Street Cultivation 2
Page 43
As soon as Melissa no longer needed it, he intended to finally close the lease on the old apartment complex. Though they had lived there for a long time, when he left he found that he wasn't at all broken up about it. There had been good memories there, but also a lot of awful ones. Once they left, he'd be taking the positive memories along with him and leaving the negatives behind.
It was a bit odd that he didn't have a message from his sister, though. Rick checked his phone again, then set it aside on the desk. That would work out too. As much as he'd feared for his sister during the fight, he'd also seen that she could increasingly take care of herself.
And her goddamn ether score just kept increasing. At the rate she was going, soon she'd be the most successful member of their family in financial terms. Rick thought he'd do well for himself, but he planned to make a lot of jokes about bumming money off her in the future.
With work done for the day, Rick flopped down onto his bed, put his arms behind his head, and just thought for a while. He enjoyed working at the Refuge well enough, but he was also glad that it wasn't a permanent position. What would come after it remained uncertain, but at least he had a lot of time to think.
Sometimes that made his thoughts drift to Emily, which was still a bit painful, but he could live with that too. Every time he thought about their last encounter, he tried to remember the exact expression on her face. Maybe he was tricking himself, but he didn't think he'd seen any hatred there. Better to let her go on her own path than hold her back.
A knock sounded on the door and Rick realized how long he'd been lying in bed thinking. He forced himself to get up, wincing in the process, and went to open it. The door had barely cracked open when Melissa burst in, leaping up to embrace him. She moved fast enough that they ended up spinning around fully due to her momentum.
"Bro, I got in! I'm officially a Young Lucrim Artist of America!"
"That's great!" He set her down, mirroring her huge grin. "The judges weren't too creeped out by the Manifest Destruction shell?"
"Oh, some were, but there was a doctor who said it was really fascinating. He actually tried to convince me to do a YLAA year with a medical program, potentially doing work with other children who are born without aura sparks."
"You mean helping them become like you?"
Melissa shook her head sharply. "Oh, no, he didn't think my condition was ideal or something that should be replicated. But he thought that it was interesting and that I might be an inspiration to the kids." She stuck out her tongue. "That sounds dumb, so I'm going to try to get into more interesting programs. But that's something to decide later, I'm just pumped that I got in."
"Yeah, you deserve all the congratulations in the world." He paused, frowning slightly. "Wait, you aren't still working at the House of the Cosmic Fist, are you?"
"I guess technically I never put in my resignation, but whatever. Do I even really need to? Feels like it'd be easier to just not show up, since I'm on to better things."
"Nah, you should do it properly. There's no reason to burn bridges, even if you never plan to put it on your resume."
"More timeless brotherly wisdom. Fine, fine, I'll do it. After we celebrate."
His sister pulled off her backpack and began pulling out stuff, including a large number of cheesy snacks and a DVD of a movie that looked even cheesier. It made him chuckle, since despite the huge changes in their financial circumstances, he still looked forward to relaxing in exactly the same way.
While she moved stuff around so they could watch the laptop from the bed, he went to get a couple sodas from the mini-fridge. He didn't drink them himself, but he remembered how Melissa had liked them way back when they'd been kids. She smiled when she saw them and they clinked the glass bottles together before drinking. The last toast they'd made had been over obscenely expensive philosopher's elixir and this one was over sodas that cost a few bucks. Both of them tasted good.
There wasn't a couch, so they both sat on his bed to get ready to watch the movie. Before she started it, Melissa leaned over against him and he put an arm around her. After a while, she spoke. "What now, Rick? Once I leave for the YLAA and you finish working here, where do you go next?"
"I really don't know."
"And is that fine?"
"Yeah, I think it actually is."
X X X
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to all my alpha and beta readers for their feedback.
Thanks to Cultivation Novels and GameLit Society for the community.
Appendix: Lucrim Mechanics
This is my direct description of the magic system in the world of Street Cultivation, since it bends or breaks some rules of the genre. Most of the information will be duplicated in the novel, but here I present it all in straightforward form for those who requested that.
Forms of Power
Lucrim is raw power, and in the modern world, that power is often used as money. When simply held in a person's body, it provides a slight enhancement to durability and it can be used to pay for goods or services anywhere in the world. Beyond that, lucrim alone is only a resource: it's the applications of lucrim that provide greater abilities.
Lucrim is a spiritual substance, neither energy nor mass, but it can be refined in all three forms:
1) Refined spiritual lucrim becomes Lucores, which can have more powerful effects than simply holding lucrim. It also allows for more power to be "stored" beyond what the user can normally contain. They have a constant beneficial effect, but their true potential is only seen when "liquid" lucrim is flowed through them. Almost all fighters possess a "Foundation" that inefficiently grants some permanent power, but more importantly allows for the development of stronger lucores.
2) Lucrim used to generate energy becomes aura. Aura is an energy field that can flow within the body or even in a visible halo beyond it. Depending on training, this process can be very efficient, but it does burn through current lucrim reserves to enhance strength and speed. Only Lucores can provide a benefit "for free".
3) Lucrim used to generate mass becomes ether. Unlike aura, the process to convert ether back into lucrim is very inefficient, so it is primarily used to create permanent objects. A common example is an ether-reinforced door, which would be strong enough to withstand even blows from lucrim users.
