Cultivation came with a refreshing feeling like exercise, but like exercise there was only so much of it one could reasonably do in a day. John wasn’t equivalent to an olympic athlete, but even they didn’t spend twenty four hours per day exercising. He worked as hard as he thought was reasonable to push himself, both for his own gains and for his new family- and the only people he really knew. They were relying on him to at least be decent… and he needed their support. When his cultivation fell apart after trying to break through to the Foundation Phase, he lost years of progress- though at least he retained the experience that went with it.

Along with spiritual energy cultivation, he engaged in a little bit of physical exercise. Weapons training was included there, and he was technically glad to have access to excellent trainers. At least he would be once his body stopped aching. Yet even when he was exhausted, he sought out the library. He supposed he needed to find some sort of entertainment to keep him from going crazy, but for the moment he was focused. He was studying up on what spiritual totems the clan had record of, and comparing his own experiences and insights with what was written. First layer spiritual totems were weak but knowing about them couldn’t hurt, so he started there.

“Hrmn…” he heard over his shoulder. Even without looking, he could recognize Matayal, his fiancee. Sensing others spiritual energy seemed to be an important ability. Of course that meant he’d given his drop in cultivation away when he came to the library the first time and saw Dionsio, but he hadn’t been fully aware of that. It could have even been sooner… and perhaps his parents had looked for him when he was avoiding them.

John looked back towards Matayal. Suddenly having a fiancee was strange. He wasn’t sure how he felt about arranged marriages to begin with, and especially not one who had been arranged to marry… not him. Then again, it wasn’t like they’d ever been close. As for the woman herself, he had no objections to her. She was attractive, with dark skin that seemed uncommon in the nearby area, and of course very talented in cultivation. In this world, that was one of the things that mattered most. Her personality seemed pleasant enough. Even so, he wasn’t particularly eager to actually marry someone he barely knew and didn’t really choose to. That said, the current state of engagement seemed sufficient for making all parties happy at the current moment.

“You’re staring at my face,” she frowned.

“Sorry, you’re just… new. But if you’d prefer…”

She turned her head back and forth, though she had to be able to sense the lack of others nearby without doing so. “Absolutely not. You’re already much better than… the previous you. At the very least you can put up a good face for a time.”

John knew that eventually she would recognize his genuineness, but he could also see her caution. “You still sounded disappointed.”

“Well… I… was hoping you would have more skill in cultivation now.” Her eyes rested on the book that was still open to totems of the first layer. “... Regardless, I have seen your effort. Gerben and Caelia suggested that it might be good for you to spar with someone to get a better feel for mobilizing your spiritual energy in a practical manner.”

In short, his parents were telling him to do it. Nicely. He didn’t mind that. “Perhaps that would be for the best. I assume you’ve scheduled something for tomorrow?”

Matayal nodded. “You will need to rest well.”

-----

A good day started with a good breakfast. It was much easier for John to have a good breakfast when he didn’t have to cook it himself. To be fully honest, having cooks and servants made it impossible for him to reasonably complain about anything that happened to him. Sure, he might be heading out to get beat up, but at least he would be comfortable before and after. Also, he was supposed to be learning something so ultimately it would be good for him.

After he ate a moderately sized breakfast, enough to fill him up but not overstuff him and hamper his movements, he geared up for the day. First was his armor. It was real armor, though not heavy. However, it was much more than just padding for sparring. The knowledge that he would be fighting with ‘safe’ weapons didn’t particularly make him feel better. After all, spiritual energy was the most dangerous part. Matayal was a Foundation Phase cultivator, so she could kill him with basically no effort.

Not that he thought she would. If he was going to die, it would have already happened. As far as such things went after a few weeks, he thought both she and the rest of his family had a fairly solid opinion of him. They were clearly still taking into account his ‘newness’, but he was as well. In his head he was still John, but at least he properly responded to being called Fortkran.

Weapons… he had to pick a weapon. He wasn’t interested in claws, even with some experience there. They required getting to close, which was a foolish idea against someone better than him. Even so, a spear wasn’t quite what he wanted. He settled for a long two-handed sword- or a rounded piece of some extremely durable piece of wood that was vaguely sword shaped, anyway. It had a crossguard, at least. He was fairly certain that even if he was using a real sword, he couldn’t hurt a Foundation Phase cultivator, but being safe was for the best.

He faced Matayal in the family’s sparring field. The private one, because they had many. The Tenebach clan had some cousins and the like, and while some might be a better match his current status was being kept under wraps. He didn’t have to reach the Foundation Phase, but he should at least once again reach the ninth level of the Spiritual Collection Phase. But now… he was more or less in the first. Then again, he hadn’t been trying to increase his cultivation level. He still hadn’t even chosen a totem.

“Ready?” Matayal asked. She looked quite intimidating in her own armor, with her hair tied back. She had a sword of her own, a lighter one-handed version similar to the real sword she used.

John nodded. After he did so, she nearly disappeared from his sight. He knew she restricted her offensive power to be similar to an early Spiritual Collection Phase cultivator, but even without directly calling on her two spiritual totems she would outclass him. The air in front of her shimmered like a mirage, and all he could do was stab his sword in front of him to try to catch her.

His guess had been right, but she swiftly flowed around beside him, striking his side. His spiritual energy cushioned him from the blow, but he still most certainly felt it. John did his best to keep his form, moving his sword as little as possible to achieve what he wanted. Matayal’s water-type cultivation easily moved with any parry he did, but he was at least able to somewhat limit her attacks.

And even when he was struck by water elemental spiritual energy, he gained something from it. Besides, pain, of course. He could feel how it moved… how it flowed. Of course, of all elements water elemental spiritual energy flowed most traditionally but the point was he got to experience it in action. He even manipulated his own energy to try to better resist it. With his spiritual energy being darkness infused, he was able to make some attempts. He managed to freeze some of it- one of the main interactions between darkness and water was ice. However, he was pretty sure Matayal let that happen. As he was thinking he would prefer not to get hit so much, he thought about absorbing it. Darkness could pull in other elements… in theory. So he tried.

His concentration probably got him struck a few extra times before he finally managed even the slightest success, but he thought he got something. There wasn’t a net gain in spiritual energy on his end, but he wound up with a bit of watery spiritual energy of his own. Coating his weapon with it and swinging it at Matayal was exhilarating for the several seconds he had it before she blasted it away from his weapon and he was left to return to his normal energy. He thought that maybe he could try converting a bit of his energy to every element to see what it was like, before selecting his totem. Afterwards, it would be much harder to do. A small sacrifice for growing several times in power- and of course it would be much easier to get whatever sort of spiritual energy he actually wanted once he was attuned to a relevant totem.

John continued absorbing little bits of water elemental spiritual energy, using them for defense where they were at least able to absorb a blow or two. He felt his control was improving greatly. It would be good for him, as long as he remembered as much as possible after he passed out. Because while he absolutely couldn’t win, he didn’t want to stop before he absolutely had to. He had thought his body might give out first, but instead it was his spiritual energy. He was drained empty, but it was quite satisfying nonetheless. He managed to collapse more or less gracefully to one knee and then onto his side before he truly lost consciousness.