Guide Souls: Chronicles

Upon leaving the craftsman district, Xing and Lei parted ways. With Lei wanting to go and try out her new personal weapon. While Xing wanted to hurry home and delve into his Mindscape, eager to see what he could learn from the Soul Archive. Lei had tried to get Xing to come with her and spar, but his mind was elsewhere as he politely turned her down.

Xing weaved through the winding pathways of the tribe on his way toward the plateau and his home, ignoring the frequent gazes and whispers he received.

By the time he had reached, and climbed up the overlook, the midday sun was shining brightly in the clear blue sky.

When he was about to enter into his personal tent, his father came out from the chief's tent which was just opposite, and calling out to him, "Xing, there you are, I was just about to send someone to find you. I have something I would like to discuss with you."

"What is it, father?" Xing turned to regard him, trying not to sound impatient.

"Haven't you been asking frequently about just what it is that your mother and I are planning, and what we wish to achieve?" Zheng walked over to his son until he was standing in front of him.

"Well yeah. And you always said it can wait until I was older."

His father nodded, "Yes, even though you're still only 11 years old, according to tribe tradition, you are an a.d.u.l.t. Since not only did you complete the coming-of-age ceremony, but you also came 1st in it. I believe that now is the time for you to know."

Xing interrupted, "What, right now? I'm kind of busy…"

"No, not right now. Since it would be best for both me and your mother to be there, and it would also take quite awhile as there is a lot to get through."

Xing sighed in relief. Although he very much wanted to know about his parents' ambition and goals, he was currently not in the mood, since at this time his mind was on other thoughts.

Zheng turned away and started walking back to the chief's tent, "We will be discussing it tomorrow morning though, so keep your schedule open."

"Alright!" Xing called out before his father entered the tent.

***

Upon entering his tent, Xing noticed that Umbra was curled up into a black ball on top of his bed. She must have been in a deep sleep, as she did not regard the presence that entered. Or maybe she knew it was Xing, so she didn't bother, as there was no danger.

Xing waked over to a wooden shelf within the tent and grabbed a G-Rank Monster-Core off of it, 'If I remembered correctly, only one G-Rank core is required for the first time, with the second time being 5 G-Rank cores. And after that, it increases by 5 for each subsequent use.'

Glancing at the remaining cores on the shelf, '5 more G-Rank, 1 F-Rank, and 1 E-Rank. Seems I have enough cores for 2 more pieces of information after this time, since 1 F-Rank Core equals 10 G-Rank.'

As Xing thought, he sat down in front of his bed in a meditative posture, while clutching the core within his hands. It didn't take long before Xing's mind went into a deep meditative trance, as he entered his Mindscape.

His Mindscape looked no different to how it did when he had last entered. With pitch-black nature and pitch-black marble structures, both ruined, and not, dotted around a pitch-black landscape.

The only change was the 2nd Circle within the sky, which had lit up in a mana-blue color all the way around, completing the circle. However, the black and white, light and dark, elemental energy had only color half of the circle, meaning Xing was half-way toward ranking up to 2nd Circle.

Xing reached the Soul Archive quickly as she traveled down the path leading toward it eagerly, and entered the pitch-black structure's doorway. Which led into the blank room, where there was naught but a chair and desk.

Sitting down at the desk, Xing began the process on how to use the Archive based on what he had learned back when he had first entered the building. 'All I need to do is focus on the information that I want.'

Focusing his mind, Xing's first try was thinking about blacksmithing in general. He wanted to acquire all the knowledge stored in the Soul Archive that had something to do with blacksmithing. Whether that be smelting, crafting, or other subtopics, anything that came under it was what he wanted.

Xing sat there focusing, for what seemed like an eternity, yet nothing happened. Not a single thing occurred. No book had appeared, and there were no indications as to whether it was accepted or not. He could still feel the presence of the monster-core, however. So Xing figured out that his search was not accepted. 'But why?'

The conclusion Xing came to was that his search must have been too wide. He needed to narrow down the subject. So that is just what he did, the next thing Xing searched for the knowledge of was metal-making, whether that be; bronze, iron, steel, and more.

