Alvin woke up on a cold, uncomfortable surface, halfway between laying flat and a fetal position. His head throbbed, and he sat up, and then the smell hit him. He gagged, then covered his nose, and a slimy feeling joined the horrific smell in invading his nose. The smell put high school locker rooms to shame, it was like a skunk died in a landfill full of diapers next to a nail polish factory. The smell was so absolutely horrendous it nearly had physical presence, the nasal equivalent of getting punched in the gut.

Alvin suffered for a few seconds before he remembered that he was in his shower, and scrambled for the handle to turn on the water. The water stuttered on, colder than a polar bear's toes, and Alvin yelped and nearly jumped out of the shower, before looking down and seeing himself covered in black goop that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a sci-fi toxic waste facility, and had the aforementioned smell to back u that impression. 

Luckily, the water didn’t take too long to warm up, but the running water didn't do much against the grime, and nearly nothing against the body odor from hell. And so he turned up the temperature, and retrieved his soap, determined to scald and scrub the disgusting substance from his body. And after nearly an hour of steaming soap-filled effort, the last trace of the gunk vanished down the drain. Alvin turned the shower off, and clambered out to wrap himself in a towel. 

After leaving the bathroom and getting dressed, he found two things laying on his bed: the manual for the Path of the Flowing Wave, and a small package with a note on top. Alvin first moved the manual to a compartment in his night stand, where it would feel like it was safe until he could meet the requirements to use it. Speaking of requirements, Alvin hadn’t checked his stat sheet in a while, and was curious to see what had changed with his advancement.

Name: Alvin Stoker

Affinity: Ocean(8)

Race: Human(1)

Faction: Boundless Sea Sect

Age: 23

Master: None

Cultivation

Tempering-Early

Stats:

Path

Flowing Wave

Strength

F+*

Dexterity

F+*

Constitution

F+*

Wisdom

F+*

Intelligence

F+*

Charisma

F+*

Skills:

Athletics(8), Unarmed Combat(6), Learning(5), Sword Mastery(3), Spear Mastery(5), Shield Mastery(3), Hammer Mastery(2), Axe Mastery(1), Qi Sense(2), Qi Manipulation(1)

He was a bit disappointed, but hadn’t really expected there to be much visible change. Still, the changes he saw were exciting. Having the Qi of someone much more powerful forced through your body is apparently a good way to improve one’s Qi Sense, and learn basic control of Qi. His path also showed up, and his Cultivation changed from mortal to Tempering-Early. If this worked like any of the wuxia/xianxia novels that Alvin never read, and no one could prove otherwise, then there were probably minor levels within each realm with generally distinct levels of power between them. Maybe Early, Mid, Late, and Peak? He did remember that some of those novels that he Most Certainly did not read also had the Half-Step level, which was a weird gray area beyond their current realm but not quite in the next realm yet. Alvin figured he’d just have to get there to find out.

The change that really caught his eye and confused him was the asterisk next to every F+ in his Status. He stared at one of them for a few seconds, and was surprised when the System provided an explanation.

Stat +*

Subject has advanced, and thus gotten stronger, but not enough to qualify for an increase in grade. The asterisk marks Subject’s stats as beyond what a lower realm with the same stat would be capable of.

Alvin was not expecting an official explanation, but it was very much in line with what he expected it to mean. He did think it was nice to have confirmation about it though. Closing his stat sheet, he turned back to the letter and package on his bed. To his surprise, they were both from Jebsa. Weren’t old monsters supposed to be stingy unless it was their personal disciple?

Alvin,

My apologies for not warning you about the pain earlier, but at least we made it to your shower. If you had been anywhere else in your room, you would have just had to change rooms. You still may have too. Advancement expels impurities from your body, and rebuilds your body to better handle more potent Qi, and higher levels of it. The impurities are the black gunk you spent forever cleaning off, and the pain comes from the other bit. Anyway, I left a small gift as an apology, and congratulations on breaking through.

-Jebsa

Alvin picked up the perfectly cubical package, about the size of a familiar, multi sided, colorful puzzle, wrapped in the same kind of brown paper used for sack lunches. He cautiously peeled the paper off to reveal…… a blue cube. It looked like a decorative paperweight, a small cube that looked like it had an ocean trapped in it. The waves even moved, and the sea creatures moved and ate, it was amazing, but also disappointing. It turns out that old monsters are stingy after all.

Alvin checked his window, and was surprised to see that it was evening. He must have slept through the entirety of the day, and his stomach was significantly less than pleased about that, so he resolved to first go get something to eat. He forced himself up and out the door, his stomach rumbling like a landslide. The trip to the dining hall was short and uneventful, and he arrived just after the dinner rush, so it was much quieter than when he normally ate. The food tasted good, and he could feel the Qi in the food now, and could feel it moving through his body.

