Beyond The System
Chapter 109: Possession

I went up without hesitation, eager to talk to him, too. There wasn’t an extra chair, so I just took a spot on the floor. Marcus, maybe out of politeness, joined me.

We sat in tense silence for a while. For once, I didn’t speak first. I waited, letting him find the words.

“She’s… okay?”

“Sia?” I paused, thinking it through. I wasn’t exactly an expert on her, but she always seemed happy enough. “She is. Close friends with a girl named Lyra and a boy named Elric. We all train together.”

He let out a short, shallow sigh like setting down a weight after maxing out. “How about Helen? Do they still keep in touch?”

“Yeah, Sia and her are very close. Miss Star runs the inn. She still cooks a mean meal, too that might be one of the things I miss most.” I offered a half-joke.

He chuckled softly, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Yeah, that was definitely one of her specialties.”

“Sia and her seem close,” I added.

His next sigh was longer, slower. “That’s… that’s good, so she’s taken care of. Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

I froze for a second, trying to grasp what he was saying, but I couldn’t. “You’re not going to do anything?”

He looked down. The setting sun cast long shadows across his face, pooling under his eyes.

“All that’s out there is death. If we try to es—”

“SO WHAT?!” I snapped. It was ridiculous. His family was out there, and he’d lived here for over a decade, probably barely surviving. Lucky enough to find a safe pocket of land, sure, but he hardly seemed like an expert in this place. That much had been clear today.

“WHAT IS THE POINT OF STAYING HERE?! Of being alone like this?! Why ca—”

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH TRYING TO SURVIVE?!” he snapped, rising to his feet, anger boiling over. The six dogs stirred anxiously, panting and pacing in the background as our voices filled the room.

Then silence.

We were both red-faced, breathing hard. I knew I’d overreacted. He wasn’t wrong, there wasn’t anything wrong with trying to survive, but still, it felt like he was dismissing everything I’d been through. Everything I’d fought to come back from. Just because it felt impossible didn’t mean it wasn’t worth trying.

He sat back down and looked me dead in the eye. “I want to go, Peter… but it just isn’t possible. The Homunculi you fought today? They’re just threats on the outer edge. The center…”

He trailed off. So I pressed, forcing calm back into my voice. “What’s out there, then? Tell me.”

“Something fast,” he said, tension tightening every syllable. “I blinked, and one of my squadmates was just… gone.”

Marcus rubbed his hands together, fingers digging into his palms until the skin turned pale. “There were ten of us. Only the captain even caught a glimpse and that was barely more than a blur according to him.”

He paused, breathing shallow, haunted. “Then another vanished. No time to scream. No blood. Just gone.”

He looked away, jaw clenched. “I panicked. Ordered my familiar to stay behind. Told it to stall whatever that thing was… and then I ran.”

His voice cracked, wavering somewhere between guilt and shame. “I heard shouting behind me. Then screams. Maybe someone else escaped, I don’t know. I didn’t look back. But I doubt it.”

I was stunned. For Marcus to say all this… he wasn’t weak. He’d made it through training. That alone said plenty.

Now, I understand. Whatever was out there, whatever could do that, there really was no point in fighting. You’d just die.

“You had to live, to see your family." I offered an attempt at comfort.

“They all had families,” he said quietly. “Not many as close as I was to mine, but that doesn’t change what I did. I was just a coward.”

He let out a breath like it hurt to say. “I’ll admit you’re strong, Peter. And I’m sure that’s just the surface. But even if I don’t believe in my own strength, I believed in my captain’s, and you wouldn’t stand a chance against him. Hardly anyone would.”

I didn’t argue. What would be the point?

I held up my right arm, turning it slowly in front of him. “I’ve faced danger… and death, but I don’t plan on dying.” I met his eyes. “Do you know about cultivation?”

He gave me a strange look at the shift in topic. “Of course. I learned the basics when I joined the military. Why?”

“Do you want to get stronger? I mean really stronger.”

He shifted where he sat, uneasy. “I haven’t ranked up in a long time, Peter. I don’t even know what my mission is anymore. I’ve been stuck at fifth-level intermediate for ages.”

I shook my head, though honestly, I was a little surprised myself. Elric had said most people never made it past first-level intermediate. “I’m talking about real cultivation.”

He started to shake his head again and answered in that quiet, scolding tone people use when correcting kids. “I don’t kno—”

I cut him off. “I’m a Bloodless.”

“What?”

Apparently that word was rare enough that even State-trained adults didn’t recognize it right away. “I have no system. No blessing. No stats. No way to complete missions.”

His eyes widened as it hit him. “You don’t mean?”

“All cultivation,” I said, holding his gaze. “Your daughter, my friends, we all practice it. I’ve seen how far it can take someone. Growth that doesn’t stop, at least not for a long time, and you’re not tied to missions. With your system on top of it?” I shrugged. “Honestly, I can’t imagine you’d be weaker than your captain.”

Marcus went quiet. His brow furrowed, like he was weighing everything I’d just said against years of drilled-in beliefs. “How long would it take?” he asked at last, voice low.

I smiled. “Took me a few weeks, but with guidance, and if you do it in the right order, you could move faster. Where did you leave off?”

