Sol leaned his body to the side to dodge the attempted stab at his jaw, and he crouched down low when Mina attempted to swing the spear after him. As the spear sailed over his head he took a step back, knowing from their many fights that she would likely do her favorite move to follow up.

He was right on the money, as she did three quick stabs in his direction before spinning her whole body and bringing the end of the spear around on a collision course with his head. The amount of concussions this very move had likely given him was not a number he was very proud of.

The spear missed him by a bare few inches, and he immediately stepped in to close the distance between the two of them. She stopped her spin to hold the shaft of the spear up, blocking a downward swing of one of his short swords. When he attempted to bring his other sword around to hit her in the side, she rolled back and jumped to her feet.

He took another step forward, this time holding his swords up in anticipation for what would happen next. He knew she would likely try and aim for his left side, as that was the hand he was less adept at blocking with. Once more, he had predicted right, and his foresight allowed him to block yet another swing of the spear. Usually one wouldn’t swing a spear, but he knew that she was just testing him, and would increase the difficulty bit by bit until he broke.

How did he know this? Well, that was because she had done this exact same thing every time they fought. After the second hit was blocked, she moved to stab the spear forwards, aiming for his stomach. He knocked the spear aside and stepped forward, moving past the tip of the spear and too close to hit and wrapping his left arm around it. She tried to step back to make distance, but he was a good bit faster now than when he had been before he had begun training.

He closed the distance the rest of the way and swung his right sword towards her arm. The attack did not land as she let go of her weapon and rolled to the side, avoiding the attack. He tossed the spear away, knowing that it didn't mean this would get much easier.

She sprinted at him, no longer encumbered by the lengthy spear. With a fast movement and a grunt, she kicked the side of his leg. He buckled as she landed another kick to his side before she backed off to avoid his counter attack.

He quickly regained his stance, but she was already running around him to pick up her spear. Seeing this as his best chance to enact his plan, he threw his left sword directly in her path. She noticed of course, and took a step back to avoid it, but Sol was already swinging his sword to hit her in the back by the time she realized it had just been a distraction.

Sol was not somebody who derived pleasure from the pain of others, but the crack of his wooden short sword making contact with his opponent for the first time in months of training was a noise that was very satisfying to hear.

He heard Mina yelp slightly before scooping up her spear and stopping to look at him. “Not bad, I finally landed a hit.” She said, giving him an approving nod. “Unfortunately for you, that just proves to me that you are ready for me to step it up a notch.”

This clearly hadn't been as momentous of a moment for her as it had been for him, but he didn't care. He didn't even care that for the rest of the training session he got whooped left and right. He was just happy that he had been able to prove that he was at least a half-competent fighter, and that his hard work and effort had all been paying off.

_____

Later that very same day, tucked away in a small cabin he had bought from his substantial gambling winnings, Sol was sitting cross legged on the floor with his eyes closed and his hands resting on his knees. He had been sitting their for several minutes now, or maybe it was an hour. He really didn't know. His focus was entirely on trying to feel the magic in everything around him.

It was faint, very faint, but the longer he focused on it, the more he could distinguish the mana in the environment. His hand twitched ever so slightly, and that threw his concentration enough for him to lose a good chunk of the awareness he had been building. Sol sighed, once more focusing on the magic around him.

Mana was a very dangerous energy, and it could easily do damage to his body that would take days if not weeks to heal. He wanted to be as familiar with the magic around him as possible before allowing it to flow freely into his own body.

After some time he finally felt ready enough to begin. He opened himself up for mana to flow into him. Usually it took people several tries to do this their first time, but he had gotten plenty of practice the last time he had given this a shot. He felt the magic begin to fill his body and slam against his mana pathways.

It was not pleasant, and he began to get slightly nauseous from the feeling, but he steeled himself and pressed on. He knew that at any moment he could stop the process and purge his body, but that would mean needing to try this again at a later time. He simply relaxed his muscles and settled in for what he guessed was going to be an unpleasant few hours. The unpleasantness wasn't the only reason there was not many cultivators, but it was more due to the toll it takes on you over time. He would deal with all of that later though, and for now focus on drawing in all of the magic.

Several hours later, Sol was pondering on just how much he hated being right sometimes. The last few hours had been more than unpleasant. His head had been pounding, his stomach had been churning, and he was fairly certain that he had fallen unconscious for a few seconds more than once. His heart had also been racing as it frantically tried to deliver blood across his body. His body was just doing its job of course, pumping blood and delivering adrenaline while it assumed he was dying or at least very ill.

Suddenly, all of the movement and churning in his body seemed to stop, though the lingering pain was still there. He stood up on shaky legs, wanting to recover a bit before taking a good look at his body and new mana paths. As he exited his cabin, an all too cheery voice came running towards him.

“Did you do it?!” Mina shouted as she ran over to him, stopping in front of him with a curious smile. Sol tried to ignore the looks that her loud voice drew from all around them.

“Yeah, I did it.” He responded, before taking a step back and leaning against his cabin wall, vomiting in the grass. The bile was a much darker color than usual, though he knew it was just the cleansing process his body would be going through for the next few days.

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“Oh, that looks… not good.” Mina muttered a bit awkwardly. “Get back in your cabin, I will bring you some food and water.”

