Xander’s eyes fluttered open. Someone had moved him while he was unconscious, and cleaned the impurities pouring out of his core off him. He hadn’t had time to build up much over the three months he’d been able to cultivate - but with his channels completely broken, he’d still built up enough for the process to be agony. Nothing hurt now, and he glanced around his surroundings.
It was clearly the room of a healer. The various herbs and elixirs were a clear enough indication of that, as were the beds holding all the other people who had taken the pill.
Wait.
He’d gotten that notification before passing out. Heart pounding, Xander flicked his eyes, and almost cried out in relief when, instead of just a notice about his foundation being broken, words filled his vision.
Xander Stage Stone Rank 20 Foundation 5 Affinities Fire, Chain Current Max
Ardor 0 100 Aura 0 10 Threshold 0 500 Techniques Known [View] Stage Details Cycling Silver Pestle Steel Ardor Refinement Level 1 Breathing Hungry Wolf Steel Maintain Cycling in Combat, 25% Effectiveness Refinements Stage Details Body Reforged Steel Enhanced muscle density Sight Hands Feet Mind Heart Pillbeating Stone Stops in 30 days Channels Restored Stone Cycling Efficency -50% Core Broken Stone Nonfunctional Soul Twiceborn Stone Foundation -20
It was all there. His stats were pathetic compared to where they had been, and he was at the lowest rank of Stone - Stone had far fewer ranks than other stages - but his stats were there. He had them again. He kept his eyes off the last four items on the list right now, wanting to focus on the positive parts for a moment. Instead, he focused on the positives. Body refinements were normally not available until the Steel stage, but he’d been a Steel before his breaking. Maybe that’s what gave him the Reforged Body. Something he’d have to ask about later. Either way, it was a Steel rank refinement, which was a huge benefit at this Stage. And even though his core was still broken, his old cycling and breathing techniques would still work.
He flicked his eyes over to the word [view], wanting to see if any of the techniques he’d learned with his old body were still there. That screen just showed a long, empty table that would be eventually filled with his techniques, which was disappointing but expected. His new...everything wouldn’t have been able to handle the strain, anyway. He could probably relearn them with time - which reminded him. He checked his Affinities.
And saw something had changed. There was a new one there.
Xander had been born with a Chain affinity, a subtype of Foundry Affinity, which itself was a subtype of the Pure element of Steel, which was a subtype of the yet again High element of Metal. Because it was so remote, it was a rare one, and difficult to find sources for, but a school like the Ember Academy would surely have at least one book to help him develop it. Over time, he'd be able to respecialize it into Foundry, then Steel. He'd hoped to work his way up to the High Element, but since he could only withstand changing it once per stage of advancement, he'd known that was unlikely. But now he also had a Fire affinity. One of the High Elements. That pill must have granted him the Affinity.
He was a Fire cultivator.
So much of this was cause for excitement that Xander regretted when his eyes flicked back to his foundation. Instead of the normal twenty-five he should have - the barest amount of ardor needed to reach Stone Five - he barely had any. A strong breeze could reshatter his foundation, and that was something Xander intended to fix as soon as possible.
He felt like a towel that had been wrung dry, he had a ticking clock in his heart, he had several negatives on everything he could do, and he was back to the level he had first obtained at the age of seven.
And he couldn’t stop smiling.
“Oh, you’re awake!” someone said cheerfully. Xander flicked his eyes to pull away the stat sheet and turned his head towards the woman who had spoken. She must have been Ivory or higher, because her reflexes were incredible. Her hand clamped over Xander’s mouth before he could even start screaming. “Shh, shh. It’s okay, sorry about that! I needed the extra ardor and forgot to turn it off.”
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Xander stared at her, grabbing at her wrist and trying to pull away, but her strength was incredible. He was only dimly aware of that, however. He was focused on her eyes. All seven of them. She had a single, central eye in the middle of her forehead, and three pairs that stretched from where normal eyes rested out to her temples.
