The Adventurers Guild lapses into a moment of silence as the local guildmaster leaves. This doesn’t last long as the chaos soon returns. Now with an extra surge of energy as the two guild officials who he gave tasks to sprung into action. Soon everyone forgets about the boy has started the whole mess and Jason is able to finish what he came to do. Three gold richer and a promise of some reward back in his inn room Jason drops off the letter to Rosha and leaves.

Not rich enough to upgrade his though so he heads back to the Scratchy Pinecone. As he rounds the corner Jason can see Fern waiting for him just outside the way in. Neither of them are surprised by this event so he heads over, dragging his feet. With a sigh, he asks one simple question, “Why?”

Fern giggles like a little schoolgirl as she grabs his shoulder and drags Jason into the building. With one final laugh she speaks up, “Did you see his face? Shar always has the best expressions when one of my plots gets revealed! A shame I had to give up on my little shifter but that’s life. Though I do hope they take care of those nasty plants. Last time I had to step in for them was a drag.” It takes a lot of willpower for Jason to not ask why she didn’t tell them about it. Fern just laughs some more before telling him to head off to his room to get his System reward.

Jason almost runs to his room at the suggestion but catches himself. He does however allow himself a shuffling jog and a nice door slam when he gets there. In the center of his room is a small metal sphere, hovering just above the floor. Jason shrugs his backpack off onto the bed before taking a closer look. Not much to see though as it is a perfectly smooth sphere.

With no other choice Jason pokes it. This brings up a nice little prompt that asks if he would like to accept his reward now. A little leary of it he first takes off all his gear and lets Lily out onto the bed. Another poke brings back the prompt and this time he accepts it. The orb shivers and ripples spread out from where he poked it. Without warning, spots of red rust appears all over it. The ball of what Jason can now identify as iron rusts away. Each flake of rust that falls off only travels a short distance before joining with other flakes and swirling around. In minutes what should have taken years has happened and the sphere has been reduced to pure rust. The swirl so thick now it looks like a dust devil. Then it stops in place.

Jason braces himself for whatever is to come next and a good thing he did. The frozen rust swirl flies at him tip first. He raises his hands in reflex. Not the worst idea as it saved his undershirt. Though it ends up causing him a boatload more pain. The rust flakes pierce his palms and they stream directly into his bloodstream. It feels like tiny knives are attacking his blood vessels as the rust rushes towards his heart. At this point Jason loses control of his body and falls over as the last of the rust swirl infiltrates his body.

Barely conscious Jason is just able to focus on his cultivation path. The pain recedes as the torn veins stop existing. However on top of his core his heart remains. Inside it he can make out that the rust flakes have formed another swirl, this time much smaller. As the rust moves round and round each flake scrapes against one another and shrinks in size. An hour passes and every bit has been reduced to near invisible specks with the swirl now more like a fog.

It leaves Jason on the floor panting. The pain is gone but so is all his stamina. Lily hops down and nuzzles him in worry. He is about to assure her everything is fine when his lungs started to burn. The rust fog is gone from his heart and he has a guess on where it went. Jason rolls onto his side facing away from Lily as he coughs up blood. He can just barely keep track of what is happening. The rust fog is sand blasting his lungs.

More coughing and he can see bits of flesh mixed in with the blood. The pain shifts to more of a stab as the rust crystalizes in his chest with the lungs regrowing around it. Soon each iron crystal connects to another and arcane symbols form from it. Sparks of static start to zip around his lungs before it settles down. Now the metal has lost its redness and shifted to a deep blue green. It forces Jason to cough more as a sludge like black substance spills out from his mouth. This leaves him exhausted and gasping for air. A System message pops up to inform him what this mystery prize was that caused so much pain.

‘BlueIron Rust’ Electrolysis Ritual Circle

Description:

An impossible ritual that crystallized directly in the lungs of the Traveller Jason. Through BlueIron’s innate electrical nature this formation can break down water into its components and capture the resulting breathable elements. This will allow for sustained underwater activities as long as Energy flows through it. As a side benefit the ritual will also expel any unwanted matter from the lungs at an additional Energy cost whenever desired. Best used when leaving the water to expel any remaining water.

Effects:

• Sustained Water Breathing - Separates water into breathable gas as long as Energy is directed through the ritual circle
• Gunk Expelling - Clear the lungs of unwanted matter (including water when not submerged) at an Energy cost
• Efficient Breathing - Even when not being powered the ritual will passively collect air better providing better stamina recovery

Bonuses:

• +3 [base] Stamina

Stamina Revealed

Through a System reward you have had the Auxiliary Stat of Stamina revealed. Originally with a starting amount of ten but because of being a body cultivator raised it to 20 points. Stamina determines a number of interesting effects which are in place to make the game fun while not making everyone a super man. The most obvious effect you will notice is that stamina is connected to faster travel. When using System recognized roads everyone will be able to travel at an increased rate. The System restricts this fast travel to an amount of time determined by a number of factors of which stamina is a core part. Another freebie bit of info is that stamina reduces the strain of traveling over difficult terrain such as sand dunes or swamps.

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters free on my Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/dragonheartednovels ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).