Seifr sat on his bunk with his legs crossed in the lotus position. He was relaxed and controlling his breathing. As a beginning practitioner of cultivation in the first realm, the Common Realm, he did not have much of an accumulation of Spiritual Energy in his core, otherwise known as the dantian. Common and Mortal Realm cultivators were not advanced enough to have any kind of inner sight to view their dantian. Instead, they had to focus on the feeling of energy within their muscles and stomach.

The process of accumulating Spiritual Energy was simple in theory, and almost every single living person practiced it to some extent. If one had no talent, though, it could be expected for one to never advance beyond the Mortal Realm. The practice was to inhale the Spiritual Energy with a controlled breath into the dantian region located in the stomach. From there one would use meditation to circulate the Spiritual Energy throughout the body along the meridian lines. As the Spiritual Energy passed through the meridians, it would seep into the muscles and refine them. The muscles did not have any way to store the Spiritual Energy, though, so the portion that was not expended during the refining would return to the dantian where it would be stored.

Being disciplined in controlled breathing was important in the process of cultivation. Each circulation of Spiritual Energy along the meridians contained the entirety of the energy stored in the dantian, and it was dangerous to inhale Spiritual Energy into the dantian while the accumulated energy was traveling the meridians. The reason it was dangerous was because the energies would not be combined and compressed together, and when the energy in the meridians returned to the dantian, it would collide violently with any new Spiritual Energy that was inserted into the dantian. This action had the possibilities of rupturing the dantian, dispersing all of the accumulated energy, and making it impossible to store any more energy in the future. Ruptured dantians were nearly impossible to heal, and if the Spiritual Energy contained in a dantian was large enough, it could cause a fatal backlash.

This illustrated the importance of having controlled breathing. One would inhale the Spiritual Energy into the dantian, combining it with the previously accumulated energies. Next, one would maintain that breath while the energies were circulated and refined the muscles. While the circulation was taking place, the cultivator would exhale the impurities and oxygen with a long, measured expulsion of the breath. This process did not take as long as would be expected. Spiritual Energy could be circulated quite quickly. Some Spiritual Energy would be burned off during the refining of the muscles, and what was not burned off, would compress together while traveling the meridians back to the dantian. As the compressed energies finally returned to the starting point, the practitioner would take the next inhalation and begin the process all over again.

Every living creature's dantian was the same size, and compressing the energy was the only method to accumulate more energy. It could be seen, then, how a rupturing of a very dense ball of Spiritual Energy could cause a backlash, a violent eruption of these energies.

Seifr was not entirely sure what was going on with his accumulation of Spiritual Energy. He was not, in fact, crippled like Jorin claimed. He had accumulated energy in his dantian. The problem was that it seemed almost 90% of all new Spiritual Energy was burned off during the refining process. If one took into account the size of a typical breath, one could see that not a large portion of Spiritual Energy would be inhaled at a time. Seifr's understanding of the process that he learned from the other young men he had known was that it was typical for about 20% of the energies to burn off. Some had more, and some had less burn off, but it was almost always around 20%.

Maybe it has something to do with my muscle strength and stamina. Seifr thought to himself. Even though I've lagged behind my peers in terms of accumulation, I've always been far stronger than them. My stamina and flexibility are of a higher quality, too.

The practice of cultivation was not centered solely on the accumulation of Spiritual Energy, as could be seen from the fact that the energies refined the body. If the muscles being refined could not handle the process, then the Spiritual Energy would stop compressing, disperse from the meridians, and a bottleneck would be reached until the person built up the physical body to handle the higher concentration of refining. Seifr had yet to reach such a bottleneck despite the higher burn rate of Spiritual Energy.

My muscles aren't bulky like I've seen in some of the older men trying to break through a bottleneck, but I would say I'm at least as strong as someone in the mid Mortal Realm. I'm only in the 3rd stage of the Common Realm, but I can compete on a physical level with someone of a whole Realm higher. Now if Ki strikes were involved, that would be another story.

Ki was the short term used to refer to the Spiritual Energy compressed in the dantian, and Ki strikes referred to the ability of those in the Nascent Realm to manifest their accumulated Ki into a physical, or in some cases nonphysical, force to assist with the destructive force contained in an attack. One could also bolster the body to defend against attacks. Nascent Realm cultivators could only use the most basic and primitive forms of Ki striking. Higher realm cultivators could do more advanced actions with their internal Ki.

Seifr continued his cultivation in silence. The other two apprentices would usually also practice at the end of the day for some time before going to sleep. Energy circulation restored muscle fatigue and generally relaxed the body, but until one reached a higher realm, it did not have an affect on the mind and thus regular sleep was still needed. It was rumored that at the highest levels, one could theoretically go forever without the need to ever sleep again. That sounds terrible. I love sleep too much to give it up forever, Seifr chuckled to himself between breaths.

Seifr did not pay attention to the other apprentices while he was practicing his cultivation. Indeed, paying attention to anything else while cultivating was a good way to mess up the breathing and cause an accident. If he had been paying attention, though, he would have noticed that Jorin did not join him in his cultivation practice, but instead had slinked off to somewhere else after dinner and had yet to return.

Seifr knew that he would not get much sleep even if he tried to, so he planned on cultivating longer than usual this evening. There was no rule that people had to cultivate at night, but generally people were too busy during the day to focus on anything other than their daily life. Only disciples in cultivation sects, like the local Blue Vines Sect, could focus on cultivating at any time they needed to, because that was their life.

Seifr continued his cultivation through the night, and was pleasantly surprised when he suddenly entered the 4th stage of the Common Realm. Recognizing new stages within a realm was an instinct that all living beings capable of cultivation had. Some of the stage increases were accompanied by minor bottlenecks, similar to how the body would need to be built up to progress past certain levels of Ki compression, but that was not always an indication of a rank up. Advancement to a higher realm was a qualitative change in the internal Ki and was always marked with a bottleneck. Considering Seifr had yet to reach a bottleneck imposed by his body, he had to gauge his level based on instinct.

