Chapter 42 - Foundations and Tensions

Alex arrived at the training grounds at dawn. He yawned, causing Sam to do the same.

Even though the younger boy was told that he could stay in their small house for the afternoon, Sam just shook his head and got dressed along with Alex.

The training grounds were beginning to fill with disciples and other sect members as they stretched and talked. Alex took a deep breath of the misty and fresh air. While it was chilly, the sun was already beginning to crest the mountains, warming his skin and causing him to squint.

As he stepped onto the gravel path toward the annex, Alex found that he was nervous and excited. Most of what he’d done so far was run and fight to survive. This would be his chance to learn how to fight back and strike at the monsters instead of just running and luring them into ambushes.

When he arrived at the squat training facility, there were three people there waiting for him. He recognized two of the instructors who had tested him the day before, though he couldn’t remember their names.

First, he was introduced to Master Li Wei. Alex looked at the man and noted that he was closer to Mark’s height, though he was twice as broad in the shoulders. The instructor had sharp eyes that watched Alex as he approached. His gaze was strong and he greeted Alex with a firm handshake, “I’ll build your martial foundation from the ground up,” The way the warrior said the words was so matter-of-fact that Alex had no doubt he’d do just that.

Next was Master Shen Rong. As he stepped up next to Master Li, the man looked small and slender, though he moved with a dancer’s grace. The man was older by at least a decade than the martial master, and his calm demeanor seemed to radiate a certain deadly confidence. He gave Alex a warm welcome with an elderly smile, “The Celestial Lotus Sword Style is as much about harmony as it is about skill,” Shen Rong said. “I’m eager to see how you make it your own.”

Lastly, Eura stepped forward. The celestial being was in his human form with only two arms, though his skin seemed to sparkle with flecks of white gold in the light that filtered through the windows. He nodded to Alex and gave him a sly smile. “I’ll be your advisor on how to continue to improve your Qi Techniques and magic. We will spend time together so that I may answer your questions about the System and classes.”

Together, Eura and the other two instructors outlined his rigorous training schedule for the upcoming weeks. In the mornings, Alex would work with Master Li on physical conditioning and martial forms. In the afternoon, he would take a break physically, to go and practice his magic and development with Eura. In the evenings, Alex would meet back in the annex with Master Shen for sword techniques and sparring. The last section of time was vaguely referred to as “his evenings,” and he was told to spend the time resting and for personal study.

Good lord, am I going to be sleeping at all in the next four weeks?

Eura wrapped up their meeting with some parting words. “The goal of these four weeks will not be to make you a master warrior. That would not be possible. Even comparing yourself to others of the sect who have spent years diligently practicing the sword would be foolhardy. However, our goal will be to help build you a foundation to continue learning as you move on from this place. You will only get out what you put into this training. Apply yourself and listen to the wisdom of those who know better than you.”

Alex nodded in response, noting how much more stoic Eura acted when others were around. “Could you get someone to help Sam? I know that wasn’t part of our deal, but maybe someone to help him heal or deal with his pain? The kid barely talks, and he is extremely skittish. He may not even need someone to talk to, but giving him some minor training to do might distract his thoughts.”

Eura seemed to think about the matter before nodding and saying that he would send someone to speak with the boy and find out if he was interested.

Soon, the sect head and Master Rong left, allowing Alex to immediately begin his first day of training with Master Li. Their training began with Master Li putting Alex through strenuous warm-ups like running, stretching, and strength exercises. Alex quickly realized that although his physical stats had grown, he wasn’t as strong as he likely should have been. He struggled through the training, embracing the stubborn will to improve and his refusal to be helpless like he’d been in the woods. The master introduced him to the “Lotus Roots” stance, which emphasized a low center of gravity and stable footing. Alex practiced holding the stance while Li Wei applied pressure to test his stability. Often, this was done by poking or jabbing at Alex in certain places.

“You’re leaning too far forward,” Li Wei pointed out. "Your combat style right now is all about action and movement; you also need to learn how not to move. Impatience won’t ground you. Focus.”

Later that afternoon, Alex and Sam walked to Eura’s office in the Grand Pagoda. Sam followed quietly behind Alex while petting Valtherion, who was riding on the smaller boy’s shoulder. When they arrived at his offices, Eura was seated next to a small indoor pond with a single lotus floating at its center.

The sect head started their training session by asking for all of Alex’s Status information. His eyebrow went up as he heard about Alex’s Trait and what his Willpower stat was already up to. He told Alex that this was his biggest strength.

Alex had disagreed at first, but Eura convinced him otherwise. The celestial said that there are generally two thoughts.

