When Lewis finally tore his gaze away from the spirit cultivation manual, night had already descended, and with it, the previously almost peaceful sounds of the forest had turned decidedly more hostile, but his brain was still high on all the knowledge he had just absorbed. Unfortunately, not everything he had learned seemed to be relevant to him specifically; some tidbits of information even seemed to contradict everything the manual was stating about the nature of spirit cultivation.
For starters, it had gone on a long and in-depth philosophical monologue about the true nature of the spirit. To sum it all up, the spirit is the crystallized essence of a being's will, initially formed from anything with a soul, so even life forms that lack a mind or body still possess an innate spirit. This metaphysical spirit matter was basically just a form of will, be it the most primitive survival instincts or a deeply ingrained fear or desire, a spirit can be easily harnessed simply by exerting a person's will. This happens all the time but rarely has a visible effect since the spirit alone tends to be fairly weak, but is the foundation of all mana control, since impose ones will over the natural mana is the primary way to manipulate the energy.
But even for the most normal people, simply pushing one's self beyond their limits, like when a mother lifts a car to rescue her trapped child or when time seems to slow down for professional athletes at pivotal moments. That's all the partial result of a person's mind and spirit aligning and essentially over cranking their capabilities for a brief few moment.
That is basically what the manual had conveyed, though it talked a lot about the separation of the mind, body, and soul and how each applies its own influence to the spirit, forming a multifaceted yet cohesive whole that then needs to be cultivated into a trifecta spirit, which is the first step of actually practicing the scarlet river cultivation method. The issue is that this was only possible for those with a vastly stronger spirit than their mind or body, which he believes to be the case based on his stats, yet the manual mentioned everyone of at least F rank could begin this process of trifecta conversion.
Damn, I need two more levels to actually start cultivating my spirit. I guess have to do a little midnight hunting then.
Getting up from his position at the back of the lodge, he contemplated telling the others about his plan of going out to level up, but ultimately decided against it. He was never much of a team player and didn't even know these people; they had all just been thrown in this tutorial together. He wasn't even sure he wanted to stick around with them. Sure, most of them seemed nice enough, but Lewis wasn't certain they would be able to keep up with him. Today's events have already proved that he was stronger than all of them, his skillset being more suited to going alone rather than sticking to a group.
Not to mention, that flamethrower spell wouldn't have been such an issue if he hadn't had to push himself to protect the others as well. He didn't blame them for being weak or anything that petty; he simply recognized that his skills and ambition would make it extremely difficult to stick around with them.
Cracking his neck, he walked into the forest once again, not even attempting to find his way back to the dungeon in the dark, simply walking in a random direction towards the closest howls he could hear. The twin moons bathed the woods in a soft silver light more than adequate to see his surroundings, though he still moved at a decidedly slower pace than before, not wanting to stumble upon an ambush predator or trip over a root as he searched for a way to gain his final two levels.
Information from the initial lessons on spirit cultivation still churned in his mind, mainly the idea that everything that he would consider magic is actually simply a facet of the spirit. In a way, calling all the metaphysical processes of a person as simply being the spirit was rather misleading; it was like saying a person is nothing but skin, since that is the majority of what you see of a person, but that's just shortsighted. In reality, the spirit is far grander and more complex than anyone understands, which is why this specific path of spirit cultivation is so unique.
In reality, the manual had mentioned several examples of 'lesser' spirit cultivation, like those that use Qi instead of mana, which was another thing that tickled Lewis's memories. He had the distinct feeling that Qi was a popular concept among asian cultures, but according to the manual, it was the favored energy of martial artists, a mix of spirit and vitality that comes as the evolution of basic stamina in the body cultivation paths. Things like mental energy were also a similar concept, a combination of mind and spirit energy.
In other words, everything used portions of the spirit as a sort of basis, then adding their desired energy flavoring, often only using the specific parts of the spirit associated with said elements. But, just like how mana influenced and altered the spirit, so did using these other energies, and so made the path of true spirit cultivation inaccessible.
This had initially frightened Lewis, since he himself could use mana. At least in some form, even if his own mana was anathema to all other types, it at least registered as mana on his status window, so how could he have his cake and eat it too, especially since the manual had strongly and repeatedly said it wasn't possible to truly cultivate the spirit if it's being influenced by external elements like mana. But the system guide had promised this manual would help him, and he wasn't allowed to lie, so the must be some sort of exception that made this possible. Lewis simply didn't know what.
Not like that's new, I haven't got a straight answer about anything since I got here, why would that change now?
Hearing a commotion nearby, Lewis changed course to investigate it, readying his spiritual alignment spell in case he needed to fight.
But that was another thing he had found in the rambling notes of the manual; it seemed aligning one's spirit was a common first step to reaching the first stage of spirit cultivation, but it required all three aspects of the spirit to merge into one for it to be successful, essentially making sure all aspects of a person were balanced. This was something that apparently took decades sometimes, forcing people to gain skills in one specific domain, like mental skills to improve the mental aspect of their spirit; otherwise, their brains could fail from converging their spirits into their bodies. Which surprised Lewis, as it sounded a lot like [Spiritual alignment], and that spell had definitely felt off when he first used it, his body damaging itself as it failed to withstand the new power.
Yet he wasn't supposed to be able to do that until he sensed his spirit, something that apparently only happens when a being evolves to F grade at level 10. It seemed like he was doing things ass backwards, his mind instantly replaying the system guide's words in his mind, calling him an anomaly on repeat.
