Benkongerike Cave is located in the north of Solstheim just a few miles north to the Skaal Village by going up the mountain. The area was rich with beauty and nature that made me pause every now and then to smell the fresh cold air of the sea. It wasn't like as I missed but the Ashlands are really too filthy to endure. I wonder how the dark elves can do it!
Anyway, this phase the plan was about us six only going around in Nordic Ruins and getting our training done. Any numerical disadvantage will be handled by me as the best Summoner of the group and will also support and also attack, Tanking is for Wulfur, Scouting is for Jullanar, Dealing Damage is for Alina and Healing is for Bjorna. The five of us are a complete team when it comes to facing hordes of monsters.
And this is what happened when we entered Benkongerike Cave, Rieklings attacked us from every side there is.
"What is Ysmir's name is going on here? Is this a kingdom of Rieklings?" Wulfur shouted.
"Hehe, the royal knights are coming at your way, Sir Wulfur."
As I said that, a few Rider Rieklings charged at Wulfur on their boars.
"On it."
Wulfur waved his hammer taking down the three Riekling Riders and their Bristlebacks in one go.
"Hey, Jon. Any contribution to society?" Jull asked.
"I am filling the place with my Undead, what more do you need?"
"Put down Nefertiti and help us like you mean it."
"No, her meowjesty has asked for a massage. Until I am needed, I will keep on serving the Princess."
Nefertiti was in her normal cat form and wanted to laze on my arm since this morning. She was acting all playful and cute since she woke up. I kept stroking her back and she was reacting nicely.
"How is she today?" Jull asked.
"Much like a cat actually, she does not remember all the fight of yesterday's and very happy with the rings I brought her. Also, do you notice that she have grown? She is a bit bigger."
Yesterday, I brought her 4 rings with me. They were all blessed by Hircine and made for Werebeasts. They are:-
[Ring of Bloodlust] Increases the power of her Intimidation growls and hisses.
[Ring of Instinct] heightens her instincts and senses.
[Ring of the Hunt] Increases her Power, Speed and Durability.
[Ring of the Moon] Heals wounds faster.
[A/N: I tweeked the rings to become better than the game]
These rings were all blessed by the Stag Prince Hircine and would benefit Nefertiti greatly. Nefertiti was very pleased with them and absorbed them in her Shadow, I don't understand how or why but she got their power.
This cute little devil is getting more mysterious but the connection between us was never this stronger. There is indeed a link beyond my understanding the same way Alina described it. I can even sense Nefertiti's mood now.
What is important now was that Nefertiti assured me that she passed the unease she was feeling and feels much better. I would take her words for it and keep loving her for a few more hours.
Putting her meowjesty aside for now, I started practicing some new spells was my undead were taking down the Riekling with the rest of the team.
Yesterday, I tested a new spell on the Werewolves that was called 'Electrohand'. It was just an orignal Expert Level. Another new spell that I learned was 'Mimic', Nurina gave me the tome of it a long time ago but I a not good with Illusion and it took me quite a while. The last and the coolest spell I learned was a spell called 'Necro Construction', which is a spell that creates undead.
[Electrohand] is an original of mine as the name gives out, a crossover between Lightning Magic and Telekinesis which is far more powerful and violent than both. I managed to carry a large rock with it, its weight must be around five tons.
[Mimic] is a known spell that can change the voice and slightly the appearance, I can't change my body shape but I can change the simple things like the colors, the hair, the facial features and the maybe can make my ear pointy.
[Necro Construction] is a spell that hailed from the Cult of Worms, the worst Necromancer Faction in the history of this world of Tamriel. The spell itself can gather together the bones and the flesh of dead mortals and animals to create whatever the caster wants, be it a Bone Colossus or just a Skeletal Warrior as long as the caster studied the undead creature of course.
With these three spells in my arsenal, I felt like a new man once again. I haven't learned a new spell in ages.
Back to Benkongerike Cave. We traveled far through the icy cave and started to have troubles with the Rieklings, they were too many and chaotically organized if you get the gist of it. They would swarm in weird synchronization and disperse when they are overwhelmed.
Still, we managed to push through and reached Benkongerike Great Hall which was a Nordic Ruin behind the icy cave.
In the Great Halls, there were some Draugrs that took some effort to bring down until we reached the end of the halls and solved a dump Ancient Nordic Puzzle to cross through the doors.
"Can anyone just tell me what is the point of solving these dump puzzles?" I asked loudly.
