License to Cultivate [Progression Fantasy Tower Climber] (FOUR books completed!)

As soon as they left the arena, Chang-li spotted a feature that definitely had not been there before: a dark archway rising high out of the orange wasteland not far ahead.

He pointed. "I'm guessing that's our exit from this floor."

"I was thinking it would be in the center," Min commented, "the way it was down below. This is more convenient, though."

He agreed and turned to see what the others had made of it, but Joshi and Hiroko hadn't emerged from the arena yet. He started back, but Min's hand fell on him. "Don't," she said quietly. "I think they have words to say together."

He stared down at her. "What's going on there between them? I mean, " he cleared his throat, "they were engaged, but nobody's been talking about that for a while. I kind of thought Joshi had, well", he shrugged, "thrown her over."

Min sighed. "Those two," she muttered, "just need to be locked up in a room together for a week and let their passions settle things. No, it's not going to be that easy," she said. "I think they needed to actually talk, though. You know, people do that sort of thing sometimes." She rolled her eyes at Chang-li as he stared at her confusedly. "Anyway, we'll leave them to it. I was hoping you'd help me prepare for the next floor. There's going to be a lot of yellow, right?"

Chang-li nodded. "At least that's what we expect."

"So, I was thinking about what you were saying about strength against strength versus strength against weakness. Some elements are weaker against other elements. If I can learn to infuse my arrowheads with different elements at will, I can select the right one for the right task. I can do fire pretty well. It's obvious, but the others are trickier. And I don't know what goes against what."

Chang-li grinned. That he could answer. He scrabbled around in his satchel for one of the books he'd brought along, pulled it out, flipped to the right page, cleared his throat.

"Here we go. It's a diagram showing the major elements versus each other, and then the minor elements. There's the obvious ones: fire, water, earth, and air. But then we have secondary combination elements, and lesser elements to call on. For instance, fire and air makes lightning. Ground is strong against lightning. Water is weak. To defeat lightning though, you need a combined element."

"What? Water and earth together?" Min ventured.

He shook his head.

"No, you'd think so. But actually, the best counter to lightning is ice."

"And how do we get ice?" Min asked, frowning.

"You've got to reverse your application of fire into your weave, so instead of providing heat, it draws it away," Chang-li said. "Only when you do that, you tend to draw the air element out too. It's because fire is really heat and air, but we don't think of the heat as a separate element."

Min was looking at him in confusion, so he paused and said, "Actually, you know what? It's probably easier if we just start with the basics." They ran through the four base elements until Min was comfortable, and Joshi and Hiroko emerged from the arena, looking a bit embarrassed. They weren't holding hands or anything, but Chang-li got the impression they'd had quite a heartfelt conversation.

"Shall we?" Min said cheerfully, pointing at the archway. "I'm eager to find out what kind of boon we get here."

The four set off and quickly reached the archway. It was made of black stone, the first thing they'd seen in this place that wasn't made of orange lux. It made for a nice change. Chang-li kept waiting for the guardian to emerge, but he didn't.

As they reached the arch, he spotted four indentations set around the edge, exactly the right size for the tokens they had picked up. "One at a time or all at once?" he asked.

"If it matters at all, then it might be that all four at once gets us a better reward than one at a time," Joshi said after a long pause. He took his two medallions and tossed one to Min. The four approached the arch together.

"On three," Chang-li said. "One, two, three."

They pressed the tokens to the four indentations, then leapt back as the arch began to glow. A golden light suffused it, bringing its black surface into high relief.

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They stared at each other. The next step was clear. He swallowed. "Let's see what awaits us."

Chang-li stepped through the arch and found himself in a dark room. Light blossomed around. It was like the chamber where he'd met the very first floor guardian in Broken Moon Tower. Min was glancing about with wide eyes, clearly nervous. A moment later, a voice spoke. "Do you wish to ascend or to leave?"

"Ascend," Chang-li said at once.

A glowing entrance appeared on the opposite side of the room with steps leading upward. "You may proceed."

"Hang on," Min said. "What about a boon? We beat the floor and acquired all of the tokens. We should receive a boon."

A voice chuckled. "Perhaps cultivation itself is not enough of a boon for you?"

"Not when you're as far behind as I am," Min said. "I need to catch up and be more able to pull my own weight. I'll take anything that helps me along the path."

"What about the rest of you? What is it you want?"

Hiroko spoke next. "Like Min, I want the ability to walk the path I choose without being forced to rely on the good nature of those around me."

