I was amazed by the changes that my body underwent when I Ascended. Normally the changes that a cultivator underwent were fairly minor but that often changed when they used higher ranked cultivation techniques. It is quite unfortunate that my cultivation technique is something that requires the user to have an Enlightened Soul. If it didn’t, I could’ve done some experiments to work out whether my technique would cause this sort of change in anyone else, or I was a special case. I have helped many of my students and friends make their own cultivation techniques over the years, but I have never again seen changes on the level that I experienced.

-Excerpt from Telram’s notes on cultivation techniques.

It wasn’t until the following night that Telram finally woke up. He awoke to the familiar sensation of being trapped under the furry bodies of both Willa and Jai. Sensing him waking up they both leapt to their feet and started licking him excitedly causing Telram to laugh loudly. Just as the two Mana Beasts calmed down the door to his room crashed open and his mother and father burst in.

“Morning,” Telram greeted them.

“Actually, it’s evening right now,” Aran replied before his wife smacked his chest in irritation.

“Never mind that now,’ she hissed. “How do you feel dear?”

“A little hungry,” Telram replied as he got up from the bed. “But other than that, not too bad. Wait, what the hell!?”

He hadn’t noticed it before since he had been sitting on the bed but now that he was standing up it was immediately obvious that he had shrunk.

“Yeah, looks like I’m taller than you again huh?” Aran chuckled as his wife sighed in exasperation.

“That’s enough of that,” Lily sighed before turning to Telram who was looking down at his now unfamiliar body with a confused and slightly worried look on his face. “However, it seems that your father is correct. Gerry hypothesized that this change occurred because Ascending caused your body to be refined which is normal. Except in your case your body has been becoming more like that of a Mana Beast thanks to your Body Strengthening technique. This somehow led to the weaker parts of your body that hadn’t been strengthened being considered a form of impurity, so your body purged it.”

“Well, I suppose that does make sense,” Telram agreed. “But can we eat now. I’m starving.”

“Of course, dear,” Lily chuckled. “I have some stew on the stove for you. You can help yourself.”

Telram nodded happily and followed his parents into the living room where he found Gerry, Fergus, Diane and Iris waiting for him. Sure enough, there was a pot of stew bubbling on the stove and some large buns on the bench.

The starving Telram grabbed a large bowl of stew and a bun before sitting down and digging right in without so much as acknowledging the other in the room. None of the onlookers were offended by this because Telram had not only been sleeping all day but had also used up a truly massive amount of energy while he was Ascending. Telram proceeded to demolish several bowls of stew and a pair of the buns before finally sitting back.

“Alright then,” Telram sighed as he patted his stomach contentedly. “How did lessons go today Iris?”

“Good, everyone is really excited to see you tomorrow though,” Iris replied. “They won’t expecting you to be shorter though.”

“Well, neither was I,” Telram chuckled. “But I am happy that I’m not any taller. That was starting to get a bit ridiculous.”

“Well, now that you’ve eaten how are you feeling dear?” Lily asked.

“I feel stronger,” Telram replied after a few moments. “A lot stronger actually. I think that I could probably use my Kanabo continuously for about quarter of an hour now without using any Mana or the weapons special abilities.”

Over the past couple of weeks Telram had been sparring against Lelland with his Kanabo but had yet to so much as land a hit on the skilled spearman. Part of the reason for this was because of how limited he was in what he could currently do with his Kanabo because of the sheer weight of the weapon. While Lelland was quick to remind Telram that if he could just land a single hit on him the sparring match would be well and truly over the fact of the matter was that Telram could barely wield the thing for ten minutes. If he needed to wield it longer than that he would have to use his Mana or Soul Energy to increase his strength or make the weapon lighter. However, even if he did either of those things it barely doubled that length of time.

“Well, that’s good,” Lelland chuckled as he walked into the room alongside Ryu. “A five-minute increase is nothing to complain about. “What about if you used your Mana and Soul Energy.”

