suddenly formed on the book. Ryu stopped moving and stared at the book. The title formed after a bit.

The Conqueror’s Book to Cultivation

The Number 1 Cultivation Technique in the Multiverse. No others surpass my technique. My technique is very simple.

First you must sense the mana in the air. Sit in a location with dense mana and let your mind become blank. You should feel or sense particles in the air. This is mana. Then slowly bring it in and rotate it around your chest. Keep doing this until a dense rotation like motion forms in your chest region. After that, you must go onto the second step…………..

The words were cut off there. Ryu stared at the manual. It was the NUMBER 1 CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE!!!! Ryu did not know what multiverse meant, but maybe this was the best cultivation technique in the kingdom. That meant that Ryu could become super strong!

Ryu sat down in the pool and began to follow the first step. He sat there and began to clear his mind. A few minutes passed before he was able to do so. Normally, most kids his age would not be able to clear their minds and meditate. However for the past year, Ryu’s parents had trained him on the basics of cultivation. They had obviously included cultivation in his daily training. So clearing his mind came easily to Ryu. However despite all this, Ryu still had not managed to sense mana at home. He did not have any extravagant hopes that he would be able to now. However, there was that small spark of hope in his heart that he might be able to.

Ryu cleared his mind and sat there, the water coming up to his neck. As he meditated, he began to see a dim light in the distance. Slowly, the number increased...2….5….10….25…..50…..80…...100...and so on until it became a veritable stream of mana. Ryu slowly began to guide the stream into his body and to his chest region as the technique described in the manual. He then began to circulate this stream into a sphere like shape as described in the cultivation manual. Slowly the stream began to pick up speed until the gas like mana solidified into a sphere. The mana kept pouring in and adding to the sphere, increasing it’s size. Slowly it grew from a quarter inch diameter to a half inch diameter, then became a sphere with a one inch diameter.

Ryu spent close to two hours and the max he could increase the size to was 3 inches diameter. Ryu then slowly cut off the mana and allowed the sphere to stabilize. The sphere continued to rotate, slowly strengthening his body. Ryu opened his eyes and stared in wonder. He could feel that he had become nearly 2 times as strong as before. And yet he still had not entered the Initiate rank. It was simply amazing. He believed that he could now fight on par with those at the later half of the Initiate Rank. He looked down at the manual that lay next to him and observed that some more text had appeared.

After you manage to create a solid sphere of mana in your chest region you must expand it’s size. The optimal size is a sphere with a 5 inch diameter. After doing this you will be ready for the next step.

Ryu blinked in surprise. 5 INCHES!!! He had struggled to make it have a 3 inch diameter and now he had to increase it by 60%!! However Ryu did not have anymore reservations because this technique had strengthened him greatly without even making him a cultivator. This meant that after he managed to form a core, he would be able to become even more powerful! However from the requirements of having the sphere reach a 5 inch diameter, Ryu understood that this path would be incredibly difficult. However succeeding meant extreme power. So Ryu decided that he would follow this cultivation technique.

But Ryu did not continue to cultivate. He stood up and put on some clothes. He then held the dagger in one hand and the sword in the other hand. He exited the room and stood on the northern path. For now, it was time for revenge. He ran forward on the path that he had travelled on before. He reached the same spot and like before there were 4 goblins. However, they seemed to be stronger. Their equipment also seemed shinier and less rusted and cracked. However to Ryu, this didn’t matter. The goblins also followed the same patrolling power as before. Seeing this Ryu gained a confident air.

Ryu sneaked to exactly halfway in the corridor. He waited until both groups passed and had their back to each other and to Ryu. Ryu counted to 10 and sneaked forward. He moved towards the 2 goblin patrol that was going in the direction that he came from and suddenly brought up his dagger and sword and stabbed them through the necks. Unable to make a sound the goblins collapsed. Before the goblins hit the ground Ryu turned around and ran towards the other pair. Hearing his footsteps, the goblins turned around and saw Ryu running towards them. However, Ryu had become much more stronger and managed to cover the distance between them before the goblins could respond.

In an instant another goblin died and only one was left. However, this goblin managed to dodge Ryu’s attack. Ryu frowned and pressed his attack. The goblin managed to block 2 more hits before Ryu pierced through it’s head and it died.