Once again, nothing happened. The monster-core was still whole, there was no book, no indications, nothing. 'Am I only able to search for singular topics? Like how to make bronze? Or how to make iron?' Xing thought.

'Oh well. Then what if I try and skip bronze and go straight to iron? Would that work?'

Deciding on his next course of action, Xing focused his mind, for the third time, on how to acquire iron. This time, however, there was an indication.

Xing felt all of the mana from the monster-core flow through his body and into his Mindscape. With the Soul Archive greedily devouring the small influx of energy, and for a split second causing what felt like a windy storm above the Parthenon-like structure.

While Xing couldn't see the disturbance, he felt it. 'That was only 1 G-Rank Core and it caused such a scene! What would happen when there are more used?'

There was no time to think about that though, as he caught sight of a book manifesting on top of the table in front of him. The books cover was blank besides the title, which was more of a categorization rather than a title; 'Blacksmithing - Metals - Iron' printed in a bold black font.

'So it did work. There aren't any restrictions on order, that means I can have technological superiority! I really am like an overpowered novel character!'

With a smug smile of victory, Xing reached over and touched the book, which promptly dissolved into tiny motes of light that entered his mind. Upon doing so the smug smile disappeared and was quickly replaced with a forlorn expression.

'I spoke too soon. Iron is a commonly found ore yet it is rarely found by itself, and deep tunnels are needed to mine it… I doubt even Earth Shaman can dig that deep without the tunnels collapsing. It also requires a temperature of 1700 degrees Celsius to extract the metal from the ore… where would I get temperatures like that? Not even the 3rd-Circle Fire Shaman, Great-Shaman Peng, can create a flame that hot. Such temperatures would require the need for specialized equipment just to handle the molten iron, let alone work with it…'

Xing sighed, 'I guess I won't be waving around iron weapons and be encased in shiny heavy-plate armor for a while.' Determination lit up his eyes, 'But maybe one day… Now I need to go get more monster-cores for the knowledge on copper.'

Exiting his Mindscape, Xing looked down at the object in his hand. The previous G-Rank Monster-Core was dull and now looked like an ordinary smooth stone sphere. Upon touching the lifeless ball it shattered into dust which scattered onto the ground.

Xing shrugged at the sight and thought, 'Well at least I won't have any questions regarding how I completely drained so many cores.'

Grabbing the final 5 G-Rank Cores which were sitting on his shelf, Xing lay them around him as he sat back down and once again entered into a meditative trance, delving into his Mindscape. This time to do what he originally set out to do; acquire knowledge on copper.

'I hope copper isn't this difficult. It shouldn't be since it came first and the Dwarves of this world can already create it.'

Once again Xing made his way toward the Soul Archive, traveling through his Mindscape's black landscape. For the second time, he entered the structure and sat down on the sole chair, at the lone desk. And for the fourth time focused his mind on the information he wished to acquire.

There was an immediate reaction from the Soul Archive, as Xing felt all 5 monster-cores being drained of all mana and heard the devouring storm raging outside above him. Not even a second went by as both the feeling and sound, stopped and a book similar to the one previous appeared on top the table. This one labeled; 'Blacksmithing - Metals - Bronze' once again in a bold black text.

Xing's expression brightened after he touched the book and gained its knowledge. 'This is much more manageable than iron. Acquired by mixing copper and tin ores, using a ratio of 90-percent Copper to 10-percent Tin. Both ores are easily found on the surface, not needing to mine too deep. The required temperatures are easily reached with, or even without, Shaman help.'

'Yes! This can be achieved!'

Now knowing what copper and tin looked like in both their natural and smelted forms, Xing thoughts went back to earlier in the day when he and Lei were watching Craftsman Xun working. He remembered all the metals he saw and tried to find if there were any copper and tin.

'There was lots of copper!' Xing noted excitedly but this was short lived as he realized… "There was no tin…" He thought aloud with tears in his eyes, looking both deflated and depressed.