Monster Cultivation

Next were survival and diplomatic classes, which Drew was considering attending, but that changed when he noticed a limping figure entering the gate. The guy was bigger than the rest, most likely a second-year.

He was the only second-year here. The rest were out on field missions, assisting Core weavers in gathering intel on pirate ships that had been lurking in the distance for months.

Second-years never worked alone and weren’t allowed to leave missions unless they were seriously injured.

If that were the case, he wouldn’t be here; he’d be at the medical facility. Sure, he had an injury, but the timing felt too convenient.

And the way he looked around... He was searching for someone. It wasn’t obvious, but he made the mistake of staring at Drew longer than anyone else, except for Bein.

That confirmed it for Drew. He was sent by Bein’s parents.

Drew had expected them to send Bein’s brother, another second-year, but this move was smarter.

Drew walked off toward the classroom, the safe haven, but... when he entered, he noticed Miss Maroon wasn’t there.

She was always there.

Where the heck is she?!

Someone else entered—a kid Drew didn’t know by name. The boy had insulted him before, but when he saw Drew, he said nothing. Instead, he turned to leave, about to run.

"Don't move," Drew said.

The boy froze, clearly scared.

"Where’s Miss Maroon?" Drew asked.

"Uh... there’s a meeting with the head principal."

"Just her? No other instructors?"

"I think so."

It had to be related to his cultivation, Drew was sure of it.

"You can go," Drew told him. The boy ran off without hesitation.

Drew found it silly. He wasn’t going to hurt the kid over something he didn’t care about. People could insult him all they wanted; it didn’t matter to him—at least not right now.

Drew’s situation had changed, but he guessed someone was keeping track of his every move, thinking he was cheating. And that someone probably had a bias against him for ‘mocking’ the hierarchy. So, if he got attacked, they likely wouldn’t intervene.

High risk, high reward. But the reward was still a long way off. Still, Drew wasn’t anxious.

There wasn’t an immediate threat. Attacking Drew now would be stupid. Especially since they'd investigate the attacker’s motives. When they figure out it isn't out of revenge—since the attack isn't friends or family with Bein or Rei—they’d start looking into whether the guy has been hired. And who else but Bein’s parents would do that?

The move would probably happen after Bein has healed and seems to have moved on from getting injured by Drew. But Drew thought it was better to immediately start a safer routine to show he wouldn’t be an easy target.

Fighting wasn’t an issue. Breaking a bone was fine. But disabling or killing someone? That was going too far—because even a low-realm Core weavers had value to the clan.

Still, Drew was just a medium-scale core, not important enough for the clan to delegate extra resources to keep him safe. That kind of protection was reserved for high-scale cores like Shun.

Drew saw the second-year talking to instructors, probably about his injury.

Then he heard a buzzing sound and looked up. It was a molemosquito. He rarely saw them around here.

They were just very small moles with the wings and behaviors of mosquitoes.

Drew ignored it and noticed someone walking toward the dormitory—Bein. Bein spotted him too but didn’t seem scared.

The two locked eyes. As they stared at each other, the second-year wandered between them, paying them no attention.

Drew’s gaze shifted to the guy. It was too early—he wasn’t a threat yet, Drew reminded himself.

Bein then twisted his lips like he had something to admit. After a few seconds, he said, "Still got that bruise from my punch, huh?"

Drew didn’t respond much, just nodded. Then, suddenly, something flew toward him. Drew summoned his Whirlwind Hands monster to pull himself down, but he wasn’t fast enough. His face got cut.

Drew was shocked. An attack that fast—it couldn’t have come from any first-year. He turned to the second-year, eyes wide.

The guy looked panicked. "There was a molemosquito above your head!"

He shouted so loudly it drew attention. Drew moved to escape, but his body felt sluggish.

Drew’s eyes snapped to Bein, but to his surprise, Bein looked just as shocked. "The hell...?"

Bein turned to the second-year. "You nearly killed him!"

Bein approached Drew with concern. Even if Drew wanted to, he couldn’t run. But he didn’t need to.

Bein pulled out a green bandage with his family’s crest: two clasped green hands that represented healing. "Let me help you, man."

Drew’s confusion faded. He understood now.

Bein then handed Drew a star-shaped black pill. Seeing how slow Drew was, Bein said, "I’ll do it for you," and popped the pill into Drew’s mouth.

Only then did Bein smile deeply. "I’ll take you to the dormitory so you can rest."

His body was heating up; he had a horrible fever.

Drew struggled to force his eyes open but finally managed to do so. Around him were his classmates.

Drew glanced around and noticed that Bein was missing. Was this his first time poisoning someone, and he couldn’t handle the guilt of killing another person?

It didn’t matter; Drew was prepared for this. This was the high-reward part. He took out a small bottle of medicine he had purchased from the item shop. It would make him vomit everything he had eaten in the last 24 hours, along with a tier-one recovery pill to help his body return to normal.

Of course, Drew didn’t have the energy to move to the washroom. Instead, he summoned his monster and dragged himself there. Locking the door behind him, he uncapped the bottle and drank the medicine.

He couldn't taste it, but he knew it was horrible.

He then positioned himself on the ground, hunched over.

It was going to hurt a lot, but he was ready. As the minute passed, his entire body burned, and it felt like he was being stabbed in the gut.

Everything he had eaten came back up—rice, provisions, fish... and that damn pill. Upon seeing it, Drew smiled.

It was barely digested, one of its design flaws. The effects on his body were still strong, so he hurriedly took the recovery pill. It pained him how much it had cost, but it was either that or risk permanent damage.

The pain from the medicine was intense, and to endure it, Drew bit into his shoulder. However, after ten minutes, the pain subsided, and the recovery pill began to repair his body.