The woman with too many eyes waited until Xander got his screams under control, which didn’t take long. Her free hand flew up to her mouth, half covering it. Her skin, Xander was just noticing, was a dark red, and her hair was bright orange, neither of which were natural colors “A thousand apologies,” she said to him, her voice slightly muffled to her hand. “I forget with initiates. Promise me you won’t scream anymore, and I’ll take my hand away?”
Xander nodded, and she withdrew her hand. He had so many questions, and he wanted to ask them, but all he could manage was a single word with an inquisitive tone. “Eyes?”
“Yeah, it can be a bit shocking.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “And without a core- oh!” The eyes started to sink back into her skull as her skin faded to a much more normal bronze, and her hair turned back. “Without a core, the passive fear effect of meeting Ariluth’s eyes had to be bad!”
Xander swallowed hard. Now that the eyes were gone, he felt much calmer. “I owe you a thousand apologies,” Xander said, now that he could get his breathing back under control. “My reaction was shameful.” He sat up fully so he could bow in his seat. “I am Xander.”
“It’s my fault for having Ariluth that close when anyone could have woken up. I’m Calema. I’m the physician's assistant here.” She bowed back slightly to him. Xander caught the Steel medallion glinting as it caught the motion and thought there must be a mistake. Steels didn’t have that kind of strength. Unless he was weaker than he thought, but even at Stone he should be able to make a Steel budge a bit. Then again, she clearly wasn’t entirely human - or any of the Mortal races. But she was apologizing, so couldn’t be one of the Divine races. Xander couldn’t imagine one of them apologizing to a lowly human, let alone a Stone stage. And she was talking to him instead of messily devouring him, so she wasn’t a Husk. Maybe some strange type of godspouse?
All of this went through Xander’s head in a moment. “Begging your pardon,” he said. “I was wondering what-”
The door to the infirmary opened, and Calema leaned over to look at the newcomer. “Brion!” she said, giving a small bow. “You’ve arrived just in time. One initiate has woken up!”
Xander turned to look at the newcomer. He wore a traditional, loose fitting, knot-buttoned suit made of black silk, and similarly loose pants. His hair was dark and long, down to his shoulders. Although it was hard to tell under the clothing, Brion looked thin, and his eyes were somewhat sunken. Not unhealthy in their appearance, just that was his natural expression. It gave him a dark look that was aided by how utterly blank his face was.
“Hey,” Brion said, slightly inclining his head in response to Calema. The medallion around his neck was ivory. Xander was a bit scandalized at how minor Calema’s bow was to someone of Brion’s station, and bowed deeply. Brion rolled his eyes. “Look, Initiate, you have to bow to other people with the student-to-teacher bow, or you’re going to be constantly stumbling over yourself in the halls.”
Xander straightened up, flushing slightly. Of course. “My humble apologies,” he said. “My name is-”
“Don’t want to know, Initiate.” Brion’s voice was flat and bored, like he was reading aloud from a particularly dry tome about crop yields one hundred years prior. “Get up. Let’s get you to your room.”
“Oh. Um.” Xander swallowed and stood up. In spite of just advancing, he felt stronger than he had in months, and the thrill of that kept the smile on his face in spite of seeming to do everything wrong in front of the melancholy Ivory. “Of course,” he said, sounding more certain.
Brion turned and motioned for Xander to follow. Xander only now noticed that someone had changed him, given his clothes didn’t reek of impurities. “May I ask a question?” he said. The hallway outside the infirmary was well lit with lamps that held some kind of trapped ardor to allow them to glow. Fabrications. Xander had never seen them put to such a trivial use. Then again, in a school for Fire cultivators, it was probably cheap to power them. The walls were not the usual bamboo and wood Xander was used to, but stone painted a warm brown to look like wood. Also a good modification given what they cultivated.
“Can I stop you?” Brion asked, adding a sigh in for good measure.
“Of course you can,” Xander said, trying to sound cheerful. “You are Ivory. If you order my silence, you will have it.”
