Although he felt pretty confident in his abilities at the moment, Sebastian remained aware that there were almost certainly plenty of monsters that could hurt him, or even kill him outright. He also didn’t have a lot of experience walking in the woods, which meant that getting lost was a very real risk. So, rather than enter the forest itself, he followed its edge as it extended to the south.

  He walked along the forest for hours.

  The clouds had parted and the sun was bearing down on him. Fortunately, it didn’t bother him one bit. Even after hours of walking in the sun, he still wasn’t tired, sunburned, or even uncomfortable. In fact, he quite enjoyed the walk.

  A lovely breeze carried the scent of the woods, a nice upgrade from the stale earthy air of the gorge. He paused, every now and then, to enjoy the meat he took from the goblin camp while sipping some wine and taking in the views. The forest was too thick to provide much in that department, but the gorge where he had lived was only a small part of the Valley of Remembrance. It was almost like sitting along the edge of the Grand Canyon as it expanded into the distance.

  After he ate the last of the meat, he decided to ration the wine so that he would have something to sip as he continued his trek. The only thing made the walk less enjoyable, was his appearance. After almost a month in the gorge, his clothes were torn and broken. He was grimy from head to toe, on account of still being partially covered in dried up blood, both his own and from the many goblins he had killed.

  Cultivation, and desperation, had distracted Sebastian from the fact that he hadn’t really cleaned himself—or his clothes—in several weeks. Since he never found any running water, he never had the opportunity, beyond the occasional desperate use of the stagnant water in pond or the rare occurrence of rain.

  From what he had seen thus far, though, this world was something of a medieval fantasy world. Hopefully that meant that people, especially travelers being dirty shouldn’t be a strange thing. His admittedly poor knowledge of earth history told him that hygiene wasn’t as big of a deal in medieval times as it was in modern times but even so, he would certainly prefer to get cleaned up sooner rather than later. With any luck, there would be some magic versions of modern utilities to be found, however unlikely it was for there to be anything at the level he was used to.

  After several hours of walking, the somewhat arid terrain that accompanied the Valley of Remembrance finally let up and gave way to rolling fields of green grass. He didn’t know much about the outdoors, but common sense and some intuition told him that the forest was unlikely to have much in the way of flowing water nearby, given how flat the land was. The green fields, however, suggested that there was at least some sort of water source around.

  Sebastian continued his walk along the edge of the forest and the increasingly vast grass fields at a casual pace, still enjoying the fresh air and pleasant views.

  He also made sure to keep an eye out for potential monsters from the forest or something like snakes from the grass as he walked. Not knowing what sort of animals called this place home meant that literally anything could pop up. The mere fact that he had crossed paths with goblins indicated that there were likely other fantasy creatures roaming the world. Still, ignorance is bliss.

  As the sun moved toward the horizon, Sebastian found some cover under the overhang of a tree which seemed as good a place as any to make camp. He rolled out his blanket and sat down to read up on his new stage of cultivation while there was still some natural light out.

  Stage 3—[Essence Consolidation]—was based on the drying process of clay working. The basic idea was to take the gaseous internal essence saturated within his spirit body and condense it toward the Sea of Essence at the center of his meridian system.

  The spirit body itself along with the walls to the Sea of Essence acted as filters so that the essence was purified and compressed as it was slowly squeezed into the meridian system, thus condensing from gaseous to liquid form. Ultimately, the goal was to condense enough essence through your spirit body that all the essence circulating through your meridian system was completely compressed, purified, and transformed into liquid essence.

  This stage was different from the previous one in that there wasn’t as much to do besides arduous cultivation.

  There were plenty of abstract concepts and descriptions within the manual seeking to aid the reader in shaping their intent so as to effectively compress their essence. Just like before, however, they were rather specific for the times and culture they were written in. At least from Sebastian’s perspective as man from modern earth.

  The manual described some odd active and hand-powered method of drying clay products by using some semi-magical material to squeeze the moisture out of the clay without damaging the product. Even though he wasn’t particularly familiar with the full process of working with clay, he felt pretty confident that clay workers on earth didn’t do anything like that.

  If memory serves, they just heat it up or put it in some dehydrator machine.

  Either way, there was a real disconnect between the processes of this world and those from earth.

  Through his experiences with cultivation thus far, Sebastian had learned that it didn’t really matter whether or not you followed the exact concepts as described in the manual, so long as you understood the principle and the purpose behind them.

  Sebastian spent some time mentally digesting those principles and the purpose that the manual tried to convey, and as far as he could tell there were two aspects to keep in mind.

  First was to compress the essence from its natural gaseous form into a more dense liquid form. That’s simple enough. Typically that’s a matter of pressure, apply enough pressure on a gas and it will naturally turn liquid.

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  Secondly there was the matter of the purification of essence. Purification implies that essence has different levels of quality, which could explain why my internal essence is a shade redder than the natural essence of the gorge.

  The chapters of the manual which described the quality of essence didn’t really go into detail or give any direct answers, but Sebastian inferred that essence absorbed by the cultivator somehow retained some aspects of its environment, which in turn then conflicted with the true nature of the cultivator. By purifying the essence, you remove all traces of its origins so that it can truly adapt to the nature of the cultivator’s mind, body, and spirit.

  The mental image recommended by the manual to use as you shape your intent to compress and purify your essence was that old, semi-magic device for drying clay. Sebastian couldn’t do that. Instead, now that he had a better understanding of the principles involved, he decided to continue using his existing image of a black hole to draw the essence deeper into his body and then conjure the image of a layered filter, basically some charcoal filter he saw on the internet once, for his spirit body and meridian walls.

