Unbound Mantra Chapter 9 (Patreon)

The twisting lights of being torn through space and time. To say the least was heavily disorienting. Far more wibbly-wobbly than when I was dropped into this universe by my sponsor, honestly.

But with rather violent abruptness. I was likewise dropped out of the portal, and with a thud, the air was knocked out of my lungs, even with my meager cultivation, as I was dropped back onto the ground first.

I slowly got up with a grumble as I looked around with a scowl with annoyance, only to realize that the all party I had teleported in with... Was completely gone? And then I was reminded that in these low-level parties.

The church hinted they made sure that there woudn't be any infighting with the groups they sent.

'So the church specifically separated us so we couldn't kill one another to loot each other.' I mused as I took in my surroundings.

And from what I had taken in so far... I was likewise in a decrepit church or some kind of very long-abandoned temple of some sort.

"Ok... So the world isn't innately hostile and aware of me at least yet." I muttered helplessly as I got up to look around the broken-down stone temple, which had some grass growing up through the once-paved stone floor as well.

Looking around the temple to see if I could find any notable signs of what kind of world I was in. Like I was looking for a Tri-Force, some symbols that would point as to what figure this temple was made in honor of?

But to be honest. Yeah the fucking temple was so old and pitted that I was surprised it was still standing, so I could only just mentally shrug and head out towards the large gateway that was streaming in natural light from the outside, into another long hall.

The next hall was just as wrecked if not more so. And I quickly noticed a good helping of bones and other debris from a predator probably living here.

So I quickly made my way out of the broken temple and into the wide open air... Where I paused at walking towards the end of the large landing at the end of the temple walkway.

The temple was clearly built atop a large mountain, and in the distance was a grand and beautiful vista!

The first thing I noticed in the very, very far-off distance was a raised volcanic mountain range. Clearly still aflame and constantly spewing lava into the air and it's surroundings. 

Next, to the right of Mt, Fuck That Direction was an even larger, divine-looking tree that, with it's mountain like trunk, clearly glowing with some fey light.

And further to the right and to the northeast was an icy mountain range that was also massive in scale. 

"Where the hell... This isn't Elden Ring?" I muttered as I realized that giant glowing tree in the distance most certainly wasn't the Erd Tree. 

But as I stepped onto the large circular platform on the outside of the church. A voice entered my mind. 

[Pure Blood Human Detected- Error, Human not synced to civil code. Installing P.A.L software]

The old stone beneath my feet flared with light, and then a loud crack rang out as I saw a very dark blue orb of sorts fuse through my feet, anchoring me into place. And I felt as if something touched upon my Mantra Core within myself before a raised platform formed in front of me.

And lying atop the small platform... Was what looked like just a cellphone?

'The fuck is this nonsense?' I wondered as I looked around, but saw no one or anything around. I could only hold in my slight panic at not being able to move. To then pick up the phone-like block that vibrated hard when it entered my hand.

Then that phone turned into a see-through-like gel or something that merged into my hand with a hum.

The light faded away, and my legs became free. The first thing I did was hurriedly move the fuck off the platform as I had no idea what had happened!

I looked down at the back of my hand where there was a very dim blue light pulsing under my skin and after a long stare. I decided my best option was just to poke the damned thing to see what would happen.

And as my finger pressed on the blue light, that weird AI voice filled my ears again. 

[Welcome to the P.A.L.S or Pal Guidance Assistant and Leading System. Pure Blood Human, by mentally focusing on the implant in your hand, you can bring up a cornea interface to choose future actions. Be sure to coordinate with another user with H42 level clearance to teach you the uses of this device.]

I finally exhaled with annoyance as I said helplessly. "So... I got dropped in the ruins of some sort of supposedly advanced civilization, huh? And from the look of things, is humanity itself supposed to be gone or something?"

The implant in my hand seemingly wasn't at all interested in responding to my words. So with a sigh of annoyance, I dragged my hand without and implant across my face as I realized this tech was VERY advanced. As I couldn't resist it, even with my low-level cultivation.

And hell, the implant itself wasn't being rejected by my body at all?

But after I focused on the implant, a thrum ran through my body and a HUD came up. And as it came up, and seeing my body showing up with a highlight in my chest where my Mantra Core was in an 'accessory slot' I fucking realized where I was now!

I quickly walked towards the edge of the platforms and looking into the distance, into the deep forest down the way... I could already see them.

Giant balls of wool running across the ground as oversized bipedal cats followed behind the 'lambs'

"Lamballs and Cattiva... Why Palworld? Why not Pokemon?" I muttered helplessly before I paused, as in, actually? 

Seeing as I was going to be a world invader. Palworld, with its competitive slavery and racism, was actually a damned good starting world for me!

I refocused as I looked at the 'technology' tab, wondering how it worked. As it's not like this implant ACTUALLY gave me some sort of level system, right?

