Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

I was back. What I didn’t know, was that during the time I was gone… absolutely nothing changed. Things were just as I had left them, even Thalza hadn’t moved from her spot where she meditated.

“You are back early.” Thalza said as she stood up and patted the dust off her clothes.

[I was afraid you would miss me, so I came as quickly as I could.] I teased her. She snorted in return and looked at my two companions.

“So? Who are these two strays you picked up?”

I moved to the side, gesturing to the two. [Meet our new team members. The Enchanter…]

“Hello.” The man lifted his palm in greeting.

[… and Bram. He used to be one of Lee’s guards.] I introduced the guy.

“We have met briefly before, I believe.” Bram bowed, cupping his fists.

“Oh, yeah… I think I tried to kill you once.” Thalza offhandedly remarked. He returned her a thin, courteous smile.

The tension began to slowly rise as the two stared at each other. Thalza, in general, didn’t like being challenged by the humans she looked down upon, but while that was just me, that was fine. Doing it with other members of my team was not.

I snapped my fingers, bringing their attention back to me. [Alright, knock it off you two. Conflict is strictly forbidden while you work for me. Break my rules, and you will not only die but your Soul will be devoured as well.] I clapped my hands. [With that said, it’s time we do some upgrades.]

I pointed at the Enchanter first. [You! Your name will be Thener from now on. Calling you the Enchanter is not going to work, and besides, it doesn’t even suit you.]

“Er, what? But my name is not… Uh, you know what? It doesn’t matter, Thener’s fine.” Thener said, quickly picking up what what I was implying with my gaze.

[Next… That abomination you are calling a Soul Stone… My god, I have never seen a relic more pathetic than it. It’s completely useless for anything other than trickle charging anything.]

I turned to the new member. [Thener, your first job will be to combine multiple Soul Stones to charge a larger Qi capacitor so that we don’t have to spend days recharging. Is that understood?]

“Uh… But the Soul Stones don’t really like being in proximity to each other. They interfere-”

[Don’t care. Isolate them if you must, or just siphon the Qi from each of them into a storage container. I have materials if you need them, and the strength to shape them. Just use that brain of yours and make something better. Anything that works, doesn’t have to be perfect. We will work out the kinks later.]

“Oh, alright. I’ll do my best, Master Gerald.” Thener said firmly.

[Good. Bram, you are with me.] I tossed him a bag of Spirit Stones. [Take this and get ready, you will be helping me refine Dreadstone. I’ll be expecting a new brick in four days.]

The man caught the Stones, but after a brief excitement, he frowned. “What’s Dreadstone?”

I spread my hands around me. [This. All of this is Dreadstone ore. Very low quality, mind you, but there is better stuff deeper underground. You will be helping me on the surface to concentrate it first. After you get used to it, you will help me mine it too.]

I could see fear in the man’s eyes and he clutched the sack closer to his chest. “Digging through this? But that’s… suicide. The rock will drain us, not to mention it resists magic and drinks Qi like a dry sponge.”

“That is true. I have studied this stone, and it is for certain one of the most vicious naturally occurring dangers I have found thus far.” Thener added. “A single slip of concentration and you can find yourself drained in minutes. The deeper you go, the worse it gets. I had seen a man die after he got too deep. He was close to the peak of Spirit Realm, but before he noticed a problem, it was already too late. He’s probably still buried there all these years later.”

Not bothering to answer, I took out the first brick I made and tossed it to him.

Thener caught it with no problem, but then he exclaimed just like Thalza did a few days prior, and tossed it away. However, unlike her, he actually sustained damage from it. The tips of his fingers where he touched the material were all read and already forming tiny blisters.

I picked the brick back up with my bare hand, shaking it at Bram. [As I said, I expect us to finish a brick in four days. I can do one every five or so alone, but I will not push the production more than that. It’s not necessary.]

Bram gawked at the dark gray piece of stone in my hand with some trepidation. I thought for a moment and then tossed it at him. He caught it with a yelp and then immediately dropped it like it was on fire.

The stone fell on the ground and threw a bit of gravel and sand around.

The guy looked at his hands, they were fine, and then at me, with disbelief. “You can hold that? How?! I thought my flesh was going to get pulled out of my body.”

[As I said!] I repeated, picking up the brick and putting it to the side. [You will get used to it. The control over your energy is trash. It’s bad inside your body, but outside it’s just useless. If I were a sadistic man, I would just sprinkle you with some dust from the pure stuff, and I assure you, you would be dead.] I paused, thinking about it for a moment longer. [Actually, that might not be a bad idea. This could be used as a powerful weapon. Can you imagine a cloud of pure Dreadstone dust?] I chuckled at the thought.

“Please, don’t.” Thalza groaned. “This place is bad as it is, don’t make it worse.”

