Come afternoon, Another Jin was replaced by Yun for her work shift. After Jin reunited and became whole again, he decided to take the time to meditate and cultivate instead of preparing the Deep One Dungeon as suggested by the System.
All the preparations for the war and store enhancements had made him neglect his cultivation for far too long. If not for the lucky break he had for not fighting with Orc King Hamu and his Avatar of Shaitan, Diabolos, Jin might have incurred injuries which would have hampered and slowed the progress of creating the Goblin Raid instances.
Right now, he figured it would be best if he managed to increase his grade, especially with the incoming threat of Ruby Rats looming around. Sure, he had the bellators by his side to assist him in an emergency but his bellators were also pegged to his grade.
While they seemed to be a lot more powerful than what a regular Grade 7 should be, it would be best if he could increase his own strength and not have to depend on others to fight for him. Also, although the System occasionally allowed the bellators to overcome the fundamental barrier of grade limits, he was not sure if there were any consequences to it if he went overboard.
Jin did ask the System with regards to that, but the System gave him such a vague answer, that Jin figured either the System did not know or never dared to venture that far before. In any case, Jin had created a room in the Dungeon Maker that simulated the sleeping capsule, just bigger and wider so that Jin could be in a cultivation stance rather than being squeezed inside the capsule.
Instead of a tight capsule, Jin now has a room with the ability to absorb all the sludge he produced during his cultivation. That way, he would not bother the penguins in the Hot Spring Instance nor destroy his house with the massive sludge output. (However, he did miss the Hot Spring medicinal bath, it was very refreshing.)
Another capability Jin wished to utilise was the extreme time dilation he experienced in the sleeping capsule. It was a little expensive getting the room up (The System seemed quite happy to increase Jin’s loan yet again.) but Jin figured it was worth the price. Spending money to improve was by no means a bad idea. Nevertheless, he bargained with the System as usual for a lower price since it would receive the sludge byproducts from Jin for its own research purposes. (Though Jin believed the System had already taken into account of Jin’s consistent bargaining.)
“Wake me up by force if there is a need. Otherwise, I trust the Sub System Users and Yun to handle the store for now,” Jin instructed the System as he had already assigned Yun to hand over the police contract with the possible amendments to Xiong Da. It also included a note, that Jin would have time to go over it in the evening with the lawyer, which he estimated to be some time after he exits his cultivation mode.
When Jin entered into his cultivation stance, he was abruptly forced into his subconscious state and Ming was already there waiting for at the side of the cabin with an item in hand. “What are you staring at me for? Let’s go!” Ming told him as he threw the backpack towards Jin.
“Wait, what are we doing?” Jin asked as he caught the backpack and nearly fell from doing so. Despite its relatively small size, it was rather heavy. Ming warned Jin not to open it for now.
“Why, we are off to an adventure. You could say a little grandfather and grandson adventure. Your state of subconsciousness has expanded quite a lot recently with your vigorous use of splitting yourself into many mini Jins.” Ming beckoned Jin to follow him immediately.
“Many Jins, you mean.” Jin retorted but got hit by Ming’s scabbard. (The loving ‘fist’ of a grandpa)
“Bleargh, you are mini to me no matter how big you have grown.” Ming scoffed before he cleared his throat and explained to Jin what exactly was happening. “I have created …you could say my very own dungeon instance in your expanded state of mind which I must say I am quite proud of the end product! Hahahah!” Ming shamelessly praised himself.
“But it comes with many restrictions attached. Firstly, during your stay here, you are unable to use your cultivation powers nor techniques relating to your cultivation powers. You will be relying solely on your skill to fight and your current strength. This is to test not only your body and endurance but also your wits. I have my own set of monsters and trust me. You will die to them. Many times. Many many times!” Ming laughed loudly as he finished the last sentence.
“But if I die in my own subconscious state, doesn’t that mean I will d- Ow!” Jin got hit by the scabbard once more.
“I am not done talking, stop interrupting,” Ming said as they began to walk down the mudded forest road.
“Unlike fictional books where you dying in your subconscious state would leave you brain dead, you dying here is nothing. Think of it as normal Dungeon Instance if you wish. You dying for real would help nobody, and heck you think I would be that kind of stupid to do that? I rather die than being that stupid…but I am also too handsome to die yet again…Hahahaha!” Grandpa was getting so absurd that Jin began to feel that his eyes were rolling to the back of his skull.
