The march to the bandit hideout started badly and got worse.
The first hour wasn't terrible. Just rocks and roots and the occasional branch that seemed personally offended by Hunter's face. His dress shoes, because of course he'd been wearing dress shoes when he got kidnapped, slipped on every third step.
The second hour introduced him to something with too many eyes watching from a tree. None of the bandits looked up. Hunter decided that was smart and did the same.
Third hour, his left sole gave up. It flapped with every step like a dog's tongue. The sound echoed through the quiet forest.
"Master." Lex hissed, glancing back. "Quieter. The mana-beasts hunt by sound and vibration."
Hunter wanted to point out that it was hard to walk quietly when your shoe was actively betraying you, but something in Lex's expression stopped him. Fear. Real fear.
Right. Murder forest. Got it.
He tried walking on the edge of his foot. It helped. Sort of.
"System." He kept his voice low. "What kind of world is this? You said Terra-something."
[SYSTEM] WORLD_OVERVIEW NAME: TERRA•AQUA ENERGY: MANA (LIKE "QI") DISTRIBUTION: AMBIENT + UNDERGROUND "MERIDIAN_ROOTS" → SURFACE NODES
A tree root snagged his broken shoe. Hunter stumbled forward, caught himself against a thick trunk. The bark felt warm under his palm. Not sun-warm. Something else. A hum, almost, thrumming just below the surface.
He yanked his hand back.
"The ley lines are strong here." One of the other bandits said. The thin one with the scar. "Feel it in the trees. In the air."
Hunter did feel it. The air sat heavier in his lungs, thicker, like breathing through wet cloth.
So the planet has veins. Mana runs through them. And I can feel it. Great. Wonderful. I want to go home.
"Lex." Hunter called quietly. "Your old boss. The guy I..." He couldn't say 'killed' out loud yet. "What cultivation realm was he?"
"First level Body Refining, Master." Lex didn't turn around, just kept walking. "Took him six years to break through from mortal. He was... he was strong. For us."
Six years to reach the first level. And Hunter had killed him by accident in thirty seconds.
"And after Body Refining? What comes next?"
"Foundation Realm, if the heavens bless you." Lex's voice dropped even lower. "Most die trying. The body can't handle the change. Explodes from the inside, they say. Saw it once. Wasn't pretty."
Explodes. Of course. Why wouldn't it.
Hunter's stomach turned. The system had a Foundation Realm upgrade queued for him. Eight hours of "energy condensation" in a cave. He was either about to level up or become a stain on the wall.
"Master." Lex continued, voice careful. "You killed him so easily. You must be Foundation Realm already. Or... higher?"
Hunter said nothing. Let them think that. Better they stayed terrified than got ideas.
[SYSTEM] CULTIVATION_HIERARCHY
BODY_REFINING — BEGINNER (8 SMALL STEPS): HARDEN MUSCLE AND BONE FOUNDATION_REALM — EXPAND AND STABILIZE THE DANTIAN; PREPARE FOR HIGHER TIERS HIGHER_REALMS — DATA LOCKED
The system dumped more text across his vision. Hunter skimmed it while walking, which was a mistake because he immediately tripped over another root.
Body Refining: eight levels of making yourself not-squishy. Foundation Realm: build a battery in your gut called a dantian, don't explode. Everything after that: locked. Fantastic. A video game tutorial that ends with 'good luck, don't die.'
[SYSTEM] SPIRIT_ROOT (INNATE) GRADE SCALE: COPPER→SILVER→GOLD→PLATINUM→DIVINE HOST ASSIGNED: GRADE_B (SILVER-TIER / ABOVE AVERAGE) ABSORPTION RATE: 2.3X MORTAL BASELINE
Grade B. Silver-tier. Is that good?
Hunter wanted to ask but didn't want to look stupid in front of his slaves. Wait, I have slaves. I'm worried about looking stupid in front of my slaves. What is wrong with me?
The fourth hour brought them to a stream. It looked innocent. It was not innocent.
"We have to cross here." Lex waded in.
The water came up to Hunter's chest and felt like it had teeth. Cold didn't cover it. This was the kind of cold that reached inside and grabbed things that shouldn't be grabbed. He pushed through, gasping, and dragged himself up the opposite bank.
His teeth chattered. His shoes squelched. His pants clung to his legs like a second skin made of ice.
I didn't even like camping. I went once. Once. There were bathrooms and a Starbucks nearby. This is hell. This is actual hell.
"How much farther?"
"Not much, Master." Lex said.
Fifth hour. Hunter's boots gave up entirely. The sole on the right shoe peeled away and slapped against the ground with every step. He kicked both shoes off and kept walking barefoot. Rocks bit into his soles. Thorns found soft spots between his toes.
Behind him, the thin bandit with the scar picked up one of the abandoned shoes, examined it, then tucked it into his belt. Hunter didn't have the energy to ask why.
Sixth hour. Something howled in the distance. All three bandits went white.
"Move." Lex breathed. "Move now. Don't run. Don't make noise. Just move."
They moved. Hunter's heart hammered so hard he thought the beast would hear it and come running. The howl came again, closer this time, and was answered by two more. A pack.
I'm going to die. I'm going to die in a forest on an alien planet because I made a stupid joke about Vikings.
The bandits led him off the path, into a dense thicket of thorns that tore at his clothes. They crouched. Hunter crouched. The thin one put a hand over his own mouth, a reminder to stay silent.
The howling grew louder.
Then something massive moved through the trees to their left.
