Spiritual Dweller is the stage where the cultivators aside from the likes of Trilok and Vayu have the least control over the process.
This changes starting from Spiritual Enhancer and this is the stage that begins to show why a cultivation technique of a higher quality is better than the lower quality.
The path of cultivation is highly dependent on the spirits.
But in reality.
Spirits are a form of random draw cards.
A few may be exemplary in their own right but most often than not, these spirits, without an active enhancement from the cultivator's side, despite their quality, may not be extremely useful.
For instance, the records of 'land' based beasts couldn't be more evident by the spirits that are more useful on land than in the Ocean. Without enhancement, these spirits wouldn't be of much use within the ocean and since the world is surrounded by water now, purely land-based spirits would only act as decorative spirits. Spiritual Pets.
Enhancement, in this situation, means mutation.
The first step of Cultivation is the dwelling of spirit within the host. The spirit slowly assimilates to the world and will realize the need for mutation for survival in the ocean.
The next step of cultivation is to actively mutate the spirit using a medium.
This is where the difference in qualities of a cultivation technique becomes apparent.
Common grade techniques like Sea God's Ascension will only mutate a spirit just enough for it to be barely useful in the water. For instance, a wolf spirit would grow fins at the back of its paws. Or, a flame spirit would be mutated enough to barely hold a warm temperature in the ocean and not fizzle out.
But, from what Trilok seemed to remember, Jolly's spirit— A Blue-Quality Sparrow— had mutated into an alcohol-producing finned sparrow.
In his early days, it is said that Jolly sold a lot of this spirit wine before suddenly stopping.
The reason why mutation is formed by higher grade techniques is due to the medium cultivated by the technique.
A medium, in the second stage of cultivation, is something produced within the body by the refinement of internal spiritual energy and used to locate the spirit within the body, communicate with it, and mutate it.
With Trilok's technique being at the absolute peak of an Earth-ranked technique— The Legendary Tier, he found his medium being a thick, blue crystal.
Currently, he could 'see' a large amount of spirit energy within his body thickening under a pressure which he should have cultivated himself, and slowly, the brilliant white stream of Spiritual energy spiraled in the dark space to form a fist-sized crystal medium.
In reality, if he cultivated normally, he wouldn't have formed such a large form of the medium at once since he would have to accumulate the mutation slowly. But clearly, his cheat wasn't having any of it.
The thick crystal slowly traversed the darkness and Trilok's 'eyes' followed it until he saw a white globe of light.
Trilok instantly fell into a daze.
He recalled that the white spirit he found at the bottom of the soul ocean was clearly fist-sized. But right now, the spirit's size was as large as a human being. A ridiculously tall one at that.
In front of Trilok's stunned gaze, the spirit crystal stabbed into the ball of spirit and disappeared.
The moment the spirit crystal came into contact with the ball of spirit, Trilok felt his vision swim and he felt his very being called by something inside the large globe of spirit.
But the rich sensation came as quick as it ended and Trilok opened his eyes to find himself clutching his chest and gasping.
'The... fuck!' He gulped. It was strange. Too strange. Trilok felt that his horizons had been broadened slightly for he never knew that cultivators stronger than him would experience things like that daily. Absolute Darkness. A Globe of bright spirit. And...
'So this is what the manual meant by communication with the spirit?' Trilok thought carefully.
'It's... a little weird. But I can adapt to this,' he sighed.
Without moving from his position, Trilok began absorbing the spiritual energy around him and he was pleasantly surprised.
[32 Spirit Points Collected.]
[Name: Trilok
Age: 19
Spirit Vein: Purple (Upgrade Requirement: 5,000,000)
Cultivation: Spiritual Enhancer— 2 (Upgrade Requirement: 29,000)
Spirit Points: 48,548
Technique: Sea God's Essence (Earth-Legendary)(Special Traits: Heart of Sea— 2, Ruler of Ocean: 2)(Upgrade Requirement: 2,000,000)
]
The multiplier of spiritual energy absorbed after each breakthrough is dependent on the spiritual veins of a cultivator.
White Spirit Veins provide no form of multiplier and their initial absorption of 1 spirit point remains the same forever. This is the reason why those without talent could not tread the spiritual path easily.
Green Spirit Veins absorb 100% more energy with each breakthrough based on the initial absorption of energy. If Trilok was still a cultivator with green roots, he would have absorbed 2 spiritual points. And in the next breakthrough, he would have absorbed 3 spiritual points with the base absorption of green spirit vein still being 1.
This is why Kol became so distressed after hearing the news about the possibility of pirates plundering and killing them. Her cultivation was officially at a snail's pace.
Blue spirit veins absorb 200% more energy with each breakthrough and the initial absorption was 4 spirit points. After the breakthrough, Trilok would have absorbed 12 points with the addition of 8 points per breakthrough.
Now, Trilok, as a host of purple spiritual veins had the base absorption speed of 8 points and would add 300% the initial absorption pace per breakthrough, i.e. 24 points.