"Legends mention that they were created to distract the people who solve them from the traps. Luckily we know that and we solve them carefully."
"Tsk! Too soft. When I die, I want you guys to make a grand tomb for me. Those who want to loot my personal Third Versions of the 'Lusty Argonian Maid' will have to go through death traps, flying traps, Fire Traps, walking on the sky traps and real traps... I want you guys to recreate Diablo 2 on Hell Mode. with a hundred levels deep in the ground and assign the meanest monsters to inhabit that dungeon. At the coffin room, I want a Word Wall that says (Lok Hen, Zeymah), which means (High Five, Bro) as I walk out as a Draugr and troll the adventurers."
As I finished talking, I was stared at by five pairs of dumb eyes. No… four, don't count Nefertiti.
"... Okay." They all were mostly crept out.
"What about you Wulfur? How do you like your crypt to be like?"
"Small one room with an Orichalcum heavy door. Whoever can open the door with a hammer gets to have my personal legacy."
"Oh! How generous! What about you Alina?"
"On the top of a mountain, the closest point to Kyne I can get."
"... Can't argue with your logic. What about you Jull?"
"I'll go with Alina. Your place is so creepy."
"Tsk! Bjorna?"
"Are you guys really going along with his joke? We are in an Ancient Tomb! Which is filled with the dead! And you all are talking about your death? I would just turn around and leave you guys."
"... Makes sense!" "Yeah yeah." "Totally."
With my weird fellowship, we reached the end of Benkongerike Great Hall and there was no boss at all, just an old Word Wall and a passage with a familiar stench.
We walked through that passage and arrived at a room similar to the Black Book room of Ahzidal and there was also a Black Book. We followed the same process and sealed the Black Book in a containment chest.
After doing so, we returned to the Word Wall to study it.
It said:-
--------------------
NONVUL BRON DahMaaN DaaR ROT
DO FIN FODiiZ BORMAH KENDOV KRIF
OK KOSIL VOKUL NUZ JUN GaaR
NiiN NAU OK HOKORON
Which meant:
Noble Nords, remember these words
Of the Hoar-Father: a warrior fights
his evil, but a king unleashes
on his enemy
--------------------
The important word her was 'Gaar' which meant 'Unleash'.
With that, I have the second and the third words of a new shout, all I need is the first or I can just try to comprehend it on my own which will work but will take a month at least, these Word Wall contain a lot of insight after all.
With that, we left out the tomb by using 'Teleport' to the outside. I may have forgotten to mention that I now can mark the Space itself so I can Teleport back to it.
"How long did this tomb take?"
"Almost a day. Kinda feel tired now that I mention it."
"White Ridge Barrow is that way, we can make camp at its entrance."
We traveled two hours on our Flame Atronach Horses until we reached White Ridge Barrow, we arrived at the barrow's entrance but didn't make a camp, I decided that we all should go in the Haven Cube.
We gathered in the main space and had a meal before sending Nefertiti to bed. Wulf and I started a heated discussion in our corner and the girls actually started to Meditate.
I started working with Wulfur on the Stalhrim we acquired some time ago and he managed to grind it then reshape it in tubes. I took the tubes and started enchanting them to the then stuffed the reshaped enchanted empty Soul Gem into and started to close the product. I was lacking some key material like the core of the reactor but I think with the temperature of the Stalhrim, I will not face any problem with the overheating ever again. My Magicka Reactor is a few days away from being the most promising source of power in this world if I don't royally screw it up.
While we were working, I heard a strange sound and a gust of wind moved inside the space. I looked around me to see where this wind came from as it was strange, the Cube allows air and Magicka to flow in and go out but not wind…
"Jon, I think a force wave came out of Jorna just now!" Wulfur said.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Come, let's see."
As we went towards Bjorna, she opened her eyes and looked at herself in a strange way.
"Did something happen to me?" She asked.
"Yeah, one of those pulse waves that I talked about before." I said.
Alina and Jullanar opened their eyes and came towards us.
"What is going around here?"
"Jorna just experienced one of those Pulses Waves."
"You still haven't figured out what it means?"
"No…"
This thing was still depressing me.
"Hey, Jon. I think I have experienced that feeling before. You know… my Energy Center felt like something going in strongly and something coming out."
"Oh, you mean the Magicka Pool here. I see! Hmmm… maybe because Jorna is the one with the least Essence Energy between us so you felt more than us. I guess when we steal that World's Energy from the Magicka Pool and pull it to feed the Essence-Energy in the Soul, something comes out while the Energy goes in… everyone, halt your training for now. Cousin, give me your hand."
