Chapter 3: Chapter 03 – Rite of Passage, first stage

‘These hunters, Twin Helix, are not average hunters. At least, compared to the teams that I remember.’ Mordred further scrutinized his own observation; since he did not know the extent of his memory loss, then it’s unlikely the hunters in his fragmented memories match ‘real’ hunters. His ‘truth’ may not be so truthful any longer. 

‘In any case, their vice-captain Sumire said something about the rite of passage and the Academy’s recruitment…’ Mordred squinted his eyes as he sensed the bottled up pressure that Sumire exhibited towards her surroundings. If she hadn’t suppressed her radiation to the fullest, mortals would experience pain, perhaps even death if they get too close to her. 

Cultivators are, due to having high-order energy in their cells, comparable to walking, breathing isotopes. Depending on Sumire’s ‘path’ of cultivation, her ‘aura’, or in other words, radiation, would manifest and produce all sorts of effects. Still, dying by cancerous growth or dying by cellular breakdown is not too much of a difference. ‘If the rank 1 vice-captain is already that powerful, then how powerful would her captain be?’

Shaking his head, Mordred switched his focus to the Rite of Passage. It is a process in which children climb the stairs of adulthood. On their 15th birthday, most humanoid races- including humans of course- would awaken their talent in cultivation. The rite of passage is actually a process to determine whether or not a child possesses talent in cultivating and what, if any, talents they have. 

Since there’s also some talk about recruitment, then it’s clear that the Academy is looking for fresh blood.

Thinking about the condition of his host’s broken home, Mordred felt this was a great chance to leave this village. As long as he possessed a certain level of talent, the Hunter Academy, a subsidiary of the Hunter Association, would grant some type of scholarship, sponsoring him with cultivation resources as long as he repaid them in the future. The details might vary depending on one’s scholarship contract, but this was a great reason for Mordred to leave Mira village.

‘Unfortunately, Satoru lacked the necessary talent to cultivate his body or mind into a peerless cultivator. While I have potential beyond the peak of Morgen World in the aspect of soul, soul cultivators in this world are related to the divine, I should never be associated with any gods until I become a rank 4 Paragon…’ 

Mordred pondered while walking away from the ruckus towards his home. ‘I actually possess a method to greatly increase Satoru’s physical ‘talent’, but it includes murdering his own kin and refining them into a blood potion.’ He squinted his eyes, ‘Satoru’s mother is a quasi-cultivator. Using her blood-soul to improve my host’s talent is possible, but I need to somehow make sure the cultivators in this village, specifically, Twin Helix, won’t find out about what I’m doing…’

‘Hah! I’m sorry Satoru, it seems like killing your mother would need to be delayed for some time…’

…

It was already dark when Mordred opened the door of ‘his’ home.

In reality, his home was quite big. Even if his mother was the ‘village whore’, Mordred supposed it paid rather well. Besides that, not only was it reinforced with bricks, it is also located near the center of the village. Since Mira village has no ‘real’ wall, then the closer one’s house is to the center, the more important your house is. Which means, Satoru’s mother has a high status in the village. He perused Satoru’s memories for further answers.

‘Satoru’s mother is one of the most beautiful women in Mira village. When she was young, she had countless pursuers, one being the village chief’s son, the candidate for the next chief. She was betrothed to the moniker of Madonna due to her beauty alone. For some reason, she developed a twisted personality as she grew older. Starting from selling her own body, there’s nothing that she wouldn’t do to gain power, be it martial strength or political clout. This is the reason why she became a quasi-cultivator…

Despite not being the chief’s son’s wife, she has more influence than him as the village’s elders are her main customers. As long as they paid a price, they could spend the night with her… Unfortunately, her influence has a negative implication on me. The village’s madonna is actually a fucking whore… but an influential one. She’ll be a hard nut to crack.’ 

“Mother, I have returned.” Mordred reported his arrival. ‘Looks like she’s still asleep.’ After not receiving any reply, he went outside, his destination: a small barn. There were already three pigs waiting to be fed by him so he took out the result of his foraging and began feeding them. After all was done, he returned to the small barn.

No, it was more like a pig pen.

The stench is intense, any normal person wouldn’t be able to sleep with the smell of swine feces, but Satoru seemed to have adapted pretty well. Even if Mordred doesn’t like it, he simply cuts off his own senses of smell using an acupuncture-like method.

Munching on the fruits and nuts that he found during the day, Mordred rested his tired body on the straw bed, stank of swine urine and feces. If he spends the night in his ‘home’, beatings. Did not feed the pigs, beatings. Breathing in proximity of ‘mother’, beatings. Exist, beatings. Life is hard.

