After the announcement of Davian’s win, Endrian and the rest of his family left the private room. Walking out of the room they were met by one of the arena officials who asked everyone to follow her. Endrian was still kind of dazed by the fight as the different moves and actions taken by both parties ran through his mind. Hence, he didn’t notice that everyone had stopped until he bumped into Elva.

“Ender, pay attention,” Elva said in a harsh whisper.

Looking around Endrian realized that everyone was looking at him. The official opened her mouth and said “Boy, you can go down this hall and stay with your father, while the women take care of business.”

Endrian rarely came face to face with the issues that most of society had for gender bias, his family was thankfully not too biased and the women he dealt with at the Academy generally focused on lessons rather than worrying about gender. However, hearing her tone Endrian felt annoyed and was going to say something but Elva stepped in front of him and gave him a half pleading, half demanding look. Realizing this was probably neither the time nor the place to get into a debate over equal rights, he said in a biting tone “Fine.” Then he turned and left to go meet with his dad. As he was leaving he heard “Touchy little thing, isn’t he? You ladies should discipline him better so he knows his place.”

Rolling his eyes and suppressing his irritation, Endrian continued to walk down the hall towards the only door he saw. Opening the door he found his dad sitting there with a stout woman working to heal his neck and shoulder area where the heated metal had splashed on him.

Davian looked up from where he was sitting when the door opened. The woman standing next to him said “Stop squirming around so I can finish my work.” Giving Endrian a wry smile he held still and waiting just a little more before the woman said “There, all taken care of. I didn’t bother healing the muscles as they were just superficially damaged but they will be a little sore for the next few days.”

After thanking the woman for her work Davian looked at his son and saw the irritated look which prompted him to ask “So, what’s bothering you Ender?”

“Honestly, I’m just a little frustrated by being judged just because of my gender.” He sighed. He was frustrating but there was nothing he could do at the moment.

Davian smiled wryly and said “Well, unfortunately, there is a reason for it. I have heard that you have already experienced male instability once. The first few are rather easy to deal with however once you are about 12 years old they will grow more intense until you hit full maturity at 18. Normally this is a talk we would have when you were older but you tend to do things faster than others. So, while we wait let me give you the main reason for a lot of the discrimination that we receive.” Pausing Davian gathered his thoughts together before continuing.

“Put simply, male instability is basically a period of time that all men deal with. It occurs once every three lunar cycles or so. No one is sure why this occurs but what happens is a loss of control. During these times desires and impulses control us, at least for the most part. If we are angry we rage, if we are happy we are manic, etc. This is also the time when we are the ah... most potent. Um we work very hard at making sons and daughters for the family.” At this point, Davian had a somewhat awkward and troubled expression on his face.

Endrian realized that he was getting a rather interesting birds and bees talk and so decided to help him out. “Oh, so the day after my awakening was one of those times for you.”

At first, Davian was shocked then he just laughed and then he really laughed a fully bellied uproar. “Ah ha ha ha. Endrian you are surely one of a kind, and yes that was one of my days.”

Endrian couldn’t help but smile wryly at that but was curious as well. “So is that it? Do we lose all cognitive control and are just a bundle of emotions? Also, how long does this last?”

“Well we don’t lose our minds completely but we tend to let our instincts and desire take control. This is different for different guys but in general, we are mostly along for the ride. When you are older your wives will take care of worrying about these types of things but until you are married you will have to be aware of when your emotions start taking control. This is also partly why we are discriminated against. We are a liability that in general is only looked at for handling civil disputes and making children. On the battlefield or hunting, we can lose control of ourselves. This is because when we become over stimulated we males tend to give in to our desires. This can make us stronger but at the same time, we can go berserk. Fortunately, this phase only lasts a day or two and only occurs once every three lunar cycles. Though there have been ones that have gone into their instability due to a heavy trauma.” Davian said.

Endrian paused and thought about this and realized that this really was what his problem was when he had wrecked. He had become over stimulated and frustrated and worried and all of these things added to his stress when he blew up on his sister. Thinking about it, it would also make sense why men wouldn’t be trusted with jobs that were considered critical or over stimulating. This also explained why men are viewed as arm candy and prizefighters. Man biology is a bitch.

While Endrian was lost in thought the rest of his family arrived he only snapped out of it when he heard his dad say “So what do I have to work with?”