“Well, it’s difficult to say without actually testing it out,” Telram replied. “Especially since I haven’t really decided what sort of Mana, I want to use to create a Martial Art for it, but I’d say at least an hour.”

“Really?” Lelland asked as the other stared at Telram. “Your Mana has increased by that much?”

“Hah, no,” Telram chuckled. “There are several factors that go into it but suffice to say that not only has my body become more receptive to being enhanced further by Mana, but the quality of my Mana has also increased dramatically which means I can use less to get the same results.”

“An increase to the quality of your Mana is normal but from what you’re saying the improvement is far greater than I’ve ever heard of,” Fergus said thoughtfully. “Of course, it is you so normally I wouldn’t be surprised by that being the case. Except for the fact that your Mana should be split into five parts. Each of the four Elements and a smaller amount of neutral Mana. So why do you think that it’s different for you?”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s because of my Enlightened Soul but I seem to be able to change Mana from one type to another,” Telram replied.

While he had been eating, he had been manipulating his Mana to work out how everything worked now that he was an Ascendant Realm cultivator. This was actually part of the reason that he hadn’t acknowledged anyone else in the room while he had been eating. He had been quite surprised when he’d discovered his new ability, but he certainly wasn’t going to complain about it. He had also checked on the situation in his Mana Core and had been momentarily awestruck at the beauty of what he had created. While it still had plenty of room for improvement his cultivation technique was still just as impressive as a lot of the High-Ranking cultivation techniques that Telram had been able to study just because of his ability to use every type of Elemental Mana and convert any type of Elemental Mana to another type.

“Well, that is definitely impressive,” Gerry muttered as he rubbed his chin in thought.

“Of course, it is,” Jai huffed. “Did you really expect anything else from my brother?”

“Not really,” the old man chuckled. “But it wasn’t something that his cultivation technique was designed for. It was just a little surprising, that’s all.”

“Well, it’s Telram so I expected something unexpected to happen,’ Ryu pointed out making the others nod in agreement. “But is it really all that surprising. Mana Beasts can do something similar after all. Or at least we can if we can use more than one type of Elemental Mana.”

“That’s true,” Jai agreed. “We can use our Beast Cores to convert Mana into different types once we become Elemental Mana Beasts. Maybe that was also a factor in Telram developing that ability.”

“Probably,” Telram nodded in agreement. This was new information for him, so he decided to make note of it later. He had quite a few things that he wanted to write down regarding his cultivation technique before going back to sleep. Now that he had eaten his fill, he was starting to feel pretty tired. So, he got to his feet and excused himself for the night.

“Have a good sleep dear,” Lilly told him with a smile as she collected his bowl for cleaning.

“Yeah, you’re going to need it tomorrow,” Lelland agreed. “I’m sure that Ryu will want to have a sparring match with you now that you’re in the Ascendant Realm and I wouldn’t mid one either.”

“As would I,” Diane agreed.

“Hey, he has to take our lessons as well,” Iris said quickly. “Don’t you go taking up all of his time!”

“I’ll be sure to put aside some time for you guys,” Telram chuckled, ruffling her hair as he passed on his way to his room. “I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

Having said that Telram closed the door behind him, Willa and Jai who had followed him. Once inside his room Telram quickly wrote down the notes that he wanted to take before going to sleep surrounded by the Mana Beasts like he normally did.

As promised as soon as he had finished his breakfast and finished getting ready for the lessons that he was taking today he went out to the field outside of town with Ryu, Diane, Lelland and Gerry in tow. Gerry wasn’t particularly interested in sparring with Telram himself, but he did want to know how much his disciple had improved now that he was in the Ascendant Realm.

When they arrived at their usual spot, they were all surprised to find the students waiting for them as well as a couple of the other kids from the village and their parents. Warren and his father Henry were also present and both of them walked over to meet them as the group approached.

“Good morning everyone,” Henry greeted them. Telram, may I speak with you a moment?”

“Of course,” Telram agreed. “Please excuse me everyone.”

