Will opens his eyes. He’s lying on his back in his new bed in the cabin. He looks to his right and sees Amos mixing a drink.

  “Ah, you’re up. Good. Here drink this.”

  Will sits up and notices a mortar and pestle, various bags of herbs, and a pitcher of water.

  He takes the drink out of Amos’s hand and looks at it skeptically.

  “Just drink it boy.”

  Will shrugs and toss’s it back in one gulp.

  “Eugh! That’s disgusting!”

  “When is medicine supposed to taste good?”

  “Since the dawn of time what do you mean??”

  “Petulant. If medicine doesn’t taste bad that means it’s not real medicine.”

  “Who taught you that?!”

  “How do you feel?”

  Will blinks. The rapid change of subject catches him off guard. The question also brings him back to why he’s in the bed in the first place.

  “Rough.” Will takes stock of himself. He’s covered in bandages and he can feel the bandages have some kind of gel or paste underneath them. He’s not sure how, but he can feel his organs have suffered some damage as well. He doesn’t think he’s supposed to be able to tell that. He says as much to Amos.

  “Hm, yes. I suppose we haven’t gotten around to talking about that yet have we.” It didn’t appear to be an actual question so Will kept silent instead of answering.

  “You’re in the core realm right now. You entered it the second you successfully sensed, absorbed, and circulated Qi for the first time. If you’ve felt slightly stronger than you used to, that’s why.”

  “What exactly is a core realm?”

  “That is both a complicated and simple answer. It’s made more complicated by the fact that you’re an other worlder and haven’t grown up with these realities apparent to you. I’m guessing in your world people are born, grow and die all with the same level of strength?”

  What?

  “Um, I mean people can work out and stuff. Gain muscle and get stronger. Which they lose around 40 I think? Your window to grow muscle is only so long. Is that what you mean?”

  “To a degree. I believe I told you that you have entered a world where the rules are different correct?” Will nods. “Well in this world people are born and are known as unawakened. Which is to say they haven’t sensed and processed Qi yet. When you finally do, you enter the realms of cultivation. You Will, are now in the first realm, which is called the core realm. As you cultivate you will grow stronger and be able to ascend to the higher realms. Everyone is different though. Some have a natural ability for cultivation, while others do not. The amount of Qi you can naturally absorb at once, the amount you can store inside your core, how smoothly and efficiently you can circulate it throughout your body. Even your understanding of the universe, the world and how Qi interacts with it all. All of this plays a part in how far you will go as a cultivator.”

  Will sighs. Once again Will is faced with realities of have and have-nots. Those with and those without. And climbing that ladder is something guarded and even fought against. Will has spent his life with little to nothing. Little love, less money, and zero friends. He’s not blind. He see’s how other kids at school live. He’s seen tv and knows how the rich and wealthy live. He might not know specifics, but he knows that there should be enough to go around. Food, water, medicine, money. There’s so much that none should honestly have to go without. And yet they do. And yet people die every day due to starvation, malnourishment, dehydration. The resources stay at the top and never actually find their way to trickle down.

  It seems this world is not much different. Worse even.

  Amos quirks his eyebrow at him. “Does our world dissatisfy you?”

  “It’s not that. It’s just…it seems unfair. At least in my world someone can win the lottery, or come up with a revolutionary idea that makes him a lot of money. The chances might be small but they’re still there. This world…I can only imagine the sadness here.”

  Amos goes from the beginnings of a deep frown to a look of understanding.

  “It’s not as bad as you might think. Compassion does exist here. Although I will grant you, it’s not as much as I would like. In a land of might makes right, those with less often get over looked or worse, killed out of hand. This world is vast though Will. There have been benevolent leaders. Might makes right is a double edged sword and when you’re the strongest, you can enforce any rule you want. Upholding the peace and protecting the weak included.”

  A weak smile plays across Will’s face. “All I had in my old world was pipe dreams. Why not here as well?”

  Amos almost tells him. It’s a close thing, but at the end of it, he knows it would do the boy more harm right now than good.

  All of a sudden Will’s head shoots upright and he inhales quickly, causing himself to wince and cough. He settles down a moment later. “The lightning! It worked right?! Please tell me it worked!”

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Amos smiles inwardly at the boy’s excitement. “It worked.” Will’s face brightens with joy. “Settle down kid. For now, you need to get your strength back. Heal. Once you do, you have a decision to-“

  “Please teach me! I know what you’re going to say. I know this whole thing has been kind of an informal situation but please, I beg you sir, please teach me.”

  Amos is slightly startled. He didn’t expect the boy to be so forthright. “I know I told you that you wouldn’t be able to leave until I was sure you were able to defend yourself. That would take a little while but not anything too long. But if this is formalized, the process will take much longer. Do you understand that?”

  Will nods firmly. “I do sir. I know you don’t know much about my situation, but I didn’t have much in my old world. I didn’t have anyone…” Will shakes his head, forcing himself out of that line of thinking. “I know an opportunity when I see one. And not for nothing, what else am I going to do sir?” Will doesn’t wait for Amos to give him an answer. “I know you’re strong. You might not have said anything to indicate one way or the other but I can feel it. If I had to guess, you’re not as strong as Ezra but still near the top. I might not know much about this world, but that’s gotta be pretty rare right? To be taught by you would be something I’d be an idiot to pass up.” Will could feel himself getting a little emotional but he didn’t care. He wanted this, and he liked Amos.

