Crystal core 4 a litrpg.., p.1
Crystal Core 4: A Litrpg Cultivation Adventure, page 1
Crystal Core 4
License Notes: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this e-book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Crystal Core 4
Copyright © 2024 by David Burke
Cover art copyright by David Burke
Contents
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Story Up to This Point:
Chapter 1 - Slow Down
Interlude 1 - Moving Pieces
Chapter 2 – True Meditation
Chapter 3 - Concentrating Mana
Chapter 4 - What’s Changed?
Chapter 5 - Next Steps
Chapter 6 - A Leg Up
Chapter 7 - Experimentation
Chapter 8 - Limit Breaker
Chapter 9 - Karmic Responsibility
Interlude 2 - Reactions
Chapter 10 - Leadership
Chapter 11 - Projects
Chapter 12 - Submission
Chapter 13 - Hunger and Death
Chapter 14 - Just What Am I?
Chapter 15 - Pushing Forward
Stats 4.0
Chapter 16 - Station
Chapter 17 - Lunch and a Foundation
Chapter 18 - Stretching Our Legs
Chapter 19 - A Larger Crowd
Chapter 20 - To Hell
Interlude 3 - Planning and Progress
Chapter 21 - Into the Pit
Chapter 22 - Life in Chaos
Chapter 23 - Weak Spot
Chapter 24 - The Hard Way
Chapter 25 - The Road Home
Chapter 26 - A Layover
Chapter 27- Learning the Details
Interlude 4 - Status
Chapter 28 - Traveling
Chapter 29 - Reunited
Chapter 30 - Setting a Tone
Chapter 31 - Domain?
Chapter 32 - Born Trait
Chapter 33 - Bioshocking
Chapter 34 - Final Bloodline
Stats 4.1
Chapter 35 - The Danger of Imbalance
Chapter 36 - One Last Time
Chapter 37 - Long Discussions
Chapter 38 - What Must Be
Chapter 39 - Terms and Clans
Chapter 40 - A Bridge Too Far
Chapter 41 - Something New
Chapter 42 - Starting Out Right
Chapter 43 - Traveling to a Wedding
Chapter 44 - Juggling
Chapter 45 - Return of the Hero
Chapter 46 - Before the Council
Chapter 47 - Black Wedding
Chapter 48 - Honor and Blood
Chapter 49 - Domain
Chapter 50 - Consummation
Epilogue - Enemies and Enemies
This is the end of Crysal Core 4
Stats at the End of Book 4
THANKS FOR READING
Other Books by the Author:
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This book ended up being the longest of the series so far by more than 10%. It was a great deal of fun to write and I hope that you all enjoy it nearly as much as I have enjoyed bringing it to you.
You may start to see indications of a cross-over between this and my Welcome to the Multiverse series. That is intentional. They exist within the same story universe, as does Dragon Sorcerer.
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The stat sheets are put into their own chapters. They are entirely optional. There are a good portion of my readers who, like me, enjoy these in their LitRPG. But by putting it into its own chapter, I hope to give you the option of seeing Ryan’s growth or jumping ahead to the next part of the story. You can easily skip this section whether that is in eBook or audio, and you can just as easily find it to reference the crunchy numbers.
The Story Up to This Point:
Ryan’s disease first struck at around age eleven. He was diagnosed with a radical, new version of a very rare disease. Instead of causing small crystals to form in his cells, the disease slowly began to turn his entire body into crystal. The doctors couldn’t explain it, and after a couple of years, Ryan was forced to live in the hospital.
The disease slowly stripped him of everything. First, he lost the use of his legs, then his arms. Despite the fact that even his internal organs were turning to crystal, they continued to function. By the age of twenty-two, his eyes had glazed over with crystal and his ears had crystalized, making him blind and nearly deaf.
There were many times that he wanted to die, but the doctors insisted they would find a way to cure him. At some point, he became more of a test subject than a patient, and those very same doctors came up with a variety of medical advances derived from studying him. Over time, his friends and even his family abandoned him, leaving him helpless in the hospital.
That was when a portal opened in the ceiling above his hospital bed. At first, he imagined he was dreaming. But instead of a dream, the portal was part of a hero summoning ritual that brought him to the Divided Realms. The ritual itself sought out the proper hero and wasn’t directly controlled by the sect heads who cast it. Ryan was summoned to save this realm from an expected horde of monsters which were invading through incursion portals.
Bas-Tuon, head of the Yandao clan—a sect of earth cultivators—along with Jinwae, head of the Baku clan—a sect of sky cultivators—used their own daughters as the spiritual anchors to bind the hero in their realm. As part of the ritual, the summoned hero was married to the two sect heads’ daughters. Eluanshi Yandao and Lianhua Baku were both gifted cultivators and considered to be prodigies. Neither was thrilled to have their blood used in the ritual, but both were prepared to meet the obligations their clans demanded of them.