Henry gave Telram a relieved smile before leading the younger man a short distance away from the others before letting out a long sigh.

“First, I would like to congratulate you on reaching the Ascendant Realm,” Henry said as he turned towards Telram with an awkward expression on his face. “However, I also find myself needing to ask you a favor. Something which I know has been made more awkward by the actions of my wife.”

“Name the favor Henry,” Telram chuckled. “Anything that your wife has done to offend either myself or my family and friends has been undone by your own actions and the actions of your son.”

“Well, I thank you for your kindness,” Henry replied as he bowed his head in relief. “It hasn’t gone unnoticed by many in Yulis that you have more than fulfilled the promises that you made when you arrived. However, this has led to some families feeling like they are being left out. I would like to ask you to include the children of these families in your lessons if possible.”

“What are you talking about?” Telram sighed. “The lessons are open to anyone who wishes to participate. They always have been. To be honest I was wondering why new people hadn’t been showing up, but I never thought it was because of this. Of course, we’re willing to teach more people if they want us to. However, we might have to organize more classes since the new students will be so far behind our current ones.”

“To be honest with you I do remember you saying something about that,” Henry replied awkwardly. “But thank you for being so good about this. Some of the parents were a bit worried that you wouldn’t want to teach their kids, so they asked me to negotiate with you in their behalf.”

“That’s fine,” Telram sighed. “I suppose that we could’ve done more to make it clear that anyone was welcome to join our lessons if they wanted to. Maybe we should set up a method for people to sign up?”

“That would probably be a good idea,” Henry agreed excitedly. “Would you like me to help set that up? It might make things easier for you if I show that you’re doing this with my approval instead of just setting it up on your own accord.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Telram nodded. “But won’t that cause problems with your wife?”

“Well, Polly is actually complaining about you a lot less these days,” Henry admitted. “She still isn’t particularly happy with you. But it’s getting more difficult for her to say anything bad about you now that the effects of your lessons are becoming more obvious. Are you aware that the profits of the village have increased by almost 10% even with only a few adults showing up to the night lessons?”

“Well, I didn’t know how much better things had gotten but I did know that my students, particularly my adult students seemed to be looking a lot healthier and better dressed in the past few months,” Telram replied. “But I am pleased to hear how much better things are. I honestly didn’t expect things to have improved that much in such a short period of time though.”

“Neither did I,” Henry agreed. “In fact, I’m starting to think that I should offer incentives for people to show up to your classes. On the other hand, I don’t want to overwhelm you guys with work.”

“Well maybe hold off on that for now,” Telram replied thoughtfully. “I think that we need more people who can teach students before we start doing something like that. And don’t worry Lelland and Ryu are already starting to help me out with some of the lessons so it won’t be long before they can take classes by themselves.”

“What about Warren?” Henry asked causing a confused look to cross over his face. “Haven’t you been letting him help you with the lessons as well?”

“Well, not as much,” Telram replied awkwardly. “I didn’t really think that you would want him to take lessons and Polly definitely wouldn’t.”

“Don’t worry about that kid,” Henry replied as he rolled his eyes. “Warren is old enough to decide what he wants to do with his life, and I don’t really have a problem with it anyway. I can deal with Polly, but I would appreciate it if you would at least ask him what he wanted. You’re probably the closest thing that he has to a real friend these days.”

“Yeah, being the strongest cultivator in the village at his age would make it harder for him to make friends,” Telram realized.

“Well, he’s not the strongest in the village anymore,” Henry sighed. “But other than that, you’re not wrong. Anyway, I think that we’re done here for now if you want to get on with your plans.”

“That would probably be for the best.” Telram nodded. “Lessons don’t normally start for a while yet, but I don’t want to keep everyone waiting.”

“I might stick around as well,” Henry agreed as they headed back towards the others. “I’m interested to see how much stronger you’ve gotten.”

“You’re welcome to,” Telram nodded. “It’s not like I have anything to hide.”