Having killed all 3 of the goblins, Ryu sat down and panted. Although his power may have increased greatly, his body was still not used to the stress and so his stamina decreased as well. Ryu rested for about ten minutes before he was able to move again. He stood up and examined the goblins and looted them. Afterwards he put the loot on the ground and went over them. He had looted 4 swords, 1 dagger, a bag with berries in it, a bag with nuts in it, some iron ingots, and a bottle with water in it.

The first thing that Ryu did, was to clean the bottle, wash the berries and food and then put it in his bag. He also cleaned the iron ingots and put them in his bag. He looked at the swords on the ground. 3 of them were iron swords that had a bit of rust and a few cracks.. The last sword was from the goblin that had managed to evade and block Ryu’s attacks. Although it’s sword wasn’t cracked, it was still rusted and had a few scratches. Ryu then looked at his sword, it was scratched, nicked, and had rust. As he was examining it, he noticed that there was a gem in the pommel of his sword that was a dirty dark red color. As he was deciding whether or not to replace his sword, he sat down next to the swords. His hand holding the sword came close to the other swords on the ground.

His sword started vibrating all of a sudden. Startled, Ryu let go of the sword. His sword landed on one of the goblin’s swords and there was a little burst of light. Ryu saw that his sword had sucked in or ‘swallowed’ the goblin’s sword. Astonished, Ryu picked up the sword and examined it. Some of the scratches had been fixed but otherwise it was the same as before. Excited over this discovery, Ryu put the remaining 3 swords on his sword and once again his sword swallowed the 3 other swords. Afterwards, he examined his sword and saw that the majority of the scratches were gone. Smiling, Ryu sheathed the sword. He turned his attention to the dagger. The dagger also had a gem in its pommel and it’s color was so dark red it was almost black. The dagger did not have much rust and had some scratches. The dagger was about 5 inches longer than Ryu’s dagger and was made of a metal that Ryu did not recognize. The dagger was black and had an intricate design on it’s handle. There was a dragon coiling around the hilt/handle and its mouth was at the guard and it appeared as if the blade was coming out of the dragon’s mouth.

Excited, Ryu put his dagger on top on the other dagger and watched as his dagger was swallowed up by the other dagger. As he examined it, it seemed that the number of scratches had decreased. Excited at wielding such a cool dagger, Ryu spun it around. As he was waving it about, he slowly got used to the balance. He stopped after about 15 minutes and examined the edge. He remembered that his father had told him that daggers usually have a false edge for blocking and a true edge for killing. Since this dagger looked different than his old dagger, Ryu didn’t know which was which. He ran his finger along the dagger’s edges and cut his fingers. Some of his blood spilled on the dagger. Ryu suddenly stopped running his fingers along the edges and sucked on the fingers that were cut in his mouth, "Owwwwwww……… That’s odd. This blade had 2 true edges. Both are meant for killing. There is no false edge for blocking. Odd…."

As he was murmuring to himself he didn’t notice that the gem in the dagger change color for just a tenth of a second. Still thinking to himself, Ryu packed up and moved forward along the path.

A few hours later

Ryu had walked into a clearing. On the path there had been a couple more goblin patrols and it had taken time for Ryu to kill all of them. After killing the goblins he had fed their swords to his sword and the few daggers to his dagger. His weapons now had close to zero scratches and nicks. He hadn’t found anything weird or unusual. It was the usual berries and nuts and occasional ingot of iron. Although he didn’t know what the ingots would be used for, they were not that much weight and he didn’t want to regret it later if they turned out to be amazing so he kept them. As he arrived in the clearing, there were two paths for him to take. One that continued north and a door to his left that seemed awfully familiar. He went towards the door and put his hand on it. The door opened at his touch and Ryu saw the pool again.

Ryu smiled and decided to go cultivate again.

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A few hours before

Somewhere in inky darkness, "ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!"

The roar was so loud and powerful that it almost seemed to shatter space and time. The creature unwound itself and stared into space, "It seems it is time for me to awaken. Hmm, let’s see who had the potential to awaken me this time. It had better be good, otherwise I wouldn’t mind rampaging a while longer."

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The mysterious Entity clicked its tongue, "Tchh. It seems a troublesome one has awoken this time. Why can’t any of these children be nice and quiet and sleep all the time? Siggh. Such a pain to deal with."