It’s been a couple years already, but that doesn’t matter.

I can feel it.

I can feel my muscles getting tighter. My skin cracking little by little.

I will surpass the curse soon, and become a Superior Being.

The man in front of me is giving me instructions.

They are clearly wrong.

When I follow his breathing technique I can feel the breakthrough process becoming slower and weaker.

Grandmother’s technique is much more efficient.

But I must endure.

So I can say I was this man’s apprentice, this is just a small part of my path. So it doesn’t matter.

I focus on my breathing.

***

He says it’s enough for today. I’m unhappy. This amount isn’t enough to make me reach my limit. It makes me feel pain in my whole body, but nothing more than that. It doesn’t hurt me or hinder my progress.

But this man is still my master, so I obey. I will have time for extra training once I pretend to go to sleep.

It’s time to go to the river and fill my own water barrel. There’s one in the common student’s lodge, but since I beat the master’s son I’ve been living in the First Disciple’s room. So I must fill my own water barrel.

This city is dirty and smelly, and the men here are worse than that.

Somehow the drunk hands of the men of my village fell less of a treat now that I have lived here for so long.

They might try and touch you, but the men here will push you against a wall and have their way with you, may you be too weak.

I have seen it happen once or twice. I interfered, but rape isn’t such a big crime; they won’t be hanged because of that.

They will walk around again, very soon.

In the village at least, they would have been expelled.

Sent to somewhere far away of to the middle of the woods.

Then the monsters would take care of them.

But here things aren’t so gentle. No one cares if you aren’t of a big family.

If you live in a house made of rocks and bricks then no one will be a treat.

But if you live in a house of wood, no guardsmen will come to your aid.

They aren’t militia. They don’t feel like it’s their daughters and wives.

It’s sickening, and the capital of the kingdom is probably even worse.

But I will be a knight.

If I must endure this, then I will.

I go to the East and walk past the market in the border with the noble district. This is a roundabout. I can’t walk the rich and noble’s district streets, which would be the shortest path.

So be it.

The gate is right over there, so I go to the river as always. In the path a man locks his eyes on mine, filled with hate.

I pass through him and keep my path. It doesn’t matter. Soon my buckets are filled with water and I return to the Dojo, people staring as always.

It’s a bit heavy, but not much more than anyone from the village would be able to hold.

City folk are weak. Only the guards and adventurers have some power.

Best for me.

I reach the Dojo and pour water on my barrel. That should be enough for five days. Then I take my cup and drink some of it.

There’s no soft beer in this city. The beer here is strong and will make you drunk. So I need to drink this water. It has made me sick a couple times already, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

Before bathing, I should train more. This time using grandmother’s technique.

I seat in the correct position and start breathing as she taught me.

Then I start to add the other elements. Imagining light filling my insides, my mind getting stronger. Something inside me awakening.

My cultivation soars and the pain returns.

It’s a strong pain, but I can still endure it. As long as it doesn’t damage my body, it’s good pain.

Shows I’m making progress.

I keep doing it as a feeling, a presence, manifests itself around me.

Most times it’s only grandmother’s, but sometimes I feel Alvin’s as well.

Is she watching over me? Are they?

I have no time for wondering.

I breath and focus.