But... As I looked to the technology tree. I realized that there was in fact a 'level system' but it was a brutal thing. Put bluntly, this system was built in mind for psycho 'pure-blooded' humans to slaughter pals and half-breeds to gain the life force and elemental energy to then upgrade their body's main three stats.

The three stats being [Bodily Strength, Spirit, and finally Mind]. The bodily spirit stat was obviously just enhancing my bodies strength from the life force taken from the slaughtered pals.

The Spirit Stat's upgrades was likewise upgraded by harvesting slaughtered pals elemental energy. And mind... Mind stat's were accumulated from mostly in killing half-breeds between humans and pals.

Because apparently so many humans fucked Lovander's, Lunaris, and other 'popular' that it became a population issue or something? I have no fucking clue why this 'system' was so brutal and blunt in it's usage.

But I was here to do kooky shit anyway. If I refused to get blood on my hands to become strong, I would have just stayed home and let my sugar mommy vampire peg me or something.

With that, I went into the technology side and saw that by upgrading my 'mind stats,' the implant would use my mental energy with the materials into a pocket realm sealed in the implant as well to 3D print said designs in reality.

"And using slaved Pal's that are bound with sphere connections, I can even link their own mind energy to help me in making designs come to life as well?" 

I made a funny face as I realized that once my mind stats also raised high enough, I could then place the back of my hand against objects, and it would be able to scan them to add them as a design to be used.

Which meant! That in theory, I could also use it to mass-produce cultivation pills, elixirs, enchanted weapons and other treasures so long as the implant could actually scan it.

'Did I just get an extra reincarnation cheat?' I mused to myself before mentally shrugging as I decided that standing here any longer wasn't going to get me anywhere.

Seeing as I WAS in the world of Palworld and specifically in the actual starting area, I did know where some decent resources were. But it was just a matter of getting to them.

So with a hum, I went over to do the most important and completely necessary thing to do in all survival games.

A loud crack rang out as my glowing fist smashed into a wide tree.

There was a moment of silence as I slowly lowered my fist to display an inch-and-a-half-deep impression of my fist in the tree trunk, likewise with a large crack running up the tree's trunk from the force of my blow.

But I wasn't focused on the tree. I was busy hissing as I held my screaming fist as I cried out. "Fuuuuuuck! I am a damned cultivator! I will not be defeated by a damned tree haha!" I couldn't help but laugh out in pain at the end.

The only response I got was a Lamball in the nearby forest looking past a tree at me with clear disdain in it's gaze before it audibly munched on an oversized set of berries.

My cultivation enhanced blood back flowed at the sheer insulting gaze aimed at me and I could actually feel flickers of Wrath mantra entering my blood before I snorted and forcibly looked away from the disdainful Pal.

'I can't wait to beat you to death with a fucking stick, you puffed ball of cotton that got thrown into a dryer.'

Taking a deep steady breath... I did the smarter thing and collected some loose stones and large branchs off the ground to then put into the implants storage space.

For a moment I considered just putting down a workbench right here in front of me before I remembered the middle of the woods was a shitty place to build a base, obviously.

So after a moment of thought, I followed the clear path down from the mountain temple and headed down the mountain until the sounds of rushing water hit me.

And there was my 'optimal' starting area in that large plateau halfway down the mountain that had a large pond with fresh water and a series of large natural rock nodes... Although it wasn't like rock nodes would just 'respawn' in front of me.

It was a decent place to get started and just reaching the area took me a whole half an hour to get there with how this place was far larger then the game made it look.

As for why I didn't do what I always did and build at the base the mountain next to the ruins and just past the Mammorest boss... Even with my scant cultivation level I didn't think I could truly beat an elephant to death with my bare hands.

An elephant that was like five times as large, blessed with elemental power's I had no idea how it translated into reality?

Fuck that noise. All these Lamballs were adorable, the Cattiva's were manageable, and the Teafants, the teapot-shaped tiny little elephants living next to the water, were also adorable.

I carefully bypassed the knee-high teafants to get closer to the large pond that was being fed by a water fall leading back up the mountain. And likewise flowing back down the mountain.

So with all the water movement, the water itself was clear and not murky. The bottom layer was a gravel-and-rock-filled bottom bed that I could see had a good deal of life in it.

With a hum I activated the implant with a weird outline of a table covered in tools filled my vision. And as my hand touched that outline, I could feel the energy being drained from me as the wood and stone-covered tool table was created from the base materials in my storage in the implant.

"Well, well. If this implant works outside of this world and can truly pick up even lower level cultivation medicine and alchemy, I will be set, money-wise, back on Earth." I muttered thoughtfully.

Then I looked in the technology tree towards the core 'power system' of this world. The first level of Palspheres. Then I looked over at the small nodes of palladium dotting around the coast of the large pond and knew it was time to get to work.

I needed to get a base up as soon as possible... Because while these pals may be avoiding me as something new. The predator-type pals that come out at night would likely try to get me.