Crystal Core 4: A Litrpg Cultivation Adventure, page 42
When we got there, Neki and Lumi were already waiting. We were not far from the end of the wagon train, which had started moving just moments ago. We stepped back, so that we were against the wall of the compound, and I said, “We need to have a quick discussion. I know that none of you woke up one day and decided that you wanted to marry the Hero. You all were put in this position by your sects. I also know that my announcement was a bit off the cuff, but I went with what felt right.”
They all listened attentively to me, though I wished one of them would stop me. They probably weren’t comfortable with the idea of interrupting the man who would be their husband. All the training they’d had ran contrary to doing such a thing.
“I thought we should set some expectations, so you know what I want in a relationship. The first thing you need to know, is that I don’t want or need subservient wives. I want women who will stand beside me, not behind me. So, please know that if you have anything you want to say during this conversation—or really any other private conversation we might have—you have complete freedom to interrupt me or talk over me, or or anything that you feel is necessary. In fact, if it helps, please consider that to be my command to you…”
“As contrarian as that might sound,” Neki murmured.
She, at least, got me. “Yes,” I agreed with a smirk at my part-demon betrothed, “I know that me commanding you and us being equals is not necessarily compatible, but I am doing my best, making this up as I go.”
They others actually smiled at that, while Neki gave me a saucy wink. She said, “You don’t have to worry. Big sister Elu has already let us know that you may not be able to form primary connections with us based upon the notifications you have received. She told us that we would be treated as equals, no matter what, but didn’t want us to be disappointed.”
“But are you disappointed?” I asked.
“I can’t say that I’m not a bit disappointed. The secondary connection we formed is so much more powerful than the tertiary, I can only imagine what a primary connection would be like.”
“It is incredible, and I’m glad that you already had this discussion with Elu. I just want to ensure you understand that you have freedom with me. That I will not set your course for you. You can travel as far on the martial path as you want or are able to, and I’ll do anything in my power to help you out.”
Fera looked down at the ground as she asked, “And what if we want to be mothers?”
“I’m sure Elu filled you in on the fact that I’m still adjusting to the idea of becoming a father… and likely a father to far more children than I would have ever imagined. But, yes, after a honeymoon period where we get to know each other better, I won’t stop that from happening.” I glanced at the other. “Only if that’s your desire, though, and not something your family is pushing on you.”
Fera frowned but didn’t say anything.
“Now, the last thing I want you to know, is that I will always be honest with you. Which leads me to two things. Despite the obvious benefits of my claiming any of you, and the willingness of your guardians, I won’t be doing that until after I’ve married Amaya—and not for at least a week after that. She was promised first, and I won’t belittle that promise by jumping from her bed straight into any of yours.”
Neki sighed, but nodded. The others simply waited for me to continue.
“Second, I will be brutally honest… I got to know Neki really well and I feel a bond with her from our time in Avernus. I don’t yet have that with either you, Lumi, or you, Fera. I do feel a deeper connection because of the secondary connection with Lumi and am confident that I can grow to love her…”
Lumi smiled and seemed pleased but said, “We don’t expect you to love us as much as you do your first wives. We understand that you accepted us at least partially as a concession to the sects.”
I shook my head. “Screw that nonsense. I would not take any wives as a concession to the sects. If I am making a concession to anyone about this, it was to my three wives. But I stand to gain a great deal from our unions, so don’t sell yourself short.”
They all looked shocked by the passion in my voice, but after a bit more discussion, it was clear they all accepted the situation. Fera pledged to catch my eye and prove herself worthy. I resisted the urge to tell her that she was already worthy, and just to be herself—but I stopped myself out of respect for their culture.
Once they all left to catch up to the wagons, I looked around and found Kumo waiting behind me in the shadows. I turned to face the shadows. “I suppose you’re my minder today?”
She used Shadow Glide to close the distance between us. “You know we wouldn’t leave you unattended. You do have a habit of getting into trouble, husband.”
“Fair enough.”
She looked at me with a certain sadness in her eyes. “I know that must have been a difficult conversation, but I trust that you’ll grow into what the Divided Realms demand of you, husband. You can do anything… just remember that when today’s training begins.”
I pulled her close and gave her a kiss. She definitely made me feel like I could do anything. Which I supposed was important, since I needed all the strength I could muster for the training I was about to undertake.
Chapter 43 - Traveling to a Wedding
A few questions of the right people and I learned that the wagons could reach Regev in six to seven days even in inclement weather. Amaya and I agreed that the wagons would start later every morning and stop earlier each night so that it would take us twelve days to reach the capital. I’d initially wanted it to be thirteen days, but Amaya insisted that she’d need the extra day to get ready for the wedding.
Who was I to argue with a woman about how long she needed to get ready? I remembered that much advice from my dad.
