Ray was feeling distressed as he exited the cave. His home was definitely going to be full of and smell like blood. ‘What a pain. Am I going to have to move? I felt like throwing up just seeing the blood but now my home smells like it. Damn my good natured personality!’ Muttered Ray to himself as he sat on some firewood.

‘Well, I might as well practice my knife skills’ Ray thought as he tied a log to an overhanging branch with a vine and swung it. After that he walked slightly less than fifteen feet from the swinging log and began throwing his knives. His goal wasn’t to improve the distance he can hit it from nor was it to add ninja spins, but to increase his speed. Who knows how talented those kids and their sister are, they might be some main character-type people in the cultivation city his mom’s letter mentioned and be crazy strong. So, he might as well improve something so he has a chance to escape if they go batshit crazy or something. As the night Progressed, Ray was getting annoyed throwing his knives as it was much harder in the dark so picking them up again was getting harder.

When Ray’s annoyance reached his peak, he sat down in a huff and groaned, “Fuck you night! I can’t sleep in my home so I wanted to at least practice here…” However, after speaking his head whipped around as a snicker came from behind him.

“What are you, five years old? How are you cultivating, throwing knives, and talking like an aggrieved adult?” Spoke the early twenties woman who was unconscious before.

“Thought you were dying in my cave. How are you healed already?” Said Ray arrogantly. However, in his mind he was panicking ‘Uhg! Seeing blood makes me feel sick, why didn’t she change clothes?! If I don’t act super tough she’s going to see that I want to throw up.’

“Interesting! My younger siblings gave me some healing pills and I’ve been sleeping for a few hours. My little bro told me about some scary kid outside, apparently you sound like our dad when he’s annoyed.

“Look, you and your siblings are healed now and I need to clean my home so please leave when morning comes. Okay?” Ray was starting to sound less tough as he looked at the ground rather than her bloodied clothes.

“Wait, you actually live here? That wasn’t a joke my brother made up? But this place is in the middle regions of the Beast Continent, how can a kid like you with only basic throwing knife skills survive?” The girl seemed confused, she had almost died on the way here yet this kid was living well.

“Beast Continent? Is that where the cultivation city is?” Asked Ray before mumbling “Seems like I was lucky to find this place, I wonder why the beasts avoid it here?”

“You don’t know where you are? Whatever, I’m going back to sleep but we can talk about it in the morning. We came to the middle regions to find some fruits and seeds from those trees of yours so I’m going to take some on our way out. Also, I want to know why the beasts avoid it here…” The girl's eyes seemed like a fire was lit in them as she shrieked, “I bet there’s a treasure here! Must be unique if a strong beast isn’t guarding it!”

After shrieking, the girl ran into the cave and Aria could hear her digging and smashing the floor as she looked for the so-called treasure. ‘So I shouldn’t help people in this world or they will smash up my house, got it. Lunatics, so what if there’s a treasure. If it’s taken how will I live here when strong beasts wander over, I’m sure they are stronger than me and they almost died…’ Ray sat back on a log and deliberated for a few minutes before seeming to come to a decision, ‘Alright, if they destroy my safe home then they have the responsibility to give me a new place to live right? Yeah! They can’t be so unreasonable as to ruin the home of someone who helped them and then run away, could they?’

As morning came, Ray worked up the courage to enter his likely ruined cave. When he went inside, his heart bled as the walls had holes in them, the floor was torn up, and the three kept digging with shovels. Although he had no idea where they got the shovels from.

“Hey assholes! This is where I live, are you not satisfied with destroying the home of the person who helped you?!” Shouted Ray as he truly was angry.

“B-b-but the treasure?” Said the younger girl as she looked down, refusing to meet his glare.

“What treasure? If there really is a treasure keeping beasts away and you take it, what am I to do? As a poor little five year old are you going to leave me here to die?! I think you three should either leave without whatever it is or buy me a new home somewhere safe. That’s only reasonable, right?”

“Haha,” the older girl laughed awkwardly, “We are from the Flying Cauldron sect, how about I recommend you to join it?”

At that suggestion Ray was feeling torn. Obviously he wanted to join for resources, however his talent is terrible, he has this damn parasite in him, and he doesn’t know how people would react to his immortality when he reaches twenty. So, he wanted to join but had some fears.

Ray firmly said, “No. I cultivate because I want to but my talent is terrible and I have this Parasitic Core so your sect probably won’t give me many resources. Can you buy me a small house somewhere? I’ve lived on my own here so I can live on my own elsewhere but a garden would be nice to grow those fruits I’ve been eating.”

