Mage Steel: A Western Sci-Fi Cultivation Series

ONE

"Jumped the gun a bit on the whole knight thing," Kon grumbled as he glared at the roiling ball of metal at his feet. Benny's ability to morph the rift treasure had made it appear easy, the metal having transformed into a sword with ease. He was struggling a bit more with it as he tried to figure out how to change it into a rune. So far he'd managed to get it to move into the first of the patterns, but he couldn't keep the ball of energy shaped long enough to form the entirety of the rune.

"I was a bit caught up in the moment," Benny agreed as he looked up from his book. They were resting in the depths of the world, all that remained of the infrastructure after Daniur's attack had finished.

"It was auspicious," Kon muttered, his eyes never leaving the swirling orb of metal as he willed it to change. It was slowly growing over time, his ability to impress his will over the treasure. It had taken a day or two before he'd gotten a hang on being able to send his power out and around the treasure, but he was still too weak to fully saturate the treasure.

"A dissipating storm, your enemies laid low, a warship burning in the distance, it was just too good a vista to give up," Benny said.

"I didn't realize you were so melodramatic," Kon said, finally peeling his eyes away from the natural treasure, yielding to the obstinate treasure as he stood up and stretched his back. There were several pops in his lower back as he twisted, the sense of relief palpable as he looked toward his mentor.

Benny seemed mostly recovered from his use of his strength to keep them alive. There were a few more creases on his face, shadows under his eyes that had been once deep rings were nothing more than slivers now. With his exhaustion had come a razor sharp tongue that had been directed at anyone and everyone that had strayed too close to him or irritated him. Which had been most everyone.

Even Daniur avoided him for a few weeks as she looked over the dregs of the tournament world's contestants, now her own personal guard, and had insisted on training them. Kon was certain there had been several deaths, but he didn't know them well enough to be certain about it. The increase in skill and strength amongst the survivors had been meteoric to say the least. Liberally handing out all the treasures they'd taken from the storehouses had accelerated their growth.

"Daniur still abusing her newfound pupils?" Benny asked as he flipped a page, not bothering to look up.

"Yes. She grabbed Alice and Diur to help her. Diur's adjusting to her newfound body and Alice has been settling into her new runes. Thank you for that by the way," Kon informed him. Benny had thrown a holopad at Alice's head along with a bag of cores and told her it was payment for services rendered. Alice had taken it in stride and had begun weaving a new layer.

"Taking the final dip today?" Benny asked, finally setting down his book to look over toward Kon.

"Yes. The alchemist says enough time has passed and we managed to gather the rest of what we needed to push through to D-Grade. Found the final treasures in a collapsed storeroom that the Purifying Flame had managed to hide deep in a side cavern.

"We're about done here. Tomorrow or day after and we can take off," Benny informed him.

"Plan still the same?" Kon asked. Benny and Daniur had spent more time around the planning table than anyone else, talking strategy and planning on how they could move forward with their plans to wage a defensive war. Kon and the others of their fledgling Chapterhouse were of course involved, but with their limited wealth, experience, and contacts they didn't have much to offer.

"Yes. The last set of messages I've received is enough to find the rendezvous point for the Oasis."

The mention of the old worldship was enough to send a spike of excitement through Kon. The heart of humanity was something he'd never thought to see but the way Benny casually mentioned it had a bit of a calming effect on him. Sights and mysteries forgotten, Benny had promised him. An old storied ship was just the first step.

He left the room without another word, treading across now familiar passages as he headed toward where the Alchemist had set up shop. The massive gelatinous creature still hadn't bothered to give a name, simply going by its trade. Fortunes were turned into alchemical baths that the rabble had begun to be dunked in. Not all of it of course, the best most expensive treasures had been saved for them, secreted away on the Puca, but already their small group was quickly outstripping what the majority of the wealth here would have been useful for.

Instead dozens had fallen into the baths, screaming and crying as their bodies were transformed, toughened and strengthened for the upcoming battles. Most were raised to E-Grade, with only those who specialized in body cultivation petitioning for more resources and often being granted them. Daniur wasn't much in the way of denying those who were willing to melt themselves to grasp a bit of extra strength.

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"Welcome, young master," the Alchemist rumbled as Kon entered the small room. Already the bubbling stew burned his nose and threatened to peel away his skin. Potent was the first word that came to his mind as he looked over the bath, the strength of it greater than even Diur's breakthrough treatment had been.