All living beings have at least some lucrim within them. Most people (but not all) know how to convert lucrim to aura - this isn't simply for fighters, but students or businesspeople generate aura to increase their mental focus, or it can be used to commute by running/flying. The ability to convert lucrim to ether is less commonly developed, generally by professionals who build their career around it.
Lucrim is normally too ephemeral to be stolen, though certain rare techniques can drain currently held lucrim. Sufficiently large Lucores can be extracted via a complex surgical process, though the total strength is reduced. This is generally only done by parents who want to give or leave something to their children, but is occasionally seen in martial arts sects.
Generation Rate
Lucrim falls from the sky evenly
all over the world. In ancient times, people would naturally gather this lucrim into themselves - this is also the reason martial artists would tend to train on mountaintops, because they can gather more lucrim when higher than the rest of the population that might draw it.
But in the modern world, nearly all of the falling lucrim is harvested by international organizations. It is then distributed by reserves as currency. The vast majority of ordinary people rarely ever gather/generate any lucrim of their own, they simply get their supply of lucrim from their job as income.
For this reason, "generation rate" is an outdated term. It does still mean the amount of lucrim that a person can carry at once, and as such is it used as a shorthand measure of power. The value is essential for developing Lucores and for those who fight. For average people, generation rate is just their budget of overall lucrim to spend on things.
Note that there are exceptions to the above. It's possible to create Lucores that generate new lucrim, and this is an essential method of building power for some. However, it requires a significant initial investment of lucrim that can't be spent or used to increase power, so many people don't take advantage of it. Institutions like banks and sects have staff dedicated to lucrim generation to increase their wealth by these methods.
The most common exception is Birthright Cores. Technically these are any cores passed down through a family, but many people leave no cores, or only cores small enough that they are just liquidated. The derogatory term "Birthrighter" refers to people who received a sizable core from their parents, one that immediately grants them either an ability or (more commonly) a steady flow from free lucrim.
Though it's beyond the reach of most people, it's entirely possible to have enough Lucores generating lucrim that you could quit your job and just live off them. This is easier said than done.
Development
Lucrim doesn't come from nothing anymore, so development is limited without income. Fighters who want to improve can train or meditate to develop Lucores or increase efficiency overall, but this won't increase their generation rate or overall capacity. However, currently held lucrim can be invested into power, the process of which will slowly but surely increase generation rate.
Faster ways to gain strength include receiving lucores from other people and purchasing raw lucrim in some form (such as philosopher's elixir) then investing the surge of new strength. There are also more complex methods, such as techniques that improve the efficiency of one's current lucrima soul.
While a lucrim is a unit of measurement, the lucrima soul refers to the collective of all a person's power. Permanent investments like the foundation or Lucores form the core of the lucrima soul, while lucrim are held around it.
Though generation rate is a good measure of the total power available to someone, it's not an exact measure of combat strength. A highly trained fighter with well-invested Lucores could defeat someone with a higher generation rate who just attempts to throw that power around haphazardly. Between two fighters of equal skill, generation rate is a good measure of power, but there are many more or less efficient ways to invest that amount.
Lucrima Portfolios
Reading someone's lucrima portfolio is effectively seeing a list of which attributes and skills they have invested time and lucrim into. Items are ranked both by raw lucrim (a measure of power) and Level or Stage (a measure of skill and efficiency). Here are common items contained within a portfolio...
Foundation: The bare minimum for a competent lucrim user, allowing the development of all other abilities.
Secondary Foundations: Highly advanced fighters may use different types of foundations or have more than one investment granting specific abilities.
Attribute Lucores: These cores grant a permanent improvement to a physical attribute, such as strength or durability.
Skill Lucores: More advanced cores that allow the use of a supernatural ability that would not be possible by any level of physical strength.
Investment Lucores: Non-combat cores that serve to keep or generate lucrim. These could either be for a bit of extra income, to save for retirement, or to leave a core to one's children.
Utility Lucores: Non-combat cores that serve a specific function. A common (but expensive) core is a Transportation Core that allows for flight at a level that isn't useful in combat, but makes it convenient to travel.
Aura Leeches: These unnatural creatures embody large lucrim debts, draining the user's strength in order to gather lucrim. They remain attached until the debt is completely paid, hindering stamina and also reducing available generation rate by the core value of the debt.
Demonic Bonds: Both debt and power, these bonds grant strength but require steady repayment. There are an exceedingly high number of variations with different requirements and restrictions.
Appendix: Rick and Melissa's Final Portfolios
[Name: Rick Hunter
Ether Tier: 14th
Ether Score: 362
Lucrim Generation: 58,975
Current Lucrim: 58,975]
[Rick Hunter's Lucrima Portfolio
Foundation: 3100 (Lv V)
Dark Blood Kettle: 9200 (Lv II)
Offensive Lucore: 9900 (Lv VI)
Defensive Lucore: 28,250 (Lv IX)
Bunyan's Step: 11,450 (Lv VII)
Graham's Stake: 9375 (Lv III)
Demonic Bond (Bftgage & Ythsil): 250 (Stage I)
Demon Mass: 250 (N/A)
Total Lucrim: 58,975]
-
[Name: Melissa Hunter
Ether Tier: 16th
Ether Score: 330
Lucrim Generation: 24,450
Current Lucrim: 24,450]
[Melissa Hunter's Lucrima Portfolio
Foundation: 3600 (Lv II)
Manifest Destruction: 13,100 (Lv III)
Combat Core: 5350 (Lv III)
Manifest Aura: 2400 (Lv II)
Total Lucrim: 24,450]