“So, the cells are under my control?”
“Possibly? When you are cultivating or when elements enter your body through tempering, they alter you so you can take in more in the future. It will take more testing to see if this is something that is happening naturally, consciously or unconsciously. We know that there is a conscious control you can exercise on your mana system.”
“How we have to compress and refine through circulations?” Erik asked.
“Right!”
A weird smile appeared on Melissa’s face as she pointed to a piece of paper hung up behind her desk. It was the mantra of body cultivators.
“The foundation tempered, the soul grounded, the mind forged.” She drew out the last three words. “Based on the texts we have been reading, the mind is altered with tempering of the metal element. Not only that, but one will undergo a Body Rebirth. A rebirth! Isn’t it right there! Maybe that is the stage where you will gain conscious control over your cells. You could prioritize what your body heals. You could alter the structure of your cells, maybe even alter yourself. Cells make up your entire body. What changes could you create?”
Melissa’s eyes burned into Erik’s as his heart thumped like a war drum and his blood raced through his veins.
“Though those are all just my theories and hypothesis! There is nothing to prove it yet.” Melissa laughed, and the heat in Erik’s limbs cooled, regaining more of his control.
“The last discovery we made also has to do with the cells. They create new lysosomes. These don’t break down chemicals like they do on Earth; they broke down the elements and release purified mana. Specialized vacuoles store the elements and supply them to the cells. Once the body is tempered with the correlating element, these two cell structures form. The greater one’s tempering, the more the element can be processed and stored by a given cell.”
“Can someone temper themselves with all the elements?”
“They can, but there is a reason for the Body Cultivation mantra. It seems that our bodies will naturally follow this path of incorporating different elements.”
“You said something about constitutions being mutations?” Erik asked.
“A family that occupies one area for multiple generations has the same training aides and such over a long period of time, and their children’s bodies will be more efficient in absorbing the element populating their area. Constitutions are related to the body, not one’s mana system. If I have a Water element constitution, my body will find it easier to pull in mana with the water element as it can temper my cells faster; it gives me a greater resistance and control over it. As a side benefit, I refine out that water element in mana faster, using purer mana in my Mana Cultivation.”
“Then your Mana Cultivation would soar because you have purer mana than everyone else to condense!” Erik slapped his leg. His head spun from all the information.
“I was thinking on a surface level about what the Ten Realms could give me and the benefits. Of course, if there are changes, they have to come from somewhere. The Ten Realms just reports the changes. I didn’t think I was changing my actual cells.” Erik snorted.
“No one did. There is simply too much to study in the Ten Realms. It is why I go to the academy. I can’t do it all by myself. Researching and studying what is happening will allow us to crack the Ten Realms. This brings me to my main point. None of this would have been possible without information. Without data, I couldn’t prove any of this.”
“Are you asking for more funding?” Erik asked.
“No, I’m asking for more subjects and to be approved for testing facilities.”
“What do you mean by testing facilities? Laboratories, microscopes?”
“Maybe, but a big part of it is that other than what the Ten Realms tells us, we don’t know what the effect is on the people who have tempered their bodies. I want to build a gym.”
“A gym? Like with weights and such?”
“Yes, weights and such.” Melissa’s face bloomed in a smile. “What I have talked about are the basic breakthroughs we have made in the area of body tempering. I have not talked about our discoveries. Come with me.”
She led Erik out of the office and down the corridor. They passed through a few secure doors to a hall that had medics talking to one another and watching what was happening in one of the rooms through a window.
Seeing Melissa and Erik, they moved to the side.
Melissa and Erik smiled and nodded. Melissa waved toward the window, presenting a room where a man lay on the ground. There was a complex formation below him; an IV fed into the man’s arm, and metal shackles dug into his skin.
“Don’t worry—this was voluntary. We used a numbing agent where the spikes are inserted,” Melissa assured him. “This was actually an idea that came from the military. What ways could we create to artificially temper a soldier’s body as fast as possible without any side effects?
“The healing formation on the ground heals the patient. The IV bag contains an alchemical formula to numb the soldier and boost their cognitive function.”
“The spikes?” Erik asked in a deep voice.
“Weapons created by the smiths. They are hollow and inject poison into the patient’s body.”
Erik looked at the patient lying there with their eyes closed. Several medics circulated their mana right next to the formation; another was ready, next to a control panel that could change the effects of the formations above and below the man.
Impurities dripped out of the man’s pores, staining his clothing as steam rose from his body.
Erik would have accepted the same thing. It seemed more comfortable than the temperings he had done in the past.
“With this system, we have things under greater control. From a few hours to a day, one can cleanse their body and be ready to push forward along the body tempering path,” Melissa said.
“What about elemental tempering?” Erik asked.
“Take a look.” Melissa took him down the corridor, and they looked through another window. A woman stood on a formation that was releasing waves of heat. She wore old-fashioned armor covered in Fire-based attack runes.
In each of her shoulders, an IO had been driven in. An intraosseous infusion was injected into the marrow of the bone. Even if the veins collapsed, the IO would keep functioning.