Hunter couldn't see it clearly through the thorns. Just shapes. Too many legs. A body that looked wrong, segmented and chitinous, like someone had crossed a wolf with a centipede and given it antlers. Its breathing sounded like wind through a cave.
Eyes reflected the moonlight. Too many eyes.
It stopped ten feet away.
Hunter stopped breathing. He thought of his apartment. The way streetlight came through the window at 2 AM. The hum of the fridge. The sound of someone laughing in the pizzeria below. Annoying then. A memory that hurt now.
I'd give anything to be annoyed by my neighbors again.
The beast's head swiveled. Sniffing. Listening. The air around it looked thicker, almost wavy, like heat shimmer but cold.
"Dense mana." Lex breathed, barely a whisper. "Ley line must be close. Makes them stronger."
Stronger. It can get STRONGER. Why. Why can it get stronger.
The beast took one step toward them. Then another.
Hunter's hand found a rock. He gripped it. Useless. Completely useless. The thing was the size of a bear and looked like it ate bears for breakfast.
Then the creature stopped. Its head tilted. And it walked away, back into the trees, leaving only the sound of breaking branches.
Nobody moved for a full minute.
"Gone." Lex finally whispered. "It's gone."
Hunter's hands shook. He put the rock down carefully, as if it might explode.
Planet veins. Power pipes. Wildlife that gets stronger near them. Got it. Hate it. Hate everything about this place.
They climbed out of the thicket. Hunter's shirt was now more holes than fabric. Blood ran from a dozen shallow cuts. He didn't care. He was alive.
Seventh hour. Hunter stopped counting steps and started counting trees. It didn't help. There were too many trees.
His feet bled. His legs ached. His lungs burned from the thick mana-saturated air.
Lex walked ahead, shoulders tight, glancing back every few minutes to make sure Hunter was still following. The other two bandits stayed quiet. No one spoke.
Hunter scratched the back of his head and let his mind wander because if he focused on the pain, he'd stop walking.
I killed someone. What's going on with me? I actually killed someone. And to make it worse, I have slaves now. Real slaves.
He looked at Lex's back. At the thin bandit. At the third one whose name he didn't even know.
They're terrified of me. They think I'm strong. I'm not strong. I tripped over a root six times in the last hour. I'm just... lucky? Is it luck when someone runs into a boulder and impales themselves on your sword?
The slave seal sat in his mind like a weight. He could feel it, faintly. Three threads connecting him to three lives.
I could kill them right now. Just think it, and the oath would rip them apart.
He didn't think it. But he could.
What does that make me?
No answer. Just the forest, and the moons overhead, and the sound of his own ragged breathing.
"Master." Lex called back. "Not much farther now."
Hunter wanted to murder him. Just for saying that phrase. Again.
Eighth hour. A clearing opened ahead. Lex pointed to a black cave mouth set into a rocky hillside. Vines hung over the entrance like a curtain. Moss covered the stones.
"There, Master." Lex said. "Home."
Hunter's mouth fell open. Then shut. Then opened again.
"You live in a cave."
"Yes, Master. Best shelter for miles. Stays warm. Hidden from patrols. Old ruin underneath, very stable."
A cave. I'm going to have my spiritual surgery in a cave.
He sighed. It would have to do.
Inside, the tunnel split into three cramped chambers. Old torches guttered in iron brackets. Veins of faint glowstone ran through the walls, giving off just enough light to see by. The air smelled like dirt and smoke and something else he couldn't identify. Probably didn't want to identify.
He took the left chamber. A thin cultivation mat lay on the floor. It had probably belonged to the man he'd killed. Hunter sat. The mat did little against the jagged stone underneath.
Good. Time to level up. Or ascend. Or explode. Whatever.
He closed his eyes.
System. It's time. Begin the upgrade.
[SYSTEM] ORDERS ACKNOWLEDGED. COMMENCING: FOUNDATION_REALM + SPIRIT_ROOT=GRADE_B [SYSTEM] ESTIMATED DURATION: 8 HOURS [SYSTEM] SUGGESTION: BITE YOUR SHIRT. THIS WILL HURT.
Compared to the soul-ripping integration, this should be fine. Probably. Maybe.
His breath fell into a loop on its own. He didn't control it. It just happened. A small orbit rising up his spine and pouring down the front of his body, again and again, like a wheel turning under the skin.
Heat gathered behind his navel. The space there swelled, a reservoir widening to hold more than breath. Thicker, heavier, almost liquid.
Channels lit one by one. Thin paths carried the flow through his arms and legs before bringing it home. The first passes scraped like grit in a pipe. The next ran cleaner.
Then the pressure hit.
Sharp at every bend, as if the body were teaching old roads to carry a new river. Black warmth beaded on his skin and rolled away. The "second moon" inside him steadied, bright and round, and the wheel kept turning.
Pressure filled his ears like he was at the bottom of the ocean. Heat pulsed behind the navel, then spread. His heartbeat slowed, then boomed, then found a new rhythm that felt too strong for his ribs.
Breath shortened. Sharpened. Steadied.
He knew, without knowing how, that he looked human but was becoming something else.
And it wasn't done yet.
The pain started slowly. Then it climbed. His vision broke into fragments. Cave wall, glowstone, darkness, cave wall again.
[SYSTEM] WARNING: CREATING NEW ORGANS FOR CULTIVATION. PLEASE HOLD. [SYSTEM] SUGGESTION: TRY NOT TO DIE, USER.
"Oh f... my li..."
Hunter's words cut off as the pain reached into his soul and pulled.
Everything went black.