Lewis waved the distracting thoughts away. There was nothing he could do about any of this; he should simply try to follow the manual and hope for the best. Either way, without access to mana, he had little other choice. Evolving his grade should jumpstart his ability to sense his spirit, according to the manual, so he would go from there and figure things out as he went.
Stepping passed a series of spiky bushes, Lewis turned to find the source of the noise he had been hearing for the last few minutes. Within a small clearing dominated by short bushes, a small group of deer battled against each other, their cries echoing through the night as they frantically moved, rushing from bush to bush and even knocking their kin aside. The scene was almost comical, as if the deer were high on cocaine, as they all held a wild look in their eyes while dashing around the clearing.
[Moonlight deer - lvl 8]
Lewis was baffled for a few moments, taking in the scene, before his gaze shifted from the frantic deer to the short bushes they were attacking with savage abandon.
[Lunar berry bush
An uncommon moonlight affinity plant that only blooms during a night of twin full moons.]
Skill: Identify has reached level 6
Now things started to make more sense. It seemed these deer were fighting over some sort of rare delicacy for their race, which explained why they paid no attention to his emergence or each other as he rushed to consume as much of the plants as possible.
Utilizing his mana detection, he attempted to spot the mana of the plants, and found a strange sort of pale light, different from that of pure mana, a hint of ghostly softness within the mana, the same he felt from the deer themselves, as if their fur were infused with that soft moonlight themselves, giving them a pale white coat that stood out from the dark backdrop. It made Lewis profoundly curious as to what sort of effect moonlight mana would have. It was hardly self-evident, like fire mana, but he also didn't especially want to slay these deer. They don't seem to be hurting anyone, after all, so he figured he'd just prod them with his anti-mana a bit to see how they would react.
Without activating his mantle skill, he tried channeling his mana outside of his body, forming it into a lance like he had tried before as he stepped into the open, most of the deer eyeing him warily but too focused on their own tasks to bother running or even slowing down as they munched and jostled for position.
With his mana in a tight hold as he could manage, he swept it out at the closest deer, its back to Lewis as it chewed the bush, his anti-mana connecting to it without resistance. He didn't wish to harm these creatures since they appeared to be simple herbivores, unlike the vicious and predatory goblins, so he watched with fascination as his mana connected with the moonlight mana-dense fur of the deer, the soft pale glow instantly disappearing from the animal as it jumped from the sudden contact, its body hopping in the air from shock before it darted away from him, an ethereal soft white light shooting out from its fur and firing off in the other direction, only this moonlight copy of the deer lacked a significant portion of its back end from where Lewis had swept his anti-mana throught it, the ghostly copy collapsing into motes of light after a only a few moments.
Lewis's eyes widened in surprise and awe as that first deer began a domino effect, all the other animals in the clearing following suit as a dozen ghostly moonlight versions of deer sprang into existence, the clearing lighting up from the sudden illumination as the deer fled in all directions, their ethereal copies rushing in the opposite direction and creating a mesmerizing light show.
This is beautiful. Moonlight mana eh? I bet people could make some incredible shows from this.
Once again, he felt a pang of loss knowing this fantastical magic was forever out of his reach, but his mind soon returned from its reverie when a shrill cry cut through the clearing, the moonlight copy of one of the deer suddenly bucking and dematerializing as a large black creature emerged from the darkness and clamped its jaws around the unfortunate deer. A feeling of anger rose within Lewis at the sight, followed by a hint of fear.
He didn't want to hurt these harmless creatures just for his desire for power and knowledge. This system may have been the answer he needed to finally climb out of the hole he had been stuck in his entire life, but he wasn't prepared to betray his own ideals for power; that was something people he wanted nothing to be like would do, and he refused to throw away his humanity.
Yet as he stared in shock at the large black creature that had emerged from the darkness and snatched up the fleeing deer, he couldn't help but feel concerned. It was unlike anything he had seen in his life, even compared to the crazy things he had witnessed in the last 24 hours.
The dark creature seemed to be made from living shadow, its body built like a sleeker and more elongated version of a bear, but twice the size. If not for his mana detection, he worried he wouldn't be able to see it at all, its body blending into the shadow like it was part of the darkness. Even with his powerful magical senses, he failed to spot much more than its dark outline. The deer it had caught struggled weakly in its hold, sharp teeth digging into its neck, until the shadowy predator made a twisting motion with its jaw and snapped the creature's neck with a sickening crack.
It was too late to save the poor deer, but Lewis refused to turn away, despite his most base instincts screaming at him to run. The knowledge from the spiritual cultivation manual spun in his mind as he forced himself to ignored his instincts.
The fundamental and most basic use of spiritual power is simply to follow through on your will, your desires. To deny fear and perceived logic in the face of a strong will is the core of spirit cultivation. The body and mind can be grown and strengthened with relatively little effort, often not even requiring personal motivation, simply a competent instructor. But strengthening the soul requires one to stick to their ideals and morals, overcoming adversity, and solidifying their mindset. This is the first and final hurdle that often blocks most from harnessing the true power of their spirit. Without a powerful and solid soul, how could they ever truly understand themselves and their will?
For all the ugliness in the world, Lewis always treasured what was pure and beautiful, for without it, he would surely have gone insane. So how could he be true to himself if he let something he found to grant him a moment of awe and inspiration be cut down so ruthlessly before his very eyes? No, this creature had to pay, and he needed more levels anyway.