Chapter 54 – Rank Bronze

Kieran woke up the next day to find himself lying on the ground in front of the cave entrance. He got up slowly as he felt weak and dizzy. A sharp pain came from his head as fragmented memories of his dream continued to appear in his mind.

'What is this dream...? Why can't I remember everything I've seen in it?'

"You are finally awake. Congratulations on your breakthrough to Bronze rank."

Runihoril materialized before him with a smile on his face.

"Thank you, Master. How long was I unconscious?"

"You slept all day, but it's no wonder considering your body's state."

Kieran finally looked at his body to see that most of his wounds had healed, and his height had grown slightly. As he tightened his hand into a fist, he could feel a strong power contained within his body.

Despite his breakthrough, he showed no expression of joy on his face. He couldn't get these fragmented memories from his dream out of his mind.

'Can I talk about it with Master?'

Runihoril found Kieran's actions strange and frowned.

"Do you have a problem, Kieran? Your body doesn't seem hurt."

After a moment of hesitation, Kieran decided to talk about it with Runihoril.

"Master, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

Several questions filled Kieran's mind, but he decided to ask the first one that came to his mind with the little memories he had from his dream.

"What is a Celestial?"

Runihoril's body suddenly froze.

"Where did you hear that word?"

"I had a strange dream when I was unconscious. That's where I heard that word."

"You hear that in a dream?"

"Yes."

Runihoril frowned, using his soul to inspect Kieran's body for any abnormalities. He couldn't find anything wrong after several seconds. He finally opened his mouth.

"Celestial is a cultivation rank that is far from your current cultivation rank."

"Is Celestial's rank part of the transcendent realm?"

"Maybe or maybe not. Knowing that won't help you. If you want to know, get stronger and find it yourself."

"I understand," Kieran said in a weak voice.

"Tell me a little more about your dream."

"It's a strange dream. I dream of a different 'me'. I can see my body and everything around me, but I have no control over my body or the words I say inside the dream. It's not the first time I've had this kind of dream either. To tell you the truth, it's been almost a year since this kind of dream began to appear, and each time I find myself in a place that I don't know. The me in those dreams is older, and everyone around me has blurry figures, and I can't make out any detail about them."

"It's strange."

"Could it be memories? Like another life or some kind of vision of the future?"

"You don't have this type of crystal tree, so the possibility is very low. Moreover, if a cultivator would use this ability on you to make you see a vision of the future, there would be marks on your soul unless it was done by someone who reached the same cultivation rank as me, but from what you told me about yourself and your family that possibility is even more unlikely."

'Are these really just dreams?' Kieran asked himself.

"I don't know what you saw in those dreams, but some things in this universe are inexplicable. No one can say for certain whether it's a dream, memories of a past life, or even a vision of the future that awaits you. If what you saw during those dreams when you see yourself older doesn’t suit you, you can still change today so that no matter what origin those dreams are from, you won’t regret anything."

Runihoril's words echoed in his mind as if he had received a shock. His body shook slightly, and he clenched his hands into a fist.

'Yes, Master is right! If I change today, I can save her!'

He suddenly frowned.

'Save her...? Why... did I think of that first?'

"You should complete your breakthrough to the Bronze rank by evolving your two crystal trees."

Runihoril's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Yes."

He nodded slowly before inspecting his two crystal trees.

[ Kieran Arvost]
[Crystal Seed Status (1):
Name: Wolf Transformation
Type: Transformation
Rank: Bronze (Incomplete)
Ability: Transformation into a wolf
Refinement Rate: 200/???
Path of Evolution: 1798 available paths]

[Crystal Seed Status (2):
Name: Giant Transformation
Type: Transformation
Rank: Bronze (Incomplete)
Ability: Transformation into a giant
Refinement Rate: 200/???
Path of Evolution: 458 available paths]
[Crystal Essence: 400]

"My crystal essence has increased to 400!" Kieran said with a smile.

"It should not surprise you. The energy of the Heavenly Tribulation is extremely pure. Normally, the first time a cultivator successfully passes through a Heavenly Tribulation, he would not receive such an improvement in his crystal essence, but for you, it is different. You had a Heavenly Tribulation when you breakthrough to the Bronze rank. The change inside your body is much greater than what a transcendent will experience and that goes for all the double awakened like you who encounter a Heavenly Tribulation on their first breakthrough.

The fact that you had a Heavenly Tribulation from your first breakthrough has caused your crystal trees to undergo a qualitative change, allowing you to accumulate even more crystal essence than before. The only disadvantage of this would be that you will have to spend more time cultivating to refine your trees before breakthrough to the next rank, but it will make your next breakthrough easier, especially if a Heavenly Tribulation appears again."

Several seconds passed before Kieran recovered from the shock that the huge leap in his amount of crystal essence had given him. He moved inside the cave before pulling out an earth elemental stone and the fire elemental stone he had obtained from Anna.

He sat cross-legged. His right hand held the earth elemental stone while his left hand held the fire elemental stone. The crystal trees inside his spiritual world became agitated, as if they smelled delicious food.

Suddenly the roots of his crystal trees grew, leaving his spiritual world before appearing before him, surrounding the elemental stones which began to change under the influence of the crystal trees.

The two elemental stones melted into a liquid before reforming into a red and yellow gem that shone with blinding brilliance. The roots tightened their grip on the gems before returning inside his spiritual world.

A tremor appeared in his spiritual world as two sparkling lights, one red and one yellow, split his spiritual world in two.