A third sect head, Rurren of the Ninjamae clan, snuck the blood of his daughter, Shikumo, into the ritual, causing her to become the summoned hero’s third wife and anchor. This created tension between the clans, but the die had been cast. Ultimately, an extra anchor was a good thing—if the hero ever lost his anchors, his soul would be cast from the Divided Realms and lost in the void between it and Earth.
For his part, Ryan distrusted all of the sects. However, he soon realized that the Divided Realms was a dream come true for him—once he accepted it. Here, he could move and see and hear clearly. Better than that, his body was considerably more powerful than that of a normal human. He soon learned that he was in a cultivation world, and he was a cultivator. And while he resisted it all initially, he did learn to cultivate and grew stronger.
Ryan’s primary advantage came from his crystal core. Mana concentration was a primary part of cultivation. Core density started at vapor and increased in grade from vapor to mist, then to cloud, then liquid, and finally solid. Crystal was rumored to be the mythical endpoint beyond solid, but any old masters who’d discovered it took their secrets with them to their death or their ascension. Ryan, however, proved it was possible.
This gave him some unique abilities.
It was also discovered that he had no mana affinities. Normally, cultivators had from one to three affinities, and very rarely four. Ryan’s core, however, stripped the affinity from any mana he absorbed and created the purest neutral mana that anyone had ever seen. Ryan was mana neutral.
This was considered impossible and impaired his ability to master cultivator techniques. Techniques were broken down into augmentations—which enhanced the body of the cultivator temporarily at the cost of mana—or projections—which push the mana of the cultivator out of their body. Cultivators used projections to create various effects, ranging from attacks to summonings.
Eventually, Ryan developed relationships with a few of the people in the Yandao clan where he started his training. The deepest connection he formed was with Elu, the daughter of the sect head and one of his supposed wives. She became his Sabum, or cultivation training master, and she pushed him to excel. Their relationship was awkward at first, as Elu feared the loss of her freedom but felt compelled by her culture to defer to her husband. Respect and eventually a budding romance grew as they both came to respect how hard the other worked. Ryan convinced Elu that he wouldn’t hold her back or force her to stop cultivating and growing stronger just because she was now his wife.
During his time with the Yandao, there appeared to be several attempts on Ryan’s life. These turned out to be attempts by Shikumo to mark him as her own, She swore to kill any woman who tried to touch Ryan—at least any who wasn’t one of his ritual anchors. The summoned hero learned a bit about Shikumo’s troubled history from his Sabum, but Elu only knew so much about her.
It turned out that Shikumo was mentally unstable, which had something to do with the ghost of her now dead mother. It seems, Shikumo still heard her mother’s voice, although it wasn’t clear whether she was haunted, possessed, or simply delusional.
In the end, Ryan won a tournament and gained the right to choose who would train him, as well as which of his wives would be his first wife and gain the blessing of his Yang. He and Elu traded their blessings of Yin and Yang. And, like any guy his age, Tyan was over the moon with his new love. The fact that, as cultivat
Ryan then escaped with Elu’s and her Great Aunt Dara’s assistance. Dara, aunt of the clan head and their chief healer, sent him to a small, non-cultivator village called Eno. There, Dara owned a home, and Ryan posed as her nephew. When he first arrived in Eno, he bumped into a serving girl at the largest tavern named Pozei.
Ryan felt drawn to the petite beauty with a doll’s face, though he wasn’t sure why. This was because Pozei was really Shikumo in disguise. Book two started with Ryan waking up after his first night in Eno. Ryan and Kumo ended up saving the village from a clan of fire cultivators and grew close. Ryan realized—before Kumo revealed herself—who Pozei actually was, but waited to let her reveal herself in her own time.
Once she revealed herself, Kumo began to train Ryan. Their training was intense, as Kumo pushed Ryan to test his limits. But they also begin to connect as they shared stories about their past with one another. Kumo’s vulnerability enabled Ryan to open up to her and share things about his life on Earth that he hadn’t shared with Elu. In turn, Kumo shared about her tortured youth and her mother’s brutal training methods that left her scarred for life, both physically and mentally.
Worse, Ryan learned that Kumo was haunted by the ghost of her dead mother. As they grew closer, Ryan was able to forge a barrier trapping Kumo’s mother’s, the Widow’s, ghost inside and preventing the Widow from possessing her, accessing Kumo’s core, or even speaking to her. He wasn’t, however, able to purge the Widow’s ghost, so had to settle for trapping her.
While they were battling a minor fire cultivator sect in a series of hit-and-run attacks, Ryan’s other wives traveled to the small village of Eno. They joined in the battle, but Ryan was forced to fight a C-ranked cultivator to save Kumo. He ended up consuming the man’s soul with Null Form and thereby gained Fire Touched body tempering.
At the end of book two, there was a huge battle between invading orcs, the fire cultivators, and Team Ryan. Ryan and his wives were all pushed to their limits, but grew stronger from it. In the end, the twisted cultivators proved to be the lesser threat and Ryan was forced to fight the orc leader, a powerful orc elite.