While Mordred massaged his tired body, his mind was making calculations. ‘Potion refinement requires a hidden facility because my cultivation level is too low to influence the natural laws of the world. There’s two ways that I can refine my host’s mother into a blood potion. First, kill her somewhere far away, or refine her flesh-and-blood within the house but I wouldn't be able to refine any without being known by the elders, especially the hunters from team Twin Helix..’

Mordred quickly scrapped the second option. Hunters’ senses are incredibly sharp, it was their first capital to fight and hunt powerful beasts. Furthermore, cultivator’s physical specifications are far higher than what mere mortals had. Super strength, super speed, magic, many more. There’s also an issue of equipment. None of these hunters from team Twin Helix are greenhorn. Their equipment are magical machinery of supreme quality for their rank that Mordred, as the former Great Archmage the Sovereign of refinement, could actually praise. 

‘As for the first option… getting her somewhere far away alone is also impossible since she has dozens of customers. Even if she didn’t allow them to guard her, I doubt she doesn’t have some contingency in place. I cannot assassinate her due to the amount of ‘protection’ she’s received from the cultivators of this village…

‘Killing mother would be more troublesome than what it is worth. Maybe… I should find another way…’ Mordred pondered, ‘My priority is to get out of this village one way or another. Since I cannot and should not rely on my ‘soul’ talent, then I should start nurturing my sea of consciousness to an acceptable level.’

Body, mind, soul.

Physical body, sea of consciousness, and truesoul.

If Satoru's talent managed to catch the eyes of Sumire during the rite of passage in one of the three aspects, then it is almost certain that he’ll be brought outside. The Hunter Academy is the best way for a nameless nobody like Satoru to start cultivating.

With that in mind, Mordred began meditating in accordance with the mental cultivation technique from his homeworld, Holy Terra. 

‘Elementary Magus Spirit Tempering Technique, a meditation technique specialized in developing one’s sea of consciousness, effective to everyone with less than rank 1 spirit cultivation foundation. It has been developed, honed, and refined by all Sovereign Magus of Holy Terra and then further improved by myself during my time as the Great Archmage. It’ll create a suitable spirit foundation that could be branched into all sorts of paths in the future.’

As he breathed in accordance with the meditation technique, he could feel his brain cells being stimulated rapidly. The expansion of the Sea of Consciousness for humans is of high relation to the brain. Words like ‘spirit’, ‘spiritual force’, ‘mind’, ‘mental strength’, and the like are often related to the Sea of Consciousness. 

The Sea of Consciousness, though, does not have an actual, tangible form. It is both a metaphorical and real organ that, in most organisms, overlaps with the brain. The easiest comparison is that some mages who possess profound spirit foundations even have brains as efficient as a supercomputer.

And this is where Satoru, Mordred’s current mortal shell, began his first step towards cultivating his spirit.

Though, it only lasted for ten minutes before Mordred suffered from an intense migraine. Excessively stimulating his brain to develop the Sea of Consciousness wouldn’t be possible without sufficient supporting resources. 

Massaging his temples while munching on mortal-rank medicinal herbs, Mordred’s consciousness soon drifted to sleep. He was, after all, using a mortal body. Formerly being a god-like being didn’t change that.

…

The next morning, one of the hunters of Twin Helix who introduced himself as Kurogane invited every single youth of Mira village.

Kurogane is a male, having the facial structure of the typical Hartina Kingdom’s people with a slight twist: his short black hair and black eyes fits his ikemen-like handsome face. His large frame is constantly protected by high-tech fully plated knight armor with an assistive exoskeleton beneath it, attached to his body. On his back rests a massive shield and a greatsword that seem impossible to heft on their own, let alone together.

When Kurogane went to call Mordred, who's having a breakfast of mushrooms and nuts while feeding the pigs, there were already a bunch of kids following him. Mordred fell victim to the gaze of universal disappointment and rejection, along with more than a few scrunched up noses, but Kurogane was kind enough to remind everyone that his mission is to bring everyone of age between 15 to 18 towards the village’s plaza. Mordred, or rather his host Satoru, is fifteen himself. Despite the unanimous disappointment towards allowing the swine-stenched Satoru to come with them, Kurogane still made a point of bringing them along. 

In the plaza, four members of Twin Helix are present, accompanied by the village chief and elders. There, the youths of Mira village are brought, all lined up in an orderly fashion. Twin Helix are experienced in this, as they have done this kind of event multiple times.

There are the purple-haired lady, Sumire, the red-haired fiery lady, Sakuya, a female pair to Kurogane’s bulk with long silver hair and a body covered in similarly high-tech armor, and finally, an androgynous, petite elf with green hair and eyes, neither their name nor gender being specified as of yet.