Endrian turned around and saw Vanya smiling as she replied to him “We have gained rights to their only ore mine. We don’t have any workers but the mine can only be worked by those that we approve. We will have to hire some workers to manage the site I’ll leave it to you and Endrian how to manage that. Also, they had to pay us an additional 600 gold as compensation so they could keep their contract with the city guard. We have a couple of lunar cycles before anyone can challenge us again so we need to use some of these resources to get some precious plants and possibly get an array master to inscribe a mana gathering array so that we can get your cultivation advanced as quickly as possible. I doubt this will be the last challenge we receive. The nobles have seen your fighting style and know your cultivation level so the next challenge will be much more difficult. House Lockmond was a sacrifice to test us. Fortunately, they are going to be destitute for the next few years though I am pretty sure that they have other noble houses that they can depend on.” Vanya finished up her statements and then gathered everyone up so they could head home. Fortunately, they didn’t have to walk in a parade like manner this time.

On the walk home Endrian gleaned some information from the conversation and it appeared that anytime a house challenged another they would have to put up something of equal or greater worth. This would generally be determined by cost and profits. From what he could tell based on the costs and profits that the compound bow offered were worth more than the profits that were currently earned from the ore mine that house Lockmond controlled. Unless you factor in the city guard contracts for armor. Which is where the additional 600 gold came from as it was the profits for the next three years. At first Endrian was a little confused by the math and asked why they had earned so much and was told that since this was a new invention and had only tapped the market as well as it was their only source of income it was deemed that it would be looked at as a lifetime loss for them so the calculated the profits for 50 years to determine the value and made a basic growth assumption of 15% a year in demand for 50 years. These were the details that Vanya and the other wives had fought for so that it would be fair if they were to lose.

This was a rather interesting take on the judicial system. Kind of like suing and counter-suing with a trial by combat as the jury. Endrian assumed that the rules of the fight were kept in order of fairness by the women of each family and the city. On the bright side at least there wasn’t a need for lawyers, well at least when it came to a family dispute. Though it did allow intellectual property to be stolen, at least you had to put something up for it. New world, new people, new ways of dealing with stupid. As long as Endrian didn’t have to deal with it too much then felt it was whatever.

When they got back home Allyce was very happy to see Davian came back safe and sound. She rushed into his arms and proceeded to check him over and generally fuss over him.

At the same time, Ethese had also run up to Endrian to bug him about everything. Unfortunately for her Endrian wasn’t really sure how much he should say in these circumstances and so he had to tell her to go check with her mom if she wanted to know more details. This had the somewhat amusing effect of Ethese pouting and saying that if he started acting like that how were they everyone going to beat the grown-ups. After Allyce had reassured herself that Davian was fine she started to fix a large meal for everyone and took the other girls with her to the kitchen to help out as well.

Endrian then spent some more time going over some of the details of the ore mine with Davian and how they should best utilize this resource. Endrian also pointed out that they could replace some of the wood with the ores from the mine on their compound bows. This should reduce the amount of time that the other women had to spend hunting for the wood for the bow and increase the profitability of the bows. This would also allow all the other wives to work on the bows as well so that it would take even less time for each bow to be produced.

After dinner Endrian was in his room thinking about everything he had learned and experienced.There was a lot about this world that he couldn’t understand. There were tons of things to explore and understand and it would probably take most of a lifetime for him to get a full grasp of the differences. He decided to dedicate himself even further to his studies and to expand his knowledge in other areas besides just cultivation, arrays and combat.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In another area of Ampleforth a different conversation was taking place. “Mother, I thought you said we were going to destroy that family. How did that worthless family fail to kill that boy's father?” Xerael complained.

“Silly child you must have patience. With the laws as they are we can’t just destroy a household anymore. We must challenge them and make sure that they have no honor or fame. Once they have disappeared from the public eye or the city council’s eyes then we can push them from the city. Once out of the city it’s a simple matter to eliminate them.” Tyrina replied.

“That’s stupid! If we are going to destroy them then we should just destroy them why dance about with all these silly games?” Xerael said in a frustrated tone.

“Ah you're just a boy so I shouldn’t expect understanding from you. These ‘silly games,’ as you put it, are what create civilized life. We must maintain the pretense of civility so that the unwashed masses do not reject our control. House Lockmond was just a pawn to test their cultivation so we can take everything back. Though it was outside of my calculations the expense of that new bow. Still it’s just a matter of time. Now, there are just two weeks left before school starts. You should cultivate and be prepared, I have heard from your cousin that that arrogant child is already going to school.” his mother told him.

“WHAT!?!” Xerael exclaimed. “But his name wasn’t on the list!”

“Yes, I know dear, but he is there and has been for almost a lunar cycle, I am trying to see what makes this arrogant boy so special. Until we find out exactly what is going on with that family we need to be cautious or we could harm ourselves. So, until I say so you must leave him be.” Tyrina said while giving him a stern stare.