Ryu was practically bouncing up and down on the spot as they walked but over but Telram held up a hand when he opened his mouth before turning towards his students.

“Good morning everyone,” he said. “How are you all today.”

“We’re all good Telram,” Cameron replied with a small smile. “But how are you doing. You look a little… different.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up you big lug,” Telram chuckled. “I know that I’m shorter now.”

The students all laughed good naturedly as Telram grinned back at them. He knew that they were excited to see what he was capable of now that he had entered the Ascendant Realm, so he was happy that they had decided to show up. Throwing a wink at Iris who had obviously told them about the sparring matches that he had promised Ryu, Lelland and Diane he turned towards his first opponent who was looking more than a little bit irritated by this point.

“Are you done?” Ryu growled. While he phrased it as a question it was pretty clear from the fighting stance that he had taken and the look in his eye that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Yeah,” Telram nodded. “But let’s just wait a few more seconds so that Gerry can finish setting up the barrier. There are quite a few spectators, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Ryu scowled slightly at this but nodding in grudging agreement. While he was irritated that he had to wait even longer for the fight that he had been wanting to have since he had sensed Telram’s new strength he didn’t want anyone to get hurt if things got out of hand either. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait very long, and Gerry completed the barrier about a minute later.

“Finally!” Ryu shouted as he launched himself towards Telram who did the same.

They collided with enough force that they were both driven back but they quickly recovered and started pounding each other with powerful blows as the others watched on with a mixture of shock and admiration. It quickly became clear that Ryu still had the overwhelming advantage in terms of physical prowess but Telram had definitely closed that gap quite a bit since their last sparring match.

However, this advantage the actual fight was much closer due to Telram’s martial arts prowess. Telram was avoiding using any of his newer techniques that used Elemental Mana for now since he wanted to use this fight to see how much his actual physical power had increased now that he was in the Ascendance Realm. As such he couldn’t completely negate the advantage that Ryu had because using Elemental Mana was still new to him but everyone watching could see that he would eventually catch up to Ryu.

No-one understood this better than Ryu himself and a massive smile crossed over his face as he continued to exchange blows with Telram. He knew that Telram was holding back but that didn’t matter to him. Every moment that he spent with Telram only reinforced his desire to learn as much from him as possible. It would be hard for other Divine Beasts to believe that there was a human at a similar cultivation level could stand against them, but Ryu understood that Telram was making history with everything that he did. Ryu was incredibly grateful towards Telram and even as his fist collided with Telram’s face with enough force that a normal person would be killed instantly he promised himself that he would do anything that he could to help him reach his full potential.

They continued to fight for several more minutes before Ryu finally called for a halt. He was very impressed with Telram’s increase in strength. Despite his decrease in size Telram was considerably stronger, tougher, and faster than he had been, and Ryu made sure to tell him so.

“Thanks Ryu,” Telram panted as Iris rushed over to give him a waterskin which he gratefully took a drink from before turning to face his next opponent.

“Do you want to take a break?” Lelland asked with a mildly amused look on his face. “You both went pretty hard in that sparring match.”

“Nah, I think I’m good,” Telram chuckled. “It might’ve looked pretty brutal but neither of us were using our full strength. Just let me grab my Kanabo and we can get started.”

Lelland nodded in agreement and Telram quickly retrieved his Kanabo from where he had left it before returning to their impromptu arena. The massive metal club had been wrapped in a large amount of padding to prevent Lelland from being too badly injured if Telram somehow managed to land a proper hit and Lelland’s spear also had a wooden cap over the leaf-bladed point to prevent similar injuries to Telram so as soon as they were both ready, they began.

To Lelland’s surprise Telram was a lot less clumsy with his oversized weapon than he had been only days prior. He still didn’t stand a chance against the much more skilled spear-wielder, but his movement technique allowed him to get inside Lelland’s reach quite easily which forced Lelland to be much more defensive than he was used to being. However due to the sheer power behind each of Telram’s blows this also caused its own problems which meant that Lelland was finally forced to start using actual techniques which was a new experience for both of them.

