Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 327 - 326 - Nathaniel

When did I realize it was not a dream?  Was it the first injury in the practice ring or was it when that young girl was practically gift wrapped to my room when I was 12?

I found it all impossible of course.  Physics might state that energy is neither created nor destroyed, but the gobbledygook of souls had always been meaningless to me.  The concept that a bunch of cells in a skull were all there was had been the fact he lived with all his life.

Facts were always what mattered.  So left with not dreaming or a hallucination, Nathaniel had to accept he was living a new life.

It was a nightmare.

No computers, barbaric laws, and worst of all, religion.  The people believed in spirits of Heaven and Earth.  They extolled about the backwards religious practice they called cultivation.  It had no scientific basis!

Of course, a true scientist as I was had to accept new data as it came.  It was only when I realized I had passed my 50th birthday and was hardly looking beyond 19 that I realized something was wrong.

I had been forced to obey the instructions of the barbarous people now my family.  They were some nobles of the place called Archadia.  The kept talking about a day when I felt a rush of adrenaline when I was 13 and they were so proud.

My training routine changed but as time passed, they stopped being happy with me. The feeling was mutual.  They were so limited and had no idea what technology could bring to their lives.

It took some convincing to let me study refining, what they called blacksmiths in this backwards world.  If I really could be reborn, why not one of the futuristic societies, or at least one with better hygiene!

The only bath I had truly gotten in had been a painful affair that they refused to let me leave until something called impurities were removed from my body.

I am not sure when exactly I figured out how to do it, but there was some kind of free energy I could access.  They called it Qi with some nonsense about elements but their inaccuracy was horrendous!

Fire is not an element!  Light is not an element!  All the supposed 6 elements were composed of various atoms and structures that could all have such generic names.  It was infuriating!

In any case, I simply began my experiments.  I am not sure what happened after that but a century passed when my family was shocked by me once more.  I was now in something called the World Realm but it was of no importance to me.

The realization of less hunger and sleep had hardly been noticed since he already went without most of the time.  They wanted to know when he broke through but he honestly had no idea.

He recalled arguing a lot those days but finally he succeeded.  He made a real powercell.  It used the free energy and was his first step in finally shattering the chains of the dull life all around him.

His discovery, however, was dismissed as useless.  It did nothing for cultivation so they discouraged him from continuing to waste precious resources.  It was at that time that my methodical skills were noticed.

The king of Archadia had me taken to a secret area of the capital.  I had hardly left my family's estates and had no interest beyond resurrecting my old life to boot.  Still, I was promised that if I showed results, I could get more resources so I indulged the primitive idiots.

The secret to their longevity was finally revealed!  It was an extremely advanced facility.  They tried to tell me it came from some higher existence or other voodoo.  I ignored their silly myths as I began my work.

The central chamber was full of 6 lattice network terminals that would feed some sort of bioelectric field to a person standing in the center.  It caused their body to go through a change on a genetic level but the problem was the royal family had no control over it.

It was all automatic.  I laughed internally at the fools.

They simply had no head for real science.  Still, it became my true passion to pick apart the workings of the Relic.  It seemed there had once been a highly advanced society here but likely some stupid politician or religious nutjobs finally broke society down.

It was always making the news back on Earth.

Science was the only true answer.  Days became a blur and the only warning I got of the calamity coming was when I broke through again.  I apparently reached something called the Gold Tier but it nearly killed me!

It was horrifying that they just stood there encouraging me to face that insane storm.  I was unsure how it stayed localized to me, but it now focused my research.  They were horrified when I began taking the Relic apart but results began to appear.

Something called 6 elementals benefited the most from what I could grasp but I ignored all of that for my ultimate goals.  I was going to overcome the local phenomenon of lightning when the free energy became too dense.

I did see the benefits to my body and while I knew I could mislead the political fools with some immediate benefits, I would come out the ultimate beneficiary.  I may not understand how I am living a new life, but I refuse to die again.

There is a way out and I can see a way to overcome it.

It only took a few months of results to convince the king of the necessity to indulge my whims and resources flowed like a waterfall.  While I finally made massive leaps forward in technology, I had to keep dismissing the useless assistants that kept telling me things were impossible.

Their preconceptions were annoying.

Data from experiments dedicated my path forward.  While the free energy had some strange relationships, I could simply force it to work together with certain materials.  In the midst of my work I ran into some problems.