That meant that I had the rest of today and, hopefully, eleven more days to train. I realized that the council might send people out to meet us as we got closer, and that if that happened, politics might take up a decent chunk of my time. At this point, my position on politics was to just say no... I was done with it. They could play all the games they wanted, as long as they didn’t harm me or mine.
That, and if they worked with me to repel the horde.
Because of the difference in speed, we could race ahead of the wagons with ease, which would give me roughly four hours to train. That was a decent amount of time, I thought, as all of my major breakthroughs had been managed in 4-8 hours, but now it was more about incremental growth.
I made a mental list of the things I needed to improve. As far as stats went, Strength and Agility were at the top of my list. When I’d fought Kupa, I was faster and stronger, but only just slightly—and he was only a low A-ranker. I expected that someone like Jinwae was going to be pushing 2500 Agility and be experienced at flaring it to even greater effect.
Endurance and Durability could use some boosts, but from what my wives had told me, Strength and Agility were the stats most focused on across all the sects, with Perception coming in a distant third. It wasn’t that the other stats were neglected, though. I wasn’t the first person to have realized the importance of Durability or Endurance. It was just that most sects valued the idea of a quick victory through overwhelming strength or speed.
Thinking about those other stats brought up the issue of my body tempering. None of the three I had were complete. With some help, I should be able to complete both my Fire Touched and my Light Filled body temperings, which would give me more stats, more survivability, and more options. I wasn’t so sure about how to level up the orcish one… or if I even should. But I had been impressed with the power it granted the orcs using it.
Then, there was working on my mana concentration in an attempt to reach SSS tier. The thing was, that seemed to happen most often when I wasn’t focused on it. Because of that, I relegated its priority to a lower tier. For my personal training that left three other areas to focus on: my psi disciplines, my practical battle experience, and my aura control/domain.
Thinking about psi reminded me that Agimae and I had yet to have the conversation I’d been avoiding. I think I had been putting it off because I was afraid to learn that he was just a spy sent to steer me in a particular direction. If that was the case, I’d feel really stupid for accepting the offer to soul bond with him.
I slapped my chest then. Putting things off wasn’t the way a man handled his business. So, I sent out a mental call to my spirit beast. A few seconds later, Agimae flew down from the sky to travel right alongside me as I ran at a steady clip.
“Is it time to have our talk?”
I nodded. Then I activated Ride the Winds. I still was nowhere near as comfortable in the air as I was on the ground. I couldn’t fly as fast as I could run, but that didn’t mean I was slow or unable to climb high overhead so we could have a private conversation.
When the wagon train looked like a trail of ants below us, I turned to Agimae and said, “Just level with me. Were you planted with me by your elders for the express purpose of bending me to the will of the celestials?”
Agimae didn’t hesitate to reply. “No, that isn’t our way. We don’t bend people to our will—that is something demons do, or perhaps modrons. We celestials incentivize, motivate, and support people in making the right decisions. We stand for love… less a love of passion and more a love of all things living. We stand for goodness, kindness, and self-control.”
“I’m sure we could all use more of those things, but why don’t you just explain exactly what your intentions are?”
“My intentions? That’s simple. I wanted to be your companion because I was impressed by what I saw within you and the vast potential you contain. You have already advanced my growth and abilities, simply by growing more powerful yourself. I won’t say I didn’t or don’t intend to be what I perceive to be a good influence on you, but I will not make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
The celestial couatl paused, as if gathering his thoughts.
“I will admit that not all celestials are united. Some want to exercise a greater degree of control in the mortal realms—for the good of the mortals in those realms. At least that’s how they see it. We couatl are more oriented towards individual decisions, as are most spirit beasts. It is one of the main differences between those known as angels and the rest of us who are celestials. The angels are much more creatures of law and order.”
“Like modron.”
“Um… perhaps, though from a certain perspective. Angels seek law in the pursuit of goodness. It is the way they believe that the most good for the most beings will occur. Primus, the one who directs all modrons, seeks law for the sake of law, and order for the sake of order. I would be the first to say that chaos generally spreads evil, but blind obedience to law without consideration for the individual leads to another type of evil.”
I flew along in silence for a while after that. So far, he was saying everything I’d hoped to hear. After ten minutes or so, I realized the two questions I needed to ask. “How are you and your elders getting along?”
If something with the head of a snake could laugh, Agimae laughed.
“They are displeased with my progress and claim I have not tried hard enough to show you the splendors of goodness, or that I’m too influenced by our bond. I will agree the latter is possible, but I’ve told them that my loyalty lies with you first, though I’ll never abandon goodness.”
“Last question… Where do we go from here?”
This time it was Agimae who was silent for several minutes. Eventually, though, he answered, “Assuming your trust in me is restored, then we train you up and push you along the path to the heavens as far as you can climb. I believe you want what is best for this realm and for other mortals. I think you can resist the extremes of both chaos and law. That middle ground is something I want to be part of.”
“Good enough for me.”
It helped that the system sent me a notification.
Your pact with your soul bonded spirit beast, Agimae, has been renewed and confirmed. Grow strong together. Climb the peaks.