The attention of the Mira village’s youth are concentrated on the green-haired petite elf who wore a clerical mage robe.

Elven races typically face universal ostracization if they appear outside their home region, the northern lands. However, that does not apply to some elven species who are categorized as Inferior Elves, namely the unfortunately-named ‘petite’ elves. Here in Hartina Kingdom, they are rather well-accepted. Nevertheless, the existence of a non-human race is still a brand new experience to these youths who lacked entertainment.

Still, none dared any unnecessary moves, with the few brazen enough to speak at all uttering intelligible nothings that those beside them couldn’t hear. 

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“Thank you, Kurogane.” Sumire thanked him for gathering up the youths. “Now then, today marks Mira’s village rite of passage! Does anyone know what the rite of passage means for you all?”

The youths are starting to whisper with each other, but none dared to reply. 

“Please, I won’t bite.” Sumire giggled, her smile enraptured most of the males, including some of the village elders. “Instead of whispering amongst yourselves, please raise your hands.” 

A youth, Haru, quickly raised his hand. The boy was blatantly enraptured by Sumire’s chest, which was excessively highlighted by her military outfit. Shamelessly, his eyes were occupied by something other than her eyes as he spoke. “It is the moment where our talent and potential are appraised!”

“Hmm, yes that’s correct. In cities, the rites of passage are typically done by churches or noble families with powerful backgrounds. Commoners like us would typically be unable to receive the benefit of the rite of passage, having our talent forever buried under the uncertainty of heavenly fate. But that changed three hundred years ago after the inception of the Hunter Association!” Sumire snapped her fingers, signaling at another one of her teammates who revealed herself from behind the village elders.

This newcomer is a wolfish variant of beastman, her ears and tail noticeable even from afar. Yet, her similarity with a wolf stops at her ears and the fluffy wolf tail. Other than those two features, she was, for all intents and purposes, human. With long and glossy, yet almost furry black hair that seemed to be well-maintained, her amber eyes highlighted her sharp appearance. Unlike her teammates that were supported by magical devices and equipment, her clothing is a simple, yukata-like outfit worn by Hartina Kingdom shrine maidens.

The wolf-beastman pushed a small cart whose contents were covered by a blanket.

“Let me introduce you to my friend, her name is Alanis: she’s a wolf-beastman!” Suddenly, Sumire rubbed her face into her large, furry wolf tail in one swift motion. Bliss is radiating from Sumire’s expression. With a single move, the pair has steered everyone’s thoughts from that of extreme nervousness to that of pure, unadulterated jealousy towards the evidently soft tail being completely arrested by one person. Yet, none dared to speak a single word as Kurogane’s look-alike, the silver-haired knight, stood guard with a large katana, brandished in her left hand against her shoulder. 

It doesn’t take an expert’s opinion to know the 2-meter long blade is used to dismember large beasts. If used on humans, the results would be less than pleasant for those involved.

“Sumire, there are people here.” Alanis whispered as she faked a cough, blood rushing to her cheeks.

“Ahah, sorry.” Sumire quickly took a step back. Oblivious to what she had done, she seemingly ignores what had just transpired. “Now that it has been assembled, I can start explaining.”

Sumire began to lift the veil of the cart as she began explaining. “This is an artifact. They are objects that possess supernatural or special abilities. Artifacts are split into multiple types and aspects depending on their function, but that’s not important as of yet.”

The artifact is a rectangular box with a height of 40 cm, width of 40 cm, and as long as 1 meter. The smooth round edges and the silvery-metallic color indicate that this wasn’t a normal ‘magical’ or ‘physical’ artifact but instead a rather special one. Amongst the myriad types of artifact, this one is considered as a magic machinery artifact: artifacts that incorporate functions from both machine and magic. The inception of the magic machinery artifact was pioneered by the greatest refinement-path expert of Morgen World, the Great Archmage himself, so Mordred instantly recognized what kind of artifact was being showcased.

‘An investigative artifact… They are proceeding with the Rite of Passage so soon? I haven’t been able to develop Satoru’s body by sufficient amounts…’ Mordred shook his head. 

He wanted to use this rare encounter to get out of the village and began exploring the world. If he failed in grasping this chance, it is still possible for him to leave but it’ll be significantly harder.

After all, Morgen World’s environment is not mortal-friendly. Actually, it’s not even cultivator-friendly, with how many races are sharing borders. Well, where there are people, there would be resources, and where there are resources, there would be conflict, so there wouldn’t be any true paradise without at least a little blood paving the way for it.

The periphery of Mira’s village is safe enough because of the village elders and Hunters of the Association quelling the dangerous beasts routinely. However, that changes when one wants to roam the world. Traveling without sufficient combat strength wouldn’t be possible because the world is filled with dangerous beasts and hostile races vying for supremacy and survival.