Anyone else who saw him and focused on the Spiritual Energy fluctuations produced by his body would also naturally understand his cultivation level. For beings that were considerably higher in cultivation, one would not be able to comprehend the fluctuations or necessarily even notice them, so they would either appear as unfathomable or as nothing, depending on the level of disparity.

Seifr was in the middle of ruminating on his progression speed when he suddenly heard people approaching the apprentice quarters up the stairs outside.

"Hey, Cripple, stop wasting your time trying to advance your cultivation. We all know it's useless to struggle against your fate. Get out here so we don't have to cause a ruckus when we beat some respect into you." Jorin's voice came from the stairway outside. He was not speaking loud, as he did not want to face the consequences of waking either Pamela or Master Korrik. He was not that brave. Or stupid, Seifr smirked to himself as he got up from his bunk.

Seifr exited the quarters and stood on the landing. He looked down at the two young men standing on the stairs. Jorin was accompanied by an older, slightly larger version of himself. It was obvious that the two were brothers. The older boy had his hair cropped short, and he wore the blue robes with the Blue Vines emblem sewed on it indicating that he was a disciple of the Blue Vines Sect. At a glance, Seifr could determine that he was close to the peak of the Mortal Realm, about to ascend to the Elementary Realm

"This the guy?" The older boy asked, with a slight frown on his face.

"Yeah, Jerin, he's the cripple who doesn't know how to show respect to his betters." Jorin jeered.

"Seriously? You called me over to deal with a 4th Stage Common Realm brat? And obviously from the fact that he's 4th stage it can be seen that he's not a cripple, he just lacks any kind of talent." Jerin shook his head as he made his way down to the courtyard with Jorin in tow. They obviously expected Seifr to follow them down, and he obliged them.

"4th stage?" Jorin was slightly taken aback. He knew that just this morning, Seifr was only at the 3rd stage. It was not much of an improvement, and definitely not inconceivable; however, Seifr had yet to improve at all the entire two months he had been a fellow apprentice for the smith.

Seifr walked down the steps and approached the two other boys. He had a strange expression on his face as he walked up to them. "Your name is Jerin? You're Jorin and Jerin? Hahaha, did your parents run out of letters or something?" Seifr wouldn't let someone ridicule him without taunting back.

Jerin's frown deepened as he watched Seifr approach. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Ok, here are the rules. No hitting below the belt. No hitting in the face. No..." Seifr continued his approach while Jerin started to name off rules for their confrontation.

In the middle of Jerin's speech, Seifr did not stop or slow down, and when he arrived in front of the young man, he immediately punched him in the face. Jerin was stunned for a second like he could not believe the audacity of this younger teenager. Seifr did not let up, and after punching him in the face, he punched him again in the throat. Jerin was at the peak of the Mortal Realm. The only way Seifr was going to win this fight was to gain dominance and dictate the pace. While Jerin was still reeling from the unexpected actions, Seifr kicked him in the shin, then wrapped his leg behind the other boy's leg, grabbed his arm, and twisted and pushed him to the ground in the same motion.

Seifr stood over the other boy holding his wrist and stepping on his shoulder. "Rules? Ain't no rules in fighting." And with that, he proceeded to kick Jerin in the ribs. Jorin was completely dumbfounded, standing off to the side watching this scene unfold in front of his eyes. By the time he had recovered and was going to assist his brother, Seifr looked him right in the eyes. That look froze him in place and conveyed the message that he had just made a terrible mistake.

"Ok ok ok! I give! I give!" Jerin quickly started pleading for Seifr to let up on him. Seifr was not a monster, so he immediately stopped when the other boy pleaded for mercy.

"Well, now that that's decided, I think it's time for me to get some sleep. Thanks for helping me burn off some of that nervous energy. I needed that." Seifr grinned at the two boys who just looked at him like he was a fantastical creature. Seifr chuckled and headed back to the quarters to go to sleep. He knew that the two brothers were not really being malicious, and so he did not think to make things more difficult for them.

"You're not even going to try to fight him now that he's lost his momentum? C'mon, you're almost at the Elementary stage. Don't tell me that little brat scared you?" Jorin did not understand why Jerin was not putting up more of a fight.

"I know that he's only at the 4th Stage Common Realm, but he packed quite a punch. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was at least 2nd or 3rd Stage Mortal Realm." Jerin rubbed his shoulder where it had been twisted as he stood up.

"In that case, don't you have some senior disciples who can teach him a lesson?" Jorin really did not want to let this go.

"Are you out of your mind?! You want me to go to one of my seniors and tell him that I had my ass handed to me by a brat in the 4th Common Realm, and the cause of the fight was because you felt disrespected? No, I don't think so. You just need to live with the fact that even though his accumulation is low, he's not a weakling." Jerin shook his head and headed for the exit of the courtyard to make his way back to the sect.

Jorin stood there with a frown on his face in deep thought. There was something to what his brother said. Power equaled respect, and he initially did not respect Seifr based on the observation that Seifr was lacking in Spiritual Energy accumulation. But could it be said that Seifr was lacking in power absolutely? If that was the case, what did it say about those he beat who had higher cultivation? Jorin would have to reevaluate his world view in light of this. He was one of the lucky ones to come to this kind of realization so early in his life. Focusing solely on Ki levels had lead to the deaths of many an arrogant cultivator.

With the end of the confrontation with Jorin and his brother, Seifr was able to relax enough to finally fall asleep. The morrow would open up a new chapter in his life when he found out why his father had called him home early.