Ronan realised an annoying part of the concentration baptism after he consumed the first of the shards to learn his new Mystic Energy cultivation method. Without the ten-times cultivation talent multiplier from his heritage, things went much slower. The process was still far quicker than it had been when he first cultivated, given that he had plenty of skills and other boons that sped up his cultivation, but dropping in speed and efficiency was disheartening.

  However, he knew that the only way to regain those multipliers was to cultivate and gain more stages. So he pushed through. His new cultivation art was curious. It didn’t require much extra effort on his part, except for one quirk. When cultivating the Mystic Energy pathway, his cycling of the shard energy would sometimes randomly shift directions and in doing so, cause a knock-on effect that interrupted his mana flow.

  If left unchecked that would cause severe internal damage and prevent him from making gains to his cultivation. The first time had caught him off guard and he had failed to stop the cascading disaster in time to prevent himself losing shard energy, but after that he got the hang of it quite fast.

  He suspected that whatever he was doing was ‘teaching’ his energy to react in the ways described in the Dynamic Flow Mystic Energy Art, granting it the resilience and adaptability it promised. Whatever the case, it wasn’t a particular struggle to accomplish and with just half a minute to spare he managed to make a breakthrough in his Mystic Energy cultivation.

  Congratulations! Your hard work and effort have allowed you to reach the fifteenth realm of Mystic Energy Cultivation!

  Mystic Energy Cultivation has advanced from [Vibrating ★★★] to [Vibrating ★★★★]!

  All forms of energy regenerate 275% faster

  Energy costs are reduced by 120%

  Efficacy of endurance and regeneration +210%

  Potency of endurance and regeneration +65%

  There is a 1% chance to regain 50% of the expended energy when using a skill, spell, or other applicable process that costs energy to activate. Only works on one-time costs and not channeled or long-term energy expenditures.

  After that he checked how much progress he had made in the art, noting that it progressed quite fast compared to his other ones, despite its relatively high rank.

  [Partial Status - Ronan Steele]

  [Cultivation]

  Mind: Opal ★★★ (2.3%) [Seven Silent Clarities (Legendary), 13.8%]

  Body: Iron ★★★ (7.1%) [Diamondback Gorilla (Rare), 89.2%]

  Energy: Vibrating ★★★★ (1.6%) [Dynamic Flow (Epic), 7.9%] [+]

  Soul: Yellow ★★★★ (2.8%) [Endless Wellspring Prismatic Soul Art (Legendary), 3.9%]

  A brief check of the plus-sign besides the progress of the Dynamic Flow art displayed his previously mastered arts, which at that moment only had the Nine Mouths Delta listed. That was a useful tool, if only for Ronan to keep track of what his Artful Accumulation boost would be.

  He also realised he was fairly close to mastering the Diamondback Gorilla Tempered Body Art. He still had two shards left, both of which were body-aspected, but unfortunately lacked the time to perform the necessary cultivation practice. He would have to do so after he completed stage 4. He hoped to acquire more shards there, which should let him push his body cultivation up another realm, too.

  With his next break planned out, Ronan prepared himself to be transported to stage 4 as the countdown approached zero. He looked forward to what the tutorial had in store for him.

  0…

  Good luck, challenger!

  Except when the countdown ended, there was no sudden feeling of weightlessness or being yanked out of reality. Ronan remained where he was, sat on the deck of the enormous ship that was making its way through a stormy sea.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  He stood up after a few seconds. Did the system break? His first thought was that the system had finally made a mistake after its endless displays of omniscience. However, that was quickly proven not to be the case when an endless number of whirlpools began to form around the ship, the smaller ones revealing monsters breaching through the waves.