“He’s nothing more than an upstart commoner. I can take care of him with ease.” Xerael proclaimed with great arrogance.

Smacking him on the back of his head Tyrina said “Don’t go meddling in the affairs of women. You will do as I have told you. At least until you get married at which point you will do as your wives tell you. Am I clear?”

“Yes mother,” he said while looking down, but the anger in his eyes was even greater.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When he first arrived back a school he was sent to see Chiyo and the priestesses. Where he got a rather detailed rundown of what had happened with the scouts. It turned out that unlike what Rantak had implied they had been making regular reports for the past 6 lunar cycles and weren’t the only scouts out there. However, they were the only ones to lose contact and this was due to an attack from one of the abominations. In general, there was no base specifically found and just some corrupted wildlife that was captured and killed for others to examine. The scout patrol that lost their communication device killed the abomination that had eaten it and when they tried to retrieve it, it was too damaged to work any more so they decided to return.

Other than his meeting on the first day the next couple of weeks were business as usual. Endrian spent time at school working on his cultivation. He was making progress but everything felt unbalanced to him. He had made some headway in the cultivation of the Titan Body and the pattern. What he was learning about the pattern was that after experimenting, and trying to find a good pattern that worked for him, it was more about intent behind the pattern rather than anything fixed. In other words, the picture or pattern apparently made no difference whatsoever as long as it was a representation of what that person believed represented the intent behind the pattern. He had also tried to use a mana gathering array in his core but it didn’t do anything for him, rather it just created an endless cycle of his mana moving which made it harder for him to control. On top of his loss of control and no mana gained he had to mentally maintain the array so it really did absolutely nothing for him other than waste his time. Still, even with the gains that he was making in cultivation, it was much slower than when he was just at the gathering stage. After he had gained another level at the condensing stage it did not offer a significant boost to his power and it made his body imbalanced. Towards the end of the two weeks, he had decided to ask his teacher about this feeling of imbalance as it had only been increasing and was finally becoming uncomfortable.

“Teacher I’ve noticed recently when I am cultivating that I am getting a feeling of imbalance and I’m not sure why. Do you have any guidance on this?” Endrian asked.

Suseras responded by asking “What elemental affinities did you infuse in your cells when you first started to cultivate?”

Endrian’s eyes got wide at the implications of that questions but he still answered “All of them.”

“So you will have to find a technique or come up with a technique so that you can match all of your normal affinities. You could also use two or three different cultivation techniques so that you can get each of the different attributes that you have absorbed into your cells.” Suseras said with a somewhat complacent tone.

“No. Teacher you aren’t understanding. I mean I pulled in everything not just my awakened affinities. But all mana attributes, even attributeless mana. Well, there were a few like ice that didn’t respond but other than that I pulled in everything that responded.” Endrian stated gravely.

Suseras looked at him utterly gobsmacked. “I know you had a lot of affinities show up but didn’t your mother tell you that you should only focus on pulling in mana that you wanted focus on?! Do you realize what you’ve done?!” He then proceeded to mumble about finding cultivation manuals that fused different elements but there was never a moron that was stupid enough to pull in attributes that were not awakened. There were some mumblings about how the condensing stage needed to maintain the same basic mix of elemental affinity mana that is in the cells so that the power would be balanced and supported by the mana in the body.

“So what do I need to do?” Endrian interrupted Suseras’ mumbling rant with some concern.

“‘What do I need to do’ he says,” Suseras repeated rhetorically. “There’s only one thing you can do. You will have to create your own cultivation technique. Otherwise, you would have to find a cultivation technique for every affinity you have and all the mana that you have absorbed in your cells to be able to balance it out. If you can’t balance it properly you will never advance beyond Earth rank. This balance or failure to balance has destroyed a number of prodigies over the years. Fortunately, you only wasted a month. How could you be so reckless as to absorb so many different types of mana! How did they even respond?!” It was obvious Suseras was frustrated. After venting for a few minutes he finally calmed down and looked at Endrian.

“Okay, first you need to tell me which of the different elements are in your cells and approximately what amount of each is in them. Also, you will need to destroy your current cultivation back to peak gathering as what you have will only cause further problems for you. Even without cultivating further you are heading for a deviation, that’s what that imbalanced feeling is telling you.” Suseras let out a sigh and held his head in his hands. “I will have to report this to the priestesses.”