Brion looked him up and down. “You’re serious.” It wasn’t a question and his voice betrayed no surprise, but Xander still felt the need to answer. He did so with a nod, hoping Brion would continue. Brion shrugged. “Sure, why not? Can’t promise I’ll answer, though.”
Xander plunged ahead. Although it wasn’t the most pressing question, Xander was afraid he’d lost face and wanted to make sure to know what to avoid in the future. “Why don’t you want my name? Should I not tell anyone until I get a new name?”
“It’s not that,” Brion said. “It’s because you’re probably going to die in the next month, and it’s easier to deal with if you stay ‘the foolish initiate who leapt into the dark.’”
Xander blinked. “You think I’ll fail the trials?” He tried not to sound too offended to someone who outranked him so much, but it was hard not to.
“You were the first to wake up. That means you were probably the first to take the pill. That means someone told you that you had thirty days to live if you did something, and you did it without thinking. So, yes, I think it’s fair to say you’ll probably fail.” Brion walked in silence for a moment before adding, almost like someone was holding a sword to his throat to make him speak the words. “The first one almost always ends up in the top ten of their class or in the first ten in the ground. So if you live, you’ll probably be be pretty decent.”
“Thank you for adding that,” Xander said, his pride somewhat salved.
“Don’t mention it. And don’t worry too much about the new name. That’s only if you follow Sage Mei’s specific Path, and you don’t have to make that decision for a while.”
“I do appreciate knowing that,” Xander said, giving him a half bow as he walked. “And...I noticed the man with Mei. He had a tail. And Calema had multiple eyes and mentioned someone named Aziluth. I was wondering if you knew anything about that.”
“Yes,” Brion said, then continued walking without speaking further.
“I was wondering if you might tell me what that all means?” Xander prompted after a bit.
“No,” Brion said. It wasn’t firm. It was, like almost everything Brion said, an odd mixture of almost sounding sad and bored at the same time. He saw Xander’s look and sighed. “You’ll find out soon. Once the rest of them have woken up. Master Kassiah gets mad if people spout off about it before you get there.”
“Apologies for prying,” Xander said. They’d reached a section of the building full of doors. Brion reached over and slid one open, pointing inside.
It was barely more than a closet, but it had a bed and a trunk for belongings, a simple mat for sitting on to meditate, so it was heaven compared to what Xander was used to. The back wall was a different sliding door, and shutters on the top were open right now to let light and fresh air in, meaning he had an easy way outside.
“Bed, trunk, mat door,” Brion said, pointing to each in turn. “You’ll get more if you survive the first month. Door goes to the courtyard, which does have ashgrass, so it’s soft. Don’t wander onto the crystals, you’ll probably die when you fall over. There're doors at the end of each hallway, too. I suggest getting the sandals you have and putting one pair at each door, so you don’t have to carry them around, but you do whatever you prefer.”
Xander bowed. “Thank you. Might I ask you one more thing before you go?” A sigh was his answer, but Brion didn’t leave, so Xander took that as a sign to press on. “Any tips you can give me for surviving the Trials?”
For the first time since meeting him, Brion showed some emotion other than boredom or melancholy. It was so brief Xander almost missed it, but Brion did - for that moment - look approving. “Don’t waste time. If you aren’t learning, you’re cultivating. If you’re not sleeping, you’re cultivating. If you’re eating, you should be trying to cultivate while you eat. If you don’t have a cycling and breathing technique that work while you’re training, learn them, and cultivate while you train. You can rest and make friends and all that when you’ve survived - and it also means you won’t waste time on people who don’t make it.”
Xander wasn’t sure about that last part, but the rest sounded like good advice. “Thank you again. Brion.”
The Ivory student shrugged and closed the door. Xander heard his footsteps moving away, but wasted no time on taking Brion’s advice - not that he wouldn’t be doing this regardless. For the first time in far too long, Xander settled into the lotus position to begin proper meditation.