The Phoenix [Cultivation, Reincarnation, Tower Climber]

When I make it back to the city, the first thing I do is head back to the Quest Hall. I time my arrival to be right around three in the morning, so the streets are more or less empty. The people I see are few and far between, and none seem to have any interest in me. It's a pleasant change of pace from how it is during the day.

The Quest Hall is mostly empty as well, so I'm able to walk right up to the desk in the back and exchange the antlers, teeth, and claws that I collected for credits. In total, between the Quests and the sale of the materials, I'm up another 15000 Tower Credits. It's not as much as I could have gotten if I spent more time hunting, but it's a solid haul.

The Phoenix Hall isn't any busier than the rest of the city. There's no one in either the bottom or top floor lobbies, so I'm able to make it back to my room without incident. Trinity appears on my shoulder and tries to leap for the bed as soon as we get inside, but I catch her midair and carry her to the bathroom.

"Mraww!" she yells, squirming.

"No," I say, holding her up to my face. "You stink."

"Mra!"

"Yes, you do."

"MRA!"

"Stinky."

Bathing Trinity isn't fun for either of us, and I get scratched and bitten once or twice or a dozen times, but after about fifteen minutes, she's clean. No blood, no dirt, no leaves, and her fur smells like flowers. She's not happy about it. I let her out of the bathroom and she immediately takes a flying leap into her pile of sheets and cushions and starts rolling around. I'll have to get Henry to wash those before the whole room starts to smell like wet cat.

That's a problem for a few hours from now though. Unfortunately, I'm just as dirty as Trinity. It will probably take a lot of high-pressure, very hot water to get fully clean. And while I have that, I might as well cultivate a bit. It's just efficient.

Four hours later, I step out of the bathroom very clean and overflowing with oum. My stomach is also empty. Trinity's is not. She's in the kitchen eating a corpse again. And unfortunately, she's gotten smart about it, so the second she sees me walking toward the drawer with the bell in it, the corpse disappears and she stares at me defiantly.

Fine. Whatever. She earned that corpse.

"Henry, clean up this whole place," I say to the construct when he appears. "Make sure that the sheets on the ground get cleaned, but put them back on the ground roughly as they were."

"As you command."

I spend the three minutes it takes the construct to complete his task preparing some tea that I stole acquired from Aurora. I'll need to go get some of my own tea. I wasn't able to fit as much in my backpack as I would have liked.

I walk over to my table and sit down with my tea. The moment I do, the corpse reappears on the ground and Trinity goes back to eating. When I finish my tea and stand up again, the corpse vanishes. I don't think I'll be able to get rid of the corpses so easily anymore. I'll have to finish connecting with her so I can go in and clean up the corpses myself.

I put the teacup in the sink and then do some light stretching before opening the door to my room. Vanessa, Jacob, and Kat are all gathered around Jacob's door, and all three of them pause for a moment in surprise before breaking out into smiles.

"Bella!" says Kat, not looking like she cares about the beating I gave her.

"When did you get back?" asks Vanessa.

"I've been here the whole time."

All three of them stare at me for a few seconds.

"Did you just make a joke?" asks Kat. "You just made a joke!"

"I'm hungry, let's eat," I say, walking past them toward the lift.

Trinity abandons me and stays with Vanessa to get chin scritches. Traitor.

They catch up to me as we reach the lift and join me on the way down.

"How was your trip?" asks Jacob.

"Fine."

"What did you do?" asks Vanessa.

"Walked. Cultivated. Killed some things."

"Were any of those things people?" asks Kat.

"Some of them."

The three are silent.

"W-was that also a joke?" asks Vanessa.

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"No. But it was self defense."

"I see."

More silence follows, and during that time, I check their cultivation progress. Kat is the furthest along. She's bordering on Middle 1 star. Surprisingly, Jacob isn't actually very far behind. I can't tell if he's gotten himself a sponsor or not like Kat has, but if not, his talent is monstrous. Vanessa is the weakest of the three, though she's progressed well too. Her foundation might actually be the strongest of the three. Her oum is the most stable, at least.

The lift reaches the ground floor before any of them speak again, and the doors open to reveal a very busy lobby. It looks like more than half of our Batch has managed to form their cores so far, though most of them clearly formed them in the last few days, so their foundations aren't yet stable. They all look my way when they notice me, and the normal conversations turn to whispers and mutters. Weirdly enough, they look even more scared of me than they did before I left. If not for the fact that Vanessa, Kat, and Jacob didn't seem to be aware of what I did in the forest at all, I'd assume it's because I killed those Shin family goons. But since that news doesn't seem to have gotten out yet, it's probably just that after forming their cores and getting some firsthand experience, they've realized how far ahead I actually am.

I pile food high on my plate, and then spend most of the meal quiet. The others want to know how my trip was, and keep asking for more details, but after probably the tenth vague non-answer from me, they give up and instead tell me about what I missed.

