Nostalgic Gamer in a Cultivation World

“Pa-Patirarch… I am hotter than Songi?”

“Definitely hotter. I can clearly see it. That’s why you are better than him in most aspects. You are hotter than him.”

Vahn was confused at the sudden discussion.

“Hey Meta, why is everyone suddenly so tensed?” Vahn asked Meta. As an eleven-year-old, he couldn’t understand why everyone had a strange expression.

“...Vahn, never show yourself to Lord Dyne without clothes. And respectfully sleep far away from him at night.” Meta warned.

“Why?”

“Heed my words, Vahn. Know that I care for you and want what’s best for you.” Meta spoke like a mother being overprotective to her child.

“Ho-hotter?” Zopu couldn’t believe his ears.

“Yeah. You see, in the Elemental Wheel chart, Gala is Lightning. Biron Monastery uses powerful heat energy below and has been the primary source of meditation. Everyone trains their bodily cultivation by absorbing these energies to break through the levels of bodily cultivation.” Dyne began to explain.

“Songi is either Dark or Time, but basically, his elemental affinity should be almost the opposite of Fire. As such, you being lightning, are able to easily absorb the fire energy since it is in your Elemental Family! In fact, it's very close. Lightning is just right next to Fire.”

Zopu, Kin, and Gala still had a confused look, but Tetsu had an extremely relieved look.

“So you mean to say that because Gala’s elemental affinity is closer to fire, he can train better in Biron Monastery, whereas, Songi, who has a- erm… ‘colder’ Element, will struggle training here?” Tetsu clarified.

“Exactly. Songi is a skilled warrior. He is definitely better than Gala. But the reason why you are better than Songi in bodily cultivation and absorbing the energy around Biron is because you are Lightning. This place should be the worst place to train for Songi! I mean, it is better than anywhere where the Mist is, but this is the worst elemental training ground for him. Probably Drake Castle would be a good place for him to cultivate.” Dyne explained.

Gala was still confused and glanced at Zopu and Kin, who seemed to be as lost as he was.

“Discuss the Elemental Wheel with Tetsu. He can explain more about that.” Dyne sighed and left the responsibility of explaining the Elemental Wheel to Tetsu.

Dyne went back to concentrating and meditating. Of course, this was what it looked like. In truth, Dyne was ‘playing around with the fire energy around him.

Tetsu began to write and explain everything that Dyne had taught him about the Elements. As this was happening, Meta felt great relief and told Vahn to forget her words and warnings and never bring that conversation to Dyne. Ever.

The enlightening discussion brought Zopu and Kin to a new height of knowledge.

“So this means, the Monks that have shown aptitude in this might be because they have an Elemental Affinity close to Fire. Whereas the poorer ones either have no Elemental affinity or have ones that are far from Fire!” Kin was amazed.

“Then… exactly how strong is Songi compared to Master Teacher?”

“Easily three times stronger.” Dyne didn’t even hesitate to answer.

In Legend of Legaia, it took Vahn, Gala, and Noa, along with seven Genesis Tree’s worth of power, to defeat the final form of Songi! Even if Songi were wearing a Sim-Seru/Ra-Seru mix, it still wouldn’t explain how he would be stronger than the first Rebel of Tieg, Rogue!

Gala, Kin, and Zopu were startled at Dyne’s words.

“Patriarch… Surely you jest.” Kin asked.

“Nope. Dead serious. If he trains under favorable conditions, or even with the same advantages Gala has, he can easily surpass Gala.”

“Was that why you were hard on him?” Tetsu asked.

“Yeah. His soul was dark. I had to do something. At this point, he can either learn from this or submit to his rage. Either way, as a Cultivator, he needs to face this as early as now before the darkness spreads.” Dyne explained.

“Then… Patriarch, if I can be so daring to ask… If Songi does train, would he be better than you?” Gala asked.

Zopu and Kin were startled at Gala’s question and were about to apologize, but Dyne answered.

“I don’t know. Probably. I mean, I won the match earlier through cunning, trapping him, and because I had advantages from my Enlightenment from Strafe. I mean, Tieg. Strafe is his real name.”

Zopu and Kin were trembling.

“You call Tieg by that name? Only those who are elders learn of this name!”

