The Rise of the Black Plain

The next day, the entire group had already spent some time cultivating and absorbing the beneficial effects of the resources they had each received.

The resource they each received was compatible with their qualities, something created from the data the parasite had already collected in their bodies. These resources had an expiration date, after which they would lose their properties exponentially.

As much as any of those people still had reservations about the Armhands, they knew they were already in the clutches of that organization. What could be worse than the parasite inside their bodies?

Hell, even the robots hadn't escaped having such a strange creature invade their bodies and mark their essence.

They had already consumed two different resources during the selection test, so they were already 'dirty' enough to be bothered by the situation to the point of not using the few things that could help them in this place.

That's why they had all used up their prizes and improved their general qualities on this first day as de facto members of the Armhands.

After that, the group would begin their new routine in this place, where some of them would spend part of the day in their cave cultivating, while the others would do random things such as solving missions, learning about the organization, the city they were in, and other things.

During the short period of the day when none of them were in the cultivation cave, they would be at their respective posts learning the external arts of the headquarters city.

Not only that, Zocarro wasn't like the Spiritual World where Demigods didn't need to sleep, rest, or eat. The conditions in this world where Minos' people were now were much more extreme than those in their homeworld.

They needed to eat, rest, and sleep, so they used the dormitories they were given for part of their first few days in this force.

In this part of the guild, they would begin their first relationships with other recruits and even Rank-and-File Soldiers.

...

Three days after the group entered Armhands, Minos was already accustomed to his new routine after a long time of living free. For someone like him, who had been free and responsible for himself for most of his life, the experience in this guild was somewhat new.

But he knew how to adapt and tried to look at the positive side of the situation so as not to live in a bad mood and be angry.

Because of his more positive approach to the situation, he had already discovered some things about this guild that were of interest to him and things that he and his people had doubts about before they even came to Examire.

He and everyone in his group now had a relatively good understanding of the cultivation levels in Zocarro. Before, they knew that there were higher levels. They knew how to recognize the level of beings who were stronger than them, and they knew the stages' names. They didn't comprehend what was higher than the 10th stage or what was after the 11th stage, which ended at level 114, and they didn't know if they could learn new techniques in the 11th and 12th stages.

But just after these few days in Armhands, the group had learned about these important things.

Cultivation in Zocarro was similar to cultivation in the Spiritual World, as long as one made the Mortal Journey. With each new stage, one could learn new techniques.

The big difference was that in this world, native beings were born with one or two natural abilities, which they called bloodline power and soul power. Besides that, everything else was very similar to what the people of Minos had in the Spiritual World.

However, the Divine Journey was different from the mortal journey. When you became a Sovereign, you wouldn't learn some useful new technique to show off your abilities. What happened was an evolution of their powers and the birth of a new power.

This power was the condensation of everything that the being had cultivated during the Mortal Journey. But after the 11th stage, you didn't have to learn external techniques to gain new powers. That would happen naturally with each step forward.

In other words, a person at level 100 would have a special ability when they reached that level. But when they reached level 115, they would gain a new variation of the same power, adding a new skill to it.

The Divine Journey was about the individual transcending mortality and creating their own special existence that transcended the ordinary and what could be imitated.

In the Mortal Journey, one would never be truly unique. There was always the possibility of someone with innate abilities and techniques.

That was the case with Kendrick, who had the same innate power as Minos and the same techniques.

But that wouldn't happen on the Divine Journey. Even if Kendrick entered it one day, his power would develop into something different from his father's.

In a way, it was as if, by becoming a Sovereign, each cultivator gained their own cultivation throne, which could only be his until the end of his life.

That was the purpose of the Divine Journey. Individualization and the search for the peak, the search for one's own rules, and the development of one's own power!

Each stage of the Divine Journey had a deep connection with this purpose of individualization and divinization.

Ascending to level 100 was the first step in this journey when one would gain a new skill, leave certain limitations behind, and reach a new level.

According to the legends available in Armhands, by the time one reached the peak of the 13th stage, their position in the universe would be so good that their throne would cease to be a divine position and would reach the level of the universe. Their powers would be so beyond reality that the doors of the Upper Realm would open to such a being, and their throne would light up to become a position that controlled entire galaxies.

At this level, one could live forever and be omniscient!

However, there were techniques that could be learned on the Divine Journey, which were more suitable for professionals in more than one profession than for people who focused on just one field.

Such techniques could turn a cultivator who focused on their physical strength into a blacksmith, an alchemist, or whatever they had an affinity for but hadn't developed during their Mortal Journey.

In addition to the essence of cultivation in Zocarro, the group also learned more about the universe and galaxy they found themselves in during their early days in the guild!