Alyssa was the first to respond to Ronan's optimistic question. "What's up?"

He hoped they might be willing to hear him out, but he would understand if they didn't want to put the tutorial clear on hold to allow him to reach the first realm of soul cultivation. In any case, it was worth a shot.

"You all know what elite shards are, right? I assume you've picked up a couple during your tutorial runs?" Ronan asked, taking out his own and flashing it.

"Yeah, of course. Haven't figured out how to use them yet. The danger warnings were enough to stop me from trying, at least until we're out of this tutorial," Jenna said, waving a shard of her own before replacing it in her inventory.

"What if I told you I know how to use them, and if you're willing to wait a few hours before we proceed, I can power-up, and share my experiences and methods with you all. There's no guarantee you'd be able to safely use the shards, but it's better than going in blind," Ronan said, hoping his offer was convincing enough. "What do you say?"

Jenna perked up. "I'm totally down. I don't think there's a time limit to this, so there's no harm in hanging around a little. We can practice sparring with our skills while we wait for you," she said, turning to Howard and Alyssa. "You two down to play some magic dodgeball?"

Howard went pale, but Alyssa took the teasing nature of Jenna's offer in stride. "I could be persuaded. Are we sure we're safe here, though? There are three paths for enemies to approach for an attack, and who knows how many are waiting further inside."

Howard nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly. It's far too risky. We should keep moving forwards as we were initially," he said.

Ronan shook his head. He wasn't disappointed, and with a little persuasion he could get what he wanted from the trio. "Maybe you're right, Alyssa. Then again, we know exactly what we can expect while we're here. If we head further inside, we'd be facing the unknown. What if the next trap is too powerful for us to overcome? Doing this will give us an advantage that could save our asses."

Alyssa hummed in thought for a few seconds, then met Jenna's eager gaze. "Yeah, you're right. A little practice and some rest will do us all good. I'm still on edge after all this crap. Besides, if we head back to the first path, we can create a chokepoint, so that if any enemies do appear, they aren't hard to kill."

"I knew you'd see sense," Jenna exclaimed, bouncing over to the other woman and wrapping her arms around her neck. "Now, I wonder how fast you really are. Can you dodge six spells in two seconds?"

Alyssa didn't baulk at the subtle threat. "I think I can handle anything you throw at me, you little tease. How accurate is your aim, really? I think you're getting off easy facing those dumb little goblins."

At that, the flames of competition were lit in the two women. They split up and walked a little further down the corridor from the two men. A moment later, the crackle of mana and flashes of lightning told Ronan they'd started to spar.

Howard was still standing there, looking a little annoyed but mostly just lost. "Don't want to join the fun?" Ronan asked him, motioning to the two women.

"Not particularly. I don't want to get my hair burned off or something equally heinous. Honestly, I just want to get the hell out of here as soon as we can," he said, sighing and sitting down against one of the walls.

Ronan understood the guy's feelings, but Howard needed a reality check. The world they were returning to was not the one they left, and things would only get more difficult outside the tutorial.

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"Look, Howard, you seem like a decent bloke. Have you actually given thought to what's waiting for us back home? Before we were all dragged to the tutorial, there were those messages about terraforming and merging with other planets. I mean, you saw the crazy shit in the sky, right? I don't think life's gonna get easier if we make it out of here. You should prepare for that," Ronan said, clapping his hands on Howard's shoulders as he finished the motivational speech.

Howard's eyes lit up in realisation, then dimmed again. Somehow he seemed to grow even more disheartened. Ronan had done what he could. Either the guy would learn, or he wouldn't. Being a nanny to every human wasn't Ronan's job.

No, he was going to be the fist that cleared the path for them, and showed the rest of the damned universe that you shouldn't fuck with his species, or his home.

"Anyway, keep an eye out, will you? I'm going to get started," he said, before finding himself a spot furthest back from potential attack routes and settling into a meditative position.

He didn't wait for Howard's response before turning his focus inwards. He trusted the three to at least hold their own greed at the front of their mind, and the potential information about shards and cultivation would be more valuable than letting an ally die to gain more from the tutorial.

Ronan took the soul-aspected shard out of his inventory, and held it in his hands. It was similar to the other shards, with a slightly different hue. As he began to draw the energy from it, it seemed to pass right through his body. A moment later, he felt a deep resonance from a place he'd never known existed, but felt wholly… him.

He'd made his first connection with his soul.

Ronan had expected soul cultivation to be more… transcendent, or meaningful, than the other three forms of cultivation. That had been his own biased perception.

In the end, it was about the same. Of course, the sensation of connecting with his soul, and becoming aware of the part of him that didn't exist in a physical sense, was utterly alien and a little terrifying. However, he soon became used to it.

The pull was far weaker once he'd drained the soul-aspected shard and was forced to resort to using his new uncommon skill—conversion cultivation—to consume his other shards at an excessively inefficient rate. If this was anything other than going to the first realm, Ronan knew he wouldn't have had enough shards to make the breakthrough.

Thankfully, as the final shard in his possession crumbled to glittering dust, the notification he'd been waiting for appeared, and he felt a brief rumbling in his soul. A tenth of a second. During that time, Ronan felt as if he could perceive every single aspect of himself, from the smallest cell to the grandest macrostructures, with a deific level of detail.

It passed, and he was left hollow.

Then he read the notification, and its rewards, and was more than pleased with his accomplishment.

Congratulations! Your hard work and effort have allowed you to reach the first realm of Prismatic Soul Cultivation!

Prismatic Soul Cultivation has advanced from [None] to [Red ★]!

Soul weight is increased by 1%

Cultivation talent is increased by 5%

Efficacy of intelligence, tenacity, and luck +5%

As for whether it would unlock anything in his clan's ancestral grounds, or offer him more chronos merits, Ronan would need to wait for his death to find out. And he was in no rush to do that.

With his fairly competent party members and his own current circumstances, he was confident in their chances of defeating stage 4 of the hard difficulty tutorial, and earning all the rewards that came with it. Failure wouldn't crush his spirit, but it would put a dampener on it for some time. Succeeding on the first try was still his goal.

In any case, with soul cultivation now at the first realm, Ronan had efficacy boosts on all of his stats. How they functioned for stats that didn't give him resources, he wasn't sure, but more of any stat could never be a bad thing.

An increase in soul weight was absurdly beneficial. His interaction with Serenaeth 7 had made that abundantly clear. More soul weight meant more freedom in this strange new world, and Ronan now made increasing his soul cultivation one of his top priorities.

Having appraised his gains, he cleared his mind of the fog that had gathered, and stood up to stretch out his body. Once he felt human again, he took stock of his surroundings.

Howard suddenly barrelled around the corner of the crossroads, face twisted in terror. He spotted Ronan, and relief washed over his visage. "Ronan, help me! They're going to kill me," he screamed, racing past Ronan and then cowering behind him.

Ronan immediately took out his mace and adopted a combat-ready stance. "What's attacking? Goblins? Skeletons? Give me something, Howard," he urged, activating vital surge and preparing for the worst-case scenario.

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