Eventually Lelland managed to land a powerful strike that disarmed Telram, but the fight had been much closer than either of them had expected. Lelland had even noticed Telram beginning to figure out some things that might eventually become techniques if he continued to work on them. Since Telram’s weapon reacted differently to both Soul Energy and Mana the things that Telram could do were a bit limited but Lelland made sure to take notes of the things that Telram tried so that they could work on them later.

Telram decided that he needed to take a slightly longer break before his sparring match with Diane but when they finally began, he immediately started using his Martial Techniques. The Mist created by his Dissonance technique surrounded him in an instant as he hurtled towards the older woman with a loud cracking sound. Earth and stone covered Diane just in time as Telram’s Mana coated fist collided with her forearms. He was even faster than she had expected so she had been unable to dodge his incredibly fast attack but as his fist made contact, she instantly realized that she had made a mistake. Telram’s Mana invaded her body and started eating away at her Mana like some sort of predatory creature causing her to curse like a sailor as she activated her own movement technique so that she could gain some space. Stone spikes sprouted from the ground to try and cover her retreat but Telram wasn’t about to let that slow him down.

Diane’s technique was already weakened significantly by Telram’s improved Dissonance technique which meant that he was able to avoid the spikes fairly easily and close in on her again. Despite this it still slowed Telram down enough for Diane to prepare for him properly and this time her entire body was completely covered in stone.

Seeing this Telram immediately started using his Crashing Waves Fist instead of his Resonance Palm technique. As they started to exchange blows Diane discovered that she had made yet another mistake. Not only were Telram’s blows considerably stronger than she had expected now that he was using his new fighting style, but Water Mana was slowly starting to wrap around her legs preventing her from escaping.

Telram was quite pleased with how well this newest addition to his technique was working but he knew that Diane would eventually turn the tables on him. She was just more powerful and more skilled than he was. His main advantage in this fight were his newly improved techniques but he still wasn’t used to using them, yet which meant that Diane would eventually figure out their weaknesses. He started changing things up and adding in the occasional blow that used his Resonance Palm technique as well as his Crashing Waves Fist which slowed down Diane’s response but eventually, she gained the advantage.

Even with his newly improved Crashing Waves Fist Diane was eventually able to strengthen her rocky armor enough that he was unable to deal any real damage to her and begin to push him back. If this were a real fight Diane would’ve simply added spikes to her armor and rocky gauntlets which would’ve ended the fight much faster but since this was a sparring match, she couldn’t use those much more effective methods of dealing with Telram’s techniques because they increased the likelihood that something would go wrong.

Telram cursed as stone rose up to trap his legs but this was only a distraction to Diane’s real attack and her fist smashed into him with so much force that he was almost knocked unconscious. Seeing this Diane stopped her follow up attack and released him from the stone that had prevented him from using his Crashing Waves Fist to absorb the blow.

Telram collapsed to his knees as the world spun before his eyes. That last blow had been pretty devastating, and it was several seconds before he had recovered enough that he was able to struggle to his feet with help from Diane.

“Well done, Telram,’ she said as she offered him her shoulder which he gratefully leaned on as she helped him over to where Gerry and the others were watching them. “When you get used to using your improved techniques you might even be able to defeat me.’

“Maybe,” Telram agreed with a pained wince. “But I think that won’t be for a while yet.”

“It will happen one day thought Telram,” she told him firmly. “I fully expect you to surpass all of us completely.”

“As do I,’ Gerry agreed as he handed Telram a small medicinal pill. “And I look forward to that day.”

Telram nodded slowly as he swallowed the medicinal pill. The pill took several seconds to take effect but soon Telram sighed in relief as the pain faded away from his body. He knew that the pill was little more than a painkiller, but it was more than enough to help him recover enough that he could teach his students who were waiting patiently a short distance away.

Alright then you lot,” Telram said. “I guess that we should start your lessons for the day.”