Shen found Alicia Winter standing close to his backpack. She looked healthier but was hugging herself and looking around scaredly.

She visibly relaxed when she saw him.

Shen took note of her clothes, leather armor rather than the typical clothes of the people in the first stage. He couldn't remember what she had been wearing then, though he was confident he had met her before, probably when he was killing other people's final bosses.

He was less interested in her change of attire than in her original ones. Now that he wasn't blinding himself to the truth anymore, he could tell how strange it was for him to see fabrics he couldn't identify. He had no idea what technology could produce them either. The world outside was an even bigger mystery than he had thought.

Shen widened his eyes as a sudden thought invaded his mind.

He hadn't even considered the possibility that this might be an illusion created by an enemy who had kidnapped him. That explained why he saw only faces he didn't know, for he might detect inconsistencies if the illusion showed people he knew.

Yet, the ember of hope didn't even ignite in his heart because of the unknown fabrics.

Such an illusion would be just too complex and expensive to waste on a mere mortal. Even if they wanted to give him false hope of becoming a cultivator to then crush it—maybe because he was the clan leader's son?—there were much cheaper ways to do that. Shen had lost count of how many fake "Divine Doctors" had claimed to be able to heal him for a sum, only to not deliver for whatever reason. The worst part was that they hadn't even been able to execute the charlatans with some renown, as it might have caused the actually capable doctors to stay away from him out of fear.

But that didn't matter now. Shen was focusing too much on the past and trying to delude himself.

It was his mission to focus on the present and future instead.

He approached Alicia Winter, cupped both hands in front of himself, and nodded to her. She was no cultivator, but he had to honor her when he was about to ask for her help.

"Mistress Alicia Winter, this Feng Shen would like to request your help."

His words were self-humiliating. He was elevating her while lowering himself enough to reference himself in the third person. For a cultivator to need a mortal's help that much was pathetic at the very least. Yet, his survival might depend on information she had about the world outside, and his survival was his clan's survival.

Alicia Winter showed confusion, then surprise, then suspicion.

If Shen had talked to a mortal like that in the Eternal Empire, they would have kowtowed before he was finished and begged him not to lower himself so much, for they didn't deserve such honor. Here and now, she looked at him as if he was about to con her.

The different treatment didn't offend him but instead made him feel way out of depth. She had seen his superior power yet treated him as an equal. What kind of world did these mortals live in to not instinctively respect or fear the strong?

Yet, her suspicions quickly turned into determination. She copied Shen's martial greeting awkwardly—the right hand was incorrectly placed on top of the left one—and nodded back.

"Mister... Master? Feng Shen, right? I need your help too."

Feng Shen had asked for help first, so it would be impolite to force his issue on her before inquiring about her request. Fortunately, she had at least recognized him as an equal by naming him master, so he didn't need to be overly polite anymore.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"Protection," she said. "A guy has..." Alicia Winter trailed off, her eyes becoming unfocused and hurtful for a moment. "I almost..." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened them, and continued more firmly, "I'm weak. I need to grow stronger without getting killed first."

Shen nodded. "That is good. My request requires your proximity too. I need information about the world outside—your technology, culture, economy, politics, geopolitics, everything."

She frowned. "Are you not from the US?"

The US? Was that an acronym for her land? He shook his head. "No. I don't even know what the US is."

"How is that even possible?" she sounded astounded. In fact, she sounded just like Shen himself had when Mark Williams suggested the Eternal Empire didn't exist.

"Is the US the name of the world's current ruling empire?" he guessed.

"In a way, I guess? But some say the Chinese are getting to us?"

Shen realized their perspectives were too different for them to properly exchange information. "I believe it's better if I tell you about my origins first. Then you'll be able to focus on the differences and tell me about them."

He saw little reason to hide it from anyone. The one who had destroyed the Eternal Empire—if it had been destroyed by a foe—might be around, but they would be so powerful, he doubted he could hide from them long enough to face them. It was better to share information somewhat freely—thus, respectfully—to get what he needed at the moment.

"There is a little over sixteen days remaining in this stage," Shen continued, "If it's acceptable to you, we can dedicate half the morning to training you and the rest of the day to hunting. That way, I can provide more hands-on guidance. We can talk about the world during our rest breaks. I admit I know nothing about magic, and I'm not a specialist in sword and shield, but I can definitely protect you and do my best to improve your fighting abilities."

He might not know how to use sword and shield or magic, but he was a cultivator who had seen a lot of experts battling. He doubted he couldn't help her. At the very least, he could spar with her to identify her weaknesses and suggest improvements.

She nodded quickly. "Yes, yes! That sounds perfect!"

As they interacted, Shen noticed she hugged herself more tightly. Maybe him touching her had been very offensive in her culture—something to apologize for when he knew how bad that had been.

"It's almost nightfall," he said, "but we shouldn't hunt immediately. We need to understand each other's battle styles first." He stuck his spear to the ground and extended his arm sideways. "Buy G spear," he said. His F spear would've cut through her shield just by touch.

| Purchased: Any Weapon (G) | -10 AP

| Remaining AP: 37,837

After the weapon materialized, he raised his spear to eye-level, leaving it parallel to the ground. "Show me what you got."

Alicia was surprised by the sudden attack, but he gave her plenty of time to recover from it and defend herself. Now that he thought about it, he was actually surprised she had kept her weaponry with her when he carried her here.

And yet, she might as well be fighting barehanded.