After eating, the exhaustion that had been held at bay by hunger and grossness hit him like a freight train, and he hardly remembered the walk back to his room. He stumbled inside, fell on his bed, and was out like a candle in a downpour.

Alvin jerked awake the next morning to incessant pounding on his door, and Oriana’s voice berating him for sacking off, being lazy, being born, generally and systematically insulting everything there was to insult about him. It reminded him of living with his mother during summer break while he was in college. The instant he wasn’t putting in effort, was the instant she checked in and decided he was a worthless bum.

He groaned, changed out of the wrinkled robes he had fallen asleep in, and answered the door, narrowingly avoiding Oriana’s still knocking hand that would have taken him between the eyes. She stopped her tirade long enough to make direct eye contact, which Alvin blearily returned, before she started jabbing her finger into his chest and chewing him out even more energetically.

Alvin heard about one in every 4 words coming out of her mouth, but got the gist of the rant: Why did he get to advance before the rest of them? Alvin wasn’t interested in explaining, and wasn’t even sure if he were allowed to. The vault gave off massive amounts of “Sect secret” vibes, and he wasn’t keen on the idea of selling out the Sect, after they took him in and gave him the means to grow in this new, unknown world that once he called home.

Once Oriana ran out of steam, Alvin brushed passed her, and started to make his way down the hall towards the stairs, so he could go train. He hoped he wouldn’t be pushed extra for missing a day, but there were few enough recruits that it was likely, nay, certain, that it was noticed, and the taskmaster Elder Song would allow now slacking.

“Come back here!! You didn’t answer any of my questions! I bet you weren’t even listening! Don’t ignore me when I’m talking to you!” Alvin sighed; he should have known that he would have to answer at least a few questions, and that Oriana wouldn’t allow him to escape until she got the information she was after. He paused, to let her catch up, then resumed making his way to the training fields. Just because he was answering her questions doesn’t mean he would allow her to make him late.

“Who was that man? Where did he take you? Why do you feel different? What did you do? Why wer

“Slow down, i can only answer so many questions at once, holy shit. First, ‘man’ isn’t exactly the word I’d use for him. That was the Sect’s Guardian Beast, the World Serpent,” Alvin interrupted, her eyes widening in surprise before narrowing to launch another barrage of questions. However, Alvin beat her to the punch. “He took me to choose a Path, and to help me advance. I didn’t get much say, other than what Path I chose. That’s what I did, where he took me, and probably why I feel different. My Cultivation is in a higher realm than yours, so maybe I’m starting to give off pressure like the elders? I don’t really know. Oh damn, we’re at the training fields, I guess you can’t ask me any more questions, talk to you later bye!”

Alvin took the only opportunity he had to escape, playing her need to nose into everything off against her OCD workaholic personality. But, if the look she shot him was any indication, Oriana was not planning on letting this one slide by. Alvin met her gaze, and shuddered. She was definitely plotting a way to corner and question him, to wring every drop of information out of him like water from a sponge. It was with a small amount of fear and an equal amount of smugness that he stopped making eye contact with Oriana, and turned to see someone unusual standing next to Elder Song and Master Ibu. Master Edosa, Hall Master of the Hall of Guardians.

Now, the lizard woman had made a few appearances to help with training, but most of it was left to Master Ibu and Elder Song. The few days she was present to train the recruits, were the days they crawled back to their rooms in the worst pain. She was a relentless, ruthless taskmaster, seeming to know exactly when someone would break, and pushing them to the edge. Alvin sincerely hoped that she wouldn’t be in charge of their training for the day. He still didn’t feel like he had recovered from yester- 2 days ago, Jebsa pulled him out of training 2 days ago. He spent most of that unconscious.

Edosa was sweeping the crowd with her gaze, seeming to see everything without focusing on anything. It was unnerving, like she saw right through him even when not looking directly at him. With a start, Alvin realized that she was looking directly at him, and she seemed much more intense and focused than even she normally appeared. The edges of her mouth lifted slightly, and although her lips didn’t move, Alvin heard her gravelly voice clearly in his ear.

“You have my undivided attention today, disciple.”

Alvin stiffened, realizing that it was much worse than he thought. He had picked a Path that fell under the Hall of guardians, and therefore, her. And Jebsa had said that his master would probably be one of the Hall Masters. But why did she have to show up only to train him?! He wouldn’t even be able to walk back to his room after training finished. He sighed, then followed Edosa off to the side after Elder Song dismissed the group to begin the day’s training.

It was going to be a long day.