Shadows are all around me, chasing me, circling me, trying to kill me.

I wake with a start. Another nightmare. This is getting out of hand.

*Knock Kock*

“Come in,” I shout.

The door opens, revealing Andrew and Jess.

“It seems you are now a brother, congrats!” Andrew tells me while clapping.

“It's not fair that girls can’t be brothers. Ugh,” Jess moans.

“You can always be a sister in a city church,” Andrew says, giving her a condemnatory look.

“Wait, everyone's gone!” I say, shocked.

“Yes, my boy, I've sent everyone away due to the beast horde invasion that is coming. It may take 3 years to come, but the village is done for better or worse. But, since the town is going to be converted into a military town, so it likely is for the best. I'm not so worried about you, as you will pass the test on your 10th birthday and get chosen for my sect. But Jess here refuses to leave,” Andrew says.

“Wait, this is a lot to process. What's a beast horde? What's a military town? And I thought no one would touch a church!” I shoot out.

“Slow it down! A beast horde is a group of beasts that have cores. Normally only KI refining levels of 1 through 9, but there are hundreds of them. A military town is something the light sects came up with. They send all the KI refiners there to get basic combat practice without needing to care about rules," Andrew explains.

“So, if I join a light sect I can come back and help?” I ask.

“I guess, but I don’t want you to. I want you to live your life and push forward,” Andrew tells me.

“Well, I'm not going,” Jess stamps her foot and runs out of the room.

“What am I going to do with her?” Andrew huffs.

“Grandpa, I'll help protect the church and my home. You can't change my mind now,” I determinedly say.

“Today's youth is so short-sighted. Do as you wish. You're now a brother and can make your own choices,” Andrew says dejectedly and walks out.

When I was on earth, I never cared about anything. I'm not making the same mistakes here! Time to start cultivating.

I sense the KI around me. The manual says I need to pull it through both my feet, up my legs, around my core, through my arms and head, then back to my core. 10 times. So, I begin. I do it slowly at first, pulling the KI towards my feet and as it enters my body, I compress it to stop it from escaping. I push it up towards my core and let it cycle through the process once more. While holding the KI, I split the stream in half, with each running through each arm to then recombine in my head. Finally, it heads back down to my core, beginning to fill it. I continue to do this for 3 hours until I feel my mind aching. It seems that after 3 hours of work my core is a quarter filled. Also, my KI feels a little more refined and easier to control. Not bad for a few hours' work.

I get up, go into the bathroom, get washed up, and then get dressed before going to hunt down Andrew. After looking for a few minutes, I find him in the kitchen making himself a cup of tea. He sees me enter and points at a cup, I shake my head.

“Old man, I want some daggers to practice with. They can be wooden if need be. A teacher wouldn't hurt either.”

“Hm, guess you do need to know how to use a weapon, and you are a bit young for a sword. We have a hunter in town that uses daggers and a bow. I’m sure he can teach the basics. I'll also ask the blacksmith to make a basic one that can hold KI, and a wooden one to train with. I don't recommend using KI while training, as overpowering an enemy only works when you're much stronger. When you're fighting against equals, in terms of KI, what you'll need is skill and power. I'll ask Kevin to come around tomorrow and get you started,” Andrew instructs me.

“Grandpa, can you make sure there a ring at the bottom of each dagger, please?” I ask.

“That's a strange request, but okay, I can do that,” Andrew says before going back to his tea.

I leave and head towards the garden. Time to learn how to lightning step.

Suddenly, I shoot forward with a buzz coming from my feet, blasting through the door. Just from thinking about my skill, I end up at least 10 meters away, with a wood door smashed against the tree in front of me.

Damn, that was close. I could have been that door! Okay, so just thinking the name of skills activates them. Good to know.

The garden is large with 1 big oak tree in the middle, and the rest is grass planted in a square shape being walled off by a wooden fence.

I focus on a stretch of lawn about 5 steps in front of me and think 'lightning step'. I shoot forward to where I was focusing, managing to only slightly lose my balance. I try again, but this time I look about 10 steps in front of me. I feel the back of my legs burn this time as I move forward 10 steps in less than a second.

Okay, so my limit is 3 times in a row. Any more and I'll rip my hamstrings. Guess improving endurance will increase the level of this skill as well. I can move 20 feet at a time almost instantly, and it takes about 1 hour before my legs heal on their own. I think after a few months of practice, I'll be able to fully control this.