  A glance at the tags Ronan saw over their heads let him know that there had been a huge spike in difficulty. Even with the exponential scaling that the higher tutorial difficulties have shown, this seems extreme…

  [Mutated Turtle Lv.99]

  [Mutated Tiger Shark Lv.99]

  …

  [Mutated Lobster Lv.99]

  All of the ‘smaller’ monsters that emerged were at level 99, but as Ronan watched, larger and more terrifying creatures began to rise from the depths, pushing beyond the level 100 boundary. He wondered if monsters experienced similar evolutions at those thresholds as other sapient races like humans. They didn’t have classes, but they could clearly evolve or change in some way.

  Whatever the case, he couldn’t just stand around watching as a horde of mutated sea creatures appeared. The first ones that had arrived were already charging the ship and he knew what would happen if he allowed their numbers to grow beyond what he could handle.

  Ronan conjured a longsword, one that was smaller than the one he used previously as he wanted to be able to wield it with a single hand. That left his left hand free to begin channeling Rainbow Bomb. To take out a group of monsters this size, he would need all the area-of-effect damage he could churn out.

  The first monster to reach him was a shark that leapt out of the waves and flew right onto the deck with its jaws wide open in an attempt to swallow him whole. He refused to allow the monster such an easy victory, but even with the level advantage the tiger shark had it wasn’t a match for Ronan. A single swing of his sword cleaved it in twain, sending the two halves of the creature thudding onto the deck.

  He let the first Rainbow Bomb fly after that, tossing it into a group of monsters that was slower on the approach. It blew up, outright killing two and critically wounding the others that were caught in the kaleidoscopic explosion. Before it even struck he had started to channel a second while also defending himself from the series of attacks that were sent his way. Plenty of the monsters had ranged attacks of some form or another, with a few even displaying magical abilities and firing various spells.

  Dispel was enough to handle most of them once Ronan realised they were not physical projectiles, but magical skills. As for the monsters that were bold enough to attack the ship directly or even jump on deck like the shark, Ronan carved them apart without care.

  It only took ten minutes for the first true opponent to appear. After defeating dozens of fodder monsters, another mini-boss reared its head. Unlike the infant leviathan, it was no abomination, but simply a more powerful version of a regular marine creature.

  An enormous tuna fish with swords for fins jumped out of the water and began to swim towards Ronan. Through the air. He quickly realised that it was using magic to manipulate the winds and fly, but it was a shock at first. Whatever strange abilities the mutated tuna fish had, he wasn’t going to let it faze him. Launching a rainbow bomb and a javelin at it after using Mark of the Eternal Seeker, Ronan let his battered sword dissipate and conjured a fresh one.

  His spell and javelin struck simultaneously. The fish let out a cry of pain, blood spraying the surface of the sea from the wounds opened along its flank, but it didn’t stop its charge. Ronan raised his sword in both hands, ready to meet his foe in battle as it neared the ship and opened its mouth to reveal razor-sharp teeth lining its maw.

  Unfortunately the mini-boss proved anticlimactic as an opponent. Despite the display of magical skills and its bluster, Ronan managed to slice its underbelly open with one fell swoop, causing it to crash into the control tower and spill its guts all over the deck. It hadn’t died from that blow, but the follow-up Rainbow Bomb that sent a gory red mist spraying across the ship finished the job.

  He turned his attention back to the hordes of minor monsters. The ship was shaking and moving slower than before. A glance over the sides told Ronan it was taking serious damage. Given that he had stayed on board between stages 3 and 4, the structural damage worried him. If he needed to remain on the ship for stage 5 and it was too damaged to function, that would prove a serious issue.

  With that in mind, he focused his efforts on killing the monsters that seemed more inclined to attack the ship than Ronan himself. He actually leapt off the boat to attack, using the floating corpses of the monsters he’d already killed as footholds when needed. He was only able to do a little culling before he spotted two more mini-bosses. Both were level 149 and he could feel the mana coming off them in waves. He couldn’t let them hit the ship or it might start to sink.

  That meant leaving the safety of the deck behind and taking the bastards on in their own home turf—or rather, home waters. No terrain advantage will stop me from getting more superpowered seafood. With a roar of defiance, he marked both mini-bosses and let the first Rainbow Bomb of the battle fly.