“One is to become highly specialized and be the absolute best at what you do, while the other is to be balanced and flexible. The first makes you an expert, unrivaled in your area, while the other lets you work well with others and fit into more groups or adjust in different scenarios.”

Eura went on to encourage Alex to lean into his specialization. In his travels he had never heard of a Trait strong enough to multiply point allocation by three times. For comparison, he told Alex of someone he’d met with a very strong specialization build, who only had a 1.2 times multiplier, and he was much stronger than his counterparts in the later levels.

This did give Alex some hope for his future, though part of him was still skeptical.

I’ve got to get out of this mess before I can think about any of that…

They moved on from his traits and theories to continue through his titles and abilities. Eura asked Alex to read him the details of each title and stiffened noticeably as Alex read his most recent title. Alex paused after seeing the reaction, but as the sect head just stared at him, Alex thought he should continue.

“Wait. Please read Mana Weaver again.”

“All unstructured magic will receive a potency increase,” He read.

Eura shook his head and covered his face with a large, golden palm. “I was mistaken. While your unique Trait may be your greatest strength, this Title could be what sets you apart from those who are equally unique or powerful.” Eura looked at Alex with a serious expression and sighed. “This is something you should never reveal to others, especially those from the Wider Worlds. There are many who would kill you immediately just to extinguish the possibility that you may stand in their path one day. Many people of power think this way, which sets you up to become powerful if you continue to grow.”

“Wait, seriously? I had no idea. What does it even mean? I haven’t seen anything called unstructured magic.” Alex’s eyes were wide as he heard Eura talk about a powerful being so casually killing him for having the title.

“It is something that will require its own lesson to explain. For now, trust me when I say that this should be a great secret, even over that of your Trait. That should be easier to do, as it’s more common to see interesting and unique traits than it is titles. You are only gaining titles like this because your world is so freshly integrated into the System and you’re at the forefront of your people.”

Shit. That seems really serious…

“Alright, I think I get it. Thanks for the heads up.”

Eura waved his hand dismissively. “I don’t mean to sound so dire. Because skills that can view Status like [Analyze], [Inspect], or even my Heavenly Eye are all based on Willpower, it’s unlikely that anyone in your world will be able to easily view your Status. This means that while they might see the name of your displayed title, they won’t be getting much information past that. Even then, there are few from your world that might even understand what the title’s description really means. You only need to be so cautious around those from the Wider Worlds.”

Alex nodded again, letting out a bit of tension he hadn’t realized he was holding.

Eura guided Alex through the concepts of how Qi and mana were related. From there he went into detail about the benefits of using mana cycling techniques and how meditation could help. Alex was surprised to hear that the terms were interchangeable. The aspects of Qi often had more to do with a spiritual aspect or profound understanding of Dao. When talking about stats and mana, this was handled by the System through the Wisdom stat.

The sect head guided Alex through a set of mana cycling techniques and told him that there were many different kinds. Depending on which cycling techniques were practiced, the user might see different benefits. Eura equated this cycling technique to the mental and magical equivalent of lifting weights. The purpose was to help his mind and body adjust to the certain movements of mana, and because of this, there was no limit on the different number of cycling techniques Alex could learn, though he was encouraged to focus on the one given for the time being.

Alex became even more interested when he learned that the cycling technique was meant to improve the flow of mana through channels in his body, eventually allowing him to move mana faster and more efficiently.

While Alex practiced through meditation, Eura began to speak to him about his use of ritual magic in the assessment. He proposed the idea that Alex should spend time working on making the rituals smaller. “Large, time-consuming rituals won’t serve you well in combat,” Eura explained. “You don’t need a binding ritual the size of three men. You don’t even need one the size of one man. It would be ideal to get your rituals to at least half of their current size with a goal not to restrain an entire person in a fight but their foot or a single leg. This advantage alone would likely win you most fights. With the ritual smaller, you should be able to conserve mana and increase the speed with which you can lay down the magic.”

Eura watched Alex begin to practice but stopped him shortly after. “You must crawl before you can walk. Tell me, is your [Mana Threads] a new skill?” When Alex confirmed, Eura continued, “Don’t make any rituals until I tell you to. I want you to focus only on shaping and moving your threads into the individual shapes that you use during rituals. Put all of your efforts into making the shapes as quickly as you can without sacrificing accuracy. Practice in as much of your free time as you can.”

At the end of their session, Eura gave Alex a potion that was meant to boost recovery and give a person energy. Eura said that it was needed if they were to do the kind of accelerated training that was planned, promising a single potion each day at the end of their lesson.