Kat finally tells who her sponsor is–well the others already seem aware, but it's the first time I'm hearing it– and talks about how they've been giving her special training lately. Her sponsor is the Iron Temple, the Ascendant force that Ganyu mentioned as one of the two major forces specializing in augmentation. She hasn't been learning anything specific just yet, but apparently, they've been putting her through some intense physical training and tests to find out what she's best at so they can personalize her training better. According to her, she's good at everything, but also according to her, they're giving her more advanced agility tests, so that's probably where her actual talent lies.

At some point as we eat, Timmy joins us, and as soon as Kat finishes speaking, he jumps at the opportunity to tell me about the cool plant that Gloria gave him. I still don't know who Gloria is, but from the way Timmy talks about her, she's the best person in the world. The plant she gave him was apparently a gift to him as congratulations for forming his core, and he actually has it with him. Since he didn't know I was here when he left his room for breakfast, I can only assume that's because he carries it with him everywhere.

The plant itself looks almost like a spider lily, but in the center between all the spindles, a single unbloomed bulb sits. He calls it a Scarlet Eye Lily, and says that it's a rare and powerful plant that can do… something. He doesn't go into any detail beyond that, unfortunately, instead choosing to focus on its lifespan, its habitat, its method of care, and a few other things that frankly don't interest me in the slightest. I do find the plant itself interesting though, especially with the way it seems to be slowly siphoning his oum as he gathers it. Hopefully, this is a good thing, and necessary for the plant's development. Otherwise, I might need to have a talk with this Gloria person.

As soon as he finally pauses his flower monologue, Kat barges in like a bulldozer and starts talking more about her own cultivation, and how she and Vanessa have become "cultivation partners" and spend time every night cultivating together. I'm certain she's being completely literal, and since no one else seems to find it odd, I keep my own thoughts on the matter to myself. No need to bring up what "cultivation partners" used to mean on Earth.

While she talks though, I focus on Timmy a bit more. Now that he's formed his oum core, it's much more obvious what's going on with the oum around him. I have indeed seen this phenomenon before. I just didn't recognize it because I've never seen it happen with a non-cultivator before. It seems that he has a physique that was once known as a "ki resonance physique." I'm not sure what it would be called here in the Tower, but that's clearly what it is.

How the Ki Resonance Physique works exactly is a bit complicated to explain, but in short, his oum pathways naturally resonate with the oum in the air around, which also works the other way, causing the oum in the air to somewhat match what happens within him. This can be either a blessing or a curse to a cultivator, depending on their goals. For anyone seeking raw power or any kind of invulnerability, it's more or less a death sentence. It's impossible to achieve the necessary stability for those styles with that physique.

For those seeking enlightenment, and a path that aligns them with the Dao, as some philosophers called it, it is the greatest blessing one can have. This physique was rare to see back on Earth, but most of those who had it that I saw either failed to make it past second rate– middle 1 star here– or they became powerful, but reclusive hermits. Based on what I've seen, Timmy is more likely to be the latter.

Jenny, the quiet girl, is also there, and she has also formed her core. I don't really have any notes on her. In terms of cultivation talent, she's perhaps on the level of Vanessa, but lacks the observational skill, and though she can probably go fairly far, she's nothing special compared to the others.

Other than Kat's training and Timmy's flower, not much else noteworthy has happened. Nothing the others want to share, at least. There were a few arguments between other members of the Batch, and a few who've gotten gloomy and depressed, but it's all trivial gossip otherwise. I notice that both Jacob and Vanessa seem to be hiding something though, based on the way they subtly deflect when the topic turns to them.

By the time they finish going over everything, it's about time for Ganyu's Lesson to begin, and some of the other members of our Batch are lining up by the door. We join them, and a minute later, the man himself arrives to let us in. As we file in, I notice that there are fewer people than before. Not by too much, but close to 20 of the original Batch members aren't here.

We sit down in our usual spots, though Timmy and I end up shifted one spot over to make room for Jenny next to Kat and Vanessa. I notice that there's a bit of odd tension in the room as people sit down, and interestingly enough, none of it seems directed at me. Vanessa seems to notice that I notice this, and leans over to whisper in my ear.

"I almost forgot to mention, you chose the perfect day to come back. Ganyu said he'd be explaining the Starter Quest today."

"Ah," I say. "I see."

About a minute later, Ganyu clears his throat and the room falls silent.

"I see a few faces that haven't been here in a little while," he says.

He's not actually looking at me. He's looking at a group in the back of the classroom who must have been cutting class without telling him first.

"And I see that there are still some of you missing. While attending this class wasn't mandatory, the Starter Quest is, and even if you try to avoid it, you will be dragged out by force. I'm sure that all of you are aware of how powerful this Floor's constructs are by now, right?"

There are some murmurs of assent, and I recall a short story that Kat shared about what happened when she challenged one of the constructs to a spar. To cut a long story short, she lost. Badly.

"If any of you are friends with those not present, I suggest you take notes and bring them to those people. Or not. It's their loss, really."

He gestures with his hand and a crude map of the Floor appears on the board behind him.

"Now, without further ado, let's get into the details."