  This kid, Amos thinks to himself. One surprise after another. The amount of people who should be able to accurately sense his strength should be incredibly small. It might have been a guess on the kids part, but he doubts it. And only in the core stage..

  “It’s settled then. You are my apprentice.”

  Will’s eyes light up, and his eyes start to shine. He immediately rubs them, not wanting to embarrass himself to badly in front of Amos. “Thank you sir! You won’t regret this!”

  Amos snorts. “It’s not me who might regret this kid. I would have put you through your paces before, but now? You’re to be held to a far higher standard. Being my apprentice means you will represent me, and I will not have you fall short or it be said of me that I didn’t give my apprentice my full attention.”

  Will doesn’t care. He’s happy. “Um sir? Do I call you master now or something?”

  “Master works, but sir is also fine. You’ll know when you’ve reached a point when you can call me Amos.”

  “Fair enough.” Will can’t stop smiling.

  “Now get some rest. You’re to drink the medicine I prepare for you every morning and every night. When you’re back on your feet, however long that takes, we’ll start your training in earnest.”

  Will nods. “Yes sir.”

  The days go by one after the other. Will dutifully taking the medicine each morning and night, despite still not believing Amos that medicine only works if it doesn’t taste good.

  Two weeks goes by until Amos finally gives Will the all clear to begin training.

  On the morning of the 15th day, Will finds himself standing in front of Amos in the open area in front of the cabin.

  “One of the benefits of being this isolated from civilization is that it allows for high intensity training without risk of hurting unsuspecting bystanders and also without drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves.” Amos starts off. “Training in cultivation entails three different paths that all must be walked more or less at the same time.” Amos lifts his hand and counts off on his fingers. “Martial training, absorbing and processing Qi, and meditation to better understand Qi as a whole and also your specific element.”

  Will nods along to each point. “Is one any more important than the other?” Will asks.

  Amos snorts. Will has come to learn that Amos’s snorts are the equivalent to someone else laughing out loud. “That, is a heavily debated topic. The answer is no unless you have a specific individual preference. But objectively no, they are all equally important and critical to a well rounded cultivator. Something important you have to understand kid is that even when two people are in the same realm of cultivation, they can be vastly different in strength. Even accounting for one person being at the early stage of the same realm and someone else being at the later stage. While that sort of thing definitely matters, especially in the later realms, I’ve found that it matters less compared to a well rounded cultivator.” Amos looks very seriously at Will as he continues.

  “I’ve met my share of lopsided cultivators. They are unfortunately the majority. Fights, duels and battles are won and lost depending on how well rounded you can be. Against someone who appears to have trained accurately the goal is to find the minute, not as obvious, lopsidedness. After all, you can’t cultivate all three paths at the same time, so everyone, no matter how strong, will have short comings in one path or the other. If you can find those and target it, you can win.”

  Will focuses on every word and tries to absorb everything Amos has to teach him.

  “Now.” Amos continues. “Martial training should be obvious. Skill at utilizing weapons, hand to hand fighting and your element during a fight. The greater the skill in these things the more deadly you will be. Absorbing and processing Qi will allow you to hit harder for longer. It will make your pool of available Qi larger, and allow you to circulate it through your body faster and more efficiently. Your techniques will be powered by Qi, but circulating Qi will also make you stronger and faster, assisting in fighting without elemental techniques. Meditating on your element will allow you to increase its power. The more you understand it, the more you can learn how to control it and through that, increase its power. Power in an element and cultivation level are not mutually exclusive. One can increase elemental power without increasing cultivation level. Mediating on Qi and its roll in the universe, this world and in all things will increase the potency of your Qi, helping in every avenue of fighting. Understand so far?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Don’t just say yes to appease me boy. The things I’m teaching you are considered fundamental for a reason. Without fully grasping and applying these lessons your foundation can become flawed, allowing for others to take advantage of it.”

  Will takes a deep breath to steady his nerves. “I might not understand it completely sir, but I do understand the concepts. I think once I begin training I’ll understand better. I learn by doing mostly. Sir.” He sometimes forgets to add that at the end. Having a master is a very new and odd concept to him.

  Amos hums. “Well fair enough.”

  “Master?”

  Amos gestures his hand, encouraging Will to ask his question. “Can I learn how to use my lightning first?” He tries to keep the hopeful excitement off his face while he asks, and appear as objectively interested in the topic as possible. Will’s pretty sure he fails.

  Amos squints at Will. “Insolence. Kids have no patience for fundamentals these days.”

  Will does his best to hide his smile. He gets the feeling it wouldn’t be a good idea to follow up on that statement and antagonize his master.

  Amos chooses to ignore his apprentice’s barely hidden grin.

  “Hand to hand fighting first. Then weapons training. From here on out you will begin every day cultivating at the stump you found before, starting at dawn and continuing for two hours. Then report here for training. You will finish every day mediating for two hours until sunset at that same stump. Each day you will rotate meditation on your element and then on Qi as a whole. Am I understood?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Towards the end of the day, two hours before going back to the stump to meditate, you will spend a half hour running, and then an hour and fifteen minutes doing muscle training. Specifically, push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups. You’ll also be doing squats with some weights I have set aside.”

  ”Yes sir.”

  “Let’s get to work.”