Alicia Winter was a terrible warrior. Shen wasn't the best judge of sword skills, but he could tell she had the bare minimum to defeat the ogres before the first stage's final boss and nothing more. In all her thirteen days in the second stage, she hadn't improved one bit.

He made his attacks even slower than her, yet she still failed to react appropriately. Her first reaction was always to put the shield between herself and danger, only using the sword if she felt safe. But her shield usage was so atrocious that he took her out of balance by merely pushing a little harder.

Shen attacked from all sides, and her reaction was always the same, even stiffer than the Shadows'.

Then, after a few minutes, she surprised him.

Alicia created a ball of fire and threw it his way, forcing him to use his superior speed to dodge.

"Wait," he said.

Alicia stopped attacking at once and thought he wanted to take a break. She dropped her weaponry and bent her body, hands on the knees, breathing hard.

That magic attack gave Shen pause in more ways than one. Cultivators could control qi in ways to rival magic, but not at such low levels. What could a low-level martial artist accomplish with access to such a great tool of destruction?

For the first time, he became interested in Alicia Winter as a student rather than just a source of information.

A sting in his heart made him almost sigh, but he properly suppressed that show of emotion. To take someone who couldn't become a cultivator as his first student after the fall of his clan saddened him. It wasn't dishonorable, for he hadn't taken her as a proper disciple, yet it also wasn't the way he had wanted to start.

But what was done was done. Shen had given his word, so he might as well do his best to train her. His honor demanded that.

Anyway, he thought about the fights he had witnessed and reached a conclusion.

"We'll need to adapt some of my knowledge to your situation," he told Alicia. "I've seen powerful fighters take to the sky to deliver magic-like destruction upon their foes before, but I've never seen a low-level martial artist attack like this. I believe the most suited tactics to you would be heavily focused on your magic since you're so obviously afraid of getting injured. It would be wise to train your fighting abilities anyway in case you ever found yourself without magic, but it's doubly as crucial if you can only throw seven fireballs before tiring yourself."

He found a stick on the ground and grabbed it.

"My spear gives me reach advantage," he said. "Grab your weapons. Let us see how you fare against someone with a similar reach."

She didn't do any better.

They kept sparring for the entire night. Shen tested her reactions in multiple ways, from various angles, with different attack patterns. He determined she also had no idea of when to cast her spells to maximize damage. The potential of uniting sword and magic was there, but making her live up to it would be a challenge.

New enemies came multiple times during the night, giving him a much-welcomed relief. It also assisted him in thinking of ways they might work together when they started hunting.

When the sun rose, Shen told her to rest until her stamina was full.

Then, he started her training.

Alicia was feeling a bit... stupid.

Her issues were many. Her struggles had felt insurmountable before. Yet by just interacting with someone willing to help her...

Everything she had gone through still weighed heavily on her, and she still didn't trust Feng— No, Shen. He had said his given name was Shen, and the family name was Feng. Why he would swap them out of order was a mystery.

Anyway, she didn't trust Shen entirely yet, but he had such simplicity that it felt uplifting. Mark had always been pursuing some kind of agenda, while Ken had kept a mysterious benevolent façade. None of them were normal.

Shen, however, was just an everyday guy.

That was a weird thought, considering he was so good at giving her a beating—without ever actually hurting her, of course. Or considering he was thinking of ways to make her better at killing things.

But he just felt grounded in reality in a way she couldn't really explain. He was there. He was solid.

Shen pushed Alicia, but not past the brink. He talked to her in a slightly strange manner but still as equals. Maybe it was the way he looked at her, utterly devoid of absolutely any trace of desire, that made her feel safe for once.

Shen felt like the austere brother she had never had.

And that's what made her feel stupid. She felt like a complete stranger was family. How needy was she to think that? How messed up was her damn mind?

Maybe the social worker at the orphanage had been right, and she really needed to see a therapist.

Alicia decided she would seek one after she left the tutorial. Killing all those monsters yet feeling almost no remorse couldn't be right. Getting attached to a stranger after being betrayed repeatedly by people all her life was downright insane.

But that would come later.

Now, she had to pay attention to his instructions.

"Bend your knees and widen the space between your legs" was the first thing Shen taught her when the morning came. "We can work proper stances later. For now, you just need to not be pushed to the ground by a strong breeze."

Alicia was slightly upset at his comment, but she had to admit she had fallen more than once in the night. Shen seemed to know what he was doing, and his advice made sense.

So she obeyed.

"Your shield is not just a random piece of wood," Shen told Alicia. "It's your last line of defense. Be more mindful of it. If you use it to stop any and all attacks coming your way, you'll get damaged and break at the moment you need it the most. Dodge or use your sword to parry before considering the shield."

"I don't know how to parry," Alicia replied.

"Dodge then, we can focus on parrying later."

She nodded.

On top of everything else, Shen also found Alicia to be a slow learner. However, to her credit, she was an avid listener and tried her best. That would make her a prized disciple in any clan, as those qualities were always in low supply and high demand. She absorbed his words as if they were an Imperial Edict. That she couldn't immediately put them to good use was just sad.

He was very curious about her magic, but it was disrespectful to ask a cultivator about the secrets of their abilities. So he used what he could learn by himself and didn't intrude on what he didn't know.

"Alright, one last bout, then we hunt," he said.

She pouted in a free-with-emotions way only mortals could, but she did hold her sword and shield high.

Shen attacked.