Endrian sighed as he knew this was going to make them freak out. Not to mention that his future cultivation was now in question. So on that note, he went ahead and dispersed his current cultivation with the guidance of Suseras which was more along the lines of forcing the cultivation to disperse back to the world. It was actually kind of interesting from a scientific standpoint since he had expected to have to have someone stab him or punch him where his cultivation was stored at. As soon as he dispersed his cultivation he started to get the shakes and felt weak in the knees much like coming down from an adrenaline high. This really opened his eyes up to how cultivation truly affected him. It’s kind of like when you first start working out you don’t notice the gains until you stop and fall back into old habits. On the bright side, he had a better understanding of what cultivation did for him and why he should do it. Endrian then looked at Suseras and asked “How am I supposed to tell you the different types and percentages that are stored in my cells?”

“Just like you would cultivate except picture the cells in your body and the mana filling them. Then explain to me the amount and type of affinity stored there. This will give me an idea of what needs to be done.” Suseras explained.

Endrian followed the instructions and when he pictured the cells of his body and the mana filling them it was interesting. There was not a whole bunch of different colors that fit different parts of the cell but it was just one color that filled the whole cell. It was a glowing golden color. After he told Suseras this, his teacher was once again gobsmacked and at a complete loss for words.

After a few moments pause, Suseras said anxiously “Quick! Tell me, what affinities does this glowing golden color feel like?”

“Hmm… Most of them I don’t feel any rejection for any affinities that I can think of.” Endrian said.

“Check it for ice. You said that you couldn’t pull in ice affinity mana right?” Suseras said.

“Ah! You’re right I can’t feel any ice affinity from it.” Endrian said with some surprise. “So what does that mean?”

“Well, this means that there may be hope for you. We are going to be breaking new ground in cultivation or rather ground that has been theorized but no one has been stupid enough to test. Congratulations on being the first idiot.” Suseras said somewhat teasingly. “On the bright side, this could be an amazing development if we are able to create a successful cultivation path.” At this point, he got a somewhat crazed look in his eye and started muttering to himself.

Seeing the look on his cultivation instructors face he thought to himself ‘Why do I suddenly feel like I am experiment #1 for this world’s version of a mad scientist.’

Besides his cultivation, Endrian was also working with the weapons trainers and he could start to see how they were training him for fighting with the use of mana. It wasn’t the same as what he saw with his dad but he could see the foundations being laid with the explosive use of mana to enhance speed, balance, reflexes, and power. They were also working with him to have an elemental sense so that he could feel attacks coming from blind spots. Endrian had also progressed with his weapons training. His preferred weapon was something close to a naginata from his old world. He was learning more refined weapons forms for offense and defense. He was also not allowed to neglect other weapons as the priestesses were training him for a holy war and there was no telling what weapons he would have if any.

His array classes were also showing some decent progress. He was starting to be able to build some different arrays consistently without blowing stuff up. There were now 5 different arrays that he could create. Each array was also getting more and more complex. This had allowed him to start to get a basic understanding of the different parts of each array. There was a container, a power source, a function, and an on and off switch. The functions of each array didn’t seem to have any consistencies or rules that he could understand at this point. Still, he found that the container, power source, and on/off switch were all very similar if not identical. Another thing that was of interest was the materials used to lay the array affected the array. If special materials were used, that could enhance the effects of the array and it would work more efficiently or with more power. Though if materials that were counter to the effect were used then it could reduce the efficiency or power.

Due to his growing knowledge and interest in arrays, Lailah and he had more and more interactions with each other. She would often be very shy talking with him at first, even though she understood he was both young and probably not interested in her. However, since her usual interactions with others were mostly demeaning this cordial interaction actually had her somewhat flustered which lead to her avoiding Endrian unless it was directly related to arrays. Regardless of her intentions, though, the more she interacted with Endrian the more interested she became because of the way his mind worked. His mind and attitude were sharp, inquisitive, and friendly. This provided an environment for her to somewhat come out of her shell. Ironically Endrian could see these subtle change but felt like she was way too young for him even though she was technically older than him in this life. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he felt that she was amazingly beautiful, which led him to ignore the situation that was developing. Regardless of her beauty in his eyes, he also enjoys his talks with her, especially about arrays, as she was exceptionally intelligent and had a flexible and adaptive mind.

Other than temporarily losing his cultivation at the end of two weeks there were two other things that were going to occur. First was that it had been a lunar cycle since the entrance exam and all the students that passed the tests would be starting school. Chiyo had demanded that Endrian goes to the school ceremonies for new students so that he could find or make new friends. This had started a minor fight with priestesses especially after they found out that he had to restart his cultivation, but Chiyo said this could be helpful for him. Second they day before the lunar conjunction was Ethese’s seventh birthday. She would finally be going through her awakening.