[I know, but just think about it… Arrowheads made of the stuff? Swords? Imagine getting cut by one of these. Oh the agony!]

Thener became pale and his eyelids drooped. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

[Don’t worry about it, Thener. You need to finish the energy generator first. Working with Dreadstone comes later. I predict we are probably going waste a lot of it, so I’d like to stockpile some first, which means…] It was time to get to work.

I was being overly optimistic. Forget fabricating a Dreadstone brick faster with outside help, Bram actually managed to slow me down! It took us nearly a week to finish the first one, and then six days for the second.

One good thing that came out of it was that he quickly learned to more tightly control his Qi and wasn’t getting exhausted as fast anymore. He could even hold the Dreadstone brick for a few seconds without feeling like his hands were going to rot away. Apparently, the discomfort I felt and the pull they did were nothing alike.

Bram described the feeling as a burning sensation accompanied by a powerful suction force that tried to suck the marrow out of his bones. It was like a fire trying to fry his body. None of that was actually happening, but as the Qi was getting sucked out, it created those phantom feelings, and depending on how poor the energy control of the Cultivator was, it could actually do damage.

Thener’s control was even weaker, so as his Qi was drained, it left his body at such speed and intensity that it damaged his tissue.

Such a thing was impossible for me since the quality of my flesh was more than a thousand times greater, and just the inherent density of it already created a barrier protecting me from the Dreadsone’s effects.

That natural protection could be broken eventually, but it took a lot of time. Minutes instead of seconds. Not to mention that it recovered quite fast too. I just had to give it a chance.

Well, the fourth brick we created was done in just five days, and the next one after that took just over four.

Nearly a month passed like that, and after the seventh Dreadstone brick was made in just four days, I decided it was time to take a break for a bit.

Coincidentally it was right about time for the rift to open, and so we all went and gathered in the village square to witness the event.

The other residents were also all there, as well as a pile of crates waiting to be transferred. The Chief was the closest to the middle where the rift was supposed to open, with a few strong men standing right behind him.

Everyone was ready and waiting with a bated breath.

Suddenly the air shifted and the air began to swirl. There was a loud pop, and a chaotic storm of red energy and black lightning formed in the middle of the square, out of which immediately fell sacks of goods and crates of supplies.

The chief and the men behind him quickly moved those to the side and threw their own crates into the storm, careful not to get too close. The whole process lasted about ten seconds, maybe fifteen max. After that the rift closed violently, the energy sustaining it consumed, and it collapsed with a boom.

I noticed some Qi escaped into the Lower Plane through the rift, and feeling it I got reminded just how stupidly starved the place was of energy. Some people quickly slurped up the little energy there was, but most of it was immediately absorbed by the Dreadstone slab below.

“Fascinating…” Thener quietly gasped.

[Got any insight? What do you think about a stabilizer? Can you do it?]

“Maybe, maybe…” Thener murmured with a frown. “I need to see more examples, but this is really…”

Somehow he summoned a notebook I didn’t even notice. The man was busy scribbling into it and totally ignored me, completely oblivious to the happenings going on around him.

The crates and sacks of supplies were quickly taken away to be stored and the gathered crowd of people slowly dispersed, leaving only a few people behind. Among them, I noticed the Chief approaching, with the little Felix in tow.

“Uncle Gerald!” The little guy shouted and ran towards us. I lifted an eyebrow as the kid nearly jumped in my lap, beaming like mad.

“Grandpa Chief told me that you cured me, and gave me the Cultivation technique, and I have been diligently studying it since! Mother told me I was doing great, but Grandpa Chief said I should slow down, but I don’t wanna slow down, and, and…”

As the little guy kept talking, the Chief gave me an apologetic smile. He leaned closer, speaking quietly. “I’m not sure what exactly you did, but he has been like that for the last three weeks. While before he would barely speak a word, now he won’t ever shut up. He also became extremely curious about everything, constantly asking questions about everything. It’s honestly quite overwhelming.”

He sighed. “It’s like he’s trying to make up for all the lost time of the last decade. He’s been advancing by leaps and bounds since you fixed his Soul, and we are having trouble keeping up.”

I listened to his woes and grinned. [I see he also advanced past the first step already. Now he is a real Cultivator.] And it only took him a month to reach the Spirit Accumulation Realm II, which was quite impressive, considering the average Cultivator did it in just over two.

“Yeah, it happened last night. The kid couldn’t sleep and decided to Cultivate instead. He has been so excited since, I’m starting to get worried for my health, since I’m the most suited to guide him. He’s been a real handful.” The Chief smiled warmly as he watched Felix spill a flood of questions at every person in his vicinity.

[Well…] I laughed. [I might be able to help with that.]