Once again, during this battle, Ryan consumed the orc’s soul and gained a portion of an orcish bloodline heritage, which gave him a berserker ability.
After the battle, they met with Kumo’s father, Rurren. He gave them some good advice and let them know that they were being summoned by the council of sects to the city of Regev. An airship was provided, and they’d headed off to the Tower of the Hero.
Book 3:
Ryan and his wives were brought into direct conflict with the council of the sects in this book. He learned about the Tower of the Hero, which was staffed by the descendants of past Heroes. It was a place dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Heroes even though it seemed to have little influence on the world around it.
They also got involved with one of the noble families and saw how the People of the Land interacted with the cultivators. They uncovered a plot by a fraudulent cabbage merchant to blame cultivators for repeatedly destroying his cart and then to overcharge the government for reimbursements.
Ryan experienced his first tower, which is a collection of incursion portals. There, he met an elder couatl, a celestial snake with wings. She spoke to him about the threat facing their realm and offered up her son as a spirit beast companion for Ryan.
Ryan accepted and met Agimae, a much smaller couatl. This awoke more of Ryan’s dormant modron bloodline and his latent psionic potential. The bond brought power to each of them.
Throughout the book, Ryan also began to hear the voices of some other forces. One identified itself as his sire and another seemed to be the god of the modrons, Primus.
Ryan was also forced to duel an A-ranker to maintain his freedom from council control. It was a close thing and once again he was forced to rely upon Null Form as well as some help from Agimae to survive.
Some major changes occurred within the team. Lian and Ryan opened up to one another and shared their weaknesses and strengths. In dual cultivation with a yeti skull, Ryan pushed her bloodline evolution forward significantly, to the point that she gained the ability to transform fully into a yeti. The first time was rather shocking for her and destroyed the clothes she was wearing. Eventually, they consummated their relationship making each of them stronger.
Elu rose to the challenge of her position as first wife and began running the Hero’s household more. She met with nobles and negotiated with cultivators all seeking advantages and connections with the Hero. For his part, Ryan relaxed and determined to better follow the way of life in the Divided Realms, so long as it didn’t cross one of his convictions such as the value of all human life. He was nervous about releasing control, but trying to make his wives happy.
With Kumo, Ryan found that his prison of her mother’s spirit had not been nearly as successful as he had hoped. With Agimae’s help though, Ryan was able to drive the Widow’s spirit completely out of Kumo even though they weren’t strong enough to destroy it. That brought a new level of freedom to Kumo, and she revealed her desire for a child.
Each of Ryan’s wives earned a primary connection with Ryan as he both admitted his love for them and found ways in which that love resonated with his Intents.
When they traveled, as part of the compromise following the duel, Ryan was forced to bring along some trainers from other sects. The council worded the agreement to enable them to send actual B ranked trainers while also sending young eligible girls to offer themselves as anchors for the Hero. Ryan quickly squashed that notion, but still engaged in training with all of them.
He formed connections with each of the girls, especially Lumi—whose bloodline evolution was altered by the interaction with Ryan, resulting in her having permanent angel’s wings and a partial modron heritage. This even went to the point that she was appointed as one of Ryan’s septons, a subordinate modron who served the type of modron that Ryan was descended from.
Elu had agreed to a courtship with the richest female noble, a young woman who had inherited the reins of House Bara after the tragic death of her father and uncle. Ryan and the team traveled to some of her northern estates where he learned that not only did House Bara have the greatest glyph masters in the realm, but they had also created a small army of warriors trained with glyph clad gear that made them significantly stronger, to the point of being a match for F or possibly even E ranked cultivators.
The orcs attacked the Bara estates, and they were all forced to combine their powers to push back the incursion. The cultivators traveling with Ryan all took oaths of loyalty to him and earned tertiary connections.
The battle was easier than expected, but the head orc was a cruel woman with a deadly bloodline heritage that allowed her to control and warp others. She created monstrosities out of captured cultivators and was only defeated at the end with a supreme effort from Ryan.
Chapter 1 - Slow Down
The battle had ended, and we’d returned to the estate of House Bara. Amaya’s people were quick to meet us and provide refreshments. I tried talking to each of the servants who interacted with me, making a point of learning their names. My wives watched me as I did so. I felt Kumo’s eyes bore unto me most acutely whenever the servant I was speaking to was a young woman. At least she didn’t try—or even threaten—to kill any of them.
It felt important that I get to know these people. Something had changed up there on the mountain—something about me, but also something about the world as a whole. I didn’t know what it was. Really, all that I did know was that I was stupid tired—exhausted in a way that I hadn’t been since arriving in the Divided Realms.
I pushed the fatigue away as I talked to as many people as I could. Some were servants, some were soldiers, and some were lesser nobles who had remained behind at the estate. The soldiers all wanted to thank me for saving them, but I turned their praise right back on them. They had all fought to the limits of their ability, and that deserved acknowledgment.
The nobles weren’t as much fun dealing with. When the first of the nobles approached me, Amaya was at my side a second later. Elu was just a step behind her.