The woman dropped to the ground into a push-up position and then stood up and jumped. She reached some ten meters in the air before crashing back down and repeated the burpee.
“Squats!” A training instructor was there with medics, overseeing everything.
The woman got under the bar and squatted the massive weight. She yelled with every explosive movement upward. She completed five sets of ten. Her body steamed as water vaporized from her skin.
“Pull-ups!” the instructor yelled.
The woman groaned and grabbed the bar. She stared right ahead as she pulled herself up, lowered herself, and did it again. Her face pulled into a snarl.
Erik mentally nodded to her. There was a state of mind one could reach when they were fighting against their body and against other’s thoughts. An inner dialogue where you would curse yourself out to get that little bit more. You got twenty? That was cute. Come on, you have five more to show how strong you are. Got that five. Come on, that pain is a gain! Five more!
“We found that combining tempering with working out increases the speed one could temper their body. When working out, your body is at a peak state. Your cells sympathetically activate. You can absorb more power and repair faster as you go. Utilization of the elements increases after physical exercise in high-element areas. She is being pumped with healing concoctions. The formation is pumping out the Fire element, and the armor is actually a weapon. There are spikes inserted into the patient, forcing more Fire element into the depths of their body. It is barbaric and cruel, but with the numbing agents, the patients don’t feel the pain and the healing concoctions push them on.”
“So, you want a
gym for people to work out when tempering?” Erik glanced over to her.
“No, I want a gym to test the changes that people undergo. I need to gather data. We have titles for the different stages of tempering—Body Like Stone, Like Iron, and so on. Is that really true? Even if it is true, how much stronger and faster are people? What is the actual impact of one point of increase Strength, Stamina, or Agility? Is there a way we can increase that more through tempering? Is it on a cellular level? What are the best cell mutations? Can we replicate those in different people?”
“This is way above my pay grade.” Erik shook his head.
“It is a whole new world and system. It isn’t surprising to be overwhelmed. Right now, we’re grasping at everything, trying to find out anything we can. There is so much to learn out there. Also, there is something that you might find useful.” Melissa pulled out some papers from her storage ring and passed them to Erik.
“These detail the information we discovered about tempering one’s body with the Metal element. Unlike the previous temperings, it needs to be completed over time. Working out and doing explosive exercise do assist, but if you reach a meditative state, it speeds up the process. If you are sleeping, it slows down, though. It seems that one needs to be awake but in a relaxed state. Also”—she pulled out a pouch, put it on top of the papers in Erik’s hands, and opened it, revealing several spikes—"each of these are formation-enhanced tempering needles that will inject the Metal element into your body. They increase in power to temper your body.”
Erik put it into one of his storage rings. “Thank you, but I have a question for you.”
“Please.” Melissa smiled.
“Why?” Erik left the word hanging as Melissa frowned, multiple thoughts rising to the surface. “Why did you join Alva? Why did you put in the time to research this? What are you looking to get from it? Why are you okay with everything?”
“A few simple questions,” Melissa drawled, getting the time to think. “Although it is not a democratic society in Alva, it is not a bad one. Ability beats all in the Ten Realms. If you can show results, you will be able to get higher. Look at you and Rugrat. You could be warlords and try to control everything. Instead, you got people to represent the people. You listen to others; you have your own goals, and you go out and complete them. Is it a perfect system? No, of course not, but it works. We are safe here, and we are with people who understand us. People have opportunities here they would not have in the other realms. There is a roof over our heads, clean water, food, safety. I accepted those things freely when I was in Paris. I didn’t think the military stood for anything but to cost more taxes and parade around with their weapons. I thought they were a backwards system.” Melissa turned and leaned against the window, thoughts and memories in her eyes as she sighed.
“When I entered the Ten Realms, it was different. I nearly died in the first two days. Luckily, there were other humans from Earth in the area. Kanoa and the military members grouped r and pulled together the civilians. There were a number we didn’t get to in time. We thought we had found a place with Queen Ikku, but she was going to use us as slaves. She had a binding contract that would have done so. We ran and escaped. I talked to Miller about it—why the military members were putting their lives on the line for us civilians and if they would be better off without us.”
Melissa’s eyes trembled and dampened. “You know what he said? He said people sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. He had dedicated his life to the survival of others. If he died, then he would do so gladly to protect the lives of those behind him. To protect his beliefs and those who believed as he did.”
Erik nodded, agreeing with it. “When I was angry with the military, I saw them as a throwback to times of old. The reality is that with them as a foundation, I was able to reach higher. If not for those men and women standing ready to protect, we would never progress; we would never advance the sciences, gain education. We would fall into those times of old instead of reaching for higher pursuits.”
“Well, I do this to support those men and women who protect me. I do this because I’m good at it. It is a whole new field of discovery; my team and I are pioneers. Who doesn’t want to create a new field of study? Each day, we learn something new.”
She was just a lady living and working in France before she had to come face-to-face with the ugly reality of the Ten Realms.