While Mordred pondered a way to sneak his way in amongst the soon-to-be ‘elected’, Sumire interacted with the magic machinery artifact.

With some telepathic command, the core of the artifact opened up to reveal a needle-like appendage and a saucer, the left side produces a helmet-like gear, whilst the right side reveals a monocle-like instrument which was connected to a purple lens.

“The procedure will investigate the ‘base’ talent of your body, mind, and soul. If you have the potential to cultivate and pass the first metric of evaluation, then we’re going to proceed with the next step tomorrow. Do any of you want to go first?” Sumire asked kindly.

Naturally, since having a good result in this test would grant them a chance to go outside of the village, these country bumpkins were practically injected with chicken blood. Haru raised his hand first, followed by the tough-looking kids before the rest of the kids. Since it has become hectic once more, Sumire simply nudged at Kurogane to take care of the chaos.

Yet, before Kurogane even stepped forward, a village elder stopped him, and lectured the youth on their impatience. After all, their actions being shameful was equal to bringing shame to them. In the end, Mordred got his turn amongst the late ones since he needed time to think.

When the testing began, the first youth, Haru, was scared as the middle instrument required one’s blood. The method to draw it was an almost comically-large needle appendage, so it was natural that country bumpkins would be scared shitless. There was some bickering, but after being shamed, Haru relented to peer pressure and decisively ‘manned up’, splaying out his hand to be pierced by the large needle. The blood was then ejected onto the saucer-like instrument briefly prior to being shone in holographic light,  showcasing some letters indicating its progress.

Then, the second test was the helmet-like object connected to the device through a spine-like cable. There were flashes from the eye-portion of the helmet as Haru was subjected to bright lights. After half a minute, Haru put it back down, his steps staggered.

Before he recovered from the dizziness, he was forced to use the third instrument, which was a lens-like object connected to a monocle. This one is seemingly harmless, yet nobody could tell what kind of inspection that it does. Haru did not seem to be affected after being put into an ‘eye exam’ with the third instrument, but the kind Kurogane led him away so that he could rest. He also told everyone that this aftereffect was extremely common as he too, experienced them when it was his turn, alleviating the last of their concerns.

Humans fear the unknown and the unknown has now been unveiled. With their first worries being over with, the teenagers are no longer afraid of following Sumire’s instructions. They even did so in an orderly manner, afraid of being punished by the village elders.

After about an hour of waiting, it was Mordred’s turn.

‘The first instrument, the bloodline inspection… A gene-level investigation is made on the blood of the participant, determining whether he or she had bloodline relation with certain lifeforms. With the database collected by the Hunter Association, most bloodlines would be detected, and if it’s a new bloodline, I can get an immediate ‘pass’. Due to my host’s bloodline being vanilla, I have no hope in my body’s ‘potential’.’ Mordred expressionlessly let the needle sucked his blood.

“You’re surprisingly tougher than you look.” Sumire squinted her eyes.

Mordred did not bother squabbling with her since he’s trying to decide whether or not to cheat on these tests. The rite of passage is too fast for him to prepare anything so he had to make it through one way or another.

Then, it was time for him to take on the second instrument.

‘The second instrument, a spirit prying device… the device will send special waves towards one’s Sea of Consciousness. The waves are weak so as to not damage the infantile mind of a mortal, the resulting feedback will determine how powerful my mental strength is. Since I have yet to properly develop mine or Satoru’s sea of consciousness, I’ll have to cheat by using my truesoul to alter the feedback of the waves…’

The second test quickly ended, uneventfully like how others are. Yet, Mordred mentally smiled because he succeeded in faking his spiritual signature to the machine. After all, he’s one of the designers of said machine.

Then, it was the last test. 

Oftentimes, the third instrument is regarded as useless as people with great soul potential are extremely rare.

‘In reality, this device works just fine, but it only reveals 0.1% of its result. After all, people with great ‘soul potential’ are highly sought after by the divines… and myself. Why the fuck would I tell my enemies that a source of their future high-quality souls are easily accessible? If I can get them first, I’ll be able to nurture more soul cultivators, but alas, I am no longer in a position of power to exploit this.’ 

After all was done, Mordred were led to the resting area where the youths gathered. It didn’t take long until all of the children were tested as Twin Helix moves rather efficiently.

“It’ll take some time for the results to come out, so be ready for tomorrow…” Sumire announced towards the kids and the elder.

While leaving with the dispersing crowd, Mordred leaves a lasting glance at Sumire. She returns the favor with a knowing- and perhaps even little proud- expression.