“Anyways! Since I am the one controlling this particular ‘instance’ you are relatively safe. BUT! You will still feel the pain of death. We wouldn’t want to let you be complacent if dying had no consequence. Let’s try the first leg of the journey first and see how you fare.” Ming explained and even though Jin had the fear of his scabbard hitting his head again, he decided to speak up.
“How did you know that I wanted to train with you even though I had no ways of contacting you? I mean, I haven’t been here for a long time, and I didn’t make my intentions known to Kraft. This was really a rather impromptu decision on my end.” Jin asked and Ming sniggered.
“I am your grandfather, you remember? The one who bloody raised you up for nearly 20 over years. Of course, I had the intuition that you wanted a good solid training the next time you entered. Your state of mind expanding at such a rapid pace only proved that you were busy training in other ways.” Ming explained while he took out his hiking stick from nowhere.
“And that stupid fox is withholding the occasional IMPORTANT tidbits of information from me again! I swear he does that on purpose just to get back at me. How can anyone be so petty only for getting locked up for a while? ” Ming rambled on as if he had never talked to someone for ages.
“Besides, I actually have nothing better to do after that crafty fox went away with you. So I decided to spend my time creating this adventure plane in your state of the subconscious so that I can train you up and show you that your grandfather is not that bad of a Dungeon Supplier himself. Heh! Maybe you can copy some ideas and monsters from this and use it as your own! What a great gift, right? Hahahahaha!” Ming laughter echoed through the bamboo forest.
“Create monsters of my own? Can the System even do that? I thought it was all about capturing monsters?” Jin was surprised and really wondered if he could do such a thing.
“Why not? Where do you think modern dungeon suppliers got their monsters from?” Ming stopped and looked Jin in the eyes.
“From imagination,” Jin answered without thinking about it.
“Correct. Where better place to get a monster but from your subconscious state? Unlike you, Traditional Dungeon Suppliers do not have a System, so they use their imagination and experience to create and enhance their monsters up. Sure, live monsters are definitely better subjects since they have a will of their own, but imaginary monsters aren’t necessarily that bad. ” Ming suddenly became wise towards Jin.
“They were the ones that can bring awe and fear to the ones facing them. With the System’s consistent collection of data from the monsters in the past months, I believe it has the capability to create a monster of its own. Will it be perfect? Who knows. One thing is for sure. Unlike real monsters who can restrain themselves, the system’s own monsters will try their best to always meet or even overcome the expectations of your cultivators.” Ming continued to walk and chat with Jin.
“Oh…sounds like the NPCs and even those robot Savants. They are driven with some sort of artificial intelligence.” Jin said as he enjoyed the scenery of the bamboo forest down the hill.
“I heard you also received my rewards?” Ming asked and Jin nodded. “Ah, that will aid the System in utilising the flaws of an individual cultivator’s style when controlling that monster.” Jin heard that and realised that Ming’s intention was not to teach the cultivators directly but rather giving the manuals so the System takes advantage of their cultivation style’s inherent weakness. Crush them mercilessly and they will have to come back for more to beat it. Subsequently, they could earn bragging rights from it. That meant extra moolah. Jin’s thinking was the other way round, get beaten up so they can learn and improve on their style’s weakness. But eventually, its all for the extra moolah, just different approach. However, he felt that his grandfather had a point.
“I had never thought of that before. You are such a genius.” Jin praised his grandfather as they laughed together.
“In the meantime, I heard rumours that someone created some major military defensive operation from a crafty little fox. Care to tell me more?” Ming asked and Jin immediately recounted the grand scheme of things for him. Ming did ask a few questions but largely it was Jin explaining the whole operation in detail.
He even boasted to Ming about the way his monsters created the defences and such. Ming remained quiet as he kept a mental note of all the flaws in Jin’s explanations. It was a bad habit as a General but he figured if Jin was going to fight against an army again, he might need those tips. For now, he listened to his grandson ramble about how proud he was for his monsters, bellators and even the Panda Remnant he met.
It had been a long time since he had shared a close heart to heart talk with his grandson.