  Actually matching the reality of the image wasn’t as important as the intention behind it after all.

  This way he could hit three birds with one stone as he could absorb natural essence, compress it, and purify it all at once. While there might be some reason for the cultivators of the time of writing to recommend splitting the three up—first absorbing essence, then purifying it, and finally compressing it—Sebastian couldn’t find it explained in the manual.

  Unlike the cultivators of old, he didn’t have any teacher or mentor to guide him, only his own intuition.

  Once he had a firm grasp of what to do, he put the book down and sank into his cultivation to put his ideas into practice. Immediately, he was faced with a completely different view in the Spirit Realm than he had grown used to.

  The natural essence here was an earthy green rather than the copper-color from the gorge. It didn’t make a difference beyond looking nicer, though.

  Fortunately his ideas, and his intent, worked quite nicely. The only thing was, it took a long time to compress and filter essence.

  Sleep was also important so he didn’t want to spend all night cultivating. He did, however, refuse to stop until he successfully condensed his first drop of essence.

  That one drop shouldn’t be underestimated, though.

  As it formed on the inside of the wall of his Sea of Essence, he could feel the raw power contained within essence in its liquid form. As the pressure of the circulating essence plucked it from the wall—causing it to join in the circulation throughout his spirit body—he felt his physical body shudder from the energy it gave rise to.

  Settling there, Sebastian stopped cultivating and instead lay down. He stared up at the stars of a foreign world with his hands behind his head, taking a moment to appreciate the simple fact that he was still alive before falling asleep.

  Six hours of surprisingly good sleep later, Sebastian packed up and continued walking.

  As midday approached, signs of life finally showed themselves—fields of crops in the distance and some dirt paths that stretched out from the depths of the forest. A smile naturally appeared on Sebastian’s face as he made his way over to the path, glad to finally be on his way back to civilization.

  The landscape still stretched on, and he walked along the path for a couple of hours until a noise came up behind him.

  Sebastian turned around with haste.

  A horse-drawn wagon gingerly followed the road toward him.

  A moment of trepidation moved through him. His nerves settled with a deep calming breath. All sorts of thoughts and emotions arose within him while he watched the wagon approach.

  Are they friendly? More importantly, are they hostile? Surely not, no one knows I’m alive, and even then no one would recognize me. Besides, we’re too far from the castle. They’re just travelers or, based on the looks of the wagon, merchants from the city or from some nearby village.

  While Sebastian was calming himself, the wagon reached him and slowed to a halt.

  “Greetings, you look like you’ve had quite the day!” the driver said. He looked to be in his fifties, with a scruffy beard, a large hat, and he wore some puffy merchant’s outfit.

  Thinking on his feet—and not wanting to reveal any actual information—Sebastian hurriedly made up a simple story as he replied, “Good day! Yeah, you’re right about that. I got overrun by a horde of goblins, I got away with just about nothing but a single bag, the clothes on my back, and my life.”

  “Goblins?” The merchant’s face wrinkled in very obvious disgust. “Pests! I’ve had my share of run-ins with them myself. You’d think the King’s men would just wipe them out already. They do their patrols around here now and then, but they never actually accomplish anything.” He shook his head in disappointment before returning his attention to Sebastian. “You’re lucky you got away at all. One or two ain’t much of a problem but any more than that and things can get... troublesome.”

  Sebastian nodded in agreement, hoping to earn some goodwill. “My thought’s exactly! I’m headed to the nearest town or village in hopes of finding some food and shelter, and perhaps a bath. Any idea how far that might be?”

  “That would be Blackoak, and as it happens we're headed that way ourselves.”

  Sebastian scratched his neck, considering if it was worth the risk to ask for a ride. His newfound strength gave him the confidence to try. “Any chance I might get a ride?”

  The question gave the old merchant pause. He visibly agonized over it, looking back over his shoulder to the wagon and frowning before sighing. “Oh heck. Why not, I suppose. You can hop on in the back.”

  “I appreciate that, thank you very much,” Sebastian replied with a smile and a nod.

  He shamelessly hurried around the back of the wagon, which was quite large with a tarp or some big cloth wrapped over the top of it. It had a seating section at the back, while the front half was loaded with supplies and wares.

  Once he got to the back of the wagon, Sebastian pushed aside the curtains and got on. Another man was already sitting in there. The man shook Sebastian’s hand as he got in, not concerned with the goblin blood and the grime in the slightest.

  “Welcome friend! You’re lucky we ran into you. Well, not lucky I suppose, what with the goblin attack I heard you mention and all, but fortunate in that Blackoak is still a distance away and that the old man was willing to let you hitch a ride,” the man remarked.

  Sebastian put on his best, albeit somewhat awkward, smile. “You're not wrong. I feel like I've walked enough today for two lifetimes,” Sebastian said jokingly.

  This man looked to be slightly younger than the driver, maybe in his late thirties to early forties, and he was clearly more of a fighter. He wore somewhat thick clothes and arm guards. Even just sitting there, with his arms crossed, he cut an imposing figure.

  Based on their differences, Sebastian inferred that he was the protection while the driver was the merchant—which also explained why the merchant, after a moment of deliberation, agreed to let a stranger covered in blood join them.

  It was always easier to trust people when you feel safe, and this man certainly seemed confident in dealing with anything that might happen. While Sebastian was also confident in his strength at this point, he still had no idea how strong he actually was compared to the warriors of this world. The man sitting in front of him might actually be far stronger than him.