'The talented, with each breakthrough, will increase the distance between those who are lesser than them. Now... aside from Vayu and Chief Jolly, I'm the only one who has a purple spirit vein! A day of cultivation with spirit trace oil will allow me to gain... 3840 points! This is more than what I could gather in a week.
Slowly, my benefits will snowball and really allow me to live a life of peace and prosperity. Just that... I have to work hard now. Gain as many advantages as I can!'
Trilok clenched his fists.
Purple Vein wasn't the end of it.
There were greater talents out there and something deep down made Trilok feel extremely content. As if... he was experiencing some strange form of metamorphosis.
[A/N: Any fan of 'The' Metamorphosis? Hehe!]
---
While Vayu continued to sleep even after dawn, the main reason why Trilok never considered this lazy being as a good alchemy assistant material, Trilok filled the last of the 72 vials of spirit trace meant to go out before 10 in the morning.
As expected, Rhal came over with a big smile. He was one of Roa's men and a content one at that. Seeing the large crate already prepared, his smile became wider without a hint of sleepiness on his bearded face.
"Trilok! The star of the community! Man, you and Noland are amazing. I hated mornings but... you two made me love this time of the day again! If this isn't the making of geniuses, what is?!"
He chuckled and shook hands with Trilok.
"Come on, Rhal. You flatter me, when it should be your missus. Say Hi to big sister for me," Trilok smiled.
"I'm afraid I can't do that. The woman is growing crazy for you two. Always pestering me to invite the both of you two a piping meal after dark," Rhal shrugged, "I mean, she ain't that good of a cook. She still burns bread. After all these years!" He crossed his arms and huffed.
'Well... I hardly doubt that piping meal really means food...' Trilok smiled. But with his time so much divided, how could he answer the woes and pleas of women?
What Noland said became the truth for him.
Alchemy really became a tough Mistress to please for now.
"Anyway, I have to get going to Noland's store. Boys, saddle this up," Rhal patted the crate, and two youths, slightly older than Trilok nodded towards him with an expression of respect and picked the crate.
As they left, Rhal smiled and inquired, "Heard you boys needs back-up. My kid is up for tasks like these. He's real patient, you know."
"Nah, I think we both will settle for slaves," Trilok smiled and Rhal's smile stiffened.
"Slaves... yeah, that won't be a good idea."
"Huh? Why?" Trilok frowned.
"Well, it happened way back before you came. Heck, I still wet my bed at times. But... it was at that time Old Jolly came with a small kid wrapped in his arms, you know, Roa. Since then, he has married twice. The second kid... er, his name was... Hill? Yeah, Hill. And the big sister died in the Ocean. The third one, too, went away in the ocean. Man, Chief has a bad streak with women. Anyway, at the time when Roa was a kid and Jolly had just impregnated big sister, some of us had slaves.
You know. Men kept busty ones around and womenfolk, the rich and single ones, kept the sturdy and probably strapping male ones. But soon, these slaves started to disappear. It began with the female ones
And then the male ones."
Rhal rubbed his head, "It was because of the loss of slaves, you know, since they are expensive, many started keeping the slaves hidden in their homes.
But... when the first to hide her slave vanished alongside the bull... everyone was rattled. Many tried to pressurize the newcomer, Jolly, to explain the situation. After all, all this happened the day he arrived. But he didn't break. Instead, those who attacked Jolly were killed right then and there, revealing his cultivation as a Spiritual Summoner!"
Rhal shivered.
"After the blood bath, many felt that Jolly's involvement on the matter couldn't be more evident. But... who would piss him off? Soon, people stopped buying slaves altogether since it was a waste of money and with power in his fist, Jolly became the new chief. You know, because the old chief was killed in the battle. He owned a slave, too, by the way."
After the enlightening chat with Rhal, Trilok fell silent and bade the customer farewell.
'Who would have thought that Chief had such a past...' he pursed his lips.
'Is it because they were slaves, or because they weren't humans?' Trilok felt his plan of purchasing a capable slave had just hit a major hurdle.
"Boy! My sober pouch!" Soon, Chief hollered and entered the store but seeing the dispirited self of Trilok, he couldn't help but wobble and raise his brow in confusion.
"What happened 'ta ya? Too much money in hand? Spare mah coin then!" He grinned.
"No, just thinking about the pirates," Trilok tossed the pouch to the drunkard.
'He still hasn't made a breakthrough. But the required spirit points had fallen even more. This means that he's getting close to a breakthrough.'
Trilok's mood soured further.
He felt conflicted now.
He surely couldn't ask Jolly about what the hell was going in his drunken old past. After hearing the bloody tale, Trilok himself would try not to step on any extraordinary toes of the old man.
"Huh? Pirates? The information's already out?" Jolly drained the contents of the cheap concoction and paid the coin.
"Yeah. So what's going on about that? Why would pirates give out their information?" Trilok inquired.
"To confuse smart asses like you, what else? While intelligence is confused by the erratic nature of circumstances, your minds won't be able to comprehend or prepare for what's to come. Here's a piece of free advice for longer life.
Think a little less."
Jolly cackled and left the store with large strides.
'Well, that is one way to live, certainly,' Trilok exhaled.