“Yeah. He told me. He was actually pretty chill.” Dyne recollected the first night they met.

“So Songi has the potential to be as strong as you?” Gala asked again.

“Yes.”

Strafe was rolling his soul's eyes. Like hell, Songi can be as strong as Dyne! This twerp had such a great potential in Soul Cultivation that even Strafe’s master would have felt inferior!

Strafe gazed back and felt something happening within the world of Legaia.

“Fate Resonance?” Strafe then looked back at the world and searched for the source of Fate Resonance.

Finally, he noticed that the souls of the Tetsu, Zopu, and Kin were reacting. It was as if something was changing.

Strafe was shocked at what he saw.

“You… You have the Eyes of Destiny!”

“What’s that?”

“You are able to change the destiny and future of a person! How did you achieve that? The workings of Fate are changing again! They are now destined to be far stronger than who they were!” Strafe was surprised.

“I don’t know what that is… But I just know what to do to make them grow stronger or have that passion.”

“That’s exactly it! Imparting Enlightenment is difficult to do! Yet you can do so! Tetsu’s Fate is changing, and the laws of the world I created for Legaia can’t calculate it anymore! This means he could soon have the chance of achieving a severing! And all you did was lie about being in a dream world!”

“I need him to believe that I began Soul Cultivation longer! The effects of the Mist are terrifying. If I told him outside that I was cultivating in that dream, he might have gotten jealous. But here, with the pure and soothing aura that doesn’t drive people mad or full of negative emotions, he would respond positively here. Instead of getting jealous, he would get encouraged and stop blaming himself for his lack of skill.”

“So you do know just how much of a freak you are, huh? You’re right! The problem for Tetsu and everyone else here is because you are too much of a prodigy! You are the first Soul Cultivator they met, and they met a genius that possibly surpasses all Soul Cultivators!”

“Aww… You’ll make me blush.” Dyne laughed.

“Is it that psychology branch that you studied on Earth?”

“Sort of. I was skilled in human psychology, so I can tell how another person would act. Don’t you have that? In the cultivation world?

“In my world, there was no need to practice psychology or anything like that as we have ways to draw out the truth from people through magic and medicines. But you on Earth had so little to go through that you even developed such a powerful art.”

“You guys don’t have psychological studies? Well, that makes sense. No wonder people in those cultivation novels are so thick and dull.”

“We never really needed it. But now that I see it and how you use it to guide the soul, it is indeed formidable.”

“Speaking of guiding the soul, didn’t you do something with Tetsu? His Biron Palm Technique had grown so strong.”

“I noticed a long time that his current potential is far greater than the previous potential of the original soul that makes up Tetsu. So when he was practicing one night, he fell into Enlightenment, and I secretly used that opportunity to share a certain technique with him. It was one of the strongest Soul force attacks I’ve encountered. And he seems to have suddenly developed the potential to learn it. Which is strange… He never had that talent.”

“Eh? You didn’t notice? He got inspired when I showed it to him the first time. It created passion and desire. I was actually thinking of a way to help him improve it, but you beat me to it. So all I had to do was modify it so to make that awesome Hadouken. I mean, sure, he has a soul from Elpida, but this is a new life, and the experiences he goes through here change him and his soul. You got to consider passion, inspiration, and experiences to know what a person is good at.” Dyne explained.

“… Am I the Reincarnated, and you’re the god in this scenario? Why are you teaching me what to do?!” Strafe complained.

“What? I’m just correcting you! You seem a bit slow in understanding a person’s soul after all!” Dyne complained.

“You mother fragmenting firmament!” Strafe cursed at Dyne but couldn’t find the words to argue. Dyne was right when Strafe was considering his words.

“Am I wrong? I just got here, and I can feel that Kin and Zopu have already started to fight for their Fate!”

Strafe had nothing to say. Dyne’s explanation was very precise.

“You- You-You! Alright! Since you’re so arrogant, she liked you and wanted you to make a move that night, but you were too busy reflecting on games! She even said, ‘why don’t you play with me, then,’ which was her way of inviting you to move, but you said, ‘RPG games are mostly single-player games!’ You idiot!” Strafe dropped the bomb.

Dyne’s haughty expression suddenly turned ugly.

“Mother fragmenting firmament!” Dyne cursed out aloud, surprising those in the room.