“I stopped after failing to form a core.” He rubbed his hands together, avoiding my eyes.

I nodded. “Then you’ve already started purification, at least. Honestly, that might be better than if you’d succeeded." Without a Grand Channel, his core would’ve been way less dense anyway. No idea what kind of impact that has… but I doubt it’s good.

From there, I walked him through it. The three main structures, the transformations, and the foundational work every cultivator should build.

“Forming all three takes more time,” I explained, “but if you do it right, I genuinely don’t know what your upper limit would be. Since I had to figure it out on the fly, I’ve got a different path ahead.”

He leaned in, clearly interested now. “Auto-circulating energy… that alone solves one of cultivation’s biggest problems, doesn’t it? That alone would make me stronger. But what if… what if even that’s not enough?”

“It might not be,” I admitted. “But you’ve still got your system, and what if you could raise your stats another way, like endurance and agility?”

He blinked. “What? Increase them how?”

“Purification and Body Refinement. It’s a way to increase stats permanently with cultivation.” I watched his reaction closely, and sure enough, there was surprise. But behind that, a ravenous hunger to understand.

I explained the method followed by its effects.

“Amazing,” he murmured. “How did you find all this out?”

“All of us worked at it,” I said. “We trained, experimented, and shared information. We pushed ourselves... and each other, but you need to know, once you start Body Refinement, really start, there's no going back.”

My throat felt dry. The sun had almost completely set now, casting long shadows across the wooden floor, but I kept talking.

I told him about the porcelain-faced being with god-like power and cruelty. The one who noticed us, but also the benefit of my Precursor Energy and the changes it had on the system.

Then his expression shifted.

“My daughter’s already has that things attention?” His voice was cold and focused.

I nodded once.

“Then there’s no debate,” he said, eyes hardening. “She won’t face that kind of danger alone. Not while I’m still breathing.”

“You’ve made up your mind, then?” I asked.

He didn’t hesitate. “You’ll teach me. And when I’m ready, we’re getting out of here.”

I stood. “Great. Then your first step should be to completely purify your body and form your foundation, but really, focus on purification first if you want to move quickly. Once you achieve Perfect Conversion, the rest is just effort.”

He gestured to the dogs. “Ultimately, I’m not a warrior but a mage. I rely on them for most of my power. What you’re offering would make me both, I guess… but if they can’t grow with me, I’d have to abandon them. I—I can’t let another one die.”

I didn’t know how to respond but Wyrem, of course, jumped in. ‘Talk to the beasts. They don’t seem intelligent, so you can probably force your will on them with that power.’ He always had a way with words. Off-putting ways.

‘Just get stronger. I’ll help where I can, but not in my current condition,’ he added.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I told Marcus. “Start with what you’re able. Remember, you don’t need much energy from a core.”

He laughed softly and closed his eyes. “You said you formed yours after your first transformation. I’ll probably need to fill my Nexus near to capacity first, but that won’t take too long.”

Oh, right. That part.

It gets easier the more you purify anyway. I watched him walk toward one of the lazy dogs sprawled next to a sibling.

They could already form solid constructs from energy. Purification shouldn’t be a problem… right?

I took a deep breath, channeling the red lightning like I always did. I drove it through my inner flame, then out through my palm, pressing my hand gently against the dog at the last moment.

#

I opened my eyes and looked around, blinking a few times before turning my head. There I was, my human body, sitting where I’d left it, like it had just settled naturally.

There was no other presence here, nothing clouding my thoughts or pulling at my identity. I was still Peter.

Except… color was weird. Everything was tinted in blends of blue and yellow, swirling and mixing where they met. It was disorienting, like I was seeing energy layered over reality.

Wyrem had told me to insert my will into the body I was inhabiting, but I had a different idea. Something like how I first experienced Luna’s cultivation. If I could perform cultivation within this body, purification and all, it might retain the knowledge. Maybe even pass it along by instinct. If the whole pack learned…

I decided not to test how difficult walking on all fours would be. Instead, I focused inward, on the energy inside this body.

And just as I expected, they did cultivate. At least, in some way.

Something like a Spiritual Root ran through the entire form, from snout to tail, filled with still, untapped energy. They must’ve known how to circulate it instinctually. Enough to create and control Spiritual Objects, at least.

Alright. First step: needle core formation. 

I gathered what I believed was enough energy and shaped the familiar needle. This part was second nature by now. Still, I felt a little guilty as I began carving into the thin roots, etching the spiral patterns deep into them, teaching them the painful process.

If these creatures already had so much control, then faster energy flow should be manageable. Ideally, they’d adapt to the chaos. Worst case? They’d tire more quickly in a fight, but I already knew, a strong enough opening move could end a battle before it really began.

I pushed through the pain until the needle dissolved. Then I repeated the process, again and again, until only a small reserve of internal force remained. I didn’t want to drain it all. No idea what that might do to the dog.

After that, I cultivated.

Oddly enough I could still feel Water Force. Not absorb it, but feel it brushing the edges of my awareness. In other words, these dogs could sense both Natural and Water energy just like me, or maybe my ability was tied to my spirit, not my body.

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