"You have been a welcome puzzle, young master. My calculations had to be revised thrice to make sure there was enough energy needed for your breakthrough," the Alchemist said as it lumbered from its spot near the back to look down at the bubbling cauldron. Kon eyed it for a moment before starting to strip, a bit of nervous energy in his stomach. It had only been a few weeks since he'd done this last and he still wasn't sure about his body. At times he moved faster or slower than he thought he should, his body seemed heavier than it should be, blows landed had less effect, and other smaller minute things.

What was worrying him was the way his runes were acting. Especially his strengthening rune, the one that was slowly, constantly, reinforcing his bones. Alice had told him that one would build over time, slowly layering strength over years. Except now it seemed to be compounding with his body cultivation, the energy he'd redirected into his bones seemed to be endlessly hungry for the filtered energy his rune poured into them.

His body cultivation was static, only so much energy in his body. A fixed limit he'd been told. Using it drained it, but it would slowly accumulate back. Most normal body cultivators had to meditate, gather energy to themselves, and slowly let it sink into their bodies. Which was different from what classic cultivators did apparently. They brought energy into themselves into a core through different types of techniques that were supposed to cleanse the rift energy and formed it into a core. While for body cultivators, their entire body was the core.

From what they'd observed so far, Kon's body was still holding energy like a classic cultivator. It made him stronger, more durable, and able to draw on energy that would allow him to perform some of the supernatural feats that cultivators could. He hadn't found a technique that worked, anytime he pulled the energy out of the storage of his cells, his runes quickly absorbed them. It was what happened to those who had tried building cultivator cores while they already had runes or vice-versa. Benny didn't have extensive notes on it, but he knew enough about it that he was their resident expert.

His runes could be forced to send energy into his body though. Specifically his filter rune but he could drain the others into his body just as he could pull energy out of his body to fuel them. Benny had speculated that once he capped himself and created a closed loop then that would disappear until he started building his next layer.

"Procrastination will not end this any faster," the Alchemist said as Kon continued to stare at the brew. He shot the giant creature a glare, but it didn't react until Kon put a foot into the tub.

"Oh, that sucks." It was a struggle to not scream as he slowly pushed himself deeper into the tub. Skin was melting, again, as Kon lowered himself to sink into the boiling waters. Energy poured into him as his body broke apart, but this time his skeleton didn't dissolve, even as the pressure mounted higher and higher, all that happened was his bones grew denser, pulling in more energy until he felt ready to explode.

Kon sank into his meditative stance and began rebuilding his body. The first time he'd done so he'd focused on his bones, but now it was the muscles. The fibers that wound tightly together to form each one were inundated with power as his body rippled and was remade. Hours went by all the while he kept focused, drawing more and more strength into himself until he hit the wall.

Diur had warned him of this. Where E-Grade ended and D-Grade began. She hadn't used those words specifically, but had used words similar enough for him to get the meaning. He was about to push through to a new tier and with that came a tribulation, a trial of pain and agony as he slipped further away from mortality.

Fancy cultivator words for he was changing his body at the molecular level and it was ripping him apart. Rift energy slid through his cells, pushing and filling them like a cancerous growth until there was a weight to them, a steadiness, a heft that made him feel as if he was sinking even through his meditation.

"Focus!" All the energy in his body was nothing more than potential now. Even that which he'd earlier claimed had become a roiling mass as the bath was drained of power, all of it filling Kon to the bursting point. If he slipped for even a moment that energy would spiral out of him explosively, he could feel it aching to break free, to not be compressed down and held in flesh.

The shimmering lines of his metaphysical body were glowing brightly, the silver skeleton now overlaid with twisting vines of muscles and tendons, all so bright and strong that Kon couldn't keep from screaming at the beautiful agony of it. Pulses of power emanated from his heart and Kon used them, each pulse a wave of his will that gathered the wild energy and forced it down, compressing it as he pulled the steel aspect out of the energy and wound it around himself.

Hours kept ticking as he sat there in a tepid pool of drained alchemical concoction as he faced the tribulation. It was no great task, or test, no lighting bolts from the sky. Just a test of endurance, to see if his will could handle the power of creation, could spin steel weaves out of it and fill his body. Turn the cancerous growth into something beneficial.

From his head to his toes he pushed and fought, struggled until his body's silver glow had deepened, some of the luster gone, replaced by the steady, dull color of steel. Kon's eyes opened as he looked up at the ceiling, blinking slowly he looked over to where the Alchemist and Diur were waiting for him.

"It seems that I will need to make adjustments for your next steps, young master. Your body absorbed everything in the bath and still there was hardly enough to push you through your tribulation," the Alchemist said, bowing its head to him. Kon ignored him, looking with weary eyes to his friend.

"Think you could get me a towel?"