Kieran felt an indescribable feeling run through his body as two illusory trees appeared above his head, emitting a powerful aura, scaring all the crystal beasts around the cave.

Several minutes passed in this state before the two illusory trees disappeared, and he opened his eyes. Red and yellow light emitted from them for a moment before revealing a pair of reddish brown eyes that glowed like two sparkling amber.

Kieran couldn't contain his impatience and inspected his two crystal trees.

[ Kieran Arvost]
[Crystal Tree Status (1):
Name: Earth Wolf Transformation
Refinement Rate: 200/2000]
[Crystal Tree Status (2):
Name: Fire Giant Transformation
Refinement Rate: 200/2000]
[Crystal Essence: 400]

A feeling of excitement and disbelief fills his body.

'The refinement rate limit of my two crystal trees is 2000 crystal essence! The limit of a Bronze rank crystal tree should normally be 1000!'

He quickly accessed the evolution path with his heart racing.

[Path of evolution (1):
Rock Wolf Transformation. Evolution conditions: Soul Crystal Stone Heart Silver Grade, Rock Wolf Bones Silver Grade
Bloodthirsty Mountain Wolf Transformation. Evolution Conditions: Soul Crystal Bloodrage Fury Gold Grade, Stone Giant Heart Gold Grade, Thousand-Year Old Crystallized Earth Essence
????. Evolution conditions: ?
????. Evolution conditions: ?
........ ]

[Path of evolution (1):
Giant Swordsman of Fire Transformation. Evolution conditions: Soul Crystal Sword Mastery Silver Grade, Heart of Fire Wyrm Silver Grade.
Draconic Fire Giant Transformation. Evolution Conditions: Soul Crystal Sword Ghost Gold Grade, Fire Drake Blood Gold Grade, Thousand-Year Old Crystallized Fire Essence
????. Evolution conditions: ?
????. Evolution conditions: ?
........ ]

'It's real! This strange ability keeps showing me the next evolution's path!'

His gaze suddenly darkened when his eyes fell on the conditions of evolution for his breakthrough to the Gold rank.

'A Fire and Earth crystalized essence?! How am I supposed to find that!'

"Something wrong?"

He finally looked up from his evolution paths to look at Runihoril.

"It's nothing. Hmm? What is this?" Kieran asked, pointing to lights that looked like little red and yellow fireflies that were slowly floating around them.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about those little red and yellow lights."

"You can already see them?" Runihoril asked with a surprised tone.

"Why already? What are they?"

"They are elemental particles. Fire and earth elemental particles, to be more precise."

"Elemental particles?"

"Twelve elements form the laws of our universe. Water, Earth, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Metal, Wood, Ice, Light, Darkness, Time, and Space form these twelve elements.

As I told you before, each lifeform born with an affinity to one or more elements. When this affinity reaches a certain threshold, it is possible to see the elemental particles surrounding us."

Kieran slowly moved his hand closer to the elemental particles floating in front of him.

"What are these elemental particles for?"

"Elemental particles govern their own element. When a cultivator uses an element, they use their crystal essence as an 'exchange' to use the elemental particles, even though most do it unconsciously through the ability of their crystal trees. The more the affinity with an element increases, the less the crystal essence is needed during this 'exchange' and the more control and power of the element increases. If your affinity is high enough, it is even possible to merge with an element taking its properties. This is what we call Elemental Affinity Cultivation."

"Elemental Affinity Cultivation," whispered Kieran.

"The fact that you can see the elemental particles of fire and earth means that you have reached the first rank of the cultivation of elemental affinity with these two elements, the Elemental Perception. At this rank, you can see, feel and attract more easily the elemental particles in the atmosphere, reducing the cost of the 'exchange.' Once you reach the second rank, you can accumulate elemental particles inside your spiritual world to create an elemental core."

"How exactly do we cultivate our elemental affinity?"

"There are different methods and even some techniques, but most of them are kept by races that have great elemental affinity, like the fairies, for example, who have one of the greatest elemental affinity with all the elements among all the races that exist.

Unfortunately, I don't have any technique to cultivate the fire and earth elemental affinity. My elemental affinity is wood and space, but there are ways you can cultivate your elemental affinity even without these techniques. Cultivating in an environment with an abundance of fire and earth elemental particles will increase your affinity with them. You can create such an environment yourself by using elemental stones, for example. It is also possible to absorb the effects of natural treasures such as the Aclaron you have obtained once it is refined into a pill by an alchemist.

Another method is to have a better understanding of the element as well as its properties, but this method is entirely up to you and the understanding you have and will obtain in the future with this element. Everyone can have an entirely different understanding of the same element."

"So I can't do anything about it right now?"

"No, you can only train as you did with your other abilities to learn how to use them, control them and meditate on them to understand them better."

Kieran sighed, "I see. I'm still far from achieving my dream of freely roaming the universe."

"Haha, the essence of the cultivation is to go against the ways of the universe. If it were that easy, everyone would already be a powerful cultivator."

"Going against the ways of the universe," Kieran whispered as his eyes sparkled as if a fire had been ignited inside him at these words.

*growl*

The sound of his stomach echoed throughout the cave before he rubbed his belly.

"I need to find something to eat."

Crystal senses formed around him before expanding. In an instant, his old limit of 50 meters was easily exceeded, and before he knew it, he had reached the 400 meter range.

"The range of my crystal sense has increased so much with my breakthrough!"

A boar with steel tusks suddenly entered the range of his crystal sense. Kieran got up quickly, leaving the cave.