‘Okay, visualize my sword, let’s see…’

First, I try to think about my sword’s shape. I need to be exact as possible here as the length and width of my sword are important pieces to understand. Length-wise, the blade is about two feet long, with the pommel adding another foot.

I would say it’s about three inches wide at the bottom, making it on the wider side of these kinds of swords, but I love it all for it.

The second step is visualizing it’s weight, which is hard to do surprisingly. I try to materialize as many swords as I can until I get it just right. Even after twenty tries, I fail to somehow get the weight perfect, which is worrying really.

‘I expected better of myself honestly…’ I say sadly in my head.

Another hour passes before I finally get it just right. In total It took me about a hundred or so tries. Materializing it perfectly without the real thing in front of me as a reference made this quite the challenge it seems, but I think I’m all the better for it.

Finally, I begin to try and think of as many smaller details as possible. The small chip at the bottom of the blade, the worn-down but still sharp edge, the torn apart leather wrapping on the handle, even the now slightly uneven line going down the center of the blade. I visualize every detail I possibly can about my well-known companion.

Unsurprisingly, this last step takes the longest amount of time, just do to the pure amount of details in my sword, or really any item if you think about it.

Once I’m done, the total amount of time to get the seemingly perfect sword materialized took about another twenty hours, leaving me with another fifty hours left.

At this point my mind is so exhausted that I almost want to puke at the thought of more training.

‘I’ve got to push through.’ I tell myself.

Looking over, I once again see Solace lazily napping to the side. I walk up to him and ask,

“What now? I’m ready to get stronger.” I say seriously.

Solace startles awake exaggeratedly and looks at me curiously before seemingly deciding on something in his head.

“Nothing, we’re doing nothing.” He says while flicking his hand backwards indicating for me to go away.

I stare at him dumbfoundedly before a heavy silence pervades the room.

“What do you mean nothing?! Don’t you want your successor to be strong?!”

He looks at me annoyed before replying,

“Listen kid, I can tell when someone is strung too tight, and your it. You obviously need a break.”

I clench my fist angrily,

“I know I want a break, but I can’t afford to quit now! I’m about to fight for my life when I leave here, I need every ounce of strength I can get! The multiverse is dangerous, like you said! I need to prepare for it!”

He sighs,

“Rowan, I know I said the multiverse was dangerous, but if you live your life like it’s a rat race to the finish you’ll live a sad and lonely existence. Trust me kid, I would know. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you’ll begin to appreciate the smaller things in life, a trait my younger self definitely could’ve used. Plus, whatever training or whatever I have you do will be twice as effective if you’re rested.”

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My anger slowly subsides as I take in his words. I let out a deep breath and nod in understanding.

“Good! Glad to see you’ve calmed down. Now come, sit next to me and meditate, it’s a great way to clear your head and balance your spiritual energy.” He says while patting the floor in front of him.

I oblige him and do just that, closing my eyes and sitting in front of the golden man.

I take the time to clear my head and relax my thoughts. My mind becomes stuck in a trance, somehow finding a perfect equilibrium of tranquility and awareness.

It feels as though all my life’s memories are flushed clean into the back of my mind, giving my brain a clean slate on which to think on.

All my wants, desires, worries, and fears gone to the void as if they didn’t even exist.

I wake up calmly to a grinning Solace.

“What… what the hell was that?” I ask.

“Pretty cool huh? Soul spaces are the perfect environment for meditation it turns out. Not many people know that, as who the hell would waste their time sitting doing nothing in one of these.” He says holding back a laugh.

“I feel… amazing? Clean? Fresh? I’m not sure how to describe it.” I say to him.

“That’s what happens when you let your spiritual self become one with the multiverse. It’s technically possible to do in the real world too, but I know of very few people able to do actually pull that off. In here, it’s easy as pie! As you people of Earth would say.”

I stare at him confused,

“How do you know Earth sayings?”

“Secret. Sorry.” He says cheekily.

“Whatever.” I say while sighing, “Anyway how long has it been?”

“Mmm, about ten hours.”

“What?! Ten whole hours?! It felt like ten seconds, how the hell did ten hours pass? Ugh, what a waste!”

“Oh please, I wouldn’t call it that. Now your ready and rested for what I’ve prepared for you! Plus, that little meditation session might get you a few surprise notifications when you get out of here, who knows.” Solace says mysteriously.

I stare at him suspiciously.

“Nothing bad I swear!”

“If you say so…” I say, not fully believing him.

“Anyway, on to some more training! What do you say?”

I nod eagerly.

“So what I’m going to have you do next is pretty advanced for someone of your level, but I believe you’ll manage! First though, I need to ask. What does it say on your status when you look under your sword core. What does it say you resonate with?”

I think back to my status, unable to bring it out in the soul space.

“It says my sword resonates with omnipresence.”

“Oh wow, very nice. That’s a good one. Why didn’t you try and use it during our little fight?”

“Uh, I suppose I just thought you wanted to test my sword skills rather than my cultivation skills.”

“Rowan, kid, you have a SWORD core, that IS part of your sword skills.”

I blink multiple times, before I think about what he says.

“Huh, I guess I never though of it like that. I always imagined them as two separate things. My swordsmanship mastery, and my cultivation.”

“That’s how it is for most people, but for people like us with weapon cores, they are mutually exclusive. Now the next step in your cultivation after you declare you element, is going to be adapting your core to your body, essentially making your entire body your core, we call this stage the Elemental body stage. You following?”

I nod.

“In order to reach this stage, you must embody your core with every fiber of your being. You must walk, talk and act like a sword would, whether it makes sense or not. Now, what if told you there’s a way to acquire a psudo-elemental body way before this? Like say, when you still have an unattuned core.”

“I’d call you crazy.” I say jokingly.

He smiles and replies,

“Well crazy I am young Rowan!”

“So how do I do it?” I ask excitedly.

“Woah woah, calm down. You probably won’t be able to do this anytime soon. It took me weeks of practice when I was around your age, so you can imagine how long it’ll take you. But with me here to guide you along, it should smooth the path out a bit for you.” He says confidently.

“Wow, thanks for the confidence.” I say sarcastically.

“Of course! Now first thing first, you know how I taught you to control your spiritual energy by holding on the edge of use and resorbing it back into your core?”

I once again nod.

“Well your going to have to do that every second, also while you’re moving and fighting.”

“Haha! Very funny. Now how do I actually do it?” I laugh.

“I’m serious.” He says, while taking pleasure in my face slowly turning from a joking smile to shock as I realize that he is in fact, not joking.

A few seconds pass in silence.

“Oh come on! It’s not THAT bad. Once you get the hang of it, it’ll do wonders for you control of spiritual energy! Plus, the boost you’ll receive when you master it is worth it. Trust me.”

“It took me thirty STRAIGHT hours of practice to redirect my energy once, with full concentration. And that was without breaks or other things to do in between. It’ll take me months to be able to do what your saying any sort of regularity, and system forbid I try this in an actual fight! I’ll lose all my spiritual energy at once and pass out!”

“Quit being so dramatic, you’ll be fine. As I said before, you have me!” He says while sticking his nose in the air.

“Great, just great.” I grumble.