I bossed everyone around and contacted the Augur to provide him with the update.
{Your thinking is indeed Logical. I also looked into the previous Data you sent and found that when Arch-Mage Shalidor reported that he stole the Secret of Immortality from Akatosh, he was being vague about it. He may have actually did the same process that you are doing right now or something similar to it.}
'Damn! Then this Pulse Waves should be a good sign, right?'
{Indeed. Keep providing me with Data. Also, the conclusion that when you steal the Energy of Heaven and lock it into your Soul as Essence Energy is a good of thinking. There is indeed a form of Energy that comes out.}
'What kind of energy?'
{It is like a lower class energy compared to the Energy you take in. Think of it as the Profound Essence Energy you absorbed replaces the Mortal Energy. Every Pulse Wave means progress and your soul is approaching a realm new to us.}
'So it is also a good sign, good then! How many of those Energy Waves can we expecting to happen?'
{For you, I guess you are nearing the limit and will replace all your Mortal Energy soon, for your friends… I guess you should count how many pulses they have progressed through until now.}
'Thank you, you are really helpful.'
{I am doing something that serves my interest too so don't think too much about it. Just remember to keep me posted.}
'Alright!'
As I cut the connection with the Augur, I started exploring the Soul of Bjorna and compared it to mine.
This should be how three layers of the new Profound Energy look like. I am not sure how to count the Mortal Energy but it is good.
I have eight layers myself… I see.
I opened my eyes and held Wulfur's hands after Jorna, after some measuring, I judged him to have five layers.
Alina was six layers and Jull was five like Wulfur.
I understand now.
I started telling the group the things the Augur and I understood from the Stealing the secret of Immortality from Akatosh like Shalidor to the layers and all that.
"So it means we are advancing and getting stronger?" Jull asked.
"As I said before, your body is becoming abundant with Essence Energy when you get more layer of it and condense them over each other. To answer your question, I would say that we can exert more Physical Energy and have increase Magicka that way but our physical strength is still around the same. Who knows, maybe after we condense enough energy in our souls, our bodies start to get stronger too.
Don't forget that the 'Soul' is the Energies of the body and all that is locked into the 'Astral Body' which is locked into the 'Physical Body' and both bodies are connected through the 'Acupoints'. When the 'Soul' quality reaches the limit, I am sure that the 'Astral Body' will be refined enough to cause changes in the 'Physical Body'."
I said and my head was getting overloaded with calculations.
"Damn, he is a super nerd." Jullanar mocked me.
"He is the best nerd in the world." Alina calmly defended me.
I was being praised by the four as an idiotic otaku idea popped into my head.
"Oh here it comes, he'll ruin the moment." Jull foresaw my idea.
"Totally." Even Alina swiched sides.
"Okay, thank you but now… this new discovery needs some classification. As a discoverer of the profound art of Meditating, I would like to start putting this classification myself."
"You mean you would name it?"
"Any objection?"
"Your naming sense is terrible." "Yeah." "Don't do it, Jon."
"Just hear me out. I am saying that we are 'Stealing' from the Dragon God 'Akatosh' following the example of 'Shalidor', and judging that the Blessing of Akatosh is related to Magicka Regeneration, I would love to name this first Realm of Cultivation, the [Dragon Robbing Stage]. Like that, I am at the '8th Layer of the Dragon Robbing Realm', Alina is '6th Layer', Wulfur and Jull at the '5th Layer' and Jorna at the '3rd Layer'."
"... that may not be bad after all." Alina said.
"Distasteful but whatever."
And that's how we agreed to name our first Realm of Cultivation.
[A/N: The name of the First Realm is made by inspiration from the Chinese Novels as you can guess. [Dragon Robbing] is similar to [Qi Condensation] as in both cases the cultivator robs the Energy and goes against Heaven. I think the Elder Scrolls world is based on the same concept as the Mortals were locked into Mundus by Lorkhan and ascend by the CHIM like Talos. I am not going the Talos Scenario so don't worry about the spoilers.
The rest of the martial arts realms are [Foundation Establishment] [Core Formation] and [Nascent Soul], I intend on changing the names into Nordic Style ones and will accept suggestions. Also, tell me what you think of the [Qi Condensation] becoming the [Dragon Robbing], I think its neat but I will change it based on the opinions.]