"I want to be stronger," Joshi said. "Strong enough to protect my people in the battle to come."

"And I want to understand what this Lens is doing to me," Chang-li said.

There was a long moment. A pedestal appeared in the center of the room with four cups of tea steaming on it.

"Go ahead. Drink. Your boon is prepared for you."

They approached the table. The teacups all looked identical.

"Which one's mine?" Min called.

"Whichever you choose is the one for you," the voice said, maddeningly calm.

Min looked irritated. She picked up one of the teacups. Chang-li and the others followed suit. Chang-li hesitated and held his up in front of him. "Here's to an end of orange," he said.

He put the cup to his lips and drained it. The warm liquid burned as it went down his throat and settled in his stomach. A feeling of warmth spread all through his body. Instinctively, it began to cycle, and the warmth flowed into his channels. He directed it to his core and kept it there.

As he did, he spoke aloud, explaining what he was doing and encouraging Min and Hiroko to do the same. There was a look of quiet concentration on their faces. Then Min's face blossomed. "Oh!" she said. "I see what I'm doing wrong with the second veil."

She looked at him, grinning madly. "I think I know how to reach it now. I can't wait to get to the next level. Are you done yet?"

Still cycling, Chang-li shook his head.

Joshi grunted. "That was not what I expected," he said.

Chang-li shot him an inquiring glance.

"More instructions on how to use my will," he said. "Thought I was past that."

Chang-li concentrated on his own insides, cycling and cycling, wondering when he would get the flash of revelation all of his friends seemed to be having.

Hiroko let out a sigh and set her cup down. "I understand now," was all she said.

Chang-li focused. The tower guardian had given him something, a boon, an understanding, a tool he ought to use to improve himself and his surroundings.

What was it?

The bracer on his wrist was a comforting weight, telling him it was all right to cycle, that the Lens wouldn't immediately destroy him. This Lens was a tool used by high-level cultivators in an attempt to become even higher. The way it had slid into his soul and fit there so nicely made him suspect that was what it was meant to do. But surely Noren wouldn't have sent him to fetch it if he thought that was a possibility, would he? Or had Noren meant this to happen all along?

A flash of insight, not from himself illuminated his mind, and he understood.

It was the other gifts he'd already been given, combining, that had left him open to the Lens. His soul space being opened for him so early had left a connection between his body and the conceptual that he had not fully understood. Now he saw that he needed to guard that connection, his soul space was a potential weakness should a powerful cultivator attack. It had left him open to the Lens before he was truly ready.

Another flash, an insight into the nature of the universe itself. The vault where he had found the Lens, and the soul space he'd stepped into with Prism Nai Hong, were both the same sort of space. A place outside the world that a cultivator could step inside.

They were made of Lumos.

No, that was too simple.

He thought about what he already knew, and it clicked into place.

His soul space was a connection down past the physical nature of the universe, into its underlying truth, the Lumos that made it up. Cultivators opened it by applying their will and intent. The stronger their will and intent, the larger the space they could create.

He'd always known that. But it wasn't just a matter of creating a handy hole for storing things. It was the method with which cultivators tapped into Lumos at all.

His mind reeled from this clue, but it made sense. Towers were similar. Like his own soul space, the tower connected deep into the primal substance that made up the universe, gathering Lumos and then breaking it into lux and scattering it throughout the world.

In which case, that was what the Lens was for. To break the Lumos down into lux, it had to be taken into a cultivator's body, made into another organ, like a second core. Or perhaps combined with the core. He wasn't sure yet.

This felt so advanced and far beyond him, and it was. He ought to be in a remade body with lux strengthening his being, making him superhuman, to even be contemplating this.

But now his perspective shifted.

The Lens wasn't something foisted on him. It was the culmination of his own steps as he'd eagerly grasped for power beyond himself.

He wondered how many other cultivators might have made the same mistake and been destroyed along the way. His readings had been full of stories of Cultivators at the Peak of Spiritual Refinement who were utterly destroyed, attempting to master Lux Endowment. Perhaps they'd taken shortcuts like him and then found themselves overwhelmed.

But there had to be a safe way through this, didn't there? If anyone knew, it would be the guardians of this tower. He was sure of it. The floor guardian here had given him a valuable hint.

He came back to himself and found his friends staring at him.

"Are you all right?" Min asked.

"I'm fine. We can go now."

"Did it help?"

He hesitated. "I think it will help," he said, "but it's going to take some time. Lots of cycling and meditation for me to do. For now, let's just go see the next floor."