The older girl responded, “How about this, if we find a valuable treasure then I’ll give you a place to live.” With an awkward smile she continued, “I’m an inner disciple in my sect so I’m pretty well known but I don’t have much money since I have to buy medicine… Oh, I forgot to say that the Flying Cauldron sect is an alchemy sect, hence our medicine. So I can’t buy you a house but I can take you on as a ‘personal servant’ so you wouldn’t be a part of the sect and can leave anytime. I have a guest room in my sect villa you can use and I naturally won’t order you around but only servants or sect members can stay in the sect’s villas.”

After thinking for a bit, Ray decided that it seemed like a good deal and agreed. “Fine. I’m Ray Black. I’m at Late Body Foundation so I won’t be fighting beasts on the way back since I’m sure I’m weak in this ‘middle regions’ place.”

Smiling, with a bit of shock on her face, the older girl said, “I’m Lea. These two are my younger brother and sister, Ryan and Jess. I’m at the 3rd stage Meridian Opening while they are at your level. Anyways, take this trowel and let’s get digging.” After speaking she rubbed a ring on her finger and a small shovel appeared.

‘Interspatial ring! That’s so cool. I forgot I even had one since I can’t use it yet. Now I know where the shovels came from.” Thought Ray. He seemed to forget about the whole blood issue as the excitement of treasure and a comfortable bed filled his mind.

__________

The four of them continued digging up the cave’s floor before they heard a cracking sound and they all fell about five feet into another small cave. Looking around, Ray saw what looked like an odd bedroom, about ten meters in each direction but only five feet tall. He saw a cooking and eating spot, a small garden with some plants giving off different kinds of energy, a bed, and a…

“Eeeeeee! Lea, t-t-t-there’s a skeleton!” Screamed Jess.

With an excited smile, Lea ran towards the skeleton saying, “Now I know why there weren’t any beasts nearby. This is a secluded cultivation room for an expert, he must have been trying to make a breakthrough but failed. This is too cool, it looks like a dwarf who specialized in alchemy over forgin, how rare. I wonder if there are any notes or items…”

Lea and Ryan began searching the skeleton and areas nearby for stuff while Jess avoided the skeleton and picked the plants at the garden. She seemed excited but to Ray they just seemed like, well, plants. So, after glancing around he saw a bookshelf next to what seemed like a dining and cooking area and walked over to it. Ray was disappointed as all of the books were about alchemy and growing something called ‘Spirit Plants’. As a fan of the indoors, he isn’t interested in plants or this alchemy thing but the entire place seemed tailored to benefit the other three… ‘I knew it, they are protagonists like my sister who the elders thought had some crazy potential talent. No wonder this place has nothing for me, I’m a talentless loser with a parasite so why would I get anything special?’ After having that depressing thought, Ray just went to sleep on the table. He figured if they wanted him dead then the older sister could have already killed him and there’s no point in searching the place since it has nothing to do with his interests.

Sometime later, Ray woke up to someone tapping his face. Opening his eyes he saw Lea with a wide smile on her face. Laughing, she said “Don’t worry, I’ll get you back to the sect safe and let you have the guest room. This was extremely profitable. Rare plants, books on alchemy, this guy’s spatial ring, and a very rare ‘mobile garden’” Taking a fist sized gem from her spatial ring she continued, “These things are extremely rare. Spatial rings can’t store living things so they can’t grow plants but this has a garden inside and can grow spirit plants!”

With a hint of jealousy, Ray said, “Congratulations, maybe you’ll move up in your sect and I can sleep in an even nicer home.”

As if understanding his jealousy she took out a white jade box and said, “Since you can’t use a spatial ring I put some pills in this box to keep them from losing energy overtime. There are some healing pills for the trip and…” Hesitating for a moment she continued, “one that you might be able to sell. It seems this guy was trying to make a pill to expand his lifespan since he was at the end of it and not ready to break through but instead made a failed pill that ages the body about 30 years instead. It’s not really something people would want to eat but I could sell it to my master for her to research if you want.”

Ray’s mind went blank for a moment. His age is what’s keeping him from being capable of hunting beasts for resources since he’s small, keeping him from entering Meridian Opening til he’s sixteen, and keeping him a bit afraid since his body can die still. Although Ray has some fear about getting close to people who will just pass away as he lives on and wants a plan to be able to die if he wants, he doesn’t want to die yet. Between earth and this world he’s lived maybe 25 years, not counting the two millennia in the weird space between the two universes.