“You’ve certainly given me a lot to think about. Egbert?”
“Boss man?” Egbert’s voice appeared from mid-air.
“Work with the Body Cultivation department to build new training facilities on the separate floors. Get with the smiths to create gym equipment. Rugrat can draw it up for you. He spent enough time there.”
“Right on it, boss!” There was a popping noise, and he was gone, though the skeleton could listen to nearly everything going on in the dungeon.
“Thank you,” Melissa said, getting herself back under control.
“No problem. There is an upcoming fight with a powerful enemy. We’ll need our soldiers to be the strongest they can be. Increasing one’s cultivation with these new methods will be faster than increasing a person’s overall level,” Erik said.
“There is one other thing I should tell you about Body Cultivation. Activation. When we were doing our testing with the cells, we found that with an increase in pure mana, the cell would be ‘ignited’ in this state, and its abilities were much greater than before.”
“Okay, so again, the relationship with the mana and Body Cultivation—the higher the Mana Cultivation, the greater potential we can ignite in our cells?” Erik asked.
“Exactly, though there is a secondary way to activate them: being in a high-dense mana area. We have only completed some simple tests, but it is looking promising,” Melissa said.
“All of this is promising. You’ve certainly been busy over the last couple weeks,” Erik said.
22
Tactics Transformed Through Technology
There was a knock at Glosil’s door as he reviewed the latest reports on the recruits across the Alva army. “Come in.” He put the report to the side.
Newly minted Captain Kanoa opened the door and saluted Glosil, who returned the gesture.
“Captain, good to see you. Please, take a seat. Is everything going well?” Glosil asked.
“Everything is good. Thank you, sir.” Kanoa sat down.
Glosil smiled. Kanoa, like the rest of the military members from Earth, had arrived nearly two months ago. Last month, most of them had joined the military with the stipulation that they could challenge the various tests. After a week of familiarization, they challenged every test. They were qualified as medics, sharpshooters, artillery gunners, and engineers. Most of them had been active in their service, reaching the peak of their professions. Those who had retired remained sharp, even afterward. With healing, they were as healthy as a twenty-year-old and with the knowledge of hardened warriors. Glosil had taken complete advantage, tapping into that knowledge pool to augment and enhance the Alva army’s ability.
“I sense a ‘but,’” Glosil said.
“But air assault and waterborne assaults. Alvans haven’t trained for either. The Water floor took months of training before that operation was carried out.”
“I’m listening.”
“As you know, sir, there are multiple ways to get to the battlefield. Tactics have been developed to use ground transport to reach the enemy, dismount, engage them, complete the mission, and then mount back up and exfiltrate the area. Leading assaults with an Air or Water component hasn’t been explored yet. I believe this is part of the secretive nature of Alva’s Army. We head in close to the ground and under cover to strike the enemy. If we were to use air vehicles, we would stick out and blow our cover. Also, few of Alva’s opponents have been located close to a shoreline.”
“Though there is no way to say for sure if this will remain the same in the future,�
�� Glosil finished for Kanoa, intrigued. “I’m guessing you have a plan?”
“Stepping up two new units, trained in the same way as the others, but their focus will be on Air and Water assaults. Ground, air, water—we cover them all, and all the units have training in those so that they can support one another. Say there is a ground assault going on. We have the water assault company moving in to the rear of the enemy, and the air assault comes in and flanks them. The enemy fights the force on the ground, only to have their side torn apart by the other two forces.”
It made sense. It had taken months for Yui to train and prepare his people for the Water floor. Most of what they had learned was from Rugrat’s notes on beach assaults, fighting on the water, and so on. Though there were few missions where they would need to rely on ships.
“I don’t think we need a navy. All our battles, except for the Water floor, have been on the ground. If we can add in an air force, it will increase our mobility, but training a specific force just to fight from the air—we just don’t have the people or the time,” Glosil said.
Kanoa nodded. “Well, then we don’t raise airborne; we just add more training courses. Army, navy and airborne units back home were all using helicopters and fighters to support their people. What if we raised an air force whose only focus is to support the army units?”
“That could work. We wouldn’t have to break up training or split off people for different units too much. We keep our combat force consolidated instead of splitting up into groups too small to do anything.” Glosil fell silent, thinking.
“Okay, what would you need to raise a supporting air force?”
“Birds. We have a number of different birds being raised across Alva. We can use those as the mounts for the aerial force. On Earth, we needed helicopters and other types of aerial transport. We could make them with enough time, but the birds have some great advantages. First, each team member could have one bird to transport them. Entering and exiting a helicopter are the most dangerous times. Instead, we can just jump on a bird, and we’re lifting off in seconds. Faster exfiltration. Also, birds can be healed and just need to be fed. We don’t need to perform costly maintenance in terms of materials and time. The team on the ground can manage most issues themselves. Finally, birds are quiet, and you don’t need to learn to pilot them. We can insert and exit silently, with the birds taking care of the flying while we take care of the fighting.”
Sixth Realm Part 2: A litRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 7) Page 23