She ran off before Sol had the chance to protest, so he obliged. Instead of sitting in his cabin though, he pulled a chair out in front of it, not wanting to dirty his floors when his insides inevitably decided they no longer liked being there.

While he waited, he struggled to fight off his curiosity, and decided to take a quick gander at his affinities. He closed his eyes, trying to pull all of his focus within himself. From there, he entered a dream-like state, able to see himself from an outside perspective. That did rattle him a bit, as he had not been expecting that in the slightest.

The entire world was black except for himself, and even then he couldn't really see his own body, just a very faint outline of it. The only thing he could really see was the mana coursing through his body, following the many paths and branches that had been carved out within him. He tried moving his view around, and found that he could do so freely.

This was about where his knowledge of cultivation ended. He knew about how to start it off, but from there he was kind of at a loss. He never had expected he would need the knowledge. He moved his view around until he found what looked like a ball of mana where all of the branches converged. Immediately, almost instinctively, he knew the affinities he possessed. The magical ball in front of him held this information, and he had to admit he was confused by the combination.

He had 4 of the possible 8 affinities. It was uncommon for sure, but not ridiculously rare like having 6 or 7 affinities. He possessed the affinities of life, death, light, and darkness. Two pairs of polar opposites. It was a bit disappointing to see that he didn't have a single one of the elemental affinities, but he could potentially open them at a later date if he continued cultivating for long enough.

From the sparse reading he had done here and there on cultivating, he knew the bare basics of each affinity. The elemental ones were the simplest of the eight. Fire allowed you to control heat and fire, water allowed you to control water, air allowed you to control air and wind, and earth allowed you to control the ground and earth. Those four were seen as the most useful affinities when it came to the early stages of cultivation.

The other four were a bit more complicated. The life affinity was great for healing magics, but it was also heavily used by those who created magical documents that could bind people to their terms.

The death affinity was its opposite, with it often being used to deal damage over time to targets and inflict deadly curses. Funny enough, it was also a very common affinity used in making magical contracts. There was also the occasional necromancer here and there, but every nation, oligarchy, and monarchy in the world had done their best to crush any budding necromancers.

The light affinity gave you control over light and could be used for powerful illusion magics. Some more powerful cultivators with this affinity were known to call attacks from an entirely different plane of existence. The darkness affinity was much the same, allowing you to control darkness and shadows while also calling attacks from a different plane.

All in all, he had quite the mixed bag. Sadly, he couldn’t probe his affinities for much longer, as when he cracked an eye open he saw Mina running over with a water skin and a plate of food.

“Thank you.” He said as she handed both to him. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Nonsense, you would have been lucky to walk even halfway to the mess hall. Now spit it out, what affinities did you get?”

“Life, death, light, and darkness.”

She gave him a quizzical look. “That's… a bit abnormal don’t you think?”

“Yeah, but I’ll work with what I got.” Sol responded. “Have you ever thought of giving it a shot? Cultivation, I mean.”

“Yeah, I have. Actually I did try it a few times. I could just never get myself to sit still for so long and muscle through the pain. Maybe one day, but I don’t want to risk getting mana sickness while training.”

That made Sol grimace a bit. While he wasn't officially a part of the training group, his instructor would definitely give him hell if he decided to skip one or two days. He would see how he felt tomorrow before deciding whether or not to go.

They sat in silence for a bit as Sol ate his food, trying to keep it down as his body was still attempting to purge itself of impurities. Just as he was finishing his last bite, Mina spoke up again.

“So why did you join the training group?” She asked. “I don’t imagine you are planning to join the Rim Guard.”

“I needed to have some way to train and get stronger, and this was just the best way to do that.” He responded.

“Is that really the only reason?” She said in a way that made it quite clear she did not believe him.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

Her expression fell a bit before she got up from her chair and started to walk away. “Fine, keep it to yourself.”

She didn't make it more than a few steps before Sol spoke again. “Ok fine, it wasn’t the only reason.”

She shot back down into her chair and smiled again, her down trodden expression gone. “Do tell.”

“I just felt like I needed some structure in my life again. After my village got burned down and I was brought here, I felt so lost. I know vaguely that I want to get stronger and fight evil, but I just don’t have any direction to follow that goal. So when I said I came here to get stronger, it was the truth, but not the whole truth. I just wanted some direction.”

“Well damn, you didn't have to be so secretive about that.” Mina said, throwing her hands up. “Most people want structure in their lives, that makes life easier to live.”

“Well you don’t exactly seem like you care for it much.”

She gave him a wink. “That's because living without structure makes life more fun and exciting to live.” She stood up again from her chair and started walking away. “Anyways, have fun sitting there and being a lump of laziness for a few days. I have some more training to do.” After a few more seconds of walking, she turned her head and added one more thing. “And try to lighten up a bit, you are so serious all the time.”

With that, she left. Sol sat there for quite a while longer, thinking about what she had said. Maybe he did need to lighten up a bit. He hadn't wanted to admit it to himself until now, but trying to be serious all the time was getting exhausting. He sighed as he looked around at the world around him, with most of his attention turned on the magic that moved around within him.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do next other than that it was generally a good idea to wait until after he was done recovering to continue. His affinities weren’t as straightforward as the elemental affinities. For now, it was probably just a good idea to read up on it while he recovered. Then again, what was the fun in waiting? If he was going to try and loosen up a bit, might as well start with breaking a few norms.