While the free energy could be gathered for use, it was very inefficient.  The other issue was sometimes my own creations seemed to bring lightning down onto them.  It wrecked 3 computer prototypes before I finally figured out I could shield it!

The Relic seemed to naturally work so I moved entirely inside.  I also began to upgrade the stone and wood structures in the section around me in preparation for my large project.  I had an epiphany about my power issues.

The same 6 elementals seemed to generate a kind of resonance effect that was far more efficient than just gathering random energy.  I then simply had to prove how much faster I worked when I removed that resonance from a criminal subject kept in the king's prison.

I immediately had a lot of prisoners but they were not quite enough for my ultimate plan.  I also had to begin creating a massive superstructure while I finally had modern facilities once more.

The hum of machines soothed my stressed soul.

It was at that step that a new feeling of danger came over me.  Another threat of lightning but that time I smirked as if I was safe.  It could not reach me I thought.  I was so wrong.

Any gap, any crack, it will find me.  I nearly died again but I refused to give in.  The people with me were annoyed I had not mentioned I was close to a breakthrough but seemed happy I had suffered!

What is wrong with those barbarians?!

I hated them all and ignored the requests to marry and maybe apply to some kind of schools they called sects.  Idiots, I have no need for school.  I did not need school the first time!

I had learned my lesson.  I would leave no chance for mistakes and I began to figure out who under me was a 6 elemental and slowly began to include them in my project.  They all smiled as I led them to the extraction room.

It was almost pathetic how no one became suspicious as time passed.

It did help that some war started at the border.  The demand for my promised weapons was becoming a point of stress but I had made sure to have something to give them.  The criteria had been difficult but not impossible.

I simply made it so the weapons were actually mini-rail guns.  The free energy was way more versatile than the limits of electricity.  The power those guns brought made the king very happy but they sadly could only be used once.

Once used, a damned lightning bolt would destroy it!

Finally, however, I settled on my final design and the King was only too happy to have the locals help place the dome for me.  I also had refiners create the insulation layer below until the 2 halves made a whole sphere.

It was at that point I locked everyone out I did not need.  The fools could not even scratch the superconductor material with their strange attacks.  I really wish I could understand how they controlled free energy without technology.

I do not know what exactly will happen but I have seen enough of the foolish acceptance of their Gods to know at least the reactions are real.  The trials I had to survive were ridiculous and I refuse to let some petulant child kill me again.  I finally have it all ready to start and that annoying war is no longer my problem.

When I wake up, I will finally be beyond all this nonsense.  I will finally live forever.

⬧⬧⬧⬧

Lind kept pulling open the crystal casket as the words blazed in his mind.  The callous dismissal of cultivation and the consequences the man brought on his people was clear.  Of course Heaven was angry.

The man had abused Qi and sacrificed people like materials.  He pursued a Dao to an insane level without any thought to the results around him.  His talent was clearly very high but his selfish point of view treated people as obstacles to the life he believed he deserved.

Based on those notes, the moment the whole facility came online invited the wrath of Heaven because he was violating the trial of ascending to the Sky Realm.  The man had made a cultivation machine to reach Immortality without paying the cost himself!

The original purpose of the Relic was lost, which might have truly helped Lind understand himself even more as well.  The desecration of the Relic angered Lind almost as much as the loss of life.

"Your sign off said your name is Nathaniel, I suspect that is not your current name but like everything else, you did not cherish your new chance.  Actions have consequences, and I am here to make you face them!"  Lind was shouting at the end as the crystal shattered under his strength.

The flow of Qi did not go wild as expected, instead alarms sounded as the cables quickly shut down the transfer.  Before Lind could even blink, arms emerged from the floor and began rebuilding the casket!

Nathaniel was on the floor but his body was chaotic as he had not faced his tribulation of ascension.  Lind did not care as he came to stand over the man.  His dark green eyes were cold but very faintly his emerald aura emerged.

Kora and Tal were behind him and saw one of the monitors suddenly flare a red warning but they could not read the language.  Without an intent they had no way to grasp it.

Both wanted to get Lind's attention but his clear rage scared them.  They had never seen him so angry even back in the ruined fortress.  That anger had been shared by them a bit from the drone's revelations but this time seemed much sharper.  It was more focused.

The watched as Lind reached for the unconscious human and wondered what he would do.