‘I can skip to twenty? I should reach Peak Body Foundation by eleven or twelve, does this mean that I don’t have to wait four or five years and can immediately continue my cultivation? I mean, my life might be long but that doesn’t mean I want to uselessly waste a few years. The sooner I can reach a high level to meet other long living people the better… Yeah, the sooner the better, the pill will help me… Okay, I’m going to eat it. If I can form my indestructable/immortal body then I won’t need to be afraid of anything on the journey back. They almost died to get here so they might not be able to keep me safe on the way back…’

Ray seemed to have made a decision as his fists clenched and he asked, “Will the beasts stay away from here for a while?”

Not sure why he asked, Lea said, “Yeah, the formation keeping the beasts away broke when we crashed through the ceiling but it should be enough for five days. Why?”

Feeling both scared and excited, Ray said, “I’m going to eat this pill. Please wait here for a few days, there are some fruits in my backpack you guys can eat.” As he spoke he opened the white jade box and took out a pill with a different aura than the rest.

The pill was the size of an adult's fingernail. It was an odd gray color and gave off a feeling of death rather than the feeling of warmth and life from the healing pills. Ray hesitated for a moment before tossing it in his mouth and closing his eyes to focus. After swallowing the pill, Ray felt it settle down in his stomach before dissolving as a cold feeling spread throughout his body. Afterwards, he heard cracking sounds and his eyes shot open in pain only to see looks of horror on the other three’s faces. Ray was in extreme pain but surprisingly he wasn’t too bothered about it because it wasn’t nearly as bad as the soul wrenching pain from after the plane wreck. Naturally he was in pain but it wasn’t showing on his face. As much as he wouldn’t want to admit it, it seems like he was used to severe pain…

Looking at the three he asked, “What’s wrong?” However, immediately after asking, his face paled. Realizing he couldn’t move his limbs he lifted his head and saw guts and bones jutting out of his body and clothes as his bones kept shrinking and growing. Some parts of his skin appeared stretched out as other parts looked as if it shrunk. He even saw a glowing black core in his gut. In addition to those disturbing scenes, there was blood. So much blood everywhere…

Ray could tolerate the pain but as an indoors business nerd from earth he had never seen something this bloody and disturbing. His mind went blank and felt like it would collapse as he swung his head to the side and vomited before passing out.

After he passed out, Ryan immediately turned around, vomiting, before asking, “Lea… It seemed like the pain didn’t bother him much but he immediately threw up and passed out after seeing his body. What happened?”

Staring at Ray’s disturbing scene with a concerned look she said, “The only way that level of pain wouldn’t faze him is if he went through something much worse for a long time. I am a bit surprised that he’s so squeamish he can’t handle blood or anything but that makes sense considering Ray’s only five.”

After a few moments she said, “The pill won’t kill him but you two shouldn’t have to watch this.” Taking a rope from her spatial ring she continued, “Setup this rope so we can climb out and get some fruit for food and the rest to go into my interspatial ring since we want the fruits for sect points and the seeds to grow our own fruits for future points.”

For the next day, Lea observed Ray’s condition in case something went wrong as she has a decent alchemy understanding and plenty of medicine. She wasn’t really sure how long this would last but within twenty four hours he had reached what appeared to be someone in their late twenties. Just as he reached that point and his body was about to break and grow older, Ray felt a strange, warm energy spread from his soul as he suddenly woke up. He felt a comfortable sensation as all of the pain disappeared and, as the energy from his soul spread throughout his body he felt young and energetic, basically full of vitality. On the other hand, Lea was shocked. Once Ray appeared to be in his early twenties, a light gray glow appeared from his head and quickly surrounded him before he completely stopped aging. As the gray glow began to disappear a large amount of black runes appeared on his skin like tattoos as a black energy strand with a cold feeling of death was expelled before scattering into the air.

Although the glow disappeared from the outside of his body, Ray remained still as a portion of the warm energy was drawn into the Parasitic Core. ‘Damn, this little fucker really does steal all types of energy I absorb. Although It didn’t take the pill or fruit’s energy. Does it only absorb energy it wants and non-harmful energy like that aging pill? If that’s the case then it must have at least some kind of basic intelligence. I wonder if I’ll be able to comunicate with it in the future and beg it to fuck off.’ As this thought was rolling around in Ray’s mind, the Parasitic Core was undergoing some changes. The core already had a deep black appearance, however, some black runes appeared on its surface. On Ray’s bodies the runes looked simply deep black, but on the Parasitic Core, something already deep black, they appeared the color of the purest black. So black it’s even visible on the core. Ray wasn’t able to see this or he would be surprised and might no longer hate the core as certainly it should have an immortal body and soul after absorbing his energy, so, Ray is no longer truly alone as his parasite will always be there. Well, maybe he would be pissed that he can’t kill it to get rid of it. Either way, Ray finally opened his eyes in the middle of the second day.