He suddenly felt a bit more energy, but it wasn’t enough. He needed an hour to recover to a barely functional level.

So he waited. When the hour was up, he sat up, carefully picking the pill out of the vomit and safely putting it in his pocket.

Then he cleaned up the mess. Once he was done, he exited the bathroom. Bein still wasn’t there, but it didn’t matter.

Everyone was a bit puzzled by Drew’s sudden recovery. In their defense, they didn’t know he had been dying. No one seemed interested in interacting with him—except for Shun, he guessed.

His consciousness flickered in and out. He had barely recovered from anything. He just put on an appearance.

Drew didn’t say anything. Instead, he just made his way to the gates, each step being difficult.

Drew passed through the gates, showing his ID. Now that he had more Core points, he could stay out for longer.

They shouted, “Be back in 2 hours and 15 minutes!”

Drew brought out the 'hands' and used a crappy method of traveling. He made them throw his body in the air, catch him, and repeat. Of course, it resulted in him spinning a lot because of the spiraling nature of the hands.

But it was faster than walking. There also weren't many odd gazes. A lot of people thought he was practicing, so they cheered him on.

He continued traveling so until he reached a large green and white building with the family name, 'Lesh' being displayed prominently. Of course, the clasped green hands were below the family name.

He was almost out of Ferna to so he was fortunate he made it in time.

He unsummoned his monster and walked inside. The tiles were brown and shiny. Drew could even see a reflection of his face on them.

There were quite a few people there, which was great for Drew.

He approached the man behind the green metal counter and said, “Bring me Berui.”

The man seemed ready to say something, but the ID around Drew's neck made it clear he was dealing with a cultivation student.

The man smiled and replied, “Right away.”

Time passed, and it seemed Berui wasn’t coming. So Drew sat down in a chair and waited. While he kept a calm composure, he was in a lot of pain.

Then Berui entered the shop, flanked by two grown Core weavers donned in bronze robes.

It didn’t matter; those Core weavers weren’t going to protect him. Drew stood up and waved at Berui. “It’s me, Drew.”

The man eyed Drew. Before he could give the Core weavers a command to kick him out, Drew withdrew something from his pocket. The star-shaped black pill he vomited up.

“Do you remember this?” Drew asked

Berui’s eyes widened in disbelief as he quickly walked toward Drew. “Let’s… have a meeting somewhere else, huh?”

“Where?”

“At my house—”

That was a death sentence. Drew shook his head. “No. We’ll have it here. We’ll just whisper.”

The man didn’t like that at all. “Why isn’t my home good enough?”

“Because if we go there, I’ll bring this to the head of medicine. Your business will be confiscated, and you’ll live as a slave for 10 to 11 years.”

The threat wasn’t just about reporting him for attempted murder; it was because this 'extreme recovery' pill had been banned for over eight years due to its lethal effects on all test subjects. All the pills were supposed to be destroyed. If one still existed that hadn’t expired, it was clear he had broken the law.

The man clenched his teeth and took a seat near Drew. “What can we do to make this right?”

“Bring me your account books.”

“What…?”

“Why do I have to repeat myself?”

Reluctantly, he retrieved them and handed them to Drew. Drew replied, “The one for this year, not five years ago.”

So he went for the recent one. Drew went through it, muttering, “9,000 white marbles a month in profit. Give me 10% of all profits every month.”

“Wha—” He closed his mouth, stopping himself from shouting.

Drew stood up. “Use the excuse that you are my sponsor. That I also gained green marbles from you too.”

He put the pill back in his pocket and then stopped, adding, “And call off your dogs.”

Drew returned to school, and the guards noted in a book that he had only spent 45 minutes outside.

It was late at night, and the moon hung high in the sky. Drew went hunting for the hidden trials again, then cultivating for long periods after giving up and retrying later that night.

The head of the investigation was in the dormitory, shrouded in invisibility.

He was studying Drew’s book again.

He didn’t understand the language, so this time he planned to use his tier-three monster’s ‘Limited Understanding’ ability to decode it.

The man’s eyes glowed blue, and the pages of the book lit up. Blue letters floated from the text and slowly began rearranging into words.

It took longer than he had expected, but after 25 minutes, the first page was translated.

'I want Bein's, Mom, so bad. She's so hot.'

'I wanna be a legendary immortal, having a thousand women kissing me.'

'I wanna be like: 'Kiss me. Oh yeah, kiss me so well.''

'So today, I elbowed some inbred's teeth in. It was pretty cool.'

'Bein's mom is HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT.'

The man couldn't believe it. Did the boy create this "language" just to have a secret diary?

It didn’t seem that crazy, considering the embarrassing content inside. Besides, what kind of fool would store their cheating methods in a book?

However, it would be foolish to think it was impossible.

The book split into two like a cell. He returned the original book to its place.

Not only had he made a copy, but he had created a sentient updating copy, meaning everything the boy wrote in the future would also appear in it. All changes would be reflected.

The man then left the room. While waiting for the updates, he planned to have his monster decode the book. But he worried about how time-consuming it would be. Using his monster’s decoding feature didn’t take much Ferna, but the costs would add up over time.

Either way, it was his job he guessed. He didn't expect to find much, but finding something for Maroon would be better than nothing.

Drew entered the classroom, relieved to see Miss Maroon there. She greeted him, and he returned the gesture.

“Why are you here this time?” she asked.

He smiled at her. “I don’t want to get killed in my sleep.”

"Oh. Of course."

Instead of cultivating, he had slept. He was only human, and the 'extreme recovery' black pill had done a lot of damage that the normal recovery pill couldn't fix immediately.

His lungs still ached, and a migraine throbbed in his head. He did his best not to show how much it hurt.

Ignoring pain wasn’t real, and the pain-numbing items required more Core points than he had.

So, he tried to fall asleep.