The Oasis System

Chapter Eight

Finally back in his room, Jace couldn't stop the smile from creeping onto his face. He could feel the acceptance from his mom, his sister looked at him with pride, something he couldn't explain but felt wonderful and Dorian was happy that at least one of them had the talent and was going to be an Awakened. He also couldn't wait for his father, Lucuen to get back from work.  From his memories, he saw that the old Jace adored his father.

Although he asked Dorian to come to his place with Kael later tonight; he wanted to go explore the cave Dorian mentioned earlier; he was curious. And even if he wasn't curious enough, the system had it's own plans. When Dorian mentioned the cave earlier, he had heard a ding from the system but he didn't check it at the time.

However, checking it later, he found out he had triggered the conditions for a "Hidden Quest"

***

Host has completed the conditions required for a hidden quest. Now assigning the following quest :

●"Cave Explorer"

Quest Details : Accompany Dorian and Kael to the cave they found earlier and explore every inch of it.

Reward for Completion: 15 Mana Stones

Penalty for Failure : None.

Time frame : 24 hours.

***

Although the quest didn't come with a penalty for failure, he still wanted to go anyway. Also, the 15 mana stones would go a really long way for them; his Dad only earned 3 mana stones per month and he would get 15 from just exploring a cave.

He just hoped the cave wasn't too big as the quest details involved exploring every inch of the cave.

Pushing those thoughts behind him, he sat down on his bed as he fully brought up the system interface. He accessed the inventory and tapped on the blinking book icon.

The book appeared in his hands the next moment, and he flipped through the pages. The book had illustrations and instructions on cultivation on every page, while the last few pages included some basic Lightning Elemental skills.

Meditation after awakening a certain element was very important, and the location of the meditation was even more important. As he had awakened the Lightning Elemental Attribute, it was advised for him to meditate constantly whenever it was raining, or during a storm. An Awakened that had awakened the

Fire Elemental Attribute for instance, was advised to meditate where there was a certain level of heat. Although it wouldn't be too much because, although awakening a certain Elemental attribute grants the Awakened a certain level of immunity against the element, it was not total immunity, especially at lower ranks.

For instance, a Peak Rank 3 Lightning Awakened could comfortably take on a lightning strike from a Peak Rank 2 Lightning Awakened and in some cases, even absorb the lightning, but if the strike was from another Peak Rank 3 Awakened, it would carry enough power to threaten the Awakened.

Meditation was necessary for breaking through to higher ranks, although one could also break through using other means such as engaging in a dangerous battle that had the risk of death involved, or flooding one's spiritual sea with Elemental supplements like Mana Stones or Meditation Talismans.

Closing the book, Jace adjusted his sitting position as he crossed his legs, remembering the girl he saw earlier and imitating her. He then closed his eyes and, according to the instructions in the book, tried to access his spiritual sea.

It was quiet, and he probed and kept probing, but still nothing. He couldn't feel the spiritual sea that was indicated in the book and he was starting to get worried. The spiritual sea was tied directly to the soul, and his soul wasn't from this world. He might have transmigrated here but ultimately, he wasn't from here; did that mean he didn't have a spiritual sea?.

Refusing to let anything bring him down, he tried again, sweat gathering on his brows as he tried and tried again.

He was about giving up and opening his eyes when he suddenly "saw" something.

There seemed to be a soft glow coming from somewhere. Tracing the light, he finally saw it; his spiritual sea.

It was chaotic, but eerily quiet. Lightning coiled around itself like a serpent, but upon closer inspection, he realised that it wasn't a serpent, but a dragon. The manifestation of his element seemed to be sentient as it opened it's eyes and stared at Jace. For a brief moment, Jace could feel destructive power, he could feel lightning thruming beneath his skin, and he felt like the dragon he was looking at could destroy him with just a breath. Outside, in the real world, Jace's body was glowing, lightning crackling at his fingertips. If the receptionist from earlier had been here to see this, she would have fainted from shock. It takes a week of constant meditation for even the most talented of individuals to access their spiritual sea, and this scrawny looking youth from earlier had accessed his spiritual energy the same day he awakened the element. It was frightening.

Back in the spiritual sea, Jace's lips were twitching as he stared at the Lightning Dragon. He had been looking at the dragon with awe and fear, as it imposed a regal aura. But the dragon suddenly shot up in the air and started flying around, shooting lightning arcs across his Spiritual Sea.

He couldn't differentiate the dragon from a toddler playing around.

'Aren't you supposed to be stoic or something', Jace muttered as he glared at the dragon that seemed to be having fun coiling around itself. Jace was a little confused though; the instruction manual said it was possible for an Elemental Attribute to manifest itself physically, but it only occured in higher ranks after the Attribute must have gone through numerous mutations over the years. But he was still a Rank 1 awakened, so why was there a Lightning Dragon swimming around his Spiritual sea?.

That was not the only thing though, as somewhere on the edge of his spiritual sea, he noticed the dragon was avoiding a particular spot. Floating across his Spiritual Sea, Jace went close to the spot, as the temperature seemed to suddenly drop rapidly, which was shocking as the body here wasn't a physical body.

Upon closer inspection, Jace could see a strange symbol, something similar to what was beneath the girl that was cultivating the Ice Elemental Attribute earlier, but this one was slightly different. What was odd though, was there were strange runes written all over the symbol, that seemed to be suppressing it.

'This must be the Ice Elemental Attribute. Those runes might be removed using an Awakening Stone', Jace thought as he knew he had chosen the Lightning Element and the Ice Element was still locked.

Floating back to the spot the Lightning Elemental Manifestation was most active, Jace swallowed at what he was about to do. The book said he had to "soak" in the Lightning and let it refine his body, allowing it to destroy and rebuild his constitution.

Taking a deep breath, Jace hoped the hyper active Dragon wouldn't get too excited and suddenly strike him with a lightning too powerful for him to handle.

Noting how the Dragon was shooting down arc after arc of lightning, Jace went to the middle of his Spiritual sea, where the lightning strike was most dense.

Gritting his teeth, Jace started absorbing the Lightning strikes, each one more powerful than the previous one as he held on, letting each strike rebuild his spiritual body and in turn, his physical one.