Magical energy drink? Fuck yeah!

Evening training with Master Shen centered on understanding the Jian short sword. Shen Rong highlighted its balance and the finesse that was required to wield it effectively. They worked on proper grip, primary thrusts, and basic cuts. Alex noted that there was a lot of emphasis on wrist movements and blade alignment. The sword master taught Alex the “Willow Branch Sways” form, which focused on parries and deflections. “This will match with your current fighting style and should show some similarities to what you began learning on your own. Observe and relax. Tension will hinder your flow,” Shen Rong said before demonstrating the sword form once again.

Late that night, Alex reflected on everything he’d learned on his first day. He sat at the table near his small personal garden and used a brush that was provided to him to write in a leather journal. Alex always found it easiest to get his thoughts and ideas out on paper and then review them; that way, he didn’t forget or miss anything. Eura had encouraged him to set personal goals for this time and not to slack off or treat it as downtime.

Alex decided his main focus in these self-guided evening sessions would be to work on breaking through the barrier he’d reached in [Empowered Step]. He knew from when he’d evolved his [Mana Shaping] skill that it was likely knowledge or creative use of his skill that prevented him from pushing it forward. While the movement skill had served him well so far, he didn’t feel that it fit too well with his current fighting style. It was too explosive and jerky of a movement, and if his first day of training were any indicator, he would be learning a new fighting style that was all about rhythm and flow in combat, not quick strikes and aggression. Alex felt that this fit his personality better as well.

The second major thing that he wanted to focus on was his rituals. While Eura and the Masters planned to train him to use a sword and martial arts, they’d also made it clear that he would not be a master of either by the end of the month. To Alex, that meant he would use what he learned to support his magic. Currently, that was strongest through his use of rituals. He told himself that he needed to be using his [Ritual Insight] skill more, as the knowledge that it gave him when it worked, was extremely beneficial.

The knowledge I gained from the Weight-Reducing ritual schematic was the only reason I could alter its creation to make the Weight-Increasing ritual I used to subdue the men when I met Sam.

A part of him felt guilty he hadn’t been using the skill more, with a long cooldown, it felt like a waste if he wasn’t keeping it on cooldown as much as possible. Alex knew he hadn’t really been in a situation to take a breath and look at notes or attempt to learn anything in the last week of running and fighting. He took a deep breath and told himself he would do better moving forward.

Lastly, in any downtime he had while theorizing and attempting to improve the movement skill, Alex also wanted to focus on improving his speed and control at manipulating his [Mana Threads].

As the week progressed, Eura shared a report with Alex, stating that they had thirty days before a move needed to be made. This was a few days more than originally planned, so the sect head promised to adjust the timetable as needed.

Training continued with his foundations for the next several days. On the third day, he was taught how to move from the Lotus Roots to the Flowing Water stance by Master Li. It wasn’t until the fourth day that he was able to move to the next step in his sword training. From the Willow Branch Sways, Master Shen moved Alex onto the Eight Petal Steps, which was described as a foundational footwork drill. Master Shen had smiled with a mischievous glint and told Alex that he’d be practicing this set of movements until it could be performed in his sleep.

As Alex showed up to his evening sword training, which he had started to mentally refer to as dance training, he was surprised to note that the training annex already had other people inside. When he’d first entered, Alex had been distracted while giving Valtherion one of the Mana Stones from his dwindling supply. Sam, who had been following close behind, made a noise of distress, which caused Alex to look up.

“Leave, Outsider. Elder Wu reserved this building for my team.”

Outsider? Not ‘Honored Guest’?

Alex looked around, confused. “Is Master Shen here?”

“No. He left some time ago, maybe you should arrive earlier for your appointments. Now leave. You’re distracting our training.”

With how Master Shen is, I’m sure he left a message for me with them, or he would have waited here himself.

Alex tilted his head. During their first session together, the sword master forced Alex to remove the cover over Alex’s eye, saying that it would be bad form to train with it at the start. Each lesson, he’d said the same thing, so Alex came without the cover. While he still found it overwhelming in some areas of high mana density, the training annex wasn’t too much to handle.

He used the scan feature and noticed that the team leader who was being so rude, was the highest level person present by a large margin, even five levels over Alex himself.

So if he’s at the peak of E Rank while weakened, then his real power level is likely the peak of D Rank.

Is he intentionally trying to be rude? Maybe he thinks I’ll try to fight him?

Alex just shrugged and motioned for Sam to follow him. He turned to leave without another word, refusing to play into whatever games were going on within the sect.