That made me trust Agimae implicitly. But it also reminded me that the system was rather suspect, itself. It had been a while since I’d gotten a message that seemed so direct or that pushed me forward on a path. The statement was vague, but I still sensed that the system was playing a game with me—like it wanted to see if a mortal could climb more than one of the peaks simultaneously.
So be it. I was up for the challenge.
As we started to descend, I noted that the cultivators had all stopped in a nice clearing several hours ahead of the wagon train. They must have selected this place as a good spot for me to start my training. I knew, even though she hadn’t told me, that Elu had been soliciting input from Valdoc, Dara, Dryden and even some of the others like Naro and Kelvin about the best ways to train the Hero.
I was interested to see what they had come up with.
“What training can we do for psi disciplines?” I asked Agimae.
“Psi disciplines aren’t nearly as easy to train as a cultivator’s techniques. Simply practicing them provides a very limited benefit. Generally, it requires using those abilities in combat or other types of challenges that involve real stakes for them to have significant growth. That or, of course, the slow way—which is meditating and gathering more psi to grow your reserves of decades.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that second method won’t be very valuable now. I’m actually relieved. I have so much else that I need to train. If I can knock Psi disciplines off the list, that’s a good thing, right?”
“I suppose, but it is a part of your heritage—the heritage you have not only from modrons but also from fiends and celestials. It is part of what marks you as more than just a mortal, even if you are still mortal.”
“Fair enough. What about Neki? Is she still a mortal? Lumi?”
“Yes, though it is only a matter of time for both of them. They will mature into full demon and angel if they live long enough.”
“Any other input on how I should train?”
“I’m no cultivator, Ryan. I can teach you things about psi energy, but I don’t think our styles are all that compatible—if anything, they are complimentary.”
“Fair enough.”
When we landed, he went to hang out in a tree while watching us.
Valdoc was the one to come up to me first. He bowed, “Sect Head, I have been asked by your esteemed wives to speak to you regarding our suggestions for training. It is my understanding that you wish to train four hours at a time, three times a day, for the next twelve days—presuming there are no other important things that will infringe upon this time.”
I nodded my head in a bow to answer. “That about sums it up. I’m open to hearing what you have to say, but I believe the best use of the time would be to focus on training my Strength and Agility, as well as body tempering. That is, unless any of you believe you can help me form a domain in the next two weeks.”
“I am ashamed to admit, Sect Head, that neither Dryden nor I have formed a domain, though we are in the process of doing so. For us, it was always a dream but never something we expected to achieve, stuck at C-rank, as we were. Naro and Kelvin have at least formed a basic domain, although neither have mastered them… not like my former sect head or those at his level.”
“That’s pretty much what I expected. It seems we should focus on the sure gains, instead.”
“Yes… to an extent. I do not believe you should give up so easily on the other avenues to progress. But may I ask what you intend to do with the remaining hours of each day?”
I smiled. “Ever the taskmaster, wanting to get the most out of your students.”
He smiled in return as I continued, “I can probably do most of the traveling in one to two hours. But I also need to work on making our people stronger, not to mention spending time with my wives, and courting my fiancée and betrothed.”
Naro burst out then, “Courting?! Why? They are already yours. I can understand spending time with your wives. All men have needs, especially young men.”
Dara elbowed Naro. “Speak with respect to the sect head, and we already explained his… uh… unique perspective on this.”
Naro clearly hadn’t been hurt by the elbow, but it had shocked him. He shook his head. “I am sorry, sect head. I misspoke. I just did not expect that what I was told me was true. Still, I have sworn to follow, so I will do my best to learn your reasons.”
I didn’t bother to respond. I was so done with that attitude—even if it still largely permeated the sects. I turned back to Master Valdoc. “How do you recommend we start my training?”
Valdoc smiled. “With some good old-fashioned resistance training, of course.” He pointed over to a set of rocks, none smaller than a foot-and-a-half across. “Think you can toss those around?”
I nodded, but was ready for the trick, because they had to know that while those rocks would be heavy, they weren’t beyond my ability to toss into the air.
Naro said, “I’ve found that juggling builds both Strength and Agility with a small measure of benefit to Durability, Endurance, and Perception. Valdoc agrees with me.”
“Something tells me it won’t be quite that simple.”
All of them, from my wives to the trainers, smiled at me. Yep, I was in for some fun.
Chapter 44 - Juggling
I went over and picked up each of the three boulders in turn. They weren’t light, not by any measure, but it would take a lot of this to wear me out. I didn’t know what the catch was, but sensed there had to be one.
Sure enough, once I was ready, they cleared out a space around me and several cultivators grouped up on one side. Elu, Kumo, and Lian formed a cultivation circle with all their power directed into my first wife. Dryden stood to one side of the three girls, while Valdoc and Naro stood on their other side. Then, ranging out further from them, Lumi and Pasat took up their posts.
