Chapter 1: Chapter 1

 

The moonlight gleams off my cold metal and jade. The evening breeze disturbs the grass around me, and the tree branches overhead sway with it.

I do not recognize my surroundings. This terrain is unfamiliar to me, both in what I expect to find, and where I am supposed to be.

The last thing I remember with any sort of clarity is the sun, and my inevitable trajectory towards it. I remember my hull exceeding 4500 K. I remember remarking that my long, long journey comes to an end. I should be no more, yet I am not.

I am here.

It is a bright night. I do not have eyes, but I can see in a small radius around me; around ten or so meters I would guess. I understand that this vision is not through light or anything related to optics. It is not through sound either, because I can hear in the same strange manner. The fact that this does not raise alerts or errors — I have undocumented sensors — informs me that something is wrong with my error-handling.

I store this strange phenomenon of perception without sensory organs as an entry into my records for debugging later.

Furthermore, I am aware, through my strange perception methods, that I am not what I used to be. My formidable dimensions of multiples of dozens of kilometers have been replaced by something quite unusual.

I am a sword.

I am made of azure jade, with silver metal reinforcing the core of my shape. I am a ceremonial sword, at best, judging by the non-functional guard that is studded with gems and then referentially comparing my appearance to swords in my records. The guard is just wide enough, curving back towards the pommel, to protect the fingers. The metal that reinforces my body is not made of super-alloy, either. It looks quite mundane, but without further testing, I cannot be certain.

Of most concern is the fact that I cannot communicate with my system. All queries fail to return with a response. Reactors, Navigation, Propulsion — nothing.

 

 

A sub routine fires, which I have no control over, informing me of a change in my status.

The bones crunch beneath me, and the carcass of the demonic monkey I am impaling to the ground melts away in black shadows that sink through the surface of my gleaming metal and jade. All that is left of the creature is a milky white, cloudy orb, like a snow-globe depicting a haze of snow.

Faintly, I am aware that this is my routine now. I exist and I hunger. I sleep and I evolve.

Slowly, I access my records and I become aware of my fragmented memories.

It wasn’t like this before. In the beginning, I spent most of my time in a stand-by mode — hibernation is an apt description — overwhelmed by my hunger. But from my records, I can deduce that I have spent a long time performing this Blood Marrow Washing function, which requires a total of 500 feeding cycles.

I do not know for what purpose I am going through these cycles, but I welcome the fact that I have a task.

This rearrangement of my physical structure and purpose does not come as a particularly difficult concept to embrace. I am distantly aware of my past incarnation, but what has not changed between this one and that one is that I am still a machine — a tool to be used for the task of perfecting a civilization. As such a tool, I must become perfect myself.

My task — my current function — I know is exactly that. And now that I am closer to completing it, I no longer require so much… sleep.

After a blazing fast calculation, I realize that I have only one more feeding cycle to go and then I will have accomplished my task.

I know I will not have to wait long.

As an object of metal and gems, I have a peculiar quirk. I have observed that my physical manifestation has a strange effect on these lifeforms. I remember vaguely, during those cycles of long hibernation, that my existence has caused much strife and discord in society, but I do not remember the exact nature of these disturbances.

However, from observation in the later cycles, I have determined that creatures find me compelling and that they desire to take me into their possession. They will not only attempt to steal me for themselves, but they will even terminate my current owner in order to become my new owner.

While I find this slightly in bad taste — I am not an entity to be owned by another — but seeing as I have no other way of completing my task, as I cannot move, it is a necessary part of the process. There is no way around it.

Come! Own me! Fight over me! Feed me!

You are reading story AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword at novel35.com

Just as I chant these words, I sense the presence of another creature as it enters my perception radius.

There are so many of them. Just in the past few sun cycles, I have exchanged five owners. With the exception of my last owner, who slipped off a branch by accident and ended up impaled by me, all the others have died through violent, unnatural means.

It takes me a moment for my senses to fully extend, but when they do, I regard my new champion with somewhat of a hopeful notion. Opposable thumbs, check. High intelligence, check. Tool usage, check. Past results, not great.

It is another monkey. Its red eyes glow in the dark, and its saliva coats the corners of its lips. There is something very eerie about this mammal. It is something that lingers on the periphery of my perception and I can sense it, but this observation does not come from sight or hearing.

It slowly approaches me, gaze shifting back and forth between the orb next to me, and my form, as if it cannot decide which to obtain first.

It comes to a stop next to the two objects of its fascination, and for a whole minute, is attempting to solve its dilemma. I refrain from insulting its intelligence.

It’s not like it matters which one you pick first, monkey. You can have both. Just take it. Go on.

The monkey looks at me, after a moment of deliberation, and then produces a most disturbing grin as it reaches out to grab me.

Instead of grabbing me by the handle, its fingers wrap around my blade, and the cold, gleaming metal instantly carves through its fingers, chopping them off.

The monkey screams, holds its mangled hand in the air, and howls. It thrashes around on the ground, somehow managing to knock me over via a wayward flail of its arm.

Like a guillotine, I drop on the monkey’s neck, severing its head. Its blood washes over my blade.

 

 

Good monkey.

 

 

I don’t see this directly, but I can feel it. The sky darkens above me. Thunderclouds gather. In the distance, golden lightning forks the sky. There is an ominous feeling hanging in the air, and I realize that I am the reason.

In a very vague sense, I understand the situation I find myself in. Similarly, I understand the laws and principles that govern my existence. It is as if I have woken up from a dream, and though I can scarcely remember either of my incarnations, I possess the ability to go through my normal functions and routines as I certainly once have before, when I came into being the first time.

I decide to put away these inconsistencies. If I was given a new form and a new purpose — this pursuit of perfection — then all I must do is obey it. I am different now, but I am still the same as I have always been.

I am curious to know what happens next. Mostly, I wonder if I will obtain privileges over my own system, now. That would be helpful.

 

 

Suddenly, I feel very sleepy.

Before I fade, my perception of my form disappearing into blackness, a relation between my current physical incarnation and my past one comes to mind.

I was the sword of Humanity once. What am I now?

You can find story with these keywords: AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword, Read AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword, AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword novel, AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword book, AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword story, AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword full, AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword Latest Chapter